Vapourware Sui Generis + Exanima Early Access

[Technomancer]

11/1/21

Last week we talked about how we'd figured out the last details of the new itemisation features and we were just about ready to make it go. We now have it all up and running and we've converted all content and items to the new system. There were a few details we ended up reviewing when it came to it, and a few things that we couldn't implement until it was all up and running, but we got through it all.

One of the things we realised we hadn't fully figured out yet is how to keep certain things consistent in a generated outfit despite the many randomisation parameters we have now. Some items need to match closely in their choice of materials and colours, while others should not. For example all the rivets on a suit of armour should match, or the leather straps might have a certain finish and colour, which should not carry over to the belt. To solve this we had to extend our theming parameters, and for each outfit generate a series of matrices for every element or material type so that the different design and theme configurations would produce consistent results (or not) as needed.

Everything seems to be working just fine, at this point we just need to go through our master items and drop tables to manually configure any new parameters that the automatic conversion couldn't take a good enough guess at. The new automatic item patching system should take care of the rest, carrying these adjustments over to any existing items in content and save games.

We also tested the new procedurally generated item descriptions, and made some refinements there too. We'll keep expanding on this, but it seems good enough for now.

We posted some images on our discord as we played around with the randomisation features, so we figured we'd post them here too. It was cool to see how every generated combination looked really good in its own way. We also showed the same item with 3 different condition levels.


Randomised Theme 1
An output from the new item system with a randomised theme.


Randomised Theme 2
More examples of randomised themes.


Condition
The same randomised item in different conditions.


We should be done with any development work for this first update, so we're just reviewing items and consolidating all the new assets for a release build.

Have a great week!
-the BM team

 

[Technomancer]

18/1/21

This week has mostly been a whole lot of adjusting everything to the new itemisation system and putting in some final touches. There is a lot more, and more meaningful, randomisation and many, many items and content to go through.

A big part of this was the introduction of different materials. Each item is given an overall grade or elegance, then each individual part of the item has parameters describing what it is, how elegant it is and how it might be coloured. Finally there are external factors such as the wealth of the owner or elegance of the outfit. All this must result in different materials and dyes being used appropriately. It's a complex system, but presented in a simple way, and there was a lot of tweaking involved to "train" the system to give the desired results with all the possible combinations.

Another part of migrating to the new itemisation is stats. Previously items could just pick from one of a handful of carefully designed modifiers. In the new system items have varying materials, material and build quality, item traits and material traits and condition all working independently and with fine grained values. This is much more complex and less predictable, and indeed we had to make some overall adjustments to accommodate these changes. For example, you can now have a heavy, low quality, badly damaged plate harness which exceeds our previous limits for encumbrance on a single item.

Finally we have procedurally generated item descriptions to accommodate the fine grained differences between items. These are actually quite important, because you might not be able to tell what the qualities of an item are and whether it might be worth investing in just by looking at it. Descriptions are quite exact about quality, condition and traits. We had something that was quite structured to combine and modify words and phrase fragments to avoid inelegant grammar and word repetition, but now we developed something smarter and more versatile that can draw from a much larger pool, discard poor combinations and find alternatives automatically. It will also try to stick with similar wording for the same item, so if the condition changes over time the description will remain similar.

With all the mechanics well established we can easily continue to tweak things after it's gone live and we observe more of how it behaves. We seem to have it in a pretty good place already, and we've updated all the related mechanics and content tools for things like drop tables too. We do still need to go through a bunch of items and configure them individually, but we expect it to be smooth sailing now, without going back to adjust systems because something isn't quite working right.

Have a great week!
-the BM team

 

[Technomancer]

25/1/21

We've just about got a build ready to hand over to testers. All the content has been properly updated for a release build, we've updated all items to the new system, we've tested the new self-patching systems and have done some general internal playtesting.

We had put a mostly complete build together a few days ago, but when we started testing we were getting various strange errors. After some days trying to find the source of the errors and failing, we finally realised they were caused by a new library we recently started using. We rolled back to what we were doing previously, did some very thorough debugging and everything seems just fine, so that's the end of that after some unwelcome wasted time.

We estimate a couple of days to get a build out to testers. We are still gradually updating some assets to better take advantage of the new rendering features, but we don't need to do it now. Assuming testing goes smoothly, we should have a new release ready for everyone in no time.

Have a great week!
-the BM team

 

[oldbonebrown]

I wish there were more chances to merk low tier enemies when you have good equipment. I want to fight a big mob of easy trash.

 

[Technomancer]

I wish there were more chances to merk low tier enemies when you have good equipment. I want to fight a big mob of easy trash.

Apparently, that is one of the new match types in the updated arena. In story you can also spare non-agrressive zombies until later, come back with the good stuff and herd them to one doored area with loyalty.

 

[Sibylla]

A sandbox arena would be more fun than the autist grind they have now

 

[Technomancer]

Closed testing is launched apparently, expect news tomorrow!

 

[Technomancer]

1/2/21

We've finally managed to get a beta test build out. We've had our first few reports come in and we're preparing to release a hotfix. As far as first releases go, it's looking quite good.

Not really much more to say. When we've resolved the most pressing issues we'll be making this version available to everyone via the Steam beta branch and our website. Then we'll focus on completing the new arena features and procedural weapons for the proper update.

One of our testers (Sorbo) took some nice 4k screenshots comparing some characters in the previous and the new build. Quite nice, and we thought to share them with you here.


Renderer Comparison 3


Renderer Comparison 1


Renderer Comparison 2

Have a great week!
-the BM team

 

[Technomancer]

8/2/21

It's been a hectic week with testing, but it has gone very smoothly, especially considering the large scale changes to our engine. We've done a few patches/hotfixes, and already solved almost all issues. We'll be doing a bigger patch later today or tomorrow which we hope will address the remaining major bugs and adds various things that didn't make it into the initial test release.

Feedback on the new renderer has been very positive. It looks great and runs great. On Nvidia we're seeing framerates up to triple what they were before, despite the dramatically improved graphics and lighting. AMD seems to still be a bit hit and miss depending on the card and drivers, but we should be able to improve things even if we can't expect the same results as on Nvidia.

There's not much left to do to get this into the public beta branch, but realistically we think we should let testing continue for the rest of this week before everyone starts playing it. We're not going to go changing any more major engine features for the foreseeable future, so we should be free to continue updating and patching as needed.

Have a great week!
-the BM team

 

[Strange Fellow]

Been playing the dungeon part of this some more. It's fun, now that I've gitted gud enough at the combat through practising the arena fights, but the dungeon leaves a lot to be desired. Level 4 thankfully seems to be very different to what came before, but levels 1 through 3 you could've told me were procedurally generated and I would've believed you, if it hadn't been for the fact that maps are available online. It's not like there's no attention to detail, it's just that all of it seems to have gone into making a realistic cobbler's station instead of making the dungeon fun to explore. I know I left a few locked doors unopened, and I probably missed a few things, but I don't care.

Anyway, as I said, level 4 looks to be shaking things up, which is cool. These skellingtons don't mess around, either.

 

[gurugeorge]

I've had an on again/off again relationship with the Exanima physics/control system. My problem with it is that it starts you off as a baby learning your body; but in reality you'd have some autonomous things your body had learnt to do by the time you're in your mid 20s, as your character is depicted (like knowing not to bump into furniture).

 

[Technomancer]

but the dungeon leaves a lot to be desired. Level 4 thankfully seems to be very different to what came before, but levels 1 through 3 you could've told me were procedurally generated and I would've believed you

They were meant to be tutorial-like levels that trick you to expect something mundane. Still, I heard talks about making changes to them. Like replacing the maze and adding visual elements.

 

[Deadyawn]

but levels 1 through 3 you could've told me were procedurally generated and I would've believed you, if it hadn't been for the fact that maps are available online. It's not like there's no attention to detail, it's just that all of it seems to have gone into making a realistic cobbler's station instead of making the dungeon fun to explore. I know I left a few locked doors unopened, and I probably missed a few things, but I don't care.

It's been a while since I've played but I remember later on the level-design gets better. Less Diablo search for the down staircase, more varied interconnected maps that create a cohesive whole.

 

[SlamDunk]

Incredible.

This may actually be released, some day.

 

[Strange Fellow]

but the dungeon leaves a lot to be desired. Level 4 thankfully seems to be very different to what came before, but levels 1 through 3 you could've told me were procedurally generated and I would've believed you

They were meant to be tutorial-like levels that trick you to expect something mundane. Still, I heard talks about making changes to them. Like replacing the maze and adding visual elements.

Not sure I follow the rationale behind "let's make prospective customers think our game is generic and uninspired!", but if you say so. These devs do a lot of weird shit after all.

I've had an on again/off again relationship with the Exanima physics/control system. My problem with it is that it starts you off as a baby learning your body; but in reality you'd have some autonomous things your body had learnt to do by the time you're in your mid 20s, as your character is depicted (like knowing not to bump into furniture).

Drunkard Simulator is great fun in combat. Outside of it, not so much.

Anyway, still tussling with the skellingtons. Getting real familiar with the delightful "look all around the map for some way to die so I can reload from the last checkpoint" feature.

 

[Technomancer]

Not sure I follow the rationale behind "let's make prospective customers think our game is generic and uninspired!", but if you say so. These devs do a lot of weird shit after all.

Possibly to create contrast. If you do not expect the portal in level 3 and think this game is nothing but zombies, first you get surprised by

Spoiler

skeletons then by an alien colony filled with monsters.

The game awards those who stick long enough to see it. If they would just drop you straight into the

Spoiler

underworld

without this tutorial area not only it wouldn't have the same impact, but most would just rage quit overwhelmed by powerful foes. Since devs hate level scaling and design the game with world sense first, player orientation second it would be impossible to do without compromising this idea.

 

[Lyre Mors]

Incredible.

This may actually be released, some day.

I wouldn't hold my breath if I was you. It took them almost a year to release this procedural equipment/rendering update that isn't even actually out yet.

Next year look forward to them implementing two new items and maybe a new enemy to fight!

 

[Harthwain]

Technomancer Could you put this in a spoiler tag?

 

[Technomancer]

Next year look forward to them implementing two new items and maybe a new enemy to fight!

After arena, the next update is new creature, new level, updates to first levels, procedural weapons and chests spawns in story and force thaumaturgy. It is also likely old machines will finally come to life and we will get new save mechanics instead of overly punishing lvl4 respawn.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Technomancer

Spoiler

Could you put this in a spoiler tag?

Chill brother, I got this.

 

[Technomancer]

15/2/21

This week we got through a few more fixes and we ended up completely remastering the "level 4" textures and materials, which are by far our oldest assets after having rebuilt the earlier level assets entirely. It's looking really nice.



More Remaster
The first post-portal level has had all its texture and material assets completely remastered for the new renderer.


After the initial testing week which was mostly hunting bugs, we've been looking more at feedback and making some general adjustments to lighting and some other things. Ultimately all our level lighting was not designed with these new features, and at some point we're going to want to do review it to better take advantage of them. We've seen how we can really make the lighting more interesting and the environments look much more diverse. Fortunately our lighting is 100% dynamic and this will be quite easy to do, but we won't get into this just yet.

There are still a few issues to solve with later content. The markets could do with some slightly more involved solutions, so we're thinking of just cutting them out of the first beta branch release so you don't have to wait longer. We'll patch them in along with some nice additions following this first release.

We'll need a couple of days to wrap things up for the beta branch. There will not be a complete wipe yet, but that is coming soon. If you have an arena save that you care about we'd recommend backing it up before switching to the beta branch, in case of any remaining bugs. There's also a hub reset here, so if you have any items lying around your hub put them in your arsenal or they will be lost. We'll be patching and hotfixing frequently after release, so please help us find any bugs we missed and give us some good constructive feedback.

Have a great week!
-the BM team

 

[Technomancer]

There is a strong possibility that beta of new update will be available publically tomorrow. To make it clear this update is mostly graphical, render, shadows, reflections are reworked, assets updated etc. Same with materials for various items, but belts got new models.

That being said huge content update for arena mode is still quite a few weeks or months away. After that we can expect final content updates to finally see Exanima in 1.0 version.

 

[Smashing Axe]

Just two more years!

 

[Technomancer]

Just two more years!

Actually realistic expectation, Madoc hopes to do it even sooner. Not a lot of stuff left to do. Even next thaumaturgy is a piece of cake compared to Mind with its AI and behavior interaction, Force is mostly physical school - the most developed feature in the game.

 

[agris]

Just wait - the near relativistic speed of material projections due to thaumaturgical spells will necessitate a rewrite of the Newtonian physics system. Further, real space distortions due to said projections will mean that new pixel shaders will need to be developed that account for the conditional non-Euclidean geometric trajectory of particles.

Finally, the soft matter physics package that is handling ragdoll physics will need to be reworked entirely to account for hypersonic shock waves and the local interfacial phenomena associated with the lamellar ordered structure present at the interface between armor and flesh. Wouldn’t want NPC damage maps to be inaccurate, after all.

After the above is done, maybe they’ll release a new level or smthkng.