Sunday 29 September 2019

DF2 Roadmap: Open World & New Content

Recent Updates
As most of you are aware I made a return to Dead Frontier 2 development back in July and since then I feel like the game has come a long way. A lot of old players have returned and thousands of new ones are signing up each day. For those of you who missed it:
  • Outpost Attacks were added
  • 12 new weapons were added
  • A lot of new cosmetic options were added to the shop
  • You can now continue to fill your EXP bar and get rewards at the level cap
  • Auto-Map was added, making buildings far easier to navigate
  • PvP Ranking & Reward system was added
  • EXP gain was increased and levels were adjusted to drastically reduce the amount of grind
  • Ammo loots were doubled making guns a lot more viable for most situations
  • Marketplaces and Account Stashes were linked together
  • We now have weekend events
  • We've translated the game into 8 languages so far and more are on the way
  • A ton of Bug Fixes, Optimisation, Balance and QoL improvements have been made

Whilst I feel like the game has already come a long way in these past couple of months, I think there is still a ton more than needs to be done. At this stage I think the game's biggest weakness is that the world still feels very small/cramped, that there isn't much variety and that there simply isn't enough content of all kinds (building types, weapons, clothing, monsters, bosses etc).

So my plan for the next round of updates is to address these main issues with the following:

Open World
Open World has been suggested a lot, and in the past I resisted the idea mainly because I was honestly a little afraid of the amount of work involved, having been massively burnt-out from the original development. However I'm now feeling better than ever and ready to take on a big challenge such as this. I've already done some preliminary testing and I'm confident that I can make this happen.

To clarify, Open World will mean that you'll be able to walk around the entire outdoor game world without loading points or fade outs. In addition, the game world will be many times larger than what we have currently and have many more buildings. I'll also attempt to expand on the variety of the outdoor scenery, including things like forests, parks and other rural locations.

Buildings themselves will stay the same for now. They will still be broken up into individual rooms that load separately. I may change this in the future, but for now I'm just focusing on the outdoor areas.

I think this will make the game feel a lot more realistic and will add a nice sense of exploration that DF2 currently lacks.

I haven't fully decided how this update will affect cars yet. The most likely situation is that they'll just be used to fast travel between large outposts. I would like to eventually make them properly drivable but I don't want to get too far ahead of myself just yet :)

Barricading
This was always something I wanted to add to DF2, but I always struggled with why players would actually need to do it. Why do you need a personal outpost when you can instantly drive to DPD when you need something? However with the Open World update travelling will actually be something that takes considerable time/resources, which means that Personal Outposts will be far more useful. Therefore I'll aim to get barricading into the game very shortly after completing the Open World update.

Level 30-50 Content
I've already set the ball rolling on getting new zombies and bosses created for the next 20 levels of content. Here are just some of the early concept sketches:













In addition to new enemies, I'll be looking to add another 30+ weapons to the game including assault rifles and chainsaws. New clothing and armour will also be added to the lineup, along with roughly double the number of building types to explore.


World Bosses
Something else I really want to add in the next few months are large scale World Boss battles. In a similar way to the Outpost Attacks, these will require the entire DF2 population to come together to defeat a gargantuan beast that will appear at set times during the day.

Wandering Bosses
I'm currently planning to add two new special boss types. One which will be almost impossible to kill, and will follow you through multiple rooms/locations. You'll almost always need need to run & hide in order to survive the encounter. I'm also planning to add a creature that will actually run and hide from you. You'll need to catch it and kill it to earn a special reward :-)

What's the ETA for all this?
I'm afraid I can't give you any precise times for these. 30-50 content and new bosses require new enemy designs, but those will probably take 2-3 months just to get all the artwork finished so I wouldn't expect that to drop until early next year. While the artists are working I'll be focused on the Open World/Barricading and I hope to at least have a single player version of it to test out within the next 3-4 weeks. Beyond that though it's really hard to say.

Whilst I'm working on all of this in the background I will still try to make small updates/improvements to the game each week so that you guys at least know I'm still alive :)

Here we go
I hope you find all of the above as exciting as I do! I really can't wait to see how the game will evolve over the next year or so and I hope you guys will come along with for me for the ride.

If you want to stay updated on how things progress please consider joining our Discord (30k members and growing): https://discordapp.com/invite/deadfrontier2

Play DF2 on Steam:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/744900/Dead_Frontier_2/

Thanks,
Neil

21 comments:

  1. Ahem....... fuck....yes

    Watching the run up to, the release, the bit after that we don't wanna talk about, the second wind, and recent ongoings with this game all i want to say to you Neil is. In this slew of games that is released yearly on the gaming market from AAA games to the literal shit that is put out, your game is unique, well made and fun to play, i am glad you got that second wind and i look forward to seeing where it goes, i love this game, i love what you are doing with it, and i only hope that you continue with your image of the game and make it the best you and we believe it can be.

    I know a lot of the community are vocal about a lot of things, but i hope that doesn't sway you to try and please everyone and burn out again cause honestly i believe you know whats best for your game and that you will make it perfect if not near to.

    I am just one player out of thousands but i wanted to put in my 2 pence about how much i appreciate you bringing forth an experience that i have been able to enjoy and will continue to enjoy for many hours and hopefully years.

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  2. nice an open world zombie apocalypse has finally decided thats what they really want " a survivor needs to survive" thats the concept of the game. With the massive world with full of zombies surely the game will success.

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  3. Hey Admin i have a question... are you planning to add sirens to the game? they are so nice to attract zombies hordes ir order to make grind easier, but also to prepare more strategies to take her down at looting trips, im thinking at the possibilities in an open world feature rather than the actual one, im really excited to see this mob in the future, thanks in advantage for reading and i wish the best at the next development months!

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  4. This is great! I'm glad to see you're back at it.

    However, an Automap / Minimap (we should be able to display it while moving) doesn't solve the issue of the horribly clunky outposts. The problem is that it takes such a long time to find every NPC just to see if they may or may not have a quest, when you group with friends it takes 5-10 minutes of headache inducing interior circling to get all quested up.

    It would be better for immersion to have some kind of UI so you can jump into the meat of the game right away... instead of fighting the NPC quest lists or trying to click on the trader with five players blocking your way. Just a list of the NPCs within the outposts with maybe a picture to show what they look like and even a sketch of the target location. It would really be a lot easier to use and less cheap-feeling.

    Also at least part of the problem is almost every single quest boils down to "search the entire building room by room," which becomes mentally exhausting very fast. You need to narrow down the search area somehow, I feel.

    Anyway, keep up the good work!

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  5. I can say one thing....... you are doing good job to improve this game. We can see in last updates a lot of your work and I think if you continue in doing that, then Dead frontier 2 will be best Zombie FPS game at all time.

    As I look on your plans, it looks like a big challenge and you bringing a lot of choices in this game. But I have one question: Can you bring new missions into this game?? Those quests they arent so bad,but when you doing those quests for a week or longer, they become annoying. I think it will be more interesting for everyone if you bring quests like: Decrease number of burning(or others) Zombies, Find and escort person from town, Killing Choir(or different boss) in Haverbrook (or elsewhere)....... something like that.

    Please dont take this as hate or something like that. Just telling my opinion.

    Again congrats for your progress. Its fantastic when you see, how is this game getting better and better. Good luck in your work and good hunting everyone

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  6. Neil, I've posted many times but I need to post again. You are awesome. I will stick with Dead Frontier 2 till the end, just like I have stuck with DF1 since the 2D days. Good luck and well done.

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  7. Neil,

    Just wanted to let you know that I'm absolutely hooked on this game and that your hard work is very much appreciated. Very much looking forward to more updates, I think this will be one of the few games I stick with for quite awhile. You're right in track with the roadmap man, keep it up!

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  8. Hi Niel. Long time fan first time writer. I just wanted to say that DF got me through a lot of shit back in the day. I was ecstatic to see that you came back to developing DF2 . I can really feel the love you put into this game. Thank you So much for your continued work

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  9. Honestly this is amazing to hear. I look forward to the fantastic journey this game takes. Thank you for making it!

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  10. Hi Neil,

    This is such welcome news. 2 of my friends gave up on the game when you stopped updating it. And I told them I will wait for you to return.
    I even renamed our WhatsApp group "I wait Neil".

    And now you have came back is very good news.

    I have started playing again already, love the map feature and am eagerly awaiting all the future content to follow.

    You should make the cosmetics easier to buy as a set.
    Like list them in a bundle with the preview button. Maybe reduce the price slightly to encourage a larger buy.

    Thanks Neil!

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  11. Hi Neil!

    I'm glad to see this post!
    I'm so excited with all these proposal and happy to have you with us again!

    You are in the right way now! Go on! We will support you with anything! Even $$$ if you need!
    I'm an older player of Dead frontier, and I always love your originality! Keep it! Make the game based on your way!

    And a suggest? You can add Gold member like DF 3d to DF2, the real players that want to enjoy all the game, will pay! And you need that money to keep the development of the game and the development of your life!

    Pay-to-win do not affect the whole game because the main objective of this game, is PVE.
    You just need to keep your attention to Money do not affect so much the PVP.

    Anyway, keep in this way!
    Congrats!

    Thanks!

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  12. Hi Again Neil!

    I have one suggest, I think that others players already requested it to you about it, but I feel that this is one of the urgencies to keep the players more connected in the game.
    Images!
    Images in all items, in inventory, shop... When we are playing, we just see words for now, and need to read and read, and that take us away from the game universe.
    The images keep the game universe connected to us, the visual is so much important now and I think that this will cause a big difference.

    Please, consider it.

    Thanks and best regards!
    LKsAlves.

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  13. So glad this game is still being developed its awesome. Thanks for spending the time to make the Halloween content as well pumpkin head zombie janks look crazy love it.

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  14. Hi Niel,

    Please, many player are requesting to you, remove the worms, please! this not add nothing to game, just cause more angry, ad more dificult zombies, and remove worms if its possible.

    Thanks and best regards!

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  15. Именно здания, а не улица требует доработки. Хотя бы каждый этаж нужно сделать монолитной локацией, как это было в первой части. Но это лишь моё скромное мнение. Я рад, что ты вернулся.

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  16. I’ve been playing DF1 on and off since I was a kid. Seeing this post gives me nostalgia because it’s essentially the rebirth of the original DF1. I can see the potential this game has and I can’t wait for whats to come. Good work Adminpwn, keep it up.

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  17. Hey man! Long time DF1 player from back in the day. I just found about about Dead Frontier 2 and logged on for the first time tonight. I am impressed with what you've been able to accomplish with the game so far and am looking forward to future updates! Keep up the good work!!

    -Andres

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  18. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  19. So you want a reason for barricading yourself in places? Because sometimes you want to god damn CHILL somewhere safe. The only safe places outside of outposts is where an NPC is squatting at, I'd like to be able to do the same and stop zombies from spawning in.

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