OGZ | Progress Report 3/18/2024: Mechanics and Improvements (Patreon)

Hey guys, how are you guys doing.

This last 2 weeks I was having a little problem with my internet cable which made me lose my 2 days worth of development progression but I've still managed to get things done, well not all of what I've planned but at least I've got something to update you guys here.

I've considered that the Wall Cover Mechanic is ready now and so I've moved on to my next main task and it's Knife Riposte Animations (2 tasks left before working on the next phase)

Due to my internet cable issues I've failed to finish my mocap task for the Knife Riposte Animations in time (17th) but don't worry I've moved this task to the next Twitter Progress Report instead. There will be additional progress report along with the next drawing on Pixiv also.

Let's take a look what I did for the last 2 weeks.

Improved Movement Systems and Animations
I added the start moving animations into the movement system. This will apply to most of the characters, not just player character. You guys can notice the weight when a character changes a movement direction.

Scanner Mechanic

The game now will not visible most of the in game icons and players must scan the area to learn more about the glimpse of the areas players are about to venture to. Scanner will be commonly used in game world. Scanner will notify the other nearby scanners, so other humans both allies and hostiles will know where players are instantly and enemies will be able to use the scanner too. Most Blind Mutants will also be able to detect anyone who uses the scanner in the wrong place wrong time.
Scanner will also tell if the area is good to navigate around. The character will be struggling to walk/run in the slope terrain (Will add this into the game soon)

Battery Mechanic
This is the newly added mechanic, It is a Stamina Point for all of the special abilities (scanning and such) or the uses of any electronic techs. It will work the same way as stamina point and it'll be unlimited. It'll recharge itself but it of course will take quite sometime, so players won't be able to spam the special abilities for the whole mission.

Footprint Mechanic

This is quite important because this will visible all the footprints of all important characters in the map, both mutants and human characters, including the players. Most of the footprints will be gone in under 30 secs but some footprints will stay in the map as long as players are still in the map. Enemy's footprints will be red, allies will be grey, important characters will be blue and mutants will be yellow.
Footprints will also have personal data/information, so in order to find the missing persons or track down the lost assets, players must find and collect the evidences such as footprints and traces until it's enough to pinpoint the exact or possibly locations.

Wall Cover Mechanic
Now it's kind of ready but it's definitely not finished yet. I'll update the animations too, I'll base off from The Division's animations. The character will be able to climb or vault over the cover too but I haven't done any mocap for those anims currently.

Updated Vehicle Camera
I've changed it to be the same camera type as on foot camera. Nothing interesting about the change but you guys now can see the details on the vehicle models a little closer :p

Redesigned UIs

The UIs are getting redesigned. I'm combining Death Stranding and The Division Uis together to get something a little more original than taking the inspiration from one game. Also the UIs can now flip while maintain the readable text, the example is:

Dynamic Input System
The fundamental of input systems got updated and overhauled. Now it's ready for the fully customizable input system (custom bindkey both for gamepad / mouse and keyboard)

Improved Water Shader

Nothing much to this but I've updated the water shader, increased details and all but I'm planning to add interactive water system into the game soon.

Tweaked In Game Lighting and Graphics
Now the brightness is reduced with more foggy, making the game feel even more cold and dark (probably) but I'm quite satisfied with this updated lighting now.

I have to admit that the game in its current state is now a buggy mess because I've changed and updated the fundamental systems. So after I've finished my 3 remaining main tasks, I may need to fix most of the issues and bugs before moving to the next phase which will of course, take some extra time.

That's all for today, I hope you guys enjoyed the progress I've done so far.
See you guys next post and have a nice day.
Matto.