Greetings Pioneers!

This week the team have been working on all new server host options for the experimental branch, allowing you to change settings and launch a server based on those settings, including setting a custom day-night cycle length and a whole bunch of other requested features! We’ve also been testing the scanner with the balancing for all the new materials, compounds and components. In addition to this we’ve been looking at the weapon tweaking we did earlier in the week and the modular weapons are feeling much more balanced.

Here’s what the team has been up to:

John – Lead Designer

This week I’ve been discussing potential new mining and Kinetic Blast mechanics as well as overseeing Lauren and Matt’s continued work on the introduction sequence. I also managed to get through a complete balancing pass over all of the stats for our modular weapons – tweaking and changing to get them feeling unique, believable and combat-ready! *tchk-tchk – BOOM*

Matt – Art Director

Some say I’m like a human solar panel, absorbing the rays of the sun in order to output my artistic energy.

Some say I can manipulate those rays into pixels of light on any computer screen.

I say those people are wrong. What I have actually been doing is crafting different level visual versions for the Eden Kit which will see their way into the game soon!

Lee – Technical Director

So this week I have managed to get some time on spawning AI inside the Colony bases. We plan to have some bases which are more strongly defended than others because they contain better loot.

Tristan – Senior Developer

This week I have been looking at creating a new charged blast module/upgrade. It’s quite fun even without any of the visual aspects so it should be even better once we get those in.

Ricky – Developer

Game Setting menu with configurable game settings has been the cards for this week, along with stopping the AI attacking the player while in the deployment UI which needed a bit of rejigging.

So we are including this new Game Settings menu which will allow you to tweak multiple settings of the game before you start. We are additionally looking into launching servers with these custom game settings from within game too and sorting some of the server logic out with regards to usability.

Yves – Senior Developer

Coming very close to wrapping up the feature end of network replication optimizations, next week will be begin the journey of fixing all of the things that this new feature would definitely have broken.

Marcin – Designer

I’ve been working very closely with Ricky on multiple Interface elements these past few days. Along with the new set of materials, we’ve done a pass on the Scanner Info and we added a new shiny highlight effect that goes with it too.

In addition to that, as Ricky has mentioned, we’ve been working on the view Game Settings feature, which will let you change most of the general balancing values in order to customise your game to your liking. That will include both single and multiplayer experience. Please keep in mind that the feature is brand new and it may change drastically before official release.

Joe – Environment Artist

I’ve been working on art for a few new base-specific decorators for placement in the abandoned compounds. With the upcoming release I’ve been hammering through bugs too, including highlights such as walking fish and finding thousands of rounds of ammo in crates. I’ve made a bunch of minor tweaks and fixes bases on all your feedback on the forums, so keep it coming 🙂

Tom – Character Artist

I’ve been working on the high-res model of a particularly nasty critter that will be lurking in a Swamp near you sometime soon…

Lauren – Animator

This week along with various meetings I have been continuing with the animation for the introduction sequence, which is coming along nicely!

Simone – Concept Artist

I’ve been working on the interior view for the drop pod having two different variants – a clean version and destroyed version. Also I have been making sure that all the armour sets have a base colour version ready for when Tom can start modelling them.

Andy – Lead QA

This week, as with last, I have been focused on the balancing of the minerals and weapons. Along with the balancing I have been looking at the issues you have listed on steam and in particular I have been attempting to reproduce an issues a few of you guys have been having with claimed turrets attacking you.

See you in the fray!

-Team Flix

Greetings Pioneers!

Thank you for the excellent feedback so far on our next iteration of the game which is still available to play in our experimental branch. It’s been immensely constructive for us to have some live player feedback at this stage.

We’re looking to push another update out to the branch next week which will have a whole host of changes and additions. In the meantime we’ve been working towards cleaning up and additions of the most wanted features that we feel will give everyone the most bang for their buck!

Remember you can stay drunk on our workaholic ways by checking out our Trello Boards for the latest on our designs and development tasks!

Here’s what we’ve been progressing with this week:

John – Lead Designer

This week it has been further balancing and identifying all of the components needed to build a refined initial experience. My main focus has been weapon balancing and design tweaks for the updated material scanner with Ricky whilst also finishing off the designs for fuel. I’m next going to be working with Tristan to get the final components together for the new Mining system and then it’s fuel and energy.

Matt – Art Director

We’ve been wanting to get more things that explode into the game for quite a while. So here I am with a huge smile on my face because those things that explode are now about to start exploding. This means more effective ways of breaking into bases and dealing with any non-allied defences!

To start the fireworks here’s the current frag grenade I’ve worked on for both first person and world models.

Lee – Technical Director

This week I have been looking at fixing a couple of crashes we were having with the AI, plus I’ve also been looking at possible way to try and optimise our Octree generation and updating while in game. My next task is to start working towards getting AI to spawn inside the colony bases scattered around the new map.

Tristan – Senior Developer

Working on implementing tree smashing, so throwing of creatures favours the direction of the nearest tree trunk in the direction of the throw. We loved seeing trees break when this happened so expect more exciting smashing moments.

Managed to finish our updated power system as well. Once this is in the game your Eden Kit effectively becomes a power transmitter, so any power from generators will only be effective inside the radius of your Eden Kits. I’ve also started work on our fuel system this week which we believe will be a huge game changer.

Joe – Environment Artist

This week I finished my revamp of 7 bases for the new experimental branch level! My goal was to make each base unique, fun to explore and tell a little bit of a story too… Soon I’m hoping to work on new assets for these bases to flesh them out further. I can’t wait to get your feedback and opinion once the next update hits.

I also spent a day reworking all of the loot crates; adding in the new items, removing the old and tweaking all the drop chances. When the next release drops there shouldn’t be any more useless empty crates or items out of place. I also added in Matt’s new meshes for the roads and fixed a few minor level bugs along the way.

Yves – Senior Developer

Focusing on the final stages of multiplayer optimisation for building large structures, this is coming a long nicely and will be ready for testing shortly.

Ricky – Developer

This week bought a few changes to the HUD Scanner design so I’ve been implementing those additional little bits, then I’ve also been working on bits and bobs towards tutorials, the opening cutscene and objectives for so others can be on the working of those. Moving on from that the consumables are now placeable in the Consumable slots of the UI Menu and on the bottom bar of the HUD so they can be used with quick keys 6 through 0 by default.

Nigh a week goes by barren of fixing bugs so one has also been looking into those. One has been sorted which means peoples save games from the original experimental release a couple of weeks ago can still be loaded in the current release.

Lauren – Animator

This week I have been working on a short introduction sequence to the game for single player in which you wake up near your crashed dropship. There are items scattered around that can help you in starting out.

Marcin – Designer

My entire week was spent implementing an entire new world economy to the game. Yes, that’s right, in the next release, pretty much every single item you find or make will be brand new. A potential exceptions may be the food and water, because they require a whole pass all of their own, which may not make it in at the same time.

That means that the game will likely be slightly less balanced than it is right now economy-wise, but hopefully only for a short while. Gone will be ironite, tennal, and microcrystals for example, and instead you’ll find titanium, computer chips, and sulphur. I hope it’s as exciting for you as it is for us!

Tom – Character Artist

It’s Creepy Crocodile time. Working on this much larger water biome creature!

Simone – Concept Artist

Hello everyone! This week I have been digging into getting the storyboard’s sequence all done so the team can work from it. As well as the storyboards I have been working with Matt on detailing up a Drop Pod design and am currently working on refining the design. Hope you all had an awesome week and see you again next week! 

Andy – Lead QA

After the last update I have been working with the team to implement the new minerals (including a balancing first pass), the new and improved scanner and the new power system. I’ve also been correlating the feedback you guys have been leaving for us onto our trello boards and testing the fixes the devs have put in.

See you in the fray!

-Team Flix

Greetings Pioneers!

Our experimental branch with all the new content was opened up to everyone yesterday, if you missed it, check out our previous news post here:
http://steamcommunity.com/games/EdenStar/announcements/detail/972040066614913182

Opt-in to the experimental branch at your own risk, although you can always move back into the main branch if you are experiencing issues, or would like to get back to playing in the current multiplayer build.

We have been working hard to try and resolve the inconsistent crash a few individuals have been reporting on beginning a new game although we had some issues reproducing this crash in-house.

It appears the crash we fixed for the last release was actually a different one! We have fixed a different rare crash today and put in a potential fix for the one some of you have been experiencing when starting a new game. We think this may have been related to a missing or unpackaged font so we’ve just removed text from the loading screen until further notice. This should help resolve the issue for now.

There is also a known issue with dropping items where all items in your inventory no matter what has been selected will be added to your dropbag.

Bug fixes and changes since the last experimental release:

• Crash fixes
• Added more Ceramic to Water Biomes
• New Comm Station base
• Fixed a rare crash with Hive Spawning
• Fixed Teslinium Clusters not producing any crystals

Here’s what we’ve been working on this week:

John – Lead Designer

We now have all of the values for the new materials that can be found here.

These will be added over the next week and then released in experimental as soon as possible. I am currently working on balancing for weapons and so PLEASE share your feedback in this thread here: http://steamcommunity.com/app/259570/discussions/0/350542683197286152/

List each weapon that you would like to see a difference in including, more or less recoil, spread, faster/slower time between shots, damage etc.

I have also been working on high-level behaviour changes for preparing the AI’s next development pass, looking at how we want the AI to approach, spawn and attack the player when roaming around the world.

Matt – Art Director

Expanding on the crafting items, I’ve been developing materials and concoctions for additional updates on the lead up to Christmas. Work has also been started on our brand new introduction to the game which will mark the start of pushing our story and lore of the island and give rise to the questions of why you are there in the first place.

More specifically the drop pod is now under development, not as a single intact asset, but made of many component parts that can be salvaged as scrap to assist players in the beginning of the game.

Lee – Technical Director

This week I have been working on trying to help pinpoint a few crashes we have been getting with the new map. I’ve also been adding new functionality to our Octree to take care of the new flying creatures we have planned for a later release.

Tristan – Senior Developer

This week I have been working on implementing a new power system into the game. The previous one was quite costly in terms of replication to client machines which is something we are trying to cut down. It also had a lot of functionality that never actually got used in the game so the new one is intended to be much simpler. I have also been helping out on some crashes we have had with regards to our new loading screens which seem to cause us many woes.

Ricky – Developer

I’ve been working on the HUD scanner revamp followed by light holidaying and now helping look into some of the crashes reported on steam experimental branch.

Yves – Senior Developer

About 30% done with the rework of structure replication, we now can place primitives with the new replication system. Manually handling actors replication comes with its own set of challenges and benefits. To reduce CPU hit on the client we aren’t destroying actors immediately when they leave a sector’s relevancy range, we keep them around for a small period then stagger their destruction, if the player comes back into the area then we do not need to respawn these blocks.

Marcin – Designer

The majority of the week I’ve spent working with John and Matt on a brand new pass of the tech tree, including new materials, items, and buildings. Our main goal is to enhance the crafting and building aspects of the game by shifting the time involvement from grinding for minerals into crafting.

The rest of the time, I was fixing minor bugs left over from the last release, such as the Teslinium Clusters not giving any Teslinium, Stomp attack not always finding its target, or water surface visuals disappearing on random loads of the game. The last one is still very elusive, but I’ve made steps to prevent it from happening.

Joe – Environment Artist

More tweaking and fixing to start the week off, before finishing off the road placement in the level, which you can now check out in our Experimental branch! 🙂 Speaking of, I made a few tweaks to this week, including removing Eden Kits in some bases so you can more easily capture them, as well as reworking some of the loot placement based on initial feedback.

Just before our public Experimental release I managed to sneak in a new base (Landing Pad) and today I’ve just added another new base which will be in our next release – Comm Station!

Tom – Character Artist

Preparing to start more water based creatures as well as the female Pioneer model!

Lauren – Animator

This week I have been mainly focusing on audio and animation tweaks, implementing new placeholder audio where we had none before and refining others to sound a bit better. I have been tweaking the Cerberus (Wolf) movement animations a little and helping out with debugging and AI fixes.

Simone – Concept Artist

This week I’ve been working on the first draft of storyboards with the team for a new sequence, with fire and explosions and…rainbows – okay maybe not all of that but I will get rainbows into the game somewhere! I have also been making some changes to other concepts from feedback that has been given.

Andy – Lead QA

So this week has been an interesting one. After the release of our experimental branch last Friday I have been bugging up and addressing the many suggestions and issues you guys have let us know about. From there we made many fixes and tweaks and opened up the experimental branch to the general public which lead to more suggestions and issues which needed addressing before we can roll out another update.   

See you in the fray!

-Team Flix