HotM:Current State For Testing

What Is This Page?

This is where you can check for the latest status on what is ready and what is not ready for testing.

If you are going to be testing and you have not done your first blind test yet, then please stop reading now and come back after your first blind session!

Prologue

Everything in the prologue is done and polished, pending whatever tester feedback comes in.

The prologue is very short, and meant to just be to get you the idea of moving around units and using abilities and whatnot, and the initial combat. Making this longer, or making this have more options, would just delay players getting to the meat of the tutorial-esque parts o the game.

Chapter One

These are not labeled in-game (by design), but there are tiers in chapter one. You can think of these as firebreaks, where you have to finish everything in one tier, in any order usually, before moving on to the next tier.

Tier Zero

This is before your first projects open up, and while you still have to do things in linear order to learn the basics of building. No plans to make this any more complex or large. Being short and to the point moves you to the interesting parts, faster.

Tier One

• This is the tent elimination, microbuilders, weapons and armor, and the AGI researchers' first appearance.
  • This is complete, including some evil options and various side content.

Tier Two

• This is the sheltered food and/or water, prismatic tungsten, and armor-piercing rounds.
  • This is complete, including some evil options and various side content.

Tier Three

• Vehicles, scandium, extraction, and more vehicles.
  • This is the same no matter which route you take starting in tier one.

Tier Four

• This has two giant parts, one of which is building a better brain, and the other of which is improved apartments. Also flying factories, contemplation, bulk androids, key contacts, and more.
  • Improved apartments will not be a thing if you chose flamethrower, later, but building a better brain will be the same.
  • Limitations here at the moment:
    • Building a better brain is not yet something you can complete.
    • There is limited side content after getting to intelligence class 2 compared to what is intended.

Tier Five (Coming Soon)

• This is where you're going to be introduced to The Zodiac.
• It ends with you encountering the End of Time, and a new existential threat.

The Rest of Chapter One

• Rather than extending out the tutorial experience into another chapter, as was previously planned, all of that content will be side-content that opens up at various points during chapter one.
  • This allows you to pursue it at your leisure if it interests you, and otherwise to just move on to chapter two (the actual main game).
• Chapter two is not going to have any content until starting in June, so focusing on the side content in chapter one is your only option until then!

Later Chapters?

• Chapter two is going to be my exclusive focus for a year after launch, probably.
• Chapter three will introduce a conflict in the end of time, so you'll be fighting a war out there while you're also doing things within the specific timelines.
  • Everything from chapter two is still available in chapter three, but chapter three introduces this new element.
• Chapter four is probably going to be the really long-term postgame.
  • One way or another, the conflict in the end of time is resolved, either with victory or armistice.
  • At this point, the meta goal for most players is going to be trying to collect all of the goal states in one timeline or another, and find all of the various secrets hidden about.
• If there is ever DLC, then most of it will focus on content that is for chapter two, but which of course is still valid in chapters three and four.
  • In general, the assumption is that someone could come in, play a couple of timelines in 40ish hours, and say they're satisfied and move on. So having DLC content available to them all the way through would be important. (DLC is a long way off, but it's important to plan).
  • But for people who really get into the game and spend hundreds of hours, the expanding roster of project chains at each tier, and goal states at each level, will be the main long-term draw.

Art

Unit Visual Previews

Overall

Generally speaking, the art and art style for the game is done. There are minor things that need tweaking for clarity or visibility or performance or what have you, but largely this has been a year in the works.

In general, with respect, there's a limit to how much feedback I'm interested in in this area, unless there's something out of place compared to the baseline rest of it.

Main Menu

The main menu is an area where I am planning to add something more detailed and evocative when I have time, but likely that won't be until sometime in June. I have most of the pieces set up for that, but putting it all together in a good composition and with the right effects and color grading will probably take the better part of a day.

The Zodiac

The Zodiac is an area where I have a lot of things set aside for it visually, but I have not fully done the art for that area yet, in game. But most of the pieces I have experimented with enough in-engine to know what the general effect will be. So this is an area where I will be interested in some feedback as it comes online, as I'll be a bit too close to it for a few days to really evaluate it.

The End Of Time

If you use the cheat codes where you can get there, the end of time is fully visually complete, and also fully functions in terms of establishing new timelines, revisiting older ones, etc.

Everything prior to the invasion starting in chapter three is essentially done here, and I won't be getting to that for probably a year. There is one todo on the bugtracker to do with older saves, but that's it.

VFX

VFX for actions and abilities are largely added as I go, although there's a debug menu where you can see dozens of unused pieces that are ready but unused-so-far. I will likely add more pieces as I go over time, as well, as frequently the pieces I prepared in advance aren't quite sufficient, in this specific area, and I need to add more.

Other

In general, when it comes to enemies, player units, vehicles, etc, all of that is already in place for hundreds of more minor units, and dozens of key units. If you mess around in the cheat menu in sandbox mode, you can see all of the player-based stuff, but for the enemy designs you would have check out this preview. Those are being loaded into RAM when you open the game, but they're not actually something you can spawn in the game yet. I'll add them as I need them.

Sound

Music

• The main menu theme is in.
• Music for when you increase in intelligence class is in.
• The rest of the music for the game is still in-work.

In general, it's going to play music for a short while after emotional high or low points, and then otherwise lean on ambient sounds. This is I suppose the Half Life 2 approach, but with more music than that. But still a lot less than would be required to loop constantly in the background as an endless playlist. There's something a bit more poignant in music that shows up for major events, anyway.

Ambient Sound

The ambient soundscape is done, although at some point I may start adding in more variance based on what biome you are in. I think that's pretty overkill for now, though, as it already varies by camera height, and weather.

Sound Design

Everything that's already in the game is done sound-wise. If it doesn't have sound, then I meant for it not to, or forgot. If you're not sure which, feel free to surface it as an issue.

Similar to the VFX, you can see a list with thousands of sounds in banks that are only sometimes used. Those have been prepped for me to use on future things, and I also tend to keep adding to those over time.