INTRODUCTION
Hi - I’m James, the Navigator at 8 Circuit Studios, and I’m looking forward to introducing you to the Project Genesis Pre-Alpha Iris milestone.
For this milestone, we have focused on Bot AI, Advanced Progression, Weapon Pick Ups, an Improved Training Ground, Capital Ship configurations, and weapon and ammo pickups.
AI SYSTEM & BOT BEHAVIORS
After field testing our AI in player-versus-environment modes, we felt our bots were ready to get into some player-versus-player matches. You no longer need to worry about finding friends to play with or against. Now, PvP matches
Our bots are designed to provide a medium level of difficulty, and in PvP matches, racking up bot kills will count against your XP progression.
ADVANCVED PROGRESSION
We have added a new Prestige layer to the progression system for those of you who are game to grind.
Once you transcend level 100, you get a Prestige indicator in the upper right hand corner of the main menu. For every 100 levels achieved, you will level up your Prestige status. You will also be granted several of the skins that have previously been reserved for us developers.
WEAPON DROP & PICKUP SYSTEM
In Hercules, we started experimenting with ammo picks up, and for Iris we have continued developing this feature to now include weapon pickups. If a friendly or opponent perishes, they’ll drop their weapon and you’ll be able to pick it up with your “USE” key.
Another benefit of the weapon pick up system is dynamic weapon swapping. We’ve applied this capability in the Solo Firing Range so that you can try out all of the available weapons without having to leave and then return to the range.
LEVEL ENHANCEMENTS
Level design improvements focused on unfair choke points, improving level flow, and adding color coding to help players better navigate ship interiors. We have also added environmental story elements that will be elaborated on in the future as we incrementally reveal Project Genesis’s lore.
IN CONCLUSION
And finally, the Iris milestone has hundreds of other features and quality of life improvements to enhance your gameplay experience. Check out the progress we’ve made with weapons and battle craft movement and give us your feedback. We’d love to hear if we’re moving in the right direction.
And as a reminder, we’ll be resetting the leaderboards and everyone’s level back to 0 to help us test the gameplay balance.
We look forward to seeing you in game Pilot! Good luck, and have fun.
QUALITY OF LIFE FEATURES
- Major overhaul of the Sliding and Sprinting mechanics for the Character Movement Component - this was to eliminate consistency issues as well as other more severe issues related to network packets getting confused with the movement mode the Avatar was in depending on the current floor. Sliding and Sprinting functionality now more closely operates to that of the default Walking and Crouching movement modes.
- Avatar Death Effects
- Battle craft ship movement pass - Should generally feel a bit more responsive than before, especially the lighter/more nimble ships
- Updated Capital Ship models in Detonation (+color differentiated)
- Ship transparency added during aiming through
- Ship interior surface weathering explorations added
- Updated Persona design in main menu's with improved item display
- Updated Squad/Party system architecture that brings in fixes to crashes and invite rejecting
- Moved turret consoles so not in walls (Proteus)
- HUD objective indicator countdown smoothing visuals)
- Updating ship wreck version of AD_Rift, added opacity param to battle craft founder skin master material
- Tooltip visual updates
- Updated loading screen visuals
- Voice/Text Chat available in Menu's when in a party
- Set up strength curves which determine how much the weapon's weight affects each character's max speed based on their build
- Implemented new weapon weight vs character strength vs movement speed system
- Battle craft Engine Thrusters: Scaling thrusters based on player input rather than ship speed
- Chat Box (in-game) now accessible with ENTER
