DEVLOG 1: FALLNATION PROTOCOL IS ACTIVATED

Dear agents,

FallNation protocol is activated. Read the situation reports bellow.

• DevLog 2: Worldmap
• DevLog 3: Worldmap Interactive Tour
• Devlog 4: Working on the FPS
• Devlog 5: Soldier Stress Test, Faction Emblems and GUI
• Devlog 6: Doomsday Clocks

FallNation is a RPG Adventure in a post-apocalyptic world where survival of humanity depends on the battlefield. Death infection is everywhere. World is crowded of good damn soldiers, but it is the leadership what makes the real difference between a horrible defeat and the glory victory. That’s why you will not only have the Third Person Shooter view, but also the Tactical View to command your troops in a Real Time Strategyagainst all the menaces, including the living ones and the death others.

FallNation is the last resort government applies when Nation is already fallen and there’s no way back. As a Federal Agent, you will have access to secret facilities and emergency resources in a complete Worldmap with army management. Besides, there will be missions you must complete around the Worldmap. One advice: be wary of the events that are about to come. You have to be capable to manage every situation on your own behalf.

After releasing Project BlockchainZ and recently analyzed its results, this new protocol becomes operational in June. Keep in contact in our Discord Server.

News and updates are coming.

DEVLOG 2: REGIONAL EVALUATION

-- DEV NOTES --

Hello everybody,

Welcome to FallNation, a video game by ARF Initiative. This is Devlog N.2: Worldmap. Today we will talk about the Worldmap module, the basic movement you will do around the island and what you will find on it. Here you will see the location file, a document that will appear in the game to let you know the emplacement where action happens. Besides, you will see the Island Map and a few screens taken by a LR-Drone. Aligned with the story, at this moment we call this island Gamma 108, an undisclosed location, nearby the USA coasts. Gamma 108 represents a very big worldmap with many places to discover, including cities, settlements, military check-points and many other things. We designed this worldmap to enrich the gameplay experience. You will be able to move across G-108 and deal with the different factions and events in order to complete the mission. 

-- END OF DEV NOTES --

Welcome agent,

The firsts days following the Fall Nation protocol activation, several Explorations LR-Drones model IS were launched into different locations to find the best candidate to implement the FallNation protocol. After the CAT-5 EOWE (End Of The World Event) the only few feasible places are focused on islands poorly communicated with a well established infrastructure and mid-low population. One of the candidates is the island code name G-108. Right now the drones are exploring it. 

You agents must check  whether G-108 is the best candidate to execute the FN-Protocol. In order to do it, we strongly encourage you to fulfill the following report cautiously by following the instructions.  Remember this task is extremely important. G-108 can be selected, and if approved, then the field agents will be deployed.

Regional Evaluation

Location Transcription

G-108 first Evaluation

Location is classified. G-108 might be a strategic place for the government in order to apply the protocols. G-108 is not far away from the mainland and seems to have a heavy maritime traffic. There are more than ten cities in the island. Those cities are crowded of population. Infrastructures are very solids and road system connects every city among them. It would be necessary to take special efforts with settlements, because of their proximity to the roads. They are shorter of population than cities, but their civilians could play a special rol for the future. Bridges may offer special links with population, and also connect locations through the rivers. Taking the control of them would be a strong strategic point.

Further Information

Agents could manage their resources in the cities and settlements, including explorating, trading, dealing and applying the force needed to control every single location. Checkpoints could be strategic points to guarantee the mission. Taking control of the closest locations may be necessary for the strategy. Storages nearby the cities could be locations where agents might keep food, resources, special ammo, weapons and many other things. Some of them might be hidden.

Your mission in the Worldmap.

-- DEV NOTES --

Fulfilling your mission might be very simple to say but it won't be that easy to complete: you must ensure the survival of the humans and manage the hostile hazards. Hostiles can be human or not. The infection is spreading everywhere and you must use your resources with intelligence. Everything matters, you will be allowed to deal with people in the cities and settlements, and also fight the hostiles that hamper your goals. Obviously, among other things there will be an interesting inventory for your management, factions interactions, RPG system... but we'll talk about it in future devlogs.  (what about unicorns? xD).

Depending on your combats or your choices you will have one adventure or another and you would be closer to achieve your objectives. Or not.

Find allies, you will need them to survive. There will be diplomacy, you can create alliances with other factions or fight them.  Also you can train civilians for the battle or reclute mercenaries.

Like you ground on the island in a ship, there will be others. Be wary of those ships that not belong to the ARF Initiative. Not everybody will come in peace. 

-- END DEV NOTES --

Due to the nature of a CAT-5 EOWE federal agents must fulfill the checklist bellow to complete the Regional Evaluation  for the FallNation Protocol:

Locations Transcription

• Cities: Cities are the nurturing core of the island. Strong strategic points to make some trades with the population and rest in the barracks. Markets in the cities are a very useful places to buy weapons, shields and many other resources at disposal. There are places to find new missions, trade prisones and let your soldiers rest for a while.
• Settlements: Settlements are where the civilians might survive. Federal agents can find them friendly or hostile. It will be the agent's responsibility to manage every situation the best way possible. Diplomacy and trading may be important for the mission.
• Checkpoints: Checkpoints are near the roads and they could offer supplies to continue the mission. Approximate with caution, it could be controlled by hostiles. The more check-points the agents control, the more resources they will secure.
• Storages: If there's something that could kill enemies faster, they might be hidden in a storage. It could be a very special type of ammo prepared to kill enemies faster than usual. Some resources are very difficult to achieve but extraordinary powerful to accomplish the mission.
• Boats: Boats are arriving to the coast and it could be a huge danger for the mission. It is highly recommended to deal with them, so it might be good to design a good strategy to protect the island from the incoming hostiles.
• Bunkers: It is common to find Military Bases and also there might be some military points. Those military points use to have secret bunkers for emergency situations. It could be a priority to find those bunkers in order to establish a security perimeter around it.

Communications

This is not exactly a peace mission. The final candidate might might have hazards. Agents must get prepared to possibly suffer the brutality of the hostiles. But the hostiles are not the only one problem. The candidate island might be short of food, probably nobody is taking care of them and the most ruthless episodes in the human nature may come to light. Agents must be wary of the hazards.

Join ARF Initiative in Discord. Further information will be disclosed there first: https://discord.gg/PPAed7Z

[DevLog 3]: Worldmap Interactive Tour

Welcome everybody to a new Devlog about the upcoming video game FallNation. As we told you in our last devlogs FallNation will be available soon. And because we believe devlogs must have more interaction, here it is our G-108 Recon Mission (Worldmap interactive tour).

FallNation is a free-roaming army based RPG, mixing a worldmap-board game with Third Person Shooter battles and Real Time Tactics in a post-apocalyptic world where the survival of the mankind depends on you.    

https://itch.io/embed/429980

We have just launched on itch.io as an interactive tour of the FallNation Worldmap. We do think it’s really important to share our progress with you and so this release will let you taste the Worldmap we have designed.

In this interactive tour you can explore the Worldmap using a LR-IS Drone and if you succeed you will be rewarded with a secret prize for FallNation.

As you may imagine, this interactive tour is just an overview of the Worldmap of Fallnation. Please feel free to give us feedback or any suggestions. We are now working on FallNation.

Pdt.: Be careful with natives: they might be hostiles.

Pdt. 2: Don’t forget to join us on the ARF initiative Discord Server!

Enjoy, agents!

 

https://itch.io/embed/429980

[Devlog 4]: Working on the FPS

Hello everybody!

After some time working on FallNationvideo game, we are now here to bring you some news in these Devlog. As you might know from past devlogs, FallNation will be a free-roaming army based RPG, mixing a Worldmap stage and FPS battlefields with Real Time Tactics an adventures in the middle of an apocalyptic environment where the future of the mankind depends on you.

We've been working on the FPS, adjusting animations, aiming, shooting, reloading weapons... We really wanna make FPS feel natural, comfortable, realistic and funny over all of that. This is one of our main purposes in the development and we think it is going very good. Obviously, when we started developing FPS, we did not have zombies to kill yet, so we used some kinda manikins. Really helpful, indeed.

Once we started working on the FPS, we found manikins boring, so we decided to include zombies in our test, as you can see in the GIF above. That was the reason why Zombie Jane Idea came up. Zombie Jane works as a volunteer for weapon test and also FPS development. Zombie Jane's AI is still a bit poor, but she is doing her best. Even the fact that she doesn't know how to jump, she respects every collider we put in the battlefield.  

In our effort to make the game more challenging we have tested some mechanics. At this moment, one of our favorites is the noise mechanic. You have to be careful to not making so much noise, because you can attract hordes of zombies. The noise will be accumulated through the battle, so the stealthiest and the faster you are, normally will bring you the best result, as long as your main purpose is to go unnoticed.

For the purpose of development, we speed up the mechanic a bit, so even small noises will attract a horde, as you see in the GIF when we use the knife to obliterate Z-Jane  (she has many nicks) there is no problem, but if we use the rifle, that would be a bad movement, and a horde of zombies will attack you. So while playing you will have to take care of the noises in the battlefield.

This doesn't mean you can't use weapons during the battle mode (In the GIF we speed up the mechanic). The fact is that depending on your abilities killing the enemies and the weapons you choose, it may raise the level up so badly. And that's something you must have on mind.

What other mechanics would you like to see on the battlefield? we are excited to meet your suggestions.

As you might see, development is getting faster and we can say lore is growing up so much. This week we finally designed and named the factions, their armies and their leaders. The zombie concept is clear and simple but very powerful. Our first idea was to develop an island where the action takes place, but we decided that an island would not be enough. So it must be a whole continent, with a big nation. We defined it and bring it to life. It has to be a big continent full of people, cities and adventures. At the start we showed an island called G-108, because a game always illustrates it better than words. Now we will take a step further.

Finally, let us present you KAMAU, the continent. Situated in the Atlantic Ocean. Here you have the Worldmap.

What do you think about Kamau?

Just because a world needs some vegetation we have been testing the different solutions for vegetation Unity offers us, and why not? this is an apocalyptic game so... 1 +1 ...  tree apocalypse!!!

Next steps? well... we have a big ToDo list but firstly we will complete  the FPS and the lore and background story of Kamau, the different factions and their leaders...

Please, don't forget to join us on Discord. Updates are about to come first on Discord!

We really appreciate your support! Thanks for all, folks!

DEVLOG 5: SOLDIER STRESS TEST, FACTION EMBLEMS AND GUI

Hello everybody!

FallNation world is growing up so fast and we are excited to bring you some news this week. First of all, let us structure what is this Devlog about. We gonna talk about the soldiers AI, some stress tests we've been doing and how the characters reacted. We also bring you a big Lore update: factions are here! We'll present them to you with a short description and their emblem's iconography. And finally we will show you the first GUI screen of the game: the Start Menu. Keep on reading!

Soldiers, a lot of them. Hello darkness, my old friend.

Remember that moment while playing Project BlockchainZ and you stop by hundreds of zombies? That was a really cool battle, wasn't it?  In order to make a huge graphics improvement, we are now testing the number of soldier units that can appear at the same time in the battle (Its drawcalls, polycount and the time needed to render them). The more units that appear, the more entertainment for you, of course, so we will try to bring the more the better.

When developing games, we need to "create" or instantiated a lot of stuff, like units, bullet drops and much more things, the problem is that "creating" stuff requires to read and write on memory (really slow actions) so in order to reduce this hiccups we use "pools" that are places where we placed the objects that we will need beforehand, and also the ones we "destroy" (We really move them to the pools and deactivate them). A great example of this is our "members" pools, when you deal a lot of damage to a zombie it looses some parts... In a bloody battle that could be a lot of members, so we use the pool tool, and to make it clear we also made a visual example 

FallNation Factions

Kamau Nation is located in the North Atlantic Ocean, between North America, Russia and Europa. Previously populated by Natives and Nordic Tribes, finally colonized by the American, Britihs, French, Dutch, Turkis and Russia people. In 1890 with the Civil War, Kamau proclaimed its self-determination as a full independent Nation. the aftermath government form was a Parlamentary Republic and it last former Prime Minister was Eugene Barry.

The Fall of Kamau Nation started a long time ago with Patient Zero. The main theory was that a failure of a laboratory technician mixing samples of the Ophiocordyceps fungus contaminated his own blood, causing a symptomatic reaction that led to cardiac arrest, death body and neuronal resumption with severe behavioral abnormalities, since the loss of Human awareness of uncontrolled aggression and anger. Causing a rage reaction, as well as abnormal motor movements. This contagious disease began to be called The Red Death, for the characteristic blood color of the eyes of the infected people.

Just because the zero patient was in Kamau, its population was feared that other countries could take military action against them. The govern, through the Minister of Science Robert J. Peyton, displayed the problem and proposed along with the United Nations a repatriation and extradition law for all the infected people outside of Kamau. That law meant that any infected will be remain considered as human being, but with restrained freedom instead of a lost cause. In this way, the rest of the countries would respect Kamau (They need a place to send the infected people) as long as Kamau itself is able to managed the pandemic, they will be treated as a sovereign country, so for security reasons and border control purposes,  Eugene Barry authorized the Kamau army to take the control of the frontiers and strategic strongholds.

After some time the virus became a pandemic, infecting so many people that Kamau society itself cracked into different factions. The nature of each faction came from the different ways they appear and how they face The Red Death. On the one hand, the people of Kamau, commanded by the Govern of the Parlamentary Republic and the support of the Police Forces, chose the path of science and experimentation in order to find a cure. On their way of experimentation, they made some mistakes. Scientific tests with a  doubtfully morality and ethics were carried out. On the other hand was the Army of the Nation of Kamau. When the pandemic became uncontrollable and once Kamau Prime Minister Eugene Barry was murdered, the army commanded by General Quinton Hopper made a coup and establish the control of the territory through a Military Government, called itself The Hammer Society. Hopper maintained that an infected person was a threat and so had to be erradicated. That is how Ernerst Boers, Colonel of the Cerberus Division of Spec-Ops and right hand of the General, reluctant to Hopper's ideas to eradicate all those infected, and after a secret mission called the long dead, he made the decision to defect from the Hammer Society and founded his own Faction, a militarized force that considered the infected as humans,  and moreover as viable troops. They called itself the United Rebel Front (URF) and has the motto "One Man, One Gun" because Boers always says everyone should fight for themselves and are allowed to carry a weapon. Colonel Boers was one of the main supporters of the Extradition Law idea.

At this point, the Colonial Alliances are structured in semi-independent colonies, the United Rebel Front is formed by militias and The Hammer Society is formed by Divisions.

In the image above you can see the Factions Document, including emblems, descriptions and mottoes for every one. Next weeks we will present you every faction individually. Hope you like them and as always, any suggestion will be welcome. We are creating an exciting and interesting background for the video game and we'll appreciate your help!

GUI. Start Menu.

What does a video game need to have a nice user experience? We're sure the first answer will be gameplay, and that's certainly true. But user interface is extremely important in order to understand what he sees and how it feels.

This is a very strong point for a FPS game, but also for all the strategy games, because they usually have a lot of features, mechanics and information that you need to manage and understand in order to enjoy the game as better as possible.

There are good examples out there. The Division, for example, has a very nice diegetic integration of the HUD, mixing only two colors: dark blue and orange. it is true that there might be some grey color in its GUI, but primary colors in the GUI color palette are those two. Warface is another good example. They do as The Division GUI and applied the same key points to its own game. Is not about copying one to other, but taking good ideas as inspiration. With those kind of games in mind we started designing our GUI. We had the idea of how we wanted to make our GUI: clear and minimalist. To do that, we have decided to use dark blue for the Start Menu, combined with some yellow to enhance the importance of what the player touches and sees.

This is a WIP draft of our FallNation Start Menu based in a clear and minimalist GUI:

(Yeah, it's only black and blue right now, but we are not going to show our cards so soon!)

As you can see, FallNation development is on fire! We are so excited to show you these news and hope you enjoy them as much as us. Don't forget to join us on the  ARF Initiative Discord Server, we are now discussing about this devlog and the recent others. Have fun and enjoy video games!

Devlog 6: Doomsday Clocks

Hello everybody,

This is a new devlog about one of the most interesting features in FallNation video game: Doomsday Clocks. These clocks are based in four main problems that if they get out of control you will loose the game. Say hello to the horsemen: War, Hunger, Death and Plague:

FallNation Doomsday Clocks

• War. After years of conflict in Kamau region, the foreign powers are worried about the possibility of loosing the control of the situation in Kamau. That's why if the nation falls, there must be necessary to purge Kamau by using the force. You, as an ARFi Agent should encourage the stability of the region and avoid unnecessary battles. If you fail, confront the worst.
• Hunger. The borders are closed and the local food production are barely enough for anyone. If food production centers continue to be damaged, there will be no food or future for anyone. Try to keep the food production facilities working in order to feed the population.
• Death. Many people have died. If the carnage continues, there will be nobody to rebuild Kamau. Ensure that the casualties are not too high and remember, deads could become your enemies. Keep an eye on them.
• Plague. It's about the Red Death. If it gets out of control, the only way out will be the total annihilation. Huge cargo ships full of zombies are arriving to the coasts and also the old time bustling cities now are full of zombies. You must fight them until the end.

These clocks will work as challenge meters. You will suffer these clocks during the gameplay (both Worldmap and Battlefield). The nearer the midnight, the worse. For example, if the Plague Clock is near the midnight, the map will be crowed of zombies. When a Clock advances, catastrophe might happen, for example when Hunger Catastrophe happens the raiders may organize in huge raids.  And remember, If any of the Doomsday Clocks reaches the midnight, you loose the game.

FallNation - Soldier in Solitude

Doomsday Clock in real life (TM)

The Doomsday Clocks became an initiative promoted by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. It has always symbolically represented how much is left for humanity to destroy the planet.

The last time that it was updated it was placed 2 minute before midnight (representing the apocalypse) due to the simultaneous threats of nuclear weapons, the climate change and multiple viral diseases. Humanity is in a period of instability that faces with concern at the growing evolution of the Doomsday Clocks. 

Bulleting of the Atomic Scientist.

Doomsday Clocks in Kamau

When we designed the Doomsday Clocks, we were inspired in the real life one (TM).

Due to the last events in Kamau, the Doomsday Clocks are near the end. With this uncertainty and imminent danger and the breaking news of The Red Death changed all. The Red Death is a pandemic that strikes the entire Kamau continent and ravages its citizens.

Kamau is closer to the midnight. The Red Death expands throughout the Nation. The social, governmental and military sectors have broken down severely and the war is on the agenda. The whole continent is in quarantine. Civilization agonizes for a plate lunch. Kamau has completely broken and Red Death is about to explode around the world. Is it possible to control the Doomsday Clocks? It's necessary. It's your duty (great Projects will come in future devlogs).

FallNation - The Ambush

The four clocks are strongly interconnected, so managing them is increasingly complex. If you try to cut one of the clocks, its implications may directly affect other clocks. For example, when trying to end the war between the different factions of Kamau, the plague and death clocks might increase, since all wars entail human casualties and in Kamau, a continent with a strong presence of Red Death, the zombies are strongly altered by the noise that war causes, generating hordes of them attacking mercilessly wherever they pass.

The Kamau Nation is dying. Will you be capable to manage the Doomsday Clocks? It's necessary. It's your duty.

FallNation development continues! Don't forget to join us on the  ARF Initiative Discord Server, we are now discussing about this devlog and the recent others. Have fun and enjoy video games!