Welcome back friends, today we have a small but significant update – and it’s all about outfits. Without further ado, let’s dive in.
Decency: Achieved
Here we are, 11 months in, and we FINALLY have CLOTHING! You heard that right – exposed genitals are a thing of the past! Whilst we aren’t in the ‘cool’ part of outfits just yet, this first step is a pretty significant one, as it also brings with it the framework and logic for the entire outfit system (as well as some much needed decency for the characters lol).
Have a squiz at the fresh new garments yourself:
As of now, I’ve created all the assets for all six body types, as well as small/medium/large variants for busts and bulges (can’t be slackin’ on that realism now can we?). I’m currently still implementing the logic for this default-wear, as all the character prefabs and character creation system still expect no clothing as default – but this will be ironed out fairly quickly this coming week.
You may be asking ‘How the heck did it take a whole two weeks just to draw this?’ and that’s a very fair question. Luckily though, these assets aren’t the only thing I’ve been upto these past two weeks…
System of an Outfit
This one’s a big one – the outfit system. Easily one of the most important parts of any customisation-heavy RPG, this has (unsurprisingly) been quite a lot of work. Side note, I probably should get better at time estimation….
I’ll spare you the boring details and just sum it up; basically this system acts as a dynamic encyclopedia of all vanilla (and modded) outfits, tracking each individual item and sprite, as well as their stats, unique logic, and linked parts. It dynamically reads and registers outfits (at runtime) based on JSON files in the game directory, and then saves all this information for easy access by any other game system that requires it.
Currently I’m about *halfway* through it all (lol) and there’s still a long ways to go – but I have made solid headway, and the foundational scripts are now (mostly) in place. Now, of course, I wouldn’t just tell you all this without at least giving you a bit of a sneak peak (can’t show a man your car and not pop the hood, right?) so here’s a little teaser image below:
As per my overarching philosophy for the game, this system is built from the ground up with moddability in mind. This means that straight outta-the-box it’ll support modded outfits, accessories, gear, and more – as well as stat changes and overhaul mods to vanilla items.
Pretty cool right? But that’s not all…
Stats on Stats on Stats
This part’s my favourite of today’s offerings – the very first version of outfit stats! I took quite a bit of time planning this all out and (so far) I’m pretty happy with the direction it’s taken. I’ve drawn a mock-up stat card, which you’ll find below, and this shows all the different stats the game will include for outfit pieces, as well as how it might look when hovering over items in the inventory or store menus.
I’ll let you have a quick read over all the card’s contents, then below I’ll go a little bit into my thought process behind each component.
Okay so basically it’s like this: I want the game to have depth to it’s armour system, as I like when games have more than just a single ‘armour’ stat for all incoming damage. I think having to choose outfits for certain missions and/or environments, prioritising protection for one element at the expense of another, leads to far greater depth and investment into your load-outs and gear. It also makes shopping for gear even more exciting as there’s more variety throughout all the options.
That being said, it’s definitely a fine line, as I feel like games can also be *too* stat-heavy – having way too many different stats and numbers to bother reading – which just leads to ‘more expensive = better’.
So, in trying to strike a happy medium between the two, I landed on the following decisions:
– Armour value is split between melee and ranged, but specific types (blunt, blade, energy, ballistic, explosive, etc) are relegated to the ‘Traits’ system rather than their own stat.
– Hot and Cold resistance is merged into one (thermals), so as to avoid the headaches of constantly changing gear based on temperature (which, in my opinion, is not all that engaging of a mechanic anyway).
– Radiation protection is… well… radiation protection.
– Filtration is basically a sum of toxic, gas-related, and pathogenic hazards all rolled into one, which I think is a logical move anyway (who needs 3 different stats that can all just be solved by one type of equipment).
– Traits are basically the catch-all system for more specific damage resistances that don’t need their own dedicated tracking. This could be stuff like greater protection against higher caliber bullets, additional burn resistance, explosive padding, energy weapon resistance, and more.
– Durability…. okay I’ll admit, I almost always hate durability mechanics in games. Unfortunately for me though, due to the context of the game’s world, lore, and… well… it’s name (lol), I kinda have to have this. That being said, I’m going to make sure it’s as unobtrusive and least annoying as possible – all items can be repaired, durability takes a while to decrease, and items can be improved to last longer.
– Weight: This one may or may not change over the course of testing, but at the moment I’m thinking I will use a numerical weight system to track inventory capacity, speed, over-encumbrance, and so on. I definitely won’t be adding a Tetris-style inventory to the game, and so atm this feels like the best way forward for this mechanic – but it could change later on.
Once I actually get to play-testing the game, and start working on the actual gameplay as the main avenue of development (early next year) I’ll be able to properly test this stat system – but so far it’s looking pretty decent I think.
So that’s all for today’s log, not as feature-packed or story rich as the last, but they can’t all be bangers I suppose haha.
You may have noticed that this log was actually posted on a Saturday. That is because, going forward, I will now be doing these on Saturdays instead of Sundays. ‘Why?’ you ask? Well, in my never-ending battle against burnout and fatigue, I have come to realise that perhaps working 7 days a week is *not* the optimal path towards maintaining consistency.
So yeah – Dev Logs now on Saturdays.
As always, thank you for tuning in, I hope you’ve enjoyed reading, and I’ll catch ya next time!
