Testing Guide ("First Playable")

Hi!

Tonight around 8PM (Finnish time) I'm going to share you that "first playable" dev build.

Here's some details related to this dev build and what the goal is for this test.

Test goal
Like mentioned multiple times, the "first playable" a milestone that should provide the first playable gameplay experience combining all the new features together. This build doesn't fully represent the early access gameplay wise, but it should provide somewhat uninterrupted gameplay where nothing breaks or crashes the game.

In game development, you often work in these debug maps while developing new features, so this dev build tries to combine most of these to an actual early access map which in this test is going to be the Apartments.

Test features
I have a massive amount of new content in the commercial branch but this dev build should not really provide all of those, since I want the main focus to remain in few specific things related to the feedback etc.

For example, it would not make sense to provide the Shelter Customization to this test or activating certain dynamic events (like Airdrops) which are not part of the Apartments map.

So here's a list what I decided to active / provide to this dev build:
- Apartments map (4x playable area / 16 apartments per building)
- Dynamic TOD (with debug tools)
- Dynamic Weather (with debug tools)
- UI overhaul
- Rain overhaul
- Collision overhaul
- Visual / texture upgrades
- Active Military AI (demo behavior)
- Military voice acting
- Grenades
- Lasers
- Few test items (like weapons, attachments, ammo)
- Upgrade nature
- Multiple tweaks / fixes from the commercial branch

Feedback topics
I will post these topics again with that dev build download post, but when it comes to feedback there's multiple things that I'm really hoping to get from this test.

Topic 1: Early access map
- How does that 4x playable area feel (roaming, distances, details)?
- How does the early access visuals look?
- Collisions should be super smooth (compared to the demo), are they?
- Does the AI amount (3-4 active at same time) work with 4x playable area.

Topic 2: Performance
- With the 4x playable area, dynamic TOD, increased details, what is the performance?
- Is there any hardware issues or visual artifacts?
- Do you notice any AI navigation spikes (related larger distances) ?

Topic 3: Grenades & Lasers
- Easy to use and understand?
- Are the throwing distances suitable (upper and lower throw)?
- Are the lasers easy to see and usable?

Topic 4: Extras
- Voice acting frequency, is it enough or too little?
- Rain overhaul performance hit (should be almost zero) and wetness effects visually?
- Any other bugs or game breaking things?

Test limitations
I covered this topic in one of the post few days ago, but there's few limitations to this build. In case some of you have joined Patreon recently, here's a recap of those limitations:

Source post: https://www.patreon.com/posts/first-playable-130296479?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

Limitations
- Loot generation is turned off (related to the tetris icon topic)
- Magazine system was rollbacked to ammo system (related animation bottleneck topic)

- Antti (Developer)