CHIEF CHAT BRIEF SUMMARY FROM TUESDAY, MAY 11, 2021
==== MAIN POINTS ====
► New demo released today! The “Chat Enabled build!”
^ Featuring an in-game chat text box!
^ Basic emoji supported in chat! See #demo-controls for details.
^ “Adult” emoji supported in chat too!
^ You’re even able to see chat history!
^ There are more features planned for chat post Kickstarter.
► Feedback and Bugs on the in-game chat.
^ What do you think about the chat in this latest build?
^ Do you have ideas for additional features for chat?
^ What features would you like to see for chat post Kickstarter?
Let us know all of that and more in the Feedback thread on the forums here!
https://forums.em8er.com/threads/glider-tuning-build-phase-1-feedback-thread.1965/#post-62551
“[LATEST] Chat Enabled Build”.
Download Link for eligible Backers here! https://my.em8er.com/downloads
► LAST WEEK FOR THIS MONTHS PATRON SKIN!
Check out the light frame “sporty skin” here! https://my.em8er.com/perks/campaign/7
^ We’re at 1, 280 subscribers! Help us get to 1,500 sustained subscribers to get the Heavy Omniframe modeled and into the Playable Mockup!
► The Hub Demo is still being worked on, mainly to prepare the male and female characters. But hey! Grummz had a little update on the male model for you guys to see… Remember: These are still a work in progress!
==== THE NEW MALE CHARACTER MODEL IS HERE! ====
^ There are other styles of male heads being worked on as well as this one.
^ We're doing another more rugged male head. Toshi is modeling it to look like Lee Reherman (aka: Typhon in Firefall) as an homage.
► Grummz asked 2 questions to the community during stream about the male character:
1) How do you like the hairstyle in general? 2) What do you think of the stylized hair in combination with this face?
Grummz said: Grummz said:
TL; DR: Trailers have to show polished game play. We will be sharing the trailer with you guys before we show it to everyone else, to be sure we’ve hit the mark.
Here is the “ExoMecha” trailer Grummz mentions above:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Nl-fWIjcDA
==== GENERAL POINTS ====
► In regards to community feedback on the developer test builds, Grummz said, *“What usually happens is, we have the Community Team gather all the feedback into a massive document. And then we pour over that. So even though you might not see us respond directly in the forums, we are reading it.”*
What this means is, if you have feedback, please post it on the forums so it doesn’t get lost on Discord but, more importantly, it can be gathered for the Dev Team to read!
► Twitch Feedback on Omniframes: The idle pose of the medium omniframe looks a little stiff, just kinda standing straight on like that looks a bit strange while the rest of the move set is so smooth/active.
Grummz on Omniframes:
► Grummz on UI Customization:
Customization is good but leads to lazy design. What developers need to do is start with an “optimal workflow” with fixed locations for everything and to NOT overwhelm the user with choice. This is very important! This encourages good design. You solve for the 80-90% use-case, streamline it, and you polish it as much as you can. And ONLY THEN do you add the customizable abilities. And then you have to be very careful about how you approach it too. Otherwise you have situations where players end up with broken UI states and then they have a bad time.
► Grummz on "In-Game Chat":
You're seeing chat become rarer in games; especially if they're not an MMO. Part of the reason is obviously the rise of voice communications, the rise of Discord, and things like this. But, a non-obvious reason is there are new laws in the United States for U.S. developers, which basically states that: You can't have chat unless you fully support people who need text-to-speech and speech-to-text.
There's NO good middle-ware for it yet. There's nothing good that will cheaply and easily be available to Indie devs that will do voice-to-text and text-to-voice, but especially voice-to-text. And for every day that you ship a game that doesn't have these features, you will have to pay a daily fine for not having these accessibility features in it. And that is the reason why you see a lot of games that don't have chat at all. We’re in pre-pre-alpha and we want to get players feedback on accessibility.
But by the time we ship, we have to have a solution for text to speech, or speech to text in chat.
DATED AUGUST 24, 2019, from Grummz in Discord:
U.S. Law: CVAA (Communications and Video Accessibility Act)
- Under the law, any communications functionality and the UI used to navigate it must be accessible to people with a wide range of conditions. The criteria must be considered from early in development, the IGDA said, and people with disabilities must be involved in some capacity in the design or testing process.
Grummz: We can't afford voice to text. That's currently expensive.
Grummz: We don't have access to a 3rd party library for it yet.
- Studios that fail to comply with the CVAA could receive customer complaints and undergo mediation with the FCC. If mediation doesn’t work, they could face fines.
- The IGDA stressed that the CVAA only applies to video game chat functionality. It won’t affect gameplay.
FCC website with more details on the CVAA:
https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/21st-century-communications-and-video-accessibility-act-cvaa
==== FIXED BUGS! ====
► Reduced Tsi-Hu spawn rates, so they don’t overwhelm the server anymore!
==== FUTURE PLANS ====
► We’re holding all huge graphical updates back until the Kickstarter! We’re working on game play!
==== Q & A ====
►Question: Is the pilot suit in the light frame concept art, the default pilot suit?
Grummz: That's not the default pilot suit, It’s going to be whatever Geesuit that you have.
►Question: How is the progress on ground-dashing coming along?
Grummz: We haven't done anything with it yet. And we are thinking about enabling Over Thrust on the ground and knock over opponents.
► Question: When does the Kickstarter campaign start?
Grummz: As soon as we get the KS trailer done, the art pass, and the THMPR call down demo as well. We're getting closer to that. Now that basic chat is up and running, we're focusing on tuning the AI, getting the THMPR encounter working, and making our enemies more interesting. There's stuff on both movement and weapons we want to tune as well.
► Question: Does anyone know why we pick up resources?
Answer: To create an element of risk and reward that gives players a reason to engage the enemy on the ground.
► Question: I’m noticing that loot share is not a thing, is that intended or will that be changed later down the line?
Grummz: Loot share is not a thing right now. That's because we don’t have any sort of loot sharing implemented yet.
► Question: Will weapon type be tier based or will they be categorized individually? Like in XCOM how ballistic is the weakest and plasma is the strongest?
Grummz: The tiers don’t work by energy. You’ll get plasma fairly early and kinetic weapons pretty early. The way it works is, there’s different vulnerabilities to energy versus kinetic weapons as well as splash damage. Unfortunately it’s not something we can demonstrate too much in Kickstarter with only a few energy types; meaning the Tsi-Hu. But that’s the type of thing you see in the Vision Book which will be in the main game.
► Question from Grummz: What ability from Firefall do you want to see in the Kickstarter Playable Mockup?
Some of the answers from the community: Turrets, ADS, Meteor Strike, "Chad Mode", Bunker Buster Arm Cannon", and a controlled flight missile launched from a mech.
Grummz: "Looks like it's turrets! Alright, you win! It's turrets! Whenever we get back to adding in another ability, it's turrets!"
==== FUN STUFF! ====
► The CHAD Statue
Grummz: “Oh no. Did Ben spawn the statue?”
Fillmore: “Well, Toshi, we thought you wanted a “CHAD build” so, we built a Chad for you.”
► First Em-8er "Kaiju" Confirmed
Grummz: “I guess that's our first Kaiju in the build, it’s CHAD.”
Ronyn: “Dear God….”
► Emojis Drive You Insane, Beware.
Harry: “Drugs are for… uh…”
Grummz: “DRUGS ARE FOR WINNERS! That's what arcade games used to say right?”
Harry: “Yes I’m sure it is.”
Ronyn: “We seem to have technical difficulties, our developers have lost their minds.”
Grummz: “It’s all because of emoji support.”
---------------------------------------------------------
==== TWITCH VOD LINK FOR TUESDAY, MAY 11, 2021: ====
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1019063634
==== MAIN POINTS ====
► New demo released today! The “Chat Enabled build!”
^ Featuring an in-game chat text box!
^ Basic emoji supported in chat! See #demo-controls for details.
^ “Adult” emoji supported in chat too!
^ You’re even able to see chat history!
^ There are more features planned for chat post Kickstarter.
► Feedback and Bugs on the in-game chat.
^ What do you think about the chat in this latest build?
^ Do you have ideas for additional features for chat?
^ What features would you like to see for chat post Kickstarter?
Let us know all of that and more in the Feedback thread on the forums here!
https://forums.em8er.com/threads/glider-tuning-build-phase-1-feedback-thread.1965/#post-62551
“[LATEST] Chat Enabled Build”.
Download Link for eligible Backers here! https://my.em8er.com/downloads
► LAST WEEK FOR THIS MONTHS PATRON SKIN!
Check out the light frame “sporty skin” here! https://my.em8er.com/perks/campaign/7
^ We’re at 1, 280 subscribers! Help us get to 1,500 sustained subscribers to get the Heavy Omniframe modeled and into the Playable Mockup!
► The Hub Demo is still being worked on, mainly to prepare the male and female characters. But hey! Grummz had a little update on the male model for you guys to see… Remember: These are still a work in progress!
==== THE NEW MALE CHARACTER MODEL IS HERE! ====
^ There are other styles of male heads being worked on as well as this one.
^ We're doing another more rugged male head. Toshi is modeling it to look like Lee Reherman (aka: Typhon in Firefall) as an homage.
► Grummz asked 2 questions to the community during stream about the male character:
1) How do you like the hairstyle in general? 2) What do you think of the stylized hair in combination with this face?
Grummz said: Grummz said:
TL; DR: Trailers have to show polished game play. We will be sharing the trailer with you guys before we show it to everyone else, to be sure we’ve hit the mark.
Here is the “ExoMecha” trailer Grummz mentions above:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Nl-fWIjcDA
==== GENERAL POINTS ====
► In regards to community feedback on the developer test builds, Grummz said, *“What usually happens is, we have the Community Team gather all the feedback into a massive document. And then we pour over that. So even though you might not see us respond directly in the forums, we are reading it.”*
What this means is, if you have feedback, please post it on the forums so it doesn’t get lost on Discord but, more importantly, it can be gathered for the Dev Team to read!
► Twitch Feedback on Omniframes: The idle pose of the medium omniframe looks a little stiff, just kinda standing straight on like that looks a bit strange while the rest of the move set is so smooth/active.
Grummz on Omniframes:
► Grummz on UI Customization:
Customization is good but leads to lazy design. What developers need to do is start with an “optimal workflow” with fixed locations for everything and to NOT overwhelm the user with choice. This is very important! This encourages good design. You solve for the 80-90% use-case, streamline it, and you polish it as much as you can. And ONLY THEN do you add the customizable abilities. And then you have to be very careful about how you approach it too. Otherwise you have situations where players end up with broken UI states and then they have a bad time.
► Grummz on "In-Game Chat":
You're seeing chat become rarer in games; especially if they're not an MMO. Part of the reason is obviously the rise of voice communications, the rise of Discord, and things like this. But, a non-obvious reason is there are new laws in the United States for U.S. developers, which basically states that: You can't have chat unless you fully support people who need text-to-speech and speech-to-text.
There's NO good middle-ware for it yet. There's nothing good that will cheaply and easily be available to Indie devs that will do voice-to-text and text-to-voice, but especially voice-to-text. And for every day that you ship a game that doesn't have these features, you will have to pay a daily fine for not having these accessibility features in it. And that is the reason why you see a lot of games that don't have chat at all. We’re in pre-pre-alpha and we want to get players feedback on accessibility.
But by the time we ship, we have to have a solution for text to speech, or speech to text in chat.
DATED AUGUST 24, 2019, from Grummz in Discord:
U.S. Law: CVAA (Communications and Video Accessibility Act)
- Under the law, any communications functionality and the UI used to navigate it must be accessible to people with a wide range of conditions. The criteria must be considered from early in development, the IGDA said, and people with disabilities must be involved in some capacity in the design or testing process.
Grummz: We can't afford voice to text. That's currently expensive.
Grummz: We don't have access to a 3rd party library for it yet.
- Studios that fail to comply with the CVAA could receive customer complaints and undergo mediation with the FCC. If mediation doesn’t work, they could face fines.
- The IGDA stressed that the CVAA only applies to video game chat functionality. It won’t affect gameplay.
FCC website with more details on the CVAA:
https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/21st-century-communications-and-video-accessibility-act-cvaa
==== FIXED BUGS! ====
► Reduced Tsi-Hu spawn rates, so they don’t overwhelm the server anymore!
==== FUTURE PLANS ====
► We’re holding all huge graphical updates back until the Kickstarter! We’re working on game play!
==== Q & A ====
►Question: Is the pilot suit in the light frame concept art, the default pilot suit?
Grummz: That's not the default pilot suit, It’s going to be whatever Geesuit that you have.
►Question: How is the progress on ground-dashing coming along?
Grummz: We haven't done anything with it yet. And we are thinking about enabling Over Thrust on the ground and knock over opponents.
► Question: When does the Kickstarter campaign start?
Grummz: As soon as we get the KS trailer done, the art pass, and the THMPR call down demo as well. We're getting closer to that. Now that basic chat is up and running, we're focusing on tuning the AI, getting the THMPR encounter working, and making our enemies more interesting. There's stuff on both movement and weapons we want to tune as well.
► Question: Does anyone know why we pick up resources?
Answer: To create an element of risk and reward that gives players a reason to engage the enemy on the ground.
► Question: I’m noticing that loot share is not a thing, is that intended or will that be changed later down the line?
Grummz: Loot share is not a thing right now. That's because we don’t have any sort of loot sharing implemented yet.
► Question: Will weapon type be tier based or will they be categorized individually? Like in XCOM how ballistic is the weakest and plasma is the strongest?
Grummz: The tiers don’t work by energy. You’ll get plasma fairly early and kinetic weapons pretty early. The way it works is, there’s different vulnerabilities to energy versus kinetic weapons as well as splash damage. Unfortunately it’s not something we can demonstrate too much in Kickstarter with only a few energy types; meaning the Tsi-Hu. But that’s the type of thing you see in the Vision Book which will be in the main game.
► Question from Grummz: What ability from Firefall do you want to see in the Kickstarter Playable Mockup?
Some of the answers from the community: Turrets, ADS, Meteor Strike, "Chad Mode", Bunker Buster Arm Cannon", and a controlled flight missile launched from a mech.
Grummz: "Looks like it's turrets! Alright, you win! It's turrets! Whenever we get back to adding in another ability, it's turrets!"
==== FUN STUFF! ====
► The CHAD Statue
Grummz: “Oh no. Did Ben spawn the statue?”
Fillmore: “Well, Toshi, we thought you wanted a “CHAD build” so, we built a Chad for you.”
► First Em-8er "Kaiju" Confirmed
Grummz: “I guess that's our first Kaiju in the build, it’s CHAD.”
Ronyn: “Dear God….”
► Emojis Drive You Insane, Beware.
Harry: “Drugs are for… uh…”
Grummz: “DRUGS ARE FOR WINNERS! That's what arcade games used to say right?”
Harry: “Yes I’m sure it is.”
Ronyn: “We seem to have technical difficulties, our developers have lost their minds.”
Grummz: “It’s all because of emoji support.”
---------------------------------------------------------
==== TWITCH VOD LINK FOR TUESDAY, MAY 11, 2021: ====
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1019063634
Likes:
Wyntyr, Pandagnome and Mahdi
