Please understand that the material discussed herein is part of the unreleased CORE Release Update and does not reflect the current version of the game that is now available on the Steam store. The CORE Release Update is a complete overall of the existing game and has not been released at this date. We appreciate your patience and continued interest.
Changes to Gameplay
The game’s gameplay has received a significant overhaul. In the current version of the game, the goal is survival where the player must secure resources to maintain their health, nutrition levels, hydration, etc. This will be eliminated. In the CORE Release Update, food and drink will only affect health level and gameplay will be driven by a faction-based scoring system.
New factions have been created to represent the struggle of life on the frontier. Players will be part of the pioneers looking to settle the area known as the Homesteader faction. Peaceful Native Americans, trappers, other frontiersman, and livestock are also part of this faction. This faction, a rival ranching faction, two outlaw factions, a hostile Native American faction, and multiple wildlife factions (bears, wolves, etc.) will all compete to be the last surviving faction.
Factions earn or lose score based on Faction Missions. These missions will be spawned by rival factions and require the player to complete a task or series of tasks. If the player successfully completes the mission the Homesteader (player) faction gains score and the rival faction loses score; however, if the player fails to complete the mission (or dies while attempting to complete the mission) that rival faction gains score. Random missions also will exist on the map. These do not contribute to the score of any faction but will offer the player with higher personal rewards than a faction mission. The player shall look on the map for available missions and select one to activate the mission. Only active missions may be completed.
Changes to the Map
The new map features a more consistent environment with the desert being eliminated. The map still has diversity in the terrain and plants with flat areas and grasslands transitioning into hills, small mountains, and canyons; further, greater detail has been added to the ground texture and within each map area. We are hoping that this will create a more realistic feel.
Changes to Character Assets
Since our last blog post, we have made modifications to our character models. We have added more realistic hair and facial hair and made some changes to outfits as well. We have also incorporated cloth physics on certain clothing and hairs. Players will now be able to choose from several faces, outfits, hairstyles and hats, and be able to select gender and skin tone.
Changes to Weapons Artwork
We have reworked the weapon artwork and created several variants of repeaters including a Model 60, Model 66, Model 73, and Model 76 to name a few. More weapons are in the pipeline.
Changes to Core Systems
We have rebuilt all systems from the ground up to be more performant. As many gameplay systems as possible run on multiple threads. World streaming / loader, physics, networking, ballistics, movement, etc. all run in jobs. This release ships running a full client server architecture to allow for co-op in a later release.
Upcoming changes with the Core Redesign Release - Post 4
Update: We are still in the process of preparing the Core Redesign Release. We are have run into a few issues and are still putting on finishing touches. We will ship the release as soon as these issues are resolved. Thank you.
Note: The Core Redesign Release has not yet been released.
Gameplay changes and improvements
This post focuses on general gameplay changes coming with the Core Redesign Release and when we are planning on launching the Core Redesign Release. In addition to the areas discussed in prior posts and areas that will be explored in future posts, there are several keyways in which we are changing the game and its gameplay largely based off community feedback.
We have completely overhauled and replaced the original map. The game’s map is now designed to be more interesting to navigate and be more conducive to creating interesting skirmishes and scenarios. Canyons are steeper and require more finesse to navigate. Obstacles require more complex problem solving to get around. Non-player characters (NPC)s wander up and down pathways where predators and bandits lay in wait. Exploration as a top tier gameplay element and challenge was in mind with the design of the new map.
Across the map camps of bandits and outlaws periodically form. These camps can be cleared out for loot and bounty prizes. These same outlaws attack the player and civilian NPCs as they wander the canyons and valleys of the map. As described in the post on NPC behavioral changes, these outlaws will enter standoffs and will wait to come out guns blazing until tensions flare or the player acts.
The construct of playing as a U.S. Marshal is being removed in favor of allowing the player more freedom in how they choose their path. Robbing of town folks and cowboys will be allowed at the players own risk. A character selection system is being introduced to allow the player to choose from several characters. The characters pictured below are only some of the characters that the player can choose from. To spend money gained through the clearing of outlaws, robbing, and trading the player will be able to upgrade parts of a home ranch.
The survival elements of the game are also being revamped. Food and water consumption are no longer mandatory but are required for the replenishing and maintenance of the player’s health. Going long stretches without food or water will lower the player’s resistance to damage and increase the player’s risk of dying in combat. The player cannot die, however, from starvation or thirst.
When is the release launching?
We feel that the Core Redesign Release is particularly important. The objective of the Core Redesign Release is to solve many of the bugs, low-level issues, and limitations that originally plagued the project. To this end the Core Redesign Release is an entire rewrite of the game’s code. Pretty much all systems, including animation, physics, input, character movement, NPC planning, the audio system interface, and rendering have been replaced or heavily overhauled.
The new game code is a huge improvement over the code present in the old release and allows for improvements in all areas of the project. In addition to replacing the entire game’s code we have also overhauled or replaced most of the game’s assets (models, artwork, textures, etc).
We want there to be as few bugs and as much polish as we can practically get into this release. Changing engine features are allowing us to decrease the code’s complexity and increase the stability of this release. A new set of engine changes being released shortly will remove several low-level bugs and increase the quality of the release. To this end, we are shifting our release target to the end of January 2021 with the release tentatively planned to arrive in the last week of January.
Upcoming changes with the Core Redesign Release - Post 3
Note: The Core Redesign Release has not yet been released and is targeted to be released in late December.
This post focuses on the non-player character (NPC) and AI changes coming with the Core Redesign Release. Subsequent announcements will focus on other areas that the Core Redesign Release will change in the game.
The systems dictating NPC behavior have been completely rewritten. NPC decision planning is now multithreaded and based on a utility system to allow for more complex behavior. Many of the changes to NPC behavior are based on user feedback.
Civilian NPCs will now wonder down paths instead of merely trekking through the woods. When crossing paths civilians will occasionally acknowledge each other as well as the player. Outlaws will setup choke points on paths and get in confrontations with civilians and cowboys.
Based on user feedback, NPCs no longer jump into gun battles at the first sight of an enemy, but instead enter a standoff. Standoffs will either resolve peacefully or turn into a battle when tensions flare. Standoffs will end peacefully when one of the parties involves backs away. If any parties involved move closer to their enemies it can trigger a fight. If neither party involved backs away, then eventually tensions will rise, and shooting will start.
If the player wanders into the control zone of an NPC or a predatory animal, a standoff will begin until the player either leaves or a fight breaks out. By applying a brief standoff period when a NPC or a player confronts a predator, such as a wolf or bear, the player is given more warning and is better able to prepare for the impending attack.
Upcoming changes with the Core Redesign Release - Post 2
Note: The Core Redesign Release has not yet been released and is targeted to ship in mid to late December.
This post focuses on the character movement changes coming with the Core Redesign Release. Subsequent announcements will focus on other areas that the Core Redesign Release will change in the game.
All the character movement systems have been completely overhauled. Character movements have been augmented to meet a few key goals: movement stability, movement fairness, and movement performance.
To enforce movement stability, characters are now bound to the NavMesh. The NavMesh is a descriptor that defines where non playable characters (NPC) can travel in the world. The player is bound to the NavMesh except when airborne. When the player is falling, they are pulled back to the NavMesh. Why did we do this? First, this helps prevent instances where the player can fall through surfaces. Second, this helps prevents the player from ending up in places where they can become stuck. This leads to more stable movements and better immersion.
Limiting the character to the NavMesh also enforces movement fairness. The player is now mostly constrained to areas where the NPCs can travel. This prevents odd situations where the player can go somewhere that an NPC cannot.
Movement performance improvements come from two major places: multithreading and binding the player to the NavMesh. By locking the player to the NavMesh, we only need to query for collisions with other objects that move. This reduces the number of calculations needed to move the character.
Character movement calculations and collision detection have been multithreaded (uses multiple CPU cores in parallel) to allow for more efficient processing. These performance improvements mean that more NPCs and animals can be spawned at once thus creating more complex scenarios. They also allow additional calculations and queries that allow players to move more realistic in response to the environment. For instance, character movement rates are reduced when travelling up a slope.
Subsequent announcements will focus on other areas that the Core Redesign Release will change in the game.
Upcoming changes with the Core Redesign Release - Post 1
Note: The Core Redesign Release has not yet been released and is targeted to be released later this month.
This post focuses on the graphical changes coming with the Core Redesign Release. Subsequent announcements will focus on other areas that the Core Redesign Release will change in the game. Graphics have been improved in several areas. As a basis we are using more advanced rendering features through a more advanced rendering pipeline. As seen in the comparisons below the new rendering tech allows for more realistic lighting and superior texture clarity.
Aliasing is less apparent, and colors are truer to life than before. Incorrect highlighting is reduced on the shadowed edge of objects. Contrast is improved.
The lighting is less harsh and does not washout key parts of the models anymore. Textures appear more realistic and vibrant. Shadows are deeper and more realistic.
Rasterization and antialiasing are sharper and more in focus. Objects are clearer and easier to identify.
In addition to superior rendering tech, artwork has been replaced or remastered where necessary to make the game feel more realistic. Character models are more detailed and more realistic.
This is the first post of several detailing changes coming to the game.
Sierra Madre: The Wild West 08/28/2019 Update
This release contains a number of bug fixes and stability improvements as well as a few new features.
New Features:
Native Americans Warriors will now spawn as you traverse the world and help you fight off bandits.
Added a quick loot ability. This will loot everything in a dead outlaw / animal inventory. This ability is activated by holding down the Action key (F by default key bindings) for 0.5 seconds while looking at a dead enemy.
The weight limit on the player's inventory has been removed in favor of slowing the player down when carrying loads greater than 40 lbs.
Restored dual pistol aiming while in first person mode. In third person mode right mouse button will fire the right weapon; left mouse button will fire the left weapon. In first person mode right mouse button will aim one of the revolvers and left mouse button will fire it.
Changes:
Improved player grounding detection on slopes.
Improved NPC behavior.
Tweaked NPC accuracy at each difficulty level.
Increased horse sprint / gallop times.
Fixed issue where horse footprint sounds do not play.
Fixed an issue where the player could become stuck sleeping / stuck in third person mode after sleeping.
Improved NPC horse collision on NPC death (this should prevent horses from entering endless bucking loop).
Fixed issue where characters and horses could be pushed through the terrain under certain circumstances.
Switched from using animation events to timers for almost all weapon handling events. This should prevent endless readloading loops and the player getting stuck with a certain weapon.
Added additional checks to prevent crashes in some circumstances on load.
Horse now rotates independently of root motion. This should resolve issues where the horse will travel sideways.
General performance improvements that help reduce lag.
Known issues:
Occasionally, NPCs can become stuck while mounting / dismounting horses.
In very rare circumstances the player can become stuck while mounting horses or using campfires.
Both of these issues are related to how animation events are fired and we are working to resolve these issues.
Sierra Madre: The Wild West Patch 8/7/2019
Changes:
Upgrade project to Unity 2019.2. This delivers a number of improvements and bug fixes including fixing an issue that could lock the program in an infinite loop.
Fixed scripts that were throwing non-crashing exceptions under certain conditions.
Fixed issue with remapped controls not working in the map UI. Note: this requires rebinding custom key bindings for the map UI.
Sierra Madre: The Wild West Core Stability Update
This update is primarily focused around fixing issues that were created in our creation of the core rewrite. We did, however, add birds that fly over head around the map.
Changes:
Collision detection improvements.
Third person perspective melee hit detection improvements.
First person perspective melee animations improved.
Improved IK alignment for feet when going up steps on terrain.
Fixed exception caused by pooled objects.
Fixed issue with NPCs not successfully mounting horses.
Fixed issues with NPCs flying sideways across the map.
Improved lipsyncing for NPCs.
Improved wagon turning animations.
Improved Aiming IK for the player's character in third person perspective.
Improved sprint animations in first person perspective.
Fixed an issue where the camera can become wrongly aligned while riding the horse in first person perspective.
Fixed an issue where towns people NPCs did not deal damaged consistently during fist fights.
Fixed issues with the state system not always working as expected.
Improved navigation with gamepads / keyboard in the inventory.
Fixed issues with accessing items in the inventory.
Fixed issues relating to IL2CPP compilation and runtime stability.
Fixed issues where cloud quality settings did not apply until a restart.
Fixed an issue where the player would become forced off his / her horse when taking damage.
Fixed an issue where the player would jitter after being forced off of the horse.
Improved horse auto steering.
Improved an issue where punching when moving would leave the player unable to do anything.
Tweaked horse and player stamina values.
Increased the amount of time where the player can go without food and water.
Fixed damage not always being applied when the player was out of food / water.
Improved horse riding dismount reliability.
Improved horse collision.
Improve wagon driving.
Improved NPC perception with better hearing.
Add birds that fly around the map.
Why somethings have not been seen to:
Issues related to lighting have not been addressed in this update. Fixing shadow flickering issues on the current map requires making large compromises between the accuracy of shadows and the reduction of flickering.
In a future update we will be bringing a world generation system to Sierra Madre that will allow us to better solve this issue. Although the engine behind this world generation system is fully functional, the world that it generates (the output) is still being designed. Once the world generation system is integrated we will upgrading Sierra Madre to use Unity's Scriptable Render Pipeline, which will give us much finer control over the graphics in the game.
Sierra Madre: The Wild West Core Rewrite Update
Disclaimer: This update constitutes an overhaul of roughly 90% of our game's core source code and is a large change to the underlying systems of the game. Many of these changes are not aesthetically apparent. Over the next few updates we will be fundamentally changing the game's world (terrain, environment, etc), Core Gameplay, Rendering System (Lighting), and NPC behavior. This update, while rough in some areas, offers a new basis for the future development of Sierra Madre: The Wild West. The important thing is that this new core empowers us to provide more features in a much more manageable way.
Note: This release may not download immediately.
Changes:
Improved Character Controller
We have fully switched over to an advanced event-driven character controller. This character controller is more modular and is a huge improvement from a developer’s point of view. There are some rough edges. Animation transitions and blending require some tweaking and polish. These issues will solved in a future update. This controller is used to control the main character, NPCs, and horses. We will likely extend it to wildlife in a future update as well. This makes it easier for us to write behaviors that both the player and NPCs can utilize.
Improved Animation System
We started this project as a first person shooter and as a result offered poor parity between first person and third person mode. To solve this we have introduced a new animation system that allows us to use the same animations between the first person and third person perspective. This new system also lays the groundwork for character customization (character customization is NOT in this update) by allowing us to easily swap out the rigs being used for the first person perspective. The third person and first person perspectives should now behave very similarly.
Improved Gamepad Support
We have integrated a third party native control system that allows us to support many different gamepads. Most gamepads should work, but we have primarily targeted Xbox One controllers for this update.
UI navigation has been improved for use with gamepads. The map UI has been tweaked to be controller friendly, but will be overhauled completely in a future update. The inventory UI has been completely overhauled. It has been designed with gamepad support in mind and has an acceptable amount of usability with a gamepad, but definitely needs some tweaking.
Menu UI has been tweaked both aesthetically and to better support gamepads, but some settings menus do not play nice with gamepads. The current Menu UI will be replaced in a future update.
New Inventory System
We have overhauled the inventory system and replaced it with a robust, categorized inventory. The inventory now tracks all player possessions including weapons, ammo, horses, etc. The inventory can now be filtered based on category and can be used to call horses, access camp craft tools (bedrole, campfire), eat food, drink water, and equip weapons. Food and drink have been converted from using calories and fluid ounces as measurement units to being based on items. Where you used to have 64 fluid ounces of water, you now have one unit of water. Where you used to have 2000 calories of food, you now have 1 unit of meat (either raw or cooked). We will be expanding food groups to include more individual food items in future updates.
We have replaced our old horse and wagon mechanics with new ones that are designed to require less direct steering. Horses and wagons will now try to avoid obstacles on their own. Instead of having to hold down a key to keep horses and wagons moving forward, you adjust speed by hitting the forward and backward movement keys (or moving the movement joystick in the forward or backward axes). This new system does have some issues on rough terrain, but this will be resolved when we overhaul our game world (which is one of our main focuses and we hope to have in the next feature update).
Horse Breeds
We now have different breeds of horses which can be bought at trading posts (will be moved to being bought at a livery stable in a future update).
General Changes:
Replaced tent with bedrole.
Towns people now say greetings when approached.
The player character now verbally indicates when they are hungry / thirsty.
Added a Scoped .45-70 Breechloader.
Added a Livery Stable to the tutorial.
Improved blocking rain while inside buildings.
Rewrote weapon mechanics.
Temporarily removed bullet drop.
Temporarily removed hiring of lawmen.
Added aim assist that automatically activates when a gamepad is in use and deactivates when the keyboard and mouse is in use.
Added control hints that show which controls map to which functions. This can be disabled in the gameplay menu.
Simplified gameplay settings options.
Tweaked how long it takes to get hungry / thirsty.
A direction indicator now indicates where attacks are coming from (only if cross hairs are enabled).
New control remapping UI.
New FPS arms model.
Updated Tutorial to reflect changes.
Known issues:
Horse speed and stamina values will show up with dollar signs in the inventory.
Horses will buck and rear when ridden on unstable terrain.
Horses can start bucking uncontrollable when on really rough terrain. Dismounting the horse when it is in this state sometimes results in death.
NPCs will sometimes become unresponsive. Sometimes NPCs will be found floating in mid air while on horse back.
NPCs may become stuck on the edge of steep cliffs.
Shadows will flicker when near the edge of the map (this will be resolved with the new world system).
At certain times of day, faces that are not in direct sunlight will appear completely black (this will be addressed with the new render pipeline).
Attempting to mount a wagon on the side of a cliff can result in the player becoming stuck. Rapidly hitting movement keys and the use key can sometimes unstuck the player.
Exiting the inventory can sometimes result in the cursor being stuck on. Going back to the inventory and hitting escape to exit will resolve this.
If you have the resolution of the game below your monitor’s native resolution, the native resolution may be restored when changing scenes. This may or may not be indicated in the graphics options.
What’s next?
We will now being focusing our development for the next feature updates on four key areas:
Core Gameplay
Fixing NPC behavior
Upgrading to using the Scriptable Render Pipeline
New World System
Sierra Madre: The Wild West Development Blog 03/29/2019
Moving to the Improved Character Controller, Input
Our integration to the improved character controller and input module is fully underway. Game-pad support is being vastly improved with the new input module and controls reporting is more aesthetically pleasing. The improved character controller offers more fluid movements and is much more flexible.
Better, Simpler Interactions and Controls
As part of our move to the improved Character Controller, we have simplified interactions while also making interactions more interesting. Actions are now contextually based and as such there is no need for a permanent HUD bar.
Here are some screenshots of the new campfire interactions:
The bed role has replaced the tent as the save / sleep point.
Collecting resources is now based on interactions with elements in the environment.
Chopping trees with a knife no longer yields fire wood; wood gathering has been moved into a separate interaction.
Reworked Weapons animations
We are in the process of reworking weapon animations so that third person and first person animations will line up better. The new weapon animations are being done in such a way to allow for quicker deployment of new weapon variants.
Affliction Based Needs
Instead of always displaying a health bar, nutrition bar, or hydration bar we are moving to having affliction based needs. When the player character becomes hungry / thirsty this will be indicated as an affliction that food / water will solve.
Cool, can I try this out in the game now?
Not quite yet. This is a large undertaking that requires reworking many underlying systems (for the better) and we want this transition to bring a solid, stable platform from which we can dive into adding more features and missions.
