Non VR Toolbelts and Axes - Devlog 07/04

Toolbelts were on of the most asked-about and suggested features from the last playtest, and for good reason. Many of the gear items have now started to actually become useful, and in the next test players will need a way to easily carry multiple items into the mission target.

Toolbelts in VR are very easy. They're just areas attached to the player's body which gear items can be dropped onto to attach them there. The non-VR mode presents a challenge, however, because players can't simply move a held item to their belt like they can in VR. That's why I decided to work on non VR first.

Instead, I've implemented non VR toolbelts as a hotbar, just like in many other flatscreen games. Players can scroll along it to select different items in their main hand, and there is a space to represent the off-hand item as well. I'm taking some inspiration from the minecraft system here, and will probably add a 'switch hands' feature too.

Challenges

This kind of feature is also quite easy in most games. The held item is just switched out as the player scrolls through their hotbar. In the Break-In, however, it's a little more complicated. Held items don't strictly follow the player as they move like they would in most games. 

In order to make the non VR and VR modes as similar as possible, items instead follow a physics relationship with the player's hands, just like they do in VR. The difference is that in non VR, the hands are set to follow the player's body at a set position. But heavy objects will still weigh the hands down slightly, and you can feel that weight when turning or running, because the held object will lag behind slightly.

This means that, in order to switch one item out for another, that physics relationship needs to be properly broken, and then re-created. The hand also needs to be moved into position and the fingers need to be bent around the object. This can take some time, meaning the switch can't be instantaneous. 

All of this caused a lot of issues when switching items, which I've had to work through over the past few days. But the system is at a fairly robust point now. I'm hoping to improve it still, by adding set hand poses for all gear items so that the hands automatically go to the handle when grabbed instead of intersecting the item, as well as speeding up the grab process

Non-Toolbeltables

Only certain items can be attached to a toolbelt. It's limited to one-handed gear items, so you won't be able to walk around with a rope launcher tied to your belt. You also can't use it to store stealables, since they'd have no mechanism to clip on. I'm working on bags as a way to carry those around though

Instead, when you pick up something which can't be toolbelted, you'll see the generic icon. When you try to scroll or change item with the number keys, the item will just be dropped in place

Climbing Axes in Non VR 

Last devlog I showed the new climbing axes working in VR mode. Well, this week I added non VR support to these. There's still a little jank around the green placement objects, but the main functionality is there.

Poll Results

The first patron poll has now come to an end, and it looks like the new level will be a small mall! I'm still not 100% sure what this will look like, but I'm considering some kind of strip-mall with a few different shop varieties. There should be some fun opportunities for rooftop entry, and it will be a good way to see how far I can push level size before performance constraints kick in.

Let me know if you have any ideas for new level features below!