Now that Alpha 5 has been released, it's time to move on to Alpha 6.
Alpha 6 is going to be all about equipment. There will be different types of weapons and apparel. You'll be able to harvest animal fur or skin where it makes sense and make apparel at an assembler which you'll then be able to wear. No more black, namesless jumpsuit! Making advanced apparel will require sophisticated crafting materials, so you'll also see some other type of harvestable resources being introduced in the game.
You'll also be able to craft different types of weapons. You'll most likely not start off with a rifle anymore, but with a simple pistol-like gun. These new weapons would be used for different purposes. For example, a pistol is nice for close combat against lightly armored targets like rompos or chickens, but you'd need a scoped rifle if you want to take something off from afar. There will also be special anti-ship and anti-energy weapons. You'll find that it's advantageous to switch weapons during combat according to the situation, which should become a little more dynamic. With new weapons will also come new types of ammo.
With new apparel will also come some new character development. Your character will be prone to becoming cold, or hot, so you'll have to dress according to the temperature. Astral will help guide you through this whole process. Alpha 7 will most likely be about water gameplay, so that will come with additional equipment such as oxygen tanks or fins.
Next dev blog will contain art and specific info about all the new items being introduced into the game. Until then, I'll be working on adjusting the UI to accept the new changes, adapt the looting system to be able to harvest more than one item type per body and so on while at the same time think about the design of the new apparel and its place in the game.
I don't have a release date for Alpha 6 yet since I haven't even started, but I'm hoping to get it out before Christmas.
That's all for now. Happy gaming guys!