Dev Log (11/25/2020)
Hey there everyone,
Joseph here to provide a lot of info as well as a lot of things that have happened this year and beyond.
So lets start with the elephant in the room. Where is the game, when is it coming out, and what happened? The game was slated for early 2020, but with "current world events" and personal events, that could not be done. That is to say that I cannot put the full blame on those things. It boiled down to me and my development process. I was not upfront, nor was I keeping the community as a whole updated in the game's development. I take full responsibility for the lack of communication and no matter what I say, I cannot make up for that. It sounds like a broken record, and it kind of is because I did this before. Needless to say though, I have been working on the project constantly and the biggest downside was that I kept remaking things. The game has gone through numerous iterations through it's initial conception in november of 2015. So I will "try" to post dev logs to keep everyone in the know. The hardest part of that is keeping everyone in the loop if I work on singleplayer stuff. I wanna try and surprise everyone with that, but at the same time if I don't inform everyone, it will be assumed that development has halted. That is where the game currently is and what happened, now the biggest question of them all. When is Sector 452 coming out? At the current moment, I really don't know. I wanna get this game done in a timely manner while also delivering a game with good gameplay and polish. As it stands, the game plays a lot better than the current version that is out. That being said, I think it is time to present the dev log as well as the next steps for the game.
[h2]Dev Log[/h2]
[h3]Mod Support[/h3]
So in the last few months I have added in FULL mod support. Everything from custom maps, to models, to weapons all work as intended in the game. The only thing needed to mark it as complete is workshop support. That is currently in development and all that is needed for that is the ability to download mods from the workshop while loading a custom map and the ability to read workshop mods.
[h3]Singleplayer[/h3]
Oh boy, this section. There was massive changes to singelplayer over the last 11 months. The game's intro is in the process of being overhauled. I felt that the game's intro was too small, didn't convey the story as much as it could have, and didn't really teach the player how to play the game. Here is some early development screenshots from the new intro. I have redesigned the space station to match what it should actually look like.
I have also begun work on overhauling the NPC models. Looking back at the original models, I felt that they didn't look as good as they should've been. Here is a comparison of the two (left is the new one, right is the original npc model):
There has also been changes to the space map as a whole. Things such as asteroids, improved lighting, and space stations have been added to the overall map.
A majority of the singeplayer maps have also been finished with improved lighting and detail.
There was also changes to the dialogue system, ability system, added terminals to read lore/backstories in the game, and some other minor things.
[h3]Multiplayer[/h3]
So, with this section, all of the multiplayer maps are now labelled as complete. All the lighting has been improved across all maps, and I have also fixed all of the spawn points. There was some issues with spawn points in teams, but I managed to "hopefully" resolve it.
Here are some highlight pictures of the new multiplayer maps:
I have also went back and recoded all of the multiplayer backend. There is now improved weapon systems, netcode, and gameplay. I wanted to ensure that there were near to no replication bugs in the code and I feel that the game is in a state where that is the case. At the current moment, the things left to complete in multiplayer is the Round End Screen, overhaul the Lobby UI, overhaul the Map Voting UI, and read the steam inventory system. Once those things are finished, multiplayer will be 100% complete.
[h3]Other[/h3]
This section covers anything not related to the big changes. I have been fixing up controller support for the menus. I would say that the new system for controllers is pretty stable at the current moment in time. I have also been working on a new main menu system to incorporate this change. You won't notice much of a change with the main menu but these changes are welcomed. I have also improved player animation and npc animations. The options menu also got an overhaul and it should work as intended now.
[h3]The future[/h3]
Though I do not know what is in store for the future, A release date for the game will not be said until I feel 100% confortable with that release window. I can say that I want people to be able to play this build of the game soon. I feel that once the intro has been overhauled and the main menu is finished being overhauled as well, I plan on dropping a new build in the public branch. I should've done this a whole lot earlier, and there was not excuse for me not to. I hope to earn back everyone's trust with what I do with the game, but I do not expect to because I will understand if you all do not like the lack of communication. Also, this week I will be taking a break from the game for my own health. I have been overworking myself too much but I will be working back on the game on december 1st. The next dev log should hopefully be on december 4th. If you have any questions, comments, concerns, suggestions, etc. Please do not hesitate to message in the comments section of this post. I will reply as quick as I can and I hope to see you all in the next dev log. Please take care and stay safe everyone!
~Joseph
Joseph here to provide a lot of info as well as a lot of things that have happened this year and beyond.
So lets start with the elephant in the room. Where is the game, when is it coming out, and what happened? The game was slated for early 2020, but with "current world events" and personal events, that could not be done. That is to say that I cannot put the full blame on those things. It boiled down to me and my development process. I was not upfront, nor was I keeping the community as a whole updated in the game's development. I take full responsibility for the lack of communication and no matter what I say, I cannot make up for that. It sounds like a broken record, and it kind of is because I did this before. Needless to say though, I have been working on the project constantly and the biggest downside was that I kept remaking things. The game has gone through numerous iterations through it's initial conception in november of 2015. So I will "try" to post dev logs to keep everyone in the know. The hardest part of that is keeping everyone in the loop if I work on singleplayer stuff. I wanna try and surprise everyone with that, but at the same time if I don't inform everyone, it will be assumed that development has halted. That is where the game currently is and what happened, now the biggest question of them all. When is Sector 452 coming out? At the current moment, I really don't know. I wanna get this game done in a timely manner while also delivering a game with good gameplay and polish. As it stands, the game plays a lot better than the current version that is out. That being said, I think it is time to present the dev log as well as the next steps for the game.
[h2]Dev Log[/h2]
[h3]Mod Support[/h3]
So in the last few months I have added in FULL mod support. Everything from custom maps, to models, to weapons all work as intended in the game. The only thing needed to mark it as complete is workshop support. That is currently in development and all that is needed for that is the ability to download mods from the workshop while loading a custom map and the ability to read workshop mods.
[h3]Singleplayer[/h3]
Oh boy, this section. There was massive changes to singelplayer over the last 11 months. The game's intro is in the process of being overhauled. I felt that the game's intro was too small, didn't convey the story as much as it could have, and didn't really teach the player how to play the game. Here is some early development screenshots from the new intro. I have redesigned the space station to match what it should actually look like.
I have also begun work on overhauling the NPC models. Looking back at the original models, I felt that they didn't look as good as they should've been. Here is a comparison of the two (left is the new one, right is the original npc model):
There has also been changes to the space map as a whole. Things such as asteroids, improved lighting, and space stations have been added to the overall map.
A majority of the singeplayer maps have also been finished with improved lighting and detail.
There was also changes to the dialogue system, ability system, added terminals to read lore/backstories in the game, and some other minor things.
[h3]Multiplayer[/h3]
So, with this section, all of the multiplayer maps are now labelled as complete. All the lighting has been improved across all maps, and I have also fixed all of the spawn points. There was some issues with spawn points in teams, but I managed to "hopefully" resolve it.
Here are some highlight pictures of the new multiplayer maps:
I have also went back and recoded all of the multiplayer backend. There is now improved weapon systems, netcode, and gameplay. I wanted to ensure that there were near to no replication bugs in the code and I feel that the game is in a state where that is the case. At the current moment, the things left to complete in multiplayer is the Round End Screen, overhaul the Lobby UI, overhaul the Map Voting UI, and read the steam inventory system. Once those things are finished, multiplayer will be 100% complete.
[h3]Other[/h3]
This section covers anything not related to the big changes. I have been fixing up controller support for the menus. I would say that the new system for controllers is pretty stable at the current moment in time. I have also been working on a new main menu system to incorporate this change. You won't notice much of a change with the main menu but these changes are welcomed. I have also improved player animation and npc animations. The options menu also got an overhaul and it should work as intended now.
[h3]The future[/h3]
Though I do not know what is in store for the future, A release date for the game will not be said until I feel 100% confortable with that release window. I can say that I want people to be able to play this build of the game soon. I feel that once the intro has been overhauled and the main menu is finished being overhauled as well, I plan on dropping a new build in the public branch. I should've done this a whole lot earlier, and there was not excuse for me not to. I hope to earn back everyone's trust with what I do with the game, but I do not expect to because I will understand if you all do not like the lack of communication. Also, this week I will be taking a break from the game for my own health. I have been overworking myself too much but I will be working back on the game on december 1st. The next dev log should hopefully be on december 4th. If you have any questions, comments, concerns, suggestions, etc. Please do not hesitate to message in the comments section of this post. I will reply as quick as I can and I hope to see you all in the next dev log. Please take care and stay safe everyone!
~Joseph