We've just released the a0.86 build of Planet Explorers on Steam. For this build, we've included the World Editor. The current World Editor is fairly rudimentary, but you can see the direction we’re going with it. The current game won’t be able read the output maps from the editor until a0.9 though. We’ll try to release a tutorial/documentation as soon as possible. For now, the World Editor is Windows only. Also included in this release are story bug fixes for a0.85 and the block LOD.

Looking forward, we have a0.9 coming up as well as Unity 5.0. We’re not sure if a0.9 will be using Unity 5.0 or not, it depends on when that comes out. We do know that there should be some significant improvements to lighting, physics, and optimization once we make the switch.

We've just released the a0.86 build of Planet Explorers on Steam. For this build, we've included the World Editor. The current World Editor is fairly rudimentary, but you can see the direction we’re going with it. The current game won’t be able read the output maps from the editor until a0.9 though. We’ll try to release a tutorial/documentation as soon as possible. For now, the World Editor is Windows only. Also included in this release are story bug fixes for a0.85 and the block LOD.

Looking forward, we have a0.9 coming up as well as Unity 5.0. We’re not sure if a0.9 will be using Unity 5.0 or not, it depends on when that comes out. We do know that there should be some significant improvements to lighting, physics, and optimization once we make the switch.

We’ve been having lots of meetings regarding the progress of A0.9 this months. So far, the main objectives of a new ai behavior system, a new player movement system, a new ui, the world editor, and their incorporation into multiplayer are all moving forward, albeit at different speeds. The world editor is fairly stable and ready for player testing now, while the rest are still a month away at the earliest. So, we’ve decided to put out an a0.86 build before Christmas with the world editor. Before anyone gets too excited, the game can’t currently read the world editor maps yet (the a0.86 build is still based on the a0.85 branch, not the a0.9 branch), but most of the editing functions are in. We’ll try to put in an early version of the story editor as well if we can get it to work smoothly, no promises though.

Another thing to be included in a0.86 will be the block building system LOD. What this does is to allow block buildings to show up at the farthest terrain setting. We’ll also be testing in the future to see if we can get the resolution of blocks down to .25 meters from the current .5 meters.

Screenshot

We're going to have a video next week of the new player animations as well.

We’ve been having lots of meetings regarding the progress of A0.9 this months. So far, the main objectives of a new ai behavior system, a new player movement system, a new ui, the world editor, and their incorporation into multiplayer are all moving forward, albeit at different speeds. The world editor is fairly stable and ready for player testing now, while the rest are still a month away at the earliest. So, we’ve decided to put out an a0.86 build before Christmas with the world editor. Before anyone gets too excited, the game can’t currently read the world editor maps yet (the a0.86 build is still based on the a0.85 branch, not the a0.9 branch), but most of the editing functions are in. We’ll try to put in an early version of the story editor as well if we can get it to work smoothly, no promises though.

Another thing to be included in a0.86 will be the block building system LOD. What this does is to allow block buildings to show up at the farthest terrain setting. We’ll also be testing in the future to see if we can get the resolution of blocks down to .25 meters from the current .5 meters.

Screenshot

We're going to have a video next week of the new player animations as well.

We’ve just released the a0.85 build on Steam. It’s mostly a Story mode build with some Adventure mode updates. All old saves are probably not going to work with the current build, so here’s a save package for you to download: http://www.pathea.net/images/SaveData.rar

Below is the changelist:

Added player customization
Added several new face types
Added 11 new animal species
Added 2 new enemy types
Added 2 new locations
Added swamp biome
Added mountain biome
Added 7 new NPCs
Added Pujan wall
Added 2 new Pujan towns
Added 4 new rivers to story map
Extended storyline
Added natural bridges to adventure mode
Added better town designs to adventure mode
Added new air boss to adventure mode
Added rainforest biome to adventure mode
Changed building block textures
Easier to pick up plants

We weren’t able to get the 64 bit version working with the current build due to the difference in behavior tree libraries, but it is already working with a0.9, so everyone will just need to wait a bit longer for that. The player customization and ingame NPC randomization are still being tweaked...so don't worry too much yet if you happen to meet a really strange character...

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Screen 6

We’ve just released the a0.85 build on Steam. It’s mostly a Story mode build with some Adventure mode updates. All old saves are probably not going to work with the current build, so here’s a save package for you to download: http://www.pathea.net/images/SaveData.rar

Below is the changelist:

Added player customization
Added several new face types
Added 11 new animal species
Added 2 new enemy types
Added 2 new locations
Added swamp biome
Added mountain biome
Added 7 new NPCs
Added Pujan wall
Added 2 new Pujan towns
Added 4 new rivers to story map
Extended storyline
Added natural bridges to adventure mode
Added better town designs to adventure mode
Added new air boss to adventure mode
Added rainforest biome to adventure mode
Changed building block textures
Easier to pick up plants

We weren’t able to get the 64 bit version working with the current build due to the difference in behavior tree libraries, but it is already working with a0.9, so everyone will just need to wait a bit longer for that. The player customization and ingame NPC randomization are still being tweaked...so don't worry too much yet if you happen to meet a really strange character...

Screen 1
Screen 2
Screen 3
Screen 4
Screen 5
Screen 6

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K79sBhWSl9E

Hope you still remember the World Editor we post a couple weeks ago. Today, we’ll show you more details about it with a video. To remind you, World Editor is one of the major things we’re working on for a0.9. It is a program that enables you to launch and edit a world map in the editor, or import maps from other editors such as World Machine. The main tools we’re going to introduce today are different brushes, auxiliary tools and the artifact, a kind of voxel brush that players can generate and share. One thing that we haven’t finished is that editor UI, so there are lots of empty icons, that will be fixed later. We’re still incorporating the Story and Mission editors into the world editor, so we’ll show those later.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K79sBhWSl9E

Hope you still remember the World Editor we post a couple weeks ago. Today, we’ll show you more details about it with a video. To remind you, World Editor is one of the major things we’re working on for a0.9. It is a program that enables you to launch and edit a world map in the editor, or import maps from other editors such as World Machine. The main tools we’re going to introduce today are different brushes, auxiliary tools and the artifact, a kind of voxel brush that players can generate and share. One thing that we haven’t finished is that editor UI, so there are lots of empty icons, that will be fixed later. We’re still incorporating the Story and Mission editors into the world editor, so we’ll show those later.

Another progress update on a0.85 and a0.9. Some (probably most, heh) of you are wondering why the current update is taking so long, let me clear that up first. Currently, we have most of our programmers reworking/working on several key system, including the UI, AI behavior, World Editor, and Player Skill/Animation systems. All of these are major systems and won't be done until a0.9, but they do impede on our current progress on a0.85. For example, we have the character deformation system done, but since the UI system is still being worked on, the deformation system doesn't have a working UI, so it's inclusion in a0.85 was uncertain until a week ago. Now we're pretty sure it'll be in since that part of the UI's done. A0.85 is also a major art asset update, so we're waiting on some new scene assets to be done.

We have been doing some efficiency work as well, trying to get the frame rate of the game higher. One of the largest improvements so far is with AI collision detection. It used to be that we would update the collision detection of every ragdoll collider within an AI body at every frame, now we're only updating the collision of the capsule collider surrounding the AI every few frames. What this means for you is an uptick of about 10+ fps depending on your setup.

Finally, here are some screenshots of the Adventure map procedural improvements, the current canyons look a lot better and we've added stone bridges over the waterways. We're also working on multiple layers of water next as well as better sloping river banks and better town setups (no more flat towns). All of that we're trying to get into a0.85 in the next couple of weeks.

Image 1
Image 2
Image 3

Another progress update on a0.85 and a0.9. Some (probably most, heh) of you are wondering why the current update is taking so long, let me clear that up first. Currently, we have most of our programmers reworking/working on several key system, including the UI, AI behavior, World Editor, and Player Skill/Animation systems. All of these are major systems and won't be done until a0.9, but they do impede on our current progress on a0.85. For example, we have the character deformation system done, but since the UI system is still being worked on, the deformation system doesn't have a working UI, so it's inclusion in a0.85 was uncertain until a week ago. Now we're pretty sure it'll be in since that part of the UI's done. A0.85 is also a major art asset update, so we're waiting on some new scene assets to be done.

We have been doing some efficiency work as well, trying to get the frame rate of the game higher. One of the largest improvements so far is with AI collision detection. It used to be that we would update the collision detection of every ragdoll collider within an AI body at every frame, now we're only updating the collision of the capsule collider surrounding the AI every few frames. What this means for you is an uptick of about 10+ fps depending on your setup.

Finally, here are some screenshots of the Adventure map procedural improvements, the current canyons look a lot better and we've added stone bridges over the waterways. We're also working on multiple layers of water next as well as better sloping river banks and better town setups (no more flat towns). All of that we're trying to get into a0.85 in the next couple of weeks.

Image 1
Image 2
Image 3