Hope you've had a blast driving around in your favorite four-wheeled machine and setting up the dream home you'll never have IRL because of real estate prices. Regardless, there's no rest for the wicked—behold this week's dev update!
We'll kick things off with a reminder about the decennial BTS video featuring our dynamic marketing duo/Italian plumber impersonators Matija and Dario. It's an entertaining watch, so it doesn't hurt to check the video out.
[previewyoutube=HHkKDzaUiO8;full][/previewyoutube]
However, we know you're not here because our guys are contenders for Mr. Congeniality. Here's a quick look at what the team has been up to over the past week:
As is customary before each update release, our programmers were head over heels in bug fixing and preparing everything for a smooth update rollout. However, deep within the chambers of their office, new code for the NPC firearm system has been developed, along with overall performance improvements for the game.
Our level designers have also been heavily engaged with bug fixing—specifically with base building elements and painting tweaks. Work has also continued on the castle ruin walls that we've already mentioned. However, there is something else that we'd like to show you. Some of you may have had the fortune (or misfortune) of encountering the new dropship and its deadly weapons. Since this feature has been soft-launched, it's still prone to a variety of changes that also include visual improvements, such as WIP the one you can take a peek at below:
The art team was no slouch either—far from it, in fact! Our animators were busy making the latest dev blog video on the new update and were also fixing some of those quad bugs that cropped up.
At the same time, our hard surface team was creating new assets and textures for the rifles, while the soft surface team was also focused on bug fixing in their own segment.
If the dropship didn't sound good to you, then rest assured that our sound team will make it pop once they're done with it.
Our QA team has been tirelessly working to help the team make one of the smoothest patch releases since SCUM entered Early Access, so make sure to send inappropriate messages of support to Cheeseking and xKickx. They'll appreciate it greatly.
The design team has also been heavily engaged with bug fixing for this new patch. Nothing more to add here this week, but if you've watched our previous BTS video, you'll know what they'll continue working on ;)
And now for your Q&A
- If some foliage stands in their way to your base, you can be sure that some greenery will not stop them in their mission to forcefully redecorate your base.
- We're humbled by your craving for more updates, but we've just released a patch. The team needs a short breather, but rest assured, we'll get on it immediately.
- There are no explicit dates for those updates. We'll have more to share in that regard when the time's right.
- We want to emphasize that the dropships have been soft-launched—meaning that we will be actively gathering feedback on their functionality to ensure that their implementation is exclusively for the benefit and enjoyment of our players. As for the anti-cheat, that is also something the team will be working on in the coming period. We always have that in mind, and we recognize the necessity for a more robust and reactive anti-cheat system, so we'll definitely put a greater focus on it sometime down the line.
- The idea behind the dropships was to introduce an additional layer of challenge for players and teams that are the most dominant on the servers. They will not be attacking those who have just started to build their fledgling bases. The reasoning is that if you have enough time and resources to create concrete citadels on the map, you should have the means to defend yourself from the dropship and the mech that they... drop! In any case, as we've mentioned in the previous reply, we'll gather as much feedback as we can on this mechanic and make sure to balance everything out.
Yours truly,
Fratman
