July 2024 Development Update

Dear Extraordinary Survivalists

Summer development vibes here at the (virtual) Anego Studios HQ! We're full swing into developing the 1.20 update, with most features now fully planned out and in production.

VS Lore, Chapter 2
Most of the team works on the games Lore content, of which I can reveal the least of
As mentioned in our previous blog post, the main goal of the update is to introduce the second chapter of our story arc. I believe we are about halfway done with the lore part itself and a preview release can come out before its full completion. The first of the 4 locations is nearly complete while the other 3 still requires more code and assets, as they will have some very purpose built mechanics around them.

In addition to that, there will be also 2 new super secret mobs that you'll have to encounter yourself in-game once we release the update. I asked the team if I could showcase it (because its terrifying!), but they prefer to keep it secret for now. Mob reveal waiting time intensifies

Mount System
We've put a lot of effort into making the travel experience between the new lore locations as engaging as possible with the addition of a rideable mount and a sailing boat, both of which are now fully functioning. Here's a clip showcasing both.

The entirety of the mount system is implemented in a highly flexible manner, so we (and modders!) can easily add new attachable accessories, or implement other rideables and boats without the need to adjust the engine code. We'll be looking into adding a ownership system where players can claim a single rideable animal as "owned" which would enable a "call to owner" feature where elks can be called back to you in case you loose it or when it fell in a deep hole, as well as possibly add a marker on your map where your elk currently is. Any fatal injury to the elk will place it in a "mortally wounded" state for up to 24 hours to give you the chance to revive it using poultices. The Elk will come with two types of bridles which is how you select your preferred control scheme of the mount. The first bridle requires you to hold down the forward key to ride, whereas the other is toggle based - press forward once to start riding, press backwards once to stop again. The former allows for precise control, the latter allows you do perform other tasks as you ride. I also make use of the rope system to keep elk from wandering off. This does not mean ropes are fully functioning now as most players would hope, but it might be just about mature enough for the use cases as shown in the video. I do still consider the rope system to be in an experimental state.

As for acquiring these mounts, the ship itself can be built bit by bit by the player and will require a significant amount of resources.


Our trusty elk for now will be purchasable at a trader, and at a later update we plan to add a mount specific taming system. All in all, the new mounts will likely fundamentally change the mid- to endgame experience.


The eagle eyed amongst you might have also noticed I was carrying a new kind of backpack in the video - there will be a new, costlier to craft, leather tier and with it indeed a new tier of backpack, further expanding your carrying capacity.

On a technical level, the elk and sailboat is jam-packed with new engine tech to provide intuitive interactions and solid gameplay. I had to write a multi-selectionbox system for entities, rewrite how entity inventories are handled, rewrite large parts of the mounting system, fix a number of issues that surfaced in the process as well as implement a multiple hitbox system so that players cannot drive their boats into solid blocks. This means even traversing narrow water canals should be no problem for the new boat system.


Oceans
Oceans received some TLC as well. Below screenshot showcases three significant upgrades: The previously announced new murky water shader, distant oceans are now made to look endless (before you'd see chunk borders) and new underwater flora.

Suffice to say, the Oceans are slooowly filling up with content!

Animations Rework
Long term, we will be looking at redoing most if not all animations of our current roster of creatures. Ambroise already got the Wolf redone, but then had to prioritize the upcoming creatures for 1.20

 

Bricks Overhaul
This is now in full swing as well. You'll be able to produce Arkaiks lovely new brick types through the addition of a beehive kiln that'll let you fire 20 to 30 block spaces worth of ceramics in one go, and not just bricks. Here's the first iteration of these bricks in the creative inventory.

Here's a piece of in-game concept art on how the beehive kiln will look like, roughly

 

Head and Wearables Uni-Sizing Project
Our Artists were also hard at work at getting the heads of the seraph and trader to the same size, so that wearables are easily interchangeable, allowing us to add greater variety to all current and future (hinthint) humanoids. All seraph clothing is now also full 3D Models instead of a textured overlay - which will make placement of clothing on armor stands much more straightforward to implement. For modders: We've resized the player head model to 5.5x 5y 5z voxels.

#devlog Recap
If you have been following us on Discord, you also might have seen several other small updates which I'll list here as well.

Insects will enrich the world of VS

At long last dejanked the holding of very hot items, they are now visually held by tongs


The Moon moving over the Sun will now produce actual Eclipses


Hot molds will shatter if exposed to water


The 100+ world settings are now much better organized through the use of Tabs


Quad particles will have smooth edges, creating less jarring visual artifacts


Woop!
Beyond that, the list of smaller additions, tweaks, rebalances and fixes is ever growing as well. We're still hopeful to release the update this year. Stay tuned!