Balancing what information is placed on the screen and how it is presented is generally a highly iterative process. Design must contend with how to provide the maximum view of the environment while also providing information that is pivotal to the player.
In Project Genesis, we also have the added challenge of ensuring a seamless transition between the expansiveness of epic space combat to the claustrophobic close quarters combat while in FPS mode. We have begun exploring options. There is still a considerable amount of work to do in this area and we’d love to hear your opinions on what kinds of HUDs you think really hit the mark.
In addition to employing a rapid development model, the team has a history of tackling the bigger challenges in game development first. In this case, after rapid prototyping out some initial-phase net-code prior to the holidays, it was time to refactor and build out multiplayer in a more robust fashion.
Four vs Four…and More!
The team’s objective for the January 2019 milestone was to achieve 4v4 matches. We knew that it was overly optimistic to expect more than that with this first iteration. After some extensive internal testing we felt the code was sufficient to offer a playtest to our trusted ambassadors in our . We also extended an offer to participate to other folks in our community who’ve demonstrated a keen interest, or who have been very engaged in conversations.
While there is almost always a bit of when letting anyone external to the core team test your extremely early product, Christian’s net-code exceeded expectations. In fact, we were even able to push into 5v5 territory with no significant networking issues. By all accounts the testers actually had a fun time getting their hands on the updates provided — especially around controls.
We’ve provided a small sample of some of the footage we recorded to get a sense for how these playtests go so you can see how the netcode is working for yourself:
16 Players — 8v8
For our February private playtest, we were intending to expand our feature set to include our new “breach and board” mechanic but it just wasn’t stable enough to justify putting our candidate Test Pilots through that level . They are a tenacious bunch, and they would have soldiered on with janky functionality, but the core team has limits on how much punishment they are willing to inflict on candidate recruits. Instead we opted to include a small update adding some weapon upgrades and experiment with the new armament in-game.
While the netcode from the previous playtest session only had minimal tweaks we thought we might want to not push things and create two servers to host the next round of playtesters. Instead, we decided to roll the dice and put everyone in one server just to see what happens. It turns out … Christian’s netcode held up and we were able to achieve an 8v8 match.
Here is the 8v8 playtest session in action:
We’ll have a follow up article for release soon on our that will outline details for what features we were testing, and the lessons we learned.
Assault Pods
In the playtest videos above, you’ll notice that the combat ships are nudging up against the capital ships to gain entry. This behavior is necessary to trigger the use button “E’ to perform a breach and board mechanic. However, in the currently planned design, players will instead launch an assault pod designed to pierce the un-shielded hulls of capital ships. These pods contain a lethal payload in the form of an infiltration avatar. These avatars are inhabitable by the AI mind (in other words you) aboard the combat ships.
Below we have an example of the model in 3D for you to rotate and view:
Expanded Interiors and Environments
One of the benefits of having a full spectrum artist like on the team is the depth of expertise he applies to building environments — both interiors and exteriors. Mark came very close to becoming a legitimate architect. Fortunately for us, this background allows him to blend the functional and fictional in a way that is novel yet familiar.
Our current FPS interior environment was a placeholder test map that you’ll no doubt have seen many times — it is the F4 deck with the blue power cores rotating in unison. It is an excellent example of the visual bar we are for, but it is time for an upgrade. On the design front, has outlined a layout schematic for capital ship interiors. Those schematics are then handed off to Mark for beautification and finally in-engine implementation. Mark builds these maps on a grid in Maya based on the UE4 grid system, and then imports the finished design into the . This process is where Mark’s skill really pays off, because he creates the interior pieces like legos and then snaps them together. This allows for rapid iteration while maintaining fidelity and maximizing layout options.
Published at Tue, 12 Mar 2019 18:07:24 +0000
