Zombies - what's the story so far?

Well, zombies are proving a little less straight forward than I originally anticipated. They do work, however, at least at their current stage.

What they currentely do well:
- Wonder around independently, while they are not in battle.
- When they see the player, they increase their speed and run towards him.
- They use relatively accurate pathfinding, sometimes they get confused around crates though.

What they don't do well:
- When a zombie sees the player, every zombie will change their animation to attack, but only the in range ones will actually charge.

What still needs to be done:
- When they reach the player, to attack.
- Health and death management. Still working out ways to do animation for the buggers.

v0.14 alpha almost finished...

We're now going to post downloads in the Downloads section of the site, whenever we finish a new in-dev version. We're also going to be posting the change logs too, so you'll be able to see more clearly where we're at.

What we're currently working on:
- Zombie AI
- Firearms
- Advanced objects
- Importing new 3D models for walls etc

Once that's all in, we'll call it a day for v0.14.

What we're planning for v0.15:
- Health/Hunger system
- Melee weapons
- Perhaps some advanced atmospheric effects, got some ideas on those...
- Lot's of other things, but we'll see how we go when we get there...

Apoc Codex - Stalker Zombie

Ah, the zombies. In terms of where they are currently at in the game, most of the basic movement stuff has been "evented" in. They work their way around walls, trees and other solids, wondering about until they come into range of the player, when they attack quickly.

This is a simple retexture concept of the Stalker, not in-game graphics.

Stalker Zombie Concept

The Stalker will be the main class of zombie that the player will fight against. By themselves, they are easily dealt with, but in large numbers pose a larger problem.

Their behaviour is also the simplest of the zombie hoards. They wonder aimlessly, sometimes interacting with each other, until they come across an enemy, at which time they will speed up and attack.

Apoc Codex - The Player, Survivor Alpha

Welcome to another entry into the Codex, this time on the player himself and bit of background story, although that's a little early to be called solid. Remember that the images below are rendered 3D voxel "pixel art", by clicking on them you get a animation!

The Concept Player (Not ingame graphics)

The player... is something I want more to be than just a random blend in character. Originally, we were going to have the player simply being a generic survivor that is no more powerful than other NPCs. However, we decided to give the player a bit of a back story, even though there will be a difficulty option to toggle this. Also, even so, the back story is a bit weak, so not to disturb this games strict "no story/scripted events style".

We won't go into the back story here, so here's exactly why the player is literally called Survivor Alpha. Before World War IV, when the first Volteric Energy bomb was unleashed, the alien energy form was applied to a group of human test subjects. The result was a human capable of controling the Volteric Energy flow, and given some superhuman abilities. During the resulting war, they were used as elite shock troops.

After the war and the resulting Apocalypse (:D), most of the super soldiers were dead or scattered. In the game of Apocalyptic, the player controls Survivor Alpha, the first of the test subjects given abilities. Because of this early nature of applying Volteric Energy to the body, SA doesn't have extremely powerful abilities, and is limited to simple tasks such as moving small objects or firing small projectiles comprised of Volteric particles.

In the game, this will give players another option of gameplay- train his skills so that he may use these abilities in battle. Also, the player might find other Survivors, often leading groups of NPCs, like yourself.

We'll have more infomation about controlling the player and how the player stats will be handled in another post, as I just machine typed my hands dead...

Apoc Codex - Basic Tools

We've started up a new system of filling up our blog with information- the Apoc Codex. Basically, we're going to take a tour around Apocalyptic's features, items, enemies, concepts and other related content so you can get an idea of what to expect of the game. This first issue is of the simple "Basic Tools", but they have more than meets the eye...

The Axe Tool

The "Basic Tools" of Apocalyptic are the Axe and Sledge Hammer. This is subject to change later though, especially if new resources are introduced which would need a more varied item system. Like games such as Minecraft, the Axe is for chopping down trees. The Sledge Hammer is for breaking open items, like crates and old furniture/burnt out vehicles for scrap metal or other items. Unlike Minecraft, you cannot obtain these resources without a tool. Further unlike Mine craft, these tools are readily available at the start of the game.

Each tool has three levels, and can be upgraded later in the game to be more efficient. Basic Tools can never break. The levels start at Scrap Tool, to Well Built Tool, and then Master Crafted Tool. Upgrading tools will require extra resources and the Basic Tools Upgrade Bench.

These tools will be preceded later in the game by the Advanced Tools, which are still being decided on. Stay tuned for more Codex updates!