Upgraded Ship Combat, FPS Combat and More...
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][h3]Project Genesis is our answer to the question: What happens when you take the visceral close quarters FPS battles of a game like Halo and mash it up with the free-look flight model of a game like Dreadnought?[/h3]
[h2]Dorado Update[/h2]
This update takes pre-alpha Project Genesis into Early Access. Your playtesting and feedback during this time is a critical contribution to development as we fine tune gameplay until our Early Access debuts on May 22nd. Thank you for participating!
[h2]Major Changes[/h2][h3]Upgraded Ship & FPS Combat Systems[/h3]
Gameplay in both space combat (3rd person) and aboard capital ships or space stations (1st person) has a noticeably different feel. Ship speeds as well as field of view have changed, allowing for more tactical combat in space. Combat areas have also been refocused by introducing more structures, obstacles and cover.
Another pass on FPS combat includes noticeablely increased movement speed. This introduces a host of gameplay consequences including the need for rapid iteration against speed of play.
Please tell us your thoughts on both!
[h3]Player progression[/h3]
We introduced player progression in our past update, Corvus. In Dorado, we now begin taking action with the back-end algorithms recording player progress. As we continue experimenting with unlocking items, Dorado introduces ships, avatars and weapons that are standard for all players beginning at Level 0. Thereafter, as you progress through levels in accordance to your wins and team contribution (measured by scores in games), more ships, weapons and an additional avatar will begin to unlock.
We can't emphasize enough that this is a work heavily in progress. Thanks for your feedback and patience as we fine tune this ahead of Early Access!
[h3]Kingsguard Auto Shotgun[/h3]
A new weapon is in the game! An upgrade to the shotgun that was first implemented in our Cassiopeia update, the Kingsguard Auto Shotgun has a revamped look to the original shotgun and can quickly fire rounds in a short period of time.
Please try the existing, overall gunplay composition and let us know your thoughts on feel, balance and opportunities.
[h3]Turrets: ADS, Targeting, SFX, VFX[/h3]
Turrets aboard capital ships have been significantly improved for aesthetics as well as gameplay. Now you'll experience stronger notification reinforcement to let you know if your turret fire is hitting opponents as well as easier targeting and aiming.
[h3]Full Release Notes[/h3]
- Preset Color Palettes
- Stats Tracking Upgrade
- Implemented Discord rich presence
- Fixed issue where TurretEmplacements would increase their rotation when being used by the amount defined on the World Rotation of their placement in the level
- Fixed the levels of the EMP audio
- Fixed issue with ship projectiles not replicating
- Updated frag explosion sound
- Increased missile repeater fire rate from 0.75 to 0.5
- Increased lockon sound volume from 1.5 to 2.5
- Changed the frag fuse to activate on collision and it explodes 1 sec after, should make it more consistent as long as you bounce the grenade near your target
- Fixed lockon widget sould clean up if the target leaves the match
- Implemented max distance traveled on turret projectiles, they'll explode after traveling a certain distance, dictated by the turret
- Fixed issue with the ship's targeting systems not targeting other ships properly
- Fixed ship weapon charged fx now cleans up on EndPlay
- Fixed issue where player can equip locked utility for character
- Player & Unit progression adjustment; target unlock 4 hours
- Fixed issue where player can equip locked items (ships, ship weapons, avatar, avatar weapons)
- Material/mesh updates - give higher fidelity to low quality game settings, lightmaps
- Made major improvements to the KillCam. The KillCam will now play a floating away sequence which serves 2 purposes. One is to make the KillCam appear more dynamic, the second is an edge case where the KillCam has no Actor to target, in this case instead of remaining in a static position, it will now float away to a set distance and aim the Viewport towards the Players death location. The KillCam will also not fly through existing geometry and performs collision checks to find its maximum distance it can float away before potentially clipping geometry.
- Fixed a crash with the TargetingSystemsComponent and a missing nullptr check
- Fixed an issue where the ReadyUp Timer was not properly replicating state to Clients that joined later in the PreMatch period and would have to wait the full ReadyUp Time instead of the partial current value reported by the Server.
- Fixed an issue where the Player could manipulate the Spectator pawn that is created when they first join the Server in such a way to move it under the Map. This had no gameplay consequences but was a visual inconsistency.
- Fixed a Client Side crash when exiting to the MainMenu where bindings to delegates for getting the Login status were not being correctly removed when the MainMenu Widget was destroyed.
- Added sound attenuation to ship charge sound
- Fixed an issue that displayed the missile incoming even if it wasn't a lockon weapon
- Turrets now use the targetting systems, which display the ship diamond widget and also allow for lockon functionality
- Lowered kg shotgun sound a bit more, added sfx soundclass so it can be adjusted in options
- Can now zoom in with the turrets
- Production lightmaps
- Set eye adaptation to 2 for all quality levels
- Updated main menu map to look better using low quality settings
- Adjusted hangar materials to look better at low quality settings
- Changes to further address issues with Ping not displaying for other Players.
- Updated the HangarManager Blueprint to use the CLIENT_UpdateHangar Cloud Code function when pushing changes to the Hangar Slots by the Player.
- Fixed an issue where Projectiles that have huge velocity would spawn their impact effects behind geometry due to their speed. They now correctly apply their impact effects at the point of impact.
- Fixed an issue on the AssaultPodInterior Actor that would cause remote Clients to see the Breached Wall static mesh when the Pod is Idle or Traveling instead of the Intact Wall static mesh that it should be using during those states.
- Further adjustments to the Bombsite in order to address the issue where the Bombsite continues to "tick" after the match ends.
- Adjusted (centered) ships in hangar
- Tweaked material roughness params in hangar
- Fixed lighmap UVs on hangar meshes
- Cooling tower vert painting, collision bug fix
- Fixed level extent collision boundary (Carbonaceous)
- Play/Join button typo fix
- Dom cap ship/outpost interior polish
- Created new function for showing the widget
- Level ups show on the left side of the screen in a scrollbox now (if any) - unlocks on the right (if any)
- Showing avatar and ship level on hover event in the details panel (only if the item is unlocked)
- Added ship support cradles back in to hangar
- E Key is now the default key for breaching
- Fixed issue with seeing the breach Indicator though the capital ship shield if close enough
- Fixed green breach indicator height
- Fixed breach use text to update with bindings
- Set thruster geo to use lighting channel 2
- Implemented lockon notification & missile location
- Changed charged weapons sound FX
- Setup a system in the HUD where we can define which was the last set focusable Widget, the ChatBox is currently the only Widget to use this feature to determine what Widget it needs to allow focus for when it loses input.
- Fixed Turret firing hitch that affects all Players.
- Hiding the Escape Menu if the Respawn Menu appears after a Death.
- Put in provisions to disconnect Clients from VoiceChat early on before they roll to the next map. Made adjustments to the RespawnMenu as well as the PlayerController input code to allow VoiceChat to work while in all MatchStates. This should solve voice channels remaining open after exiting to menu.
- Increasing footsteps volume to find a baseline
- Updated respawn menu
- New bay items to show off the pairing and bay number
- UI 4k support
- New design for flight deck menu
- Flight deck using similar bay item as in respawn menu
- Added 4k menu support
- Fixed camera issue on initial loading the flight deck
- Upres'd mounted turret barrel
- Expanded E/D capture volume in Dominion
- Fixed s301 badge/weapon conflict
- Added thumbnail for auto shotgun to the BP
- Gamemode helper text should be hidden on end match
- Made modifications to the VitalSystemsComponent when taking damage in order to resolve the case where we might want the World to cause damage to the Player. Added a Radial Damage causer to the Bombsites when they explode. This uses a new BP_DT_World Damage type that is specifically for events that arent caused by Players but need to apply damage.
- Changed the HangarBay Slot Widget on the Respawn Menu to always show its contents when it is Selected.
- Fixed a hardpoint from floating on the S301
- Added badge mesh to base ship BP, updated ships to use correct badge mesh
- Pulled the ChatBox and VoiceChat Talkers list out of the Killfeed Widget and moved them to their own dedicated Widget called W_Chat. This allows us to separate the ordering of these elements so that they always appear on top of all other Widgets, this should also allow users to discuss things during the End Match.
- Exposed the ServerIdle check functions to Blueprint. The GameState will now check if the Server has exceeded its maximum lifetime at the end of a Match even if there are Players in it (where previously it wouldnt). It will now gracefully push Players back to the Hangar before shutting down the Server for recycling. This will happen after a minimum of 3 hours (this can be changed in the GameLift Settings page). The Players will get a clear message and be asked to rejoin a match until we get time to implement a more seamless transition mechanic to solve this.
- Raise up the EndMatch win condition text to stop it from overlapping the GameMode description text.
- Added in provisions to help mitigate the issue where you can "Return to Ship" while also simultaneously breach a ship.
- Fixed a crash with ShipWeapons attempting to access a nullptr when initiating effects.
- Turret aiming speed is the same as the fps aiming speed
- Changed team colors, blue is always friendly team while red is enemy team
- Prevented scoring on dominion if intermission/post match. May need another pass if some points slip in.
- Reduced frag grenade bounciness
- Added game mode helper text on the scoreboard
- Fixed a bug with a Utility function that wasnt looking for the correct Prefix on AvatarWeapons.
- Implemented a rudimentary Versioning system on the GameState that checks the BuildVersion.txt file on the Server versus what the Client thinks it has. If the Player doesnt have the same version contents, it will automatically kick them back to the MainMenu with a message.
- Adjusted some Timer Handles that could potentially be left dangling and causing crashes.
- Removed ability to access turret from below in outposts, filled gaps in floor at cap ship bridge/outposts
- Fixed UVs on cap ship
- Enabled cap ship interior cull volumes
- Fixed UV stretching on cooling towers
- Generating new physics asset bodies on KGLM, KGS, CP5 to solve for dropped weapons rolling around.
- Changed kg shotgun firing fx (sound and particle)
- Changed capital turret firing sound
- Capital turret monitor changes when destroyed
- Implemented TP mesh on FP mode, can now see your lower body
- Refactored footsteps to use the TP ones instead of the FP anim notifies, this allows for more accurate and responsive footsteps, as well as not having to re-do the footstep notifications on all new weapons, other player footsteps are louder than yours, crouching reduces footstep volume
- Reduced incendiary damage radius
- Removed old breach help widget
[h2]Dorado Update[/h2]
This update takes pre-alpha Project Genesis into Early Access. Your playtesting and feedback during this time is a critical contribution to development as we fine tune gameplay until our Early Access debuts on May 22nd. Thank you for participating!
[h2]Major Changes[/h2][h3]Upgraded Ship & FPS Combat Systems[/h3]
Gameplay in both space combat (3rd person) and aboard capital ships or space stations (1st person) has a noticeably different feel. Ship speeds as well as field of view have changed, allowing for more tactical combat in space. Combat areas have also been refocused by introducing more structures, obstacles and cover.
Another pass on FPS combat includes noticeablely increased movement speed. This introduces a host of gameplay consequences including the need for rapid iteration against speed of play.
Please tell us your thoughts on both!
[h3]Player progression[/h3]
We introduced player progression in our past update, Corvus. In Dorado, we now begin taking action with the back-end algorithms recording player progress. As we continue experimenting with unlocking items, Dorado introduces ships, avatars and weapons that are standard for all players beginning at Level 0. Thereafter, as you progress through levels in accordance to your wins and team contribution (measured by scores in games), more ships, weapons and an additional avatar will begin to unlock.
We can't emphasize enough that this is a work heavily in progress. Thanks for your feedback and patience as we fine tune this ahead of Early Access!
[h3]Kingsguard Auto Shotgun[/h3]
A new weapon is in the game! An upgrade to the shotgun that was first implemented in our Cassiopeia update, the Kingsguard Auto Shotgun has a revamped look to the original shotgun and can quickly fire rounds in a short period of time.
Please try the existing, overall gunplay composition and let us know your thoughts on feel, balance and opportunities.
[h3]Turrets: ADS, Targeting, SFX, VFX[/h3]
Turrets aboard capital ships have been significantly improved for aesthetics as well as gameplay. Now you'll experience stronger notification reinforcement to let you know if your turret fire is hitting opponents as well as easier targeting and aiming.
[h3]Full Release Notes[/h3]
- Preset Color Palettes
- Stats Tracking Upgrade
- Implemented Discord rich presence
- Fixed issue where TurretEmplacements would increase their rotation when being used by the amount defined on the World Rotation of their placement in the level
- Fixed the levels of the EMP audio
- Fixed issue with ship projectiles not replicating
- Updated frag explosion sound
- Increased missile repeater fire rate from 0.75 to 0.5
- Increased lockon sound volume from 1.5 to 2.5
- Changed the frag fuse to activate on collision and it explodes 1 sec after, should make it more consistent as long as you bounce the grenade near your target
- Fixed lockon widget sould clean up if the target leaves the match
- Implemented max distance traveled on turret projectiles, they'll explode after traveling a certain distance, dictated by the turret
- Fixed issue with the ship's targeting systems not targeting other ships properly
- Fixed ship weapon charged fx now cleans up on EndPlay
- Fixed issue where player can equip locked utility for character
- Player & Unit progression adjustment; target unlock 4 hours
- Fixed issue where player can equip locked items (ships, ship weapons, avatar, avatar weapons)
- Material/mesh updates - give higher fidelity to low quality game settings, lightmaps
- Made major improvements to the KillCam. The KillCam will now play a floating away sequence which serves 2 purposes. One is to make the KillCam appear more dynamic, the second is an edge case where the KillCam has no Actor to target, in this case instead of remaining in a static position, it will now float away to a set distance and aim the Viewport towards the Players death location. The KillCam will also not fly through existing geometry and performs collision checks to find its maximum distance it can float away before potentially clipping geometry.
- Fixed a crash with the TargetingSystemsComponent and a missing nullptr check
- Fixed an issue where the ReadyUp Timer was not properly replicating state to Clients that joined later in the PreMatch period and would have to wait the full ReadyUp Time instead of the partial current value reported by the Server.
- Fixed an issue where the Player could manipulate the Spectator pawn that is created when they first join the Server in such a way to move it under the Map. This had no gameplay consequences but was a visual inconsistency.
- Fixed a Client Side crash when exiting to the MainMenu where bindings to delegates for getting the Login status were not being correctly removed when the MainMenu Widget was destroyed.
- Added sound attenuation to ship charge sound
- Fixed an issue that displayed the missile incoming even if it wasn't a lockon weapon
- Turrets now use the targetting systems, which display the ship diamond widget and also allow for lockon functionality
- Lowered kg shotgun sound a bit more, added sfx soundclass so it can be adjusted in options
- Can now zoom in with the turrets
- Production lightmaps
- Set eye adaptation to 2 for all quality levels
- Updated main menu map to look better using low quality settings
- Adjusted hangar materials to look better at low quality settings
- Changes to further address issues with Ping not displaying for other Players.
- Updated the HangarManager Blueprint to use the CLIENT_UpdateHangar Cloud Code function when pushing changes to the Hangar Slots by the Player.
- Fixed an issue where Projectiles that have huge velocity would spawn their impact effects behind geometry due to their speed. They now correctly apply their impact effects at the point of impact.
- Fixed an issue on the AssaultPodInterior Actor that would cause remote Clients to see the Breached Wall static mesh when the Pod is Idle or Traveling instead of the Intact Wall static mesh that it should be using during those states.
- Further adjustments to the Bombsite in order to address the issue where the Bombsite continues to "tick" after the match ends.
- Adjusted (centered) ships in hangar
- Tweaked material roughness params in hangar
- Fixed lighmap UVs on hangar meshes
- Cooling tower vert painting, collision bug fix
- Fixed level extent collision boundary (Carbonaceous)
- Play/Join button typo fix
- Dom cap ship/outpost interior polish
- Created new function for showing the widget
- Level ups show on the left side of the screen in a scrollbox now (if any) - unlocks on the right (if any)
- Showing avatar and ship level on hover event in the details panel (only if the item is unlocked)
- Added ship support cradles back in to hangar
- E Key is now the default key for breaching
- Fixed issue with seeing the breach Indicator though the capital ship shield if close enough
- Fixed green breach indicator height
- Fixed breach use text to update with bindings
- Set thruster geo to use lighting channel 2
- Implemented lockon notification & missile location
- Changed charged weapons sound FX
- Setup a system in the HUD where we can define which was the last set focusable Widget, the ChatBox is currently the only Widget to use this feature to determine what Widget it needs to allow focus for when it loses input.
- Fixed Turret firing hitch that affects all Players.
- Hiding the Escape Menu if the Respawn Menu appears after a Death.
- Put in provisions to disconnect Clients from VoiceChat early on before they roll to the next map. Made adjustments to the RespawnMenu as well as the PlayerController input code to allow VoiceChat to work while in all MatchStates. This should solve voice channels remaining open after exiting to menu.
- Increasing footsteps volume to find a baseline
- Updated respawn menu
- New bay items to show off the pairing and bay number
- UI 4k support
- New design for flight deck menu
- Flight deck using similar bay item as in respawn menu
- Added 4k menu support
- Fixed camera issue on initial loading the flight deck
- Upres'd mounted turret barrel
- Expanded E/D capture volume in Dominion
- Fixed s301 badge/weapon conflict
- Added thumbnail for auto shotgun to the BP
- Gamemode helper text should be hidden on end match
- Made modifications to the VitalSystemsComponent when taking damage in order to resolve the case where we might want the World to cause damage to the Player. Added a Radial Damage causer to the Bombsites when they explode. This uses a new BP_DT_World Damage type that is specifically for events that arent caused by Players but need to apply damage.
- Changed the HangarBay Slot Widget on the Respawn Menu to always show its contents when it is Selected.
- Fixed a hardpoint from floating on the S301
- Added badge mesh to base ship BP, updated ships to use correct badge mesh
- Pulled the ChatBox and VoiceChat Talkers list out of the Killfeed Widget and moved them to their own dedicated Widget called W_Chat. This allows us to separate the ordering of these elements so that they always appear on top of all other Widgets, this should also allow users to discuss things during the End Match.
- Exposed the ServerIdle check functions to Blueprint. The GameState will now check if the Server has exceeded its maximum lifetime at the end of a Match even if there are Players in it (where previously it wouldnt). It will now gracefully push Players back to the Hangar before shutting down the Server for recycling. This will happen after a minimum of 3 hours (this can be changed in the GameLift Settings page). The Players will get a clear message and be asked to rejoin a match until we get time to implement a more seamless transition mechanic to solve this.
- Raise up the EndMatch win condition text to stop it from overlapping the GameMode description text.
- Added in provisions to help mitigate the issue where you can "Return to Ship" while also simultaneously breach a ship.
- Fixed a crash with ShipWeapons attempting to access a nullptr when initiating effects.
- Turret aiming speed is the same as the fps aiming speed
- Changed team colors, blue is always friendly team while red is enemy team
- Prevented scoring on dominion if intermission/post match. May need another pass if some points slip in.
- Reduced frag grenade bounciness
- Added game mode helper text on the scoreboard
- Fixed a bug with a Utility function that wasnt looking for the correct Prefix on AvatarWeapons.
- Implemented a rudimentary Versioning system on the GameState that checks the BuildVersion.txt file on the Server versus what the Client thinks it has. If the Player doesnt have the same version contents, it will automatically kick them back to the MainMenu with a message.
- Adjusted some Timer Handles that could potentially be left dangling and causing crashes.
- Removed ability to access turret from below in outposts, filled gaps in floor at cap ship bridge/outposts
- Fixed UVs on cap ship
- Enabled cap ship interior cull volumes
- Fixed UV stretching on cooling towers
- Generating new physics asset bodies on KGLM, KGS, CP5 to solve for dropped weapons rolling around.
- Changed kg shotgun firing fx (sound and particle)
- Changed capital turret firing sound
- Capital turret monitor changes when destroyed
- Implemented TP mesh on FP mode, can now see your lower body
- Refactored footsteps to use the TP ones instead of the FP anim notifies, this allows for more accurate and responsive footsteps, as well as not having to re-do the footstep notifications on all new weapons, other player footsteps are louder than yours, crouching reduces footstep volume
- Reduced incendiary damage radius
- Removed old breach help widget