Night Dive Twitch Streams

[67fc117b8e02csgupta]

08/20/18 Stream with Daniel (Stephen joining later, leaving for a phone call, then coming back)

* More item placement in Medical.

* Most items are ready to be placed; the one exception is stuff in bodies or crates, as they're waiting for that code to be written.

* Item placement is already done on 3 levels; it's going very quickly.

(Apologies if I missed any early stuff or misremember anything prior to this line - I had an unsaved notepad of my notes from yesterday, but didn't finish the stream, and we had a power outage, so I lost it...so going from memory.)

* Daniel found a CPU node for the last 20% of Reactor level that he'd never found before on a table; it blends into the table and explains why he was never able to get Reactor level's security down to 0%.

* They're still planning a stream (maybe talking about it Friday) to go through the station so they can see what they want to change/flesh out.

* Jonathan (apparently) did more item placement than Daniel realized, so there was quite a bit of Medical already done, which he wasn't expecting.

* Stephen would like to see the flight deck get some love as he feels there's a lot to improve there.

* Daniel is really looking forward to outside vistas and views of the station, as he thinks a lot can be done with that.

* Daniel is wondering what he's going to do after item placement since it's moving so rapidly; he seems really happy with the development pace.

* Q: Will there be a QA session to make sure Daniel didn't miss anything?  A: Most likely, yes.

* Some corpses in the original have random loot.  You can reload and get different items.  Others have specific loot instead.

* Some seemingly (from reactions) really cool news from Stephen's phone call comes in (for Nightdive, not necessarily System Shock related)...but we don't get to know what that is yet. 

* Q: Will Robb Waters be doing any streams?  A: They want to have him for the station walkthrough stream.  As far as art streams, they're not sure yet. 

* Q: Will things with 0 thickness like barriers be an issue in the remake?  A: No, they'll revamp them with thickness.

* A lot of other item placement was done in another level as well, so he basically finished 2 levels on-stream.

* None of the System Shock's made it on the new PC Gamer Top 100 this time, sadly (which doesn't usually happen) - a lot of newer stuff on there. 

[67fc117b8e1eeicemann]

Someone should point out to them about that being a stretch goal that was met.

[67fc117b8e351ZylonBane]

What was met?

[67fc117b8e97aicemann]

Sorry. Was refering to the Rob Waters bit.

I recall Sgupta mentioning about that being a stretch goal that was met, in an earlier post a few pages back.

* When asked about the Robb Waters stream, Daniel says he doesn't know - they need to talk about it from more.  They hope to have more variety in streams in the future as they can fit them in.  (I'm not sure he remembered this was a stretch goal, so I'm guessing it'll happen at some point - I hope so as it'd be really, really cool.)

[67fc117b8eadesgupta]

The Robb Waters art stream was a social media Backer Mission stretch goal.  I did a friendly reminder just in case anybody overlooked it. 

Also, tomorrow at 11 AM PST, they're planning a team stream instead of the regularly scheduled stream, just FYI.

[67fc117b8ebcficemann]

That should be the SS1 play through for annotations.

[67fc117b8eef2icemann]

Jonathan - 24.08.18

* Showing off his work on lighting, effects and texturing in Medical
* Straight off the bat we got to some great smoke effects at work, with some smoke coming out of a pipe.
* Fog effects look good
* The look of the Armory room has been completely changed. Jonathan thinks it looks far superior. Now there are gun racks on the walls (kinda like in SS2).   - I think it looks much better and more realistic. Needs more lighting though. The entire level looks much darker.
* In the previous stream, when Daniel went to build the lighting it turned the stream into a slide show for a few minutes. This time round with Jonathan doing it, I could not see any lags in the stream. Beefier PC? Smaller level? Not sure.
* Quite a few areas have had complete overhauls in regards to textures, for more of a cohesive look.
* From 0:14:00 onward it's texturing and lighting work
* I love the synth music that Jonathan uses in his streams. Awesome stuff.
* New areas textured and lit look great.
* Apparently those susceptible to eye strain suffered greatly under the CRT screens (like Jonathan as mentions that happening). LCD screens 100% fix the issue. It's due to the way they refresh the monitor screens.

At this point there was a live stream starting so I jumped over to that. I'll watch the rest of Jonathan's stream later.

Team stream:

* Starts with showing the intro, then they jump into the game (original SS1)
* (hockland666 is me in the chat. My nickname was registered by someone else already. Gah)
* Will there be mantling - Yes
* Some details on cyberspace - Likely controls will be similar, but the look will be quite different.
* Manual saving - Very likely. They ask chat, who universally say that they hate check points except when entering a level.
* Is there anything done already from the prior incarnation of this remake / remaster, that was already implemented that you'd like to bring over to this one? Lots of small things.
* Will there be a auto-map, large map etc - Yes. With 3D versions
* Matilda joins towards the end of the stream
* I was taking more of an active role asking questions in-chat, so didn't annotate as much with this post. Will leave those for sgupta to cover.
* The reactor code bug in the source port will be dealt with at a later stage
* And I won the forsaken key. Wow lol.
 

[67fc117b8f0bdSynaesthesia]

I actually didn't rebuild lighting - that's something I won't do because it'll destroy the stream quality.

[67fc117b8f251ZylonBane]

I hopped into one of the recent streams, and noticed that the HUD code still displays item descriptions o. n. e.  c. h. a. r. a. c. t. e. r.  a. t.  a.  t. i. m. e. This must die. Everything on the screen is supposed to originate from the hacker's implant, and thus should be practical, not "cinematic". Original SS1 and SS2 got this right.

Stuff like this was one of my major concerns with the otherwise good-looking Unity demo. Lots of "cool" details that didn't actually make any sense if you thought of Citadel as a real place. That sort of silliness may fly in a Doom game, but System Shock is an immersive sim. It has to take itself seriously, down to the most minor details, or it just doesn't work.

[67fc117b8f428sgupta]

08/23/18 Dev Stream w/ Jonathan

* He starts off working on medical, this time with fog working in RGB, not just white.

* There are also grove sections done; he changed the wall tiles for those areas because he thinks it looks better than the original tiles.

* He changed the armory tiles from a brown texture to more of a tech rack vibe complete with places for guns.

* His philosophy with changes is to make things more cohesive and make more sense.

* He also tried to bring "pipeworld" area to life a bit more.

* He's doing a texture pass before doing a damage pass - it's just easier to have everything there first before damaging it.

* Certain geometry objects he can't edit without messing up a lot of lighting throughout the level, so he's getting lighting squared away before working on those.

* He mentioned (again) a potential mission requiring filling up power cells on medical.

* He'd love to see SHODAN be even more sinister in this version.  He'd also like to see things like radiation affecting monsters too.

* Stuff he changed could be changed back later depending on what the team as a whole thinks - this is an early pass and they won't know for sure until later.

* They plan to reuse some panels designs and such in the remake.

* Discussion and showing how they place the volumetric fog.

[67fc117b8f55cicemann]

Further notes for Jonathan's stream:

* Magpulse room changed to have armory style textures
* Lots of placing of fog effects to areas
* Jonathan would like for there to be more trap style events in the game. Perhaps have SHODAN get her cyborgs to flick all the cyborg conversions rooms back on etc.
* One of the things Jonathan likes most about these streams is for us to get to see how each of the staff's minds work, and why they put in what they do in the game etc.
* Level is about 3/4 done by the end of the stream

[67fc117b8fcfdsgupta]

08/24/18 System Shock 1 Playthrough Brainstorming w/ Stephen (CEO), Karlee (Community Manager), Chris (Art), Jonathan (Art), Matt (Programming), & Mathilde (Art; Last 30 minutes or so for her)

* This is a packed stream.  If you want to watch one video giving you an idea of where their head is at, it's this one. 

* They start by taking a look at the intro.  On one hand, they've talked before about making it playable.  On the other, though, it's pointed out that it's fairly iconic as well as packed with scenes that you couldn't really do well first person, and a lot of those scenes have pretty interesting and/or useful information.  Nightdive also have contacts in UE4 cinematic development, so it sounds like they're reconsidering keeping it as a cinematic reflective of the original but using today's animation.  (Personally, though I think both could be cool, I kind of like the cinematic approach).

* Next they talk about the med bay you wake up in.  Similar to Unity, they want to have you wake up, groggy with implants starting to work, and the bed retracting back into the bay.  They discuss whether SHODAN knows about the Hacker (and it seems Diego likely hid him in a place she doesn't have access to).

* They talk about the first pickups you get, including your implants, and whether or not to have animations for first-time items and weapons.  (Personally, I'm for it, as long as it's a one time thing; I liked it in Unity - it just got old because I replayed it so much and it was short. =oP)

* I had no idea the med bed was destructable!  Just tried it - took a bunch of hits with the pipe, but it did explode!  Never even occurred to me!

* There's discussion of the cameras and how they work.  They'd really love to have them do a bit more than just security level this time.  Something more akin to System Shock 2's alert system (possibly with a way to hack a panel and turn it off).  Also, it might not start threatening you until SHODAN knows you're a threat.

* Daniel is in favor of keeping the security level lowering mechanic to gain access to new areas.  You could also do it per-room if a camera spots you.  (I tend to like keeping security level per level myself).  Some ideas were tossed around about other ways to lower security level rating, like when you hack stuff, etc.

* Some talk about tricky things they could do like have SHODAN reset the cyborg conversion chambers back after the player switched them to recovery, etc.  But they'd have to be very careful to telegraph that kind of thing, and it might annoy some players.

* Some talk about cool scripted things they could do.  A Serv-Bot in the first room picking through a corpse or stuffing it in itself.  Repair Bots soldering walls or taking corpse pieces away.  Getting SensAround by taking it out of a corpse.

* Some discussion of whether SHODAN messages should be via the PA system or as an e-mail like in the original.  (I tend to favor the latter, if only for replayability).

* They want more sophisticated AI behavior.  IE, the first mutant sometimes attacks or sometimes leaves.  In Unity, they were scripted to attack, and they like that. 

* It's possible one of the versions of SensAround could be a drone you can place to watch an area.

* Hidden doors may have an area you can peel back or break to access the control to open it in this version. 

* I didn't remember if you shoot the tiles the patterns change.  Apparently, this is a nod to Conway's Game of Life (which I also didn't know was a thing, but cool - learn something new about this game all the time!)

* I also forgot you can deflect enemy fire in cyberspace.

* The current thought is quite a significant change to cyberspace visually.  They're going to talk more with Robb Waters about this.  Maybe less opacity, but still some.  Not revealing a lot yet until they talk more internally.

* They want more cables and such various rooms and places.

* They want to use similar language to tell the player it's interactable/openable (ie. everything with a green light).

* They really like some of the little touches like viewable camera security screens and all the ways you can lean (and would like to try to include the leaning if it doesn't get ridiculous). 

* They may try to use some of the more obscure areas for backer logs.  For example, doors that were locked/inaccessible/broken in the original.

* Not all weapons may make the grade.  They feel like some are too similar to one another, so they might ditch a few so there are fewer overall while making them each very distinct and adding some others (ie. a proper shotgun, though the flechette sort of is that).

* They might do some places in grovey areas where people can change the background to pretend they're somewhere else/vacationing.

* You can destroy most objects in System Shock 1 (more than I realized).  If they contain objects, those drop out.  Hopefully that'll continue into the remake.

* They might have shader/particle effects for when people/objects are disintegrated.

* They want to expand the area on Medical with all the bodies.  They'd like to make that the room that's a viewing area where you get a great view of Saturn.  (They might have lots of viewing areas (like the place in the original Unity demo).

* They may expand the area where you first encounter cyborgs patrolling behind bars.  They might make that more like vents and machinery to look better and make more sense.

* They're considering checkpoints or manual saves and asked the stream.  Possibly considering a hardcore mode with limited saves.  There could be a save every time you use an elevator or go to new deck.

* They're thinking about in-world objects that can act as spawn points instead of randomly.  Solves the nonsensical spawn issue as well as possibly allow players to see spawns (ie. an enemy crawling out of a vent in the wall).

* They might speed up the medbed cutscene sequence for consecutive heals.  They think it's really cool, especially if they added surgery arms, etc.

* They're bringing a few things over from the old Unity build (intro, save system, etc.); they haven't decided on any large things.

* Automap is definitely returning (both mini and large).  There will be a 2D and 3D version.

* They'd like the AI and enemy design to be done well enough so certain things can look scripted even though they aren't.  IE mutants crouching and putting hands against smaller doors to move through them or Serv-Bots flashing lights to target a player.

* They might do some sort of liquid on the radioactive floors and some cracking to explain the radiation poisoning.

* Some of the areas with the red pulsing lines in the walls should look crazy with the new art.  Tons of wires and machinery hanging down, etc.

* Geometry in the original could only be flat walls or diagonals in the engine, so a lot of the geometry can be tweaked.  For example, the Robotics section alcoves.  They could also do things like tubes for the robots or gross fluids leaking out, etc.

* They are fixing the random number generation not working properly in Enhanced Edition (I'm assuming they mean in the new Source Port).  The remake will also still have the code randomization.  More fun for speedrunners.

[67fc117b8fe9aZylonBane]

One of the clever things about SS was that it used SHODAN reconfiguring the station as the justification for all the weird gamey areas, like the repulsorlift puzzle room, the autobomb maze, etc. However, the level design never convincingly sold the idea-- the supposedly rebuilt areas seamlessly integrated into the non-rebuilt areas, to such a degree that it was nearly impossible to tell which was which.

This is a perfect opportunity for Night Dive to genuinely improve on the execution of one of Looking Glass's original design intents. Using the increased fidelity of a modern game engine, they could integrate environmental signs of recent construction. Welds, cuts, differences in wall/floor materials, corridors not quite lining up, expanded spaces intruding into other spaces, abandoned unused spaces, general lack of fit and finish, etc.

[67fc117b9087cZylonBane]

* I had no idea the med bed was destructable!  Just tried it - took a bunch of hits with the pipe, but it did explode!  Never even occurred to me!

How could you not know this? In one of the decks (Engineering, I think) the only med bed is surrounded by explosives that blow it up if you're not careful.

[67fc117b90b5dsgupta]

ZylonBane, I might have just forgotten that bit, or I never blew it up.  Even if it had blown up, I might have assumed that was a script - it never occured to me you could destroy it by beating it with a pipe.  (It's been a good while since I fully played the original - planning to again once the Source Port is finished.)

08/27/18 Dev Stream w/ Daniel (Karlee & Steve also)

* Level 4 Storage item placement with Daniel.

* KickStarter update planned for the beginning of September.

* Adventure Alpha won't be ready by the beginning of September; it might be towards the end.

* The Closed Alpha is going to be very limited, so keep expectations low as far as invites - it's only going to be a few people to start.  The Closed Beta, later on, will be for anyone over a $50 tier.

* Adventure Alpha will be the whole game from start to finish as far as logs, puzzles, objectives, etc.  Just the main objectives and win conditions - not weapons, enemies, that kind of thing.  It's more about getting feedback on level design issues, areas that need fleshed out, etc.

* Q about whether the reactor code will be the same randomization puzzle.  A:  Yes, probably the same, though they could do additional randomization things.

* No more belly skating, apparently. 

* Stephen says he thinks the code is in there for loot tables for crates and bodies and such (to loot them).  But Matt would have to tell them where implementation is.

* To Daniel & Stephen's surprise, crates are already interactable, have opening animations, and bring up a menu (it's similar to the Unity demo and SS2 inventory menus).

* Daniel finished Storage and started on Flight Deck, the last level he thinks needs item placement.  He's not sure what he'll be doing next.  He has some audio work to do, but it might not be on stream.

* BSP's are there to get an idea of space; then they can figure out what changes they want to make.

* Q: Is the Source Port release set in stone for September?  A: No, because they're adding in achievements.  So slight delay, but still coming soon.

[67fc117b910e7voodoo47]

achievements.

there aren't many things I hate with a burning passion.

[67fc117b91220icemann]

Funnily enough I fell asleep whilst watching that last night. There is long gaps in it, where nothing really of interest is discussed. Combine that with trying to watch this on my big screen TV. 30 mins in, was asleep. Zzzzzzzz. Can't even remember what they were talking about.

[67fc117b91507ZylonBane]

there aren't many things I hate with a burning passion.

There should be an achievement for playing through the game without earning any achievements.

[67fc117b9197bedx]

If anyone was curious, here is the list of achievements in Steam, so far:

• First Email - You have received your first email.
• Nice Jump, Human - You skated down the ramp in Storage.
• It’s Over - You finished System Shock!
• Look at you, Hacker - Finish the game on all the Maximum difficulties.
• Using your Head -  You gained access to the maintenance office on Level 3 (Hidden).
• Hacker - Open the medical storage room in cyberspace.
• Super Hacker - Defeat SHODAN in 30 seconds after entering final cyberspace.
• Come, Stay a While -  She wants to keep you, but at least you came all this way (Hidden).
• Can’t look at you, Hacker - Reach an overall level security rating of 0% on Citadel Station.

From

• https://steamdb.info/app/410710/stats/
• https://astats.astats.nl/astats/Steam_Game_Info.php?AppID=410710
• https://steamcommunity.com/stats/410710/achievements

[67fc117b91b90sgupta]

08/30/18 Dev Stream w/ Chris (Karlee also; Mathilde joins the last hour or so.)

* He's building the brown Trioptimum logo door today, basically from scratch.

* Doors all basically fit into a 2 meter by 2 meter frame.

* 6 doors are complete, 2 are in progress, 4 more to do (including the one he's doing today).  Executive door and force door both need some concept work.

* Q: Did Robb Waters redesign all the new doors?  A: No, these are based on the original designs, but Chris has worked with Robb, and Robb gives final approval.  There's not enough time for Robb to redesign everything, so they have to pick and choose what he fully redesigns.

* This door slides open to the left.  Briefly discussed splitting it down the middle instead.

* He got it prettymuch fully designed and animated.

* He does different animations for opening and closing.  He likes a special animation when it locks, etc.

* He may add buttons or a locking mechanism depending on what Robb and the team wants to do - he doesn't know if buttons will be on the door or wall.

* Jonathan finished Medical, so Chris gets to jump in soon (some on-screen potentially) and start putting in some final art.

* He finished up with some basic coloring on the door.  Looks fantastic! 

[67fc117b91e2csgupta]

08/30/18 Dev Stream w/ Jonathan (Karlee also.)

* Working on the Reactor level from the start.

* He finished Medical (with the redone old-school textures) and shows it off near the beginning.  Only thing missing are a few lights and doors, because the team can work better without non-functional doors in the way.

* He talks about how some people don't know the cabling sections of wall (including ones towards the ceiling accessible via jump jet) are climbable.

* Q: Once retro textures are all placed, when will new textures be put in?  A: He can't answer that precisely, but this is an important step towards getting to that point.  Graybox was the first important step.  Atmosphere is next so they can visualize what they're working with, which gets pretty tough with plain graybox only.  Then comes kitting it out with the new vision/level modifications/new assets.

* (Based on a Q) They're still planning to have an additional game mode and allow use of these textures, but they will be building on top of this to make the new aesthetics.

* (Based on a Q) There is an infrared implant in the original that should transfer over to the new version.

* (Based on a Q) He liked the story and atmosphere of BioShock, but he didn't like the gameplay simply because it fell short of what he felt its pure potential was.  He hated Deus Ex: Invisible War.

* He wants it hazy/humid where the groves are.

* (Based on a Q) Stephen's mutant is Robb-approved.

* He hopes they can modernize for a few engine limitations.  For example, there are transformers in the Reactor level that clearly have art implying a round shape, but that wasn't possible at the time, so hopefully they can make them round now.  Similarly, a lot of the reactor just looks like lava.  So there is a lot of room to improve areas like this.

* He brought some fog into the level. 

* He worked on reactor effects and pulsation as well.

* (Based on a Q) Yes, for the near future, they'll keep updating Unreal engine builds, but there will be a point where it will need to be locked down.

[67fc117b91fabicemann]

My notes for 08/27/18 (Second attempt at it)

* They've implemented basic portrait display when playing audio logs now in-game. Though you only see a shadowy figure in them for now. Daniel plays a log at 1:13:00 if you want to see it.
* Will you be able to use your keyboard keys to enter in numbers for keypads - Maybe

Been watching Chris's latest stream on and off. Nothing of noteworthiness that hasn't already been mentioned. Been him working on the door, whilst a lot of off topic related chat going on.

PS: These streams need a "Like" meter. Be in the hundreds, considering how often you hear that word said.

[67fc117b921bdicemann]

My notes for Jonathan's stream (skipping what sgupta already covered):

* Jonathan completely HATES the Bioshock games. To him Bioshock 1 is essentially System Shock 2 with only the setting changed. For him Bioshock's development as a console game first, which was then ported to the PC was a cardinal sin for a "Shock" game. Frank Fontaine is Shodan pretending to be someone their not, to get your trust so that you'll do things for him. The player is Goggles. Just as the player in Bioshock did what they did because he had no choice, the player in SS2 had no choice but to follow Shodan because otherwise they'd become part of the many. He thinks that the gameplay completely sucks and could have been so much better. It could have been so much more than what we got. To Jonathan System Shock 2 is a way better gameplay experience, than anything Bioshock could ever hope to be. Visually Bioshock is the better game on that aspect, but you can't even compare the two. Environmental story telling was better in Bioshock.
* Jonathan's first ever RPG that he played was "Castle of the Winds"   - Man I remember that game. Not my first RPG but definitely one of my early RPGs.
* Mentions that in any other company, if even 1 video stream was done to the depth of transparency that ND is doing with these streams, the person would be fired on the spot as this sort of stuff just doesn't happen usually in the games industry.              - I think more companies should be this transparent into their games development process

[67fc117b922e2voodoo47]

funnily enough, while I do agree with all that (Bioshock stuff), I still think the game is alright, and I did enjoy it enough to run through it twice. same goes for the sequel - I really need to find out whether they fixed the most annoying stuff for the re-releases, as I would consider buying if they did.

didn't care much for Infinite though.