[color=#6666ff]Hi folks,[/color]
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[color=#6666ff]Our next feature update will include the new procedural generation system, as featured in one of our recent development sprint blogs. Along with some new decorations and an increased spawn rate for the agents, the build will help make the Reach stable and feel a bit busier to those crossing it. [/color]
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[color=#6666ff]This thread is a place for everyone to discuss those changes once the build goes live. I shall update this post with more details once we actually release it into the wild, as I don’t want to reveal everything just yet. [/color]
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[color=#6666ff]One thing to bear in mind once this build is out in the wild, is that Discoveries and Spectacles (Horrors and Wonders) are not yet present. Once these features are released, the world should feel much more plush.[/color]
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[color=#6666ff]Update:[/color]
[color=#6666ff]As you’ve probably seen in the Patch Notes these are the main new features:[/color]
[color=#6666ff]A new procedural generation system.[/color][/li][li][color=#6666ff]Redesign of the Survival HUD.[/color][/li][li][color=#6666ff]We’ve increased the spawn rate of agents.[/color][/li][li][color=#6666ff]We’ve changed the chart to accurately reflect in-game assets on the collidable layer.*[/color][/li][li][color=#6666ff]New decorations are in place.[/color]
[color=#6666ff]Please go ahead and discuss these here. Let us know what you think. [/color]
[color=#6666ff]We’ve also made changes to Terror but we’d like you to discuss these over in the Terror Feedback thread[/color]
[color=#6666ff]*we are aware it’s not completely accurate at Magdalene’s[/color] edited by FailbetterFuzz on 11/30/2017
I’m playing now. First thoughs; everything feels much more dense. From what i can tell, a lot of objects have been reused, rotated somewhat randomly, and moved down a layer or two. I approve of this efficient recycling of content, it’s exactly what i’d do too.
I’ve only been to winchester and titania so far, my thoughts on those;
Thanks to having several more layers descending down into the pea souper, New winchester feels a lot more like a city now. Which is great.
But seeing all the city sections down there among the pollution and smog makes me kind of sad. It must be an awful place to live, like the rookeries back in london.
So it kind of feels more dystopian and detracts a little from the light, airy feel of the high wilderness. But also more authentically victorian, which is probably good.
Titania has a lot of the same, the main port is now considerably smaller and a lot of the content is moved to less intrusive background layers
but it doesn’t feel quite right here. See attached image
As we can see, titania, too is shrouded in smog. However this is an artist’s enclave, with nary a factory to speak of. We should definitely have clearer skies and a more airy feel here. The only thing in the air is pollen, which i’d think would be more yellowish.
Please remove the smog from titania
Will add more as i explore more areas
Edit:
Port Avon is beautiful. The blue skies give it a sunny, upbeat feel. I’m loving it.
However, i do recall several storylets there - and illustrations within the storylets, talking about a golden nebula,it seems odd that a distant nebula would be visible in such bright light
I got some odd framerate drops around Hare’s Hope
Cleared up on its own after about 20 seconds. Perhaps just loading in lots of things?
Polmear & Plenty’s Circus doesn’t feel much different from new winchester. Asteroids and fog. It’d be nice to see more of those coloured searchlights the flavour text talks about. make them extend far beyond the circus area, like the lighthouses in sunless sea
The Mold Pastures are disgusting. But it’s clear thats what was intended, so it works well. I want to vomit looking at the place though. I’m guessing the mold pastures are part of hybras, given the proximity. It fits pretty well. Hybras was pretty good to begin with and not much has changed, although it is a little over-reliant on that grey fog.
And oh god, is that a NEW MUSIC TRACK! the new music is very dramatic and actiony, could do with a slower lead in though. It kind of explodes out of silence when it starts edited by Nanako on 11/30/2017 edited by Nanako on 11/30/2017
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[color=#6666ff]No need to worry Nanako, we always get round to these things when we have the time. ;)[/color]
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[color=#6666ff]Great to hear your thought’s so far (and Avon is my favourite too), keep them coming. Nice to see you bombing around in the chunky Pellinore too.[/color]
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[color=#6666ff]We worked on the performance quite a bit while developing this branch, as the new asset and increased rate of beasties affected it somewhat. We even found an audio bug that was having an impact, so that was sorted too. We will however continue to look at this throughout development, so expect to see improvements as we go.[/color]
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[color=#6666ff]Has anyone else had time to look around yet?[/color]
I’ve destroyed several Enduring Dreadnoughts, but looting them has resulted in various error messages to the tune of "character is already in event."
In a few segments, I’ve run into issues with cantankeri visibly spawning out of nowhere, two cantankeri spawning and overlapping, things like that.
I like the added background elements in Port Prosper, but the fog makes it too hazy to show a good sense of urban sprawl. edited by Malcolm Harris on 11/30/2017
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Nice to see you bombing around in the chunky Pellinore too.[/quote]
Funny story, shortly after that i swapped it out for the bedivere. Primarily because i still need to kill a scrive spinster, and i dont fancy my chances at that fight with 35 HP. Since they’re the same price, you can swap between those ships at new winchester for free as much as you like. I’m not an expert, but i think traders tend to want to make a profit and that probably shouldn’t be possible without some overhead cost on the tradein. Maybe reduce the trade-in value of the ship you’re selling to 90%
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I like the added background elements in Port Prosper, but the fog makes it too hazy to show a good sense of urban sprawl. edited by Malcolm Harris on 11/30/2017[/quote]
I believe the fog in urban areas is a deliberate thematic choice
Industrial london was famous for its thick green fog
However i do think there is too much of it in non urban areas, like titania[/color] edited by Nanako on 12/1/2017
Jetticus Hives are quite alarming. I feel surprised that i didn’t encounter any chorister bees there. That seems like a sort of place to reliably find them, maybe have a massively amped up bee spawnrate in there?
Carillon is snowy now? That’s confusing. I don’t recall snow being mentioned in the storylets, and you’d think devils would prefer a warmer climate.
Perhaps more concerning is that it seems smaller. i can’t find most of the locations mentioned in the stories, such as the gaslight terrace. Its like several parts of it aren’t there which should be.
The snowy area around is breathtakingly beautiful, there’s no question of that. But i don’t think it fits carillon. I actually thought i was coming up to lustrum, based on the surrounding environment.
I’ve yet to find lustrum though…
Ding, found lustrum. Alarmingly close by
This can’t be a coincidence. They’re sharing the same biome. Is this intended behaviour? lustrum infects nearby locations with snow and cold weather? edited by Nanako on 12/1/2017
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I’m not an expert, but i think traders tend to want to make a profit…[/color] edited by Nanako on 12/1/2017[/quote]
Apparently not. edited by Shogo_Yahagi on 12/1/2017
[quote=Nanako][color=000000][quote=FailbetterFuzz]
Industrial london was famous for its thick green fog
However i do think there is too much of it in non urban areas, like titania[/color] edited by Nanako on 12/1/2017[/quote]
The smogginess is quite nice in New Winchester, what I’m noting is that I don’t think it produces the right effect in Port Prosper - it looks flat, doesn’t have a presence there.
The world feels a lot more alive now, I really like it. I accidentally went through a region infested with Cantankeri, and saw a Tackety Scout fighting some Cantankeri. It had already killed one (judging by the floating loot), but there were two more attacking it, so I killed them to rescue the Scout. That was the coolest organic moment I’ve had in Skies so far, and there was nothing in Sea that could have possibly produced that sort of situation. I’m really happy with how this has turned out, at least from a first impression.
I like all of the additions, but of course still want more. ;-) A couple suggestions:
While scrolling along the emptiness of stars and nebula gas, I find myself craving hints of planets in the distance, like gibbous gas giants or similar - assuming that wouldn’t break with the game’s aesthetic.[/li][li]Thunder and lightning storms would be great, assuming they don’t get to seizure-inducing levels. I’m thinking of the lightning being something that happens way away in the deep background, among the nebula clouds.
Also, is there any way that we could find out more about the locations we discover, their history and relevance to current events - e.g. the Battle of Culverston?
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[color=#6666ff]I’m not certain about that at the moment, but our writers are devious sorts, so possibly in the future but it’s not something I can say for certain. Of course there are somethings like discoveries (Old Tom’s Well, Wreck of the Parsifal) that are now in game and do have accompanying storylets. [/color]
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[color=#6666ff]Right, [/color]I’m going to unpin this thread now as I think we’re all pretty happy with the new proc gen system, not least because it fixed a tonne of big bad bugs and made the Reach so much more plush. It still felt a bit empty for some but our latest build (v1.0.7.4.1f12226aa - 31st Jan 2018) not only introduced Spectacles and Discoveries but also added more terrain between the segments so it should feel even more full now. We’re not done with these changes, but i’d like to start gathering feedback on them in a separate thread which i’ll post later.
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[color=#6666ff]Thanks to everyone that contributed[/color]
