AI Olympius News

Summing up the year 2024 and the dynamics with which the project is being developed, I have to shorten the ending part of the game a bit so that it doesn't stretch on for another year.

• Fixed a bug on the South Station level where the player did not start at the beginning of the level.
  
• Changed the sound of the standard rifle firing. (The previous one always sounded not very good to me)
  
• The first missions have been reordered. It will be easier for players to get used to the gameplay on a more linear location before being allowed to a larger space.
  
• The effects of the energy pistol shot now sound like a plasma shot instead of a regular pistol.
  
• The homing missiles of the Olympic Rifle, Defensive Missile Launchers, and Hoverbike are now accelerated in flight to make them a key element in the fight against strikers.
  
• The range of the red target lock has been increased from 250 to 300.
  
• Increased the standard zoom when aiming.
  
• Minor corrections to the graphics at the level of “desert”, “island”
  

• Some elements of the second level (bridge detonation) were changed.
  
• The Bastion mission is now swapped with the South Station mission, I see that most players play the missions in the order they are presented on the map, and this mission is more spectacular and easier.
  
• Improved interaction with ladders, and fixed some bugs in interaction with ladders.
  
• Improved the effect of the SSAO and SSGI post-effect (not so dark).
  
• At Elysium III level, the bonfire will not work as a respawn point (as an exception, due to the presence of moving platforms).
  
• The Olympic rifle in harpy mode now fires hybrid bullets like a rifle by holding the button instead of pressing it.
  
• The firing rhythm quest module now also affects the machine gun in Harpy mode.
  
• Turret loot chance increased from 60% to 80%.
  
• The loot indicator now flashes more frequently and more clearly.
  
• Fixed some system errors.
  

The last level of Elysium was completed pretty quickly!
The next update will focus on the Island, as the next story mission will be directly related to it.
Also, the update includes some improvements to the cooperative mode. Not many people play in co-op so I'm glad to hear any feedback on it. For now, thanks to Krato for his feedback.

• A new story level, and one new item of equipment.
  
• TAA is better tuned, the picture is now crystal clear.
  
• Enriched the background of Elysium on the first and second missions.
  
• A tiny lens flare effect was added.
  
• Fixed some bugs with enemy “cores”.
  
• SSGI is working again. It broke down unnoticed when switching to Unity 6.
  
• Fixed some issues with cubemap rendering when their color scheme did not match the scene.
  
• Changes to some sounds to avoid noise.
  
• Improved the layout of the main interface. Now everything is a little more compact, and better centered, and the text description of special actions when selecting them has been removed.
  
• The minimum shadow quality setting now completely turns off the sun, which looks pretty good as if it were overcast.
  

The game is competing in two nominations at IndieCup!

I've already started working on the last mission of the Elysium sector, but I've noticed a few technical issues after switching to Unity 6 that should be fixed.

• Minor fixes related to the recent switch to the new Unity.
  
• The game window no longer minimizes when losing focus, especially important for dual-monitor systems.
  
• New soundtrack in the last mission has been added.
  
• Added a slight scattering effect in the fog.
  

This month I made the switch to Unity 6, which was a lot of work with a seemingly unnoticeable result. Somehow, magically, a game build on the new Unity is less than 3.5 GB instead of almost 13 GB(!).

Updated roadmap:

Change list:

• New story level.
  
• Fixed jitter in Aim Assist for gamepads, and introduced a setting for its strength.
  
• Aim Assist also works for the mouse (but much weaker than for controllers)
  
• The project has been migrated to the new Unity 6. We tested the builds intensively and a lot, everything looks stable.
  
• 2 new enemy units have been introduced on the new level.
  
• The new enemy Striker has been added to the previous levels “South Station”, “Desert”, “Castle”, “Aircraft Factory”, “Great Gate”.
  
• The previous mission on the Elysium has been extended with three sentences.
  
• Some improvements to the graphics on the initial levels.
  
• Improved physics response to FPS drops, time slowing and pausing should no longer have abnormal effects on physics.
  
• Additional significant optimizations in memory, graphics, rendering and physics.
  
• An additional dialog appears in the new headquarters after completing any mission on Elysium.