In our previous Devblog, we talked about things that were heavily work in progress that won't be ready for awhile. Today, we're going to be discussing features that you will be seeing very soon. We will be outlining our plan to transition from the combat focused prototype to new prototype that will contain gameplay elements that are more representative of the core concept of Foxhole.
All features discussed here are subject to change at any time during development.
Transition to the Open World
Over the next 1-2 months, we will be transitioning from the "Combat Prototype" to what we are internally referring to as the "Open World Prototype". This will be an iterative process where you will see more open world features added with each update.
Here are some things to expect from the process:
The playable area of the map will become much larger
The game's pace will become MUCH slower
Combat will be much more infrequent and there will be more of an emphasis on production, building, supply, and planning
During early iterations, the world may feel barren and the gameplay may possibly feel mundane until we get certain features integrated
We will introduce new gameplay mechanics including campsites, player constructed outposts, passive defenses, production, character persistence, and collaborative building
We will possibly be exploring additional features like vehicles and field guns
As mentioned earlier, this expansion will happen in stages. In a near future update, we will be expanding the playable area to small portion of the open world. This will be roughly 6 times larger than what's available in the Combat Prototype in terms of surface area.
Here is screenshot of a new small town that will be part of the new playable area.
Here is an aerial view of a WIP version of the new playable area.
Campsites
This will be a new buildable structure that will serve two purposes. Firstly, you will be able to spawn at your campsite, allowing you to establish a front line that is far away from your Outpost. Secondly, your campsite will also allow you to stash items away that will be persist between play sessions. You will only be able to build one campsite at a time.
Passive Defenses
This will be a category of structures that players can build to fortify an area when there are no online players nearby to help defend. The first passive defense structure in the game will be a new version of the Foxhole.
We plan to develop passive defenses in two phases.
Phase 1
In the first phase, they will be fully automated, meaning you can build it and they will fire by themselves without any additional player interactions. They will also have unlimited ammo. However, this is a stand in solution that we hope to replace when our player population grows.
Phase 2
Once there are enough players in the world, we want to remove the automation and require that players occupy passive defenses in order for them to work. Specifically, we want players to man these defenses when they log out of the game, so that they effectively feel like their in-game character is still in the world, defending a base or the front line. As much as possible we want all aspects of the game to feel player driven and we feel that if there is a soldier inside a Foxhole firing at enemies, that soldier should to some degree have been directed by a player (vs being a "magical" NPC that appears). We also want to make passive defenses have limited ammo eventually, requiring players to use a supply line to keep them in operation.
Production
We will be introducing resource generation and weapon production.
Manufacturing Plant
These structures will be used to generate building materials and they will exist in towns and other areas of the world. This will be the only way to get building materials for now as players will no longer spawn with them. Eventually, we may consider different types of building materials and manufacturing plants (e.g. wood/lumber mill), but for now there will only be one.
Armory
This is where players will produce all their weapons (other than starting gear) and ammo. These structures will also be found in the world. Building materials will be required to make weapons and multiple items can be queued up for production.