Around the Verse: Outposts and Environmental Storytelling

Burndown

• 80 issues remain outstanding as of Thursday (this was shown on screen as most up-to-date number). There were 88 issues on Tuesday when AtV was recorded. 77 as of Friday

• 3.0 will be the first time ‘real’ persistence will be in the game - leveraging a lot of technology development done over the past couple of years.

• Difficulty getting some performance capture in as different actors perform the same action slightly differently - in this case interacting with a countertop.

• Subsumption will allow NPCs to pay attention to you and interact. Working to get facial animations synchronised with Subsumption.

• Difficulties with using the same feather blending technique for Eckhart that they use for all other AI as the experience with Eckhart is meant to be more cinematic.

• Working to get item highlighting in shops to actually highlight the whole item - not omitting things like magazines, scopes, or other attachments.

• Issues with doors fleeing the ships they belong to.

• Work being done to fix longstanding issues they weren’t sure how to fix until now.

• CopyBuild 3, the basis for the Delta Patcher, has been launched internally. Degree of success of that launch is unknown.

• Work on Quantum Drive as frequently ships were colliding due to exiting QD in the same place. Also, ships were randomly exiting Quantum Drive inside the system’s star.

• 3.0 branch has been split off of the main development branch.

Surface Outpost - Part Two

• Environment Team talk about branding, integration and detailing of planetary outposts

• Its process of layering the dressing and then building up an authentic atmosphere

• With their tools finding a location is more natural/organic than in a traditional game: just have a little scout around

• A believable outpost should indicate how long it's been there, the type of climate and the type of people that live there

• Several levels of integration:

  • The outpost has a blend map that picks up texture information from the planet's surface

  • The walls have blend maps that show the sand, ice, etc. build up over time

  • Projected decals can show streaks running down walls or dirt buildup on rooves

• There are differences between the different corporations, or brands, that own the outposts

  • The interior and props will reflect the corporate values

  • The colours, logos and graphics are part of a procedural system driven by DataForge

• Outposts are not static: they will be constantly evolving on a spinning planet orbiting a sun

• Using prefabs to build outposts means fixing an issue on the prefab fixes the issue on all instances in game

• Currently the process is very complex but tools Programmers/Tech Artists are working to automate most of the process

3 more items on global schedule completed

Features post 3.0 complete: Criminality System (Gameplay)Item Degradation / Failure / Luck (Gameplay)Recovery Missions (AI)

No AtV next week due to Gamescom.

Gamescom presentation: Friday, August 25th, show starts: 19:00 UTC at the Gloria Theater.