Dirty Bomb Closed Alpha Progress Update - August 1st 2013


(Anti) #1

Over the course of the next few weeks we hope to provide you good folk of the Dirty Bomb closed alpha testing community with a number of updates about the alpha and the direction of the game as a whole, to give you a better idea of what we’re planning and how the game will grow.

This post should be considered as ‘part one’ of those updates and will cover:

[ul]
[li]Our plans for the game’s UI[/li][li]Coming improvements to spectator mode[/li][li]A preview of the next alpha update[/li][/ul]

UI Developments

When we started out working on Dirty Bomb the intention was that we’d have the bulk of the game’s UI actually based in the game launcher, in HTML 5. This would allow us to make rapid changes to the UI and content without the need for frequent patches. Imagine something a bit similar to Battelfield’s Battlelog website.

Over the course of developing the game however we’ve come to realise that not only is this more complex than we’d originally envisaged, but it also lacks some of the nice visual elements we really like to put into our interfaces.

With that in mind over the coming months we’ll be moving towards a more traditional in-game UI, which includes HTML 5 support for things like dynamic content, but allows us to make much nicer visual treatments of the content.

During this transition you’re likely to see a lot of odd behaviour and funny looking screens, both in-game and in the launcher, as we go to work on making these changes.

We’ve also started work on updating the majority of the in-game HUD. You’ve already seen a few of these changes go into the game, and there will be more in the next alpha update, but over the coming months you’ll see even more changes.

Our goal in reworking the HUD is to try and remove a lot of the clutter and to ensure it provides you with the best feedback of the game status as possible.

Updated Spectator Mode

We’ve done a bit of work over the last few weeks to improve spectator mode as we know a lot of you folks have enjoyed watching the community casts and spectating pick-up games in general.

We’ve added the functionality for team HUDs to spectator mode to allow viewers to see the status of all players on each team at any one time. This means you can see each player’s health, active character, team, and if they are engaged in combat.

The visuals for this are purely placeholder right now but will allow you all to test how it functions and provide feedback.

In addition to this new UI element we’ve also added various features to spectator mode to make it easier to use, these are as follows:

[ul]
[li]We’ve fixed some issues with how clients were updated that caused spectated players points of view to be slightly off where they should be[/li][LIST]
[li]Tweaking the values of SpectatorViewBlendRate and SpectatorViewSnapAngle will adjust how this ‘smoothing’ of the view behaves[/li][/ul]

[li]Keys 1-8 and Alt+1-8 now allow you to directly jump to the POV of a specific client[/li][li]The Jump and Crouch keys can now be used to pan the camera vertically in free spectate[/li][li]The mouse wheel can now be used to adjust the speed of the camera in free spectate, whilst the sprint and walk keys also have similar functionality[/li][li]The Use key will now toggle between first person and free spectate whilst Mouse 3 will jump from free spectate into the targeted player’s point of view (spectator reticule still to be added)[/li][li]Mouse 1 and Mouse 2 will toggle back and forth through the various client POVs[/li][/LIST]

In addition to these control changes and new features we’ve also done a pass on the IFFs and HUD in spectator mode, specifically on the team colours which should now be much more consistent.


These changes will be in the next alpha update and are just the first steps towards what we hope will be the best suite of spectator features of any FPS game on the PC. Over the coming months we hope to continue to add to the game in this area to ensure our fans can provide some of the best casts and streams around.

Upcoming Alpha Update

We hope to get the next alpha update to you folks early next week, and it’s quite a big one! Below is the current planned change list for that build, which we will update when the patch goes live.

Change List

Maps

[ul]
[li]Added Battersea block-out map to build[/li][li]Added ‘Map 6’ block-out map to build[/li][li]New maps will initially be on VIP server for testing and accessible to all on block-out Wednesdays[/li][li]EV speed now changes based on the number of attackers escorting it, more people, more speed![/li][li]Updated lighting and post-process on most levels[/li][li]Skybox updated on most maps[/li][li]Updated map loading screens[/li][/ul]

Camden

[ul]
[li]Step-up and collision bugs fixed[/li][li]Added train crash cinematic[/li][/ul]


London Bridge

[ul]
[li]EV start location moved to the market[/li][/ul]

Canary Wharf

[ul]
[li]Initial art pass around first objective area[/li][/ul]

UI

[ul]
[li]Added crosshair hit indicator[/li][li]Added ‘friendly target’ crosshair indicator[/li][li]Slight update to reticule[/li][li]Updated primary and secondary objective IFFs[/li][li]Added some placeholder spectator HUD[/li][li]Added team line-up to top of the HUD[/li][li]Improved first person hit impact post-process effects, it should now be much clearer when you are being shot at and damaged[/li][/ul]

General

[ul]
[li]Added five new characters, available via the Barracks screen[/li][li]Added new character model for Sawbonez[/li][li]Added prototype ladder functionality to the game[/li][li]Inventory re-organised to place abilities on more logical slots[/li][li]Quick primary and quick secondary buttons now make more sense[/li][li]Default controls updated[/li][li]Added some very early, first pass spectator features[/li][li]Update spectator config and controls[/li][li]Fixed and normalised character eye heights[/li][li]New VFX for Third Eye Cam[/li][li]Many VFX changes and tweaks[/li][li]Updated death ghost shader and FX[/li][li]More tweaks to character lighting[/li][li]Shortened some XP messages, saving some screen space[/li][li]Many bug fixes[/li][/ul]

Balance

[ul]
[li]Reduced grenade radius slightly[/li][li]Some adjustments to Sniper Rifle sway[/li][li]Assault characters now use Shotguns for secondary weapons[/li][li]Healing rates tweaked on Health Packs, Healing Station and Healing Wave[/li][li]Some tweaks to incap shield (still missing UI feedback)[/li][li]Updates to tracers for many guns[/li][li]Very slight increase to female character speeds[/li][li]Reduced spread, recoil and sway on Sniper Rifle 02[/li][li]Small increase to airstrike damage and radius[/li][li]Reduced crouch speed slightly. Warm-up will now be slightly less fun J[/li][li]Small increase to concussion grenade radius[/li][li]Various weapon tweaks[/li][li]Updated weapon clip counts, guns are much more similar in this regard now[/li][li]Some adjustments to characters that will hopefully make combat feel a little more consistent/accurate (part one of a series of changes we’ll test in this area)[/li][/ul]

That’s it for this update! Let us know what you think of all these changes in this thread and we’ll have more information for you in the coming days and weeks.


(Ruben0s) #2

Any idea when we will see movement changes or a “trick jump” pass?


(Loffy) #3

NTLDR, great update Anti, thank you so much.


(Tankey) #4

Thanks for the detailed notice about the update :slight_smile:

Though I kinda agree with Ruben0s.
The thing that made W:ET matches more intense and exciting is the way the movement was. You had a form of ‘trickjump’ called strafing. I can hardly explain how to achieve that, but this wiki page says you the different forms of Trickjumping/strafing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strafe-jumping
As the page says, it used to be a bug in the old Quake3 engine, but since the community really liked that ‘bug’ it was decided to let the bug as it is.

I really, really hope DB will have this feature as well. It makes the match more thrilling and requires a different form of skill you could master to make a difference to how fast the game can be played.

Just my few cents.


(MrFunkyFunk) #5

Thank you for the post Anti.

Added prototype ladder functionality to the game

Is this a players ladder feature (as in team mates climbing on top of each others)?
If it is it would be freaking awesome (with the removal of some invisible borders & walls on most of high ground objects on all the maps).

Also: can we have one more blockout day?
Since we’ll get two new maps it would make more sense to have dedicated days for each instead of splitting the players between both the same evening/night.


(Seanza) #6

Oh. My. God! (And I’m not even religious!!)

I think this post is evidence, if it was ever needed, that you really do consider our feedback. I’m seeing A LOT of things in this update that I’ve spoken about on these forums/on IRC/in PM with the devs.

When this update rolls out, I may have to call in sick to work :wink:


(shaftz0r) #7

w00t! can’t wait


(Anti) #8

Not right now, no. I’ll make sure we cover that in a future one of our updates


(rand0m) #9

Sounds a lot better. I’ll be gone with the military for 3 weeks so ill get to see this all when I return.

Very glad to see you are listening to our feedback. At least you guys care about your community.

IFF is a lot better in spectator mode then in game. I hope the updated HUD will take some of this into account. Remove health bars! HUD font needs a update too, I feel like I’m playing a cheap Korean mmo with that font in the HUD ;).


(Mustang) #10

Pretty sure it’s just a regular ladder type of ladder, there was some IRC chat about it a while back IIRC.

My only major concern is how the train crash cinematic will work.

I’m super happy the eye-heights have had another going over and am looking forward to trying out the revive gun and healing wave.

How much did you have to beat-up Smooth to get him to agree to this being posted?


(potty200) #11

Fantastic update! Hats off to everyone on delivering things that have been brought up on the forums. I guess this means I will have to get more games and casts going seeing as the spectator mode looks far better already!

Looking forward to playing this. Until then, I will wait :slight_smile:


(MrFunkyFunk) #12

Party pooper.
Even if it’s good thing we get regular ladders.

Still I really hope they’ll consider players ladders.


(rookie1) #13

Looking promising :slight_smile:
and I hope the med station will be fixed ?
Gj SD :penguin:


(Anti) #14

[QUOTE=Mustang;459845]Pretty sure it’s just a regular ladder type of ladder, there was some IRC chat about it a while back IIRC.

My only major concern is how the train crash cinematic will work.

I’m super happy the eye-heights have had another going over and am looking forward to trying out the revive gun and healing wave.

How much did you have to beat-up Smooth to get him to agree to this being posted?[/QUOTE]

Yep, they are ladders that you climb to get around the level etc


(rand0m) #15

Did you guys fix the black area under where the train crashes yet off that bridge?! I meant to make a big report for it…it’s just black empty space under there :).


(rand0m) #16

Why do female characters get increased speed? Seems kinda imba to me unless they were brought up to the speed of males? Male and females should have the same speed and hit boxes or else it makes it pointless to play male characters.

Hope the case is just that they were made equal in speed…


(rand0m) #17

[QUOTE=Tankey;459832]Thanks for the detailed notice about the update :slight_smile:

Though I kinda agree with Ruben0s.
The thing that made W:ET matches more intense and exciting is the way the movement was. You had a form of ‘trickjump’ called strafing. I can hardly explain how to achieve that, but this wiki page says you the different forms of Trickjumping/strafing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strafe-jumping
As the page says, it used to be a bug in the old Quake3 engine, but since the community really liked that ‘bug’ it was decided to let the bug as it is.

I really, really hope DB will have this feature as well. It makes the match more thrilling and requires a different form of skill you could master to make a difference to how fast the game can be played.

Just my few cents.[/QUOTE]

There’s a huge difference between quake 3 strafe jumping and ET/RTCW strafe jumping.


(Evil-Doer) #18

I’ll have to tell you this is an absolutely GREAT post. Thank you for such an informative and transparent post for whats to come.


(chippy) #19

I can’t wait, sounds like an really interesting update for sure!

Also, huge props to SD for giving us some insights on their approach to many of the issues that have been raised in the forums! Keep on truckin’ boys!


(iwound) #20

Aww! so its not a weapon then. long range melee.:slight_smile:

lots of exciting updates. most notably 5 new characters and ladders.
“map 6” nice name but i prefer “map 7” has a better ring to it.