Fixed some small bugs and added mouse controls support similar to keyboard/gamepad when interacting with ceretain game elements (mostly items)

It all starts with new legs, like ones inspired by the kangaroo and insects, but the old walking system just couldn’t handle them. So I rebuilt the system from the ground up, with shorter iteration times and way more polish. Now animals can hop, climb steep terrain, and even walk with insect or reptile-style legs. But this is only the beginning: the real theme of the update is hidden in the first episode…

I have been insanely busy with my regular work, but also made really good progress on Path to Prosperity. I have implemented a lot of new mechanics, including a new version of consumption buildings, so today I’ll talk a little about that.

Before I go into the details, let me get back to something I mentioned before: Now that plant clusters are the main source of seeds and are randomly placed in the world, your expansions define your access to resources, and are a lot more relevant. Or should be. However, at the moment, the majority of resources are fairly interchangeable. All resources are more or less relevant only for selling, and consequently, anything you find will come down to having found money. This is a remnant of when the game was still meant to be in faster paced PvP matches, where we did not want the randomness to affect the game to the point of losing. However, the game is PvE now, and much more slow paced - so the randomness can have much longer lasting effects.

The way in which this will happen is through development points. Most resources will have a process by which they can be turned into a consumption good, and consumption goods can be provided to your citizens for development points. DevPoints won’t scale with quantity like selling them - if you provide one cigar to your citizens, you will get some DevPoints for that - but you won’t get more DevPoints for providing a second cigar. This is where having access to a variety of resources will allow you to get more DevPoints faster, as providing some coffee and a cigar will give more points. 

Providing consumption goods to your villagers will happen through consumption buildings. For example, the General Goods store will provide furniture (and some other goods) to all people in its range. For now, I decided that this will happen in a fairly simple way: The General Goods store has a set range, and uses a set amount of products (1 furniture per minute). Any villagers whose houses are within range of the General Goods store when it has furniture in its inventory will then generate development points. This will happen at different rates for different goods. Furniture currently requires 500 “villager minutes” to generate one development point, while more advanced goods will require fewer. This means, if there is a single small house with two villagers in range of the General Goods store, it will take 250 minutes and 250 furniture to generate one point. If there are 25 houses with 50 residents in range, it will only take 10 minutes and 10 furniture to generate one point - so where you build will become very important, and upgrading houses is definitely encouraged. 

Development points are generated per village, so your main village will likely have many residents and points, while your mining village will generate fewer points. Development points can then be used to unlock research of buildings and new recipes, and to upgrade villages. Upgrading villages will allow you to place buildings of the next tier - so don’t expect to be placing a large stone house as the only building in a village in the future - placing large houses will only be possible in settlements that are sufficiently developed. 

For now, I have created the consumption mechanic, and development points can be generated and saved per village. I have also created a basic settlement level mechanic, and a research mechanic that allows the unlocking of buildings with development points. However, most of this is currently possible only through developer commands, so I will have to jump into the dreaded area of creating some decent UI to make all of this accessible from a reasonable player perspective. I will keep you updated!

Until next time!

• New zoomed in battles for single-target actions

• New slide ability in Erindos

• Clearer turn readability via updated indicator portraits

• Fixes and polish across combat, UI, and level geometry

• Single-target actions now trigger a close-up view to improve combat readability.

• Added new attack, hit, and reaction animations to enhance combat visuals.

• Sound effects and Music are still a work in progress.

• You can now use a slide while exploring Erindos.

• Provides a slight burst of speed for traversal.

• Sound effect is still a work in progress.

• Unit portraits in battle desaturate noticeably after a unit has acted.

• Makes it easier to see who still has an action remaining at a glance.

• Filled a gap between the castle wall and stair geometry in Erindos that could trap the player. Extra stone added and collision adjusted.

• Damage numbers now display full calculated damage rather than being capped by remaining HP. Overkill is reflected correctly.

• Various minor fixes and polish to UI, animation states, and level collision.

• A new Battlemaster NPC has arrived in Erindos. They will mention that an Arena 1v1 mode is in development.

• The mode is real-time action combat in third person, using the same camera style as Erindos exploration.

• More details and a playable first pass are planned for a future update.

The latest update is here, bringing more variety and more ways to fight for survival.

• Enemies evolve: vulnerabilities, resistances, and new special skills mean no two fights are the same, and enemies are harder to control and bottleneck.

• Melee matters: melee weapons hit harder and stun more often, making close combat a stronger option.

• Tactical freedom: nanotech powers are now all bonus actions, so you can strike and unleash abilities in the same turn. You can also move after attacking.

• New powers: fresh nanotech skills to discover, from the devastating Fury to the defensive Hardening.

The multiverse grows more dangerous, but so too do your options. Adapt, improvise, and survive.

The full change list is below. Let me know what you think of the update! Whether you love it or hate it, feedback is welcome.

• Player’s punch attack base damage increased to 2.

• Disposable weapons now deal +1 damage.

• Sledgehammer, shovel, crowbar, and baseball bat now apply stun.

• Shockrod stun duration increased (1 → 2 turns).

• Flamer, Blaze, Railgun, and Zeus now apply stun.

• Rupture, Flare, and Rush nanotech skills now stun targets. Flashbang cooldown increased (4 → 5) and Flare cooldown increased (3 → 4).

• Rupture, Flare, Grenade, and Flashbang nanotech are now bonus abilities (can be used in addition to attacking).

• If unused nanotech bonus powers remain, you may now trigger them at the end of your turn after moving/attacking.

• Armor Skin buffed (5/8/10 → 10/15/20).

• Might buffed (1/2/3 → 2/3/4).

• Stealth buffed (.15/.25/.35 → .25/.4/.5). This means enemies lose you faster and less enemies appear.

• You can now attack before moving (movement points are no longer lost when attacking).

• After completing movement/attacking, you will now get a final chance to use any bonus actions.

• Some enemies now have a vulnerability: attacks with the right damage type deal extra damage.

• Enemies with vulnerabilities gain extra base HP: +2 (small enemies), +5 (chonkers) - make sure to use those vulnerabilities!

• Boss and Chonker enemies now have stacking Stable (ignore one stun attempt each turn before being affected).

• All enemies gain 1 turn of Stable after being stunned – preventing easy stun-locking.

• Certain enemy types now have inherent special skills (not as often as bosses).

• Enemies now show their special skill usage in log messages.

• More enemies now spawn in all sectors to balance the player’s increased firepower.

• Many more destructible and explosive objects added to sectors for more dynamic battlefields.

• Electric barrels now apply stun to adjacent enemies, other explosive objects now carry elemental damage types.

• New in-game guide page explaining damage types, Stun, and Stable mechanics.

• New tutorial message explaining movement after attacking.

• Inspecting analysed non-boss enemies now shows their skills.

• Boss health bar now displays revealed skills (inherent or already used).

• Health bars also now show the Stun/Stable level of an enemy.

• Hardening (Passive): Reduces all damage taken after the first hit each turn.

• Scanner (Passive): Reveals hidden information on the mini-map.

• Nanorend (Active): Deals damage to all spaces around the Void Scout.

• Fury (Active): Make an additional attack with a carried weapon.

• New nanopairs added for these skills, with potential for eternal growth through level-ups.

• Fixed an issue where some nanopairs had incorrect passive nanotech values.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3226540/Void_Scout/

We’d love to have you with us as the multiverse collapses:

• Join the Discord

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Section 1 of the second level - Geon - is just about ready to playtest. Check out the video below, and join our Discord if you want to help with the playtesting & feedback process!

Geon - Section 1:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZCVCbCL7I8

Our animator has also been working on prop animations for the Geon droid sections:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XIRzMpVPoU

Meanwhile, some early work has begun on level 3 - Brannon. Below you can see a sneak speak of the Turbo Turret being tested for this level:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKmsehsxTV8

And here is a new "spinner" enemy being tested too:
https://youtu.be/-2R2GxrchOw?si=ZHJO7PIv5UneBTR0

Finally, here's a super-early test of the second section for Geon, which will be water based. Nothing much to see yet, but you can begin to get a feel for how a water level might look as a very basic test:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoQqYML6tkU