Age of Rust Update #17
As I continue the development journey for Age of Rust, I’m excited to share an update on the game’s navigation system. In response to both technical considerations and user experience, I’ve merged the mini-map and compass into one unified entity. This not only simplifies the interface but also fixes a major issue which originally cut the FPS by half when the compass was active.
Another performance gain has been made for the blood system which caused a stutter when it was activated. Originally meant for the player, it has been moved to enemies, if they’re human, the blood system will kick in for a gory effect. Now, the manager which controls it has been updated to make it performant and no longer causes a severe drop in FPS.
Enemies will now “cool down” when they’re killed when the thermal vision is on. However, if enemies are simply knocked out, their heat signature will remain in the thermal view. The thermal vision as well as the night vision has gone through a major overall with the gameplay.
Speaking of the enemies, they’ve gone though a major update from the early beta. They’re now more responsive to the player in that they’ll actively chase, take cover, and chase the player to some extent. Over that, they’ll also knock down doors and jump though windows to reach the player. If they’re on patrol and stumble across another enemy that the player has dispatched, they’ll call it out and start looking around.
Some of the characters went back into design, notable to add an update which allowed wrinkle maps on characters faces. During cutscene sequences, characters will have a slight bit of additional detail to convey a bit more emotion during the motion capture process.
In addition to that, Quinn, the main character in Age of Rust, no longer has his face covered with the frogman head cover during the cutscenes. Many players asked, “What’s that over his face?”, so players will now see Quinn as originally intended.
In order to bring the Age of Rust universe to life, a few extra touches have been added here and there to make the game slightly more mainstream for the intended audience. There’s now a full story for the game and the missions are outlined clearly for the player. In addition to that, “Mission Objectives” are displayed for the player on the screen when they’re assigned. Players will no longer have to somewhat guess “what was it I was supposed to do?”, it will be right there on the screen.
Puzzles in the game still remain intermixed in between the action of stealthily taking out your enemies. However, many of the puzzles that are tied to the main storyline have been ratcheted down so players won’t get stuck for days in one area. Getting through a tough spot won’t be nearly as difficult as it was before. The punishment and pain of the main story puzzles have been removed to make the game a bit more in line for the semi-casual player. However, those that are looking for the optional crypto-puzzles will still face some head-scratching and hand wringing.
That about wraps up the update for now, I’m working on putting together a new video of what the overhauled gameplay looks like now so those following along can get a better idea of what Age of Rust looks like now. Thanks as always for being part of the community!
