Very excited about this one, it's the biggest release so far!
NEW FEATURES
12 new open-world landmarks and plenty of polish in the generation system:
first iteration of random snow world
goblin army camp blows up Broforce style
improved blending from random generated wilderness to the handcrafted landmarks
NPC characters can walk roads
New characters:
- Mayor Marquardt
- Mayor's Bodyguard Errol
- Mayor's Bodyguard Clint
- Domovoi
- Brigand
- Jim the Big Criminal
- Larry the Drunk
- Father Ghoul
- Mother Ghoul
- Kid Ghoul
New units:
- Rotten merchant
- Ghoul giant
- Goblin minion archer
- Goblin captain archer
- Sheep
- Goblin shepherd (non hostile towards humans)
New handcrafted locations:
- Barry's Field
- Town Well
Work-in-progress character:
- Witch of Hardland
she'll be selling potions in the final game
Much more dialogue (new dialogue options can be unlocked by talking to different characters)
Dialogue and quest system upgraded:
- Quest name, description and requirements are shown in quests screen (shortcut is J)
- Small selection icons added to dialogue UI
- Disclaimer: many quests are incomplete as we don't have all of the necessary assets and locations yet - so you might hear references to places or characters which are missing at the moment
Minimap and map improvements:
- Fog of war to improve the sense of exploration
- Camera direction is shown in the map screen
- Waypoints can be clicked in the map screen
Press P for photography mode which enables the depth of field effect, + and - keys control focal plane. Works well in combination with "show HUD" option disabled. (note: DOF doesn't work on low graphics settings)
More detail and stuff on the existing locations and we'll continue to improve them
Several new hats, items and objects
goblins with explosive arrows
Improved guard animations
WTF portal, try it out! :)
Next release will bring even more improvements to the random generated areas and we're also working on indoor areas so you can enter some houses. Patrol routes will be used more extensively. Until next time!
- Timo
Hardland Release 10 is available now!
NEW FEATURES
New dialogue tree system
New ranged enemy skeleton archer
More handcrafted locations:
- Swamp
- Frozen Lake
- Goblin Forest
New generated location:
- Goblin Dungeon (very unfinished at the moment)
Added more story characters (and more story characters incoming in Release 11)
More detail and polish on the existing locations
Resolution options added
(If you had performance issues with earlier versions you can try choosing a smaller resolution)
Percentage-Closer Soft Shadows (PCSS)
Dynamic Height Field based 1st bounce global illumination
HUD improvements
More accurate heightmaps
Faster texture streaming
Patrol routes, waypoints etc. are on the way for Release 11 so enemies and friendly NPC's can navigate the environments way better. Many of the previously empty bits on the levels will be filled with quests and content like this:
Cheers,
Timo
Hardland Release 9 is available now!
SANDBOXES INSTEAD OF SANDBOX
We have added support for multiple locations and split the one large sandbox into multiple smaller sandboxes connected by portals. There are handmade locations that remain constant across sessions and there are generated locations which vary from game to game. This represents a significant change in Hardland and enables the following:
1. Sets a strong foundation where it is easy for us to add new content.
2. Gives us a good way to place more complex quests and interesting characters into the game.
3. Enables us to move forward on multiple fronts at the same time: handmade locations, generated locations, and the sandbox game mechanics.
4. Removes generated locations from being a development and performance bottleneck as they no longer have to singlehandedly form the backbone of the game.
This does come at the cost of having the game world be spatially less dynamic, but that downside is offset by the upsides listed above.
NEW FEATURES
Procedurally generated dungeons
It's only only two floors deep at the moment. The goal is to extend the system so it can generate arbitrary amount of floors and there will be several sets of dungeons.
We improved the overall game flow
- Earlier this year I built a simple RPG Maker prototype of the important characters, major quests and key locations. We transferred the first batch of the level layouts into the actual game.
Here are some comparison shots:
Hires: http://i.imgur.com/xBrA2JJ.png
Hires: http://i.imgur.com/eYOauiS.png
Hires: http://i.imgur.com/r5xr4Ma.png
Hires: http://i.imgur.com/iHsEVCZ.png
Hires: http://i.imgur.com/ChDa3qq.png
Hires: http://i.imgur.com/FAVTdJx.png
- We're now continuing to fill in the handmade areas with the proper characters, dialogue and quests.
- Here's the current plan which reflects the RPG Maker prototype for the Western Province areas:
("Tomb" and "Mines" are going to be random generated dungeon areas)
Added hand made locations
- Cobold Cave
- Old Path
- Way To Fortuna
- Town of Fortuna
- Adventurers' Guild
We use Blender to assemble the scenes and Sampo wrote a Blender script which export the levels into the game. We could share the script if there's interested modders who want to try building their own levels.
Rearranged random world
Each random generated island will be made with a specific biome as the focal point.
The one we've included in Release 9 is the forest island.
In the future we'll add snow area, desert area etc.
Improved UI and dialogue screen
Conversation trees are next on the task list.
Improved AI
NPC's have a simple sight system that they can use to get around nearby obstacles.
New objects
Trees, crates, rocks etc.
Improved performance
We continue to throw in more stuff but it should run better than before.
Water damage
Water causes damage to player if submerged.
Lots of small tweaks
Particle physics
It makes the world feel more believable and makes the particles blend in better with the physical objects.
We should be able to deliver the next update quite fast because making new areas is so much easier now!
Best Regards,
Timo
Hardland Release 8 is available now!
NEW FEATURES
The first iteration of a blacksmith; repair your broken items at the blacksmith in Town of Fortuna
Level requirements for weapons
Terrain rendering underneath plants and objects
Render and simulation distance increased and adjustable from the options menu
Plant animations can be disabled from the options menu to improve performance
CRITICAL FIXES
Fixed a crash on Intel HD Graphics GPUs
IMPROVEMENTS
Improved stamina handling; there is now a fixed penalty of 1 second + no negative values
All characters are now included in the save file
Significant physics, graphics and generation optimizations (the game may run worse if you use the longest view distance as that has been increased a lot)
Blunderbuss projectile explodes on collision
Inventory usability improvements
Inventory money replication bug fixed
Inventory bush equipping bug fixed (you can hide in the bush again)
Major cache file size reduction (65 MB -> 5 MB)
Fixed road texture cracks and added roadside grass
Increased mouse sensitivity max value
Character sliding/stuck bug fix
Added option to disable HUD; now you can take cool screenshots without the text getting in the way!
GRAPHICS
Improved motion blur; less artifacts and noise
Improved fog; more colorful, better fog shadows, better integration with sky
Improved cloud system; more volumetric look with multiple layers
Improved shadows; mountains on the horizon shadowthe sun
Bloom is lot stabler in motion
Improved ambient occlusion and added large scale ao
Corrected light fresnel for direct and indirect source
Small tweaks
WHAT WE'RE WORKING ON:
We're gonna add portals which can take the player from location A to location B.
It allows us to do special locations like the Cobold Cave:
and it will also enable us to start creating dungeons:
Stay tuned!
- Timo
Hardland Release 7 is available now!
Huge thanks to everyone who has helped us track down bugs and anyone who has supported the development of the game by purchasing it!
WHAT'S NEW IN RELEASE 7
The second iteration of the new erosion based terrain system with better biome distribution
Landmarks prefer to spawn far away from specific biomes:
(here you can see desert locations avoiding the snowy mountains)
New variants of villagers with different face shapes, facial hair, outfits and items:
(anyone want a digging ability for the shovel? the terrain is dynamic after all)
New hats:
(for now you must take them from dead villagers, but later they will be added to merchants' inventory so you can buy them without killing innocent people)
Tighter combat movement for the player
More characters added to the story generator: Bandits, Skeletons, Goblin Kings get random generated titles, names, money amount and items. We plan to make quests for them as well:
(the goblin captain and king have dialogue if you walk up to them in a disguise)
Added travellers on the road. It means villagers, bandits, animals, goblins and skeletons can spawn on the roads. The next trick is to teach the AI to travel along the roads
(new bandit enemy)
Villages have gate socket where they can spawn a gate:
Added a new quest type: landmark-based quests that are visible on the map and the quests screen
Transparent edges on the minimap so it won't hide as big portion of the screen
Some improvements to the map screen
Much requested graphics toggles are available in the options menu:
Longer draw distance and more grass (which is cheaper than the old grass in terms of performance):
(we will probably add options to control the draw distance so slower computers will have better perfomance)
Better world borders and houses no longer spawn inside water:
(take me for a swim great chicken man)
The first 10 000 entities are spawned when the world is first generated which should help with the missing objects in the beginning.
New throw meter which shows how strong the throw will be
Improved the clouds system. In addition to the planar particles there's a sky dome:
KNOWN ISSUES
Occasionally the game will look weird when you start it. This is a bug in the loading of shaders and you can resolve it by going back to the main menu and back into the game. We are working on a fix.
Level up effect still doesn't scare off all enemies so sometimes you still take needless damage.
Physics materials can get messed up sometimes which can cause the characters to stop moving.
When two roads are spawned right next to each other it can create two intersecting city gates.
NPC AI is starting to reach it's limit on how well they can navigate in the world, we'll need to improve it.
Roadside grass was finished just after we submitted Release 7:
We're heading to Xmas holidays so there will be a short break without updates. Happy holidays everyone and please let us hear your thoughts how you like the latest update!
Cheers,
Hardland Team!
Hardland Release 6 is available now!
WHAT'S NEW IN RELEASE 6:
The first iteration of the new erosion based terrain system (iteration 2 coming soon!)
Brand new story generator which randomizes NPC items as well as generates character names, titles, dialogue and simple quests
New set of younger villagers (men & women)
Save functionality improved so that player position is now remembered and new world is only generated on request in the main menu
New dialogue and examine camera
The merchant has the ability to sell and buy items
Support for item prices
New sprinting mechanic which consumes stamina (ala Dark Souls)
More variants of Town Guards, Forgotten Folk, Goblins Villagers and Wood Elves
Improved Wood Elf animations and plenty of other smaller art asset tweaks
Unique carry positions for characters and items
(Note: throwing characters is currently broken)
UI
Map screen has a much higher resolution than before
First mockup of the Quests screen (the data is not plugged in yet)
You can change between the menu screens by pressing M (map), I (inventory) and J (quests/journal).
GRAPHICS
Optimizations
Toned down film grain during night
New system for making clouds
Improvements to the SSAO
What we're currently working on:
Lots of fixes to the terrain shape, this was just the first iteration.
There's a land flow map which needs to be plugged into the texture system.
We should be able to improve the draw distance without impacting the performance.
We also have a new terrain brush system which allows us to do dunes for desert biome, it's gonna be more prominent in Release 7.
Better biome distribution to prevent biomes like desert and snow being next to each other.
Moving Skeletons and Wizards to the Story Generator, adding more complex quests and fixing the various glitches.
Adding more character variations, hair color, heads etc.
Fixing the level up effect so it makes all enemies flee temporarily when it happens.
Making better use of the new cloud system so different locations can have different clouds. One idea is to use it for a fog like this:
Until next time!
- Timo
PS. This is how the villagers looked at one stage, looks ready for an Assassin's Creed :)
Hardland Release 6 progress report!
If you want to help us reach more people with Hardland please vote for it in the IndieDB indie of the year (it has got around 3 hours of voting time left) http://www.indiedb.com/games/hardland
Hopefully we'll manage to put the new terrain generation stuff into the game soon, it's proving to be a huge undertaking with many moving pieces but it's moving forward each day. Here's the latest pics from that front:
Terrain stuff above is still uncertain if it will make it into Release 6.
The following features are confirmed for Release 6:
<*>New younger villagers (men & women)
<*>Dialogue screen
<*>Items have prices
<*>The merchant has the ability to sell and buy items
<*>Hand crafted carry positions for large items and characters
<*>New sprinting mechanic which consumes stamina (ala Dark Souls)
<*>Brand new story generator which randomizes NPC items, generates names, dialogue and simple quests
When you walk in front of friendly characters they greet you and you can enter the dialogue screen by pressing the talk button. After pressing the talk button the camera moves closer into a more intimate position and focus is set at the two characters (Foreground and background are blurred with the depth of field effect):
The same camera is also used if you examine objects like gravestones, signs etc.
We hope to wrap up this update soon so stay tuned!
Hardland Release 5 is available now!
The first iteration of spell casting. Player can find and cast spells, the following spells are currently in the game: Fireball, Chicken and Skeleton spells. Here's a GIF of the skeleton spell in action:
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/537zfn4.gif[/IMG]
Giant Spider has been added to the game:
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/wE5ySwXl.png[/IMG]
3 different damage feedback animations for the player character, the following animation is used for the strongest impacts:
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/NbVQsCh.gif[/IMG]
Improved save and load functionality.
Player gets a notification of what reward items they received from quests.
The land is now shaped like an island shape instead of a square.
Health, armor, stamina, food and experience bars added to the bottom of the screen:
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/oAAN1Jkl.png[/IMG]
Mouse and controller sensitivity options and separate inverse Y switch for mouse and controller.
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/fLstaoIl.png[/IMG]
Back button works in the inventory and map screen.
Menus work better with multi-display systems.
Several optimizations.
Those are the most noticiable features of this update. There were changes under the hood for the quest system which will become apparent in the following versions. We're also working on the big terrain generation overhaul and Sampo started modeling a new set of more varied villagers. The towns are more like a retirement home for humans and wizards at the moment :)
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/tzxqrfkl.png[/IMG]
Zbrush screenshot of a younger villager
The forgotten folk will be getting a variation pass as well. The idea of adding hands but making it so that almost anything can be missing from their bodies sounded like the best solution and will give us maximum variety. (one leg, one hand, no hands, stub hands etc.)
So try out the new stuff and please let us know what works and what doesn't!
Cheers,
Timo
Terrain generation progress report
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/AvnCfBG.gif[/IMG]
Terrain generation is undergoing drastic changes. It's like a big construction site which has been dug open and now we need to put the pieces back in. Erik has been making the system node based and Kimmo implemented hydraulic and thermal erosion. The latter allows us to use simple shapes and turn them into realistic end results.
Here's a demonstration of what it does for a simple heightmap sketch:
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/b6VJ3cX.gif[/IMG]
There's some technical challenges involved which we haven't solved yet: 1. Erosion is a relatively slow algorithm to run on CPU so we might have to do it on GPU. The good part is that it looks very cool while it's happening so a minute or two generation time shouldn't be too bad - and once you've generated the heightmap the world can be saved and loaded really fast.
2. The default draw distance is so near that you wouldn't see much of the nice scenery. In order to increase the draw distance without impacting performance we probably need to use tesselation algorithm for the terrain.
We plan to feed this type of "gameplay map" for the system and the erosion will add all kinds of interesting and chaotic secondary details. This way we can guarantee that the world is in a playable shape and not an entirely chaotic force of nature with everything at Mount Everest height or almost entirely filled with water :)
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/10quKhn.png[/IMG]
Final road positions can be calculated with the nearly completed height map so they can be nice serpentine roads in mountain range instead of going straight up.
Maybe some landmarks can be added later in the simulation so they will be less eroded. (recently built roads and villages etc.)
At the same time we've finished several smaller features:
-Ability for characters to see in the direction where their heads are pointing at, so it's no longer just cosmetic thing if characters turn their heads. (For example: Enemies might spot you while turning their head)
-Character labels turn red when they go to aggro mode to make it more apparent that somebody is angry.
-Characters tolerate more punishment from their own factions before retaliating.
-Dialogue boxes have a maximum distance where they are visible.
-Player damage feedback animations added.
We're considering doing a smaller update in-between, depends on how long it takes to finish the new terrain generation stuff.
We will keep you updated on how things progress!
-Timo
Hardland Release 4 is available now!
Improved terrain generation and biome system, I think these are easier to demonstrate with pictures:
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/1qqgiUql.png[/IMG]
Comparison of old and new method. The new method is angle-aware.
It's still a work-in-progress with certain shortcomings, tons of other improvements coming in Release 5.
IMPROVED LANDMARKS [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/2NGfPeql.png[/IMG]
Goblin Forest: Goblin captain, bonfires, foliage growing neatly on the sides of the path.
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/oMSoXU4l.png[/IMG]
Improvements to the fog system. Locations can be much more foggy.
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/xSkwGo4l.png[/IMG]
Town Generator has new "huge slot" which allows for bigger objects like this tree group to be generated
LEVEL UP Level up mechanic which boosts max health and stamina. You can get experience by completing quests, killing monsters and eating.
It's very basic but will be expanded later once we have another round of iteration with it.
STEALING Characters will get aggressive if they notice you stealing from their inventory
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/2XNUVIV.gif[/IMG]
(some cottage smokes are in wrong position because we updated the house orientations to line up with the roads)
FIREARMS Ability to use the blunderbuss, it will be improved with proper aiming later.
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/YGKvRkn.gif[/IMG]
NEW ENEMIES The forgotten folk roam the lands:
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/dQ9r1A8l.png[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/VRHmFtyl.png[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/c6S8hZSl.png[/IMG]
Speaking of which, do you like these characters with hands or without hands?
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/PqQA5yll.png[/IMG]
(they're currently without hands as we don't yet have a severance system which could recognize limb hierarchies and it would look silly as the hand floats in air)
NEW MAP SCREEN This is nowhere near final but a big improvement compared to what it was.
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/KhDXc7xl.png[/IMG]
New map screen (the stuff inside the red box doesn't change yet)
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/maRpyLfl.png[/IMG]
Old map screen
MINIMAP New clearer minimap colors and blue north arrow
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/F8kdfxtl.png[/IMG]
Don't worry about the overlapping text clutter in the bottom right. At some point we will replace the text info with proper health/stamina/food/experience bars.
NEW WEAPONS Wooden shield and steel hammer
DAMAGE FEEDBACK If characters lose items they will detach from the exact locations, here's a GIF animation of the goblin captain losing his helmet:
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/4KYPe5G.gif[/IMG]
Death animations playback properly
Characters can follow other characters
You cannot interact or carry characters which are in aggro mode
(For example: in order to carry goblins you have to sneak from behind and lift them)
Improved screen space reflections, screen space shadows, motion blur and temporal AA. Shader performance should also be better.
Various smaller tweaks.
Almost all of us are now working on the terrain generation so in the next update we should have support for several textures per biome and the biome count will increase from 8 to 16.
