2/9/18 - Character Models, UI, and Dialogue
Week 5 has come and gone! Parker here with another development log. We're coming up on another build, so we're pouring on the steam to implement all of the features we hope to have by next Friday.
Let's get to the updates!
Design
This week, the design team continued to work on the first level. Our online designers are still hard at work on the level, and we're still planning to have a white boxed version by the next build.
In the meantime, I've been working on the dialogue for the mission, trying to weave the character's actions into the overarching narrative. Given the fact that the player's choices will change their influence with the different factions, this involves writing different pieces of dialogue depending on the player's current alignment.
Art
Trent, working on a doorway for the ship interior.
The art department is still working on the same tasks as last week in preparation from the build. Trent took care of the paper map for the ship interior earlier today, and since then he's been at work on models for the interior.
Bryce modeling the face for a character model.
Bryce is still working on the character models, which will then be animated and integrated into the game engine. Tuesday is working on models for the level.
Programming
Our programmers have been working at our three main features for this build: the working character controller, the User Interface, and the inventory system.
Ian and Wyatt consulting on the UI code.
Garret has our inventory system working, and he's currently developing a menu to display inventory items. In the meantime, Ian and Dave have been building our character controller so that the upper half of the character will follow the mouse while the lower half moves in the direction indicated by keyboard input.
The current state of our User Interface
Wyatt has built our user interface. So far, it's able to display the player's health and power points, as well as buff/debuff icons.
Lore corner: Miner's Coalition Organization and Technology
Since the Miner's Coalition sprouted from a group of organized civilian groups, they lacked the resources afforded to the much larger Syndicate. However, the group was far from helpless. The earliest of these miner's rebellions occurred in the mining town of Sellar's Gulch.
The residents of Sellar's Gulch were in an outrage over another wage cut, and the imposition of rationing at the town's food stores were the last straw. Many of the miners went down into the mines and brought out whatever they could use-- from humble pickaxes to cart-mounted laser drills. The town's magistrates were quickly subdued and jailed.
The example of Sellar's Gulch was quickly followed in many other mining settlements, and the standard SMC-issued Pulse-Laser drill became a consistent staple in the Coalition arsenal, alongside the Compound-8 concussive mining charge. However, it quickly became clear that repurposed mining equipment wouldn't carry the new organization very far.
Fortunately for them, a few of their number had contacts with prominent arms dealers in the sector. Military surplus gauss rifles were soon being smuggled onto Hoelia en masse. These soon became standard issue among the new paramilitary group.
Given that the majority of Coalition members are former miners, members with proper military training are few and far between. However, their lack of expertise is compensated for by their numbers, as well as their frequent use of hit-and-run tactics. Their menace is increased among Syndicate population centers, where it can be impossible to tell a Coalition mole from an ordinary civilian until they've struck.