The Fornax Update
Hey pilot, it's me, James again, excited to give another update!
As you’ll no doubt know, we name our milestone builds after constellations. This build is called Fornax, which means “furnace” — it suits because we’re coming in hot. That’s devspeak for “we’re trying to cram as much in as we can while not breaking anything (but we’re most certainly, on occasion, breaking things…lots of things)”. Don’t worry though, the team is working like maniacs to ensure that the Project Genesis experience, is a big improvement over the previous milestone.
Here is a list of the major systems we’ve tackled for this release:
- Engine Upgrade to UE 4.25
- Progression
- Yuuuuge audio pass on weapons (FPS and battle craft)
- New awards and events notifications (acknowledging your badassness)
- Hotswap your loadouts between matches
- Ring map exterior expansion
- Kingsguard SMG Implemented
- Leaderboard level-up: phase II (check your new stats!)
- Razer integration
And much more…
[h2]The Big Steam Sale: 33% Off[/h2]
If you have been looking to support Project Genesis, then now might be a good time to take advantage of our very first Steam sale starting on Thursday the 17th of September. With the purchase you will not only be supporting our efforts to bring you a different kind of sci-fi PVP FPS game, but you will also be able to take advantage of the limited time offer of grabbing:
- Founders Badge (show off your stalwart support to others in leaderboards, in-game messaging, and on your ships) — available now!
- Founders Palette — available now!
- Founders Origin Skin
- Remastered OST
- 1999 Credits (a ~$20 value)
Once we launch live with the final build of Project Genesis, becoming a Founder will no longer be an option. There’s today’s dose of FOMO for you.
[h2]Updated game mode — Onslaught[/h2]
Onslaught is our second traditional game mode (the first was Dominion…our take on a territorial capture domination mode) that is designed to focus on asymmetrical gameplay. We’ve reworked our messaging system, objectives, and a whole slew of other mechanics to double down on one of the community’s favorite maps.
Image for post
Additionally, Mark Nicolino has adjusted the interior of the galactic cruiser n-SATOSHI for a tighter game loop.
[h2]Evolution: Players, Units & Leaderboards[/h2]
[h3]After Action Report[/h3]
Our original post match system showed player progress but it was confusing. So we separated the three elements in our game that can evolve:
Player Core DNA
Battle Craft
Avatars
Whereas before we stacked player progress notifications on one line, we now show you exactly what they are unlocking as they progress. Evolving battle craft and avatars will allow extended loadout options in the future.
[h3]Leaderboards[/h3]
We’ve added 4 new stats and refactored our system to allow us to easily add any number of stats. If you’ve got a favorite stat that you’d like to see added, jump into our Discord, or fire off a post on Steam, and hit us with your thoughts.
The new stats are:
Total Objective Points
Ship Kills
FPS Kills
Dominion Capture Points
Whether you’re a new recruit on the climb, or a veteran Ace Pilot, you can now see where you rank against other players.
[h3]Moar Audio[/h3]
Isaac Barry, Designer extraordinaire, has advanced the pipeline for our audio. His home office now looks like a keyboard factory exploded in his living room. His pain is your gain, however. Now we’re doing full weapons audio passes to differentiate how the weapons sound. Many of these weapons will look the same to you as you’re playing in-game (they’re all placeholders). However, you’ll likely notice that they’re starting to feel different.
[h3]Loadout Hotswapping[/h3]
“Loadout hotswapping” as we’re using the term means that the player has the ability to change their loadouts during respawns. This new user interface capability was important to prioritize because forcing you to travel back to the hangar to edit their loadouts was a real buzz-kill. This extra step interrupted the flow of play and we noticed that players would often quit playing the moment they had to leave the match. Based on feedback from our Test Pilots so far, it appears to be a significant improvement.
[h3]The Ring Map expansion[/h3]
Mark Nicolino has expanded the play space on The Ring map. The Ring is currently hosting the Dominion game mode. It is a mode that you can win by capturing and holding key objective locations.
The interior of the mega structure in the space theater has been increased to allow for better combat maneuvering. This also forces some strategic play with the new exterior objectives
[h3]Kingsguard SMG Implemented[/h3]
We’ve removed our sub machine gun placeholder weapon that we purchased off the Unreal Marketplace. This rapid fire beasty is in-game for you to hit your opponents in high-tech fashion.
[h3]Razer Chroma Integration[/h3]
For those of you who have Razer hardware, or are about purchase a device in the Chroma lighting ecosystem…you’re in luck! We’ve partnered with Razer to complete a suite of RGB lighting effects for your Razer Chroma-capable peripherals.
Our Q/A-lead-&-sometimes-Designer, Deejay B. collaborated with our favorite Ukrainian Engineer, Anatoliy G. to create some killer visual effects that will be sure to heighten the intensity of your Project Genesis experience.
Gaze in wonder! (but never lose focus, lest you become space dust)
[h2]Engine Upgrade 4.25[/h2]
And last, but certainly not least, we have upgraded our Unreal Engine to 4.25. These kinds of upgrades are always quite risky because there are so many systems that need to be verified as functional. However, our lead Engineer Matt B. has performed a number of these upgrades for us, and with his skill we navigated the endeavor in record time with minimal impact to the team.
[h3]Networking Improvements[/h3]
There are a ton of new capabilities (like in VFX) that we can take advantage of in UE 4.25, but the biggest gain we’ve had our eye on is using Unreal’s replication graph. We anticipate that this system will improve some of the “rubberbanding” we’ve been seeing as allies and opponents slide about in PVP matches. This seems to be exacerbated if you are using a server that are quite far from them geographically.
[h2]In Conclusion[/h2]
As always, the community (and Test Pilots especially) have been giving us lots of great feedback on areas to improve. Additionally, once we implement a new feature, the Test Pilots get special access to private builds before anyone else, and they help us determine how close or far from the mark we are.
If you’re looking to get involved with a community supporting a team that is obsessed with making big strides in indie development, Project Genesis might just be the game for you.
If so, we hope you’ll join us today!
[h3]Full Release Notes[/h3]
https://store.steampowered.com/newshub/app/700240/view/4042499938193767950
James
Chief Navigator
TIER 1 - EARNING YOUR FIRST PROFICIENCY BADGE