Graphic updates…

Last post mentioned some changes I’ve been making over the past year to some of the game assets/art. The weapons, and a number of textures, plus some map changes and slight renderer tweaks have all gone to making the game a little more atmospheric and eye pleasing (IMO).

Here is a smattering of the updates:

Ground Zero got a good amount of updates as well.

Now of course the other big update was what I also mentioned about the aliens. I got a little criticism from the “old guard” in that they thought they just looked like a bunch of skeletons of human children running around and not enough like aliens. That one I sort of pondered for a couple of years, and finally after a few misfires, tweaked the models to look more like aliens. I think these little guys are sufficiently gruesome, and maniacal looking.

Going forward, I can sort of see some light at the end of the tunnel for an actual release, probably some sort of demo. Here’s a list of things I would like to see finished:

1. Melee weapon added.
2. More shaders.
   • Parallax maps
   • scrolling textures
   • water
3. More intuitive and easy to use map editor.
4. Steam stats/awards.
5. Humanoid player model.
   • Would be similar gruesome and stylistically similar to alien
6. Netcode needs finishing.
   • Antilag, and probably a few other minor tweaks
7. Maps.
   • Saucer
     • Animation on some models that still need it
     • Scrolling shaders on electrodes, etc
     • A few more texture updates
   • Temple
     • Water area
     • Some structure and elevated areas on lower section
     • Some more ruins, etc
   • Ground Zero
     • Animate the saucers
   • Violator
     • A recreation of DM-Violator from Alien Arena: Warriors Of Mars
   • Restructure meshes to be in map subfolders for better organization?
8. Stains/splatters

So currently the game is titled “Saucermen”, but likely once it’s officially in the pipeline and I set up a Steam page, it’ll be “Alien Arena: Saucermen”, and billed as the next generation of the game. How it is received by the current Alien Arena community remains to be seen, but I’ll be delicate with that regardless. One of my long-time Alien Arena associates will be visiting me in a few months and I will lean on him for his thoughts, and obviously some playtesting. This will require me to set up a server, etc.

Some of the selling points I think in evolving to the next generation are:

1. Major graphic improvements
2. Faster rendering
3. Built-in map editor and publisher
4. Vastly improved, faster physics
5. Simplistic netcode
6. Simpler armor/weapon/ammo system
7. VR support! This is a big one, the experience is amazing

Now, the downside:

1. Far less maps at this point
2. Fewer weapon choices
3. No CTF mode (YET)
4. No instagib mode (YET)
5. Fewer player models and skins

The thing that might be worrisome for me is the lack of weapons and how that would be received. It’s possible that I wind up adding some more at some point. I do think though that the feel, visuals, and physics of Saucermen is so vastly superior that it could potentially supersede the Gen3 version of the game eventually. While I hate doing anything that splits the community at all as that has never gone over well, this might be something that re-invigorates it.