Developer Blog #35: Fortification Materials
In a previous developer blog, you may have seen images of a trench and barricade network (one of those images is reprinted below). We just teased you a little and didn't explain the full purposes of those. But today, we're ready to talk just a little more on the subject.
As re-depicted below, we previously showcased concept metal trenches and barricades. The United Traders Coalition uses three materials to deploy its fortifications, and metal is only one of them. Earthworks and concrete round out the remaining two.
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United Traders Coalition fortifications are created by infantry equipping spades and digging earthworks. Only a simple subset of fortifications can be established in this manner, as really anything more complex than trenches and barricades requires either concrete or metal.
Concrete and metal both require construction shuttles. These materials are more advanced, and both are capable of supporting construction of and integration of more advanced structures such as pillboxes, covered trenches, etc... into a fortification network than earthworks alone can.
There are a few, key differences between concrete and metal, beyond just appearances. Concrete is cheaper and constructs faster, but degrades a little faster as well when under direct attack (for some fortifications, this rarely matters; for others, it could be key). Concrete and metal are both resistant to burrow attacks (attempts by burrowing mutants to surface at a location in a hostile manner), but concrete will fall to tunnel attacks (Mutant Network strategy whereby a shallow tunnel is built under a fortification, group of units, etc... and the tunnel is collapsed, instantly bridging the gap between the tunnel and surface)- although concrete does at least stand long enough during the attack that garrisoned infantry standing above the attack can relocate. Metal withstands this kind of assault unless it is so overpowering that all possible support for the metal platforms is encompassed and collapsed.
Concrete and metal are also more generally usable than for straight-up fortifications. They can also be used to cover the ground (like pavement) and to fortify structure/tower foundations, providing protection from the above-mentioned types of underground attacks. Simply, United Traders Coalition players can use earthworks, concrete, and metal to establish networks of fortifications that are varied, customized, and economically suited to their intended purpose.
-Rob (TerranUp16) Schwyzer, Lead Designer
In a previous developer blog, you may have seen images of a trench and barricade network (one of those images is reprinted below). We just teased you a little and didn't explain the full purposes of those. But today, we're ready to talk just a little more on the subject.
As re-depicted below, we previously showcased concept metal trenches and barricades. The United Traders Coalition uses three materials to deploy its fortifications, and metal is only one of them. Earthworks and concrete round out the remaining two.
United Traders Coalition fortifications are created by infantry equipping spades and digging earthworks. Only a simple subset of fortifications can be established in this manner, as really anything more complex than trenches and barricades requires either concrete or metal.
Concrete and metal both require construction shuttles. These materials are more advanced, and both are capable of supporting construction of and integration of more advanced structures such as pillboxes, covered trenches, etc... into a fortification network than earthworks alone can.
There are a few, key differences between concrete and metal, beyond just appearances. Concrete is cheaper and constructs faster, but degrades a little faster as well when under direct attack (for some fortifications, this rarely matters; for others, it could be key). Concrete and metal are both resistant to burrow attacks (attempts by burrowing mutants to surface at a location in a hostile manner), but concrete will fall to tunnel attacks (Mutant Network strategy whereby a shallow tunnel is built under a fortification, group of units, etc... and the tunnel is collapsed, instantly bridging the gap between the tunnel and surface)- although concrete does at least stand long enough during the attack that garrisoned infantry standing above the attack can relocate. Metal withstands this kind of assault unless it is so overpowering that all possible support for the metal platforms is encompassed and collapsed.
Concrete and metal are also more generally usable than for straight-up fortifications. They can also be used to cover the ground (like pavement) and to fortify structure/tower foundations, providing protection from the above-mentioned types of underground attacks. Simply, United Traders Coalition players can use earthworks, concrete, and metal to establish networks of fortifications that are varied, customized, and economically suited to their intended purpose.
-Rob (TerranUp16) Schwyzer, Lead Designer
Developer Blog #34: Website Content
We're working on overhauling the content- the text, images, etc... on the website right now. It's been about nine months since we've made a major update to the main content areas of the site (or, really, everything but the developer blogs), and it had fallen understandably quite out-of-date.
Under Gaia is ever a work in progress right now and while we are getting quite close to our first release milestone, we are always changing and tweaking to improve the final product. So this update isn't going to always be up-to-date, but we will be making a more concerted effort to keep our website up-to-date from this point on so that you can reference our other pages with greater confidence.
Thus I encourage you to take a trip to our GAME section and check out all of the new content we have added there! We'll be sure to make mention here when major content updates hit the site, hence why this developer blog was delayed. Developer blogs themselves are going to become a little less frequent in the coming few weeks as we push to hit development milestones in key areas, so don't worry if you don't see anything here for longer than usual. But anyway, enjoy the new content, and we do apologize for the rough assets currently but we wanted to push the information out as quickly as we could.
-Rob (TerranUp16) Schwyzer, Lead Designer
We're working on overhauling the content- the text, images, etc... on the website right now. It's been about nine months since we've made a major update to the main content areas of the site (or, really, everything but the developer blogs), and it had fallen understandably quite out-of-date.
Under Gaia is ever a work in progress right now and while we are getting quite close to our first release milestone, we are always changing and tweaking to improve the final product. So this update isn't going to always be up-to-date, but we will be making a more concerted effort to keep our website up-to-date from this point on so that you can reference our other pages with greater confidence.
Thus I encourage you to take a trip to our GAME section and check out all of the new content we have added there! We'll be sure to make mention here when major content updates hit the site, hence why this developer blog was delayed. Developer blogs themselves are going to become a little less frequent in the coming few weeks as we push to hit development milestones in key areas, so don't worry if you don't see anything here for longer than usual. But anyway, enjoy the new content, and we do apologize for the rough assets currently but we wanted to push the information out as quickly as we could.
-Rob (TerranUp16) Schwyzer, Lead Designer
Developer Blog #33: Multidisplay Teaser
It's present time!
Engineering has been hard at work on Undying (our modular core that lets us hook different graphics, physics, etc... engines in so that we can keep our games constantly new) and everything around it... including the capability to support multiple displays across multiple devices.
We've talked about such support from a theory standpoint before, but we're now ready to provide a short, video teaser of that support in action. We've transcended the realm of hypotheses and theory and stepped into the land of reality.
So what just happened in that video? First, you heard some nice music from Nathan. Second, you witnessed my primitive Adobe Premiere skills. Third, and most importantly, you witnessed our desktop, multi-monitor GUI in action, courtesy of engineering division.
You saw a "desktop GUI" straddle two 1920x1200 screens on a system with a GTX 580 and GTX 280. You saw "windows" on the desktop GUI drag seamlessly between physical barriers. You saw those same windows resize at will. The keen among you may have seen some amount of transparency in the windows and recognized that the windows are not at all limited to just that typical Windows design and we can in fact craft them into whatever form factor we want. Others of you may have noticed that the desktop was powered by two Windows 7 windows, which themselves can be resized, relocated, etc...
Right now, it all looks like some kind of primitive operating system rather than a game, and that's just fine. Besides obviously making cross-device implementation of Eyefinity and nV Surround set-ups easy for our games as well as making splitscreen easy, Developer Blog 19 clarifies many of the direct benefits of true multiple display support... and that blog went up before we confirmed the awesome SQUID-based GUI we'd be getting.
And for those of you sighing because you only have one screen- take heart, for everything done on multiple screens and multiple devices can be done on one, meaning that while viewing real estate may be at a premium, you will still be able to use the immense customization and robust feature set this technology offers.
Thanks for watching the video and let us know what you think on our forums while we continue to work on ratcheting things up towards Alpha Bronze (oh no, we haven't forgotten about that, don't worry).
-Rob (TerranUp16) Schwyzer, President and Design Director
It's present time!
Engineering has been hard at work on Undying (our modular core that lets us hook different graphics, physics, etc... engines in so that we can keep our games constantly new) and everything around it... including the capability to support multiple displays across multiple devices.
We've talked about such support from a theory standpoint before, but we're now ready to provide a short, video teaser of that support in action. We've transcended the realm of hypotheses and theory and stepped into the land of reality.
So what just happened in that video? First, you heard some nice music from Nathan. Second, you witnessed my primitive Adobe Premiere skills. Third, and most importantly, you witnessed our desktop, multi-monitor GUI in action, courtesy of engineering division.
You saw a "desktop GUI" straddle two 1920x1200 screens on a system with a GTX 580 and GTX 280. You saw "windows" on the desktop GUI drag seamlessly between physical barriers. You saw those same windows resize at will. The keen among you may have seen some amount of transparency in the windows and recognized that the windows are not at all limited to just that typical Windows design and we can in fact craft them into whatever form factor we want. Others of you may have noticed that the desktop was powered by two Windows 7 windows, which themselves can be resized, relocated, etc...
Right now, it all looks like some kind of primitive operating system rather than a game, and that's just fine. Besides obviously making cross-device implementation of Eyefinity and nV Surround set-ups easy for our games as well as making splitscreen easy, Developer Blog 19 clarifies many of the direct benefits of true multiple display support... and that blog went up before we confirmed the awesome SQUID-based GUI we'd be getting.
And for those of you sighing because you only have one screen- take heart, for everything done on multiple screens and multiple devices can be done on one, meaning that while viewing real estate may be at a premium, you will still be able to use the immense customization and robust feature set this technology offers.
Thanks for watching the video and let us know what you think on our forums while we continue to work on ratcheting things up towards Alpha Bronze (oh no, we haven't forgotten about that, don't worry).
-Rob (TerranUp16) Schwyzer, President and Design Director
