Badiya update for 20 December 2018

Hello everyone,

Badiya Alpha 1.9 is here and it contains the following new features/improvements as well as many bug fixes.

* VISUALS:

• New Weather, Time of Day and Cloud System. Clouds now look much better and perform faster than before and are properly affected/shaded by sunlight.
• New Post Processing System that gives the game a more grounded cinematic look.
• New Volumetric Lighting System that shows the sunlight passing through tree leaves and objects and is similar to the one found in many AAA titles. This feature is enabled on ULTRA quality preset.
• New Contact Shadows System that adds more shadowing details on objects. This feature is enabled on ULTRA quality preset.
• New PCSS system (Percentage Closer Soft Shadows) so that shadows get softer the farther they are from the source object. This feature is enabled on ULTRA quality preset.

* ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE:

• Crowd Reaction System (You can aim at civilians and they will cower and run away if they are unarmed and will trigger a chain reaction of other civilians running away. If they are armed they will draw their weapons and aim at you but will only shoot if you open fire.)
• You can now kill/hit/run over crowds in camps and cities, the punishment now is that you risk a fire fight with the armed civilians. In future releases the goal is to have a crime and reputation system that will make your actions known in nearby POIs and therefore your treatment by the locals will differ based on your reputation. A crime system will also be added so that lock picking chests and taking horses/camels without paying their owners will be considered a crime that the crowds will react to and will affect your reputation if seen.
• You can use a mount or a vehicle and run over characters, they will fall and stand up again if the hit is not lethal but will die otherwise.
• Enemy AI Encounters Improvement (Enemies get out of POIs, better obstacle avoidance and reactions, better awareness of player position)
• Enemies Awareness meter, each enemy has several states of awareness. An indicator will show up on them that starts filling up the closer they are to detecting you. This meter is tracked for nearby enemies so you can better judge your next move.

* POI HOSTILITY:

Points of Interest now have different hostility levels you can move between.

• Neutral: Colored Orange on the map and compass.
• Hostile: Colored Red on the map and compass.
• Cleared: Colored White on the map and compass.

If you are in a neutral POI like a village for example and you commit a crime (currently defined as murder, will be expanded later to include theft and disturbing of peace or vandalism) then the armed civilians in this POI will start shooting you (even if you leave the place and come back later). The POI level will move from Neutral to Hostile and the only other level it can move to is Cleared once you killed the armed civilians in it.

* QUEST SYSTEM:

• Quests in the Quest Menu are now divided to Main, Side and Finished Quests
• If you take a new quest while there is an existing active quest, you have the option of holding "E" to track the new quest you just took.

* WHAT'S NEXT?:

We will release bug fix patches (1.9.1 , 1.9.2 etc..) through out the next month then will continue on Alpha 2.0, some of the planned features are the following (subject to change)

* TERRAINS:

• New Terrain Generation System
• New terrain shading system with tessellation and object blending
• Several Biomes featuring a unique (Look, Loot, Resources, POI Types, Animal Types, Tree Types, Vegetation Density, Enemies, Quests) for each with seamless blending between them. Biomes include (Arid, Dunes, Mountains, Canyons, Hills and others)

* PERFORMANCE:

• Massive boost in terrain generation speed and loading times
• Vegetation and objects Instancing
• Dynamic Occlusion Culling (Objects behind a wall or a building will not be rendered for better performance)
• Imposter System (Very far objects will be represented as sprites for better performance)

* HORSE GAMEPLAY:

• Ability to shoot on top of horse or camel
• Mount ownership system where you can't just take a horse/camel but you have to buy it from its owner or steal it (risking others shooting at you)
• Whistle to call horses you own
• AI Can ride mounts and vehicles and shoot from them
• AI Can patrol POIs on mounts and vehicles
• AI Can fall from their mounts when you shoot them or shoot their mounts. They can do the same to you!

* LIVING WORLD:

• Wild animals can make you fall from horses/camels you ride
• Occasional Raids on POIs you are in. Imagine a group of bandits attacking a village or camp that you happen to be in. In which case you can stay and fight with the civilians or flee the place. Both actions will affect your reputation meter.
• Convoys of military vehicles moving between POIs. You can raid them or risk getting attacked by them.
• Armed/unarmed civilian(s) traveling between POIs. You can raid them or trade/interact with them.

* GENERAL GAMEPLAY:

• Hostile POIs will send bounty hunters after you if you commit a crime in them until you pay the bounty or kill all armed NPCs in them.
• A new POI alert state if you disturb the peace but not commit a major crime (Example: punching someone, killing a chicken, breaking property) which will see them refusing to give you quests or trading with you (or selling you at high prices while buying at lower prices)
• Unique names for towns, camps and NPCs so that quest givers have a better quest description for you.
• Salvage function is coming back and can be performed through a salvage station you build.
• Falcon/Scopes/binoculars with ability to tag enemies
• Armor system
• Gain weight when you eat more, lose weight when you don't eat for a while
• Multiple layers of clothing cause overheating and lowering stamina
• Items Wheel
• Whistle to Attract enemies to investigate your location
• Throwable items/grenades with a helper arc. These can be used to point enemy's attention to a particular spot which allows you move to another spot.

* SYSTEMS:

• Progression System (XP, Levels, Skill Points, Skills to unlock)
• Tutorial
• Story Mode and an end game

As usual, please report any bugs you encounter on the "Bug Reporting Forum" and send us an email to feedback@semaphorelab.com

Best Regards,
Ahmad Jadallah (@ahmadjadallah)
Director of Development
Semaphore Lab (@semaphorelab)