Development blog

2016 September 9th

Changed fuel efficiency readout of generators to make more sense.

Started a discord server to help better connect with our fans! Come check it out!

It supports voice and text chat and lets you talk directly with the developer. Feel free to come by and ask me questions about the game.

2016 September 2nd

This week I have been working on the business side of things with Incuvation Games. trying to work out the future of Brutal Nature.

I am happy to report that we will have some new assets to use in the next version as a result! Two new NPC's by the same artist who did our bears and boar. The first NPC is a black panther that will strike fear into the hearts of all who see it. The second is a small red fox that will be food for the predators and players on the island.

We also have gotten a huge number of extremely high quality weapon assets! 22 weapons in total all high poly and include extremely high resolution textures, normal, roughness and metalness maps, exactly what Brutal Nature needs.

I also had some time to complete some features. Submeshes of a model can now be animated by script on client and server side. World objects now have collision with the player and collisions respond properly with submesh animations.

What do these two features have in common? They allowed me to implement another feature: Doors. Brutal Nature now has doors you can open and close! Whats more is the doors are done entirely by script so they could be modded, or the techniques used to make them could be used to make something entirely new!

2016 August 26th

Now that the server has been moved to a dedicated host, I have been looking into networking some more. This week I reduced 'downloading data' time when joining server and reduced lag when joining server. I also changed packet header to 1 byte instead of 4 bytes to reduce overhead a little.

I noticed crafting was broken due to the recent electrical system changes and so I fixed that as well.

Beta tester mentioned that the running speed was just too fast and so I reduced that some as well. He also mentioned it made no sense that harvesting plant fiber took more endurance then a tree, so I reduced endurance required to harvest plant fiber by 50%.

Someone mentioned the boarders around certain elements in the GUI where too flashy so I changed how they look.

Fixed NPC's not always attacking back when attacked.

Worked on movement some more, mainly trying to get it to climb stairs better and have more consistent fall damage. Increased fall damage slightly.

Tweaked NPC spawn code, since the bears now eat boars the world was quickly running out of boars. So I made spawning of each species have its own counter so the ratio will be kept constant even though boars die much more often then bears do.

And with all that done, I released version 0.63 of Brutal Nature! Go check it out!

Released: 0.63

2016 August 25th, Brutal Nature 0.63 is now released:

• Fixed all known bugs
• Added Grapple Pistol/Hooks to vendor.
• Added version numbers to log file.    
• Increased fall damage slightly.
• Changed Client/Server packet header to be 1 byte instead of 4
• Reduce endurance needed to harvest plant fiber by 50%
• Reduce Sprint speed by 20%
• Tweaked window boarder style.
• Tweaked NPC spawn distribution.
• Fixed stuck crafting progress.
• Fixed sliding down gentle slopes.
• Fixed NPC's not attacking back sometimes when attacked.
• Fixed long 'Downloading Data' stage during login.
• Fixed lag when first joining a server.

2016 August 19th

Moved the official and test server to a dedicated server with 100/100mbit internet.

Started overhauling the movement system to fix sliding down slight slopes. Added client/server version numbers to log file to help aid in future debugging.

Added grapple pistol and hooks to vendor so they are easier to get early game.

2016 August 12th

Added 7 new gun models!

Left/right mouse buttons are now swapped when that option is enabled in windows.

Improved keybinding layout. Inventory is now under TAB and sprint is shift+W.

Added battery model.

Released version 0.62! With a ton of new changes and updates you are going to love it.

New models galore! As mentioned above in 0.62 we have 7 new gun models and we have added axes. We have 2 new vendor NPC's roaming the island, replacing the build in vendor menu and they are stocked with a ton of new stuff.

Speaking of NPC's we now have improved NPC behavior in 0.62 where NPC's can be afraid of other NPC's or the player and run away. they also now have their own food levels and will hunt other NPC's or world objects like berry bushes and mushrooms to eat.

Released: 0.62

2016 August 9th, Brutal Nature 0.62 is now released:

• Fixed all known bugs
• Added 7 new weapon models.
• Added Batteries to store electrical energy in.
• Added Switches to turn electricity on/off to parts of the electrical grid.
• Added 2 new human models for the vendors to use. There are 2 types of vendors for the moment and they sell totally different items.
• Added a persistent 'Server disconnected' notice in the middle of the screen when you get disconnected.
• Added script command to open the vendor GUI on the client.
• Added script callback for NPC's when interacted with
• Added Human NPC vendors who roam the island selling different things via script.
• Added Human NPC's.
• Added generic traits for weapons. Each trait has a name, level and power.
• Added ability to specify the trait required to harvest an object. You can also specify what level is required to harvest an object so that some objects can not be harvested by hand anymore.
• Added Axes with "Chopping" trait for bonuses when cutting down trees.
• Added NPC's attack animations and attack delay has been changed to depend on the animation played.
• Added ability for NPC's to interact with each other based on faction. Some NPC's will attack others on sight, while only attacking others if they are hungry. some NPC's run away from other NPC's.
• Electrical system Rewrite. Generators can now be wired to each other on the electrical grid and will share loads. Loads can also be wired to each other directly without the use of junction boxes.
• Made axes required to cut down the largest trees.
• Improved keyboard layout
• Left/Right mouse button now are swapped correctly when that option is enabled in windows.
• Particle effects now use the main shader instead of their own unique shader.
• NPC's can now eat world objects when hungry. NPC's only eat the objects they are assigned as edible in the faction that NPC belongs to.
• Optimized CPU usage of NPC behavior.
• Tweaked inventory crafting screen to look a little better.
• Improved mod script save/load functionality to handle mods being added/removed without corrupting the save game.
• Increased amount of food from berry bush by 200%
• Fixed color of Radar blips.
• Fixed Normal maps appearing on weapons that did not have them.
• Fixed Particle effect lighting. Now particles can be lit or unlit based on script settings.
• Fixed Wires to be properly lit by lighting effects.
• Fixed bug where dropping your currently equipped weapon did not cause it to disappear from your hands.
• Fixed some light sources not producing light when you logged in while they where on.
• Fixed bug where -0 was causing ray trace function to produce incorrect results and take much longer then it should.
• Fixed Gamma of screen clear color so it properly matches the skybox again.
• Fixed bug where NPC animations where playing at 2x speed.

2016 August 5th

Added a persistent 'Server disconnected' notice in the middle of the screen when you get disconnected.

2016 July 29th

This week I have turned my attention to the electrical system of Brutal Nature and have pretty much rewritten it.

Added batteries to the electrical grid, they will share power between them while charging and they will only charge after all other loads needs have been satisfied. They also share discharge rates.

Added switches to the electrical grid, they disconnect all wires that connect to them when turned off and reconnect when turned on.

Generators can now be wired to each other on the electrical grid and will share loads. Loads can also be wired to each other directly without the use of junction boxes.

Fixed Particle effect lighting. Now particles can be lit or unlit based on script settings.

Particle effects now use the main shader instead of their own unique shader.

Wires now are properly lit by lighting effects.

Tweaked inventory crafting screen to look a little better.

2016 July 22th

Added generic traits for weapons. Each trait has a name, level and power.

Added ability to specify the trait required to harvest an object. You can also specify what level is required to harvest an object so that some objects can not be harvested by hand anymore.

Added Axes with "Chopping" trait for bonuses when cutting down trees.

Made axes required to cut down the largest trees.

Increased amount of food from berry bush by 200%

NPC's can now eat world objects when hungry. NPC's only eat the objects they are assigned as edible in the faction that NPC belongs to.

Optimized CPU usage of NPC behavior.

Tweaked inventory crafting screen slightly

Fixed bug where dropping your currently equipped weapon did not cause it to disappear from your hands.

Fixed some light sources not producing light when you logged in while they where on.

Fixed bug where -0 was causing ray trace function to produce incorrect results and take much longer then it should.

2016 July 15th

Added script command to open the vendor GUI on the client.

Added script callback for NPC's when interacted with

Added human NPC vendors who roam the island selling different things via script.

2016 July 8th

Added Human NPC's.

Improved mod script save/load functionality to handle mods being added/removed without corrupting the save game.

Fixed Gamma of screen clear color so it properly matches the skybox again.

2016 July 1st

NPC's now have proper attack animations and attack delay has been changed to depend on the animation played.

2016 June 24th

Started work on adding NPC attack animations.

Fixed bug where NPC animations where playing at 2x speed.

2016 June 17th

More work on NPC behavior. NPC's now interact with each other based on faction. Some NPC's will attack others on sight, while only attacking others if they are hungry. some NPC's run away from other NPC's.

The same behaviors have been extended to npc interaction with players as well.

2016 June 10th

Started work on improving NPC behaviors.

2016 June 3rd

Did last minute finishing touches and released another version of Brutal Nature today!

Also its my Birthday. Get me a gift by buying my game!

Released: 0.61

2016 June 3rd, Brutal Nature 0.61 is now released:

• Fixed all known bugs
• Added normal mapping to all terrain textures
• Added normal mapping to all avatars
• Added normal mapping to most NPC's
• Added normal mapping to most objects
• Limited ram consumption under X64 to available physical ram
• Fixed Grapple sticking to center of cubes.
• Fixed server timeout on single player avatar select screen.
• Fixed shooting at terrain with cubes behind the terrain.
• Fixed spawning inside cube wall
• Fixed getting stuck in cube wall by building cube wall
• Fixed disabling GUI with menu open not hiding mouse.
• Fixed quest callbacks still being called after skipping quest.

2016 May 27th

Fixed connection timeout when selecting player in single player mode.

Fixed ray/model collision bug caused by new vertex format for meshes to support normal mapping.

2016 May 20th

Fixed bug where you could spawn inside of cube buildings.

Fixed bug where you could get stuck inside of cube buildings by building one around you.

Fixed bug where shooting at terrain with cubes behind it, would hit cubes.

Fixed bug where shooting grapple at cubes would result in grapple stuck to center of cube and not the surface.