Hello again, Survivors!
It has been, according to my notes, way too damn long since I posted an update with what's going on with DeadPoly, so first and foremost, I'm sorry for that. For the players who don't hang out in the Discord, you definitely get left in the dark with what's going on with the game. It can be really hard to balance working on the game with creating content about the game when there's still so much stuff I want to get done. I'm hoping to adjust a bit in this regard to start making better, more engaging content with what's coming down the pipe, but that's a whole other post.
I'll never be able to thank everyone enough who has continued to support DeadPoly, and patiently waited for each and every update with excitement and joy, and made my little dream of developing a game a reality. Seriously, though, THANK YOU! Getting to be on this journey with all of you has been one of the most kick ass things I've ever experienced, and we're just getting started! DeadPoly still has a long ways to go, and as long as I'm breathing, it will continue to progress forward at whatever pace I am capable.
Current overall priority list, loosely ordered...
- The single largest focus right now is going to be finishing up Garden City's interiors and map as a whole. It is very immersion breaking with how many of the buildings are empty, and it just makes the game feel a lot more unfinished than I'd like. There's a lot of reviews and comments that point this out specifically, and they're absolutely correct.
- Overall game polish needs to improve quite a bit. The UI isn't even close to finished, but I'm going to start working on making sure the visuals for the game are in a better spot. I'm not a UX expert by any stretch of the imagination, so any help there with feedback is always welcome.
- Console release with full crossplay is inching ever closer. Hope to have some more news about this shortly.
- Fishing is getting close and should be making its way in to the game soon. It's not a super advanced system, but getting animation stuff worked out takes me much longer than most things, as animations continue to be my weakest point in terms of my overall knowledge and skills.
- Prone and left arm animations should hopefully be getting wrapped up soon as well. Again - animation timeframe limited, but it's getting there. The player character not holding the grips on the guns annoys the heck out of me, so I'll be really stoked to mark that one off the list.
- Many of the existing features in the game are going to continue to evolve and expand. Farming will get more complex, vehicles will get more parts like suspension components, radiators, tires, etc... to make them more fun to work on, as well as being able to adjust how they drive!
- Vehicles still need a lot of work in how they function and handle. Not happy overall with how ice skatey they still are, but making progress with cleaning it up.
PvP Changes
I know that PvP is a big part of the game for many players, and I've been working with a lot of the more active players to start making some changes to the PvP in DeadPoly and try to provide a smoother, more enjoyable PvP environment. I'm vividly aware the traveling inventory system has thrown a wrench in the PvP gameplay and how the community would like to enjoy the game.
- Extended logout timer after engaging in PvP for all PvP servers to prevent players logging out immediately after a fight
- Further balancing and number tweaks in terms of damage and resource cost for raiding
- Explosives for raiding are in the works
- Extraction server setting is on the way along with Official Extract Servers. This will require players to extract from servers that are Extract Enabled in order to maintain their loot. Official Extract Servers will also have increased loot pools and other things to incentivize playing in a higher risk/reward server.
More stuff!
If you're a longtime DeadPoly player, it should come as no surprise that MORE STUFF is always on the way, but for the new players here - new items, guns, collectibles, clothes, objects, quests, events, etc... are always in development and constantly being added with each update. I don't see this changing any time soon. It's a big part of why I created DeadPoly in the first place, and is still one of the things I enjoy the most when playing DeadPoly myself.
Oh, also
If you made it this far, you must actually care about DeadPoly at least a little bit, right? So here's an early reveal - I am currently pushing for DeadPoly to leave Early Access on January 12th, 2025, in just a few short months. I am not saying that DeadPoly is finished or complete by any measure, and I'm still going to be working on the game just as much as I always have, but I do feel that the game as a whole is quickly approaching the Early Access finish line. Most of the features I outlined when the game first launched in to Early Access are getting pretty close to being completed, and I've never wanted the game to perpetually sit in Early Access longer than it needs to.