TerraTech Worlds News

As the weather starts to get a little colder here at Payload Studios, we wanted to share what we’ll be revealing more of this month: the Arctic biome for TerraTech Worlds!

The Arctic biome is a snowy tundra filled with unique plants, blocks and hazards. As you explore the expansive ice sheets of the Arctic, you’ll need to adapt your Techs to this new frozen landscape.



“The Arctic biome started off as a joke,” explains Art Director Jason Howard, “the biome heightmaps on the planet were using cylindrical mapping, and at the planet's poles, the terrain was horribly deformed, so we turned the poles into completely flat, snowy wastelands as a temporary fix. After our Technical Director Si had figured out a fix for this, we'd gotten used to the idea of poles and the challenge of a low-temperature hazard biome fitted in with the progression for the planet.”

Once it was decided that the Arctic was the direction that the teams wanted to go for, it was time to think about game design, and the impact that the Arctic would have on players’ Techs:

“The Design team have been thinking about what makes sense in each specific biome while also making fun and engaging hazards,” explains Junior Designer Lewis Kielthy, “when it became apparent that we wanted to include a biome with extreme temperature we decided that using that temperature itself was an interesting mechanic that could influence the way players interact with the environment.”



We’ll be revealing more about the Arctic biome later this month, including in-game screenshots and video, as well as more explanation on how temperatures will affect your gameplay, so stay tuned for more information on what you’ll be able to do in this new snowy landscape!

November: it’s gonna be a good’un!

Today we wanted to update you on some of what we’ve been working on for TerraTech Worlds, with a focus on combat!

Whilst you’re exploring new lands in TerraTech Worlds, you may encounter some aggressive non-player Techs who are looking to pick a fight. Being able to fire back and defend your Techs (and your honour!) can be an important part of exploring unknown planets, and today we wanted to show you some of the ways that you can choose to do that.

(As a reminder, all of this is work-in-progress development, and may be changed or removed in the final game!)

[h2]Combat Shield Projectors
[/h2]


First up, we have the Combat Shield Projectors, which will help you defend your creations as you explore.

"Shield Projectors create an energy field that takes intercepted damage until exhausted," explains Payload 3D Artist Hatty, "Once attached to your Tech, they project a force field which aids in defending your Tech from damage during combat or any situation where you may need extra protection. There are a variety of shield projector blocks shapes and sizes available, making them a great addition to any Tech."



[h2]Missile Launchers
[/h2]



Payload Artist David W. explains how you'll be able to use Missile Launchers for long-range attacks:

"The 'Eagle' smart missile launcher is a powerful piece of military equipment designed to launch missiles, which are guided projectiles capable of delivering various types of precise payloads to a target. The design philosophy for this weapon was to keep it simple, whilst also communicating to the player what type of ammunition the gun used via the visible loading bay on the side of the model."

[h2]Combat Long Shot Gun[/h2]


We can't talk about combat without mentioning the Long Boi: The Long Shot Gun!

"The Long Shot Gun is is a heavy artillery weapon designed to fire large-calibre projectiles over significant distances with precision and accuracy," explains David, "this gun is designed to be more challenging for the player to use as it has a limited firing arc, forcing the player to have to manoeuvre their Tech to get the right shot."

[h2]Combat Dual Cannon[/h2]



And finally, we have the Dual Cannon, for when one cannon just isn't enough!

"The dual barrelled T12 lacks the firing speed of previous models but makes up for this by putting two high speed, heavy projectiles down range with each fire," explains David, "when designing this gun, the goal was to make it look as menacing and powerful as possible."

So there you go, we hope you enjoyed looking at a few of the ways in which you’ll be able to attack and defend in TerraTech Worlds: we’ll be back soon with more game updates!

We've recently been sharing a few pieces of TerraTech Worlds concept art over on our social channels, and we thought we'd post them here in case you might have missed them!

[h2]2m Off-Road Wheels[/h2]




[h2]Puffball Hazard[/h2]



[h2]Fungus Trees[/h2]



We'll be sure to share more concept art in the coming weeks and months, so let us know if there's anything in particular that you'd like to see! Otherwise you'll just get the stuff that the Community Manager thinks looks the coolest, and you probably have better taste than her.

Until next time!

Early on we knew we wanted to improve on one of the most important parts of the game. During pre-production we highlighted a number of areas to investigate, the first was:

[h2]Tech building with a controller Prototype[/h2]

We wanted support for the gamepad from the very start of development. To achieve this we built a number of prototypes to figure out how to best deal with block rotation. One of our favoured approaches was holding Y to enter block rotation mode. Here is a video of some very early stages of development:

Testing holding Y to enter into rotation mode on Joypad

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Block Rotation Control Visualizer Prototype[/h2]

We have made some significant changes to how block building works in Terratech Worlds which meant we needed to prototype the user interface to clear communicate how to interact with their blocks:







[h2]Random Block Spawner Tool[/h2]

Sometimes you want to create tools to help you prototype. Here is a fun one that we used to get block building just right. It helped quickly verify some of the bigger changes we were making. Is it fun to build when you are given a random set of blocks?

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Block Hotbar Prototype[/h2]

We briefly experimented with a block hotbar that allowed you to choose your favourite blocks, the ones you built with the most.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Tech Inventory Prototypes [/h2]

The block inventory went through a numbers of stages of development, as you can see below.