This week on the Replay...
It's a little late, but that's better than never, and we've still got all sorts of news!
Last week ended with 76 total must fix issues: 10 blockers, 50 criticals, 14 highs, 2 moderates and no trivials. This week ended with 26.
Most recent bug where the quantum drive is concerned is traveling way too slow in the system
A big challenge is to fill the universe with interesting content and things to do
Designers will use the Mission System and other tools to create interesting and reusable content
The system can look into the universe and adapt missions to the location to make the universe feel more alive
Subsumption allows complex systems to be broken down into components that can be quickly and easily combined
Many of these Subsumption base components can be customized at runtime to respond to a given situation
Subsumption has now completely replaced FlowGraph for creating missions
Subsumption is still a visual scripting system but allows things to be build in a more modular way and reused
An ongoing challenge is developing critical "endpoint systems" (underlying tech like pathfinding, Useables, etc.) sufficiently
Subsumption Visualiser was developed because the on-screen debugging of activities was inadequate
The Visualiser evolved to include mission debugging, editing variables at runtime, on-demand conversations
Subsumption can access the Mission System, activities and reputation: it's basically the core flow of the game
Subsumption and the game code are being built up feature by feature to give designers a massive toolkit to build content
There are two types of missions: more story focussed missions from mission givers and more "random encounters in space"
Designers can use timers and different logical triggers to affect mission flow
Tony prefers using procedural tech to create a canvas for more handcrafted content over purely procedural content
Content should feel reactive rather than strictly scripted, the occasional bizarre occurrence isn't out of the question
Mission templates are designed to be open to "narrative dressing" to keep them interesting
Designers work very closely, and productively, with the writers with a lot of back and forth