DevLog #11

Vthraagh-koln zharrnoth v'ykaal, ynthos nurak ta'al'yre... I mean, new devlog! So we've been getting shelled pretty hard down here in the trenches. I'll try to give a broad 10,000 foot view of the situation.

Lets start with the more technical side of things. Both programmers, John and Dylan, have been taking a bit of detour for the last week or so. In effect what they've run into is the problem of figuring out how to understand the state of the world in multiplayer. In a single player game the save file dictates what has happened for you. If you've completed the quest to get the golden marmalade, that 'check box' is checked, and the file updates. when you return to the game it sees what you've got completed, good to go! For multiplayer we wanted to do something similar, where we check whats been done and we replicate that to the rest of the players. Replicate in this sense is a technical term in unreal meaning to send a signal to the server which then tells all other players computers to do the same. I press a switch to turn on the elevator, we make sure it replicates, and now everyone sees the elevator turn on.

Now here in lies the detour. what if someone joins the game and wasn't sent the signal to replicate an action happening? Fudge! I wish it were fudge. But no, the joining player will simply have a map that's out of sync with the rest of the group. The way we've decided to account for this is by having set tags to determine the condition and state of a thing. This will involve some re-finagling what we have as well as changing how we approach things replicating from now on. Unfortunately many of these sorts of bumps in the road are simply a learning process, and why in general working in multiplayer games is so difficult. I'm hoping at the very least those who are reading can understand why its never easy to just 'make it multiplayer'. Its definitely not for a lack of want!

Moving on to the environment side of things. we've continued work on the three 'smaller' levels. For my own level I can show off the central living quarters of the Resonance Array (WIP). It's a undersea research laboratory Funded and operated by the Scriptorium. The Array is one of the main ways the Scriptorium has cultivated its vast collection of forbidden knowledge. The goal of this level is to push the feeling of being an investigator. You'll be searching for clues as to what happened in the facility and why. While also dealing with an incrementally more difficult 'anomaly' that will act as an obstacle the more you uncover.

Resonance Array

Flynns level has been to take a stab at what the Atrial Lariat level and style. The Aerostat Observation Center (WIP) is an Atrial Lariat facility located within the shallow front. Its primary purpose is to act as a switchboard where critical communications patched through to one another. The facility is split mainly between a Central Control room and a series of Transmission Towers. The design goal of this level was to split up the players to solve the primary puzzle and to make use of the existing tension which comes from the threat of the Leviathan enemy.

Aerostat Observation Center

For the character an animation stuff Cassidy is fianlly through his blender rigging bootcamp from hell. he's got the new rig up and running, literally. He's got a few of the third person animations already laid out, the walk/run/crouch are a few to start. he's also got some of the first person animation being worked on which we're excited to show off down the line.

We got lots more small stuff moving behind the scenes that I'll mention at another date. You'll most likely see them in the next major team play test. hold on tight till then! Hope you all have a good weekend. Be careful not too dive too greedily or too deep.