Developer Notes

• Salvage Data
  • The grappling gun laser now shows salvage data for ALL salvageable objects. A large number of objects previously had this information flagged as hidden by default for the reasons described above. This change also solves the previous problem of players having no idea what some of those 'secret' salvageable objects actually salvaged into.
  • This also opens up new gameplay challenges for even the most experienced players as some salvageable objects were so sneaky that it's unlikely that anyone ever even tried to salvage them before. See the image below for a couple of examples.
    
• New proximity tips and message system added
  • Dave now expresses his thoughts, ideas, and tips when Bob encounters many objects for the first time or for the first few times.
  • This will help new players to understand some of the more obscure deeper mechanics in the game and offers clues that many objects have effects and uses that even experienced players probably had no idea about.
  • Dave also now comments on some things that otherwise confused players like the locked arena doors that become accessible only in Act 3, and things like taking radioactive damage for the first time.

Graphical Updates

• New 'unflattened' graphic design for Bob and all of his equipment.
  • Bob, all of his armor sets, all of his guns, his lander, and his main refinery ship have all been graphically improved.
  • Reasoning: Over the course of development, the graphical design began to evolve to include highlights and shading on many objects, especially important objects in the foreground. However, Bob and all of his equipment still had the very flat early design look. They have now all been updated to the newer more visually appealing design.
  • Click on the image above to expand it and get a better look at these changes.
• Weather Effects Overhaul:
  • Rain has been significantly improved to look more like rain and splashes when it hits the ground. (see gif at the top of this announcement)
  • Snow now flutters in the air as it falls.
  • Hail created and added to a number of planets. (See gif below)
• New collision effects system added.
  • Collisions can now create a visual effect.
  • This system was added primarily for use with planet surfaces to allow for the inclusion of things like grass, snow, or gravel kicking up when collisions occur. The size of the effect is based on the force and angle of the collision.
  • Many different effects were created for the various planet surface types and the size of the effect is based on the force of the collision.
  • The system was extended to allow Bob's footsteps and bullet impacts to also trigger these collision effects.
  • Reasoning: Other than simply looking nice it helps to ground objects into the game world, adds atmosphere, and makes planet surfaces feel less rigid and lifeless.
• Start Screen updated.
  • The previous patch introduced Exploration mode which caused a situation where the game world was no longer being generated until after the player chose a game type. This meant that the planet at the start screen could no longer spawn it's environment. It would be barren and not even water would spawn. This has now been resolved and the start screen planet is once again fully featured.
  • The following additions have also been added to the start screen planet for the first time:
    • The planet now rotates.
    • Replicon drop ships now appear and spawn replicons on the start screen planet.
    • Some of the newer planets have been added to the possible planets that can appear at the start screen.
  • Reasoning: First impressions count and this is a small part of the planned additional polish being applied to the game as we close in on the 1.0 release later this year.

Gameplay Updates:

• Surface Physics Added
  • Surfaces now have varying levels of friction.
  • Bob will now slide a lot on ice/snow, a little less on sand, similar to before on grass, and less on rocky/hard surfaces.
  • Reasoning:Adding this extra layer to the physics simulation adds additional gameplay variety to each planet and should create new gameplay challenges especially when trying to remove resources from icy caves for example. It's worth noting that things actually become a little easier on rocky planets where Bob will be able to stand still on slopes that he would previously slide down.
• Jetpack affecting hazard tweak
  • The recovery rate for Bob's jetpack has been reduced when encountering hazards that interfere with it's power.
  • Reasoning: When encountering the plant spores that reduced the power of Bob's jetpack,it would previously recover so quickly that the effect rarely caused Bob any problems. Extending the time it takes for the jetpack to recover makes these hazard types more dangerous and forces Bob to treat them with more respect especially when other hazards, like Replicons, are close by.
• Explosion force tweak
  • The force falloff radius for all explosions has been doubled.
  • The damage radius remains the same but objects close to explosions will now experience knockback at up to double the previous range.
  • This does not create a dramatic difference as the knockback beyond the previous max range is small.
  • Reasoning: Previously, the radius for damage and knock-back force were equal. Knocking Bob and objects around at a greater distance is visually more appealing and helps to create more emergent moments where Bob can be knocked into other hazards.
• Shut up Dave!
  • Dave will no longer talk to Bob while he is inside his lander.
  • Reasoning: Flying the lander almost always requires the player's full attention so Dave conversation while flying would usually be ignored. Dave will often share essential tips and suggestions with Bob on how to progress and it's important that the player has the opportunity to read them.
  • Exception:There are a few exceptions to this rule. For example, Dave can still warn Bob that his lander is low on shields.
• Collision damage increase.
  • Collision damage for Bob has been increased slightly.
  • Scrape damage has not been changed.
  • Reasoning: A few patches ago, collision damage for Bob was reduced by 50% after feedback suggested it was too high. After further playtesting that change felt a little too heavy handed. This retweak is the equivalent of previously reducing damage by 35% rather than 50%.
• Salvage material tweaks:
  • Carbon obtained from salvaging cacti lowered.
  • Triangle key salvage tweaked to include energy and electronics.
  • Main Ship Upgrade keys salvage tweaked to include energy, electronics and sometimes quartz.
• Max crystal spawn counts on most asteroids reduced by 25%.
• Weapon recoil force added:
  • Bob will now experience a slight recoil knock back when firing his gun.
  • This increases based on the power of the gun.
  • Reasoning:This was added to make the weapons feel more tactile and powerful but to also add some epic fail moments. Bob will now need to think twice before firing his gun while balancing on a precarious edge as the knock back could push him off. It can also be used to create backwards momentum if flying and aiming in the opposite direction to movement.
• Replicon wasps have evolved. (not really)
  • 20% of wasps will now fly away from, rather than move towards, the player when their health is low.
  • Reasoning:This was added to allow new and fun ways to manipulate and move objects around. Think out of the box. Scared wasps can be very useful.
• System map fog-of-war added (See image below)
  • The System Map now hides distant planet icons.
  • Planet icons now only appear when Bob's ship is within maximum jump range of a planet, otherwise the planet icon with be shown as a question mark - '?'. Bob's ship can detect the existence and size of a planet, and will scale the new '?' icon to match the size of the planet, but can't resolve enough detail to show the full planet icon until Bob get's closer.
  • The save system has also been updated to record and reveal all previously visible planet icons.
  • Reasoning: The recently updated planet icons made it easy to recognize planets, from any range, and removed some of the reason to go exploring.

Audio Updates:

• New and improved air/wind sounds effects
• Wind sound effect on planets reworked. This varies in intensity for each planet. Wind volume also matches cloud movement speed. Wind is louder when on the top of mountains than it is in valleys.
• Air rushing sound added as the camera moves. Most noticeable with high speed movement like when swapping between Bob and his lander. Also noticeable when transitioning from the main menu into the actual gameplay or using scan mode.
• Tweaked the sound of air rushing past Bob or his Lander when they move quickly. Most noticeable while falling at speed.
• Added, tweaked or replaced many of the main menu and options panel UI sound effects.
• Key configuration button highlighting audio added
• Weather: the new rain and hail effects now have atmospheric audio.
• Grapple Shrink/Extend audio tweaked.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a couple of Dave message typos.
• Re-positioned a floating tree on one of the recently added Savannah planets.
• Fixed missing atmosphere height settings for the tutorial planet
• Fixed a depth based issue that prevented weather effects from being visible on some of the newer planets and even a couple of the older ones. _______________ That's a lot of changes! There may not be any new content in this update, but the number of gameplay tweaks and visual changes make a big difference to the feel of the game and even the most experienced players are going to find new challenges to mess around with. (Salvage a cactus!) As always, thanks for all of your support so far, and be sure to share any thoughts you may have. ❤
  
  [ 2018-05-30 15:15:26 CET ] [ Original post ]