It's been a busy couple months getting things ready for a Demo drop later this year, and I want to thank all of you that have wishlisted the game and are keeping up with development progress so far.
Lots of little fixes and a few major overhauls to get into:
Major Changes:
Rebuilding Mycera from scratch.
The old map was too "Open world" and lacked direction. "Field Notes" is not an open world game, but does give a lot of freedom to explore a large map and make discoveries. In the new map, the goal is to have satisfying Points Of Interest, with things to do that will advance the story, overall giving a more satisfying experience. There will still be hidden things to find that offer a rewarding experience for Players that explore the nooks and crannies of each planet.
Character Customization:
The original goal was to have a robust customization feature in order to let players create their own unique explorers. As a solo developer, this turned out to be an incredible amount of work and had to be scaled back. Instead, a variety of hand crafted alien races will be available to choose from, and players can still customize their races skin, accent and eye colors. I am also exploring options to change skin patterns, like spots, stripes, etc..
New Features:
Added new "Warning" state to hostile creatures. Some animals will now warn you to back off before attacking
added vision cone to NPC detection logic, animals no longer can see behind them, unless they have eyes back there. But they may be able to detect you in other ways...
A new Player noise feature is being worked on. Every step you make in the wild could alert wildlife to your presence, Players will need to sneak around to get close to the more shy or hostile organisms.
Added new HUD marker, and mini map systems
HUD markers will let players more easily find important NPCs and locations, and to identify NPC's that have tasks for you to do. Markers will also display info like distances to POI's
The minimap was added to prevent players from having to open the larger map repeatedly to find their way around. Also, important markers like camp and NPC locations will appear on the mini map.
For players that prefer a clean UI, the option to toggle these on/off will be added soon.
Feature Changes:
New Quest Log
Easily view and track quests and objectives
New Guidebook
Discoveries are now better organized under categories
Undiscovered entries are now shown, indicated with a " ? " icon.
Removed the Expedition station elevator, and replaced it with T.U.B.E.
T.U.B.E.
Transport Utilizing Barometric Ejection
"Because walking is an inefficient use of grant funding."
UI Changes:
Added UI element to aid in capturing quality photos for research purposes
Made adjustments to the Inspection window, discovering hidden attributes should now be less of a scavenger hunt
The onscreen compass has been updated to include POI markers
Minor Fixes:
Fixed discoveries sometimes not saving to file
fixed footsteps not registering on some mesh surfaces
Outline shader correctly turns off when exiting camera mode with object in focus
better subject detection when taking photos
Re-wrote some character customization logic to be more reliable when loading between scenes
DLSS upscaling now correctly affects all in-game cameras
Implemented optimizations for large crowds of NPCs
Player movement is now locked during most UI interactions to aid in controller UI navigation.
Added controller support to tutorial windows
adjusted interaction range on NPCs,