Aug 15, 2024
Progress Report #2
The last progress report was two weeks ago, so it’s time for another round of insights into the development progress of Days of Defiance. We’ve been busy, and here’s with what.
Drug Labs
There are now a number of secret labs all across the country, producing a mysterious drug that █████ ████████ ██ ████ ███ █████ ████ ████████. We’ve also added a new quest that revolves around these labs and what their true purpose is, along with a few new dialogue lines for already existing characters to help you discover the labs’ locations.
You should be on the lookout for these, we promise it’ll be worth it. They’re well guarded, though, so it’s a good idea to gear up before going anywhere near them.
Helmet Attachments
Speaking of gear, there’s more of it now. Specifically, we implemented the option to add attachments to helmets. The first one of these that’s in the game right now is a kit for night vision goggles that lets you see in the dark and improves your squad’s vision range at night.
Why is this useful? Because a regular set of night vision goggles would take up the only slot for facial gear, blocking it for any other useful facial equipment like gas masks and respirators. With the ability to attach some of these items to your helmet instead, you keep the slot available for additional gear.
Dynamic Loadouts
Lastly, and this is a big milestone, we implemented intel-based dynamic loadouts for enemy fighters. What does that mean? Depending on the difficulty setting of the game, enemies gather intelligence on your play style. That includes the types of weapons you use, the tactics you employ, and the skills you make use of. And a couple things more. If an enemy fighter manages to escape from a battle, they’ll pass that information on and squads you fight in the future will be equipped with gear to counter your moves. Use smoke grenades a lot? Enemies will start wearing gas masks. Hunker down behind cover all the time? They are going to use smoke grenades and explosives to draw you out. Switching up your tactics is an important part of staying ahead now.
The reason why this is an important milestone is because with this task done, we completed all the coding work on the game. Of course there are still lots of bugs to fix and the odd function to tweak, but apart from that, all that’s left to do is create the remaining content: quests, dialogue and characters related to those quests, and all the locations that are still unfinished.
Currently, about half of all the planned quests are done, but the remaining half comes with a lot of additional characters and locations. That and all the writing that’s needed for those interactions is sure going to keep us busy for the next few months.
And that is all we have for today. If you haven’t done so already, wishlist the game on Steam or the Epic Games Store or follow us on Instagram and X to be notified about new blog posts and news on Days of Defiance.