AI Olympius News

Before I dive into the development of the next level, I'd like to make some additional minor changes.

• The threshold for the number of light sources that can be present in the frame has been doubled (most noticeable on the island)
  
• Island: you can now interact with the chest from both sides.
  
• Island: removed the dropship that flew nearby and drops satyrs, I accidentally left it there while testing the animations. %)
  
• Island: the reticle is now displayed for the multi-tool.
  
• Island: wind turbine now requires more space around the blades when building to make their construction more realistic.
  
• Island: a new channel has been added to the information screen, in addition to weather and generation graphs - a list of the number of wind turbines and solar panels with a note on their shading has been added.
  

I am glad to present a new story level, its development took much more time than planned, but it was worth it.
The location is quite complex in structure and offers several ways to go, I hope you will be interested in exploring it.
This level introduces new enemy subtypes, so it should be quite fun.

Apparently, the level will have to be balanced based on your feedback, but in the control test, I spent 27 minutes on the maximum difficulty level until I went through all the available corners.

I have to warn you that the level is still poorly optimized, and when you open the full panorama, the fps may drop.
I'll be optimizing the level in parallel, and I'll also be happy to read your feedback on the balance and performance at this stage, or maybe you've already streamed the game, so I can get a fresh perspective on the level.

I also worked on the redesign of Implosion, so it's much more enjoyable to use now.

• The HQ is changed in accordance with the storyline.
  
• New leading character - Leo. (Interesting to hear how you like his voicing compared to Marcus)
  
• The new level - the Cathedral.
  
• On the new level you can find a new item of equipment.
  
• The speed of the player's implosion has been increased.
  
• Shots and bullets of the implosion have been enriched with additional effects, now player attacks or oncoming attacks of Seraph are better visible.
  
• Additional optimization of shadow graphics output. better gradation of shadow quality.
  
• Improved lighting from effects: sharper light from shots and smoother light fade during explosions.
  
• Fixed the work of quick slots, fixed a bug that interrupted the use of the slot, and added the ability to use two slots at once.
  
• Server blocks are now easier to destroy (especially in the data center mission)
  
• Satyrs have increased regeneration and are shooting more aggressively.
  
• Island: Fixed a bug with the radio emitter in data generation mode when new data blocks could not be picked up.
  
• Increased the brightness of the character's flashlight on dark levels.
  

• Improved enemy behavior, now without visual contact, enemies do not shoot towards the player, but rather to the place where the player was last seen. Also, invisibility and enemy reaction to it are better implemented.
  
• Fixed a problem with the shadow settings, when you first start the shadows are displayed as if they were of the worst quality, although the settings are set to maximum.
  
• Fixed the problem when characters did not look at the player during the dialog.
  
• Fixed a graphical bug with the display of bullets when shooting through glass.
  
• Many small fixes and optimizations.
  

UPD 23.05:

• Island: some fixes to the snap function.
  
• Med. capsules can now be sold.
  

I finally completed one of the key structures for the Island - the Radio-emitter. It can work in three modes, intensively attract enemy waves, completely disable them, or capture Zeus' information flows and pack them into data blocks valuable to the headquarters, so with this structure you get either a game with intense battles (there can be a lot of enemies, so goodbye optimization) or a quiet life with construction.

In parallel, the development of new story missions is underway, and while working on the story, I noticed that there is an opportunity to slightly shift the planned Hunt sector (which was supposed to be three almost identical missions) with the current sector (which did not offer anything special, as both sectors were still to be missions on Earth). The combination of the two sectors should result in more unique and varied missions. In line with these changes, the Home mission will also be moved and merged with the HQ mission, as they were almost identical in gameplay.

So, the new sector will be the final one for the Earth, and the player will finally approach the outskirts of Olympus.
I also adjusted the roadmap with these changes:

• Island: Added a new large project - Radio-emitter.
  
• Island: Added small walls for sewing up the gaps formed during the construction of roofs.
  
• Island: Significant optimization of the "snapping" mechanism during construction. (When many buildings were built, there were noticeable slowdowns).
  
• Island: Significantly improved the work of the " snap " mechanism for cornices.
  
• Island: The weather/clock screen now has additional channels, with detailed information on wind and solar power generation.
  
• Island: For now, I have disabled the stretching of the building elements at a 45-degree angle on the triangular floor shape, as this approach created new problems.