Devlog Devlog #5: Revisiting Not So Old Systems
Two weeks ago, I talked about revisiting systems that I hadn't touched since the first tech demo. Today I talk about how one still wasn't right.
In what I called "v2" of the scan system, a player would hold the scan button (RMB by default) to charge up the scanner. A perfect charge would land in the green and give a boost to the scan distance. As we talked about before, this scan bubble will expand into the field and return satisfying audible pings for each asteroid encountered, unlocking the ability to hover and read the details about the asteroid.
I was so in love with the scan visuals and audio that it took a couple of weeks to realize the charge-up mechanic wasn't doing much for me. In fact, after the work of last week (new procedual generation of asteroids) - the boosted scan would overwhelm the user with results.
With those problems in mind, I started working on "v3". The scan visuals and audio were kept - the triggering mechanism was my target. Primarily driven by the increased density of the new asteroid field, I wanted to give the player the ability to look for a specific mineral. This particular iteration is inspired by Satisfactory, using a radial menu to select the mineral. So far it feels pretty good but I'll continue to playtest and see how it feels in the later game.
You probably noticed the significant color changes in the new field in the screenshot above! As a friend notes, "It no longer looks like a generic space game!" I'll take that as a win.