How It Started:
How It's Going:
News soon. The Summer of Apex is nigh.
-supersoup
CPRC: Extant Hunters
How It Started vs. How It's Going
News soon. The Summer of Apex is nigh.
-supersoup
Pardon Our Dust
Watch this space...
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Update for Public Test Branch - v0.5d
A fresh patch is live on the Public Test Branch. Details below:
Apex Hunters Beta Branch (v0.5d-test):
- Fixed animation for Stegosaurus falling asleep
- Reenabled sleeping visual effect
- Reenabled Dimetrodon
- Reenabled missions and mission info UI panel
- Reenabled Echo audio cues for missions/Survive
- Reenabled movement tagging for NPCs on receiving damage from player
- Reenabled additive hurt animation on health damage for NPCs
- Reenabled basic pack behavior for certain NPCs
- Reenabled Survive mode
- Added Spawner Pools for randomized spawns - Some spawns are still fixed for mission purposes, and most spawns are varied based on time of day
- Fixed material and mesh issues with M416 rifle
- Fixed/added certain animation sound triggers for NPCs
- Fixed spawner not spawning on NavMesh
- Adjusted footstep volume and falloff distance for all NPCs
- Adjusted melee swing and hit volume
- Increased melee attack range
- Added collision pickup for pickupable items
- Fixed predators fleeing in some situations they shouldn't
- Fixed issues setting and maintaining menu and in-game music volume
You can opt in to the Public Test Branch via the Betas tab, found by right-clicking Apex Hunters in your Steam Library and selecting Properties. Simply click the dropdown under the Betas tab and choose "earliestaccess - Public test branch." You can return to the current main build via the same dropdown by choosing "NONE - Opt out of all beta programs" instead. Going from one to the other will trigger an update as Steam fetches you the desired branch.
As always, you can leave your thoughts in a comment on this post, or discuss the latest State of the Apex in the dedicated SotA discussion thread.
Good hunting, Field Agents.
Team CPRC
State of the Apex - December 17th, 2019
Survive mode is coming back. Apex Hunters v0.5d is now feature-locked. Final testing, tweaks, and tuning are in progress. We’re just inches away from putting it live on the beta branch. We’ve played the release date game and been burned before. But this time we have the advantage of discussing an update that’s ready to go and not simply a bundle of hopes and dreams.
Expect to see v0.5d live on the beta branch by this Friday, December 20th. You can hold us to it this time. Promise.
That brings us to Feature Parity™ with the main Apex Hunters branch, sans multiplayer. A momentous occasion. Time to turn our eyes toward the horizon, where a fleet of dark sailed ships await. Ships bearing strange names pertaining to sockets and packets, each one seeking a port. And we’ll provide one. Several, even—as is often the case in networking.
Watch this space in the coming months. We may have more exciting things to talk about than Feature Parity™, Multiplayer, and other assorted odds and ends. Secret secrets are no fun. But that’s all we can say at the moment.
‘Tis the season. We hope your holidays are happy and filled with hygge.
Team CPRC
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State of the Apex - November 17th, 2019
Present hangups and construction zones notwithstanding, Apex Hunters is coming along. And it's one thing to know where you are and where you've been. It's quite another to keep an eye on where you're going along the way.
So what's all this building to? Why, Beta v1.0 of course!
Apex Hunters was initially released into Early Access with what we call a "minimum viable product." All the most fundamental features were there, from dinosaurs that acted like dinosaurs, to the ability to party up and roll around Cascade with your friends. But as both players and developers, we're not satisfied with what's minimally viable. We want to create an experience that fulfills a desire. Less of an appetizer and more of a main course. And that's what we're aiming at with Beta v1.0.
At some yet-to-be-determined date in 2020, we'll be pushing live Beta v1.0 and "re-launching" Early Access. Sort of a Grand Re-Opening, if you will. With Beta v1.0, we will be "feature-locked" for the most part—meaning that there will be less updates focused on making features work and more updates focused on adding content. That's when we'll get to really fill out the game and make it pop.
We've learned our lesson, and we're adamant about not announcing a date until we can really, truly ensure it's achievable. Despite the royal "we" strewn throughout public-facing posts, Apex Hunters has been and continues to be developed by a one-man team.
If I might drop the facade for a moment, I was hoping to have other members on the team by now. But despite several possibilities, things seemed to fall through at the discussion stages each time. So it's still just me (supersoup). "These things, they take time," and I sincerely appreciate your understanding thus far.
That said, Apex Hunters is not and will not be dead. You have my solemn word. I simply ask your forgiveness for missed dates and long periods of head-down development. Thank you!
So by the time Beta v1.0 rolls around, all the networking will be handled by Steamworks, all the dinosaurs will be sporting new AI, and all the mission types and special items like throwables will be ready. It will represent the game as it was always intended to be played. And I hope you have as much fun playing it as I've had making it.
As always, you can leave your thoughts in a comment on this post, or discuss the latest State of the Apex in the dedicated SotA discussion thread.
Until next time. Good hunting, Field Agents.
-Team CPRC
State of the Apex - October 17th, 2019
When last we spoke, we had some work to do. That hasn't changed. But now, moving toward the goal of pushing another update to the beta branch, there's far less work ahead than behind. The next update to hit the beta branch brings us to an auspicious milestone: Feature Parity™ with the main Apex Hunters branch, plus the improvements we've been able to make along the way.
Multiplayer is still disabled—but after starting over from scratch on the code front this past January, it feels pretty good to be back at this point. One final effort is all that remains to integrate the Survive game mode once again—and as with all the old systems coming back online in the new Apex, it's going to be a bit different than you remember.
Perhaps you'd like a sneak peak at the incoming changelog to whet your appetite?
Here there be spoilers! Consider yourself warned, in case you want to keep it a secret until you've got a piping hot update fresh out of the oven and on your hard drive.
Apex Hunters Beta Branch (v0.5d-test, tentative changelog):
- Fixed animation freezing for Stegosaurus falling asleep
- Reenabled sleeping visual effect
- Reenabled Dimetrodon
- Reenabled missions and mission info UI panel
- Reenabled Echo audio cues for missions/Survive
- Reenabled movement tagging for NPCs on receiving damage from player
- Reenabled Survive mode
- Randomized spawners for a unique experience each time
- Added the infrastructure for additional Rally Points in the future
- Added Spawner Pools for randomized spawns
- Some spawns are still fixed for mission purposes, and most spawns are varied based on time of day
- Fixed material and mesh issues with M416 rifle
- Fixed/added certain animation sound triggers for NPCs
- Fixed spawner not spawning on NavMesh
- Adjusted footstep volume and falloff distance for all NPCs
- Adjusted melee swing and hit volume
- Added collision pickup for pickupable items
- Fixed predators fleeing in some situations they shouldn't
The next update is close. Close enough to comfortably say that v0.5d will be live by the end of next week before the next State of the Apex soon, as reintegrating Survive unearthed certain showstopping AI issues. After Feature Parity™ the next major milestone to reach is bringing Multiplayer back online. After that, the sky's the limit. We're done playing catch up; it's time to move Apex Hunters forward.
That said, now it's time we heard from you.
Once we have Multiplayer back up and running, what would you like to see next in Apex Hunters? Different missions? New maps? More things to do in Cascade? Speak your mind, and we'll take your suggestions into consideration as we plan our path through 2020.
As always, you can leave your thoughts in a comment on this post, or discuss the latest State of the Apex in the dedicated SotA discussion thread.
Good hunting, Field Agents. See you next week soon.
-Team CPRC
State of the Apex - September 17th, 2019
Part of the reason for the additional delay is that we're evaluating additional matchmaking options. As it stands on the main branch, and as we plan to implement again, matchmaking will be peer-to-peer, with the host's session serving as a listen server for the other clients. This is perfectly functional, but most modern multiplayer games use scalable cloud infrastructure to spin up dedicated servers as needed.
This, of course, adds an extra layer of complexity. Not to mention cost.
It's quite likely we will continue to implement multiplayer as peer-to-peer, but we are actively investigating other options in order to ensure we deliver the best possible multiplayer experience.
As for a new release window for multiplayer, let's say we've learned our lesson. We can confidently say it will be ready to go by the end of the year. Any sooner, well—time will tell.
Throwables are, of course, still in the works. Our little diversion with matchmaking concluded for the time being, expect to see them sooner rather than later. As we've mentioned, missions are being rebuilt as well, with additional mission types in the mix. Those will likely go live before multiplayer so that we can be sure they're integrated and at least partially tested before layering other players on top.
This final quarter of 2019, we're determined to get the beta branch fully fleshed out and up to par with the main branch, so that we can focus on delivering more dinosaur-flavored goodness. Thanks for sticking with us in the meantime.
As always, you can leave your thoughts in a comment on this post, or discuss the latest State of the Apex in the dedicated SotA discussion thread.
Good hunting, Field Agents.
Team CPRC
State of the Apex - August 17th, 2019
Hello again Field Agents!
First, let's talk about today's patch. When this post goes live, there will be a piping hot patch live on the Public Test Branch. The changelog is a little thin, as the focus has been on foundational work for rebooting multiplayer and adding throwable items, but there's a few goodies for you to check out:
Apex Hunters Beta Branch (v0.5c-test):
- Reverted Cascade detail splatmap to previous version
- Reenabled weapon spread (with improvements)
- Reenabled player death and respawn
- Tweaks to NPC entity tracking
- Small tweak to NPC sound event handling
You can opt in to the Public Test Branch via the Betas tab, found by right-clicking Apex Hunters in your Steam Library and selecting Properties. Simply click the dropdown under the Betas tab and choose "earliestaccess - Public test branch." You can return to the current main build via the same dropdown by choosing "NONE - Opt out of all beta programs" instead. Going from one to the other will trigger an update as Steam fetches you the desired branch.
So, about that multiplayer.
The first half of the week was spent building a Mirror transport that wraps up our favorite flavor of Steamworks library for easy easier networking. The game development inclined among you can check it out here: MirrorpunchSteam
There's still a lot of work to be done, but using a transport with familiar internals will make the process of integrating and improving it much smoother.
That said, it's still too early to set an exact release date for firing up multiplayer again. It will likely end up going live around the next State of the Apex post. So let's narrow the window to the week beginning September 15th and ending September 21st. Leave a little room for the unexpected.
As you can see by the Public Beta Branch updates, old features are steadily coming back online. New features are in the works as well, like the aforementioned throwable items; those will likely go live in the next update or two.
The first throwable in the pipeline is a humble rock, which you can use to make noise/create a distraction for any dinosaurs you might be hunting. Toss it to draw their attention away so you can escape, or pique their interest and lure them into an ambush. It will be the first of more tools in your toolbox to help you gain the upper hand in the hunt. Flashbangs are in the early design stages as well, and frag grenades won't be far behind.
Thank you for your patience as we get Apex Hunters back up to speed. We hope you find that the result is worth the wait.
As always, you can leave your thoughts in a comment on this post, or discuss the latest State of the Apex in the dedicated SotA discussion thread.
Good hunting, Field Agents.
Team CPRC
Update for Public Test Branch - v0.5b
A fresh patch is live on the Public Test Branch. Details below:
Apex Hunters Beta Branch (v0.5b-test):
- Fixed endless thunder SFX for Midday
- Fixed missing materials for environment props and effects
- Fixed color and transparency of weapon smoke effect
- Fixed a situation where NPCs would become stuck while attempting to flee
- Fixed animations for health and ammo boxes
- Improvements to player slope handling
- Re-enabled HurtVolumes (environmental hazard damage)
- Re-enabled falling damage
- Fixed damage indicator
You can opt in to the Public Test Branch via the Betas tab, found by right-clicking Apex Hunters in your Steam Library and selecting Properties. Simply click the dropdown under the Betas tab and choose "earliestaccess - Public test branch." You can return to the current main build via the same dropdown by choosing "NONE - Opt out of all beta programs" instead. Going from one to the other will trigger an update as Steam fetches you the desired branch.
As always, you can leave your thoughts in a comment on this post, or discuss the latest State of the Apex in the dedicated SotA discussion thread.
Good hunting, Field Agents.
Team CPRC
Apex Hunters Public Test Branch is now live with v0.5!
The Public Test Branch is now live. We call it "earliest access." Like the dinosaurs roaming Cascade, Apex Hunters is still alive and kicking, with more to come very soon.
You can opt in to the Public Test Branch via the Betas tab, found by right-clicking Apex Hunters in your Steam Library and selecting Properties. Simply click the dropdown under the Betas tab and choose "earliestaccess - Public test branch." You can return to the current main build via the same dropdown by choosing "NONE - Opt out of all beta programs" instead. Going from one to the other will trigger an update as Steam fetches you the desired branch.
As mentioned in previous State of the Apex posts, the Public Test Branch of v0.5 will initially have Multiplayer disabled, among other features. The process of rebuilding Apex Hunters from the ground up means that certain features still need more time to bake before they're ready, even for earliest access. We're as eager as you to get everything back up to par, so we can focus on what's next.
But that's enough chit-chat. Read on for the full sitrep on v0.5!
Beta v0.5 Changelog:
Features Improved or Added in the Beta Branch:
- Apex Hunters now uses the Hubris framework
- In-game console can be accessed with the Tilde ('~') key
- Entering '?' into the console displays a list of user-accessible variables
- In-game console can be accessed with the Tilde ('~') key
- Improvements to the player character motor
- Added Video Settings
- Change Window Mode and Resolution from the main menu.
- More settings to come!
- Change Window Mode and Resolution from the main menu.
- Added sound events
- NPCs will take note of other entities in their area that emit sound
- Firing a weapon, landing/falling, or reloading can attract the attention of NPCs otherwise unaware of you
- NPCs will take note of other entities in their area that emit sound
- Improved NPC AI
- Field-of-view/Line-of-sight checks
- If a target breaks line-of-sight, NPCs will travel to their last known location
- NPCs will take note of sound events in their vicinity
- Improvements to NPC pathfinding (will flee if player attempts to "sweet-spot")
- Improvements to NPC behaviors
- Field-of-view/Line-of-sight checks
- Reworked player ammunition to function as a "pool" of ammo; does not discard the remaining ammo in a magazine
- Plan to transition to a queue system for magazine fed weapons; partial magazines will simply re-enter the queue
- Plan to transition to a queue system for magazine fed weapons; partial magazines will simply re-enter the queue
- Reworked player loadouts to allow for flexible weapon choice
- Divided into primary, secondary, melee, and non-lethal slots (Equipment to come later)
- Divided into primary, secondary, melee, and non-lethal slots (Equipment to come later)
- Added the Magnum Revolver as a secondary weapon
- Lighting improvements for Cascade Dusk and Midday
Disabled Features in Beta Branch: (They will return, just require more work)
- Multiplayer has been temporarily disabled
- Survive mode has been temporarily disabled
- Difficulty selection has been temporarily disabled
- Environment hurt volumes have been temporarily disabled
- Leg damage movement slowing has been temporarily disabled
- Velociraptor pack behavior has been temporarily disabled
- The Dimetrodon has been removed pending certain fixes
- Player footsteps and associated sound events are disabled (Rolling out sound events slowly)
Known Issues:
- Collision hitboxes for certain boundary features do not align with the object meshes
- Attacking NPCs can get stuck backpedaling instead of attacking
- NPC pathfinding may still occasionally result in them attempting to walk through obstacles instead of avoid them
- When returning to the main menu from ingame, immediately checking Ready loads invalid map values
- Large FPS drops in some areas of Cascade
You can expect to see more frequent (and less tested) updates on the Public Test Branch. Once we've got it where we want it, we'll push v0.5 live on the main Apex Hunters branch and get to work on v0.6.
The release window for Multiplayer on the Public Test Branch has narrowed to between September 1st and September 17th. If possible, the next State of the Apex post may narrow the window further.
Jump on the Public Test Branch, shoot some dinos, break things, and report back. We'll be looking forward to your feedback.
As always, you can leave your thoughts in a comment on this post, or discuss the latest State of the Apex in the dedicated SotA discussion thread.
Good hunting, Field Agents.
Team CPRC