





🌟 Special thanks to our amazing supporters:
✨ $10 Tier: [Geeks Love Detail]
🌈 $5 Tier: [Arch Toasty][Benedikt][David Martínez Martí]
The game features a rich Twitch integration that allows viewers to influence the game's events, but how to use it, one might ask? Well, here's a detailed description.
The day is finally upon us: Project 5: Sightseer has exited the Early Access stage. I just want to say: THANK YOU to everyone that played in the beta stage. Without your play-testing, feedback, and (many) bug reports, today would most assuredly not been possible. <3 you all. -Aren https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQZJtWpGH2Q
What the title says! I know I've been putting this date off for quite some time for a variety of reasons, but the waiting is almost over. The game is currently in final testing on the Development branch (which you can check out right now if you like by opting into it via), and will hit version 1.0 right in the middle of August. The dev branch is currently testing such changes as roads, more challenging simulations, achievements, and most importantly -- many bug fixes. -Aren
Hey there explorers, the long awaited third PvE update is finally here!
As those of you who are familiar with Early Access games know, most studios release updates to their games once or twice a year, but they tend to be pretty big. As those of you familiar with Tasharen know, that was not the case with Windward and Sightseer. I, personally, prefer to release updates with small, tiny daily or semi-daily builds. This update, however... unfortunately didn't make this possible.
The problem lied in what I wanted to change -- which was basically everything. I wasn't happy with Unity's built-in terrain system for example, so I wanted to replace it with my own, custom one that wouldn't be so slow and would allow for more impressive looking features.
I didn't like the sky and lighting system I was using and wanted a custom one as well -- something that supported a spherical planet. So the sky had to go too.
With the new terrain and sky came the possibility of dramatically increasing the view distance which make the planet's curvature quite apparent.
To make the game's performance high I replaced the tree placement and drawing system with a GPU-based solution, which allowed for a lot more trees to be visible at once... the list goes on. One thing led to another, and the entire game had to be changed.
If you look at the patch notes, found in their usual place (tinyurl.com/p5notes), and there are 14 pages worth of changes to go through. Since you don't have all day though, I'll point out some notable ones:
ArenToday at 1:30 PM Dec-5th
Just to give you guys an idea of the reason behind the continued delay of the update release, short version is I'm basically trying to make it more Windward-like.
Long version is, I want there to be long-term progression in the game for those that wish it. On the released last version atm, you get to tier 3 weaponry, finish research, and you're basically done. Progression stops. That's what I've been trying to change.
So, just a quick overview of major changes: by default the world will no longer have hostile NPC outposts (can change in options). Default mode will have the entire world will be up for players to explore and populate like a year ago.
Instead, I'm in the process of adding support for instances, like back in Windward. When you want to siege an NPC outpost, you will start an instance, which will effectively teleport you into a remote region where there will be a ready-made NPC outpost to conquer. You can invite friends into this raid, like in Windward. There may or may not be a boss fight. Drops will be catered to the player, based on the player's existing gear, as well as the chosen raid's difficulty.
Players out in the world will still be able to do quests, traders, protect random NPCs from pirates, etc -- and acquire basic and rare quality loot this way, but it's the instanced raids that will progress past +6 gear (with difficulties to match).
Of course player tactics and composition (healers, tanks etc) will help a lot, but I'll try to scale it in such a way that good equipment will matter greatly in such encounters.
All this is a biiig change, which is the real reason for the continued delay.
With the system I have in place, gear will go up to +20 quality for the absolute top-tier raid drops from bosses, although I'll have to change it to primarily boost health and damage instead of other stats.
I'm thinking of implementing my original idea of there being 1-3 starting spots to choose from for new players, so everyone starts at specific locations and moves out from there. This way players that are there first on the server will get to build things that players that come after will be able to visit. And with the questing in place, the outposts in question will be giving new players a way to progress even without having to build outposts, until they find a spot of their own.
Of course how it ends up being in practice remains to be seen/tested. We'll see.
But one thing I do want to bring back is the feel of adventure, of being the first to visit a part of the world. This feeling is missing if the entire world is populated by NPC outposts.
Perhaps as players expand into the world, add new starting spots on the "frontier", to keep the line moving forward without forcing new players to drive through hours of populated terrain.
Part 2 of the PvE update is finally here! As promised, this update greatly expands the PvE part of the game, adding random encounters, raids, and skills to the game. Here are some of the feature highlights from the June 29th update:
Fellow Sightseers,
Today marks the release of the first part of the PvE updates that many of you have been waiting for. Due to exensive back-end changes, starting a new world will be necessary to experience the new content to its fullest. Server administrators will also need to update their server executable before putting up a new world.
Alongside the expected mundane-but-necessary bug fixes, today's update adds NPC outposts that can be discovered by exploring the world. These can be simple resource extraction satellites that players can steal useful resources from, lightly defended outposts to capture, or even heavily protected forts placed in a restricted area best to avoid -- so greater care must now be taken when exploring the world.
Of course to make the challenge of capturing these outposts more meaningful, an all-new loot system has been added to the game. Most NPC outposts have a loot container somewhere containing some useful goodies for players that succeed in capturing them. The items found in containers, looted from defeated NPCs, and sometimes even found lying on the ground may be of higher quality than what can be crafted manually. From faster weapon recharge to stronger shields, you can now better customize your vehicles to match your play style and prepare for Part 2.
After all, this is only the first part of the planned 3-part PvE changes. This first update focused on passive (stationary) threats. The second update will add active threats, making it possible for NPCs to raid your outposts and potentially hunt you out in the wild. The last part will tie all of this together with an active quest system, adding specific goals for players to pursue.
Just keep in mind that if you are going to be checking out this update, be sure to start a new world as old ones are not going to be compatible with some of the changes. They will still work, of course -- should you wish to continue your existing game -- but certain features will be missing.
As usual, to keep an eye on Sightseer's development, Discord is still the best place to do so. There you can ask questions, report bugs, find friends to play with and offer feedback on the potential changes before they happen.
Full list of patch notes can be found at tinyurl.com/p5notes.
Happy adventuring!
-Michael "Aren Mook" Lyashenko
Fellow Sightseers,
Today marks the release of the first part of the PvE updates that many of you have been waiting for. Due to exensive back-end changes, starting a new world will be necessary to experience the new content to its fullest. Server administrators will also need to update their server executable before putting up a new world.
Alongside the expected mundane-but-necessary bug fixes, today's update adds NPC outposts that can be discovered by exploring the world. These can be simple resource extraction satellites that players can steal useful resources from, lightly defended outposts to capture, or even heavily protected forts placed in a restricted area best to avoid -- so greater care must now be taken when exploring the world.
Of course to make the challenge of capturing these outposts more meaningful, an all-new loot system has been added to the game. Most NPC outposts have a loot container somewhere containing some useful goodies for players that succeed in capturing them. The items found in containers, looted from defeated NPCs, and sometimes even found lying on the ground may be of higher quality than what can be crafted manually. From faster weapon recharge to stronger shields, you can now better customize your vehicles to match your play style and prepare for Part 2.
After all, this is only the first part of the planned 3-part PvE changes. This first update focused on passive (stationary) threats. The second update will add active threats, making it possible for NPCs to raid your outposts and potentially hunt you out in the wild. The last part will tie all of this together with an active quest system, adding specific goals for players to pursue.
Just keep in mind that if you are going to be checking out this update, be sure to start a new world as old ones are not going to be compatible with some of the changes. They will still work, of course -- should you wish to continue your existing game -- but certain features will be missing.
As usual, to keep an eye on Sightseer's development, Discord is still the best place to do so. There you can ask questions, report bugs, find friends to play with and offer feedback on the potential changes before they happen.
Full list of patch notes can be found at tinyurl.com/p5notes.
Happy adventuring!
-Michael "Aren Mook" Lyashenko
It has been two months since Sightseer went into Early Access, and the updates have been pushed out almost daily since then. While each one was quite small by itself, together they make up 12 pages worth of changes, which I'd happily link to directly if Steam would just stop replacing my links with tinyurl.com/p5notes every time I try.
(
It's tinyurl.com/p5notes btw.
To give a quick summary, the vast majority of them have been bug fixes reported by players such as yourself. Of course there also have been a lot of quality-of-life improvements as well -- from improved driving physics to color-coded map markers presented in a handy selectable list, to newly added radiation instantly killing everything and everyone due to a "slight" bug in distance calculations and the at-the-time lack of shielded storage containers.
()
Then there were the bigger changes too, the largest of which is the Steam Workshop support that is now in what I'd call a "beta" state. Aspiring modders can now change everything about the game by following the tinyurl.com/p5mod modding guide (tinyurl.com/p5mod), and can download the modding project (github.com/ArenMook/P5SMod) to get started adding their own custom content to the game!
Just for the fun of it, one of the first mods Neil and I added to the Workshop is a mod that adds a Sloop and a Corvette for all you Windward fans out there!
()
(That was an actual link to Steam's own store page for Windward)
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1282200091
And best of all, the entire project is available for modders to examine and change as they see fit! If you're interested in modding Sightseer, it's quite simple. I'd link it, but you know... tinyurl.com/p5mod
So instead, check out the handy video tutorial to get started:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdV5IKwNgAQ
And as usual -- if you have questions, comments or bug reports, you can find me in discord: https://discord.gg/trruSNc
Wow, that's the first link that actually worked!
(_)
One last thing, since I know someone is bound to ask the "what's next?" question -- tutorial, hostile threats and raidable outposts, task system (quests), more world customization options such as keeping your vehicle after you die and an actual alternative "survival" mode are the next notable tasks on our TODO list.
Keep an eye out on Sightseer's progress in the coming months, and from both of us at Tasharen -- thank you for your support!
-Aren
It has been two months since Sightseer went into Early Access, and the updates have been pushed out almost daily since then. While each one was quite small by itself, together they make up 12 pages worth of changes, which I'd happily link to directly if Steam would just stop replacing my links with tinyurl.com/p5notes every time I try.
(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
It's tinyurl.com/p5notes btw.
To give a quick summary, the vast majority of them have been bug fixes reported by players such as yourself. Of course there also have been a lot of quality-of-life improvements as well -- from improved driving physics to color-coded map markers presented in a handy selectable list, to newly added radiation instantly killing everything and everyone due to a "slight" bug in distance calculations and the at-the-time lack of shielded storage containers.
(ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻
Then there were the bigger changes too, the largest of which is the Steam Workshop support that is now in what I'd call a "beta" state. Aspiring modders can now change everything about the game by following the tinyurl.com/p5mod modding guide (tinyurl.com/p5mod), and can download the modding project (github.com/ArenMook/P5SMod) to get started adding their own custom content to the game!
Just for the fun of it, one of the first mods Neil and I added to the Workshop is a mod that adds a Sloop and a Corvette for all you Windward fans out there!
(-‸ლ)
(That was an actual link to Steam's own store page for Windward)
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1282200091
And best of all, the entire project is available for modders to examine and change as they see fit! If you're interested in modding Sightseer, it's quite simple. I'd link it, but you know... tinyurl.com/p5mod
So instead, check out the handy video tutorial to get started:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdV5IKwNgAQ
And as usual -- if you have questions, comments or bug reports, you can find me in discord: https://discord.gg/trruSNc
Wow, that's the first link that actually worked!
(ヘ・_・)ヘ┳━┳
One last thing, since I know someone is bound to ask the "what's next?" question -- tutorial, hostile threats and raidable outposts, task system (quests), more world customization options such as keeping your vehicle after you die and an actual alternative "survival" mode are the next notable tasks on our TODO list.
Keep an eye out on Sightseer's progress in the coming months, and from both of us at Tasharen -- thank you for your support!
-Aren
Whew, the first week of EA is behind us, and it was certainly a busy one. Even though I intentionally tried to keep the launch quiet outside of Discord in order to have a smoother experience for players, it seems quite a few of you were keeping an eye on the game and it still ended up blowing Windward's EA launch out of the water. Let's have a look at all that went down this week, literally and figuratively.
Whew, the first week of EA is behind us, and it was certainly a busy one. Even though I intentionally tried to keep the launch quiet outside of Discord in order to have a smoother experience for players, it seems quite a few of you were keeping an eye on the game and it still ended up blowing Windward's EA launch out of the water. Let's have a look at all that went down this week, literally and figuratively.
[ 6077 ]
[ 2063 ]
[ 4245 ]