Vol. 8 Ready Or Not Supporter Development Update
Content: Question and Answer, PvE Status, AI Work, New Community Manager.
by Guinevere, Community Manager
Kept you waiting, huh?
It's been a long time since we've been able to properly release a community newsletter for our supporters. In between working on the latest updates and bringing new people onboard to help with development, things have been pretty busy here. We've also made the transition from our last community manager(we love you, faQ!) followed by an interim period to our new community manager(more on that later!). To get back into things, we'd like to answer the community's questions and share some of what we've been working on.
A little over a month ago, our Interim Community Manager hosted a Question and Answer session with our players in the exclusive Supporter Discord Channel. Present were our Programming Lead, Game Director, Art Director, a Game Designer, and one of our 2D artists. This newsletter is an editorialized version of that Q&A, and includes several dev answers on common and not so common questions over the course of an evening spent with our passionate Supporters. Everything we discussed has been mapped out below so you can stay up to date with the latest from us here at VOID. As always, we thank you endlessly for your patience and support with Ready or Not, our passion project come to life.
An elegant bar upturned by the chaos within.
What's the Status of PvE?
This is a big question. It's an important one, and it's by far the one we get asked the most. Because of this, I want to divide this question into a few different sections that all have to do with PvE.
Why is it taking so long?
Simply put, we're creating a lot of elements of the PvE experience from the ground up. We have to build new systems and reestablish existing content and levels based on past PvE feedback. In addition to this, we've been working our existing narrative designs and fleshing them out for integration into the game as it progresses, adding new features and working on the AI takes a substantial amount of time with such a small team, which we are currently working on expanding further. When we saw the feedback on our last PvE build, we had a hard choice -- keep updating something that we didn't feel was working, or take the time to rebuild the system and make the content that our supporters deserve.
What's so special about the AI?
Our AI system is a massive undertaking meant to replace the default UE4 AI. We're looking at games that have really strong AI as inspiration and examples we can draw from to create our own AI for the best experience in Ready or Not possible. Our initial AI system wasn't working. It was too basic and it wasn't going to get where we wanted it to go. We didn't feel like it was what players would enjoy or what they deserved to have. The AI were stuck in basic behavior loops and wouldn't react organically to the world around them, they couldn't respond to the situation at hand.
Our current system is a huge project, but we think it's what our supporters deserve to have. We're implementing objects into the world that the AI can use, and they determine how and when they want to use these objects. We're still tweaking things internally, but the goal is to make the AI feel smart, immersive, and fun to play against. We want an engaging, unique experience with each level and to encourage replayability and variety based on how the player and AI can interact with one another. Everyone should walk away with a different story to tell for each mission.
Click the image above to see a sneak preview video of how our new Suspect AI reacts to player activity.
Another element of our AI revamp is the conversation system. We've been writing a ton of dialogue for the AI and working on making them reply to and interact with the player in an authentic way. While it's a long process, the benefit of building these systems from the ground up is that once they have a foundation, we can push them as far as we possibly can with regards to content. This is something that will help modders in creating custom content going forward as well.
Most games spend years on AI development and we ended up making the difficult choice to build a new system that would deliver on people's expectations. We've always had a level of ambition for Ready or Not where we really want to push the boundaries to create something fresh and unique. This means there's a lot of time spent working on our content and scrutinizing it internally. This has taken a big time investment and resulted in a lot of anxiety from the community, but we know it will be worth it in the end.
Why have Ready or Not's beta and release dates been pushed back? Why can't we see any works-in-progress?
The meat behind the delay is a culmination of circumstances.
We don't want to show any work in development too early before we have a realized vision that functionally works. We won't tolerate handing over broken gameplay to supporters just to fulfill expectations. To use an analogy, we've got the foundations of the house made, we've got the frame up, but we're not ready to move anyone in yet. The walls, floors, and ceilings are still being put in.
With only two full time programmers split across elements of the UI, AI, and gameplay, there's a lot for them to tackle to get the PvE where it needs to be for our supporters to test it.*
(Editor's note: As of this newsletter, we've been able to bring more programmers onto the team!)
Based on feedback we've received, we're remaking entire levels from scratch. Everything accessible in the co-op branch right now is completely revamped & different to what we're working on internally. There's been major strides and improvements in many different areas. In other words, the game feels much better to play: we even enjoy it ourselves internally, which is a good sign. Gas has been expanded -- it's no longer just the station, but the surrounding area and nearby buildings. Port has been completely reconfigured. Every level has been rebuilt and expanded. We made an investment in content that players will love rather than release something that we weren't satisfied with and that we didn't think you would be satisfied with.
A kitchen fit for a king.
In Conclusion...
This is a process that takes time. We understand the anxiety that comes with how long you've waited, but we want to make it right. Right now, we see all of the issues with PvE and what we need to work on and fix. But we want to get entirely new feedback once we drop PvE -- we want the problems that players find to be ones that we aren't aware of or ones that we don't know how to tackle. It's not a good use of dev time or of your time if we're hearing feedback regarding issues that we're already aware of or working on.
To make a long story short -- PvE requires many complex, fundamental systems that take years to build, and we’ve been tasked to complete that in half the time. We want there to be a level of quality established for the players. The majority of work is still on PvE, with any major strides made in either PvE or PvP benefitting the other to become better(by comparison, our team working on primarily PvP is smaller than PvE). It's a big undertaking. And we've never stopped working on it. It just takes a lot of time and effort to get it to a place where you can enjoy it and provide us with fresh feedback to work off of.
When can we expect the next update?
While we can't give an exact timeframe, we can say that the next major update for the alpha will be the return of PvE. We appreciate how incredibly patient the community has been with this wait, and we're excited to see it in your hands. In the meantime, we're excited to showcase some of the improvements we've been working on for the game as a whole.
Click the image above to watch a video of our new 'Recoil Spring' system, helping to control weapon recoil more naturally and intuitively.
Click the image above to watch our new grenade throwing in action, now cleaner and smoother than ever.
What's it like consulting with law enforcement for Ready or Not?
We have police contacts all over the world ready to go, but ultimately most of our focus on consultancy will come at a stage where the game feels ready for that level of scrutiny and detail. As it stands that sort of focus would get in the way of much of our existing design -- we want to be at the point that their expertise can be utilized efficiently with Ready or Not's mechanics. We're also aware of quite a lot of supporters with law enforcement ties who have generously offered their experience for the game, and rest assured, the time for that will come.
The exception to the above is animations, where a lot of our focus is on working with existing owners of most of the weapon systems seen in game so we know how they're really handled when animating -- clearing the weapon, reloading efficiently, the best ways to use them, et cetera.
What is the command system going to be like? Is yelling at suspects/civilians as a mechanic still planned?
Yes. We think it needs a bit more refinement, though. From a game design perspective, we perceive the first action any Law Enforcement Officer should take is with the power of communication, and to resolve by non-lethal means. Before resorting to non-lethal or lethal measures, verbal commands are the first step. You can give commands to civilians and tell them where to move. If there's an armed suspect still at large, you don't want to arrest people and then leave them in the hallway -- you want to be able to move them to a safer location. If you're not careful enough and don't secure weapons properly, then other suspects or even civilians might end up picking them up.
Additionally, we hope to make voice commands differ based on the situation at hand. When your character is moving more slowly, you'll speak more quietly. When you're engaged in combat, you'll be screaming to high heaven.
One of the stronger elements of SWAT 4's gameplay that has stood the test of time was the emergent gameplay of interactions with suspects & civilians/hostages. That's something that we want to emulate in the game. After playing enough times, you may know the level and where enemies will generally be, but the interactions with the AI should lead to unique situations that make for a great experience.
How do you deal with feedback on the game's 'smaller' details?
We're always paying attention to feedback. Every suggestion, every forum post, every message. We ensure all notes, feedback and data are organized to report back to the team. Our Community Manager(hey there!) gathers data based on the frequency and type of feedback we're receiving and compiles it into a report every month to make sure that everyone at VOID is aware of how the playerbase is feeling and what we need to focus on for the month ahead. We can't get everything that people want in the game, of course, but we try to gauge what the general feeling is in the community and incorporate your suggestions as best we can.
Will gun sounds be improved?
Yes. We're looking at replacing a lot of the less 'beefy' ones. We want them to feel authentic and retain the sense of realism. And honestly, we want them to feel scary. When players resort to lethal measures, they should feel tension, terror, and urgency. From the audio to how civilians and suspects react, there needs to be a clear sense of impact. The same goes for when enemies are using guns -- there should be an inherent danger and a fear of what could happen to you or your partners behind any door.
Click the image above to watch a video & listen to some of our new weapon sounds!
Why does X animation look clunky?
We throw the words 'work in progress' around a lot, but the reason we do is because our creation of this game is iterative.
For example, a lot of people mentioned the cuffs clipping and flexing independent of an arrested player's wrists. It looked bad. We agreed. But that minor issue missed the fact that our arrested state has an entirely unique moveset -- you can taunt enemies and praise teammates. We could have just left the hands off-screen.
But that(and many other things) should act as an example of the process we're trying to follow when it comes to Ready or Not.
What's up with the Anal Staircase?
I'm afraid that's classified information.
What's going on with communications? Is there a new community manager?*
(Editor's Note: At the time of hosting the Q&A, we were still in the process of working to bring our new community manager on board. The following statement takes place after the Q&A session.)
Oh hey, that'd be me!
My name's Guinevere and I'm VOID's new Community Manager. You'll be hearing from me a lot as I get settled in and work on responding to as much feedback as I possibly can. This newsletter is just the first bit of communication from me; you can look forward to a lot more in the coming weeks. I'm incredibly excited to start working and to get to know this community!
If you'd like to participate in the Supporter community, interact with other players, and provide us with your game feedback, you can join the Supporter exclusive Discord server by clicking here
Keep your feet on the ground,
Guinevere, Community Manager
