End of May Update - Major Systems Rework, and Bringing in More Talent
Hello everyone,
As stated last month, a major part of our current work is continuing to optimize the game, fix errors and trying to get the game running more smoothly. Much of this work has related to the major task of replacing the game's graphical API with Vulkan, which, while it would not provide immediate performance improvements, will allow us to implement optimizations once the entire framework is in place.
We've also spent a lot of time significantly reworking many of the core game features, as certain systems were either messily implemented or did not gel with other systems in an elegant way. Much of the logistics systems we've worked on resulted in some strange gameplay that felt way too busy, with many overlapping systems creating a lot of redundancy that didn't really work super well together, or systems that were just tedious or inconsistent to engage with. We've opted to move some of these systems around or make them faction-exclusive in certain cases. As some examples:
- Forklifts will be bound to production structures, rather than being bound to the main HQ structure, and are no longer involved in supply construction sites. This is due to the way that giving them both these roles (while making them automatic, and not player-controlled) resulted in them often behaving very sub-optimally, in a way that would likely be frustrating in actual gameplay (eg. moving resources to a stockpile when it's more desperately needed elsewhere at the moment). Now Forklifts serve as a mean to transfer resources from a stockpile to the production structure in question when needed.
- Workers will now carry supplies directly, instead of only facilitating construction. Originally, this was done because it resulted in annoying behavior like workers leaving to go get more resources to deliver to a construction site just as another unit was about to supply the site, causing delays. We can get around this by having some smarter worker behavior (checking to see if there is any supplies en route first).
- There is no longer a hard limit on base sizes, and base size is more determined organically by layout efficiency, or in other words, buildings should be constructed in a way that's conducive to smooth logistics and efficiency, rather than just giving a hard no for certain structure placements. There are also more advanced construction vehicles to more efficiently facilitate long-range base construction. Also, while this may just be a temporary measure until proper rail logic is introduced, trucks can move resources between oil deposits and refineries automatically.
- Power is no longer a resource for any faction but the Collective. Power simply added needless complexity to the gameplay without adding much in a positive way, and there was little to the system that was especially interesting. Unfortunately this means those cool Powerplant and wind turbine sprites no serve no purpose, but hey, they can make for some cool map props.
- We're also having to rethink how Pipelines and Conveyor Lines are implemented, since we recently discovered a flaw in the logic that would make placing them in actual gameplay rather inconsistent. It's not 100% clear we will redesign them, but we may limit the way they are placed to avoid running into some strange issues regarding the actual flow physics that would hamper gameplay. This would mostly affect the Empire faction and Warband, though not Collective, as their mobile structures prevent them from even being practical.
That was mostly regarding the Empire faction. We're also working on more concrete systems for the methods the other factions use for supply. In keeping with their stealthy, guerilla nature, Warband supply routes between buildings take the form of underground tunnels, moving supplies around safely (while distance between buildings still affects efficiency). Supply vehicles will automatically move between resource deposits and refineries, but with an emphasis on armed escort; fuel supply vehicles will often have flame weapons for defense during the treks between refineries and oil rigs/sulphur mines. This also ties into another underground system, in which the Warband can construct tunnels that connect two tunnel entrances across the map, allowing them to sneak troops around and create hidden supply lines between bases and outlying resource outposts. Supply units will smartly interact with these, choosing to move through safe underground passages instead of risking surface travel if there is opportunity to do so.
The Collective will use a system like the original Forklift concept we had, but applied to aerial vehicles to better facilitate their mobile base walkers. Mobile logistics hubs act as a means to supply your mobile factories, using automated aerial drones to deliver resources between nearby facilities, while the logistics walkers themselves can handle constructing static defensive buildings such as walls, gates and turrets. Logistics walkers separated by great distances can also have supply lines established between the two using larger aircraft, so the player can make use of multiple bases and outlying resource bases. As mentioned above, power is now a resource only for the Collective faction. While not a true resource per se, they will use mobile power generators to supply power to advanced Tesla Units, and to improve efficiency in nearby production structures. Power is more of a binary system than a true resource, so it's more just a matter of keeping one in range, rather than making sure you are over some sort of numerical threshold.
This isn't a full list of the redesign changes, but includes many of the major ones we've had to rethink and rework. We've also made some strides to getting more staff onboard to speed up production. While we have not formally brought any onboard yet - a lot of the delays were due to waiting on some back and forth with an attorney, since of course work contracts and NDA's require the involvement of people who specialize in law - we've had a number of interviews and spoken to a number of other people.
In the next week or two, we'll be finally getting another engineer inboard to speed up programming work, as well as an animator, a writer, a composter/sound engineer, and some actual map-makers we know from the Tiberian Sun modding community (check out Twisted Insurrection if you're a fan of that sort of thing). Besides their obvious use in these specific roles, we also want to have more people looking and playing the game directly, since it can sometimes be very easy to miss certain big-picture elements (or just miss tons of bugs) by having only three people actually ever touching the game itself.
While we don't plan on having game animation and maps created right away, we do want the people involved to familiarize themselves with the game itself and the rest of the staff, so that we're all on the same page. In the case of the map makers, we definitely want them to get a big headstart on learning the ins and outs of our mapping tools and things like the LUA scripting. Ideally we'll have some kind of playable demo at the end of the year, for those supporters who paid for that reward, and getting mappers in early will be critical to that.
We also are going to involve some other talent for more small-scale projects, such as contracting various artists to flesh out making very specific parts of the game, such as creating in-universe advertisements and propaganda posters for map details, someone to do dedicated character head sculpts for the unit portraits, and things like that. Voice acting will also, of course, fall under those topic.
That's all for this month. Next month, development speed should pick up greatly once we get more talent involved. As always, thank you all for the continued support.
- John