I am really interested in learning how much players will be able to interact with their immediate environment as any such element adds both depth and skill to the module. Will we see the use of controlled explosions from grenades or even fire extinguishers to help propel players & NPCs in various directions or perhaps even launch objects at an oncoming enemy?asked by Kommadore
TL;DRYes, the FPS has plenty of environmental interaction, such as EMP grenades darkening rooms, switchable gravity, doors, vaulting, and a force propulsion grenade that pushes players, especially useful in zero-G.
Yes. We actually have a lot of interaction with the environment. It's one of the things that is very cool about the FPS because like so much of what we do, what we're doing in this one module applies to the universe at large. It's like an R&D test bed for what we're going to be doing in the rest of the persistent universe. For example, on Gold Horizon - a James Cameron Alien-esque feeling space station - you walk into the cafeteria for example and you throw an EMP grenade in there. It detonates and you can see as the pulse wave goes out, all the lights along will shatter. All the screens will be disrupted, and it will end up darkening the entire room so you can sneak in there if you want to. So, there's a lot of interesting ways that you can interact with the environment - you can turn on and off gravity on the gravity generators, you can open and close doors/ammo boxes, there is vaulting, mantling, you can slide into cover. So, there's a lot of different ways you, as a player - both from a game-changing perspective but also just animation and immersion in the world movement - really interact with the environment and that's only going to get more so. I mean, you talk about fire extinguishers to help propel the player and interestingly one of our weapons, it's a bit unique, is a force propulsion grenade which is essentially just a concussive blast wave that's meant to propel players and it imparts a physics push on all of the players. And with our new articulated entity ragdoll system, depending on where it hits and how much force it has at that distance from the grenade, it will impart a different level of push back and so while it may seem like kind of a lame grenade when you could just throw a frag grenade vs a force propulsion grenade, when you're in zero-G it becomes super effective, which is really fun to see. It's that kind of dynamic behaviour that makes the module so interesting and so much fun and seeing how that would play out in the persistent universe is really fun too.