Horizontal Expansion

 

Vertical Expansion

 

Item / Resource Distribution

I recently optimized a ton of blueprints and items so they could be distributed across the world with minimal FPS loss. I also added shadow spawns to every single building across the world, because if players attempt to hide inside at night (hoping to skip shadow encounters or escape the siren) I want them to be in for a rude awakening. To make up for that I also added fireplaces to these non-hideout buildings, that can be used in emergency situations. However they are all under the open sky, so when it starts raining they will be extinguished. But if that happens, the siren's view will be clouded by the weather effect, so the player's main concern in these situations will be the shadows close to him.

Testing has shown that the item/resource distribution was always unbalanced. In order to alleviate this, I added text render components to each blueprint, so I could check the distribution from afar. Each resource and location now has a massive colour-coded sign on top, which makes it easy to immediately determine where a specific resource is missing.

This looks chaotic, but it's actually incredibly informative. Red font is related to firewood spawns, green is related to tinder, and yellow indicates a hut filled with additional resources, such as matches, a lighter, vinegar or keys.

I also did a complete overhaul of all light beings in the world. They will now spawn in small groups of 1 - 10 and are treated as a natural resource across the world.

The biggest issue, that remains is related to the difficulty of finding specific resources on a densely foliage populated forest ground. Depending on light and shadow distribution and time of day, these items are incredibly difficult to perceive. I added an ambient light halo to the main player character blueprint and each resource has emissive material, but even then it's difficult to detect specific items.

Nonetheless, the world looks pretty and it feels great to see a hut or dilapidated building from afar to explore it and discover valuable items and resources. By adding these special campfires I'm also giving players a choice between "just surviving" with minimal resources, or committing to a hideout and making a serious attempt at a chess piece or valuable item (clock, compass, cage, protection, health container a.s.o)

The main goal is to get three map sections ready for 0.5.3 and then record gameplay videos during testing. These gameplay videos can then be used as social media fodder and with extensive testing I'll also discover a bunch of other gameplay issues I may not have been aware of up until this point.

2:02 AM - 28 Hideouts Done

 

Who is dumb enough to spend 20+ hours (also known as one full weekend relaxation value) on adjusting code segments?

...

Bishop Boss Music

I got so sick of working on adding protection pillars to each hideout I started to simultaneously build up the Bishop boss fight. I always write the soundtrack first before I create a new location or scene.

This is the link to the soundtrack:

https://on.soundcloud.com/ZuHG2

The fight will be based around an intricate clock system, that pulls the moon towards it. The bishops will try to prevent the player from destroying the clock ....

Yea I know it's insane. But fuck it. That won't stop me.

0.5.3 Update - Night Intensity Formula

Over the last two weeks I worked excessively on improving the player's night time experience. Players now have to build and maintain protection pillars, that prevent shadows from infiltrating the hideout. The more lights are lit inside a hideout, the slower the shadows' advances will be. Shadows attacking protection pillars can be chased away by bringing a light source to their vicinity. Getting seen by tree spirits or sirens during the day increases their attack frequency at night and makes all shadows way more aggressive. The more often a player is seen by the siren during the day, the more aggressive she will patrol the player's location and follow him wherever he goes (until morning, if the player is still .... capable of movement at this point ....).

The new formula took tons of testing, but proved to be incredibly effective. An external difficulty factor is also part of it, which gives me the ability to scale and manipulate difficulty based on future in-game events or encounters with other creatures.

Player experience and death count are also part of the equation. A player that moves through the game quickly, will face more attacks and more serious night time confrontations.

Before releasing 0.5.3 I want to implement a new instance of shadow detection during daytime:

Hunting stands.

Yes, hunters will have a rifle.

Update: Protection Cycles

I'm working hard on implementing a ton of new features and night time functionalities, including protection cycles.

Some hideouts will have a set of 8 protection pillars around them (varying in shape and type). Sometimes it's hard to distinguish them from the environment.

Once the player finds them, he can rebuild them (right now, doing so is free, but I'm thinking about setting a price for doing so).

At night these cycles will keep him safe from shadow invasions and no detrimental night events will take place for as long as all pillars of a cycle are intact.

The shadows will send zealots, that start praying near these pillars. The player can chase them off by bringing a lightsource close to them (Matches, Lighter). If the player fails, they will break down the pillars after a certain amount of time and shadows will have free access to enter the hideout again.

Here's a video of what it looks like when the zealots start praying:

More updates are coming soon. Implementing new features is always fun, but it's also difficult depending on how much they change the current ecosystem. All hideouts, all buildings, all systems are connected and changing one thing, influences all the others.