Development Diary #5, posted on the official Dead Matter Forums on December 2nd, 2017.
This one is packed! We take a look at the early stages of the inventory system, some concept art, more trailers for vehicles, the new service rifle, environmental art, vehicles and more...
Author Note: This post was made early in the Dead Matter development and some of the information provided may be outdated at the time of reading.
Inventory
Lead programmer jooni has been working on the inventory system, showing us some of its base functionality. Please keep in mind that this design and layout is by no means final, it is a first concept, but there are some interesting takeaways nonetheless.
On the left side is your main inventory and on the right side are your weapon slots. The inventory size is based on clothing and backpacks, each piece of clothing will add a certain amount of slots. For DayZ players this system should be familiar, as it is essentially the same approach. No reason to reinvent the wheel here, the so called "grid based inventory" is very functional and easy to use, so I'm glad they decided to use it.
As you can see there are 4 hotkeys for weapons and 6 for general items. Hotkeys 1-4 are reserved for weapons only and the rest are available for general items. Personally, I would prefer all 10 hotkeys to be available for anything, so the player can choose how to align them. In this form it is a little restrictive, but hey, no big deal. All in all it looks good and easy to use.
The drag and drop on the grid system works as you would expect, easy and intuitive.
Cowboy Character Concept
Vittka created some cowboy themed concept art for potential outfits. In a game like Dead Matter it is very important to have a large variety of outfits, so players can choose which kind of role they want to embody.
Bandit Concept & Props
Kurisil has created concepts for bandit outfits and some bandit camp props.
Windows & Stairs
Dead Matter developer Chaoss has finished a set of windows for suburban houses as well as high poly stairways.
Service Rifle
3D Artist Dusty has been working on a new weapon, the "service rifle", which is based on the
Colt Canada C7 used by the Canadian Armed Forces. Like all weapons in Dead Matter it will be fully customizable.
New and Updated Trailers
3D Artist nomad has updated the trailers he showed us in the previous dev diary, adding some dirt and details to make them look a bit more used. On top of that, he also created a few new trailers which look very good and interesting. You can check them out below.
Vehicle Upgrades
Shirk has been busy working on vehicles, it is now possible to remove and add individual tires, winter and summer tires are a thing now, providing different levels of grip based on weather conditions.
Hitches are being added to connect the trailers. Hoods, trunks and doors can be opened, which will go along nicely with looting and salvaging. License plates will have randomly generated, unique numbers and different logos and texts. Definitely a nice touch to add that extra bit of realism. He also shared two short clips for you to check out (
here and
here) showing a working dashboard and vehicle lighting.
With all these extra features and the trailers, vehicles should be quite a bit of fun to use.
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As you can see there are 4 hotkeys for weapons and 6 for general items. Hotkeys 1-4 are reserved for weapons only and the rest are available for general items. Personally, I would prefer all 10 hotkeys to be available for anything, so the player can choose how to align them. In this form it is a little restrictive, but hey, no big deal. All in all it looks good and easy to use.
