zeekerss - The epic giga-scrap modeling session
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Hello, I've managed to do something quite impressive (for me) over the past two weeks: model about 17 new unique scrap items, many of which feel less gimmicky and out-of-place than some of the scrap that's been added in past updates, while still being just as unique. Along with the scrap I modeled in November of last year but never released, this adds up to a whopping 22 for the next update.
I've been torn between distributing the scrap among all the moons so that each moon has a unique scrap item, or making it all common scrap so that the common scrap pool isn't so puny. Right now it's something in-between, where each moon has a couple likely new scrap items and then can spawn any of the others at decreased odds. But I think I'm more on the side of just making this scrap all fairly common across all the moons, with a couple outliers being the exception.
I don't want to spoil all the scrap. There are a couple with silly gimmicks which I am quite happy with. Mostly just cute animations and noises. All this scrap has unique sound effects as well, so it feels quite complete. (I have begun to loathe the reused metal clangs of the metal sheets and cogs, and I am this close to changing that too!!)
We're playtesting while I work on hammering out issues with Grugga now. I was considering widening the min/max value gap of a lot of scrap so that scanning it to see its value feels more consequential, since right now the difference between two scrap items of the same type is often just 10 or 15 bucks. Or at least that's how it feels. Besides that, what else is there to say about scrap? Oh, mineshaft interior is going to lose its scrap bonus since that feels way too generous now.
The hardest part of disciplining yourself to get work done, to me anyways, is not in the middle of a task. It's between tasks, when you're done with one thing and have to start up something new. That sometimes helps to explain why something like making scrap is so difficult for me when it feels like it should be so simple--because it actually includes so many different tasks/stages that you rapidly move through, like conceptualizing, then making the base model, then UV unwrapping, then texturing, then putting it into the game, which involves scaling it to the right size, setting it up and positioning it in the player's arms, then making sound effects for it, then coding any unique behavior or animating it.
All of those steps are moments where I have an excuse to take a break. Or, more insidiously, those are traps for the executive functioning part of my brain, where it fails to recognize that the worker part of my brain has already finished its task and is waiting for new commands; so I sit there fiddling and pretending to "get back to work" over and over while totally fooling myself.
Now I'm coming to another big limbo between major tasks, but I've been pretty good about sleep and feel equipped to jump right into the next thing.
Hello, I've managed to do something quite impressive (for me) over the past two weeks: model about 17 new unique scrap items, many of which feel less gimmicky and out-of-place than some of the scrap that's been added in past updates, while still being just as unique. Along with the scrap I modeled in November of last year but never released, this adds up to a whopping 22 for the next update.
I've been torn between distributing the scrap among all the moons so that each moon has a unique scrap item, or making it all common scrap so that the common scrap pool isn't so puny. Right now it's something in-between, where each moon has a couple likely new scrap items and then can spawn any of the others at decreased odds. But I think I'm more on the side of just making this scrap all fairly common across all the moons, with a couple outliers being the exception.
I don't want to spoil all the scrap. There are a couple with silly gimmicks which I am quite happy with. Mostly just cute animations and noises. All this scrap has unique sound effects as well, so it feels quite complete. (I have begun to loathe the reused metal clangs of the metal sheets and cogs, and I am this close to changing that too!!)
We're playtesting while I work on hammering out issues with Grugga now. I was considering widening the min/max value gap of a lot of scrap so that scanning it to see its value feels more consequential, since right now the difference between two scrap items of the same type is often just 10 or 15 bucks. Or at least that's how it feels. Besides that, what else is there to say about scrap? Oh, mineshaft interior is going to lose its scrap bonus since that feels way too generous now.
The hardest part of disciplining yourself to get work done, to me anyways, is not in the middle of a task. It's between tasks, when you're done with one thing and have to start up something new. That sometimes helps to explain why something like making scrap is so difficult for me when it feels like it should be so simple--because it actually includes so many different tasks/stages that you rapidly move through, like conceptualizing, then making the base model, then UV unwrapping, then texturing, then putting it into the game, which involves scaling it to the right size, setting it up and positioning it in the player's arms, then making sound effects for it, then coding any unique behavior or animating it.
All of those steps are moments where I have an excuse to take a break. Or, more insidiously, those are traps for the executive functioning part of my brain, where it fails to recognize that the worker part of my brain has already finished its task and is waiting for new commands; so I sit there fiddling and pretending to "get back to work" over and over while totally fooling myself.
Now I'm coming to another big limbo between major tasks, but I've been pretty good about sleep and feel equipped to jump right into the next thing.
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