The post that wasn't a post...

So it's April the first and I almost, almost, went for an April Fools post but....well, humour is a very subjective thing, no?

So instead of announcing that Becca was about to launch her own OnlyFans page (God, that was tempting....), instead I'll go for the none-jokey route and show you the final piece of the map GUI integration. The mission icon.

Originally I was going to have the new mission stack mechanic that came out of the playtesting on the PDA, but to be honest the PDA a) is crowded and b) needs a complete GUI overhaul in time for Five (it's the first thing on my list after Four comes out) so instead I've added it to the freeroam map.

The icon quickly shows one of the three types of missions ("Bughunt, "Travel" and "Explore") who the mission is with and a brief description. If the mission is due to timeout (i.e. this is the last chapter you can do the mission) then we plonk a nice bright red exclamation mark on it. With only three missions ever available (they rotate and expire, allowing for fresh missions to become available) having it on the map isn't a problem and makes it easier for the player to see what is available and avoid having to open up the PDA merely to check.  Of course like everything on the freeroam section you don't have to do the missions. There is no single path for game completion. You can never get stuck. I'm merely giving you additional options on how to play your game.

Speaking of the Chapter Five GUI overall, as well as the PDA refresh I'm planning a few other little presentational tweaks. Things like the menu selection on choices is "straight out of the box" and really needs some customisation etc. If you have any other thoughts on things that you think would make the game look either nicer visually or would make things more convenient for you please feel free to either pop in to the discord where there is a GUI refresh channel for ideas or add your thoughts on the forum thread. I'm delaying the refresh until Five btw due to the additional time it would take. I really don't want presentational faffing holding up Four and it's something that I can easily retrofit.

In other news the new baddie has passed it's screen audition with the testers and so I'm currently building the new combat animations for it. I'm keeping them simple. More akin to the ones we had with the "space bug" in Three than the "300" type VR animations I now have in Four.

And that's about it other than polish and bugtest and getting it out. :)

Notty