[img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37274156/2623ee5b8bea6c43e1e475f0a66b6bb8437d0cb6.jpg[/img] [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37274156/d5b8aa6946c2069588d8186cb783e1bf57ce289b.gif[/img] [h1]Survival Inventory (Weapon Mods + Perks 2.0)[/h1] The following is still in heavy development so the UI and icons are not final. It's mainly to give you an idea of what to expect. [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37274156/92df0c708bfe90748bfc1df2c64273e3ea08e5b7.jpg[/img] This is one of the most substantial changes to the design of Survival mode since the very first iteration but after months of planning, testing + trial and error, I'm very confident that it's the right choice to massively increase replayability and strategy, boosting the variety across runs. Perks used to be the only way to become more powerful in Survival mode. The one issue with this system was that the strategy across all runs stayed pretty much the same: pick up as many perks as you can and have them all triggering at once. While this could be fun, it was making the game feel a bit repetitive at times as builds would often come out pretty similar. I want players to be able to have vastly different runs and have to make new strategies based on the loot that they find. Perks now have a new distinct role: passive non weapon specific upgrades (like getting bonus crystals after each elimination or increasing movement speed). Replacing the weapon specific perks is a new slot based weapon modifier system that allows you to mix and match powerful weapon upgrades to create unique combos and synergies. Weapon mods are visually looted in the same way as perks and drop from chests along with the other loot types (Weapons, Perks and Consumables). Moving from unlimited perks all active at once to a limited but distinct number of weapon mods has allowed me to make every weapon mod far more powerful and fun to play. This lets players go for specific builds and really get interesting results + be rewarded for their strategies. For example a player might find a minigun and then apply weapon mods to: - shoot ice bullets - fire an extra bullet per shot - have a chance to spawn a cluster of AOE blades around the enemy after every hit - have a chance to spawn a black hole near the enemy after every hit - deal more damage to frozen enemies - make enemies explode into a huge ice explosion when eliminated This is a quick example of a combo of weapon mods that you might put together to make a powerful ice based build: the black hole synergizes with the AOE blades, sucking them in with the enemy, dealing huge bonus damage and then freezing other nearby enemies when eliminated. While there are a limited number of weapon mod slots, there are endless possibilities to combine them in many creative ways. The only condition for a combo to be possible is that the mod matches the weapon type. Most mods are compatible with all weapons but some mods only make sense for bullet weapons only (hitscan) and others are only compatible with projectiles (launchers and grenades). As there are limited slots for weapon mods and perks, they can now be sold instantly meaning that even loot you didn't want holds value. There will also be hard choices where you might sell something that you liked in order to buy an even better mod in the shop. This system also goes hand in hand with co-op play, bargaining with your friends to get specific mods and perks that would complete your build. Choices matter far more than they did before as previously there was no penalty to just picking up everything. In addition to this, each weapon mod and perk has a tier system: if you find a duplicate mod or perk and pick it up, it automatically increases the tier of that mod or perk. There are currently 5 tiers, each increasing effectiveness + chances to trigger. When reaching tier 5, a powerful bonus effect is also granted. This creates a fun mini game within the run, seeking out duplicates and looking forward to reaching max tier as well as feeling the increasing power as you upgrade each tier. [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37274156/297e346beaecb94a1c0e903d0d18af10633f5399.gif[/img] In order to easily try out mod combos, I've added a new inventory system: a simple slot based UI that allows players to swap or sell mods with ease. Below you can see a really basic example: firing the stock bamboo rifle and then quickly adding the Quad Shot weapon mod which fires 4 bullets instead of 1 but with reduced damage and increased spread. [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37274156/110ac6c8a7857817b35ece506df4348d6862df42.gif[/img] Since a lot of the mods rely on a % chance to trigger, I've also added a Luck stat that certain perks (like the newly added Green Dice perk) will boost. This stat will increase the chances of getting better loot from chests and also for mods to trigger. I'm still building out the visuals and the logic for the more interesting mods so expect to see more interesting examples soon! [h1]Grenades[/h1] [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37274156/deca7aaa8cf2202356ec8a88d8738ffe4911ea7c.gif[/img] Previously grenades were announced as separate ability types but since they were so fun to use, I've decided that they'll be a permanent addition to your loadout in Survival. Every player will start with a regular explosive grenade that can then accept any projectile based weapon mods to build up powerful combos in the same way you would on your primary and secondary weapons. A simple example that really improves the grenades would be the Homing Projectiles mod (projectiles home towards enemies) combined with the Deja Vu mod (explosions have a chance to explode 2+ times). Combine these mods with others that have a chance to trigger elemental damage explosions and things start to get really powerful. Having mods split between your primary weapon, secondary weapon and grenades switches up the gameplay from action to strategy when looting: which mods should go where? [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37274156/b0f0be5d4c7ab77aa3195337e4efde7a718018d7.gif[/img] [h1]Consumables[/h1] [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37274156/5aa15620e03c3f4f114370abbdccaf7f933e8e74.jpg[/img] This category of loot in Survival is used instantly when picked up and must be carefully considered alongside the other loot types: ignoring a health potion to get another perk might be your downfall! The current types of consumables are: [list] [*][b]Health Potions:[/b] these come in various sizes and instantly heal for a certain % of your max health [*][b]Hearts:[/b] these come in bronze, silver and gold varieties and increase your max HP for the rest of the run [*][b]Crystal Bundles:[/b] these come in small, medium and large bundles and instantly give you a certain amount of crystals [*][b]Armor:[/b] this is still in development but the goal is for equipped armor plates to absorb single hits (no matter how high the damage) with a maximum of 6 armor plates equippable at once [/list] [h1]More Visuals[/h1] As with last month, I'm doing a lot of testing and improving visuals across the various biomes in the game. Here are a few tests from this month. [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37274156/ebc05cbbd4aa9b542797c48aba820cdd2575598c.jpg[/img] [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37274156/f931731f6573164dfec4ca54fa13b2f3cece3190.jpg[/img] [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37274156/c26276b4b047c07378cfe197d644062ccf2e595f.jpg[/img] [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37274156/9b278c2255fc4ce6efae065a7d744a4b3fd71f3b.jpg[/img] [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37274156/e47cc2438b18e6129637b8687622691b2df9c513.jpg[/img] [h1]Crab Claw Mouse Cursor[/h1] Essential. What more can I say? I'll be improving it so that it closes and opens when you click the mouse. [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37274156/c0522eeaa77208487bdb1a7352c0b6ba1acb967e.jpg[/img] [h1]Unreal Engine 5[/h1] [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37274156/4c739d9b9689b1e60e200a9b0bb79073bd4ea9fb.jpg[/img] You might have heard that Unreal Engine 5 is now out in early access. Naturally I wanted to try it out and explore the new features. Of course the first thing I did was see how many crabs could be rendered at once. The results speak for themselves, I gave up after 3 million crabs as the performance stayed solid. Amazing tech from Epic, super exciting for the future of games and other visual media! You can watch the full video along with a sneak peek at a song from the soundtrack [url=https://twitter.com/CrabChampions/status/1397914969027403789?s=20]here.[/url] For those that have been asking, the plan is to stay with UE4 for now as the majority of the game is already built there but as the project does open in UE5, an upgrade is possible in the future if it makes sense and the content migrates without any issues. [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37274156/f181089f0101e4c843b3cc0eee83a7313b99fa5f.gif[/img] [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37274156/47a571cd5e80f1ba08754176ba2136c631f75b62.jpg[/img] [/list] Thanks for checking out the update this month, it's exciting to see things start to come together! Join the Crab Champions Discord server: https://discord.gg/crabchampions Follow Crab Champions on Twitter: https://twitter.com/crabchampions Join the Crab Champions subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/CrabChampions/