Ara: History Untold News

Continuing our series on the look and feel of Ara: History Untold, this week the team wanted to share a little bit more about the terrain and world textures.

As we talked about in our Microflora post, the team was able to increase the resolution of the terrain textures in recent weeks to help ensure a more detailed look, but they didn’t stop there – updates have been made to normalize the lighting across all the elements of the living world to help ground the gameplay and natural elements, and the team also did a pass at regenerating the textures to balance colors and reduce noise, for a more natural look.

With all visual changes, the team is looking to ensure that performance and gameplay are front and center. We are excited to report that despite the increases made to resolution, they were able to make the net render time 15% more performant due to simultaneous optimizations made to terrain blending, with the added benefit of further smoothing lateral camera movement, based on feedback from our recent Technical Alpha.

Take a look at the progress we've made below, and be sure to stay tuned for more!


A split image showing the before and after of the savannah biome.


The savannah biome during our second technical alpha.


The savannah biome with the increased resolution and updated lighting.

This week the Ara: History Untold Team would like to continue to highlight the progress we've made to the game's visuals. Our latest feat has been creating cloud shadows that roll over the various landscapes, adding a new layer of depth to our living world.

We took a simple approach to implementing this, wherein we take the XY World position of the Pixel and use that to generate tiling UVs for a cloud map. That cloud map then modulates the actual shadow value of the directional lights, allowing ambient light and ambient specular to still have impact.

The results are impressive, with the shadows creating more variation across the expansive landscapes. Don't just take our word for it, see the changes for yourself in the captures below.


A spliced view of what the savannah biome looks like without (left) and with cloud shadows (right).


A full view of what the savannah biome looks like without cloud shadows.


A full view of what the savannah biome looks like with the cloud shadows. Sunlight is more vibrant and shadows bring out variety in the terrain.

The team at Oxide Games has been hard at work, and this week we'd like to share our progress on the graphical fidelity of Ara: History Untold's living world.

We've specifically been focusing on improving the terrain throughout the game. So far, we've increased the resolution of the terrain textures and added "micro flora", an element that adds small grass and plants to the terrain.

Despite the name, the addition of micro flora has made a huge difference. Our micro flora is a particle-based system that scatters thousands of blades of grass across the entire landscape and is customized per biome, giving each area a distinct look and feel. The addition of these effects also grounds the other elements in the world, such as roads, buildings, and people, which creates a truly living world as a result.

Take a look at the difference these adjustments have made below:


A comparison of our forest terrain without (left) and with micro flora (right)


A full image of the forest terrain before the increased resolution of the terrain textures and addition of micro flora.


A full image of the forest terrain with the recent enhancements.

Historical figures in Ara: History Untold that don’t appear as Leaders are instead represented as Paragons. Paragons are valuable citizens within your nation who excel in a certain Profession. Paragons are acquired automatically as your Nation’s population grows, and your playstyle will influence who is more likely to appear. A militarily focused nation is likely to have more Strategists appear, while another that’s prioritizing technological advancement can expect Scientists to come knocking.

Paragons can be assigned as Advisers, Generals, or Artisans to provide you with unique benefits. The benefits provided in each of these roles are dependent on the Paragon’s Profession. For instance, Marcus Licinius Crassus is an Entrepreneur, and if assigned to an Army as a General will remove its Upkeep cost, but as an Adviser he instead would make your Trade Routes more profitable. Meanwhile, if Emily Dickinson, a Writer, is used as an Artisan she’ll make Book Masterpieces at an astounding rate. Assigned to an Army, her tales of your soldiers’ battles instead directly increase your Nation’s Prestige.

Every week, we'll be revealing a new Paragon from Ara: History Untold, and share a little bit about the benefits they can provide your Nation, so stay tuned for this Friday's first Paragon reveal!

The second Ara: History Untold Technical Alpha officially closed on February 28th, 2023, and the team has taken some time to reflect. In this video, Meghan Sullivan joins Oxide developers Michelle Menard and Dorian Newcomb as they discuss their findings.

Some highlights from this interview:

• The game doubled in size – there was twice as much content, twice the amount of turns played on average, and twice the amount of players invited.
  
• Players experienced Act Transition – once you reach a certain threshold, there is a moment of pause and reflection before moving forward into a more advanced world.
  
• We introduced procedural map generation, so there was an endless amount of maps to explore.
  
• The Hanging Gardens of Nineveh beat out Stonehenge for most popular Triumph.
  
• In classic British fashion, Elizabeth the 1st was the most popular leader, knocking George Washington from his post.
  
• Players chose swine over swords, making Farms the more popular Improvements over Forges
  

Watch the full video here:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]