Season's Greetings from IndieAnonGames!
Hello Survivors!
There are some exciting things happening behind the scenes, time to shed some light on the situation. The upcoming Major Content Update "0.9 Deliver Us From Evil" Is on the horizon, along with a ton of new features and content for you.
New weapon models, enemies, allies, game mechanics, equipment modifications, new NPC skill and equipment systems, new caravan systems, and a new Quality/Rarity System for equipment, vehicles, enemies and even NPCs. New Boss type variants provide better quality loot along with an updated crafting system to help take advantage of these new features. This is just a sneak peak of what's coming around the bend, but I still want to be able to release this update in a timely fashion so I'll do my best not to be too overambitious with it.
Here is a list of some of the features currently added or being worked on for the upcoming 0.9 Update "Deliver Us From Evil" There is much more going on in the background but I'll keep it short with some of the more important changes for now.
New quality/rarity system for all equipment, both affect major statistics, value and modification slots, allowing for more combinations per item than ever before.
New quality/rarity system for vehicles that affects main component statistics such as Body, Fuel Economy, as well as quality levels/rarity for vehicle parts that can be replaced or salvaged with the new vehicle inspection menu
New Feature: NPC Skill system - Standard NPCs will now each have three basic Stats based on their level and quality, each affecting their core abilities. Each survivor can also have a number of skills based on their quality, each contributing to a "Caravan Skill Pool" which provides certain boosts and bonuses to your caravan. A new NPC information widget will now appear during conversation with recruitable NPCs.
New Caravan Menu Features: Garage Bay, Logistics, Roster - Garage bay will store your favorite vehicles to be stored/recalled/repaired/upgraded based on your caravan department level - Logistics will replace the current midnight Daily income information Screen and now also contains features such as survivor allocation for specific jobs such as Security, Scavenging, Mechanics, and more - Roster displays a list of rescued survivors along with their current skills and equipment. Survivors can be set to Favorites and recalled to the field at transfer locations
The New Tutorial - Features a small storyline following an unlucky protagonist on his first day at the new security job. You watch first hand from a corporate tower as the first city to falls to the event. Learn the ropes of actual gameplay while testing out some high-power weaponry and equipment. (In progress, subject to change)
New Equipment Slot -Face- For equipping facial accessories such as glasses or masks alongside most helmet types. (with the exception of full-face helmets) Some existing items have changed category for old character saves, and it should be allocated properly.
Vehicle AI - Random AI vehicles can spawn from different factions with different goals in mind. AI vehicles use general pathfinding to avoid buildings and other props.
Helicopters and Fighter Jets- Added Heli and Jet type enemies/support unit that replaces the current Heli support. Enemy types can vary based on faction, and appear based on distance travelled.
Multi-story buildings - Added the first destructible Multi-story buildings, the apartments medium and large variants with a new system that spawns floors with a new system to improve performance
Added new Location: The bank. The bank contains a vault that can be cracked with the new safecracker item that can be crafted, purchased or found. Attempting to crack the vault will begin a minigame where the player must remain in the goal area while holding off hordes of enemies using traps, environment, support systems, or backup.
Added a boss-type enemy healthbar on screen that appears for a few seconds after damaging a boss-type enemy. It contains information such as health, level, name and rarity.
New Weapon models and physical meshes for most weapon modifications
New draw/holster animations for both the back and the hip holster locations
New weapon slots on the player to holster weapons - 2 back slots, 2 hip slots
Added Hold Swap weapon button to holster weapons, Aim or attack to quick - draw
Added Headtracking to players/NPCs
New feature: Pickup Identifiers - Small emissive point at pickup actor locations that enlarge when active, color indicates quality tier
Crafting menu has been updated, new quality and rarity system is enabled for crafting equipment
New feature: Armor Mods - A new range of armor modifications to fine-tune or supercharge your equipment
Removed a large number of unnecessary event ticks and bindings, using a more manageable system which should improve performance significantly
New and updated UI elements
New Start menu level containing a scene from the new tutorial
Added new lighting elements to the game, some highway and commercial signs, some neon lighting, as well as a new lamp actor found in most locations that has a chance of being active on spawn
Heavy vehicles will now require less force to damage buildings and enemies because of their Mass advantage
New weapon, armor, and vehicle mods, however this list is still subject to heavy change
Multiple improvements to performance across the board, but also many more new actors and assets with better detail along with LOD improvements.
Updated/Changed some Caravan Support Options, and currently developing a new caravan support system featuring attainable "stocks" of support drops/strikes, as well as the ability to add them to the hotbar.
A quick screenshot with a few new features
The plan is to complete some of the long-term goals I had before starting on the final 1.0 release, using community feedback and some new systems inspired by other upcoming IndieAnonGames projects. Most of the content is still subject to change, but it's all coming together nicely. Both male and female character and some equipment models do need some more work, so that will also take place in either this or the vehicle update. There is a main storyline currently in development, but that won't be available until the final 1.0 release.
