Greetings Pioneers!

This week we have been hard at work on the game settings, server optimisation and introduction. We are looking to push an update out very soon to the experimental branch to allow all you lovely people to set up their own servers from within the main menu UI.

We will be updating the main branch with a brand spanking new build as soon as we feel it is stable and balanced enough. There is a lot that has changed so we need your help in testing all these changes, especially the server setup interface as we cannot test every router-modem configuration in house. Let us know how you get on with this when we get this next release out.

John – Lead Designer

I have been working through the final designs for the corruption mechanic, overseeing the work on the introduction/tutorial, designing how vehicles/mech’s will work and also working out the details on how we refine the survival gameplay loop. This weekend I plan on working through another balancing pass to allow us to push out an update to the experimental branch at some point next week (no intro included).

Matt – Art Director

I’ve managed to revise and create new models and materials for the different Eden Kit levels. These will hopefully give Pioneers more of a sense of progression when it comes to upgrading one the most important parts of their base!

Lee – Technical Director

This week I have been looking into enemy spawning inside of bases so that we can make exploring colony bases more an experience. This may be also accompanied by placing hives into bases which could see hives removed from the outside world eventually, changing the way that hives are tackled, turning them into a far greater risk vs reward.

Ricky – Developer

    I helped with design on a new upcoming feature with the corruption mechanic and how we can involve it in the game world and get it to fit in with the game and UI.

Few bugs along the way such as incorrect gathering amounts being displayed on the HUD and some of our shiny new items not being present in the game, or infact existing in the first place so I whipped up some ideas in the lab and… well long story short I created something from nothing and they’re now in the game once more.

OK so the biggest new feature I’ve been working on is customisable game settings. We previously have had a small number of game settings available when creating your own server, but now They will be open to single player users too! And most (Currently all) will be available during gameplay to tweak the experience as you go or set yourself up for challenges!! And here I just wanted to write something worthy of 3 !!! … 4!!!!? NO RICKY BAD…too far…. Awwww

So what kind of things can you expect to tweak? (Taking extra note of my courteous use of the colon). We currently have ready:DayCycleLength, DaytimeRatio, HarvestYield, MiningSpeed. Aswell as returning options for modifying damage to Structure Blocks from AI and Deterioration.

We’re also working on others such as; altering AI spawning, Altering other types of damage such as damage vs players and vs ai and damage from ai to the player, altering Block HP, Changing Stat rates such as Hunger and Thirst.

Tom – Character Artist

Finished off this ugly water Beast! Based on a crocodile, he certainly doesn’t look friendly..

Joe – Environment Artist

I have mainly been continuing with work on the Introduction/Tutorial sequence. I’ve worked on a simple fire asset, art assets for the crash site, UI design of the inventory tutorial component, the intro sequence itself, and the logic that drives said sequence. With Ricky’s help I also created a system to turn on/off different parts of the HUD as required for the tutorial. I’ve also got some fancy sci-fi HUD animations playing when each component appears on-screen.

Looking to future features I also created a UI layout for our first iteration of the Synthesizer screens. This utility will allow you to research and create treatments for a rather unpleasant ailment that you might need to watch out for in future…

Lauren

This week I’ve been continuing with the introduction with Joe, Matt and John, making some placeholder audio for the voice of the drone and various triggers.

Marcin – Designer

I’ve gone to find the gold at the end of the rainbow, and hopefully make friends with a few leprechauns on the way. Exciting. I’m probably on my 100th pint of Guinness by now and have a developed an impulsive urge to say the phrase ‘thanks a million’ to anyone who is nice to me.

Simone – Concept Artist

Created colour concepts for the damaged variant of the Drop Pod in our introduction, and finished the ‘Humming bird’ style creature. I’ve also begun collating reference imagery for upcoming vehicles! We’re in the process of revising some of the initial designs for player controlled mechanicals.

Andy – Lead QA

Working away helping to identify all the major bugs while testing multiplayer on our large island map. The rest of the developers have been working on optimsations and internal multiplayer build fixes so we felt there was no need to include everyone of them by name this week!

See you in the Fray!

– Team Flix