Hail Elyrians!

The shiniest of days is here! I have to say, the shine of the day aside, it has been an odd one for this here Snipehunter. There's a palpable buzz in the air as the Outreach team, Caspian, Vye, and I myself handle some near-final work on a very important project. So the day has been spent less in review of what's been going on this week, as is normally my want, and more in poring over every square meter of land in very large maps and looking at thousands upon thousands of settlements to make sure everything is hunky dory.

Which means that I didn't really have a shiny in mind for today the way I might normally. That said, some cool stuff has been happening on the pre-alpha side of our efforts. The design team has been focusing on combat intensely for several months now, and this sprint was no exception. However, this week the focus was on martial arts styles rather than combat itself. Supporting martial arts requires a few things you might not consider immediately:

On the one hand, we need to make sure that players can use multiple styles, of course, but on the other we need to make sure that the rest of the world's fighters have the same ability. And even for the player, we have to make sure that the knowledge base shows you the martial styles you do know in a way that's useful for you. So this week, work was done to enhance the ability to switch to a new martial style, the UI to display the martial styles you know, and the AI's ability to actually use martial styles of their own.

The content team has been working on some cool stuff of their own too! Last week you might have caught a glimpse of them already, but this week, we put in the low-fidelity versions of the To'reshian buildings in the tropical wetlands and they look pretty good!

Personally I love the roof lines and the buildings that are built out over the water. There are a few things we still want to do, but I already love the way they look in the sun.

The interiors look pretty good, though a lot of what makes the To'resk shine isn't as apparent at this fidelity level as I'd like. Even so, stuff looks pretty cozy!

I also love the way the lighting I mentioned last week has been incorporated here. Even in the dead of night, the To'resk stand out from the Neran or other tribes because of their focus on aesthetics.

Stay shiny my friends!