DevBlog #41
[h2]FTessaro - Lead Programmer[/h2]
This month I worked on several fronts, while also working on improving the Spectator Mode for the public Evrima branch of the game. We also fixed a few small problems server side, and introduced the new Vomit Sickness.
Like last month, I’ve cut my work into topics for easier consumption:
With the Stress Test now live we can finally gather the data we need to balance and adjust the map accordingly, so we can release it asap. See you next month!
[h2]dmIV - Programmer[/h2]
This month I’ve been focusing on polishing the upcoming playables and fixing related issues. The herrerasaurus climbing is becoming more and more reliable, I found some networking related jittering that I also managed to smooth out. I also set up the special resting animations that are used when positioning yourself on thin branches. The animal was also given a new diving animation, we expect players to spend a lot of time up in the trees and jumping down into water can be a good way to dampen your fall, assuming you don’t jump into the jaws of a deinosuchus.
I also gave the diabloceratops some love, it now takes reduced damage to its head and can use its block ability to reduce it even further. I extended the dryosaurus’s dodge charge indicator to support a more generic functionality, it is now also used to indicate how many sparring abilities you can activate and also show their cooldown.
Finally I made some developments to the growth system. Our aim for the current apexes is to have a relatively faster growth in the beginning, and then significantly slow it down as you get older. There were a couple things that had to be adjusted, but it’s all set up now and hopefully it will lead to a rewarding experience.
[h2]Wedge - Sound Designer[/h2]
This month I’ve been working on designing vocal sounds for both Dilophosaurus’ and Diabloceratops’ unique abilities.
I have made a handful of sounds, alongside Dilo’s menacing laugh that I made previously, for its venom mechanic. Initially I created a unique Threaten call for envenomation that can be heard before a hallucination initiates its attack, a layered shrill shriek, with a hissing rumble and a throaty roar. Additionally, there are some more comparably subdued but intimidating sounds, including some variations to its laugh gurgles and growls, and a couple of unique hisses, one layered with a trilling shriek.
For Diablo I’ve created a suite of grunts, groans and exertions for use when locked into a sparring match, emphasizing the struggle of strength between them. In addition, there are some more bespoke sounds used while sparring for ramming, being rammed, flipping, being flipped and trampling.
I’ve also started working on the foley needed for sparring, so far I’ve created a hard knock of horns clashing as they collide from a ram attack. Additional contact sounds need to be made for when horns interlock or come into contact outside of the ram attack during the sparring bout.
More sounds may be required as these mechanics are iterated on and progress to the final result, but with the majority of the work near completion for these two animal’s sounds I’m looking forward to moving on to Herrerasaurus very soon!
[h2]Bryan - Animator[/h2]
It’s been a marathon of T.rex animations for me over the last week, it’s got a full locomotion suite done, all 114 animations just for walking, trotting, running and all the wounded variations for them across all the life stages the Rex goes though, which is more than usual because Tyrannosaurus is a very weird beast that just had to be different from all the other Tyrannosaurids.
Aside from that, we’ve got the look for Herrerasaurus’ climbing squared away and with Rex out off my plate I can focus on getting its climbing suite done as well. Sure Herrera isn’t exactly built for climbing, but then that’s just part of the challenge for getting it to look believable. Chances are you’ll have other things to worry about when you look over the edge and see one skittering up at you anyway.
[h2]KissenKitten - Producer[/h2]
Gateway stress testing is again underway along with the corresponding changes we make based on feedback. The new playables are being put through their paces so they’ll be ready for their debut in stress testing at a later time. The dilophosaurus is getting some accompanying effects that you’ve likely seen the placeholders for on stream that will make its venom something you’re going to want to avoid. The herrerasaurus is getting some animation smoothing and swapping out of any problematic proxies. The diabloceratops sparring is going to be aggressively tested since we need to make sure the flow of battle feels right no matter what you’re facing. As they will be in direct opposition to other ceratopsians as well as certain large carnivores that specialize in hunting horned prey. The tyrannosaurus and triceratops are slowly lumbering their way into the spotlight and doing so in imposing fashion. Both need to be super solid as they’ll be some of the most formidable animals in the game and we really want to nail their gameplay and aesthetics so you feel properly powerful overall and not just a higher damage model swap. Fingers crossed! We’ve also been working with mutations and rounding out the gameplay loop for the dinosaurs as a whole. Hope you’re ready to be a feeble or ferocious grandparent.
This month has also included some quality of life changes across the board. Some you’ll notice sooner than others. But the keen-eyed may have spotted some of them on stream. Some examples include changes to certain species animations and changes to their fluidity of movement. The goal being to remove some of the jank the characters have had for a while now. Also changes to nightvision, weather, sound and more. The outlying creatures are also being pulled in line with the rest of the roster. Like the dryosaurus, hypsilophodon, deinosuchus, stegosaurus etc so they’ll have the same level of completion intent as the rest of the roster. Like directional attacks and over time, their other mechanics. There were several other features for some of the playables that had to be cut for expedience sake that we can now begin devoting time to. Yes, we’ve been working on burrowing. We’ve made promising strides in that direction and I’m pretty excited about it. There’s also some R&D in relation to pounce and how we plan to expand on that feature so pouncers feel more deadly even to larger, more powerful animals. Shouldn’t be too hard for those of you familiar with large predators and their large prey to guess what that is but more on that after testing proves successful. Humans have also been getting a lot of love this month from the design and animation teams and are shaping up to be something we feel will be an enjoyable and pants pooping experience. That’s all for now.
This month I worked on several fronts, while also working on improving the Spectator Mode for the public Evrima branch of the game. We also fixed a few small problems server side, and introduced the new Vomit Sickness.
Like last month, I’ve cut my work into topics for easier consumption:
- Implemented more mutations and fixed a lot of related bugs. The mutations are made in a way that server owners can enable/disable all mutations, or enable specific ones and more: They can customize the specific values of the individual mutations, allowing a wider range of customization for community servers.
- New resting curves were implemented, still under work in progress balance wise, but now the longer you keep resting, the faster it restores stamina, health and blood.
- Other balance changes were added, such as stamina affecting damage output, and the addition of “Wounds” (not visual), which lower your health as well as certain stats, such as health regen, stamina regen, damage and more.
- The Dilophosaurus Hallucination System is mostly finalized, we are just adding some extra effects and balance adjustments.
- Several members of the team worked together this month to reduce memory usage of the new map (Gateway), especially server side. We managed to reduce its memory consumption by about 50%.
- A heap of Migration tweaks and bug fixes.
- Locational effects improvements and bug fixes.
- Setting up final assets and systems for the new playables.
- Several bug fixes in all areas and QOLs.
With the Stress Test now live we can finally gather the data we need to balance and adjust the map accordingly, so we can release it asap. See you next month!
[h2]dmIV - Programmer[/h2]
This month I’ve been focusing on polishing the upcoming playables and fixing related issues. The herrerasaurus climbing is becoming more and more reliable, I found some networking related jittering that I also managed to smooth out. I also set up the special resting animations that are used when positioning yourself on thin branches. The animal was also given a new diving animation, we expect players to spend a lot of time up in the trees and jumping down into water can be a good way to dampen your fall, assuming you don’t jump into the jaws of a deinosuchus.
I also gave the diabloceratops some love, it now takes reduced damage to its head and can use its block ability to reduce it even further. I extended the dryosaurus’s dodge charge indicator to support a more generic functionality, it is now also used to indicate how many sparring abilities you can activate and also show their cooldown.
Finally I made some developments to the growth system. Our aim for the current apexes is to have a relatively faster growth in the beginning, and then significantly slow it down as you get older. There were a couple things that had to be adjusted, but it’s all set up now and hopefully it will lead to a rewarding experience.
[h2]Wedge - Sound Designer[/h2]
This month I’ve been working on designing vocal sounds for both Dilophosaurus’ and Diabloceratops’ unique abilities.
I have made a handful of sounds, alongside Dilo’s menacing laugh that I made previously, for its venom mechanic. Initially I created a unique Threaten call for envenomation that can be heard before a hallucination initiates its attack, a layered shrill shriek, with a hissing rumble and a throaty roar. Additionally, there are some more comparably subdued but intimidating sounds, including some variations to its laugh gurgles and growls, and a couple of unique hisses, one layered with a trilling shriek.
For Diablo I’ve created a suite of grunts, groans and exertions for use when locked into a sparring match, emphasizing the struggle of strength between them. In addition, there are some more bespoke sounds used while sparring for ramming, being rammed, flipping, being flipped and trampling.
I’ve also started working on the foley needed for sparring, so far I’ve created a hard knock of horns clashing as they collide from a ram attack. Additional contact sounds need to be made for when horns interlock or come into contact outside of the ram attack during the sparring bout.
More sounds may be required as these mechanics are iterated on and progress to the final result, but with the majority of the work near completion for these two animal’s sounds I’m looking forward to moving on to Herrerasaurus very soon!
[h2]Bryan - Animator[/h2]
It’s been a marathon of T.rex animations for me over the last week, it’s got a full locomotion suite done, all 114 animations just for walking, trotting, running and all the wounded variations for them across all the life stages the Rex goes though, which is more than usual because Tyrannosaurus is a very weird beast that just had to be different from all the other Tyrannosaurids.
Aside from that, we’ve got the look for Herrerasaurus’ climbing squared away and with Rex out off my plate I can focus on getting its climbing suite done as well. Sure Herrera isn’t exactly built for climbing, but then that’s just part of the challenge for getting it to look believable. Chances are you’ll have other things to worry about when you look over the edge and see one skittering up at you anyway.
[h2]KissenKitten - Producer[/h2]
Gateway stress testing is again underway along with the corresponding changes we make based on feedback. The new playables are being put through their paces so they’ll be ready for their debut in stress testing at a later time. The dilophosaurus is getting some accompanying effects that you’ve likely seen the placeholders for on stream that will make its venom something you’re going to want to avoid. The herrerasaurus is getting some animation smoothing and swapping out of any problematic proxies. The diabloceratops sparring is going to be aggressively tested since we need to make sure the flow of battle feels right no matter what you’re facing. As they will be in direct opposition to other ceratopsians as well as certain large carnivores that specialize in hunting horned prey. The tyrannosaurus and triceratops are slowly lumbering their way into the spotlight and doing so in imposing fashion. Both need to be super solid as they’ll be some of the most formidable animals in the game and we really want to nail their gameplay and aesthetics so you feel properly powerful overall and not just a higher damage model swap. Fingers crossed! We’ve also been working with mutations and rounding out the gameplay loop for the dinosaurs as a whole. Hope you’re ready to be a feeble or ferocious grandparent.
This month has also included some quality of life changes across the board. Some you’ll notice sooner than others. But the keen-eyed may have spotted some of them on stream. Some examples include changes to certain species animations and changes to their fluidity of movement. The goal being to remove some of the jank the characters have had for a while now. Also changes to nightvision, weather, sound and more. The outlying creatures are also being pulled in line with the rest of the roster. Like the dryosaurus, hypsilophodon, deinosuchus, stegosaurus etc so they’ll have the same level of completion intent as the rest of the roster. Like directional attacks and over time, their other mechanics. There were several other features for some of the playables that had to be cut for expedience sake that we can now begin devoting time to. Yes, we’ve been working on burrowing. We’ve made promising strides in that direction and I’m pretty excited about it. There’s also some R&D in relation to pounce and how we plan to expand on that feature so pouncers feel more deadly even to larger, more powerful animals. Shouldn’t be too hard for those of you familiar with large predators and their large prey to guess what that is but more on that after testing proves successful. Humans have also been getting a lot of love this month from the design and animation teams and are shaping up to be something we feel will be an enjoyable and pants pooping experience. That’s all for now.