Hello, I can't believe I'm overdue for a progress update. Time is flying. Thanksgiving and the Christmas season probably contributed to that, but it's surely also because I'm having great fun. There is almost a manic energy to the project right now.
This image is Vow. Now that I replaced the game's main shader, I am able to use Unity terrain, which has a much better solution for foliage than the one I cooked up myself (although that one will still be useful). Maybe you can begin to see why grass is a big deal to me. I just began to work on Vow's appearance a couple hours ago, and it already looks like this. It's literally a game-changer because it's difficult to see things that are low to the ground (so this jungle-like density is exclusive to Vow).
Besides this, I've been bug-fixing over the past couple days, working on performance enhancements and new systems that will be required for new creature ideas that are on the pipeline; I have at least several very good ideas for new creatures, some of which will probably be moon-specific. I always keep creature AIs and designs close to my chest until after it's finished, so I won't say much about that. I guess I can mention that I've come up with an okay solution for keeping air-breathing creatures out of deep water (even taking flood weather into account). So birds aren't going to stand in the bottom of a lake anymore. And likewise, I can now limit a creature's domain to the water.
So first it was replacing the game's shader, then replacing the game's terrain, then updating the game's interior dungeon-generator asset for performance improvements. (Now it only renders rooms that are within a certain distance of the player.) It has felt like I'm changing everything under the hood, and I've come up against terrifying obstacles at each of these steps and overcome them.
The Creature Feature Is Upon Us
I have always wanted to make a "creature feature" update which adds a significant amount of new wildlife to the game--I guess I just want to chase that high of playing the game for the first time and constantly stumbling upon new things. And I realize that the window for that is kind of closing as I use up more and more ideas. Yes, ideas are infinite, but good ideas are not, and I don't want to make creatures that are like reskins of already-existing creatures. I believe there is an ideal number of creatures for Lethal Company, and it doesn't just go up forever.
So I've decided if there will ever be the time for a creature feature, it's now. I hope this will be the most creatures ever released in a single update! I won't say how many, because I don't know what number I'll end up at. Don't get your hopes up too high. But I already made one new creature, and it contains too many disparate mechanics for just one creature, so I will split it up into two new creatures. (Maybe three, but I may just discard one of those ideas for now.)
I also split up the final Sigurd log into 3 new logs, feeling that the final log was side-stepping major developments in order to wrap things up a little too quickly. I'm now quite satisfied with the end of his story. I want to release it all at once, but I also feel like it would be best to time it with the end of Early Access, and it gives me another motivation to work towards that.
V75 (or V80, let's be honest) is well underway, but it's pretty deep in development, and it looks like it's going to be a while from here, so it will probably be ready early next year. Who knows