OGZ: Fundamental Build Announcement: Coming This Month / Progress Report: 7/3/2024

Hey guys, how are you guys doing? Sorry for the super late this time, been busy cooking/shaping things up lately.

This is gonna be my longest progress report so far and I hope you guys can afford to read all this.

Good news is that OGZ is now transforming into the actual game with all of this fundamental overhaul.
I've finally upgraded my own crafted development tools (A few clicks Biome and Dungeon generator) and from now on the development will be faster BUT I've still got a lot of other dev tools left to overhaul and things will be even much faster if I've finished overhaul all the required dev tools.
And because of this, I've changed my plan to dropping a patch monthly or every 2 months, each patch will contain bug fixes and one to a few new stuff. There will be no build update from now on but only patch update and patch updates will be compliable with fundamental build only.

The new build is coming around the whole July or at least a little bit later. There is no new interesting contents but only overhauled stuff from Graphical, Engine, Gameplay to Performance (Not sure about this one). The new contents will be introduced through the patch updates instead.

The next build will not contain any smut stuff and smut stuff will be introduced as a mod and the mods will be available after the fundamental build got enough patch updates.

Mods will be available on Itch and active patron members will need to request the mod on discord DM but I'm trying to find a more convenient way to send away the mod for the active patron members and vets. Dropping a mod as an attachment on Patreon is gonna be my last resort, kind of risky but oh well.

Anyway, here is what I did in the last 3 weeks:

Region System

Now the game world is split into the regions and it's much easier to handle the world design especially combining the fixed generated areas and procedural generated areas together.

Every region will be connected to each other one way or another. The players will be able to travel to other regions without having to head back to the base. The game world will work similarly to MGS PW but in a lot bigger scale.

The regions/areas that are outside of the sector bound (big circle) will be called Uncharted Region and these will be the completely procedurally generated. Players will be able to set route up to 5 slots for each Uncharted Region (and limited by 10km maximum distant from the sector bound, the players won't be able to move any further if the current uncharted area is too far away from the sector bound)

Grid 21 (No Man's Land) [WIP]
The map for the next build is one of the sections from Grid 21, Central Sector's territory (S101) that is now the no man's land and the most active warzone. This section alone is 5 times bigger than the previous testing ground map. This section includes 5+ small caves and 5+ outpost areas that are being overhauled and repurposed to be material/loot farming areas (for now)
Grid 21 introduces Snowy, Forest and Grassland Biome that are all containing different types of materials to gather for crafting and upgrading.

Base of Operation (DMZ) [WIP]

This is where the game will always start the session. Right now the map is just a blockout but it'll get updated through one of the fundamental patches. One of the most important areas of the game.

There will be more Base of Operation areas in the game world.

The Base of Operation is still a blockout map for the upcoming build.

Deployment Menu [WIP]

This is one of the required menu of this game. Player will need to be well prepared before deploying to the combat zone.
Player can manage Class Deployment (change Operator Class Loadout that the player has already prepared inside the private room, or change an Operator or a Vehicle that needs to be deployed along with an operator) and Region Deployment (Select any available nearby regions to deploy/depart to)

Some regions can't be deployed to (region link is cutoff) and can be accessed by the other routes.

Any owned vehicles that are destroyed will be delivered back to the Base of Operation and players will have to repair the vehicles themselves (finding the requirement materials) or pay the mechanics to do so but things are quite expensive for the second option.

There will be 2 types of deployment, 1 is on the ground by the Deploy APC and the other is the air deploy where the players will have to Fulton Parachute off the Deploy Ship. The air deploy requires a lot more resources and is much more risky but it can be deployed every region/area without having to look for the region links.

Dynamic Difficulty [WIP]
The enemies are getting stronger based on the days the player has spent on the expedition on the region + based on how deep the players have ventured into each region. The maxed difficulty will be capped at day 10 and the difficulty will be reset upon heading back to the Base of Operation. 

The deeper you go into each region, the more lonely and cutoff you will be and will feel. The region depth is based on the distance between the nearest Base of Operation and the current location of the player btw.

Overhauled Level, Stats and Skill Tree Mechanic [WIP]


Player now has 3 cores and 1 skill set to upgrade:
1 is Combat: Earn the skill point by killing an enemy.
2 is Physique: Earn the skill point by dodging the incoming attacks, climbing/vaulting/sprinting.
3 is Utility: Earn the skill point by looting, crafting and solving puzzles, avoiding enemy encounter and etc.
4 is Aptitude: is a skill set or tree and requires the skill points from all those above.
Players will need to spend the skill points from each skill tree to level up the skills/abilities inside the skill tree. (Similar to Soulsborne but each skill tree has its own way to gain the skill points and has its own skill point)

Some of the abilities in the Skill Tree will feature new gameplay mechanics such as lockpicking, swimming, crawling and etc while some will just boost the stat instead such as endurance, wellness and fitness and so on.

Updated Inventory System [WIP]
I've finally added the Inventory Set or Class Loadout into the game (not the same as Item Loadout)
Players can easily swap out/change the Class before deploying or inside the safe room. Players can create up to 5 Class Loadout and can easily share to other members in the team in a blink of an eye.
Class Loadout will change the equipment, weapons, items, loadouts, special abilities and all.

Player can't custom the equipment in the Safe Room but can only change the Class Loadout. Inventory/Equipment Customization is available in the Private Room only.

Some items/gears/skills will be locked behind Operator Classes but 90% of the items will be class free.
Player can change Operator Class in the private room anytime.

Highest Skill Tree Level will automatically pick the suitable class for the operator. An operator would benefit from the skills/state more if the players picked the right class for an operator.

Airdrop Overhaul [WIP]

Airdrop loot now won't have to be carried, the players will be able to just pick up and continue doing other stuff like nothing happened. Airdrop loots are now just a pack of consumable and ammunition items (for now)
The crates will be back somehow but later as a job instead.

Overhauled Dynamic Ambience Music [WIP]
Now, the map feels a bit more Elden Ring-ish with the new ambience music, this ambience music set is a placeholder btw. The ambience music will change based on the area, time and situation.

Overhauled Chemlight (now a flashlight)

The flashlight will point toward the view direction of the player, but it's limited around the front of the player character.

Improved CPU performance (GPU isn't improved yet)
I've finally fixed the CPU consumption issues and the game can handle a LOT more AI characters without having to worry about the world/collision complexity anymore, which means I can now create a world as big as AAA games while maintaining the decent CPU performance. Still, OGZ world will be separated into sections instead of one seamless world (because of time saving and easier to manage the world/add more areas and so on)

Procedural Enemy Spawn System
The game now knows what type of the enemy will be spawned based on the area the player is in such as in the cave/bunker/tunnel, inside a building, around the lake, outpost and road and so on and it does this procedurally. Right now I've only got one placeholder humanoid mutant but worry not, I'll add more enemy types once I've finished Overhaul Mutant Character and Procedural Enemy Generation through a patch.

Dungeon System (The upgraded version of Cave System) [WIP]
Cave is now one of Dungeon System and is repurposed to be an ore farming area or even a shortcut. Cave will be pretty short and barely has any enemies inside. Tunnels and Bunkers are in other hand the maze and are containing many more types of loot including many more enemies waiting to wreck the targets.

The enemy spawn will be completely random and offscreen inside the dungeon and will be completely unpredictable. The spawn rate may be much lower comparing to the outside but unlike the outside they all are hunting you there.

Next build will only introduce the cave type dungeon because I need to work on the Tunnel/Bunker models for more dungeon sets. Bunker and Tunnel dungeon will be part of patch update.

Outpost Generator Overhaul [WIP]
Outpost Generator isn't ready yet and it is being upgraded to be a few clicks generator same as Biome Generator and Dungeon Generator.
The area contains consumable/ammunition items to loot most of the time, serve the same purpose as dungeon but on the ground surface (for now)

This here is a 3d concept art from Artstation (not mine)

The Outpost Generator is the upgraded version of Facility Generator with the capable to generate the whole facility area in a few clicks. Right now the tool is just getting overhauled and is not ready yet (especially the env assets) but this image (3d concept art from Artstation) is the result I'm aiming for the newly Outpost Generator. Once this tool is ready, I'll be able to create a LOT more highly complicated outpost areas in a single day.
I may use the same building pack from the previous build but the outpost will get overhauled in one of the fundamental patches which is a total rework of the building assets from ground up (for the actual contents)

Biome Generator (Upgraded version of Forest Generator)
This tool just got big upgraded and now it can generate the forest, stone, cliff and the item placements in a single click which is very powerful. It is designed for the procedural generated area (Uncharted Region/Area)
Still not reached its limit and I will slowly push this into its maximum capacity later on.

This whole rocky cliff here (forest included) are done procedurally by Biome Generator and that saves ton of time.

Updated Lighting and Weather

I've add the secondary distant fog to simulate the fog of war, increased cloud shadow, increased volumetric fog render distance, reduced brightness to create the mysterious and the dread feeling from the depraved, degenerated, cold and brutal of the weirdo warzone.

Improved Foliage and Tree [WIP]

Now, the forest and grass are more dense, I've also added the Interactive Foliage Physics into the engine and now the grass will react to the characters and the vehicles. The new trees are kind of heavy for now which is my concern.

Overhaul Art is also coming.

I'll discuss about the patches after the next build is live.
There will be no post from me until the build is ready. So the next post is gonna be a build update.

Just to clarify things: the next build (base build) may not have anything to offer that much because it's aiming to stabilize the game fundamentals. The patches are gonna be the contents.

Not sure if I'll be able to polish enough things before the end of this month but I'll do as much as I can.
Somethings may not be included such as store mechanic in the base build (will be added through patch instead)
There are tons of bugs left to fix for now also.

That's it for today, I hope you guys enjoyed the progress so far.
Stay tuned for the build update and get yourself ready to deploy your beloved operators to one of the most messed up warzone ever known to mankind that is called Groundzeroes.
See you guys around, have a nice day.
Matto.