The developers of Interstellar Marines are reaching out to the British flood victims in the only way they know how, by creating an extreme weather map for their shooter. Astrodome is described as a “playground” but it will, in time, be developed into a training ground, and then a full multiplayer map.
I already feel the pain of the floodwaters subsiding
Astrodome is part of Interstellar Marines ninth Early Access update:
Other changes are the new animation rig. It’s “designed from the ground up to make your movement as fluid and natural as possible,” writes developer Zero Point Software. “This piece of code has to be fool- and future-proof, so we can add new animations, new weapons, new attachments and new gadgets without having to change the animation rig each time.”
“We’ve also improved the audio effects, especially the SMG’s gunfire, enhancing your immersion.”
The final update is the new Spectator mode, making it easier for streamers and Let’s Play-ers to begin broadcasting footage of the game.
The game’s not entirely free of bugs just yet, though:
There’s a lot of new updates and fixes, too. Here’s the full change list:
New Features
ADDED: A new character rig with support for advanced animation blending
ADDED: New walk and run forward/backward, strafe left/right, jump and reload animations
ADDED: Fully dynamic and physically-based weapon swaying/bobbing
ADDED: New spectator mode:
– Works when joining as spectator in Multiplayer or in Playground mode
– Toggle between camera modes on keys 1, 2, 3 (rebindable in settings)
– Level camera: Cycle next/previous camera on LMB/RMB (left/right mouse button). CONTROL toggles autocycle/hold mode
– Free camera: Use keys forward/backward/strafe left/strafe right to move and left/right mouse button to move up/down. MSW (Mouse Scroll Wheel) controls move speed. CONTROL toggles steady/fly mode
– Follow camera: Click LMB/RMB to switch to next/previous player. MSW zooms in/out in thirdperson. CONTROL toggles viewing in third-person/first-person
ADDED: TNew map “Astrodome” to Playground. The map is to be used as a multi-purpose training arena that can be customized realtime to different tactical combat scenarios
ADDED: “Movie Mode” user setting that toggles all in-game UI off (except Chat window)
ADDED: Kill icon over head on dead marines
ADDED: ZPS icon to developers on names/scoreboard UI
Improvements
UPDATED: To Unity 4.3
UPDATED: All maps to distribute CPU/GPU load more evenly
UPDATED: Terrain and vegetation on applicable maps (better performance)
UPDATED: Slow helmet shader (50% better performance)
UPDATED: All audio files/settings (150% better performance and smaller memory usage)
UPDATED: “Pitch black” modes to actually be completely dark (bug fixed in Unity 4.3)
UPDATED: Lens flares on weather crane so they fade in/out faster
UPDATED: SMG 1p/3p firing sounds
UPDATED: SMG reload and aim sounds
UPDATED: Jump and land sounds
UPDATED: Helmet sounds
UPDATED: Lasers so they are less visible (1p/3p)
UPDATED: SSAO to work better with fog
UPDATED: The Suit System to muffle audio instantly when it is disabled
UPDATED: DOF to work better with new marine in hip/aim as well as spectator camera
UPDATED: Missing level geometry colliders on all maps
ADDED: Collision to trees and bigger vegetation
ADDED: More level cameras to all maps
ADDED: Wind to trees and vegetation
ADDED: Rain ambience sounds to crates
ADDED: “Confirmed kill” sound
ADDED: Level camera toggle sound
REMOVED: Audio occlusion effect when helmet down and Suit System is online
Fixes
FIXED: “when moving, the aim shifts upward in first-person”
FIXED: “laser/flashlight doesn’t consistently turn on/off when viewed from certain angles”
FIXED: “flares render through the weapon in first-person”
Known Issues
– Footstep audio and FX does not work on terrain (known bug in Unity 4.3)
– Third-person jump animations does not work correctly yet
– The game will stop updating when switching out of fullscreen in Windows (known bug in Unity 4.3)
– View jittering may occur when jumping on lossy networks
– Audio may cut off partially/completely on weapon/helmet sounds
– Other players will seem to float above or interpenetrate while standing on a moving dynamic platforms (network smoothing will exaggerate this effect)