Sep 30, 2016
Testing 26: Compass, Robustness and more!
Boundless - vdragon
This update is accessible via the Steam Beta "Testing" release of Boundless.



The release will be accessible as "Testing" until the end of the week, whilst we resolve issues with the playing community. When this additional polish is complete the release will be promoted to Steam "Live" for all players.

Please report all issues discovered with the update to this support thread.

Release Notes:
  • Art:
    • Adjusted stone and metal crucible textures to better support tinting, assigned correct tints to Iron and Titanium crucibles.
    • Warp blocks now have a less confusing label on their textures. Don't worry though, it's still a placeholder asset.
  • Crafting:
    • Fixed bug where the machines do not produce wear.
    • Fixed bug where broken blocks would always drop items with the world's default colour rather than the block's colour.
  • Creatures:
    • Fixed a bug with creature spawning where creatures are not spawned fairly between players.
  • Trading:
    • Changed the trading flow to add trading requests.
  • HUD + GUI:
    • Added a compass to the HUD which tracks other players and beacons.
    • Added grapple control text.
    • Added pop-up when the player exits the game.
    • Added word damage in the message shown when the player takes damage.
    • Change Smart Stack controls: now left click picks up, right click opens stack.
    • Count the total number of items available for a recipe, not just until there is a sufficent amount to be able to craft the item.
    • Fixed the message shown to the player when picks an item.
    • Removed the worlds menu. Players should now always join on the same world they were on when they left the game.
    • Reversed the amount needed and amount have in the recipe pop-up.
  • Server:
    • Player data and inventory shouldn't be lost when a server crashes (on restart the data is recovered).
  • World builder:
    • Config path changed to be relative to the Documents folder for the user rather than the Application folder, for MacOS this will be ~/Documents/boundless/ and for Windows C:\Users...\Documents\boundless. Users with existing configs should copy their old config files to the new location, preferably before updating the world builder, but not critical.
Known Issues:

The following items are known issues in this release.
  • Some items in player hands in 3rd person view are huge (e.g. Power Core).
  • Some of the items are not positioned in the hand correctly when the players are seen in 3rd person view.
  • Some of the items displayed in the inventory screen are not positioned correctly.
  • Sometimes the animation for left handed tools do not swing continuously.
  • The recipes are not final.
  • Z-fighting with some items (workbench and other machines) when placed underwater.

Cross posted from devlog forum which can be found here
Sep 30, 2016
Testing 26: Compass, Robustness and more!
Boundless - vdragon
This update is accessible via the Steam Beta "Testing" release of Boundless.



The release will be accessible as "Testing" until the end of the week, whilst we resolve issues with the playing community. When this additional polish is complete the release will be promoted to Steam "Live" for all players.

Please report all issues discovered with the update to this support thread.

Release Notes:
  • Art:
    • Adjusted stone and metal crucible textures to better support tinting, assigned correct tints to Iron and Titanium crucibles.
    • Warp blocks now have a less confusing label on their textures. Don't worry though, it's still a placeholder asset.
  • Crafting:
    • Fixed bug where the machines do not produce wear.
    • Fixed bug where broken blocks would always drop items with the world's default colour rather than the block's colour.
  • Creatures:
    • Fixed a bug with creature spawning where creatures are not spawned fairly between players.
  • Trading:
    • Changed the trading flow to add trading requests.
  • HUD + GUI:
    • Added a compass to the HUD which tracks other players and beacons.
    • Added grapple control text.
    • Added pop-up when the player exits the game.
    • Added word damage in the message shown when the player takes damage.
    • Change Smart Stack controls: now left click picks up, right click opens stack.
    • Count the total number of items available for a recipe, not just until there is a sufficent amount to be able to craft the item.
    • Fixed the message shown to the player when picks an item.
    • Removed the worlds menu. Players should now always join on the same world they were on when they left the game.
    • Reversed the amount needed and amount have in the recipe pop-up.
  • Server:
    • Player data and inventory shouldn't be lost when a server crashes (on restart the data is recovered).
  • World builder:
    • Config path changed to be relative to the Documents folder for the user rather than the Application folder, for MacOS this will be ~/Documents/boundless/ and for Windows C:\Users...\Documents\boundless. Users with existing configs should copy their old config files to the new location, preferably before updating the world builder, but not critical.
Known Issues:

The following items are known issues in this release.
  • Some items in player hands in 3rd person view are huge (e.g. Power Core).
  • Some of the items are not positioned in the hand correctly when the players are seen in 3rd person view.
  • Some of the items displayed in the inventory screen are not positioned correctly.
  • Sometimes the animation for left handed tools do not swing continuously.
  • The recipes are not final.
  • Z-fighting with some items (workbench and other machines) when placed underwater.

Cross posted from devlog forum which can be found here
Sep 29, 2016
Testing 25: Death, Respawning and more!
Boundless - vdragon
This update is accessible via the Steam Beta "Testing" release of Boundless.



The release will be accessible as "Testing" until the end of the week, whilst we resolve issues with the playing community. When this additional polish is complete the release will be promoted to Steam "Live" for all players.

Please report all issues discovered with the update to this support thread.

Release Notes:
  • Respawning after death respawns you at the same location you died in, if valid, otherwise 'near by'.
  • There is a 10s countdown for respawning.
  • HUD + GUI:
    • Added log messages when the player takes damage.
    • Fixed spark value in the recipe descriptions.
    • Improved the coin amount visualisation.
Resolved Known Issues:

The following items were known issues in previous releases and have now been resolved.
  • Cannot 'drop' items from [Workbench Ingredients] and [Completed Items] lists.
  • Pushing

    button rapidly crashes the client.[/list]
    Known Issues:

    The following items are known issues in this release.

    • Some items in player hands in 3rd person view are huge (e.g. Power Core).
    • Some of the items are not positioned in the hand correctly when the players are seen in 3rd person view.
    • Some of the items displayed in the inventory screen are not positioned correctly.
    • Sometimes the animation for left handed tools do not swing continuously.
    • The recipes are not final.
    • Z-fighting with some items (workbench and other machines) when placed underwater.
    Cross posted from devlog forum which can be found here

Sep 29, 2016
Testing 25: Death, Respawning and more!
Boundless - vdragon
This update is accessible via the Steam Beta "Testing" release of Boundless.



The release will be accessible as "Testing" until the end of the week, whilst we resolve issues with the playing community. When this additional polish is complete the release will be promoted to Steam "Live" for all players.

Please report all issues discovered with the update to this support thread.

Release Notes:
  • Respawning after death respawns you at the same location you died in, if valid, otherwise 'near by'.
  • There is a 10s countdown for respawning.
  • HUD + GUI:
    • Added log messages when the player takes damage.
    • Fixed spark value in the recipe descriptions.
    • Improved the coin amount visualisation.
Resolved Known Issues:

The following items were known issues in previous releases and have now been resolved.
  • Cannot 'drop' items from [Workbench Ingredients] and [Completed Items] lists.
  • Pushing

    button rapidly crashes the client.[/list]
    Known Issues:

    The following items are known issues in this release.

    • Some items in player hands in 3rd person view are huge (e.g. Power Core).
    • Some of the items are not positioned in the hand correctly when the players are seen in 3rd person view.
    • Some of the items displayed in the inventory screen are not positioned correctly.
    • Sometimes the animation for left handed tools do not swing continuously.
    • The recipes are not final.
    • Z-fighting with some items (workbench and other machines) when placed underwater.
    Cross posted from devlog forum which can be found here

Sep 27, 2016
Testing 24: Trading with the dead, fixes and more!
Boundless - vdragon
This update is accessible via the Steam Beta "Testing" release of Boundless.



The release will be accessible as "Testing" until the end of the week, whilst we resolve issues with the playing community. When this additional polish is complete the release will be promoted to Steam "Live" for all players.

Please report all issues discovered with the update to this support thread.

Release Notes:
  • Art:
    • New Totem asset.
    • Fossil Extract has the wrong mesh.
  • Crafting + Resources:
    • Fixed a server crash when players die while interacting with something.
    • Fixed a server crash when trading with a dead player.
    • Handcrafting recipes added to the crafting table.
    • When breaking a crafting table the contents should drop.
  • HUD + GUI:
    • Fixed server crash from manipulating inventory.
  • Bug fixes:
    • Ammo is no longer lost when the Slingbow's durability has been fully depleted.
    • Cannot remove blocks inside beacons if the beacon control block is removed first.
    • Mining experience should not increase from picking up player-placed blocks.
    • Position of beacons are not always the same on a different day.
Resolved Known Issues:

The following items were known issues in previous releases and have now been resolved.
  • The character will be standing still when running sideways.
  • The LODs on the tool models are oriented differently in storage.
Known Issues:

The following items are known issues in this release.
  • Cannot 'drop' items from [Workbench Ingredients] and [Completed Items] lists.
  • Pushing

    button rapidly crashes the client.

  • Some items in player hands in 3rd person view are huge (e.g. Power Core).
  • Some of the items are not positioned in the hand correctly when the players are seen in 3rd person view.
  • Some of the items displayed in the inventory screen are not positioned correctly.
  • Sometimes the animation for left handed tools do not swing continuously.
  • The recipes are not final.
  • Z-fighting with some items (workbench and other machines) when placed underwater.
Cross posted from devlog forum which can be found here
Sep 27, 2016
Testing 24: Trading with the dead, fixes and more!
Boundless - vdragon
This update is accessible via the Steam Beta "Testing" release of Boundless.



The release will be accessible as "Testing" until the end of the week, whilst we resolve issues with the playing community. When this additional polish is complete the release will be promoted to Steam "Live" for all players.

Please report all issues discovered with the update to this support thread.

Release Notes:
  • Art:
    • New Totem asset.
    • Fossil Extract has the wrong mesh.
  • Crafting + Resources:
    • Fixed a server crash when players die while interacting with something.
    • Fixed a server crash when trading with a dead player.
    • Handcrafting recipes added to the crafting table.
    • When breaking a crafting table the contents should drop.
  • HUD + GUI:
    • Fixed server crash from manipulating inventory.
  • Bug fixes:
    • Ammo is no longer lost when the Slingbow's durability has been fully depleted.
    • Cannot remove blocks inside beacons if the beacon control block is removed first.
    • Mining experience should not increase from picking up player-placed blocks.
    • Position of beacons are not always the same on a different day.
Resolved Known Issues:

The following items were known issues in previous releases and have now been resolved.
  • The character will be standing still when running sideways.
  • The LODs on the tool models are oriented differently in storage.
Known Issues:

The following items are known issues in this release.
  • Cannot 'drop' items from [Workbench Ingredients] and [Completed Items] lists.
  • Pushing

    button rapidly crashes the client.

  • Some items in player hands in 3rd person view are huge (e.g. Power Core).
  • Some of the items are not positioned in the hand correctly when the players are seen in 3rd person view.
  • Some of the items displayed in the inventory screen are not positioned correctly.
  • Sometimes the animation for left handed tools do not swing continuously.
  • The recipes are not final.
  • Z-fighting with some items (workbench and other machines) when placed underwater.
Cross posted from devlog forum which can be found here
Sep 26, 2016
Testing 23: Fixes, World Builder Node Library and more!
Boundless - vdragon
This update is accessible via the Steam Beta "Testing" release of Boundless.



The release will be accessible as "Testing" until the end of the week, whilst we resolve issues with the playing community. When this additional polish is complete the release will be promoted to Steam "Live" for all players.

Please report all issues discovered with the update to this support thread.

Release Notes:
  • World Builder Standard Library:
    • Created 3 new worlds to play on: 1 home planet, 1 moon and a 1 harder planet.
    • Created 46 new biomes to find and explore!
    • Prefabs have been added to many biomes.
    • Rare resources generation updated.
    • Strata updated to provide more variation in materials underground.
  • Engine:
    • Fixed not saving beacon plots gained from progression.
  • Art + Assets:
    • Updated shader on flowers so they look nicer.
    • Fossil extract now has the correct mesh.
  • HUD + GUI:
    • Added notification when an invalid item type is placed in some inventories
    • Added the amount of resources on the recipes menu.
    • Emergency warp avoids lava and deep water.
    • Fixed crash when opening inventories (if you had an empty Smart Stack).
    • Fixed display of beacon locations.
    • Fixed problems trying to use Quick Move with Smart Stacks
    • Hidden the item grid buttons if they are not active.
    • Inventory screen no longer appears when interacting with something you do not have permission to use.
    • Mouse wheel down moves item selection radial clockwise
    • Showing furnace data fuel information in the furnace screen.
    • Use world display names rather than config names
  • Crafting + Resources:
    • Added drops to compact, refined and machined metals, compact gems, and glass.
    • Changed the number of crafting table inputs to 4.
    • Fix buying/selling plinths are always locked.
    • Fix dropped items can be instantly picked up.
    • Fix incorrect "only be placed inside a beacon" message when removing machines/plinths outside of a beacon.
    • Fixed bug placing warp conduit entities.
    • Fixed bug where crafting machine table was not droping the items when it was destroyed.
    • Fixed coins being reset on death.
    • Item pickups now bob at different heights and rotations.
    • Only give mining experience for natural blocks, and building experience for non-flora.
    • When a machine is destroyed is first cancelling all the current crafting recipes to not lose any resources.
  • SFX + Music: (Some items released in Testing-22)
    • 31 music tracks added, played either at dawn or at dusk
    • 17 new sets of block surface sounds (rock, gravel, soil, crystalline etc), played on footsteps and impacts.
    • New sound effects for tools, changing depending on their material property (i.e wood, stone, gem)
    • New placeholder ambience
Resolved Known Issues:

The following items were known issues in previous releases and have now been resolved.
  • Attempting to drop items via the Inventory GUI may cause them to be picked up automatically.
  • Foliage blocks are darker on the inside.
  • Iron Fire Pit missing texture.
Known Issues:

The following items are known issues in this release.
  • Cannot 'drop' items from [Workbench Ingredients] and [Completed Items] lists.
  • Pushing

    button rapidly crashes the client.

  • Some items in player hands in 3rd person view are huge (e.g. Power Core).
  • Some of the items are not positioned in the hand correctly when the players are seen in 3rd person view.
  • Some of the items displayed in the inventory screen are not positioned correctly.
  • Sometimes the animation for left handed tools do not swing continuously.
  • The character will be standing still when running sideways.
  • The LODs on the tools models are oriented differently in storage.
  • The recipes are not final.
  • Z-fighting with some items (workbench and other machines) when placed underwater.

Submit a sweet screen shot of the latest release and we'll include it in this announcement post.

Cross posted from devlog forum which can be found here
Sep 26, 2016
Testing 23: Fixes, World Builder Node Library and more!
Boundless - vdragon
This update is accessible via the Steam Beta "Testing" release of Boundless.



The release will be accessible as "Testing" until the end of the week, whilst we resolve issues with the playing community. When this additional polish is complete the release will be promoted to Steam "Live" for all players.

Please report all issues discovered with the update to this support thread.

Release Notes:
  • World Builder Standard Library:
    • Created 3 new worlds to play on: 1 home planet, 1 moon and a 1 harder planet.
    • Created 46 new biomes to find and explore!
    • Prefabs have been added to many biomes.
    • Rare resources generation updated.
    • Strata updated to provide more variation in materials underground.
  • Engine:
    • Fixed not saving beacon plots gained from progression.
  • Art + Assets:
    • Updated shader on flowers so they look nicer.
    • Fossil extract now has the correct mesh.
  • HUD + GUI:
    • Added notification when an invalid item type is placed in some inventories
    • Added the amount of resources on the recipes menu.
    • Emergency warp avoids lava and deep water.
    • Fixed crash when opening inventories (if you had an empty Smart Stack).
    • Fixed display of beacon locations.
    • Fixed problems trying to use Quick Move with Smart Stacks
    • Hidden the item grid buttons if they are not active.
    • Inventory screen no longer appears when interacting with something you do not have permission to use.
    • Mouse wheel down moves item selection radial clockwise
    • Showing furnace data fuel information in the furnace screen.
    • Use world display names rather than config names
  • Crafting + Resources:
    • Added drops to compact, refined and machined metals, compact gems, and glass.
    • Changed the number of crafting table inputs to 4.
    • Fix buying/selling plinths are always locked.
    • Fix dropped items can be instantly picked up.
    • Fix incorrect "only be placed inside a beacon" message when removing machines/plinths outside of a beacon.
    • Fixed bug placing warp conduit entities.
    • Fixed bug where crafting machine table was not droping the items when it was destroyed.
    • Fixed coins being reset on death.
    • Item pickups now bob at different heights and rotations.
    • Only give mining experience for natural blocks, and building experience for non-flora.
    • When a machine is destroyed is first cancelling all the current crafting recipes to not lose any resources.
  • SFX + Music: (Some items released in Testing-22)
    • 31 music tracks added, played either at dawn or at dusk
    • 17 new sets of block surface sounds (rock, gravel, soil, crystalline etc), played on footsteps and impacts.
    • New sound effects for tools, changing depending on their material property (i.e wood, stone, gem)
    • New placeholder ambience
Resolved Known Issues:

The following items were known issues in previous releases and have now been resolved.
  • Attempting to drop items via the Inventory GUI may cause them to be picked up automatically.
  • Foliage blocks are darker on the inside.
  • Iron Fire Pit missing texture.
Known Issues:

The following items are known issues in this release.
  • Cannot 'drop' items from [Workbench Ingredients] and [Completed Items] lists.
  • Pushing

    button rapidly crashes the client.

  • Some items in player hands in 3rd person view are huge (e.g. Power Core).
  • Some of the items are not positioned in the hand correctly when the players are seen in 3rd person view.
  • Some of the items displayed in the inventory screen are not positioned correctly.
  • Sometimes the animation for left handed tools do not swing continuously.
  • The character will be standing still when running sideways.
  • The LODs on the tools models are oriented differently in storage.
  • The recipes are not final.
  • Z-fighting with some items (workbench and other machines) when placed underwater.

Submit a sweet screen shot of the latest release and we'll include it in this announcement post.

Cross posted from devlog forum which can be found here
Sep 26, 2016
Weekly Dev Update: 2016 September 23rd - Testing Release, Bugs, Fixes and more!
Boundless - vdragon
This week we have been busy testing new features and fixing bugs for the Testing updates we did on Thursday and Friday. We will be fixing more bugs and making tweaks with feedback from the community next week so that we can update the official Live release with all the latest goodness.

Next month, we will be putting more efforts on the following.
  • HUD + GUI update to the new skin.
  • Creature asset creation.
  • Slingbow, grapple and lance mesh updates.
  • More SFX and VFX.
Please report all bugs and issues here for the recent Testing updates.

Code
This week there lots of work on features to get the release out. The release notes cover most of what has been worked on.

In addition we’ve been working on:
  • a more sophisticated Spawn Location for creatures and players, both when they first join, to improve the ‘golf drop’ and when they respawn after death.
  • making the portal transitions even smoother.
  • the procedural palette generation for worlds.
We’ve been looking investigating back end database options and started some refactoring to allow benchmarking. The server were updated to Ubuntu 16.04. We have had an VFX artist join us so there's been quite a bit of knowledge sharing and set up.

Design
Matt has wrapped up the five world configs and numerous biomes that will provide worlds for us in the near future. This is a great base to build on, but there is plenty more amazing things that could be done. All of his work will be available to see and play with in the World Builder. The Worlds and Biome used in the Testing 22 release are currently in a branch of the boundless.worlds project. If you want to contribute to the worlds for the game you can get involved – message Nevir or Ollie for help on this.

Luke has been tweaking and balancing experience gaining and the rewards. He’s also continued to work on the design for the stats system, as well as thinking about VFX that are important from a design perspective. Finally he saved Ollie from going mad by doing the second half of the descriptive text for the objects in the game.

Ollie has been helping to get the release ready, keeping up with reviewing bug reports, polish tasks and supporting the coder’s work on analytics and “smart stacking”.

Art
This week the art team have been supporting the Testing release build.

We’ve concepted adjustments to the Totem to support the new Location Marker creation on remote worlds.

We’re modelling the final Shovels: wood and stone seen below. They will be added to the Testing and Live releases soon.





This week we presented the first 4 Boundless creatures, including their Progression, Elemental and Exotic visual treatments. Each post contains details on different aspects of the design. You can check them all out below:
  1. Wildstock
  2. Spitter
  3. Road Runner
  4. Hopper
The initial family is almost complete. More coming next week.



We’re now focusing on the VFX for Boundless. Below are some early concepts exploring a hand generated style for an updated Torch flame.







We will do a separate post soon when we have finalised the style and have it working in game.

We've also been exploring a procedural palette system that will generated all the different block and lighting colours of the Boundless worlds.


Cross posted from devlog forum which can be found here
Sep 26, 2016
Weekly Dev Update: 2016 September 23rd - Testing Release, Bugs, Fixes and more!
Boundless - vdragon
This week we have been busy testing new features and fixing bugs for the Testing updates we did on Thursday and Friday. We will be fixing more bugs and making tweaks with feedback from the community next week so that we can update the official Live release with all the latest goodness.

Next month, we will be putting more efforts on the following.
  • HUD + GUI update to the new skin.
  • Creature asset creation.
  • Slingbow, grapple and lance mesh updates.
  • More SFX and VFX.
Please report all bugs and issues here for the recent Testing updates.

Code
This week there lots of work on features to get the release out. The release notes cover most of what has been worked on.

In addition we’ve been working on:
  • a more sophisticated Spawn Location for creatures and players, both when they first join, to improve the ‘golf drop’ and when they respawn after death.
  • making the portal transitions even smoother.
  • the procedural palette generation for worlds.
We’ve been looking investigating back end database options and started some refactoring to allow benchmarking. The server were updated to Ubuntu 16.04. We have had an VFX artist join us so there's been quite a bit of knowledge sharing and set up.

Design
Matt has wrapped up the five world configs and numerous biomes that will provide worlds for us in the near future. This is a great base to build on, but there is plenty more amazing things that could be done. All of his work will be available to see and play with in the World Builder. The Worlds and Biome used in the Testing 22 release are currently in a branch of the boundless.worlds project. If you want to contribute to the worlds for the game you can get involved – message Nevir or Ollie for help on this.

Luke has been tweaking and balancing experience gaining and the rewards. He’s also continued to work on the design for the stats system, as well as thinking about VFX that are important from a design perspective. Finally he saved Ollie from going mad by doing the second half of the descriptive text for the objects in the game.

Ollie has been helping to get the release ready, keeping up with reviewing bug reports, polish tasks and supporting the coder’s work on analytics and “smart stacking”.

Art
This week the art team have been supporting the Testing release build.

We’ve concepted adjustments to the Totem to support the new Location Marker creation on remote worlds.

We’re modelling the final Shovels: wood and stone seen below. They will be added to the Testing and Live releases soon.





This week we presented the first 4 Boundless creatures, including their Progression, Elemental and Exotic visual treatments. Each post contains details on different aspects of the design. You can check them all out below:
  1. Wildstock
  2. Spitter
  3. Road Runner
  4. Hopper
The initial family is almost complete. More coming next week.



We’re now focusing on the VFX for Boundless. Below are some early concepts exploring a hand generated style for an updated Torch flame.







We will do a separate post soon when we have finalised the style and have it working in game.

We've also been exploring a procedural palette system that will generated all the different block and lighting colours of the Boundless worlds.


Cross posted from devlog forum which can be found here
...