This weeks update involves some new systems as well as an update to the player model. Lets dive in!
With our main focus shifting towards survival gameplay we needed to come up with a method for player respawn. After a bit of discussion, Mester and I concluded that the best method would be to allow the player to create a campsite within the world and then use that as a respawn. This system is not new and is used throughout many survival games, however our take on it will be explained in another blog post when we get it more refined. For now, we needed to plan out how you would create the campsite and what it would look like.
The first step to placing an object within the world is to create the build system. As of right now, there is no build system in place so we actually had to backpedal slightly and come up with how we wanted the build system to run.
Taking inspiration from "Grounded" a game created by Obsidian, we wanted the build system to be simple but powerful. This lead us to determine we needed to create a "build mode" for the player that would enable them to place objects within the world. You would use the radial menu to sort through your buildable options and then place a hologram version in the world. When you looked at the hologram version it would allow you to cancel the placement, place materials, or move it to a new location.
The above picture shows the hologram placement as well as a box notifying you the total space it will occupy. This will be made "pretty" at a later date, but helps us with testing at this phase. Once you press LMB, the hologram is placed and you are capable of placing resources in to finish the build.
Anybody can add to the build process, this will allow for teamplay on more complex builds or your friends helping you out with whatever materials you might be missing. Once the materials have been fed to the hologram it will auto create the building/object where you placed it.
With the phase one version of build mode in we were able to start work on creating persistence and respawning for the campsite. The eventual goal is that you will have a few options for where you can place a campsite, the level/quality of campsite you build, and placing your campsite within a community of sites so that resources and other things are shared. Here is a simple example of what a campsite might look like:
Now that we have completed the base system for the campsite, I was able to turn my focus to the redesign of the player. Phase 1 iteration allowed us to get most of the movement and locomotion system in place. However, as you will see the character was a bit, 'derpy'.
So, I wanted to spend a bit of time to beef him up and make the character model really shine. After three days of intensive rework, the following is the new and finished version of the player:
I am in the process of re-skinning and re-weighting him. After I finish that portion I will move into replicating every single animation we have from the old model and placing it into the new one. This is a fairly tedious process and will take some time, but the end result will be a far better player model.
The last bit of update we have is that I have hired another artist to assist with the buildings. The following is an example of his test building for the cityscape:
I have some seriously high hopes for his skills and am pleased with how the overall look and feel turned out. I will be working closely with him to ensure the style matches the end goal and you will continue to see progress on that front as we move forward. I am super excited to move to 5.2 so that I can start playing with Procedural Generated Content (PCG).
That is all for now, but plan for a massive update in the following weeks related to the new server setup and player process for starting out within the server world. Until next time!