Hey Gearheads! We heard your questions, now we're answering them! Hope this sheds some light into the questions you had!

Could use some more details on the planned route for how melee will work. Last I heard the initial model was potentially similar to Mount and Blade, but there are many different directions it could go, like if it will have different preset attack animations that vary depending on the direction of attack, or if it will be more of a direct combat style as far as player inputs stringing together individual attacks. Or if the melee will offer different types of moves based on which weapons are equipped and the like.

- You are absolutely right, there are a lot of different approaches for implementing melee into HGA. While we do have a clear picture of how we want melee combat to fit into the game, the exact implementation will be based on what feels best for HGA. As such, melee will be developed and released through an iterative process. We will likely start with basic punch/swing and block mechanics. From there, we will be able to look into supporting a variety of weapons before moving onto combos or potentially gesture and directional based attacks.

When will we be able to crawl in the prone position again?

PRONE IS BACK! I’m happy to say that prone movement will return with the next update. In order to re-enable crawling, we had to seperate the prone code from the fallen code to allow for each state to behave independently.

"When will v1 be released?"

We really hope that 1.0 will be released some time in 10 years? *Cough* Looking at World of Tanks v 1.0 *cough* The industry have shifted significantly since we started this project. So did the way we approach building our game. In the past, we planned to release the game in modules, piece by piece, until it’s ready. Currently we are using a rapid prototyping approach, adding mechanics and iterating on them within days and sometimes hours. In the upcoming month we are planning to get back to our weekly / bi-weekly patch schedule in order to allow our community to test these mechanics and watch them grow and improve right before their eyes. Parts of melee module might become available as early as next week (we are not joking), while certain elements we initially hoped to have sooner, like infrastructure for a single player campaign, could take months to accomplish. It’s hard to tell when a “final” or feature complete version of the game will be released, because our vision is too grand. One thing we can tell for sure is that things are about to get a lot more exciting around here and we need you: Community to help us with feedback, playtesting and support.

"I don't know how many people bought the game over the years and forgot about it, but what is their plan for attracting an audience when the time comes?"

Getting the word out there is one of our top priorities for HGA. We are currently in the process of tooling up our social media presence as well as developing a full marketing campaign. Recently we signed with the PR firm, Dead Good Media, who will be assisting us in the endeavor. Additionally, we are planning series of ESL Tournaments to bring back old players and attract a new bunch. To drive this ball farther, the upcoming Player Progression system will allow us to reward social media influencers / curators with in-game items and unique visual customization options to further encourage the word of mouth effect. (We will totally have a statue of your gear with your name embroidered on it.)

How will the Tokenplay integration work with HGA, assuming "tokens" become the ingame premium currency, can you provide more details around those planned functions?

The current plan is to allow players to buy, earn, and spend Tokens directly from within HGA. While they will function much like a premium currency, there will be some differences due to them actually being an external cryptocurrency. More details will be released about tokens as we get closer to token integration.

When will we see phase two gears enter the game? (Leopard?)

Phase two Gear production is currently on hold while we focus our attention toward gameplay refinements. Before we add more Gears to HGA, we feel it’s important that each Gear, in its base form, has its own unique performance and feel. Right now, our developers are working to expose the performance variables so that our designers can adjust each Gear’s base statistics and make them feel as unique as possible within the boundaries of the lore. In the meantime, our artstaff are focused on updating and enhancing the environments. The Leopard may make an early appearance however.

When will we see the esports integration and website update? (Old website up as placeholder?)

Great question. We’re actually in the process of recruiting a new web development team to take over the HGA website. We’ll have an update on that soon.

What are the new timelines for the previously mentioned modules (Market, Melee, A.I., Corporate, eSport, VR, Single Player, Sniper)? Are they hinging on the tokenplay integration?

As we mentioned before, most modules are being worked on simultaneously while we continue to refine the already released gameplay elements. You will start seeing features from some of the modules you mentioned in some of our upcoming updates. Currently the focus is directly on mechanics that improve the gameplay and make gear handling feel more fun, with customization and progression being the next huge milestone. TokenPlay and it’s integration is handled by a separate team.

When will we see the in-game shop go live?

The in-game shop will be re-enabled with the implementation of the progression system since they are integral to one another. Once our next set up updates go live, this will be one our primary focuses moving forward.

Has the scope of the project changed any since the tokenplay arrangement?

Nope.

Is Stompy Bot implementing Steam VR in the game and if not, can they at least bind a cockpit camera look to the headset tracking. Elite Dangerous does this and IMO works very well as no pilots need controller tracking, controls are still handled via HOTAS+pedals or KBM. HG would benefit greatly from this it seems and the lower resolution required for VR at this time would actually improve gameplay performance on older systems that can handle VR but can't do ridiculous resolution and framerate numbers that enthusiasts chase after these days. Steam VR also makes it so it will work on all VR offerings.

We will look into it. VR support was designated as a post initial release priority, but it is possible we could enable some functionality in the meantime. Stay tuned for updates on that one.

Is there any plans for a single player mode either vs Ai or a campaign? This game looks promising but I am worried about a low server population.

Yes, absolutely. We have a really exciting plan for an episodic single player campaign with some deep story driven elements. Single Player campaign would also be directly integrated into multiplayer as means of unlocking new gears and pilot characters. However, this might not be something we’ll be able to achieve right away. In the meantime, we are planning on scheduling extended “Play with the Devs” dates and times when you will be able to join our servers and play with us. Redesigning Ai bots and allowing players to make them less deadly will be our first step towards the single player experience and it is scheduled for early summer updates.

Had a question posted pertaining to the HUD UI in general as to what sort of updates might be expected coming down the pipeline?

Currently we are adding interactivity to static UI elements as a part of our latest HUD polish pass. As an example, reticle elements now reflect the status of arms and will gray out when the gear is reloading. There are a ton of little details like this that improve accessibility coming down the pipe. Once this layer of secondary interactivity is added, we will be looking in additional mini map modes (radar) and sensors.

Any idea of when the sniping module will become available and what abilities it will offer?

We don’t have any estimates for sniping weaponry at the moment, but we are planning a set of weapon updates in the upcoming months. The idea is to refine the guns we currently have, make sure they are balanced correctly and that all of them have proper art, sound effects, reload and recoil animations and support the upcoming guns customization functionality. Once that is out of the way, we will start looking into long range weapons. Also, we are bringing grenades back!

"Mech painter and decals"; I want armored core level paint jobs at least" "It’d be nice to be able to adjust the level of shine as well. and of course paint every weapon, each arm and leg and everything separately. different camos, whole nine yards. its genuinely one of the most important things to me."

Gearbay 2.0 and Paintbay are two of the biggest priorities for upcoming updates. Currently the plan is to allow players to unlock and purchase customization elements like color palettes, paint patterns, decals and decal placement schemes, as well as some additional attachments: faction flags, goofy hats (if you’re into that kind of thing), and other fun elements that can be screwed, stapled or glued to your armor plates. Suggest your own attachments on Discord!

[ 2018-04-05 00:52:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey Gearheads! We heard your questions, now we're answering them! Hope this sheds some light into the questions you had!

Could use some more details on the planned route for how melee will work. Last I heard the initial model was potentially similar to Mount and Blade, but there are many different directions it could go, like if it will have different preset attack animations that vary depending on the direction of attack, or if it will be more of a direct combat style as far as player inputs stringing together individual attacks. Or if the melee will offer different types of moves based on which weapons are equipped and the like.

- You are absolutely right, there are a lot of different approaches for implementing melee into HGA. While we do have a clear picture of how we want melee combat to fit into the game, the exact implementation will be based on what feels best for HGA. As such, melee will be developed and released through an iterative process. We will likely start with basic punch/swing and block mechanics. From there, we will be able to look into supporting a variety of weapons before moving onto combos or potentially gesture and directional based attacks.

When will we be able to crawl in the prone position again?

PRONE IS BACK! Im happy to say that prone movement will return with the next update. In order to re-enable crawling, we had to seperate the prone code from the fallen code to allow for each state to behave independently.

"When will v1 be released?"

We really hope that 1.0 will be released some time in 10 years? *Cough* Looking at World of Tanks v 1.0 *cough* The industry have shifted significantly since we started this project. So did the way we approach building our game. In the past, we planned to release the game in modules, piece by piece, until its ready. Currently we are using a rapid prototyping approach, adding mechanics and iterating on them within days and sometimes hours. In the upcoming month we are planning to get back to our weekly / bi-weekly patch schedule in order to allow our community to test these mechanics and watch them grow and improve right before their eyes. Parts of melee module might become available as early as next week (we are not joking), while certain elements we initially hoped to have sooner, like infrastructure for a single player campaign, could take months to accomplish. Its hard to tell when a final or feature complete version of the game will be released, because our vision is too grand. One thing we can tell for sure is that things are about to get a lot more exciting around here and we need you: Community to help us with feedback, playtesting and support.

"I don't know how many people bought the game over the years and forgot about it, but what is their plan for attracting an audience when the time comes?"

Getting the word out there is one of our top priorities for HGA. We are currently in the process of tooling up our social media presence as well as developing a full marketing campaign. Recently we signed with the PR firm, Dead Good Media, who will be assisting us in the endeavor. Additionally, we are planning series of ESL Tournaments to bring back old players and attract a new bunch. To drive this ball farther, the upcoming Player Progression system will allow us to reward social media influencers / curators with in-game items and unique visual customization options to further encourage the word of mouth effect. (We will totally have a statue of your gear with your name embroidered on it.)

How will the Tokenplay integration work with HGA, assuming "tokens" become the ingame premium currency, can you provide more details around those planned functions?

The current plan is to allow players to buy, earn, and spend Tokens directly from within HGA. While they will function much like a premium currency, there will be some differences due to them actually being an external cryptocurrency. More details will be released about tokens as we get closer to token integration.

When will we see phase two gears enter the game? (Leopard?)

Phase two Gear production is currently on hold while we focus our attention toward gameplay refinements. Before we add more Gears to HGA, we feel its important that each Gear, in its base form, has its own unique performance and feel. Right now, our developers are working to expose the performance variables so that our designers can adjust each Gears base statistics and make them feel as unique as possible within the boundaries of the lore. In the meantime, our artstaff are focused on updating and enhancing the environments. The Leopard may make an early appearance however.

When will we see the esports integration and website update? (Old website up as placeholder?)

Great question. Were actually in the process of recruiting a new web development team to take over the HGA website. Well have an update on that soon.

What are the new timelines for the previously mentioned modules (Market, Melee, A.I., Corporate, eSport, VR, Single Player, Sniper)? Are they hinging on the tokenplay integration?

As we mentioned before, most modules are being worked on simultaneously while we continue to refine the already released gameplay elements. You will start seeing features from some of the modules you mentioned in some of our upcoming updates. Currently the focus is directly on mechanics that improve the gameplay and make gear handling feel more fun, with customization and progression being the next huge milestone. TokenPlay and its integration is handled by a separate team.

When will we see the in-game shop go live?

The in-game shop will be re-enabled with the implementation of the progression system since they are integral to one another. Once our next set up updates go live, this will be one our primary focuses moving forward.

Has the scope of the project changed any since the tokenplay arrangement?

Nope.

Is Stompy Bot implementing Steam VR in the game and if not, can they at least bind a cockpit camera look to the headset tracking. Elite Dangerous does this and IMO works very well as no pilots need controller tracking, controls are still handled via HOTAS+pedals or KBM. HG would benefit greatly from this it seems and the lower resolution required for VR at this time would actually improve gameplay performance on older systems that can handle VR but can't do ridiculous resolution and framerate numbers that enthusiasts chase after these days. Steam VR also makes it so it will work on all VR offerings.

We will look into it. VR support was designated as a post initial release priority, but it is possible we could enable some functionality in the meantime. Stay tuned for updates on that one.

Is there any plans for a single player mode either vs Ai or a campaign? This game looks promising but I am worried about a low server population.

Yes, absolutely. We have a really exciting plan for an episodic single player campaign with some deep story driven elements. Single Player campaign would also be directly integrated into multiplayer as means of unlocking new gears and pilot characters. However, this might not be something well be able to achieve right away. In the meantime, we are planning on scheduling extended Play with the Devs dates and times when you will be able to join our servers and play with us. Redesigning Ai bots and allowing players to make them less deadly will be our first step towards the single player experience and it is scheduled for early summer updates.

Had a question posted pertaining to the HUD UI in general as to what sort of updates might be expected coming down the pipeline?

Currently we are adding interactivity to static UI elements as a part of our latest HUD polish pass. As an example, reticle elements now reflect the status of arms and will gray out when the gear is reloading. There are a ton of little details like this that improve accessibility coming down the pipe. Once this layer of secondary interactivity is added, we will be looking in additional mini map modes (radar) and sensors.

Any idea of when the sniping module will become available and what abilities it will offer?

We dont have any estimates for sniping weaponry at the moment, but we are planning a set of weapon updates in the upcoming months. The idea is to refine the guns we currently have, make sure they are balanced correctly and that all of them have proper art, sound effects, reload and recoil animations and support the upcoming guns customization functionality. Once that is out of the way, we will start looking into long range weapons. Also, we are bringing grenades back!

"Mech painter and decals"; I want armored core level paint jobs at least" "Itd be nice to be able to adjust the level of shine as well. and of course paint every weapon, each arm and leg and everything separately. different camos, whole nine yards. its genuinely one of the most important things to me."

Gearbay 2.0 and Paintbay are two of the biggest priorities for upcoming updates. Currently the plan is to allow players to unlock and purchase customization elements like color palettes, paint patterns, decals and decal placement schemes, as well as some additional attachments: faction flags, goofy hats (if youre into that kind of thing), and other fun elements that can be screwed, stapled or glued to your armor plates. Suggest your own attachments on Discord!

[ 2018-04-05 00:52:53 CET ] [ Original post ]