Brutal Nature, The Multiplayer Voxel Sandbox game

Development blog

This is our development blog! We have been maintaining this blog with updates for over 1000 days now, starting June 10th, 2013. Here you can read about the work that goes into making a game as complex as Brutal Nature:

 

December 25th update

More work on the inventory menu. Restored drop functionality to all menus. Need to redo how the tree menu is used however.

 

Also did some more work on the plot document for the game.

 

December 24th update

Lots more work on the Inventory menu.

 

Aid, materials and crafting tabs now added. Still need to add back more of the old functionality however.

 

December 23rd update

Did some more GUI mockups. Started reworking the inventory menu.

 

Most of the equipment menu has been rewritten.

 

December 22nd update

Lots more refactoring of the GUI code, mainly the list box control to simplify its interface and break off grid functionality to the new grid box control.

 

Added some new tab graphics and mouse over effects.

 

Fixed up alignment on server selection menu.

 

December 21st update

Lots more play testing to identify areas that need improvement. Crafting tab now starts open on inventory crafting menu. Tweaked round timer to say 15 minutes for people who have stayed a full round.

 

Reduced fuel capacity of bonfire and beehive oven.

 

December 20th update

Lots of play testing. Had fun during the 'Meet and beat the developer' event. TheBoss sure showed me who was boss!

 

Fixed item replication bug. Lowered tree chop volume.

 

December 19th update

Announcing we are going to hold a 'meet and beat the developer' event!
On Friday, 20th, at 6pm PST/ 9pm EST, I will be playing on the public servers where you can ask me questions and engage in PVP combat. Can you best the developer at his own game? Find out!

 

More play testing and packing Brutal Nature up for release! Took a bunch of screen shots for release and updated webpage, indieDB page, etc.

 

Fixed bug in tutorial and some minor typos. Fixed 'Round over!' message spam.

 

Released: 0.34

December 19th, 0.34 is now released:

 

  • Fixed all known bugs.
  • Redid most of the GUI and HUD.
  • Added GUI glass effect behind GUI.
  • Added GUI glass effect to login screen.
  • Added a stats page that shows player kill/deaths, NPC kill/deaths, other deaths, amount mined and time played. Stats are displayed for lifetime, round and last round.
  • Added a new ammo caliber: 7.62x54mmR.
  • Added machine guns: SG-43 Goryunov, Degtyaryov MG, PKM MG.
  • Added sniper rifles: PSL, Dragunov SVU, Dragunov.
  • Added rifles: Mosin-Nagant, Mosin Carbine, AVS-36. Now 59 Weapons total!
  • Added new NPC: Boar
  • Added mining stats when you exit edit mode.
  • Added Tree respawn. Added kill/death and mining stats menu.
  • Added radar beacon that you can turn on/off when you wish to show up on other peoples radar.
  • Added usable items: Boar meat, Roast boar meat and Boar bacon.
  • Added Boar hide.
  • Added food/endurance/health icons next to respective bars.
  • Added 'GUI Alpha Open' and 'GUI Alpha Closed' settings to Brutal Nature.cfg
  • Added mouse acceleration in the GUI.
  • Added following settings to Brutal Nature.cfg: 'GUI Mouse Sensitivity' by request of a user. 'Flip Vertical Mouselook' by request of a user. 'GUI Mouse Acceleration', 'GUI Mouse
  • Acceleration Min', 'GUI Mouse Acceleration Max', 'GUI Mouse Acceleration Filter Time'
  • Added GUI color settings to Brutal Nature.cfg.
  • Added logging of events that occur to world objects.
  • Added background to health bars.
  • Added a slight smoothing to the camera Z position.
  • Added User.IsAdmin() function to script engine by request of a user.
  • Added sound for object pickup.
  • Added 'Server Binding Address' setting to Server.cfg for servers with more then one network adapter.
  • Added attack damage/speed settings to NPC script.
  • Added a scrolling/fadein GUI effect.
  • Added a divider bar between the HUD and GUI area.   
  • Changed login screen background.
  • Compiled shaders are now saved and reuse those if available. Startup time reduced from 8 seconds to about a half second.
  • Designed a new font subsystem so the GUI works better at different resolutions.
  • Smoothed out normals on bear model.
  • Made health bars more 3d
  • Made a new icon for the game/server based on the website favicon.
  • Moved NPC spawning to a script so now new enemies can be easily added.
  • Moved scan/context text to new HUD window.
  • Moved console say text to GUI window.
  • Moved the GUI over to a render to texture setup.
  • Redid the graphics for the buttons and tree controls.
  • Resized radar to fit new GUI.
  • Reduced bear jumping slightly by request of a user.
  • Status effects are now cancelled when you die.
  • Increased heat used by Hematite to Pig Iron (Reverberatory) recipe to 150% while decreasing fuel quality to 40 so bituminous coal could be used directly.
  • Increased 7.62x51mm gunshot volume.
  • Lowered default music volume
  • Lowered fuel usage of Advanced Smelter to 0.5.
  • Lowered fuel capacity of Blast Furnace and Large Blast Furnace to 25% to reflect how much was needed for a single cycle.
  • Lowered marble requirements for blast furnace refining of hematite to pig iron to 25%.
  • Lowered quick lime requirements for Bessemer converter pig iron to steel recipe to 25%.
  • Lowered marble spawning by 1/2 and increased wolframite spawning to 150%.
  • Lowered amount of abrasive needed to resharpen dull HSS tools to 50%.
  • Tweaked edit box to respond better at different resolutions.
  • Tweaked Shift+C to also close help menu.
  • Tweaked font code to display fonts properly at other resolutions.
  • Tweaked the region generation code
  • Tweaked a few control positions.
  • Fixed incorrect fire rate of MKA-1919
  • Fixed a crash when reloading after having run out of the ammo type in your weapon.
  • Fixed bug that prevented longest server frame time from displaying on stats page.
  • Fixed Thompson SMG fire rate from 450RPM to 650RPM.




 

 

December 18th update

Made a new grid control for the stats menu. Made a better 'Is inside ground' function. remove editing ability while 'inside' ground, remove ability to pickup stuff/etc while in noclip.

 

More play testing to make sure everything is fit for release.

 

December 17th update

Added mining stats when you exit edit mode. Added Tree respawn. Added kill/death and mining stats menu. Added radar beacon that you can turn on/off when you wish to show up on other peoples radar. 

 

Added a slight smoothing to the camera Z position. Added User.IsAdmin() function to script engine by request of a user. Added sound for object pickup.

 

Added 'Server Binding Address' setting to Server.cfg for servers with more then one network adapter.

Did more GUI mockups. Added GUI color settings to Brutal Nature.cfg.

 

December 16th update

Added machine guns: SG-43 Goryunov, Degtyaryov MG, PKM MG.

Added sniper rifles: PSL, Dragunov SVU.

 

Resized radar to fit new GUI. Moved scan/context text to new HUD window. Moved console say text to GUI window. More work on the GUI in general. Added 'GUI Alpha Open' and 'GUI Alpha Closed' settings to Brutal Nature.cfg

 

December 15th update

Added mouse acceleration in the GUI. Added following settings to Brutal Nature.cfg: 'GUI Mouse Sensitivity'by request of a user. 'Flip Vertical Mouselook' by request of a user. 'GUI Mouse Acceleration', 'GUI Mouse Acceleration Min', 'GUI Mouse Acceleration Max', 'GUI Mouse Acceleration Filter Time'

 

Reduced bear jumping slightly by request of a user. Tweaked Shift+C to also close help menu.

Status effects are now canceled when you die.

 

December 14th update

Changed brutal nature to save its compiled shaders and use those if available. Startup time reduced from 8 seconds to about a half second.

 

Added attack damage/speed settings to NPC script. Added usable items: Boar meat, Roast boar meat and Boar bacon. Added Boar hide.

 

December 13th update

Finished up moving the party/interact menus to the new GUI system. Moved the GUI over to a render to texture setup and added a new scrolling/fadein GUI effect.

 

December 12th update

Making some changes to the GUI that should simplify coding with it. Got the inventory, help and crafting menu working with the new GUI system.

 

December 11th update

More work on the GUI, mainly design of how I want it all to work together. Did more mock ups of the GUI.

 

Redid the graphics for the buttons and tree controls.

 

December 10th update

Today marks 6 months that I have updated this webpage every day with the progress on brutal nature. 6 months of working on this project every single day.

 

Added a new enemy: the boar! Also moved NPC spawning to a script so now new enemies can be easily added. Looked into what was causing the long start up times. Apparently its shader compilation taking 7 seconds. Going to have to fix that...

 

Lots more work on the GUI too. Redid the smelter GUI today. Added a divider bar between the HUD and GUI area.

 

December 9th update

More work on the GUI. Tweaked edit box to respond better at different resolutions. Added GUI glass effect to login screen. Tweaked a few control positions.

 

Made a new icon for the game/server based on the website favicon. Spent several hours battling windows to get it to show up when alt-tabbing.

 

December 8th update

Did yet more work on the GUI. Finished the new font loading code.

 

Smoothed out normals on bear model.

 

December 7th update

Giving Russia some love and adding a new ammo caliber: 7.62x54mmR. Also added 4 new weapons: Mosin-Nagant, Mosin Carbine, AVS-36 and Dragunov. Did lots more work on the GUI. Started designing a new font subsystem so the GUI works better at different resolutions.

 

Got a new Favicon for the website, Thanks Innsewerants!

 

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