An Easter Treat: Massive Alpha Update!

Hi all, we hope those of you who celebrate have had a lovely Easter Sunday!

In case you've somehow missed it: The THG Alpha is AVAILABLE NOW for Patrons! Stokers and Bakers have access to the gantry and the ship structure (as it currently stands) within, as well as a shed. Deckhands and all tiers above that have access to EVERYTHING, including the rest of the adjacent yard, plus the surrounding scenery, and now Olympic! Remember, you'll need to sign into Patreon via the in-game menu to access the content.

DOWNLOAD the THG Alpha via this post or on the Patrons' Lounge server: https://www.patreon.com/posts/154880093

We've been hard at work putting more of the Alpha together, and this latest build is the biggest yet. We'll let the images in the above slideshow speak for themselves! Below is a list of improvements and content additions.

Content Updates:

• NPCs have been added! They just roam around, but in the future we hope for them to be a little more complex in behavior.

• The surrounding city now had buildings and trees populating the terrain. These are super low detail and quickly-placed, but the effect they have on things is huge, especially at night when things are lit up.

• Buildings and sheds have been added to the outer yard area. These would be the various other structures that were part of Harland and Wolff and also the adjacent Workman Clark yards. Again, low detail stuff, but their presence (also especially at night) really improves things. The views from the gantry are much cooler now!

• A few items have been added here and there, such as mobile steam cranes, the main yard gate, and more.

• A Diana statue has been added in the offices for you to play around with the "pick up and inspect" feature. Pit it up, inspect it, rotate it, and out it back, drop it, or chuck it from the gantry - your choice.

• For Stokers and Bakers, the remainder of the structure available so far has been added.

• Last but not least, Olympic has been re-added with some improvements! It wasn't supposed to be accessible, but we made it so anyway. We trust you'll be able to find your way on board.

Improvements/Tweaks:

• NPCs and the player now have footstep sounds. It's not a complex system yet, but apparently the sounds do adjust to the weather (crunching snow, etc).

• The Freecam mode has some improvements, including the ability to disable collision and to turn on a light to see in darker places while in Freecam. Press P to toggle Freecam and press Escape while in Freecam to see a list of controls.

• Ladder blueprints have been added in some places, namely the overhead cranes on the gantry and on Olympic. Walk up to a ladder and click, then press W to climb.

• Weather masks might be fixed now, so snow won't appear inside buildings. However, they still need adjusting.

As for what's next:

We're going to try to get this thing out to legacy backers before the team begins departing for the April events on the Queen Mary. Once we're there, we'll be far too busy to work on the Alpha. Work won't pick up again until after we're back home, with the last of us getting back by the 20th. In the meantime, you'll all be able to enjoy what's here so far!

The exterior side of things is pretty much taken care of. However, yard building interiors are still empty and will be fitting with furnishings, props, and Titanic objects in the month or so after we get back to work. Once that's set and we've made tweaks and fixes based on your feedback, we'll be ready for the full public release of the Alpha. For now, have fun!