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Attention, survivors!

We are finally back with the next episode of the dev diaries! As always, we are super excited to show you some of the progress that has been made over the last two weeks and provide you with some deeper insights into the development of Ardem. Let's dive in!

Art

If you've checked out our latest announcement, you might have noticed a sneak peek of the initial 3D draft of something resembling an antenna or a tower. Indeed, we've been working on a radio tower! The tower stands approximately 170 meters tall and supports antennas originally deployed for telecommunications and broadcasting. It's situated on the highest mountain in Ardem, nestled between the west and south coasts. Some of you may have noticed an empty area atop the mountain during the playtest. What many didn't know about the tower is that it has also served as a secret monitoring station and played a significant role in the lore of Ardem.
During the crisis, the military took control of the tower and established a base nearby. Yes, this means military loot! You asked for it, and here it is. The tower's size makes it highly recognizable from great distances, serving as an excellent landmark for navigation.
In our next dev diary, we'll delve into more detail about what's required to enter the radio tower, how you can operate it, and even use it as your private shelter. Additionally, we'll showcase more images from inside the tower and what you can expect. Trust us, this is going to be huge!

Level Design

Let's discuss our progress in level design, where we've made significant strides over the past two weeks. During the playtest, some of you may have noticed that the entire coastal area on the south coast isn't yet complete, leaving a sizable gap between Albington and the eastern mountains. Some spawn points even provided views of this large, empty area. To prevent these immersion-breaking gaps in the next playtest, we're focusing on finishing this area in design and preparing it for testing.
Our first step to fill this gap is introducing a small remote village. It comprises several residential houses and is predominantly characterized by agriculture and horticulture. The presence of these resources, along with a small creek running through the village, makes it very appealing to fresh spawns looking for a safe route for their initial loot run, steering clear of Albington. However, being nestled in a small valley, the village makes it easy for players to be observed by others on the surrounding hills.
Furthermore, in this village, we've experimented with new types of bushes featuring dense foliage. These bushes provide unarmed players with more hiding options from hostile players. They blend seamlessly with the surrounding foliage and, based on our in-game tests, offer excellent concealment opportunities.

Game Mechanics

Environmental Effects

On the game mechanics front, we've addressed some feedback that many players have raised, which was relatively easy for us to implement but will have a significant impact on gameplay in the next playtest. This feedback primarily revolves around three major aspects. Day and Night Cycle: We've resolved a bug that was ignoring our settings for the length of day and night in Ardem. Previously, it would consistently apply the day length to the night as well. This issue has been rectified, and we've adjusted the durations to 45 minutes of daytime and 15 minutes of nighttime. Additionally, we've artificially extended the durations of sunrise and sunset to enhance realism. Cardinal Directions: It came to our attention, thanks to your feedback, that the path of the sun didn't align with the correct cardinal directions, making it challenging to use the sun as a navigation tool. This has been rectified, and now the sun rises in the south and sets in the west. Happy navigating! Weather Durations: Some weather types, such as thunderstorms, have aesthetically pleasing visuals but excessively long durations, which impede navigation and hearing. We've implemented the ability to set the minimum and maximum durations of different weather types and have already decreased the duration of thunderstorms accordingly.

Lamps

During the playtest, many players utilized the electricity mechanics, connecting generators to houses and using interior lights. We've given the entire system a thorough overhaul, ensuring to adjust the brightness and light color of all lamps to achieve a more realistic appearance, avoiding cases where they resembled supernovas.
Additionally, we've introduced what we call "light attachment points" to all lamps in every house. These points serve as interaction spots for reattaching lamps. When you pick up a lamp from the ceiling, a corresponding attachment point in the form of cables will appear in the same location. With a lamp in hand, you can interact with these attachment points to reattach the lamp to the ceiling. This enhancement provides you with more freedom in customizing your base and allows you to take your favorite lamps with you to your shelters and bases.

Barrels

Last but not least, we've given all liquid containers (such as barrels, water tanks, etc.) in Ardem an overhaul. We noticed that many of you were confused by barrels and similar containers that could be opened and closed but had no further functionality. To address this, we've removed the option to open and close the lids and instead integrated our existing liquid container mechanic into them.
This enhancement allows you to transfer liquids like water or fuel from bottles or other smaller containers into barrels, water tanks, etc., allowing you to collect large quantities of certain liquids. This feature can be particularly useful for shelters or bases that lack easy access to a river or lake, as you can now conveniently store your water on site. While this dev diary covered numerous smaller improvements and features, rest assured that we have some major developments to showcase in the next update, and we're truly excited to share them with you. Stay tuned!