Intel Update #031: Road to V1036 (Pt. 3)

As the release draws nearer, we're bringing you our final Intel Report for V1036. Historically, we've always released one build version at a time with a public test prior to pushing it to the main branch. However, this time we'd like to do things a bit differently: first off, we are internally past the V1036 build, completing our roadmap back in the beginning of this month. While we continue to polish the build internally, we began work on V1037 on the road to GROUND BRANCH V1.0.

Today we'll be taking a closer look at more recent developments on the door lock and armor systems, the new Extraction mode, a couple of environmental overhauls, and miscellaneous visual upgrades for our characters. We'll also be checking out the new MK3 pistol — a specialized handgun for stealth operations.

It's been longer than usual since our last post, so we've made sure this one was a little meatier. Let's get to it, shall we?

Armor system now functional

We gave you a quick peek at the early days of development for the armor system in Intel Report #029, explaining how we're planning on having both "soft armor" (used in helmets and conventional body armor like our Bulletproof Vest) and "hard armor" (ballistic plates that go inside plate carriers such as the JPC or MPC) represented in the game.

We've also explained how armor will be able to take a certain amount of damage — depending on caliber, angle, location and number of shots etc. — before it is rendered useless.

With all of that in mind, we had to put it all together as a functional system in-game, and also come up with some type of user interface (UI) to display this information to players. Though the UI for displaying and adding armor in the customization screen is still being worked on, the in-game HUD is already in and working, as is the armor functionality itself for the most part.

The armor HUD is located right next to the Stance Indicator, in the bottom-right corner of the screen, and is comprised of a helmet icon (if a helmet is equipped), a body armor icon (if a bulletproof vest is equipped), and a group of plate icons (if a plate carrier with armor inserts is equipped):

Some plate carriers — such as the JPC — can only carry front and back plates, in which case the 'L' and 'R' side plate icons are hidden from the HUD.

💡 Minimal HUD enthusiasts will be able to hide the armor HUD in Settings › HUD › Show Armor.

Each icon has 3 possible statuses: intact (white), damaged (yellow and cracked), and broken (red and slashed across). Here they are in action:

Example #1: The player is being shot in the helmet with a pistol at close range. (In most cases, helmets can only stop a few pistol rounds at most.) Notice how the HUD icon for the helmet turns red and is slashed out — meaning it is now no longer effective and any new shots will pass through.

Example #2: The player is shot in the torso with a rifle while wearing a plate carrier. The front plate (represented by the plate icon with a 'F' on it) first becomes damaged (with the icon turning yellow and cracked) and is eventually broken (red/slashed out icon) by subsequent pistol shots. The next shot then hits the player, going through the torso