Yore VR - Week #36 Update. Final fixes and improvements
So the last week has been one of incremental improvements and tying up loose ends. Outside of a couple small nagging bugs the 3 main things left on our plate are: Improving new players experience with instructional books throughout the world, Decoupling supersampling from the graphic presets so players can customize it manually, ensuring that all player settings are saved between games
Highlights
Skeletal Warriors added to the dungeon
Building Progress was not saving properly, this has been fixed
Building costs are now back to normal
Improvements to lighting in the cave
16:9 Video output option added for streamers
More sounds and animals in the world to make it feel more alive
Community
MrHazardous spent an hour streaming himself exploring the World, it was fantastic to watch and we took a lot of notes of little things to improve along the way: http://forums.playyore.com/index.php?threads/mrhazardous-spends-an-hour-in-yore.404
We are writing guides for all areas of the game and would love to see players leave their mark on the world of Yore by authoring some themselves. You can see the guides being made here: http://forums.playyore.com/index.php?forums/guides-tips-and-tricks.6/
With advanced combat and advanced crafting being the next two systems we need to start thinking about what do we want to craft. You can offer your suggestions here: http://forums.playyore.com/index.php?threads/items-to-craft-suggestions-welcome.392/
We broke 70 users in our discord server this week so there are more conversations going on than ever. Everyone is welcome to come and speak directly with us devs and share your thoughts: https://discord.gg/Jgh2kUn
All in all it's been a week of many small victories and we're in great shape to start approaching our advanced combat system. Huzzah!
0.6.0.1 Update - Main Branch (and Alpha)
*Note* - If you lost your progress since updating the main branch yesterday or the day before please check this post out on how to restore: http://steamcommunity.com/app/524380/discussions/1/1368380934247078517/
Fixes
Bug allowing buildings to be built for free was found and fixed
Deleted tree floating slightly off the ground
Improvements
Bow collisions improved so it doesn't roll everywhere
More resources added to the map
Iron ore nodes scaled up to make them easier to spot
Persistence system can spawn to specific level streams now
LoadingService binds to World instead of WorldComposition delegates allowing for better persistence across multiple levels with multiple spawners
Big Cave chamber lighting improved
Better debug logging in a lot of areas
Adjusted streaming distance of levels so they will pop in a lot sooner and not wait until you are right on top of them
Additions
16:9 Video output option added to menu
Forest Critters and general ambient sounds added to above ground world
Spawn resource command partially added, rest will be in by monday at the latest
PS - Building costs have been brought back up to their appropriate values
Main Branch Update is FINALLY HERE - 0.5.9.2
After 6 months of Alpha and Beta updates we have Yore in a good enough spot that we have updated the main branch. For the full run down of updates feel free to check out the links at the bottom of this post but here's the Update Highlights:
Improvements
First we we finished the recode of all major systems, that wrapped in about Feb and opened the door for the new save system and multiplayer.
The engine powering our game was way too out of date as we were using a custom branch that had stopped being updated in November. So that meant that we had to not only upgrade the engine from Unreal 4.12 to Unreal 4.15 but also switch from the custom Multi-res branch over to the vanilla and strip out a bunch of features. That was fun
In upgrading to 4.15 we switched over to the new Forward Renderer in Unreal 4.14 / 4.15 which caused our main map to crap the bed, meaning we had to switch over to our brand new map sooner than anticipated. This map is 9 times larger above ground and 3-4 times larger underground.
Our pre-placed building system didn't work with the new map as it is based on multiple streaming levels, so instead of spending time fixing that we decided to move forward with our custom placed system ahead of schedule.
We are using the new Forward Renderer in Unreal which is a boost of 20-30% FPS on it's own
Multiple optimization efforts resulted in 75-150% increase in performance over old main branch build
We have a brand new save system, which is essentially our multiplayer save system but running locally with SQLite.
Meaning we are very close to multiplayer
Every structure in the game(including the cart) can now be hand placed
Additions
A new map that is roughly 12-13 times larger than the old one, meaning a lot of room for new adventures and other players.
We have a new massive dungeon system with some friends down there to greet you
There are 5 new caves to Explore
Ocean added
Hydras, Giant Scorpions, Bears and Foxes added
Huge Central Mountain
Small mountain ranges
Removed
Skelly and the intro tutorial didn't make it through the new recode but he might come back later
Cart from hell removed, way too much work to get it working properly so we just allow you to hold a LOT more in the basket now
Join the conversation on our forums: http://forums.playyore.com
Hang out with us on Discord, talk to the devs in real time: https://discord.gg/Jgh2kUn
Yore VR - Week #35 Update: More creatures, less crashes
2 days late on this update but needed to include a few key fixes in here before I pushed it out. A lot of work went into polishing and getting the creatures spawning and working properly this week. On top of that we tracked down the most common crash bug and hopefully put an end to that. You can find more details about the updates here:
Oculus Rift users can once again access the menu by depressing the analog stick
Most common crash bug fixed
Sword assembly is working again so get those blades and delve into the dark deep places with a little less fear
Speaking of the sword there was a nasty bug where if it was assembled and in your belt it would cause you move around against your will as it collided into stuff. That is fixed
Big fixes and improvement to Creatures and the creature spawners. They persist properly, the world will come pre-populated and they will be right where you left them when you leave that part of the world and come back.
Cooking meat is a thing again, just stick your steak on the camp fire itself and it will cook
A good amount of persistence was added to a bunch of stuff in the world
Ongoing Conversations
http://forums.playyore.com/index.php?threads/current-fixes-that-need-to-be-confirmed.385/#post-1396 - People have really stepped up to help with the QA process, take a look at all of the fixes that Explozion confirmed for us this week
A lot of back and forth about day to day gameplay with some great feedback from DersonThePerson on Discord: https://discord.gg/Yu9vM7p
Anyways another great week with some big gains to the game in general. It's really exciting to see the community getting more and more active every week and if ever was the time to join the conversation it would definitely be now!
Week #34 updates - Beta branch FINALLY gets some love! Updated to latest.
So the day is fast approaching when we can finally push all of our hard work out to the main branch. With the exception of the cart, which we removed entirely for now, 100% of the game systems have been recoded from scratch and are in the game, better than ever. We were 'feature complete' about 10 days ago and have been doing QA ever since. The last week has resulted in 2 engine bugs being found(and reported to Epic) as well as a myriad of other edge-case bugs that only reared their head once we packaged a build and sent it off to steam(ie: they weren't showing in our internal tests) but we are now through all of those and barring any other unknown issues we should have a rock solid game on our hands with no obvious up front issues. On top of all of this we have made massive performance gains over the last 2 weeks, with a 40-50% increase in FPS as well as a much nicer looking world.
Now that being said I am going to assume there are still a bunch of interesting bugs hiding in the game for players to find and so the time has come to push this update to Beta to get as many players in there as possible so we can uncover there. As a reminder if you do find a bug it would be super helpful to post a bug report here": http://forums.playyore.com/index.php?forums/bug-reports.20/
In case you are curious as to what is in this update since the last one:
Scorpions(baby and giant), Foxes, Bears and Hydra's added to the map as enemies which can kill and be killed
Building construction system complete and in the game
Building cost tool tip comes up in building menu when you cover over a button
3 Crashes fixed: Missing anims, engine error, building menu crash
Streaming level, nav mesh and post processing optimizations for moar FPS!
New ocean water shader
Interesting Convo's
Most of the week was spent discussing the new sounds we need for our new friends in the world. We held a key give away on the forums and reddit and received some amazing recommendations for sounds so that our new baddies won't be silent for much longer :)
As always everyone is more than welcome to join us on discord, there's always a great conversation happening there about this that or the other: https://discord.gg/Jgh2kUn
Massive (and Regular) Updates Hitting the Alpha Branch - Check it out!
Greetings from the Lands of Yore!
Hey Hey everyone I have been posting regular updates to the 'Changelogs and Updates' forums: https://steamcommunity.com/app/524380/discussions/2/ but F-Man made a good point in a comment on our last update thread that with none-of those updates showing up on the front page it doesn't look like we're making all that much progress when in reality we are progressing faster now than ever before in the history of the project. So from now on I will try to post regular updates to the front page about what's going on in the alpha and beta branches, interesting new features and creatures making their way in the game and highlight some of the more active threads on the forums if any of you are interested in partaking in the lively discussions over there.
Expand / Scroll down for the following:
1) Alpha Updates
2) Eye Candy to drool over
3) Links to Forum conversations to check out
So let's start with the past month or two of alpha updates:
Alpha Updates
All of these updates can be found and experienced today in the Alpha Branch of the game. If you don't know how to access the alpha branch don't worry, it's super easy
Just right click on Yore VR in your Steam Library, then click properties, then go into the betas tab and select the alpha branch from the dropdown list:
For convenience sake I've linked to the various alpha update threads I have been posting:
Some eye candy of updates found in the Alpha right now
Forum conversations to check out
Click the links below to check out the conversations and share your thoughts
Still Alive and working HARD to get this update pushed
Apologies for the silent running..We've been under the gun over the last 3 months. Let me sum up what's been happeningL
<*> First we we finished the recode of all major systems, that wrapped in about Feb and opened the door for the new save system and multiplayer.
<*> The engine powering our game was way too out of date as we were using a custom branch that had stopped being updated in November. So that meant that we had to not only upgrade the engine from Unreal 4.12 to Unreal 4.15 but also switch from the custom Multi-res branch over to the vanilla and strip out a bunch of features. That was fun
<*> In upgrading to 4.15 we switched over to the new Forward Renderer in Unreal 4.14 / 4.15 which caused our main map to crap the bed, meaning we had to switch over to our brand new map sooner than anticipated. This map is 9 times larger above ground and 3-4 times larger underground.
<*> Our pre-placed building system didn't work with the new map as it is based on multiple streaming levels, so instead of spending time fixing that we decided to move forward with our custom placed system ahead of schedule.
It was one thing after another here but the end result is as such:
<*>A new map that is roughly 12-13 times larger than the old one, meaning a lot of room for new adventures and other players
<*> We are using the new Forward Renderer in Unreal which is a boost of 20-30% FPS
<*> We have a new massive dungeon system
<*> We have a brand new save system, which is essentially our multiplayer save system but running locally with SQLite.
<*> Meaning we are very close to multiplayer
<*> Every structure in the game(including the cart) can now be hand placed
0.4.0 - Alpha update: Completing the Recode
Recode Complete, ready for testing
Remember you need to be subscribed to the Alpha branch to get Alpha updates.
So no sense writing a formal update log when all I need to say is that the entire game has essentially been re-coded from scratch. The way we did things before was quick and dirty, meant to prototype and iterate as quickly as possible to flesh out some of the core systems. You get to a point though where all of these systems, cobbled together like a shanty-town, start to buckle under the weight of the game and then it's time to take a holistic view, based on all of the gameplay lessons learned, and build it properly from the ground up with the bigger picture in mind. This is where we were back in December when we took on the task of re-writing every major system in the game to take into account all of the needs that we discovered along the way, be 100x more efficient and be ready for multiplayer(which we started working on at the beginning of the year).
Today is a big day as nearly all of the recoding(Crossbows should be done on monday) is finished and now it's just a matter of finding all of the bugs that exist in this system, fixing them and then going live with this update. The end result will be a much much more polished experienced with no cart issues, better working tongs, a bug free forging experience, etc etc. There are still a lot of improvements we are going to be making to all of the various systems to make things easier to use or more intuitive, however now we have a much more solid base to build on and can focus primarily on those improvements instead of having to spend 70% of our time fixing the bugs that cropped up as our old system creaked and groaned under the weight of the game.
So I just wanted to send out a big thank you for all of your patience. I know a lot of complaints and unfortunately negative reviews have been coming in regarding many of the issues that this recode fixed and rightly so. It was a very frustrating month and a half, not only for you the players dealing with this stuff, but also for me as so many of the issues mentioned were fixed weeks ago but because of the nature of this re-write we couldn't implement it bit by bit, it had to be all or nothing, meaning I had to wait until all of the systems were complete before rolling this update out and as modest as Yore is right now, that still meant a ton of systems. Either way, this alpha release is the first step and as soon as those dedicated testers among you find and report all of the small outstanding bugs(http://forums.playyore.com/index.php?threads/how-to-report-bugs.107/) and we go through and fix them up we'll push this to beta and then eventually up to the main branch for all to enjoy.
0.3.9.7 Update - Touch Support and Snow removal
A relatively small update with a few fixes here and there. 90% of our time has been spent recoding everything from the ground up and preparing for multiplayer. Very happy to have Oculus Touch support in and look forward to hearing people's feedback as we have a ways to go before that is perfect.
[H1]Fixes and Improvements[/H1]
Fixed pub volumes
Fixed menu navigation for Touch users
Minor Map fixes
Additions and polish to the caves
Fixed cart recall/spawner
Raised prices back to normal levels
Increased auto-save interval from 20 to 40 seconds to mitigate stuttering
Snow removed
Hand now snaps to basket handle
Fixed collision issues with smelter coal and iron
Extended hand reach for picking up objects on the floor
Fixed cart handle movement issues
Replaced crappy placeholder torch with a new one
Oculus Touch Support
Added ability to force oculus input mode by pressing Ctrl+O on the keyboard
