Badiya: Desert Survival
Badiya Alpha 1.7 Spotlight: Palm Farms
Alpha 1.7 features new Points of Interest to discover including a Palm Farm containing harvestable palm trees, Water Wells, Animals, Quest Givers, and Merchants.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1222013041
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1222013306
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1222013513
Badiya Alpha 1.7 Spotlight: PCSS
PCSS (Percentage Closer Soft Shadows) is an optional technique that makes shadows softer the farther they get from their source.
As in reality, trunk shadow is clearly defined due to its proximity to the ground, while leaf shadows are soft.
You can see this effect in games such as Assassin Creed Syndicate, Watch Dogs, Dying Light, and now its coming to Badiya.
This effect will be tied to the Ultra quality preset and can be turned off if desired.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1220020737
Alpha 1.7 Preview
So November will mark our one year anniversary on Steam Early Access and we want to celebrate that with a special release which is Alpha 1.7. Here is how it's shaping up so far with the planned release toward the end of November:
[H1]* FEATURES:[/H1]
- Map System with Fog of War
- New POI Compass
- Quest System with several types of quests
- New terrain generation system with better distribution of Points of Interest
- Ambient AI Improvements
- Fast Travel System through Caravans
- Steam Achievements
- Casual Survival Settings as an option when you start the game
- Ability to select the season when you start the game: Random, Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring
[H1]* CONTENT:[/H1]
- Sheep Herder
- Caravan
- Bandit Camp
- Explorer Camp
- Traveller Camp
- Hunter Camp
- Merchant Camp
- Iron Mine
- Gold Mine
- Copper Mine
- Stone Deposit
- Frankensence Tree Cluster
- Silktree Cluster
Of course on top of that there are the expected bug fixes and performance improvements.
On behalf of the the entire development team at Semaphore. We hope you will enjoy this release.
Best Regards,
Ahmad Jadallah
Director of Development
Semaphore
Sony's Shuhei Yoshida Plays Badiya!
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DMA4oqYX0AA36AG.jpg
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DMA4oqbX4AAvrI_.jpg
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DL7vveJX4AALOxS.jpg
Updates on Alpha 1.7 are coming soon!
Alpha 1.6.1 is live with Ladder Climbing and more. 1.7 Feature Preview
We released Alpha 1.6.1 of Badiya. This update features the following:
- If the player dies now, you can go to the main menu and choose "Continue" to load your last saved game so you don't have to start over when you die. Remember that saving is manual so you have to build a tent or a lean-to and save from there manually.
- Ladder Climbing: You can climb any ladder you can see in the game including the watch tower that you can build yourself.
- Several bug fixes and performance improvements
- Rewritten Camera collision system.
The next Alpha 1.7 will feature:
- Fully featured Map System with Fog of War.
- POI compass (tied to the compass item in inventory).
- Better terrain generation and POI distribution.
- Crowd Ambient AI and reaction to player actions.
- Several new Points of Interest to explore.
- Steam achievements.
As always, let us know how you find the new update and send us any feedback or bug reports to feedback@semaphorelab.com
Best Regards,
Ahmad Jadallah (@AhmadJadallah)
Director of Development
Semaphore Lab (@SemaphoreLab)
Badiya Alpha 1.6 is here! Performance Boost and Jumping!
So as we promised Alpha 1.6 is here and this time we focused mainly on optimizing the game with two goals in mind:
- Increasing the frame rate without sacrificing the look of the game.
- Keeping frame rate consistent and avoiding dips and stutters.
The game defaults to Ultra quality setting, if you switch to High you will notice a further performance increase without much visual difference.
In addition, we added jumping (in place, while walking and while running) with corresponding effort and body movement sfx. This is a step toward more agility features such as climbing obstacles, walls, vaulting over fences and climbing ladders which should be coming in Alpha 1.7.
In the upcoming Alpha 1.7 we will also introduce the Quest System, Map System and POI Compass which will make exploring the environment a lot more engaging and rewarding.
As always please let us know your experience and share your feedback and bug reports on the email: feedback@semaphorelab.com
Best Regards,
Ahmad Jadallah (@AhmadJadallah)
Director of Development
Semaphore Lab (@SemaphoreLab)
Alpha 1.6 and Beyond - Development Update
We wanted to give you a quick update on what we are doing at the moment:
* Alpha 1.6
As we previously announced, the main focus of Alpha 1.6 is on performance optimization and code refactoring (internal house keeping and cleanup for the team that will make life easier for them when we add new features).
This week we finished the refactoring part and work has now started on performance optimization.
* Alpha 1.7
Our plan for Alpha 1.7 is to include the most commonly requested features. Please note that this list is not final and is subject to change:
- Agility: Jumping in place, Jumping forward, Vaulting over fences, Climbing Ladders.
- First Person Mode: You can switch between first and third person modes at any time.
- New Weapons: Winchester Shotgun, Blunderbuss, Lewis Gun, Camel Gun, GEW Sniper Rifle
- POI Compass: A compass on top of the screen that shows nearby POI and the distance to them. If a POI is not yet discovered you will see a Question mark icon, otherwise it will be an icon representing the POI.
- Shooting on top of horse/camel.
- New Points of Interest.
That's it for this quick update. We will keep you posted with anything new.
Best Regards,
Ahmad Jadallah
Director of Development
Semaphore
@AhmadJadallah
@SemaphoreLab
Alpha 1.5.2 now live featuring a major performance boost
Alpha 1.5.2 is now live and it features a major performance boost along with bug fixes and gameplay tweaks:
* Performance:
Major performance boost across the board including enemy POIs with encounters.
You now have the ability to turn off shadows completely. You need to go to Shadow Quality and set it to "OFF". This could help with performance on lower end machines.
This is a step toward the main optimization release Alpha 1.6
* Gameplay Tweaks:
- You don't have to equip a knife in order to skin an animal. If you have it in the inventory it will work.
- Added Bird Flocks above points of interest that has water sources.
- Add an option to turn on/off Screen overlays "frost, blood, rain" to Game Menu.
- Eating raw meat will not deduct points from your health bar anymore.
- Weapon Crosshairs are now dynamic, as you move while aiming or move the camera the crosshairs will spread out to indicate less accuracy.
- The loading screen now clarifies that you need to build a "Tent" or a "Lean-To " and save your game manually from them.
- Exit dialog window tells you that unsaved progress will be lost.
* Bug Fixes:
- Fixed an issue where some oasis Point of Interest was floating in the air sometimes.
- Fixed a few gameplay crash issues.
As usual please send us any feedback to both the Steam forums and the email: feedback@semaphorelab.com
Best Regards,
Ahmad Jadallah (Twitter.com/AhmadJadallah)
Director of Development
Semaphore Lab (Twitter.com/SemaphoreLab)
Badiya Alpha 1.5.1 is now Live! Important Update
Badiya Alpha 1.5.1 is live now and it features important fixes to last week's Alpha 1.5 release.
[B]* Important Notes:[/B]
[LIST]
<*>If you encounter a crash or a bug, go to the game's folder and search for a file named "Output_log.txt" and send that to us on the email feedback@semaphorelab.com
This file tells us exactly what happened from the moment you ran the executable to when the crash or error happened and it will help us identify and fix the issue.
<*>Saving as of Alpha 1.5 is manual. You have to build a "Lean-to" or a "Tent" and go to it to perform a save action.
[/LIST]
[B]* Fixes:[/B]
[LIST]
<*>Confine mouse to game window (players keep clicking outside game window and unfocusing the game)
<*>Fixed AI issues in bandit camps
<*>Made the AI more proactive when engaging the player
<*>Shooting in the air will alert enemies to your location
<*>If enemies see a corpse of a comrade, they will go investiage the area
<*>New Clay patch resource, added around oasis and water wells
<*>Bandit starter kit now has a bedouin rifle and buck shots.
<*>Fix to some rock textures.
<*>Blood particles are now darker red to match real life.
<*>Reduced the duration of sandstorms.
<*>Added Light Rain probability to all months.
<*>Tied horse/camel running to the player run key binding
<*>Made iron,copper, and gold ore more common
<*>Thunder SFX is now tied to the SFX Slider and toned down.
<*>Fixed issues with opening camel inventory
<*>Several bug fixes
[/LIST]
As announced previously, the very next Alpha 1.6 will focus solely on performance and optimization of the game.
Best Regards,
Ahmad Jadallah
Director of Development
Semaphore
[B]Twitter:[/B]
@SemaphoreLab
@AhmadJadallah
Badiya Alpha 1.5 is now Live!
It's our great pleasure to introduce Badiya Alpha 1.5.
Here is the update trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EHb1G-zM7Q
[H1][B]* Important Note:[/B][/H1]
[LIST]
<*>If you encounter a crash or a bug, go to the game's folder and search for a file named "Output_log.txt" and send that to us on the email feedback@semaphorelab.com
This file tells us exactly what happened from the moment you ran the executable to when the crash or error happened and it will help us identify and fix the issue.
<*>Saving as of Alpha 1.5 is manual. You have to build a "Lean-to" or a "Tent" and go to it to perform a save action.
[/LIST]
And here is a breakdown of the new features:
[H1][B]* Human Enemies:[/B][/H1]
[LIST]
<*>We added human enemies (Soldiers/Bandits) to both old and new points of interest to make them more challenging and rewarding to raid or explore.
<*>This is our first release of the Combat AI system and the goal was to make it challenging while giving the player more opportunities to engage it.
<*>You will always be outnumbered and outgunned in these encounters and so you need to plan your attack first by surveying the area from afar and looking for opportunities to reduce their numbers before engaging in open battle.
<*>You can do so by gearing up with weapons, ammo, knives, health packs and then stealthing your way through and using the take down feature if you get close to an enemy undetected.
<*>Takedowns can be performed with hands or with a knife if you have one equipped which will give you many different animations.
<*>You can search the bodies of falling enemies to find valuable loot and to take their clothes (in the future this will be the basis of the disquise system)
<*>You can drag the bodies out of sight so that they are not detected by their comrades.
<*>If you are detected, enemies will attempt to flank you and will go to your last seen position. So use the environment as your cover and play a game of cat and mouse with them.
<*>You can use the environment to your advantage by shooting exploding barrels or vehicles to cause them to explode. Explosions now support chain reactions so they can be quite deadly if clustered close to each other.
<*>You can attack enemies with melee attacks bare handed or while hodling a rifle or a gun. However, they can do the same so try to be the one that takes the throws the first hit.
<*>You can regain stealth! If you manage to hide behind cover and move quickly, the enemies will search the area for a while and will go back to their patrols if they don't find you.
<*>As this is our first roll out of the AI system, bugs and glitches are expected to happen. Please provide us with feedback both on the forum and through email (feedback@semaphorelab.com) with as much info as possible so we can fix them in the following patches and updates.
[/LIST]
[H1][B]* Building System:[/B][/H1]
Badiya now has a system that allows you to build your camp and fill it with tools such as:
- Camp fire
- Cooking station to cook receipes
- Spit on fire to cook individual items
- Water pots for water storage
- Chests for storing items
- Crafting bench
- Smelting station
- Processing Tool
- Fences
- Watchtowers
[H1][B]* New Points of Interest to Explore:[/B][/H1]
[LIST]
<*>Crashed Airplane
<*>Ranches
<*>Bandit Hideouts
<*>Nabatean Ruins
[/LIST]
[H1][B]* More Animals:[/B][/H1]
^ Wild:
[LIST]
<*>Arabian Leopard
<*>Hyena
<*>Lynx
<*>Wild Grey Hound
[/LIST]
^ Prey:
[LIST]
<*>Ibex
<*>Deer
<*>Gazelle
[/LIST]
^ Domestic:
[LIST]
<*>Donkey
[/LIST]
[H1][B]* Gameplay Tweaks:[/B][/H1]
[LIST]
<*>New items: Bone Knife, Rock Knife, Wooden Knife, Tallow, Soft Wood, Plant Fibers, Frankinsense bark, Silk Cocoon, Horn, Feathers, Musk Gland, Musk Powder,Emerald, Sapphire, Diamond, Gold Ore, Copper Ore, Iron ore, Soft Leather, Hard Leather, Copper Bar, Iron Bar, Incense Resin, Silk Twine, Nuts, Juniper Berries, Acacia, Clay, Dried Meat, Dried Poultry.
<*>All killed animals will now drop meat
<*>Reduced thirst and hunger depletion by 30%
<*>Item indicators on top of pickable items on the ground
<*>Added hotspots on vehicles and tanks so that you know what parts of the vehicle you can interact with and what tool is needed.
<*>Animals now have a health bar
[/LIST]
[H1][B]* Ambient AI - Stage 1:[/B][/H1]
Ambient AI is all about adding life and realism to the crowds in the villages in the game. Imagine a scenario where crowds talk to each other, talk and bargain with merchants,
use a hammer to fix a door, sit on chairs and tables and other such activities. Those activities won't be pre-planned which will make them feel even more alive.
In Alpha 1.5 we developed the foundation of the system and we currently have one usage which is that 2 or 3 civilians can gather and start a conversation for a while before continuing on their way.
More utilization of the system will come in the upcoming Alphas.
[H1][B]* General Improvements:[/B][/H1]
[LIST]
<*>The ground in all points of interest will no longer be fully flat. Instead you will natural variation in height that result in a better look.
<*>Options menu now has more features in the game tab, you can have great control over every single HUD element (Item indicators, health bars, hit direction, etc...)
[/LIST]
[H1][B]* The Future:[/B][/H1]
Our very next update Alpha 1.6 will be a "House Cleanup and Performance" update. The goal is to give the team a breathing room to refactor and clean the code, optimize the game to run smoother and on a wider range of hardware, focus on gameplay balancing and making the most out of the current set of systems to make the game more fun.
Following updates (Alpha 1.7 and Beyond) will feature:
[LIST]
<*>Reaction System: Crowds will react to your hostility (aiming your weapons at them or shooting) and depending on if they are carrying a weapon or not a battle may start in villages and tents.
<*>Quest System: Ability to take quests from NPCs in villages and camps.
<*>Map System: Reveals explored locations as well as quest markers.
<*>Improved AI: Grenades, Whistling to make enemies approach your position, throwing objects to guide enemy attention to a particular location, Disguise, Slingshots, Bow and Arrow, Body Armor.
<*>Farming
<*>Advanced Building System: Ability to build your house block by block as seen in other survival games.
<*>Caves and underground tombs to expand the game world.
[/LIST]
On behalf of all of us here at Semaphore, thank you very much for your continued support of Badiya and the best is yet to come!
Ahmad Jadallah
Director of Development
Semaphore Lab
@SemaphoreLab
@AhmadJadallah