ABSENT LOG Dev Update 10/15/2025

This month's update We take a deep dive into wrapping up our weapon systems, and the introduction of a new weapon type, Gadgets.

The month of October tends to be a bit hectic for us, as we both have alot of personal affairs to attend to, whether it be inktober, familial matters, traveling, upcoming holiday planning, etc…, It doesn't leave us much time to get significant progress done on the project. That being said, we wanted to make sure that we didn't show up empty handed for this update.

The main focus is going to be Gadgets as a weapon class, and how we plan to implement them in game.

For a loose definition, Gadgets in ALOG operate more like tools rather than weapons, despite taking up a weapon slot. The main idea for gadgets is to be consumable items that can alter how an encounter plays out to the players benefit. Grenades can be used to flush enemies out of cover or a solidified position, EMP devices can be used to stun a group of enemies giving the player some breathing room for a counter attack, Prox mines can be used to dig into an area and set up a defensive perimeter, and Sensor jammers can be used to occlude areas, allowing the player to stealthily navigate through the affected area without being seen or heard. These aren't the only uses for these gadgets but just some main examples of how they can be used.

For aesthetics, we wanted to push the idea that TW and the player, doesn't always need to rely solely on weaponry and frontal assaults to get out of a sticky situation, but through careful planning, and a combined use of weapons, gadgets, tactics, and some skill, can outmaneuver most encounters, if they choose to do so. If implemented carefully, Gadgets should allow the player more freedom in encounter engagement.

In terms of gameplay functionality, Gadgets, when entirely consumed, are removed from the players inventory and the Gadget is now opened up for a new gadget. They can be freely swapped out for another gadget found or if the same gadget is found, it can be added to your ammo pool (Ex: One grenade in slot, picks up 2 grenades, now has 3 grenades in slot, if gadget is different it will swap current gadget with picked up gadget.)

If a gadget needs to be used, you will need to manually equip the gadget, and aim and throw. The code in how they function is very similar to other weapons where they have an “holstered”, “equipped” and “Aiming” state. Currently you can only throw gadgets, but ideally we want to add functionality that will allow you to “roll” a gadget on the floor for closer targets.

Due to the main focus of the update being how gadgets work, we are structuring this update a bit differently, Here's a look at the current designs for the first round of gadgets done by Tekka:

"This month I've got some concepts for grenade-type gadgets to show.  We've had the ideas for these rattling around for a while, so it's nice to finally have some firm looks for them established.

Since we're trying to keep the HUD pretty minimal and diegetic, I felt it's important for any equipped gadget to be identifiable at a glance.  Pursuant to that, I tried to give each one a distinct shape and color emphasis: EMP/circle/blue, Jammer/square/purple, and Mine/triangle/orange (all in contrast to the spherical pineapple-style frag grenade).

Of the initial concepts, the Sensor Jammer is the one I was most pleased with.  After I sketched it out, I thought it would be neat if it had some kind of pop-open gimmick that would let you see little stacked vane arrays inside it when it's active.  Loom liked it, and made some suggestions for similar ways to add a little spice to the other designs: pop-out prongs on the EMP grenade that would make good origin points for electrical discharge visual effects, and having a bunch of pores on the mine with an expanding foam effect when it hits a surface to justify how its "sticky" property works."

-Tekka

Here's a quick primer on how each of these gadgets should function. We will skip the frag grenade as that is somewhat self explanatory.

Starting with the EMP device.

The EMP device is used to temporarily deactivate or “stun” enemies caught within its blast radius. Enemies that are stunned will be unable to move and will kneel to the floor in a stunned state for a brief period of time. This should allow the player to either escape to better cover, escape the area entirely and hide, or give some breathing room to line up a better attack. Fairly straightforward use case, but invaluable in certain scenarios.

Another idea for EMP devices we are playing around with is to give them the ability to disable certain machinery in the ship, like an industrial machine moving back and forth blocking your path, the EMP device can temporarily disable it to allow you to pass, opening up a potential new method of reaching your goal. 

Next is the Sensor Jammer.

The Sensor Jammer is basically ALOGs version of a smoke screen. When thrown, the device detonates, emitting a scrambling noise and visual distortion aura that occludes all sound and visuals in the affected area. For enemies, anything behind or inside of the field is entirely undetectable, both sight and sound. The in-game reasoning is that it is tuned specifically to signals enemies use, so it merely “removes” anything that can be seen or heard in the area, but for TW, since she is a cyber and has mechanical eyes and hearing, she can see the distortion effects. It will occlude her own vision and hearing if she is caught within the field.

This, ideally, can be used to give yourself essentially free cover for about 30 seconds, especially in areas where cover is sparse and can allow you to alter the flow of an engagement. For more stealth minded players this is an incredibly powerful device, as it is entirely undetectable by enemies, meaning it can be thrown into an area with enemies and detonated and they will not notice it at all. This can allow you to cross significant gaps without being detected at all.

Lastly for proximity mines, the idea was for it to be a more defensive variant of the frag grenade.

When thrown, a proximity mine will attach itself to the first solid object it collides with. It will then activate and any enemy that crosses a 4 meter radius will detonate the prox mine. Any prox mine thrown by the player will ONLY detect enemies, allowing TW to freely walk through her own prox mines without fear of detonation. An added bonus is that any prox mine that is thrown, can be also picked back up and placed in your inventory, meaning that it will never be wasted, as long as you can reach it.

Prox mines can also be shot when placed for a premature, immediate detonation if needed.

This gadget should allow the player more defensive options, such as closing off a path to their position an enemy could potentially reach, cutting off potential cover for enemies, and if the player is skilled enough, it can double as a sticky grenade, attaching itself and detonating on moving enemies. 

Our hope is that gadgets, while not being considered a main weapon, and not a hotkey item, can be used to give the player more freedom in encounters.

MAIN PROJECT UPDATES:

- Reworks to TW’s body mesh when a suit is equipped, more modest and appropriate look

- Implementation of Gadget functionality and slots.

- Re-implementation of frag grenade assets

- New animations for both gadgets and sparkjack

- New animations for equip and stowing weapons (All classes)

- Fixed issues related to single round reload weapons such as shotgun not pulling from ammo pool

- Added new struct elements for gadgets

- Added new stance animations for TW alternating from relaxed to aggressive stance (when weapon is equipped)

- Added new assets for SMG ammo box pickups

- Added new IK detection for TW meaning she wont step on so many things she reasonably shouldn't be stepping on

- Added Vending machines + interaction functionality

- Added a slight blur effect when evading or sprinting

- tweaked explosion FX for explosive barrels and added residual fire effects

- Fixed AI pathfinding not updating in realtime (this was relatively simple but took forever to find, essentially AI pathfinding was static, meaning it ran only once when the game started, setting it to dynamic allows it to refresh multiple times giving the AI more accurate decision making on where to move too.)

- General small scale shader optimizations