It’s been a while since the last dev log, but obviously that’s changing right now. We have been working on a lot of network stability which wasn’t the most fun, running in to a lot of trouble with the Unity NAT punch through service. All in all though we got it working and have tested it quite extensively for a preview build that will be going to a few Indie Expo’s and the like.
After watching it again we really didn’t like the first Instincts trailer that we put out so another is being made with a bit more of the action we hope other will enjoy in the game. And while there are a few things we want to keep under wraps we also want to show everyone some of the cooler things the game has to offer. We see some of the more repetitive things coming up in the screen shots and in the trailers, which is the environment, so we will be working to make it a bit more dynamic and interesting to look at.
While that has been happening a lot of work has been going in to the AI, in the last blog we talked about the path finding and how that has improved the game experience a lot. This time we will talk on the different kind of enemies we are working on what they can do and what they offer to the overall experience.
Enemy Types
First of is the grunts and critter types of enemy. In no way are they difficult, more just something to annoy you while fighting bigger enemies or doing other things. These smaller enemies will play a bigger role in larger enemy systems. Next we have the enemies that are more of a challenge and will use alien weaponry rather than inferior melee tactics to put the hurt on you. This being said they will offer a challenge that is probably not best taken on by one player, maybe a veteran or multiple players. We won’t go too into the next types of enemies but they will be the larger more dangerous ones which will basically offer great reward for their defeat but require some serious weaponry and team work to take down. The more difficult enemies will have some more unique components to them then just simple attacking you, it might be that they interact with the environment or turn day to night, these are just some of the ideas we have been working on.
Graphics
The graphics haven’t been up to the quality we would of liked to be perfectly honest, that being said we want to start trying to work on more effects and better visuals that will hopefully being Instincts up to the next level. We haven’t included things like spec maps or normal mapping yet and these are probably some of the things we will be looking to include over the next few months
We have also been working on adding effects to the system to make doing things a little bit more interesting. Blood splatters muzzle flashes and all those type of things.
Gameplay
This is something we want to get right, after the last play test a few things were said. This included “We need a way to dodge or roll”, “stamina so we can run faster” and other less easy things to implement. We agree that stamina is something that needs to be added as it will work with the food and health system rather well, but before we tackle a dodging system we want to work out the best way that this will help the players and not make them to over powered. So expect to see stamina coming soon. One of the things in our last play test we added was chat while it’s not impressive it really added to the co-operation parts of the game quite significantly, adding more things that allow players to interact with each other is definitely a priority as it really helped on the social side of the experience.
We are still working on the crafting dynamics, like if we should have crafting take time or if you need to use workbenches around the world or if you can craft your own work benches. We will be doing a few different scenarios to test what is the best fit.
