April-May Update: Water Water Everywhere

Good Sunday!

We want to apologize for the late update. As many of you know we had a bit of an incident at the office. A water main for the fire suppression system went, and sadly, it rained down on half the office.

Though it is late and not quite what we had planned, here is the update for April's updates, changes and what is to come.

In this update we will be covering current updates and fixes, container and inventory system, LOD's and their benefits, more art development, basic crafting system redesign, updating ability system documentation, and more.

Water water everywhere!

Several of our PCs including mine were damaged and currently waiting on insurance to get back with us for the repairs. At this time, I am the only one really affected by the water damage and has any real down time. They had put four industrial fans throughout the office to try to help dry things out.

The good news is with the Repop team being remote this has not affected their work in any way for Repop design, testing and development.

Because the office and the flat are attached, I have been displaced to a hotel since my flat is attached to the office. One of the joys of being in both a business and residential zone. Most of our neighbors are insurance, restaurants, a dentist and even a car tire shop. At this time it looks like only two businesses and four residents are affected along with IFS and myself.

We will keep you all updated on any news or changes.

Container System and Inventory

Inventory is a popular discussion, due in part to its lack of availability in its current state in-game. We have been going over several options and designs to find the perfect type of inventory, as well as a more optimized approach for the entire container system.

What is a Container System?

In games, a container is anything that stores data for the player. Most players think of this as player inventory for their loot. However, it goes beyond that. This can and usually does include the following:

Player gear (to include armour, weapons and anything else that the player is wearing)

Skills and Abilities (Players interact with these to select and use in some fashion)

Player storage (such as vaults or other “external” storage mechanisms

Player Housing Inventory (includes anything that is used to build a house, plot, etc)

Player personal inventory (includes any additional “bags” they have attached to the character)

Player Inventory:

The part of the container system that most of you would be most interested in is the player inventory. We have some major adjustments for you coming ahead this year. The entire system is being redone, and in a manner that will allow us to easily expand and adjust as needed.

The biggest change will be how players get their primary inventory. When we purchased the game, the ability to expand inventory size was quite costly and still did not provide enough inventory space for most players. If you wanted to expand beyond what is available in game you would have to pay for it in the cash shop. Though we will still have the ability to expand your inventory through the cash shop, we are also opening up a lot more options for players in game.

Inventory should not be a mini game to figure out where to put things, or face having to purchase more space with real money and no other real viable option. We still have to make money to be able to support our developers and the game, however, players will have more options and will not be forced to use merchant bots as storage or trying to decide what to delete for new items you want or need all the time.

Types of inventory we will be introducing to the players in game with the starting slot counts: (Note these may change or be adjusted once we get them into game for balance)

World Bank Vault: World bank accessible at any bank or bank terminal (Default slots: TBA)

World bank accessible at any bank or bank terminal (Default slots: TBA) Personal Default: The default player inventory (Default: 1 tab | Limit: 100 Slots each tab)

The default player inventory (Default: 1 tab | Limit: 100 Slots each tab) Personal Default expansion bags: Small mini bags that can be unlocked (Limit: 10 | Starting: 5 slots each)

Small mini bags that can be unlocked (Limit: 10 | Starting: 5 slots each) Harvesting Bag: For raw and harvested materials (mats). (Default limit: TBA)

For raw and harvested materials (mats). (Default limit: TBA) Crafting Bag: For crafting components (Default limit: TBA)

For crafting components (Default limit: TBA) House Vault: Personal or guild vault for storage of items (Limit: 1 | Default Slots: TBA)

Personal or guild vault for storage of items (Limit: 1 | Default Slots: TBA) Housing containers: Containers such as chests, crates, jars, etc. (Limit: TBA | Default Slots: TBD based on type)

Planned Player Personal Inventory

The player inventory will be expanded to start at 100 slots + your expansion bags. These expansion bags will not take away slots in your primary inventory (or be affected by the fake duplicating slots bug in the future). These will be slots you can unlock in the game and add to what you are able to carry. The expansion slots will also allow you to sort your items how you want them.

Housing Inventory

We know that inventory is greatly lacking, even for those that might have purchased the highest tier of the game in 2015 and before. Fear not, we have even thought about storage at your home. Your home be it a personal house or a guild plot, should have additional options available by default in the game. This includes being able to place storage units of various types in your home.

This is still very much a Work in Progress (WIP) and we will be adding to the primary container system such as your housing inventory once we have the core finished and tested by you. Some of the ideas we have are as follows:

Default Storage Vault: upgradeable with some requirements

upgradeable with some requirements Storage chests and crates: Large Placeable interactive storage objects for larger items (Limits: TBA | Slots: Varies)

Large Placeable interactive storage objects for larger items (Limits: TBA | Slots: Varies) Storage boxes: Medium Placeable interactive storage object for those small collectible items. (Limits: TBA | Slots: Varies)

Medium Placeable interactive storage object for those small collectible items. (Limits: TBA | Slots: Varies) Storage Jars or similar: Small Placeable interactive storage objects for your crafting and your kitchens (Limits: TBA | Slots: Varies)

Small Placeable interactive storage objects for your crafting and your kitchens (Limits: TBA | Slots: Varies) … and a few other ideas that we want to surprise you with.



Our primary goal is to build a solid base that does not work off the 1to1 association for player characters, but instead work more on a look-up list that is (semi) independent from the player and characters. This will allow us to be able to create a system that will not need to load and reload when you enter a new area or region. It will improve performance, and most of all, it should have some nice benefits for the player Market that addresses some of the headaches present right now for players.

All of the work needed to be redone must also be able to be translated to what is in game currently. We are hopeful that we can create a new architecture for the container system without players losing their in game items, or at least keep that down to a minimum at the update, and prevent players from losing things afterwards.

Basic steps:

Create the core container system to work with current abilities and items as well as our upcoming abilities and item system

Create a “mini” system for each subsystem (abilities, icons, player gear, player inventory, inventory types, loot inventory, etc).

Finish work on primary and sub systems

Create the conversion scripts for abilities (if needed)

Create the conversion scripts for both player gear container

Create the conversion scripts for both player inventory

Test internally, then push to live

Make needed adjustments to each as needed

Once clean and working properly, start adding on the new and extended features and sub systems (like player housing and merchants).

Remember, we will be building the most basic, or core, of the inventory system first. We want to make sure that everything is working as it should be- in a clean and efficient manner back end and for the players. Once we know it is, then we will begin expanding the inventory to add in all the “extras”.

Artwork

Despite the setback of some of the artwork being on hold till the office and such is put back together, we have accomplished a lot over the last month. The LOD’s for the new village adobe buildings are finished, as well as the first run for the Nation Embassies.

The landscape continues to progress. Changes include a new river bubbling from a mountain spring. This river feeds a dense swamp in the foothills of the mountain. Roads now wind their way across the island making for easy navigation.

Recent additions of assets also include a sprawling lodge. Players will find ample parking and comfortable rooms to be had. Meals are grown locally in the newly installed hydroponics and greenhouse facility.

Nation Embassy's

Here is a sneak peek at some of the new art work coming your way... Click on a picture to view a larger image:

We hope you enjoy these new buildings to help represent the different nations on the Island.

LOD's Galore!

One of the first things that I noticed was that Repop did not have much art that included LODs. Levels of Detail, or LODs, are used for optimizing an entire game scene.

In our case, it is used for multiple areas that are connected and helps to keep the total number of polygons and vertices down at distance. This improves performance by limiting the amount that needs to be loaded by the game as you move around the world. For those interested, here is some more detailed information...

Benefits of using LOD's

One of the greatest benefits is that the total draws for vertices can be greatly reduced. And art can be passed to the player client and rendered in smaller and faster packets. So instead of having to load and render 2 million polys in a visible scene, you might only have to render 300,000 to 600,000 max at any given time.

Here is a link for the basic information about how HeroEngine (and The Repopulation) handles LOD: http://hewiki.heroengine.com/wiki/Level_of_Detail and http://hewiki.heroengine.com/wiki/Art_assets#LODs

When you are the furthest away from an asset with LODs created, you will only render the lowest poly/vert count asset. As you get closer to the model, it will be replaced with the next level until you can view the high poly asset.

Creating LOD's

Have you ever been in a game and saw some art change and "pop" as you get closer to it? That building in the distance that pops detail in and changes as you get closer had a set of LOD's attached to it. Some games it is more obvious than others, but most MMO's and Multiplayer games have LODs created. Even some single player games have LOD's created for the art such as Morrowind. This is what we are doing for The Repopulation.

The creation of LOD's can be done in several different ways, though I find that doing them by hand is preferable as you are able to reduce the amount of "popping" in and out the details of the assets.

Some artists will start from a low poly asset and continue to add detail for each LOD working backwards in the LOD levels, while others will reduce the polys and detail working up in the LOD level. There is no set number of LOD's that must be created, it really depends on the asset, game area scope and the artist. In our case we are using between 5 and 9 LOD's depending on the asset itself.

For The Repopulation we tend to work forward from the high poly to the lowest at the greatest distance. Here is an example of how LOD’s work at different distances.

LOD_01 = 10,000 polys (at 0-10 meters away)

LOD_02 = 8,000 polys (at 25 meters away)

LOD_03 = 4,000 polys (at 50meters away)

LOD_04 = 1,500 polys (at 75 meters away)

LOD_05 = 500 polys (at 100 meters away)

Current and upcoming work

Skills

Recently we've set our sights on prepping for the revamp of the Ability system. This includes documenting the existing system, and abilities. During this process, we realized there are many abilities that exist as duplications in the back end. After reviewing the documentation we began refining the information in order to begin planning basic ability changes.

Crafting

First we want to thank everyone that has helped with feedback, input, bug reports and suggestions regarding crafting. Much thanks to both the old and new players. Your feedback has played an integral part in the redesign to keep the spirit of The Repopulation crafting alive.

We'd like to share with you a very brief and basic overview of some of the coming changes. We hope you enjoy the small teaser and look forward to your input.This is one of our more labor-intensive systems to revamp.

Documentation for this system has been an ongoing process since March of 2017. This coupled with hands-on work on Dev, and feedback from the community has given us a better vantage point from which to base our changes. We will be addressing how recipes are crafted in order to reduce bloat and remove useless items.

We are finished with documenting of the old/current systems. Having documented and traced all we need of the current crafting system allows us to begin working on the new. In the last four weeks we have made some nice progress so once we get the other systems finished and are ready for crafting, we will be able to get the most basic system out for testing then expand upon it.

Defined crafting categories

Clothing and Armor

Primitive Weapons (Melee)

Modern Weapons (Munitions)

Cybernetics/Prosthetics

Furniture

Architecture

Machinery

Consumables (food, nutrition, and meds)

Defined and designed Crafting Tiers

Tier 0 - Tier 6 Levels

Profession title system based on skill level and tier

Defined all crafting basics to prepare for harvestable materials.

Crafting steps

Crafting complications

Crafting Enhancements

Crafting materials and subcomponents

Determined how many and what types of crafting stations for easier/quicker access to recipes and materials.

Refining

Processing

Assembly

Defined crafting recipe types: The sum items needed to make the asset

Blueprints

Schematic

Recipe

Defined what a pattern is and used for.

The style of the asset being made. All players should be able to earn/learn 1-2 default patterns. Additional patterns can be earned in game or bought in the cash store.

Note: Patterns do not give additional “power” to the player (outside the materials used). These are purely cosmetic.

Defined Weapon and weapon types

Primitive (melee)

Modern

Traps

Defined clothing/armour materials for

Street and Light Clothing/armour

Medium Armour

Heavy Armour

Designed a number of basic crafting recipes

End product recipe

Component recipes

Subcomponents recipes

We’d like to apologize once more for the late update this month due to unforeseen issues in our office space. However, even with the minor set back, our team has continued pushing forward this month. We look forward to updating you again next month with our additional progress. Please feel free to leave us feedback, and let us know what you think of the coming changes. As always your comments, questions, and concerns are appreciated.

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