A Letter to Our Community
Hello there, fellow Human.
It took a while since the last development update and today we want to summarize all that's going on behind the scenes and how the development process was going the past few months. As you probably noticed there was no Beta waves this Summer and we also need to explain that among some other things.
So first of all, to dispel some doubts and rumors, we are still actively working on the game. If we go silent from time to time this doesn't mean that we canceled the project! This usually means that we are focusing on the development side of things even more.
The active phase of the Closed Beta is over now. Our focus is shifting completely towards iterating new content and polishing the game to make it ready for the public release. There will be more testing phases and waves but not in the upcoming months. We also don't want to specify any release window as for now. This is something we are going to do when we get closer to it.
But one thing is certain, we have been already working on this project for more than 2 years now and PROXIMA is our dream project. We are developing a game that we would love to play ourselves. We make the game not just for us but also for all other people who wanna play it and all the people that supported us so far. We want to take all time that's needed to make a great game and this is really important to us since this is our studios first title.
Another important thing: Right now is the time where we still can make key changes to the game without hurting it's core experience. We are currently making key decisions for the project which will influence the future of PROXIMA, the community and also us as the developer behind the game. We want to analyze everything carefully and adapt or change things, because those changes will be unrollabele in the future.
But anyways, we will always be listening to our community. We have gotten some really criitical feedback regarding the game updates/news the past few weeks and the most notable one is that we need to try to communicate more then we do right now! We did regular development updates and we also did ship new patches alongside the Beta waves. But many of you think that this is not enough. Well, we have the same oppinion on this matter. The more we can comminicate the better! This brings us to another topic: PROXIMA live stream events. We are currently planning to do regular event/dev streams where you the community can ask questions or we show in-progress stuff that we are working on. These streams will be around 1 hour of length and they will be either hosted every week or every second week. Please keep in mind that we are still planning out the production scale for these events and there is certain things we need to prepare in order to do them. When the first event stream will go live we will let you know in advance. We will try to be more transparent in general what goes on with the project and also behind the scenes. So be prepared for regular behind the scenes tweets or random WIP screenshots.
NEW GAME MODE
Now to the some more game specific stuff! We are already working on the new game mode. It's a similar experience compared to the current one, but still different and unique. The WIP name of the game mode is "Warzone". This mode is going to replace the current game mode as we think that this will make a big impact on the overall picture of the game received by the public eye. As mentioned many times before PROXIMA is not a Battle Royale game and never was intended to only feature one game mode. The whole "this is just another BR" type of game not only demotivated us to continue working on that game mode but also led us to the decision to strictly just delete it from the game. It was a great game mode to test core game mechanics in the Alpha and Beta but it will be taken out of the game, for good. Many of these game mechanics however will be used further and will be altered/changed and improved for the other game modes we are wokring on.
This is a key change to the game and we know that. We were thinking a lot about this topic the past few months. But If you like BR type of games you will also like the new game modes. Same goes if you hate BR games. You will simply like Warzone. The entire set of Warzone will appeal to both types of players. This is really important to us.
We are highly convinced of this thesis. There will also be different or altered versions of Warzone which are the following:
Please keep in mind that we just started building the foundation of what is going to be the "Casual Warzone" game mode. We will post more info and updates about the progress of these game modes in the upcoming months.
And finally we want to share some smaller things we've been working on.
THIRD PERSON PERSPECTIVE
We decided to allow players to switch from FP in TP to let them play in their prefered perspective. It's still under discussion if we are going to add any disadvantages to the third person view for a better balance. Nevertheless, the character animation system has been reworked in order to minimize the difference between first and third person animations. We see this as a big problem in other multiplayer FPS games where different animations are used in FPP and TPP which is causing players to appear slightly different to their opponents compared to how they see themselves. This can cause annoying issues, for example a player who is standing behind a cover can be slightly visible to an opponent. We replaced most of the character animations with new ones for a more natural appearance and for solving clipping issues which were present before. We also fixed numerous issues with the robot model, such as shifted fingers position when holding a weapon, excessive back distortion etc.
Switching from FPP to TPP.
ENHANCED PHYSICS
We finally implemented the character ragdoll system to the game. When a player gets killed by an opponent a corresponding force will be applied to it's body to simulate a physically-based death animation.
Character ragdoll in action.
The character hitbox has been modified accordingly to improve physics and grant better hit accuracy. The damage model has been enhanced and currently looks like this:
Updated physics asset of Sparky.
SHIELD SYSTEM
We decided to add a shield system on top of the health stat. The shield will partly consume the damage that is being dealt to a player. Different weapons and grenades will have different penetration stats, which means they can deal more or less damage to health bypassing the shield. Players will be able to refill their armor by using shield cores.
GRENADES
We started prototyping grenades implementation to the game. Currently we are planning to add 3 types of grenades:
WHAT'S NEXT
The changes which are highlighted here are just small changes and features. We are working on much more. The next patch that we intent to ship for PROXIMA will be 2-3 times bigger compared to the one we shipped during the transition from Alpha to Beta. Those changes will be the result of over one year or work.
Stay tuned for further updates,
Vulkan Society team
It took a while since the last development update and today we want to summarize all that's going on behind the scenes and how the development process was going the past few months. As you probably noticed there was no Beta waves this Summer and we also need to explain that among some other things.
So first of all, to dispel some doubts and rumors, we are still actively working on the game. If we go silent from time to time this doesn't mean that we canceled the project! This usually means that we are focusing on the development side of things even more.
The active phase of the Closed Beta is over now. Our focus is shifting completely towards iterating new content and polishing the game to make it ready for the public release. There will be more testing phases and waves but not in the upcoming months. We also don't want to specify any release window as for now. This is something we are going to do when we get closer to it.
But one thing is certain, we have been already working on this project for more than 2 years now and PROXIMA is our dream project. We are developing a game that we would love to play ourselves. We make the game not just for us but also for all other people who wanna play it and all the people that supported us so far. We want to take all time that's needed to make a great game and this is really important to us since this is our studios first title.
Another important thing: Right now is the time where we still can make key changes to the game without hurting it's core experience. We are currently making key decisions for the project which will influence the future of PROXIMA, the community and also us as the developer behind the game. We want to analyze everything carefully and adapt or change things, because those changes will be unrollabele in the future.
But anyways, we will always be listening to our community. We have gotten some really criitical feedback regarding the game updates/news the past few weeks and the most notable one is that we need to try to communicate more then we do right now! We did regular development updates and we also did ship new patches alongside the Beta waves. But many of you think that this is not enough. Well, we have the same oppinion on this matter. The more we can comminicate the better! This brings us to another topic: PROXIMA live stream events. We are currently planning to do regular event/dev streams where you the community can ask questions or we show in-progress stuff that we are working on. These streams will be around 1 hour of length and they will be either hosted every week or every second week. Please keep in mind that we are still planning out the production scale for these events and there is certain things we need to prepare in order to do them. When the first event stream will go live we will let you know in advance. We will try to be more transparent in general what goes on with the project and also behind the scenes. So be prepared for regular behind the scenes tweets or random WIP screenshots.
NEW GAME MODE
Now to the some more game specific stuff! We are already working on the new game mode. It's a similar experience compared to the current one, but still different and unique. The WIP name of the game mode is "Warzone". This mode is going to replace the current game mode as we think that this will make a big impact on the overall picture of the game received by the public eye. As mentioned many times before PROXIMA is not a Battle Royale game and never was intended to only feature one game mode. The whole "this is just another BR" type of game not only demotivated us to continue working on that game mode but also led us to the decision to strictly just delete it from the game. It was a great game mode to test core game mechanics in the Alpha and Beta but it will be taken out of the game, for good. Many of these game mechanics however will be used further and will be altered/changed and improved for the other game modes we are wokring on.
This is a key change to the game and we know that. We were thinking a lot about this topic the past few months. But If you like BR type of games you will also like the new game modes. Same goes if you hate BR games. You will simply like Warzone. The entire set of Warzone will appeal to both types of players. This is really important to us.
We are highly convinced of this thesis. There will also be different or altered versions of Warzone which are the following:
- Casual Warzone
- Hardcore Warzone
Please keep in mind that we just started building the foundation of what is going to be the "Casual Warzone" game mode. We will post more info and updates about the progress of these game modes in the upcoming months.
And finally we want to share some smaller things we've been working on.
THIRD PERSON PERSPECTIVE
We decided to allow players to switch from FP in TP to let them play in their prefered perspective. It's still under discussion if we are going to add any disadvantages to the third person view for a better balance. Nevertheless, the character animation system has been reworked in order to minimize the difference between first and third person animations. We see this as a big problem in other multiplayer FPS games where different animations are used in FPP and TPP which is causing players to appear slightly different to their opponents compared to how they see themselves. This can cause annoying issues, for example a player who is standing behind a cover can be slightly visible to an opponent. We replaced most of the character animations with new ones for a more natural appearance and for solving clipping issues which were present before. We also fixed numerous issues with the robot model, such as shifted fingers position when holding a weapon, excessive back distortion etc.
Switching from FPP to TPP.ENHANCED PHYSICS
We finally implemented the character ragdoll system to the game. When a player gets killed by an opponent a corresponding force will be applied to it's body to simulate a physically-based death animation.
Character ragdoll in action.The character hitbox has been modified accordingly to improve physics and grant better hit accuracy. The damage model has been enhanced and currently looks like this:
Area
Damage multiplier
Head
2x
Neck
1.5x
Chest
1.25x
Body
1x
Pelvis
0.9x
Upper arm and upper leg
0.75x
Lower arm and lower leg
0.6x
Updated physics asset of Sparky.SHIELD SYSTEM
We decided to add a shield system on top of the health stat. The shield will partly consume the damage that is being dealt to a player. Different weapons and grenades will have different penetration stats, which means they can deal more or less damage to health bypassing the shield. Players will be able to refill their armor by using shield cores.
GRENADES
We started prototyping grenades implementation to the game. Currently we are planning to add 3 types of grenades:
Plasma grenade
Deals damage to an opponent
Discharge grenade
Drains opponents energy
Smoke grenade
Spreads smoke over the impact point
WHAT'S NEXT
The changes which are highlighted here are just small changes and features. We are working on much more. The next patch that we intent to ship for PROXIMA will be 2-3 times bigger compared to the one we shipped during the transition from Alpha to Beta. Those changes will be the result of over one year or work.
Stay tuned for further updates,
Vulkan Society team