Dev Blog
Hi, this is the Stranded III development blog (see also Forum Thread, Comment Thread).
Entry 82 - Bars & Palm Trees - December 9, 2018
Health, Hunger, Thirst
I tried many different things to display values like health, hunger and thirst.
Circles, crazy shapes, vertical bars, horizontal bars, numbers...
What did I end up with?
Boring standard bars:
Why so?
There are three reasons:
1. Style: I simply didn't like the look of the other options
2. Consistency: It was like that in Stranded I and II
3. Simplicity: Nearly everybody who ever played a game knows the concept of a health bar. Also probably everybody using a PC knows the concept of a progress bar. So I hope that most people understand quickly how that stuff works.
Boring, right? But hey, it's not thaaaat bad! The bars have a fancy icon and an animated glow effect (fun fact: I use a lot of that glow stuff in my game Carnage Contest - an amazing Worms clone! Check it out!)! So they are still better than the ones in Stranded I and II
The icons are just the first iteration by the way. I may decide to change them later.
Sleeping Issues
Experienced Stranded players may now ask: Health, hunger and thirst. Cool, I know that stuff. But what about fatigue aka tiredness?
Well... I'm really sorry to tell you that but it's gone. Again there are multiple reasons:
1. The concept of sleeping (and not being able to do anything for a long period of time) doesn't work well in multiplayer mode
2. Fatigue did not add much value to the game. It limited you a bit in what you can do per day (as there was no efficient way to get rid of tiredness except for sleeping) but in most cases you just slept every night and you were fine.
Sleeping itself won't be removed completely though.
In singleplayer you can still do it to skip the dark night hours.
Depending on the spot you sleep at (house, fire place...) sleeping can also give you some positive or negative effects (e.g. affect health a bit).
If you decide NOT to sleep for a longer time you will suffer from some negative effects like decreased speed and effectiveness.
In multiplayer you won't have to sleep at all and the person hosting the game will even be able to adjust the day/night cycle with a simple setting so people don't have to play in darkness for long or at all (this really only affects the sun light. It does not make the time go faster or anything).
Maybe I will still allow sleeping though. If I do so you will probably be able to rest for a short time. The game will go on normally during that time and you are vulnerable to attacks and theft but you would also get something in return. That might be some health points or a temporary boost on some values/skills.
More bars
Additionally there can be two bars which will only be displayed when they aren't full: Oxygen and stamina.
Oxygen will be displayed when you're diving. That was also part of Stranded II but the bar popped up in the middle of the screen there. It automatically refills when you can breath again. Another fun fact: It wasn't possible to dive at all in Stranded I! Even the ocean was just shallow water you could wade through. An invisible force pushed you back when you walked too far. Crazy stuff!
Stamina is for running. Yes, you will finally be able to run! Only for a short time and it will be more expensive than going the normal speed (hunger and thirst will be depleted faster) but it might save your life in some situations. Stamina automatically regenerates when you stop running.
I didn't make a final decision about this yet but maybe Stamina will also affect some other actions and/or blocking/fighting. This might be too annoying though. I still have to test and balance this.
Stamina and oxygen could be affected by skills/perks and of course also by consumable items or the equipment your character is wearing. I didn't add items for that yet but it would be cool to have something like that in the game.
Palm Trees
I love palm trees. I think they are beautiful and they remind me of warm temperatures and vacation because you don't see them in nature where I live (in Hamburg, Germany). The problem is that there are sooo many variants! Whenever I see a palm tree assets somewhere (e.g. in other games) I take a closer look and when I like them I decide to make something similar for Stranded III.
This is why I just made another version of the palm tree. Basically new hand-painted palm fronds. the trunk is the same as before.
For comparison: This is one of the other versions I made earlier
What about iterative development?
Some people might remember that beginning of this year I planned to switch to a more iterative development approach (entry 76). I didn't want to only keep adding random models to a totally unfinished game. I even set a deadline for a basic multiplayer alpha. End of this year.
It's December now. Only a few more days are left for this year and you see me still posting random models instead of showing game play. I didn't manage to do what I planned to do. No multiplayer alpha.
No multiplayer alpha yet.
I decided to pretend that there never was that virtual deadline. I'll continue with development because that's what I want to do.
I tried many different things to display values like health, hunger and thirst.
Circles, crazy shapes, vertical bars, horizontal bars, numbers...
What did I end up with?
Boring standard bars:
Why so?
There are three reasons:
1. Style: I simply didn't like the look of the other options
2. Consistency: It was like that in Stranded I and II
3. Simplicity: Nearly everybody who ever played a game knows the concept of a health bar. Also probably everybody using a PC knows the concept of a progress bar. So I hope that most people understand quickly how that stuff works.
Boring, right? But hey, it's not thaaaat bad! The bars have a fancy icon and an animated glow effect (fun fact: I use a lot of that glow stuff in my game Carnage Contest - an amazing Worms clone! Check it out!)! So they are still better than the ones in Stranded I and II
The icons are just the first iteration by the way. I may decide to change them later.
Sleeping Issues
Experienced Stranded players may now ask: Health, hunger and thirst. Cool, I know that stuff. But what about fatigue aka tiredness?
Well... I'm really sorry to tell you that but it's gone. Again there are multiple reasons:
1. The concept of sleeping (and not being able to do anything for a long period of time) doesn't work well in multiplayer mode
2. Fatigue did not add much value to the game. It limited you a bit in what you can do per day (as there was no efficient way to get rid of tiredness except for sleeping) but in most cases you just slept every night and you were fine.
Sleeping itself won't be removed completely though.
In singleplayer you can still do it to skip the dark night hours.
Depending on the spot you sleep at (house, fire place...) sleeping can also give you some positive or negative effects (e.g. affect health a bit).
If you decide NOT to sleep for a longer time you will suffer from some negative effects like decreased speed and effectiveness.
In multiplayer you won't have to sleep at all and the person hosting the game will even be able to adjust the day/night cycle with a simple setting so people don't have to play in darkness for long or at all (this really only affects the sun light. It does not make the time go faster or anything).
Maybe I will still allow sleeping though. If I do so you will probably be able to rest for a short time. The game will go on normally during that time and you are vulnerable to attacks and theft but you would also get something in return. That might be some health points or a temporary boost on some values/skills.
More bars
Additionally there can be two bars which will only be displayed when they aren't full: Oxygen and stamina.
Oxygen will be displayed when you're diving. That was also part of Stranded II but the bar popped up in the middle of the screen there. It automatically refills when you can breath again. Another fun fact: It wasn't possible to dive at all in Stranded I! Even the ocean was just shallow water you could wade through. An invisible force pushed you back when you walked too far. Crazy stuff!
Stamina is for running. Yes, you will finally be able to run! Only for a short time and it will be more expensive than going the normal speed (hunger and thirst will be depleted faster) but it might save your life in some situations. Stamina automatically regenerates when you stop running.
I didn't make a final decision about this yet but maybe Stamina will also affect some other actions and/or blocking/fighting. This might be too annoying though. I still have to test and balance this.
Stamina and oxygen could be affected by skills/perks and of course also by consumable items or the equipment your character is wearing. I didn't add items for that yet but it would be cool to have something like that in the game.
Palm Trees
I love palm trees. I think they are beautiful and they remind me of warm temperatures and vacation because you don't see them in nature where I live (in Hamburg, Germany). The problem is that there are sooo many variants! Whenever I see a palm tree assets somewhere (e.g. in other games) I take a closer look and when I like them I decide to make something similar for Stranded III.
This is why I just made another version of the palm tree. Basically new hand-painted palm fronds. the trunk is the same as before.
For comparison: This is one of the other versions I made earlier
What about iterative development?
Some people might remember that beginning of this year I planned to switch to a more iterative development approach (entry 76). I didn't want to only keep adding random models to a totally unfinished game. I even set a deadline for a basic multiplayer alpha. End of this year.
It's December now. Only a few more days are left for this year and you see me still posting random models instead of showing game play. I didn't manage to do what I planned to do. No multiplayer alpha.
No multiplayer alpha yet.
I decided to pretend that there never was that virtual deadline. I'll continue with development because that's what I want to do.