Video version of this Blog Post:
Hey everyone, We're back to give some updates on what we've been working on, let's get right to it!
Firstly we want to show off our brand new menu UI. This has evolved a lot over the past years and we're really satisfied at how it's looking.
We wanted to ensure that all the settings you'd really need are all in one menu, while looking consistent, so we've combine both the standard and advanced options into a single menu design, and placed advanced options in one of the categories.
Since the last devlogs, we've brought a few artists onto the team. They have been making some excellent artwork for our achievements. Here you can see some examples:
We have a lot of them planned and we're excited to see you achieve these feats. Some will be easy, some will be challenging, and some might take a while, but we think they'll be fun.
Our artists have also made a lot of kill feed icons for nearly all sources of death. The original Nicknine release of Lambda Fortress contained most common sources of death, but there were still a ton that were not accounted for or needed remakes, so we've filled in the remaining gaps. It'll be pretty funny to see some of the rarer ones appear, but nearly everything you can die from is finally here.
We've created unique heads for most enemies when performing kills that decapitate.
Each enemy faction now also has its own unique fire particles.
Sapping NPCs looks a lot nicer now, as they all have unique sapper placements.Some NPCs even react differently when sapped, such as the Manhacks going crazy and Rollermines going into their self-destruct sequence.
Rollermines can also be killed by throwing liquids at them, which we think is both a neat detail and an extra use for the liquid throwable weapons.
The Combine Sniper is now a physical NPC that can be killed through other means than just explosives. Obviously, explosives are still very useful but you can whittle them down with bullets and fire too.
Pyro's fires have more effect on the world now. You can set certain props ablaze with flames and can airblast NPCs and most HL2 projectiles now.
We've been working a new vehicle spawning system that should make getting vehicles less weird. Previously, we simply had a button on the keyboard that spawned a vehicle in front of you, but this felt very cheap and unnatural. It could also be used for griefing and exploits. Now vehicles will spawn at designated areas like checkpoints, respawning after a player takes one.
Lastly, we've been animating the mercs for some new third-person scenarios they aren't normally in. Currently we've working on animating them for their unarmed state, as well as holding the Gravity gun. Eventually we'll move onto them driving vehicles and such.
‣ How do you kill armored enemies? (Strider/Gunship)
Similar to the Combine Sniper, you can now damage these enemies with all forms of damage. It's not really fair to limit these enemies to just Soldier and Demoman, so you can kill them through all means now.
‣ How does class switching work?
Apart from dying. Starting a level or reaching a checkpoint will give you a short time to switch classes, with a timer appearing on your HUD.
‣ Will there be extra enemies in levels?
Possibly, this is something we are experimenting with. Obviously, nobody likes bullet sponges, but we'd also like to preserve Valve's intended level design. We might have it as a mix of both, where there is a little bit of health & damage scaling along with a few more enemies sprinkled in depending on the difficulty option set. But again, we are still experimenting with this, so we'll have more to say on this at a later time.
‣ Will there be multi-seat vehicles?
We've gotten a lot of requests for this. It's something we're planning on adding but haven't done much work on just yet beyond modelling. Expect to this this in a future devlog.
‣ Will there be a BLU team?
No. We feel staying RED helps contrast very well against the blue tones of the world, especially in Combine environments. But, we might add it as an option for custom campaign use.
‣ Will there be a Versus gamemode?
Yes and no. It won't be part of our initial release since our release is mainly focused on the co-op mode, but afterwards we will be focusing heavily on this and possibly other gamemodes. This is also partly why there is no BLU team for the main co-op mode.
‣ When will it release?
When it's done. This is a volunteer hobby project, worked on by us in our spare time. Life can often throw a wrench into your plans, so we're pretty sound in not providing a release date until we're confident it's ready. We hope you understand.
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