BLOG ENTRY 13 - 10.29.2020

Inventory system still being worked on. Had some good advances, but there is still a lot prep work before I can get to the shiny bits of making loot drops. Spent most of the week making structs and enumerations for all the weapons and equipment I want to make, as well as all the possible stats in the design right now, though I’m certain some “invisible” stats are going to pop up sooner or later.

Currently I have completed all the slots for all the equipment, so the next step is to provide functionality, as well as make the struct that will hold all the information for the player character. but that would be the save file system in itself, a whole other beast to tackle.

Visual Design wise I’m still going with the standards in the tutorial series that I’m following, I think I’ll need to modify it somewhat so it gives the right feel for the game. I’m still looking into UI animations to make it slide into view a cooler way rather than just pop out of nowhere like “sup” and leaving like “k bye”, It doesn’t seem to complicated, so I should be able to pull it off soon.

Following the trip from last week about making interesting armor. I’m still working with the idea that each piece of equipment should provide tangible benefits, while remaining exclusive so it’s not like, helmet gives you 10 health, chest gives you 10 health, yay you have 20 health. That really is quite boring when it comes to itemization.

I think I’ve come up with plenty of stats that will feel different. It’s going to come down to testing and iteration to get to some really interesting gear. but for now I think I’ve got plenty of stats that will matter regardless if we add more versatility later on.

And finally, I have come up with the solution to the grand problem of the cover system. I have been watching tutorials on how to make a vault over cover mechanic. And it brings some really interesting solutions to the entirety of the cover.

Now the reason it’s taken so long is because I really didn’t have knowledge on the inner workings of things like this. But now I’m a little more seasoned as far as how things are done. I know I might be approaching this incorrectly, but I’m going to use a linetrace to see if it hits cover, after that I will make a spline with different points where the player can hit. According to the vault tutorial video, you use another line trace a set distance from the player to check if it’s the same height as where they currently are. If it hits you are able to vault, if not you can’t.

So it’s going to be a collection of those line traces, along with if they hit an enemy what actions can you take. I want to make it as robust as I can, with all the trimmings gears of war has already made standards. yanking the enemy, kicking them and stunning them. being able to counter that kick. For now I’ll settle with the player getting stuck to the cover and moving along the spline, I still have to study splines in general but I feel like it’s something I can wrap my head around. Here’s to hoping that I’m right.

Pointed in the right direction

Daniel “Freaky” Aguilar

Game Designer

Plasmapunk Studios

I Left my good armor at home