News: Technical Progress Report

Technical Progress:​


Rather than taking a complete overhaul approach from the ground up, we’ve shifted .....

:oops: 💲

Technical Milestones:​


We recently upgraded the whole system to C++20.

Standardized in December 2019. C++23 is the next ISO/IEC 14882 standard for the C++ programming language, released 2023. It will replace the previous C++20 standard. :scratch2:
 
so no news is good news? ... oh wait this is news they are saying...
 
This would explain the updated mob models and why grass and vegetation is growing on roads and in old buildings. Sensible approach having two clients if certain features aren't available straight away with unreal.
 

Glimpse into the Future:​

With the introduction of the S.E.N.S.E. system, many implications have emerged. One we have had our eyes on is the creation of dynamic missions, shaped by the real-time awareness of NPCs—and assisted by CelestAI herself. Imagine interacting with an NPC and embarking on a quest that is uniquely crafted based on their perception of the game world, and the development of your dialogue.

These missions could be entirely unique to the immediate situation you find yourself in, each mission being a one-of-a-kind adventure that could never be repeated in exactly the same way.










Originally Posted Here
Rewards in unique quests should be unpredictable. Humans have neurons in their “reward system” that fire when they feel good about themselves. Feelings of joy and pleasure depend on the activity of dopamine neuron. Their activity, in turn, is determined by the ratio of the reward (positive stimulus) and our expectations unexpected luck is more pleasing than one that we did not doubt. And there are inhibitory neurons. And regular excitation of inhibitory neurons reduces the activity of dopamine neurons and thereby dulls the feeling of joy from predicted good news that was known to the person in advance.
 
Rewards in unique quests should be unpredictable. Humans have neurons in their “reward system” that fire when they feel good about themselves. Feelings of joy and pleasure depend on the activity of dopamine neuron. Their activity, in turn, is determined by the ratio of the reward (positive stimulus) and our expectations unexpected luck is more pleasing than one that we did not doubt. And there are inhibitory neurons. And regular excitation of inhibitory neurons reduces the activity of dopamine neurons and thereby dulls the feeling of joy from predicted good news that was known to the person in advance.
This grounds the generic concept of having some randomness in video games, but concrete game design discourse takes place at a far more advanced level. Predictability is also absolutely vital to games, serving as a prerequisite for the very notion of meaningful player agency which sets games apart from other forms of text such as literature, movies, and television. The modern challenge is not in identifying that these concepts have a place in game design, but reasoning over how to effectively combine them.
 
haha, the AI thread.
 
A lot of people here complaining about the upgrade to c++20...you guys are forgetting this is a game that started development with windows 95...a lot of the original code is still being used, as the original programmers are mostly long gone and everything breaks when you change a dot somewhere...it takes years to sift through everything so the 20 version was the newest one when they started most likely. you need hundreds of people to be able to update everything real time, MA has only a couple of programmers.
 
I get the impression they have only just got a fully working Unreal Client but more or less empty. However, converting assets to Unreal they seem to have automated so that part shouldn't take too long. The unknown is how well it'll all work together including the backend. We don't know what stage the backend is at this moment in time.

So with all that my educated guess would be sometime next year before their summer holidays. This is probably the target they may be aiming for.

I'll update my guesstimate to before Christmas this year. The backend may not require so much work since now they can do that later and Before Christmas would be a more significant milestone.
 
Bloody hell you guys have been busy!! So good and refreshing to finally get an update, and not just a little one, absolutely packed with details, that's what I like! Sounds with all the effort we are actually way closer to a release than I expected with those tools and plugins developed making it all easier to move over. Really excited to see the first release, or perhaps get a promotional video out to us showing off what you just explained? Exciting times!
 
There will be a beta test before release. So unless the beta doesn't come this year it's likely UE5 won't either.
 
There will be a beta test before release. So unless the beta doesn't come this year it's likely UE5 won't either.

I don't think there will be a beta test anymore as their plans have changed. We may get the UE5 client version of the game before xmas this year and since we can then play in that or existing client then that will be like a beta test.
 
Very good news. I hope that the two client option will be available for the long haul. If it's possible to maintain two clients without too much work for you guys, it will be attractive to all player base. There are a lot of players scared of the new engine update, thinking their current PC's wont be able to handle it. With two clients, this will hopefully not be an issue for players.
 
Ok, whilst I've praised the dual-client approach and would like to see it continue for a longish time, having the same functions via two clients does not equal having the same functionality! I am pretty sure stuff will work wonderfully/nicely/adequately with one client but not the other.
Will people with both clients be switching to and fro depending on what they want to do? Will it make enough of a difference?
Will the AI or an actual brain be able to figure out that an activity is being avoided in one client because it is fucked up, or will MA simply not notice?
Will some team members be 'asked' to use the old client on the next run to do the tasks the UE5 client 'doesn't handle so well'?
Will PVP become one-client-only for the winners? Will there be two shards to avoid the two groups actually meeting???!!!

I would guess that an open beta test is set on separate territory (Setesh?) with no actual consequences economics or skills wise, regardless of the shard question. At some point MA will then open up the economics back-end to UE5?
Interesting times...
 
Having the dual-client option is nice, it's also good to know that there's some progress with development. However, the release does not mention other systems that were previously announced, such as the modular weapon system, job system and probably others I forgot. Since there was a change of plans I assume those were scrapped?
 
The best part of the dual client is that if they roll out breaking changes to the new client, or if you just don't like it, or its current level of robustness, you can continue to use the existing client. Then you can move over to the new client once you're comfortable with its state of completeness. Definitely will reduce the player angst over the transition
 
This also tell us that any fundamental changes to the game have nothing to do with graphics or the ability of the engine being used.

Which is very telling.
 
This also tell us that any fundamental changes to the game have nothing to do with graphics or the ability of the engine being used.

Which is very telling.
Interesting take. What would be fundamental to the game? I suspect the primary concerns with the impact of different engines would be the manpower burden at the developer side - some would require more hands-on massaging to realise specific outcomes, whereas others may allow faster and more efficient methods of deployment and replication.

Not disagreeing with you, by the way, but I'm not sure there's an absolute zero impact, fundamentally, by the choice of engine.
 
Interesting take. What would be fundamental to the game? I suspect the primary concerns with the impact of different engines would be the manpower burden at the developer side - some would require more hands-on massaging to realise specific outcomes, whereas others may allow faster and more efficient methods of deployment and replication.

Not disagreeing with you, by the way, but I'm not sure there's an absolute zero impact, fundamentally, by the choice of engine.
They claimed they were updating Mining and Hunting and how to do those activities. If the game can be played on either client. It means that the current client can handle updating those activities.

As an aside here are all the games that used Cryengine. A couple of good ones. An engine does not make a game, the people behind it do. The main benefit is that it's at least an up to date engine that other people would be interesting in working on to further their career. Which hopefully means better employees.

 
Not quite [graphics/engine abilities not key to fundamental changes - #51], but both engines need to have capabilities in common, the lowest common denominator needs to be acceptably high.
This means CE2 has actually been fine all along, at least in terms of what MA now wishes to change (or accepts as a limitation over UE5).
I dunno how much vehicle stuff, both planetary and space, is now 'comprimised', but we shall see. Have Cyrene's mech wishes been set back another x years now?
 
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... An engine does not make a game, the people behind it do. The main benefit is that it's at least an up to date engine that other people would be interesting in working on to further their career. Which hopefully means better employees.
...
Absolutely. We hold that hope...
 
Have Cyrene's mech wishes been set back another x years now?

Probably the opposite. MA were not willing to do mechs in Cryengine due to the complexity and non-standard way of doing a work around.

However, with unreal could be that mechs are pre-built into the engine or a better support for mechs. Haven't looked into it but from not being able to do it ever in cryengine can only be an improvement or the same...
 
looking forward to see the implementation in action and test it out when it gets ready
 
Thanks for sharing all this with us.

Although I do agree a little bit with what my favorite Entropia whore said (favorite mostly because she is so cheap - only $5!) I think that this information you have shared here is better then no information at all, so this is very much appreciated.
 
Very good news. I hope that the two client option will be available for the long haul. If it's possible to maintain two clients without too much work for you guys, it will be attractive to all player base. There are a lot of players scared of the new engine update, thinking their current PC's wont be able to handle it. With two clients, this will hopefully not be an issue for players.
I suspect you will want to use the new engine. You don't have to turn on all the eye candy.
 
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