Dev Blog #53 - Enemy Overseer System, Extended Demo, Plush Showcase and more!

Happy Monday everyone,

For the first time in Selaco history, we do a blog post on Monday (and in an afternoon!?). I wanted to get this blog post out a few days earlier but the extreme heat made it really hard to sit down and do some writing. Not the cause today though. With nice warm weather and an ice cold water bottle at hand, I could not wish for better blogging weather.

The amount of work that has been done for the last couple of days has been insane. Pretty significant development leaps have been made  and we’re currently trying to wrap our heads around this Extended Demo launch. Thankfully it’s nowhere near as challenging as the original demo launch since the entire foundation of the game still needed a lot of work.

Not the case for this demo, since the foundation is already done! Still, this demo introduces plenty of new things which is a common theme throughout the game. Not a lot of time is left, but we can do this.

Onto the Dev Blog!

Plush

Starting with something wholesome; the Dawn Plush! I received a in-progress Plush  today and it’s beautiful (also surprisingly soft). The pictures provided here are from a slightly WIP version, so ignore the minor oddities. Visible stitches and such will be ironed out in the full product.

Things are being finalized, more info soon!

Steam Deck & Linux Tests

A few weeks ago we made an announcement on Twitter asking for a couple of testers. Our recent addition of Multithreading worked mostly great, but has proven to bring some problems to a select number of users. The game was either very unstable during gameplay, resulting in frequent crashing, or the game would not load at all. Primarily affecting Steam Deck users, but also plenty of Linux users depending on the distribution that was being used.

We managed to debug the problem and roll out a solution which was then sent to our testers. I can happily say that the test has been a success! The game was running infinitely more stable and players who were not able to play the demo before, are now able to.

This bug was stressing me out, since the public demo still has this bug and a significant amount of players are unable to play it properly.

I expect to launch the Stability Patch later today, or tomorrow.

Texture Loading improvements

While debugging, Cockatrice realized there are a number of ways to improve our Texture Loading system further, affecting all users in a positive way. Before, a large number of assets had to be cached as the level was loaded. Primarily the heavy hitters like Weapon Sprites and their effects. This could easily add 2 or 3 extra seconds of loading time. This is now no longer the case. After the level is loaded, a priority system will ensure a number of things are prioritized and cached in real-time after the loading has completed. On top of the Path node Linking improvements we mentioned a few weeks ago, the Texture Loading improvements will further eliminate the loading times that we introduced by expanding upon the engine. Hooray!

Look at how fast it is. It is now roughly about as long as the average loading section in the original Half-Life. For now, I don't expect this to ever get any faster, but who knows what the future brings.

Overseer System

Given the recent push in artificial intelligence in the world, it’s easy to get confused by terminology. This section of the blog is strictly talking about AI in terms of NPC behavior, not Machine Learning. Let's refer to them as ‘Interactive Agents’ moving forward.

This is a fun one, and something we always wanted to do but just like many things in life, never found the time window to do it. With our recent push into enemy intelligence, it felt about time that we added a system to make it easier to control our enemies.

The Overseer System is an Agent Control System that looms in the background. You won’t see it, you won’t know that it’s there, but the combatants you will fight against will be grateful that it exists.

This system will actively keep track of all enemy combatants in the level. Once you begin engaging with a group of enemies, the overseer will assign this group to a Squad and the overseer is now in full control over their next couple of actions. Think of the Overseer as a commander, making sure every Squad is as efficient as possible.

With a squad fully formed, we now keep track of their status. What are they doing? How is their health? How many squad members have been lost? What weapon is the player using? Did the squad manage to land a couple of shots? Do we even know where the enemy is right now? With all of this information available to us, we can easily adjust and manipulate what the enemy is going to do. If we notice there is a lack of pressure being applied, we could increase the likelihood of a squad trying to push the player instead. Or the other way around, a shotgunning player can now be called out (“Shotgun!”), forcing enemies to try and maintain distance a little better than before.

On top of that, agents now have a proper Patrol System. If a fight occurs, but the player is not seen for a duration of time, the entire squad will now enter Patrol Mode. Here, they wander around the level, chasing down different path nodes, seeking for the player and often requesting a status update from other squad mates. If the player is not seen during the Patrol Mode, they will return to their original position. It’s a bit like Metal Gear Solid in that sense, albeit far less stealth oriented of course. This makes the combat feel much more dynamic.

What else? A lot! Squads are only allowed to communicate with each other, so if a different squad manages to find its way into the battle, you will have 2 very different behaviors to deal with. One squad may be assigned to be aggressive, while the other squad is focused around suppressive fire.

It’s a beautiful system! It’s still work in progress, but it compliments the gameplay in Selaco nicely. The Overseer allows us to easily keep control of things and manipulate the game in ways we could not before. It’s very cheap from a performance standpoint, yet allows for infinite flexibility. Expect more showcases and updates on this system in the near future.

Sniper Enemy

We’ve added a sniper enemy type. Well, mostly. He has behavior but has no proper model or animations yet, so we instead just use a reskinned Shotgunner for the time being. Kind of ironic, but hey it works for now.

The sniper is a guy who always stays far away from the player, and its goal is not to kill you in a traditional sense, but rather to limit the player’s movement options. Rushing through an open field with a Sniper around is dangerous and they will kill you in a single shot (or 2 if you have armor). See a red laser? Either slide towards cover really quickly (sliding briefly makes you invulnerable to the sniper), or try to take him out as fast as you can because the restricted movement options in combat can be quite challenging. In these situations, the DMR is going to be your best friend! They often only require a single shot with that thing to be brought down, 2 if you’re very unlucky.

The sniper is pretty neat, if I say so myself. If it shoots at you, but you manage to evade the shot in time, a system in the background will look for a nearby prop to shoot instead. It makes it a bit more cinematic! Imagine hiding behind a desk and the sniper is constantly destroying the props around you. Not only does it look cool, it limits your cover. Hiding behind a stack of briefcases, or even around the corner with a stack of briefcases near you, will cause the sniper to bring it all down and limit you further.

Oh, and worse of all, the game designer (me) is kind of a dick. These bastards will intentionally target explosive barrels close to the player. Dont do that typical NPC thing by taking cover behind an explosive barrel.

(Footage is Work In Progress)

Extended Demo Status

Practically finished, at least for the time being. We are beginning internal test runs today, and if all goes well, Admirals will soon follow for some thorough testing before sending it out to all other active and former backers.

By my estimate (which should be taken with a grain of salt), the Admirals will get to play it in 2 weeks. All other backers will get it as soon as the tests have been satisfactory. Which could very well be in the same week if all goes well.

Conclusion

Busy. Very busy. Right as I hit the ‘Publish’ button on this blog post I'll head back to work to do the finishing touches on the demo.

This is very exciting, but also a little sad. This will most likely be the last demo we’re doing for Selaco. This does mean the release of the game is looming every closer though, so that’s really damn exciting.

Thank you for your support this month! We hope to see you stick around for the next one <3

Wesley de Waart