Greetings Pioneers!

Good news folks, the multiplayer crash is fixed. We were hoping to have something for you lovely ladies and gents today but after a rigorous testing session in multiplayer we feel there are still too many issues to release into the main branch just yet, frustrating but rest assured we are working hard on this and hope to have a multiplayer release out soon with the turret upgrades and balancing tweaks from experimental. Thank you for your patience with this!

In the meantime we’ve been hard at work with the rest of the game, this is what’s going down:

John – Lead Designer

The bank holiday is upon us, and unfortunately we’re not quite there yet with the game being in shape for a new release. Ultimately this is frustrating, but we want to give players something they can enjoy, and right now with some crashes still in there that are reproducible it does not meet the quality standard we’re striving for.

All this means is when we do our next build to the main branch is all you wonderful pioneers will be playing something more enjoyable than before.

P.s. It’s also worth noting that it’s John’s Birthday tomorrow, so please wish him a happy birthday, because if it wasn’t for him, this game would simply not be what it’s is right now <3. signed, Matt and the team.

Matt – Art Director

As well as Melee mechanic alterations (and cater for the potential removal of the RMD baton) we’re going to be adding a new melee weapon for early game which can be used for close combat and mining.

A multipurpose double handed Axe will be your companion in the early stages, but ultimately we want to allow the players to have a reliable fall back weapon if you happen to run out of energy or ammo within your arsenal. This has just gone into the modelling and animation phase.

Lee – Technical Director

This week I have been making some finishing touches to the new spawners so that I can begin testing and debugging from next week. We have also had some discussions around new types of attacks that AI can perform.

Tristan – Senior Developer

Running debug builds to get on the fly input from our testing team, conversed with them most of the day on our main multiplayer issues and worked to get solutions in, eager to see the new version get up onto steam soon.

Joe – Environment Artist

I’ve been finishing writing up a design doc for how we plan to put together and use different types of HUD Markers. This includes the addition of information from the hopefully-coming-soon Tactical Map and will cover things like waypoints, bases, hostile bases and the new objectives system. There’s also a much more unified system for the display of “Interaction Markers” – simple icons for interactions such as picking things up, upgrading turrets, and activating ancient technology 😉

Yup, we’ll finally be picking things up with “E”. Nice!

Ricky – Developer

Working hard on these crashes and remaining issues this week, and we also now have a lovely prompt and dialogue system for designers to use (localisable of course) which lets them have more freedom in creating various parts of the game without the need for additional developers.

Marcin – Designer

One of the more noteworthy events that occurred this week was Lee and I finally merging our AI system work together. His behaviour and planner work is finally coming together with my attack system to create a groundwork upon which we can build the new combat experience. We’ve spent so much time designing it, that it’s really exciting to see it happening.

The other exciting thing that is also finally happening is the beginning of the objective system. We are planning to use it first in the tutorial, but then massively expand it to all sorts of activities. That’s the dream. I have been wanting objectives of any kind in the game for ages, so I’ll push that as far as the means allow.

Tom W & Alex H – Designers

Well into the second pass phase for the Dam encounter location. Added sequences to the interior and started getting the big block out areas replaced with base meshes to flesh out the look and feel. Excited to see the areas tested and improved on over the coming weeks.

Lauren – Animator

This week I have been discussing the implementation of the new tweaks we want to melee to make it more of an effective and satisfying weapon along with the tweaks to AI behaviour so they are not as relentless in their attacks. I have been working on some animations for the Axe for the new melee system which we hope to develop and release together with the upcoming bigger release with the AI and map changes.

Andy – Lead QA

Having implemented a potential fix for our rather frustrating multiplayer fix I have been working on testing that along with other changes that have been made. Its been exciting to get the team into a multiplayer build and have a little fun shooting at them, but frustratingly the fixes we implemented have brought about another crash. So we are stuck between a rock and a hard place currently.

It’s also the top dogs Birthday this week and from everyone here at Flix I’d like to say happy birthday Jonny aka Hot Dog, aka T-Bone, aka JCB, aka Captain Birdseye. You are a great leader and an amazing friend. Big love bro beans and have a great day, you deserve it <3

See you in the fray!

-Team Flix

 

Greetings Pioneers!

Thankfully we’ve been able to find our issue with multiplayer and a fix is being tested as we write this blog. This means that a Multiplayer updated with the turrets is on it’s way! Unfortunately these issues are something we sometimes cannot avoid, it’s our mission to keep everyone of you informed. We must thank you all for your patience, as we know a lot of you want to try our build changes cooperatively.

In the meantime we’ve got a progress update on the new location layouts as we’ve really started to flesh them out. Here’s what the whips been cracking:

John – Lead Designer

In my natural habitat today with Marcin, prowling through the logic planning for revisions to the A.I. system and combat. This is exciting to me because we’re very aware that reducing numbers of A.I. isn’t really a solution to difficulty issues Pioneers experience, it’s more in depth with the how the A.I. responds and how the player instigates those responses.

Our main aim with these future revisions is to make the A.I. feel challenging and responsive to your actions, whilst not swamping you down with attack after attack.

Lee – Technical Director

One of those weeks where you want to desperately get onto the ‘fun bits’ of the gameplay A.I. but have to instead clean up issues with the newly integrated version of the engine. Oh joy.

Matt – Art Director

Working on effectively a benchmark area for all of our other key locations, I’ve been fleshing out any custom meshes for doors and unique items within our main encounter ‘silo’ location where Pioneers can are tasked to locate a mysterious device underground. This is a catalyst for other staged encounter areas which are effectively ‘battle arenas’ of sorts. All shall become clear when we release these zones for you to explore.

Tristan – Lead Developer

I have been investigating one of our multiplayer issues causing crashes after the player respawns. We have tracked down the area and put in a potential fix for it which should hopefully resolve the issue for now while the devs over at Epic can look into it further. Other than that I have been looking into some of the new movement logic that Lauren has been working on.

Ricky – Developer

Hi All, this week’s been action packed… with words… and being able to…use….stuff… more exciting than it sounds. I’ve been implemented designer based prompts and a new “use thing” system.

This will be utilised in only the most high tech, futuristic ways imaginable, like opening doors, turning lights on or off (maybe, you’ll have to bully the team a bit if they start complaining about things like performance costs or breaking the artistic vision), picking stuff up *gasp* off the floor and any other number of cases our hearts desire.

Joe – Environment Artist

I’m back! Been catching up on the level progress and plan this week, before getting stuck into starting on some environment kit pieces we can use for some of the awesome new locations the other guys have been working on.

The idea is to eventually end up with a library of man-made component pieces and textures that we can combine together to create whatever aesthetics are required for a given structure. In the future this should mean we have a consistent, high quality finish to every new area whilst still giving artists the flexibility to chop and change bits as required. This should make the whole process more flexible and much faster once we’ve got the pipeline nailed down.

Marcin – Designer

Working through the new A.I interactions with John, this pass will included the full melee system for which we’ll be drastically changing the behaviours and animations. I’ve also been implementing intial steps for the foundation of the objective system… how I do love a good objective.

Tom W – Designer

Continuing work on the Dam locations interior layout, with many tweaks to geometry and more thorough first pass positioning of lights. Looking forward to seeing this transform when we start to move away from our whitebox geometry.

Lauren – Animator

Taking a little break this week to re-charge my animation batteries. This isn’t a confession to me being a robot who requires batteries to run effectively >.> <.< … I <3 duracell.

Andy – Lead QA

So this week there has been some massive progress with the new level rework. Ive been lucky enough to get into the new parts of the map and do walkthroughs of the new structures. Ive also been working with another new guy call Mike, who is going to be working on making the drop pod and initial introduction area super cool.

In relation to QA, we managed to get a fix in for the crash that was really holding back multiplayer. That fix appears to have worked and now its just a case of cleaning up a few other known issues which means we will hopefully be able to get you wonderful people back into multiplayer games very soon.

See you in the fray!

-Team Flix

 

Greetings Pioneers!

Off to a hot start the last few days, running daily internal playthroughs of the start area to determine any further changes to layouts before we lock it down. Currently our focus is making sure the locations and places feel real in concept and make sense within the games background lore, whilst making sure the major feedback we’ve had to date is driving changes to the pacing of the, this should make the experience a lot more even keeled from the beginning.

We’ll be sharing this in more detail soon so you can see exactly how we’re transforming the introduction to make it more player friendly.

John – Lead Designer

Making a world that appears to have history can be a headbanging task, that requires a lot of minds to merge into one thought process and see a vision of what could be convincing and realistic in terms of development.

This has been my main focus this week, to bring all the ideas together from the initial designs and verify if they are both either A. Solid believable ideas in practice with good references to their implications, and B. Realistic proposals that suit the gameplay and lore. Surprisingly more difficult to determine than you may think!

Matt – Art Director

Continuing level design work with Tom and Alex after our first layout review. The initial layout is undergoing another stage of layout tweaks over the next few weeks with some important blocked out meshes for the individual locations going into place. We’re aiming to have all the important assets in place for our next playthrough review.

We’ve begun placing in the opening events and placeholder dialog which helps us get a sense of timing and composition, also been doing some passes on certain concepts for the more focal art pieces.

Lee – Technical Director

So this week I have continued work towards getting the new spawners complete, this will give the designers a lot more functionality as we start to create more storyline in game. I have also just finished merging the latest version of the engine into our code base.

Yves – Senior Developer

Working on the designs for design driven prompts and dialog within the game. Has mostly consisted of me sitting down with the designers and nodding or shaking my head furiously to the realistic nature of their proposals.

Tom W – Designer

Work continues on the dam! I’ve been making adjustments to the layout/surface of the dam based on Monday’s playthrough session with the team. The changes primarily consist of adjustments to give the player freedom of choice when it comes to navigating their way across the area, which should hopefully let different playstyles/approaches to enemy encounters be more rewarding!

Ricky – Developer

Consulting with Yves on the structure of the the dialog/prompt system to ensure designer use and localisation is straightforward when we get to those stages. That’s right, my milkshake brings all the designers to the yard.

Marcin – Designer

I’ve taken a short break from the land of Flix, and now only one thing occupies my mind, and that’s appreciating the beauty of third person. AND the REAL reason we’re actually implementing it, that’s right you already know why.

Lauren – Animator

I have been continuing with the third person work you saw last week, working out a few bugs with the turning and movement, Improving upon locomotion animations as I go, including some new death animations.

Andy – Lead QA

I’ve spent the week working with Matt, Tom and Alex on the new introduction and start location. There have been a lot of walk throughs, iterations and reworks, but it is really starting to come together. Testing the multiplayer servers has been fun as there appears to have been a little more activity lately and it’s cool to see some of the communities base designs.

If there’s anything you’d like to see more of please feel free to comment below! Also a more detailed view of what we’re doing can be viewed here.

See you in the fray!

-Team Flix