Feature update, overall progress & huge screenshot dump news

Hey survivors! It's been a long time since the last update. We haven't been idle and want to show you some of the features we implemented since the last article.

The first thing we want to talk about is communication between the player and NPCs. There's traditional in-engine cutcenes to create some atmosphere and drive the story forward. But there's also a system where NPCs can contact the player over radio. This can be used in situations where the player is unsure what to do and needs a little help. NPCs can also comment on the player's progress or give some small hints. To make it clear, when the player is getting such a radio call, there's a new notification icon on the lower part of the HUD during the transmission.
The player will also answer those radio calls (although not dynamically) and there will be full dialogues. That whole radio system makes use of our custom env_radio entity, which will always play back the used wav files exactly at the player's location (as opposed to a fixed location in the map). This entity also handles the rendering of the notification sprite.

Next, we'll talk about some eye-candy: We switched all lighting effects from brush-based additive textures to sprite-based effects. We use a technique where there's several overlapping sprites with varying angles, creating the illusion of volumetric lighting.

There's also some new effects like Opposing Force styled electrified wires and prettier smoke/steam effects (both adopted from FreeSlave's fabulous Half-Life featureful SDK) as well as some home-grown water effects.

A little more technical: We also adapted entities like trigger_look, env_modeltrain, env_spritetrain and monster_target from said SDK. These entities are already doing their magic in the newer maps, enabling a more dynamic and somewhat up to date gaming experience.

Overall progress is coming along nicely. We fleshed out the idea of releasing Solitary Echoes in three different chapters. For this, we created a small hub map where players can select which chapter they want to play or start the training course you already know from the demo. The first chapter is about 1/4 done and we will release the mod once it's finished. Chapter 2 and 3 will follow after this. I guess you could call it a free DLC. :)
We're also toying with the idea of some humanoid enemies just to mix things up a little. But it's way too early to show something here, so consider this the obligatory teaser.
If you've made it that far, you might enjoy those screenshots of some new locations in chapter 1.

Stay happy, stay alive!
simbl for Team Lambda.