Attention Officers,
Welcome to the 78th edition of our Ready or Not Development Briefing, September 27th, 2024!
This week we’ll be taking a look at a new motion capture session, which we used to gather some valuable gameplay and cinematic shots for the upcoming DLC and future RoN content. In the process, we’ll outline a sample of the new features under development, namely AI item caching, suspect loadouts, hesitation system variations, suspect squad systems, and a new ban manager.
In other news our dev team is going to be featured in an AMA through eXputer's online forums! If you have any burning questions for us, make sure to submit them at this link before questions close on Oct. 3rd: https://forums.exputer.com/threads/ready-or-not-devs-ama.957/
Note: These development briefings serve to keep you in the loop about parts of our ongoing support for Ready or Not, however the briefings do not encompass everything that we’re working on at a given moment. Please keep in mind that the content in our development briefings may still be a work in progress and subject to change.
New Mocap Updated Features
Although we won’t be showing the cinematics related mocap (spoilers?) we will touch on some of the useful work that was done for upcoming feature changes, particularly suspect item caching and additions to the AI hesitation system.
Item Caching
Item caching refers to a new system in which suspect/civilian AI in levels will be able to arm themselves during upcoming missions. The project name of this mechanic hints at one of its main purposes, which is being able to create weapons caches that suspects are able to fall back to.
Our early prototypes of this system explore ways of having them resupply, acquire weapons, and even armor. This means an unarmed subject who walked out of your sight may return wielding armor and a rifle. Keep your scene contained.
(Videos below: Mocap data of suspects kitting up via the item cache system)
[previewyoutube=_ICYkcZ_J9E;full][/previewyoutube]
[previewyoutube=TOCeNqONMfg;full][/previewyoutube]
Hesitation System Variations
In order to add some more nuance to AI encounters, our hesitation system is undergoing more variations on animations that suspects and civilians may use. For example, the existing animations in which a gun is hurriedly thrown to the ground will be reduced, slowing down the pace and increasing tension in gameplay. No sudden movements.
(Video below: Put the weapon down slowly)
[previewyoutube=BYOjLaN8cpo;full][/previewyoutube]
Last but not least, a bevy of worldbuilding actions and conversation animations were recorded this session for future implementation.
Suspect Squad Behavior Overview
Currently, your SWAT team is the only true squad capable of proper coordination in the chaos of a mission. Although suspects will sometimes act in ways that complement each other, they are not truly coordinating in a complex manner.
The Suspect Squad Behavior system will be able to alter that dynamic, allowing certain suspects to be leaders and coordinate attacks against your team, share information with each other, rally, and regroup.
Shared information will allow suspects to convey last known positions of enemies when they encounter each other, forming a basis for the rest of the suspect squad behaviors.
High ranking suspects in a level may be determined as leaders according to their background and therefore become a high priority target that can issue orders against your team if not dealt with.
The ‘rally’ behavior, for example, will involve the ability for suspects to actively call for other nearby suspects to either back them up or attack a last known position of SWAT.
‘Regroup’ meanwhile can be used by suspects as a form of retreat to seek other allies if they are unwilling to fight, are in danger, or witness allies die. Once in the regroup state with other allies they can coordinate a plan with any shared information, perhaps deciding to stick together and patrol.
Suspect Loadouts
The item caching system nicely compliments another feature we’re developing for expanded suspect loadouts. In this suspect loadout system, suspects should use weapon attachments such as flashlights and optics as well as switch between multiple weapons at will.
We revised each mission to give suspects a case-by-case unique chance of having specific secondaries, melee options, being unarmed, and whether their weapon starts as holstered or not. If they run out of ammo on their primary's magazine, be ready for their sidearm.
Suspects previously would only pull-out secondaries for performing specific actions like faking a surrender or using a human shield, but this system revision gives them proper access to a full loadout that they will switch between items in any context, and requires that they first physically have that item in their individual loadout.
Ban Manager
One more upcoming feature we can touch on now is the ban manager, which will allow you to better control who you are matchmaking with even if you are not the host.
Our current ban system is only applicable if you’re the host of a lobby. It does not apply if you are a client joining a server, where a player you may have banned in the past might be able to match with you or be hosting.
Under this new ban system anyone is able to ‘ban’ another player from matchmaking with themselves in the future regardless of who is hosting.
If you are the lobby host, ‘banning’ a player will simultaneously kick them from the server, similarly to how it functions now. If you ‘ban’ another player in a match while you are not the host it will not kick them from the active match, it will instead only add them to the list of users that will not be able to match make with you in the future.
Also included in this system will be the ability to permanently mute players’ text chat and/or voice chat so that you yourself cannot see or hear the muted player’s communications in any matches going forward.
Conclusion
Our mocap session allowed for high fidelity animations to fuel upcoming cinematics and some feature changes. The selection of features listed here are as always a work in progress, but are on their way in implementation. Stay tuned for more info about upcoming features and content, and let us know your thoughts on some of the early info given so far.
This concludes our 78th development briefing, thank you for joining us. Be sure to fall in next time for more development news!
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