2015.9.5
Programming Team
Camille
I pushed out the stash functionality this week, something that’s been desperately needed for a while. Although a grid-based inventory is a somewhat old school and arguably outmoded concept, I firmly believe it can be made to work given a good system and interface supporting it. One of the big systems lacking for this was a decent way of storing extra items.
Thus the stash, which allows you to stow away items you don’t necessarily need to carry with you. In order to improve quality of life, this stash is shared across all shelters so you don’t need to take its contents with you whenever you move. Strategically speaking, this enables you to tuck away crafting items from the wastes once you are ready to move into the city, where different types of items await.
Speaking of crafting, another feature of the stash is that its contents are factored in when crafting, so you don’t actually need to take out all the necessary ingredients whenever you want to create something. From just a few quick playthroughs, I feel this has already been a huge quality of life improvement.
In order to make the stash work, I also reworked the inventory a bit. Instead of having containers show on the left-hand side, they now show on the right-hand side, replacing the equipment grid when you loot a container. Incidentally, this also enables quickly moving items to/from the stash through the usual “equip” right-click shortcut.
All of this functionality is available in this week’s update 8, but the appearance and name of the stash remains a temporary thing. Alex and Whitney have already come up with great concepts for it, so stay tuned for an improved stash in the future!
Gameplay Team
Vince
Alright, this week was a big push on story elements and integrating them into our secret narrative build. Can't tell you much about it, but it's pretty cool!
Besides that, I made a bunch of small fixes and tweaks on Wednesday, just in time for the new update:
Food won't give health bonuses anymore
Jimmy bars are now reusable, also fixed a few typos in its description
Pain Pills give less health
Removed Salt Box
Bobbies will never carry more than 1 security card
Updated the Banger inventory icon and in-game model
Fixed some doors in the Village houses that would lock from the wrong side
Fixed some safes in the Village houses that wouldn't open with the Advanced
Electrolock-Shocker
Reduced the number of healing plants in the Garden District
And also, thanks to Camille’s work on the stash system, I added safes in the shelters that will temporarily serve as your player’s stash to store your items.
Narrative Team
Alex
I’ve started editing the audio for our second playable character in Pro Tools; I’ve finished the first scene and started the second.
For gameplay reasons, I need to move a slew of scenes in one of our playable character’s playthrough from the end to the middle, which means I need new connective tissue. So I’ve been working on that, and by working, I mean chatting with people on the team.
I’ve written barks (short lines the player says) for when the player sneak attacks NPCs. I’ve also just written a slew of new barks for when Arthur is trying to pass himself off as a crazy person, and some new pensive barks which won’t be released until the narrative is in.
We’re implementing a couple of mechanics where the player can keep stashes across shelters and across playthroughs. I came up with a way to justify these in the world’s lore.
Finally, I spent a surprisingly long time tracking down, selecting and editing NPC barks that hadn’t been integrated yet.
Art Team
Whitney
The last couple weeks I've been designing props for a new biome, working on some signage, going to lots of meetings, designing some new architecture (which isn't ready to show), doing a bunch of research and organizing assets. Oh, and I concepted some iconic English trees :)
Programming Team
Camille
I pushed out the stash functionality this week, something that’s been desperately needed for a while. Although a grid-based inventory is a somewhat old school and arguably outmoded concept, I firmly believe it can be made to work given a good system and interface supporting it. One of the big systems lacking for this was a decent way of storing extra items.
Thus the stash, which allows you to stow away items you don’t necessarily need to carry with you. In order to improve quality of life, this stash is shared across all shelters so you don’t need to take its contents with you whenever you move. Strategically speaking, this enables you to tuck away crafting items from the wastes once you are ready to move into the city, where different types of items await.
Speaking of crafting, another feature of the stash is that its contents are factored in when crafting, so you don’t actually need to take out all the necessary ingredients whenever you want to create something. From just a few quick playthroughs, I feel this has already been a huge quality of life improvement.
In order to make the stash work, I also reworked the inventory a bit. Instead of having containers show on the left-hand side, they now show on the right-hand side, replacing the equipment grid when you loot a container. Incidentally, this also enables quickly moving items to/from the stash through the usual “equip” right-click shortcut.
All of this functionality is available in this week’s update 8, but the appearance and name of the stash remains a temporary thing. Alex and Whitney have already come up with great concepts for it, so stay tuned for an improved stash in the future!
Gameplay Team
Vince
Alright, this week was a big push on story elements and integrating them into our secret narrative build. Can't tell you much about it, but it's pretty cool!
Besides that, I made a bunch of small fixes and tweaks on Wednesday, just in time for the new update:
Food won't give health bonuses anymore
Jimmy bars are now reusable, also fixed a few typos in its description
Pain Pills give less health
Removed Salt Box
Bobbies will never carry more than 1 security card
Updated the Banger inventory icon and in-game model
Fixed some doors in the Village houses that would lock from the wrong side
Fixed some safes in the Village houses that wouldn't open with the Advanced
Electrolock-Shocker
Reduced the number of healing plants in the Garden District
And also, thanks to Camille’s work on the stash system, I added safes in the shelters that will temporarily serve as your player’s stash to store your items.
Narrative Team
Alex
I’ve started editing the audio for our second playable character in Pro Tools; I’ve finished the first scene and started the second.
For gameplay reasons, I need to move a slew of scenes in one of our playable character’s playthrough from the end to the middle, which means I need new connective tissue. So I’ve been working on that, and by working, I mean chatting with people on the team.
I’ve written barks (short lines the player says) for when the player sneak attacks NPCs. I’ve also just written a slew of new barks for when Arthur is trying to pass himself off as a crazy person, and some new pensive barks which won’t be released until the narrative is in.
We’re implementing a couple of mechanics where the player can keep stashes across shelters and across playthroughs. I came up with a way to justify these in the world’s lore.
Finally, I spent a surprisingly long time tracking down, selecting and editing NPC barks that hadn’t been integrated yet.
Art Team
Whitney
The last couple weeks I've been designing props for a new biome, working on some signage, going to lots of meetings, designing some new architecture (which isn't ready to show), doing a bunch of research and organizing assets. Oh, and I concepted some iconic English trees :)
