The following updates will be made available to VAIL VR community members with access to closed alpha on June 13th.
Early Testing & Development: Artifact Game Mode
The team has been heads down developing and testing Artifact, a Search & Destroy style game mode that inherits VAIL VR’s signature aesthetic and narrative. Artifact will enable Colonists and REYAB to face off against each other in a round-based mode where Colonists begin the game with a scanning device. The goal is to find the artifact, place the scanning device near it and successfully complete the digitization of the artifact before REYAB discovers your position and disables the device. Currently, respawning is not allowed in this mode, which means a round can be won if an entire team is eliminated. The game mode will be iterated on as we gather valuable feedback from the competitive and tester community.
We’re happy to share that the core game mode is established and we’re now focused on making the experience competitive and fun for non-competitive players alike. This includes optimizing player movement such as modifying speed based on which gun a player is using or if the player is aiming while on the move. In our strive for truly competitive play, we’ve added calibration that works whether you are seated or not to maintain equal height among players. This will also bring access and comfort to more players so they can play their best.
In order to add more depth to the game and level design, we’re working on bullet penetration. We speculate that introducing this feature will be a big win for user experience and immersion, more closely matching what the community is asking for and expecting. Additionally, we’re working on different guns to encourage a more diverse playing experience so players can better fulfill their team roles. We’ve also been considering utility weapons such as flashbangs, smokes, and frag grenades, although, these might not be included in the near future when Artifact is initially introduced.
In the gif above, we display some of the work we’re doing on the scanning device and how the player will activate it in order to begin digitizing artifacts. (Please note this is an extremely lossy gif file and we’re still testing functionality and design.) Here’s a slightly better version in mp4 format.
Latest Changelog
ADDED
- Artificial crouching feature added for feedback from community
- Added game mode to server info in server browser
- Add basic network error UI feedback for failed connections and full servers
- Add a “threat indicator”, currently set up to show which direction you are getting shot from upon taking damage
- Player calibration system now further developed and ready for more feedback
- Added a drawing board to Armory
CHANGES
- Colonist character mesh updated with better skinning on the coat and a new split between coat halves
- Improve armory physics objects interaction
- Killfeed now uses team colors
- Removed screen flashing red on taking damage(newly added hit direction indicator serves this purpose as well)
- Score banner now shows icons for players on each team and also shows who is dead/alive
- Began to incorporate team colors on score banner
- Tablet scoreboard now indicates which players are currently dead
- Clicking `Play` in tablet goes straight to server browser
- Show extended game version number in tablet main menu
- You now switch sides during round based game modes (eg arena) correctly
- You can freely switch sides during warmup, even if teams are then imbalanced, to allow organizing who is on which team correctly.
- Fade to black when joining server, server travelling and leaving match.
- Add grip offset (to mitigate controller smashing) on some interactions
- Carefully tweaked some grip offsets based on much feedback
FIXES
- FIXED — Tablet lingering for a few seconds when closing — it now instantly appears/disappears
- FIXED — Audio for guns firing on auto no longer keep playing when the firing player gets killed
- FIXED — an issue where you could sometimes end up floating without a character in armory
- FIXED — an issue where you could crash/hang when there was a network failure
- FIXED — pre-match indicator [green fog effect] only works on first game you played
- FIXED — duplicate join/leave server messages
- FIXED — respawn and match audio events not working
- FIXED — a crash when grabbing the cube sculpture in Armory
- FIXED — not spawning where you died when you come back as spectator
- FIXED — server browser not loading servers on first open
- FIXED — UMP selector dial sound
- FIXED — recoil on guns using your dominant hand instead of the actual gripping hand
- FIXED —getting a random loadout when join server, you now get your current loadout (still can’t set while in armory, watch this space…)
- FIXED — last bullet not having fire sound
- FIXED — scoreboard overflowing if more than 5 players are on a team. You can now scroll to see more players. NB: currently no indication there are more than 5 players, eg a scroll bar.
- FIXED — spawn location being messed up in large play space
- FIXED — UMP being able to shoot when charging handle pulled back a little bit
- FIXED — hand attached to charging handle not getting detached when drop weapon
✔ Please join our Discord community for game updates and get in touch with our admins to join our investor channel:
Our community managers are:
Kevin Castro: etherean#7284
Jonathan Ovadia: tropical#0001
