Letter from the Producer #6
Kept you waiting huh?
So its been a while huh? Im sure a lot of our eager fans are curious what we've been doing over the last 2 months so I'll run you through everything we have to date and explain a few things we are working on beyond.
Virtualization and New Early Game
The next update will be pushing Unreal Engine 5 at the forefront. The engine upgrade means we can start to expand the "Open World" map to include San Francisco and possibly other neighboring zones. As we've had quite a lot of issues when we did the previous Presido/Northern San Francisco update that we had to revert and later convert them into 2 new supporting Islands called Western Treasure Island and Eastern Treasure Island. (More Information here) With LWC (Large World Coordinates) we can now truly expand the current map. With this conversion we have been forced to rethink our approach that we do right now which is running AI at all times no matter how far they are away from the player. It worked on the smaller map but its not scalable in the least for this larger open world.
So what does this mean for you guys exactly? We have started to implement and will have a fully online virtualized general/army system going into next week. This means that even if you arent in that zone our virtualized system will simulate battles/infection spreading and other important gameplay progression to keep the world populated and varied when you aren't present. Each session will be different and present different problems for CERC(you) to solve. These systems will be in the next patch. Systems like these are absolutely required so we can maintain acceptable framerates as the world "grows".
This leads into my next big change coming next patch Infected will no longer spawn from a "Global Pool" in regional zones. They can only spawn from the population available to them in the current zone. If they need help they will have to request it from nearby zones.
Explanation of new early game
Current Setup
Old Setup that was impossible without LWC . To be clear the new fictional supporting Islands for Treasure will stay as they are we will just be adding new surrounding landmasses and expanding the start game option locations as we build/add San Francisco.
As our programmers have been figuring out LWC and World Partition our level Designs have been working on Horde maps so we can get some new content out to you folks.
[h3]Horde Map Revamps W.I.P [/h3]
We will have more updates on these maps next week.
Map #1: Canals/Dock Level (Replaces current one) W.I.P Rough Layout
Map #2: Coastal Mall (New Horde Map) W.I.P Rough Layout
[h3]Teaser Screenshots from a Special Operations Map (Challenge Mode) [/h3]
[h3]Cepheus Protocol Anthology Season 1 is releasing on May 13, 2022[/h3]
Experience the outbreak of the Pangu Virus from multiple perspectives across as the brave heroes of the Center for Epidemic Research and Control battle tirelessly to stop the spread of a cataclysmic alien virus that has mutated innocent people into monstrous creatures of unimaginable power
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1707120/Cepheus_Protocol_Anthology_Season_1/
Unreal Engine 5 Came out
* Chaos Destruction
* Chaos Vehicles
* Nanite
* And much much more for larger worlds.
https://youtu.be/7ZLibi6s_ew
[h3]Unreal Engine 5 FAQ Section:[/h3]
#1. World Partition: down the line, since it takes some time to set up, but their open world tool here will make HLODs a lot smoother once we can implement it.
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#2. Nanite: meshes converted to Nanite can have a lot of detail due to basically having 'unlimited LODs' (not what's actually happening but if you imagine that you're on the right track).
We've had several issues implementing this - it's clearly still a beta (especially in interactions with HLODs) - but the improvements it gives seems to be worth the hassle, though, now that we're getting a handle on how to use it!
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#3. Lumen: new global lighting setup. Slightly more expensive to use, but pretty sure we can enable it as a game option so people can turn it off if needed.
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#4. Large World Coordinates: this is a big one for us, actually. Our Open World map was hitting limitations due to the Engine handling some calculations in regular 'float' math (basically using numbers with too limited memory), which started breaking down at the edges of the map (i.e. on the right and bottom islands).
UE5 converted those calculations to Doubles, so the map can be a lot larger without introducing mouse accuracy problems.
Due to this we've already removed a 'workaround' function we had which 'averaged' some of the mouse-results when the mouse coordinates are 'far from world origin': that safety's no longer needed to ensure clicks remain accurate when approaching the map edge.
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#5. Niagara: this system to actually be working now (instead of the 'battle-tested' setup UE4 had which was very crash-prone), so over time we'll be implementing fancier particles.
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#6. Chaos (destruction and vehicles) - we're planning to have vehicles 'bust through' certain fences a la Company of Heroes, for example, and hopefully get some more accurate vehicle physics at some point down the road.
We started implementation and testing immediately on Nanite.
Old .vs New
We did run into some instability related to Nanite and HLOD's for certain assets so we are still working with Epic Games and Co to resolve these issues and finish converting a mass of our asset over.
Rewind Session
You can catch-up on changes here from the last letter 'From the Producer"
https://steamcommunity.com/games/979640/announcements/detail/3102422162152822125
2 months ago we put up a poll asking our community if they felt the same way as our developers that we needed to pause the year 2 roadmap to focus more on the "Core" aspects of our game. You guys agreed so i will now update you folks on the progress we've made towards this.
Based on user feedback we are working on a more adaptive formation system/pathing 2.0 see gif for an example of the work in progress. Instead of scaling formations up in some cases we will have limits and automatically create new formations that follow behind or alongside other wedges/file/columns only when you have huge unit selections (Think Total War in terms of large group move orders line them up either horizontally or vertically in their formation positions). We will also be pushing rear guards and people assigned to alternate and look around/have more situational awareness in all formations Separate 'actor' that moves along the nav-mesh, ensuring that it doesn't get confused like regular units can be (since they can get 'jumbled up' when dodging other units or in combat)
-Units that are not running can speed up to reach their position (running actors are already moving at speed, of course), rather than being stuck between run or walk speeds
-Slightly slows down units that are in position to prevent 'walking jitters'
-The formation command, being separate from actors, can 'slow down' if its members get too far away, to help everyone regroup
New feature for Formation v2: "Position Projection" - AKA "Stop backing up in combat!"
-Places the formation down at the starting location (seen as the teal sphere in this GIF)
-Examines which direction we need to go to fulfill our move order
-Determines how 'far ahead' units are for their respective positions along that direction (units that are 'ahead' of their position in the formation would have to backtrack to line up, which can be fatal in combat)
-After finding which unit is 'farthest ahead', the entire formation moves that distance (plus about two unit-widths) towards the destination, to ensure no unit has to 'backtrack' to reach their position in the formation. Everyone should move forward, not backward.
(this rule isn't followed if the move destination is close enough that units just are changing positions, of course)
-As a result, nobody has to backtrack to get to their move destination!
New feature for combat (currently only enabled for player soldiers): units who are not in combat who see something will reach out a few body lengths away and share what they saw with any ally who isn't in combat.
If their ally is already shooting, they'll ignore this 'shared target'.
Fairly useful for units in formation to cover each other from surprises!(Think of it as units sharing information over a radio)
Another Formation v2 update: wall-tracing!
=An 'outward trace' will occur for each move position. Even if the move position itself is technically reachable (such as on the other side of a thin fence!), the wall trace will say 'no, it's blocked off' and adjust the move position inward instead.
(This will stop units trying to continue the formation on the other side of a wall thus wasting time and running out of position quite often)
So far, walk commands feel quite reliable, and the movements feel good: though there's still a good amount of visual 'jitteriness' to how units adjust themselves, but they're quite able to fight
Continuing to update the new Formation system: here's a new feature not in the old system: 'convoy gap closer'!
-Vehicles in the move command, if they break off, will update the units 'behind' them to move up and close the gap, instead of leaving them there
While there is still path finding work to still implement for Formations V2 we feel this is a solid step forwards. As always if you run into any issues please report it on Steam/Discord with videos/gifs if your running into pathing issues you wish to report
[h3]Character Modeling[/h3]
We have a new winters Model now created she will be put into the game at the same time as the other new character meshes in the future
Assault Female is almost done pair some adjustments to her Vest Strips/ Shoulder Patch/Armor/ Knife Textures and final grenade meshes on her vest
[h3]Digital Art Book/Collectors Edition[/h3]
The art/lore book will be added as a Pandemic Mode Collectors edition in the future on Steam and made available for purchase separately as well. It will feature fun facts about development and the design/art process the game has gone through to make Pandemic Mode. Here are some screen grabs
[h3]Recent Gameplay Changes[/h3]
We listen to our community and made it so Civilian holds can generate money based on the amount of civilians you have put inside a civilian hold. We also added custom game options so you can set it to provide money when you kill them for those Blackwatch RPer's out there.
Engineers will auto repair Buildings/Fences now
[h2]Death Animations/Ragdoll overhaul[/h2]
List of some of the types of animations we will be implementing over time
- Melee Left Leg Death Anim
- Melee Right Leg Death Anim
- Melee Chest Death Anim
- Melee Head Death Anim
- Shot Left Leg Death Anim
- Shot Right Leg Death Anim
- Shot Chest Death Anim
- Shot Head Death Anim
https://youtu.be/KWwCcSadTyQ
https://youtu.be/tcrX_9cDiek
[h2]We had our recent podcast [/h2]
We will be scheduling another soon
https://youtu.be/SG6NgRPks2U
https://open.spotify.com/episode/4QqGgDFMdVFr0LXAy1Wxwb?si=e0fab2cea373458a
[h3]New Class Weapons[/h3]
Are coming with the Unreal Engine 5 update. More Details soon!
[h3]Discord Polls[/h3]
We decided to add Faction Vehicles that are recruitable items if your in good graces with Pierce/Natalie after we put up this poll. So we will be taking this into consideration for the future.
Recruitable Faction Vehicles
Horde Map Objective Question: Please vote here!
What kind of objectives do you guys like in a horde map?
https://strawpoll.com/polls/PbZqoX940nN
Don't forget to wishlist!