SD team grows up & makes his way !

[Amarok]

Development blog #1 - June 2011

One month has passed since our last piece of news was posted - if you haven't read it yet, check it out! Whereas it was very interesting to write about our view of the game's weapons and combat system, we will talk today about some other things, to give you an overview of the game development.

First thing you need to know: we're still working! It might seem a bit weird to have one piece of news per month, and very little eye-candy. By now you are certainly aware working with FOnline SDK is a very tedious work, but we'd rather highlight the fact that we're building a game from scratch, and even if we want it to be playable as fast as possible, we just have to work on every detail we can think about, to provide a comfortable gameplay.
Don't worry if you don't see any new topic in here, we're still working underneath the surface! You can be sure at least one thing is done for the game everyday. That's perfectly right.

In other news, we'd like to introduce our new dialog writer, Kroktil. He's a fellow frog-eater and FOnline player, and he's also a damn gifted dialog writer that creates deep and funny non-playable characters. I don't want to spoil any of his planned dialogs here - maybe he will, though - but be sure this is quality stuff.
The dialogs will be used in the Gravediggers' headquarters, the "lobby" where you players will rest a bit between two missions. We want it to be more than just an empty train station, so you will be able to talk and interact with many NPCs there, to entertain yourself. The map will also feature a few very little "secrets" in order to keep you entertained even when you're not in a mission. With the help of Kroktil, the HQ is really becoming a great and enjoyable map.

Last but not least, we want to share a little information here (not eye-candy but a sort of brain-candy?). It is about one of the character skills, "Repair". We will most certainly rename it to "Engineering", but I guess we can't get rid of the name "Repair" that early, right? Anyway. "Engineering" will be a PASSIVE skill, that will slow down the (already quite slow) deterioration rate of your weapons. It will also help you to build barricades of some sort, but we can't say more about this right now. We never saw a passive skill in Fallout or in FOnline engine, and we're quite excited to have such an interesting one! We don't want the players to waste skill points into a "Repair" skill that would be used from time to time to repair their weapons, this only leads to alting or to nobody using it.

That's it for now! We'll try to write another blog for the first of August, but it's summer time, and who knows where we will be in August, right? We're working on some exciting things and I hope we'll be able to tell you more about it in August.

[Warder]

The dialogs will be used in the Gravediggers' headquarters, the "lobby" where you players will rest a bit between two missions. We want it to be more than just an empty train station, so you will be able to talk and interact with many NPCs there, to entertain yourself. The map will also feature a few very little "secrets" in order to keep you entertained even when you're not in a mission.

Also it will be nice if NPCs could influence somehow the mission progress

"Engineering" ... will also help you to build barricades of some sort

I`d love to see something like that in-game, it could help players to defend large buildings from zombies by blocking some of the numerous entrances. Certainly, the usage of the skill must be limited. For example, you may need special items to make barricades, perhaps there could be skill cooldowns If you already have some concepts please share.

[Izual]

If you already have some concepts please share.

It will be done soon enough, soon enough!

[Harald]

Sounds great, lookin' for more updates!

P.S. I welcome Kroktil aboard!

[Kroktil]

Thanks, it is a pride ;)

[Rosmy Sundr]

If you already have some concepts please share.

It will be done soon enough, soon enough!

This engineering barricade concept is very interesting. Ive been struggling to think of a way for players to place environmental objects in FO SDK. Have you been able to achieve in-game placement anywhere, or is it relegated to preset locations, such as doorways?

[Amarok]

We will use preset placement in SD in a level-design purpose, but you can do it anywhere.

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