What's New

Most of the work this last week has been on the new conversation system. This system is less personalized than the Clyde based system in use in Open World Test, but will allow me to scale the game larger without a ridiculous amount of effort. This will especially be handy around quests and events.

It operates using a series of topics, that you can ask NPCs about. There's a set of initially known topics, but others can be discovered during dialogue. You can also discover new map locations through dialogue.

I also adjusted the docking paths around the existing stations, to try and prevent subs getting stuck during docking autopilot.

Patch Notes

• Add notifications for newly discovered PoIs
• Changing initial setup of PoIs.
• Initial known topics.
• Basic functionality of campaign conversation system.
• Building out the basic set of dialogue for Northburg.
• Tweak docking paths to avoid ground collisions.

What's Next

Right now there are a couple of things I'm thinking on doing next, but I haven't decided the order yet.

• Adding an introductory quest to get new players situated in the campaign mode, and give pointers on how to get started.
• Control and exploration improvements: free look without turret aiming, revealing the world map as it's explored, a HUD compass.
• Travel improvements: ocean currents, debris clouds, and "weather" that travel more interesting.