This week we updated the Live release in Steam with the contents from Testing 30 as Release 151. The major change in these updates is a refactoring of the Smart Stacking system to improve the stability on the server and clients. Thank you to the players who took the time to send us bug reports. There are still a few outstanding issues which we will resolve this coming week.
Next week, we are targeting to release the following:
Updated Grapple hook system including new 3rd person animations
Improved Game, Combat and Chart logs in the HUD.
Rotate Machines and Storage to change the direction they face using a chisel.
As stated in last week’s Weekly Dev Update there are many improvements and new features we're working on in parallel and coming this month.
We've also done a round of PS4 and PC consistency testing to make sure there is feature parity. Currently all the features in the PC version are working in the PS4 version at Boundless HQ.
Code This week we’ve continued to work on issues users have been experiencing, especially around Inventory and Smart Stacks. Two updates were released containing these fixes.
We continue to look into the network lag issues, running some experiments and updating the network libraries that we use to their latest versions. Details of our progress have been shared in this post - please track this if you experience significant latency.
We've also been working on the following:
The Grapple Hook works now as much of the functionally and animations in with some work remaining on controls and the effects.
Some additional sound effects have been added for beacon plots and the light cube.
The HUD work has added more to the combat logs.
The chisel is now super powered with the ability to rotate any orientable mesh blocks.
The intra-planet warps refactoring is underway. This will allow Warps and Portals to work within the same world.
Engine side we’ve been working on some loaded testing with bots to help stress test the servers.
Design This week has been quite bitty as we’re working on improving stability, choosing the direction for the next major release, and understanding how best we can get more people to know about Boundless.
Ollie has been planning and documenting the next steps for the project, as well as supporting Rob in his UX work. He’s also been supporting work on creature generation, the stats system and the grapple.
Rob has been working on the UX and GUI design for Portals and Warps, Friends, and Locations and Worlds.
Luke has continued his work on the Steam store page and publicising the game generally. This includes looking at other games and how they represent themselves on Steam. As part of that he’s been writing a feature list to better communicate what features we have now, and what we intend to implement in the future. With his remaining time he’s been continuing with work on the stats system.
Art + Animation This week the art team has been busy working on items, creatures and the grapple.
Items - we have a new ingot asset for metal alloys. This should be available in the latest release.
Creatures - Amanda has been looking at how we will convert the giant worm to 3D. Below is a sheet with construction details:
Creatures - Jess is modelling the Hunter and done a first pass on the hunter trails. This is still WIP and it takes time to get things looking really slick:
Grapple - Here’s Dom’s WIP VFX for the grapple line:
Gerry has been working on an improved grapple animation set which is a big improvement to what we had previously. These anims together with the new grapple functionality should be available soon.
Cross posted from devlog forum which can be found here
This week we updated the Live release in Steam with the contents from Testing 30 as Release 151. The major change in these updates is a refactoring of the Smart Stacking system to improve the stability on the server and clients. Thank you to the players who took the time to send us bug reports. There are still a few outstanding issues which we will resolve this coming week.
Next week, we are targeting to release the following:
Updated Grapple hook system including new 3rd person animations
Improved Game, Combat and Chart logs in the HUD.
Rotate Machines and Storage to change the direction they face using a chisel.
As stated in last week’s Weekly Dev Update there are many improvements and new features we're working on in parallel and coming this month.
We've also done a round of PS4 and PC consistency testing to make sure there is feature parity. Currently all the features in the PC version are working in the PS4 version at Boundless HQ.
Code This week we’ve continued to work on issues users have been experiencing, especially around Inventory and Smart Stacks. Two updates were released containing these fixes.
We continue to look into the network lag issues, running some experiments and updating the network libraries that we use to their latest versions. Details of our progress have been shared in this post - please track this if you experience significant latency.
We've also been working on the following:
The Grapple Hook works now as much of the functionally and animations in with some work remaining on controls and the effects.
Some additional sound effects have been added for beacon plots and the light cube.
The HUD work has added more to the combat logs.
The chisel is now super powered with the ability to rotate any orientable mesh blocks.
The intra-planet warps refactoring is underway. This will allow Warps and Portals to work within the same world.
Engine side we’ve been working on some loaded testing with bots to help stress test the servers.
Design This week has been quite bitty as we’re working on improving stability, choosing the direction for the next major release, and understanding how best we can get more people to know about Boundless.
Ollie has been planning and documenting the next steps for the project, as well as supporting Rob in his UX work. He’s also been supporting work on creature generation, the stats system and the grapple.
Rob has been working on the UX and GUI design for Portals and Warps, Friends, and Locations and Worlds.
Luke has continued his work on the Steam store page and publicising the game generally. This includes looking at other games and how they represent themselves on Steam. As part of that he’s been writing a feature list to better communicate what features we have now, and what we intend to implement in the future. With his remaining time he’s been continuing with work on the stats system.
Art + Animation This week the art team has been busy working on items, creatures and the grapple.
Items - we have a new ingot asset for metal alloys. This should be available in the latest release.
Creatures - Amanda has been looking at how we will convert the giant worm to 3D. Below is a sheet with construction details:
Creatures - Jess is modelling the Hunter and done a first pass on the hunter trails. This is still WIP and it takes time to get things looking really slick:
Grapple - Here’s Dom’s WIP VFX for the grapple line:
Gerry has been working on an improved grapple animation set which is a big improvement to what we had previously. These anims together with the new grapple functionality should be available soon.
Cross posted from devlog forum which can be found here
Please restart Steam to make sure you get the latest version of Boundless. If the update happens whilst Steam is open it's unlikely you'll get the latest version.
Overview:
This Live release contains the features from Testing 30 and some additional fixes.
The most significant update is a refactored Smart Stacking system. Hopefully this will be much more solid and greatly reduce the number of client and server crashes.
Important:
If you experience any ongoing networking or latency issues then please track this thread. We're continuing to investigate and work on resolutions to the issue.
Release Notes:
Art + Animation + Assets:
Added machine animations for workbench, workbench rotator, workbench input, refinery rotator, extractor rotator and extractor input.
Fixed black plants on some worlds.
Fixed ink, fibre and cloth not inheriting colours from ingredients.
Fixed some prop blocks appearing inside the floor when placed on a slope.
Locks no longer flip upside-down at a distance.
Metal alloys created by crafting now have an asset instead of a placeholder cube.
Creatures + Combat:
Arrows and tools no longer hit dead creatures.
Fixed a bug where chasing wildstock can't climb up 1 high blocks.
Fixed server crash when a cuttletrunk follows a target for a long time.
Point planets now displayed as stars.
GUI + HUD:
Added combat log first state.
Fixed an issue where it was possible to select planets through solid geometry including distant mountains.
Inventory tooltips now give a preview of what action will occur between the held item and the hovered item.
Refactored inventory API and Smart Stacking code to make it less fragile for fixes and additions.
Support for using Smart Stacks in plinths, machines and furnaces.
Resolved Known Issues:
The following items were known issues in previous releases and have now been resolved.
Buying plinth not displaying items on top.
Cannot smart stack walls.
Some of the items were not positioned in the hand correctly when the players are seen in 3rd person view.
Some of the items displayed in the inventory screen were not positioned correctly.
Known Issues:
The following items are known issues in this release.
Shift-clicking an item from the selling plinth will show odd numbers and will not always go in the shopping basket.
Shift-clicking and dragging on the coin icons from within the trading menus may cause a crash.
Some interactive blocks (crafting table, machine, beacon control) have become corrupted during the migration. This will result in at best those blocks not being able to be interacted with, at worst the game crashing when interacting with those blocks. To fix the issue the block(s) in question need to be re-placed. In the case of anything other than a beacon control the block can simply be broken, picked up, and then re-placed. In the case of a beacon control this will work, although it would result in all the plots having to be re-placed one at a time and during that process the contents being unprotected. A better workaround for a beacon control is to craft a new beacon control, place that, and then break the old one, which will keep the beacon's plots placed throughout the process.
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
Please restart Steam to make sure you get the latest version of Boundless. If the update happens whilst Steam is open it's unlikely you'll get the latest version.
Overview:
This Live release contains the features from Testing 30 and some additional fixes.
The most significant update is a refactored Smart Stacking system. Hopefully this will be much more solid and greatly reduce the number of client and server crashes.
Important:
If you experience any ongoing networking or latency issues then please track this thread. We're continuing to investigate and work on resolutions to the issue.
Release Notes:
Art + Animation + Assets:
Added machine animations for workbench, workbench rotator, workbench input, refinery rotator, extractor rotator and extractor input.
Fixed black plants on some worlds.
Fixed ink, fibre and cloth not inheriting colours from ingredients.
Fixed some prop blocks appearing inside the floor when placed on a slope.
Locks no longer flip upside-down at a distance.
Metal alloys created by crafting now have an asset instead of a placeholder cube.
Creatures + Combat:
Arrows and tools no longer hit dead creatures.
Fixed a bug where chasing wildstock can't climb up 1 high blocks.
Fixed server crash when a cuttletrunk follows a target for a long time.
Point planets now displayed as stars.
GUI + HUD:
Added combat log first state.
Fixed an issue where it was possible to select planets through solid geometry including distant mountains.
Inventory tooltips now give a preview of what action will occur between the held item and the hovered item.
Refactored inventory API and Smart Stacking code to make it less fragile for fixes and additions.
Support for using Smart Stacks in plinths, machines and furnaces.
Resolved Known Issues:
The following items were known issues in previous releases and have now been resolved.
Buying plinth not displaying items on top.
Cannot smart stack walls.
Some of the items were not positioned in the hand correctly when the players are seen in 3rd person view.
Some of the items displayed in the inventory screen were not positioned correctly.
Known Issues:
The following items are known issues in this release.
Shift-clicking an item from the selling plinth will show odd numbers and will not always go in the shopping basket.
Shift-clicking and dragging on the coin icons from within the trading menus may cause a crash.
Some interactive blocks (crafting table, machine, beacon control) have become corrupted during the migration. This will result in at best those blocks not being able to be interacted with, at worst the game crashing when interacting with those blocks. To fix the issue the block(s) in question need to be re-placed. In the case of anything other than a beacon control the block can simply be broken, picked up, and then re-placed. In the case of a beacon control this will work, although it would result in all the plots having to be re-placed one at a time and during that process the contents being unprotected. A better workaround for a beacon control is to craft a new beacon control, place that, and then break the old one, which will keep the beacon's plots placed throughout the process.
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
And welcome to the first Weekly Dev Update of 2017. This will be the year that Boundless hits 1.0. Thank you to everyone who has supported the game so far, and we're excited to see how the game and community can grow this year.
This week, we have been busy fixing issues reported over the Christmas and New Year break. We have updated the game twice with 150 and 150.1, addressing some critical issues. We are also looking into the lag issue that is making the game unplayable at times for some players. We have also released Testing 30 that mainly contains a refactoring of the Smart Stacking system. Assuming this doesn't devour everyone's inventories it will be deployed to Live next week.
Here is a list of work we are looking into completing or starting this month:
HUD + GUI:
Release overhauled Smart Stacking + Inventory system to address the numerous smart stacking issues.
Code This week we have been investigating and fixing up bugs that have shown up in the latest versions and pushed out two updates to address some of the issues. We continue to look at the remaining issues including the rubber banding and slow network messages some people experience.
The grapple hook is being worked on to add the full behaviour, animation and fx. We have hooked in additional animations for machines when they are active.
The HUD has a new combat log on the right for damage related messages. We’ve been doing the last of the changes before the smart stacking and inventory rework in merged in.
Additionally we are working to get the database update integrated into the main line.
Design This week has been about recovering from the long and strenuous Christmas break where too much was eaten, and too much was drunk. Now we’re all back in the office we can relax into the comfortable rhythms of work.
Luke has been focused on two areas: the stats system, and our Steam store page.
The stats system is a core foundation of many of the RPG elements of the game (combat, progression, creatures etc). We’re preparing for implementation of this system, which will enable us to build all the brilliant gameplay on top of it. At this stage it’s less about the exact details of the gameplay, and more about the constraints of the system.
Our Steam store page is currently pretty sparse and is covered in caveats because we didn’t want people to buy the game unless they were fully prepared for its early state. As more gameplay is added to Boundless, we want to start to push the game more and raise the number of people playing. Updating our Steam store page is one part of that.
Rob has been writing up a very comprehensive spec for the final iteration of the inventory system which covers any functionality around moving items between slots in the game, which is most of the GUI. We’re now ready to implement this, although it’s a fair amount of work to get it all done.
Ollie has been wrapping up a few bits and pieces of design, as well as helping to plan the next few weeks of work. The design areas touched on are: the grapple, the creature generation system, portals and warps, and impact VFX.
Art The art team has been a bit light this week with people coming back in dribs and drabs from the festive season. We’re all refreshed though after the break and have made progress in these areas that you can see in the next release.
Pipes of power - Jess has put the final pipe junction asset in place and added an emissive pulsing animation shader to the pipes.
Juice! - Jess has also made some transparency fixes to the liquid bottle assets.
We’ve also added several machine animations for the workbench, refinery and extractor that will be available in the next release. We’ll be completing the full set of animations over the next few weeks.
Animation (Gerry) and VFX (Dom) are supporting grapple functionality development.
Cross posted from devlog forum which can be found here
And welcome to the first Weekly Dev Update of 2017. This will be the year that Boundless hits 1.0. Thank you to everyone who has supported the game so far, and we're excited to see how the game and community can grow this year.
This week, we have been busy fixing issues reported over the Christmas and New Year break. We have updated the game twice with 150 and 150.1, addressing some critical issues. We are also looking into the lag issue that is making the game unplayable at times for some players. We have also released Testing 30 that mainly contains a refactoring of the Smart Stacking system. Assuming this doesn't devour everyone's inventories it will be deployed to Live next week.
Here is a list of work we are looking into completing or starting this month:
HUD + GUI:
Release overhauled Smart Stacking + Inventory system to address the numerous smart stacking issues.
Code This week we have been investigating and fixing up bugs that have shown up in the latest versions and pushed out two updates to address some of the issues. We continue to look at the remaining issues including the rubber banding and slow network messages some people experience.
The grapple hook is being worked on to add the full behaviour, animation and fx. We have hooked in additional animations for machines when they are active.
The HUD has a new combat log on the right for damage related messages. We’ve been doing the last of the changes before the smart stacking and inventory rework in merged in.
Additionally we are working to get the database update integrated into the main line.
Design This week has been about recovering from the long and strenuous Christmas break where too much was eaten, and too much was drunk. Now we’re all back in the office we can relax into the comfortable rhythms of work.
Luke has been focused on two areas: the stats system, and our Steam store page.
The stats system is a core foundation of many of the RPG elements of the game (combat, progression, creatures etc). We’re preparing for implementation of this system, which will enable us to build all the brilliant gameplay on top of it. At this stage it’s less about the exact details of the gameplay, and more about the constraints of the system.
Our Steam store page is currently pretty sparse and is covered in caveats because we didn’t want people to buy the game unless they were fully prepared for its early state. As more gameplay is added to Boundless, we want to start to push the game more and raise the number of people playing. Updating our Steam store page is one part of that.
Rob has been writing up a very comprehensive spec for the final iteration of the inventory system which covers any functionality around moving items between slots in the game, which is most of the GUI. We’re now ready to implement this, although it’s a fair amount of work to get it all done.
Ollie has been wrapping up a few bits and pieces of design, as well as helping to plan the next few weeks of work. The design areas touched on are: the grapple, the creature generation system, portals and warps, and impact VFX.
Art The art team has been a bit light this week with people coming back in dribs and drabs from the festive season. We’re all refreshed though after the break and have made progress in these areas that you can see in the next release.
Pipes of power - Jess has put the final pipe junction asset in place and added an emissive pulsing animation shader to the pipes.
Juice! - Jess has also made some transparency fixes to the liquid bottle assets.
We’ve also added several machine animations for the workbench, refinery and extractor that will be available in the next release. We’ll be completing the full set of animations over the next few weeks.
Animation (Gerry) and VFX (Dom) are supporting grapple functionality development.
Cross posted from devlog forum which can be found here
Please restart Steam to make sure you get the latest version of Boundless. If the update happens whilst Steam is open it's unlikely you'll get the latest version.
Fixes will be released daily this week.
Release Notes:
Limited crafting tables and machines to allow at most 20 queued recipes, fixing crashes resulting from the queue previously being unbounded.
Fix floating/sinking into long stairs whilst running.
Fix block-drops often not falling down correctly when breaking blocks beneath them.
Optimised GPU memory usage for planet textures.
Added more logging information to help solve some of the server crashes.
Resolved Known Issues:
Hard to tell bottles apart (glue, dark blood, healing brew).
Outstanding Known Issues:
Cannot smart stack walls.
Shift-clicking an item from the selling plinth will show odd numbers and will not always go in the shopping basket.
Shift-clicking and dragging on the coin icons from within the trading menus may cause a crash.
Some interactive blocks (crafting table, machine, beacon control) have become corrupted during the migration. This will result in at best those blocks not being able to be interacted with, at worst the game crashing when interacting with those blocks. To fix the issue the block(s) in question need to be re-placed. In the case of anything other than a beacon control the block can simply be broken, picked up, and then re-placed. In the case of a beacon control this will work, although it would result in all the plots having to be re-placed one at a time and during that process the contents being unprotected. A better workaround for a beacon control is to craft a new beacon control, place that, and then break the old one, which will keep the beacon's plots placed throughout the process.
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.
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
Please restart Steam to make sure you get the latest version of Boundless. If the update happens whilst Steam is open it's unlikely you'll get the latest version.
Fixes will be released daily this week.
Release Notes:
Limited crafting tables and machines to allow at most 20 queued recipes, fixing crashes resulting from the queue previously being unbounded.
Fix floating/sinking into long stairs whilst running.
Fix block-drops often not falling down correctly when breaking blocks beneath them.
Optimised GPU memory usage for planet textures.
Added more logging information to help solve some of the server crashes.
Resolved Known Issues:
Hard to tell bottles apart (glue, dark blood, healing brew).
Outstanding Known Issues:
Cannot smart stack walls.
Shift-clicking an item from the selling plinth will show odd numbers and will not always go in the shopping basket.
Shift-clicking and dragging on the coin icons from within the trading menus may cause a crash.
Some interactive blocks (crafting table, machine, beacon control) have become corrupted during the migration. This will result in at best those blocks not being able to be interacted with, at worst the game crashing when interacting with those blocks. To fix the issue the block(s) in question need to be re-placed. In the case of anything other than a beacon control the block can simply be broken, picked up, and then re-placed. In the case of a beacon control this will work, although it would result in all the plots having to be re-placed one at a time and during that process the contents being unprotected. A better workaround for a beacon control is to craft a new beacon control, place that, and then break the old one, which will keep the beacon's plots placed throughout the process.
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.
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
This week we've been working on fixing the issues discovered in the Testing and Live releases. The team has been steadily departing for their Christmas holidays, gradually leaving less and less devs to help haul the game over the Live release line. But we finally made the release - all the details are here.
(Note to self: never attempt a game update in the last weeks before Christmas!)
Quite a short devlog entry this week as everyone was focused on getting the release done.
The entire team is on holiday between Christmas and New Year.
Code Fixing issues reported by players in the Testing and Live releases.
Design This week has been about getting the release onto the Live branch, with everyone helping out testing and fixing. We’ve been on a bit of a skeleton crew, but we’ve managed to get it done. Rob and Ollie have also updated the artwork on Steam, and planned out the GUI work that needs to be done next year.
Art This week the art team has been supporting the Live release.
Even with a reduced complement for the Christmas break we’ve also been able to produce these goodies for you:
Wildstock production has continued producing tier 2 models. A touch up for the original Wildstock in game.
Exploring elemental effects.
We’re close to wrapping up the worms progression concept sheet.
Looking forward to sharing it with you in the New Year when we will also begin prototyping this exciting new addition to the Boundless universe.
Cross posted from devlog forum which can be found here
This week we've been working on fixing the issues discovered in the Testing and Live releases. The team has been steadily departing for their Christmas holidays, gradually leaving less and less devs to help haul the game over the Live release line. But we finally made the release - all the details are here.
(Note to self: never attempt a game update in the last weeks before Christmas!)
Quite a short devlog entry this week as everyone was focused on getting the release done.
The entire team is on holiday between Christmas and New Year.
Code Fixing issues reported by players in the Testing and Live releases.
Design This week has been about getting the release onto the Live branch, with everyone helping out testing and fixing. We’ve been on a bit of a skeleton crew, but we’ve managed to get it done. Rob and Ollie have also updated the artwork on Steam, and planned out the GUI work that needs to be done next year.
Art This week the art team has been supporting the Live release.
Even with a reduced complement for the Christmas break we’ve also been able to produce these goodies for you:
Wildstock production has continued producing tier 2 models. A touch up for the original Wildstock in game.
Exploring elemental effects.
We’re close to wrapping up the worms progression concept sheet.
Looking forward to sharing it with you in the New Year when we will also begin prototyping this exciting new addition to the Boundless universe.
Cross posted from devlog forum which can be found here