It’s the end of June and version 8.5 is almost here! Thanks for your patience, the last few weeks have been intense and challenging, yet extremely rewarding and fun.
I also want to apologize for the lack communication. The team has been trying to find another great dev to join us for the last 8 weeks, to no avail. After much consideration, Grant (me) decided to move from a part-time developer to a full-time role. It’s taken a couple hundred hours for me to get up to speed, giving myself a crash course in Unity and C# and I still have a lot more to learn. I was nervous about reaching out and promising any particular development and didn’t want to scare you guys (our awesome players) or commit to anything before putting my head down and seeing if this is something I can handle.
It is, and I'm proud to share what we have for you.
We’ve still got a ways to go, but think you’ll like what we’ve put together. A lot of these systems are tightly coupled and it didn’t make sense to work on one, without the other. For example, the day/night system has to work intimately with our new dynamic sky and cloud system. These systems need to play well with the terrain, draw distance options, and our horizon generator.
Here are the new features of our world:
• High-rez textures, new shaders, far plane trees, terrain, and structures. A truly dragon size region, we're experimenting with 20x20km and 40x40km terrains. Players with powerful PCs can increase the draw distance of terrain and trees for miles, which really increases the immersion.
• Dynamic day and night cycle, new sky system complete with clouds, moons, stars, and ambient effects.
• New belly and growth mechanics Eating fallen prey fills your belly. This food is digested and converted into growth points, which can be used to grow new gear and upgrades for your dragon.
• Grow new weapons, armor, abilities We’ve implemented a fun, crafting like system for your dragon. Spend growth points you’ve earned from hunting and quests to grow new jaws, breath weapons, scales, abilities and more. Unlock new upgrades, body parts, and special abilities or develop your own unique, specialized items. Stats are slightly randomized and different gear is tiered according to its power level and your dragon’s hoard requirements.
• Archer and Wizard Projectiles Archers, towers, wizards, cyclops, and enemy dragons can now aim at and shoot you. Hails of arrows and spells will greet unwanted visitors to human lands. Cyclops (and other monsters) are now even more threatening when they throw boulders and other dragon-smashing projectiles at you.
What's Next?
We need to finish cleaning up your dragon's profile, optimize and stream the new terrains, and clean up the Hoard and Growth systems. Expect a new update on Friday or Saturday.
See you in the skies!