The Repopulation October Development Update
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Category: News ArchiveHits: 1321
Another month of development is in the books. The focus this month was on preparing the game for testing. We've introduced a new system where the first stage of the tutorial is instanced, and the second stage takes place in a unique location that is only available to new players from your nation. This area allows us to focus on repeatable training scenarios for new players, before casting them out into the wild. Players do not need to participate in these stages, but they are recommended for new players.
We've had numerous inquiries about when beta testing will begin, and this seems as good a time as any to address them. We don't have any specific date that we can give you at this time. Our target is early 2012, but the actual date will be determined by how quickly we reach the required milestones. The bulk of that work will be related to polishing and preparing early content areas. Right now we have a massive list of implemented features, but most of those features are only demonstrated with a handful of content. Our focus for the remainder of 2011 will primarily center around content development and ensuring we have enough content to keep players busy during the initial months of testing.
We'll cover this in greater detail as we approach that milestone. In the meantime, let's review the changes that took place in October.
Combat
'¢ You can no longer receives benefits of cover unless the covering object is shielding you from the attacker using a Plane of Interception technique.
'¢ Cover objects can now set protection values on a per-object basis. This means that some objects will provide better cover than others.
'¢ Momentum can now be affected through buffs or debuffs. For those unfamiliar with our Momentum system, Momentum goes up as you succeed in things, and goes down as you fail. Some of the more powerful abilities are only available when you have sufficient Momentum. In Action Mode the Right Mouse Button activates a Momentum Based action where the Left Mouse Button performs a normal action.
'¢ Added Endurance and Momentum modifiers to weapons and NPC data for abilities.
'¢ Combat modifiers now work properly for NPCs.
'¢ Improve dispel selection strategy.
'¢ Fixed a bug that was allowing NPCs to use bypass the line of sight on some abilities.
'¢ Fixed a bug that caused cover areas to alter your posture in certain situations.
'¢ Numerous cover area fixes to make them work properly for players
General
'¢ Added new cinematical effects to support haze, camera manipulation, blinking eyes, and blindness.
'¢ Improved the starting tip system. This is now a client-side tracked feature and features numerous new starting tips.
'¢ Client specs can now be cached, resulting in speed improvements.
'¢ Weapon Crafting has been split into two skills: Firearm Crafting and Melee Weapon Crafting.
'¢ Humanoid Sahara model added to the item visualization system so it can visualize any humanoid weapon (gun, sword, etc)
