Mar 31, 2021

EarthX - Denis

Hey, what's up!

First of all, thanks to everyone for your kind words, they really do help keep everything up. We do read them, we do answer to them.

Works on 0.3.3 accelerated in March, as I finally got all the needed models. I will not spend much time today talking about the update, because I would rather use this month's devlog to talk about EarthX's future.

EarthX 0.3.3 - Kalm Update

Planned to be released in April, Kalm Update will introduce managers, new launch pads management, new visuals, and more.
This month I have been working on new animations. Rockets will get new failures, new models, new landing attempts. When I was reworking the animations, I also reworked Launch Pads and Droneships. You will be able to build your own launch pads of every type and have unlimited droneships.

I introduced a lot of quality-of-life improvements, fixed a lot of bugs. For example, fueling on Mars won't happen "just like that", you will need an actual fuel farm on it first, which will most likely result in you scraping the first Spaceships which land on Mars.

There is more I have been working on, but let's keep it in a secret until the update releases! We plan to start testing it in mid-April on our Discord server: https://discord.gg/sbXwwMs

EarthX - The Future

As you probably noticed, I don't talk a lot about EathX's future, you only get news one update ahead. This time is no different, as 0.3.3 is about to release and 0.3.4 "shortly" afterward. Making this project is pure fun to me, there are some sad moments, but the good moments are the ones we should look for.

What am I trying to say is that EarthX 0.3.4 will be the last content update for EarthX. After 0.3.4 I will spend weeks hearing you guys and release patches fixing bugs and improving current features, then the 1.0 comes - EarthX full release.

To be honest, I did not think this project would go so far. This was supposed to be a small path-finder game (to learn some skills for me), and I ended up making it for almost 3 years. No, I'm not crying, you are.

I couldn't make it without rykllan, she's responsible for all models since 0.2.9. Rykllan basically helped make this game as it is now. She's not able to do everything, of course, so am I. But together, I personally think, we created something cool - an unforgivable experience of our lifetimes.

Let's give some credit to Adrian too - he does not work directly on EarthX often, but he's the one who keeps EarthX kinda alive in the team-things AND the media-things. Something I would rather not do myself because it's boring haha

Patrick (SPATE) makes amazing music and allows me to use it in trailers for EarthX, that's why each update is so special, with different themes, different moods, different us.

Lucas, a new member of the team, but an old member of our community, lately he helps rykllan beating her burn-out and did the launch pad and Starman model. He will work on this project until its full release.

Captain, who likes to test big updates and point out the stupid bugs I forgot about.

You, the community, who makes this project alive when I'm struggling with releasing an update ASAP.

And of course - ME because why not XD

What I'm trying to say is that EarthX is not only the game, we are EarthX, and I'm proud of it.

Ok ok ok I think I got too deep and too serious here lol but you get what I mean
Now I'm going back to work and you go back to whatever you were doing

Next EarthX update soon,
Denis

PS: thank you so much for 252 reviews - really appreciated <3

Some nice pics:

Mar 31, 2021

30XX 0.17.0 Patch Notes - March 31, 2021

30XX - batterystaplegames

Hello! Today's 0.17.0 patch introduces two new features -- the powerful, yet sometimes debilitating Prototype Augs, and Beta enemies, tougher versions of standard foes that will start showing up later into runs. It also adds proper music and sound to the Editor, fixes a bunch of bugs, and makes a few balance tweaks to the game.

We recognize that 30XX's scaling has been a little out of whack prior to this patch - the early levels feel great, but later levels get too easy too frequently. Having certain loadouts/RNG that makes the lategame easy once in awhile is totally okay, but it was happening too frequently - so we're tamping down a bit on player scaling. For 0.17, this means the addition of Beta form enemies (so enemies will be tougher lategame), reduced Nut droprates (so you'll actually have to choose what to buy!) and fewer "free" Augs given to players mid-level.

We'll be keeping a close eye on feedback to these changes - we don't think we're overdoing it here, but we're eager to have that conversation with the community. As always, if you've got ideas for Beta enemy behaviors, new Prototype-supporting Augs, or new Prototype components themselves, we'd love to hear them!

Beta enemies are a big work in progress in many respects - expect their colorings and some of their behaviors to change soon.

Today's Prototype Aug patch is missing a few Prototype-supporting Augs that we're still working on - we might hotfix them in if they're done quickly, else they'll be part of 0.18. There are a few parts of this patch that weren't quite ready in time for 0.17.0, so a small update in the next few days is pretty likely.

These patch notes also include the pile of fix changes introduced during the 0.16 patch cycle, mostly aimed at fixes for online play, so all of our changes since 0.16 can be read all in one place.

Thanks for playing!

--

GAME CHANGES & FIXES:

Added Prototype Augs! They're unlocked by a new entry in the Memory Index.
- Prototype Augs in 30XX combine a blessing and a curse into one item, forcing the player to decide whether the total package is worth the risk involved.
Added Beta forms for most enemies! Betas are generally tougher than normal foes, and have more aggressive/dangerous behaviors. Some Betas also deal extra touch damage or create 2-damage projectiles.
- Many of the Beta form colorings are a work in progress!
Reduced the number of nuts spewed out by minibosses and some Chest types.
- Our goal is to keep currency feeling like a resource that enables the player to make smart choices in shops - prior to this change, it was too easy to have All The Nuts All The Time, which gets boring. Having tested this a bit on our end, we may need to go further here, but we didn't want to make too severe a change in one step.
Reduced Salvager scaling. (Some items now salvage for less.)
- The stats granted by Salvaging augs was a bit too strong - we want Salvaging to feel like a good way to get stats you're really hungry for, or an alternate way to get value out of an Aug that doesn't fit your build.
Advanced Repair Kit shop cost increased to 25 (from 15). It's still probably too powerful, but this'll make it a little less likely to show up early and be an auto-buy for the player.
Increased Crystal Shooter HP (Echocave Miniboss).
Disabled Rite of Rebeginning in Mega Mode. (A "once per run" HP refresh doesn't make as much sense in MM - let us know what you think here - we may bring it back and tweak it.)
Increased shop spawn rate a bit.
Lara (Ace weapon) now costs 3 CP to use (up from 0).
- Lara's too powerful - we're looking at ways to make it a little costlier to use instead of nerfing it outright. (We may make it scale less well with stats next.)
Armatort's Dome (head core) now costs 3 CP to use (up from 2).
Owlhawk's Focus (head core) now costs 3 CP to use (up from 2).
Oxjack's Blitz (boots core) now costs 4 CP to use (down from 5).
Added an information screen before starting the game in Wild West Maker Mode.
Added the ability to downvote chunks in Wild West Maker Mode. (This behaves just like skipping it, so don't worry if you want to downvote a chunk you've just skipped - it's already done.)
In Wild West Maker Mode, the "skip" function (hold Interact for two seconds) now takes the player to the beginning of the next chunk if possible (instead of the end of the current chunk) in case an impossible chunk is uploaded.
The 30XX OST has been updated with today's new Editor music tracks.
Fixed a bug that'd let you spend rerolls on health drops if you were at full HP.

EDITOR CHANGES & FIXES:

Added music to the Editor. These are smooth, "loungy" remixes of the main game's music. By default, the background music depends on the level theme of the chunk you're editing, but you can set it to play a medley of all themes as well.
Added sound effects to various Editor and UI actions.
To accompany the above additions, you can change the Music and Sound volumes in the Settings menu.
Implemented a "Hot" sort in the Chunk Catalog, which displays recent high-quality chunks.
Fixed a bug where if the brush menu was opened, the layer menu would move along with it.
Fixed a bug where if the language is set to a language with the Latin alphabet, characters from other alphabets would not show properly in a user card.
Fixed a bug where in the settings menu, if you selected a setting with your keyboard and moved to a different setting with your mouse, incorrect values would display.
Fixed a rare crash when browsing the chunk catalog.

RECAP SINCE 0.16: CHANGES & FIXES (all play modes, not just online):

Fixed a 0.16.4 crash caused by charging up Crystal Wave.
Fixed SFX for several charged Powers.
Attempting to pick up a duplicate Core Aug will now automatically Salvage it instead (even if the Salvager Circuit isn't unlocked yet.)
Fixed an issue causing Advanced Options to be stubborn about saving. (Autocharge shouldn't turn itself off anymore.)
Fixed an issue that'd let you buy items in Shops without sufficient currency.
Fixed an issue that could cause Clockzone's Miniboss to leave its track.
Fixed a chunk that could cause a softlock without the unstuck command.
Reduced Deepverse's Miniboss HP by 40%. (We may bump this back up if it proves too be too severe a cut - just felt like this fight lasted too long.)
Void Double's initial cast is now much faster. (250ms, down from 500ms).
Fixed a broken Highvault window decoration.
Fixed an issue that could cause item Salvaging in Mega Mode to not properly take effect when reloading the game.
Added button prompts to the tutorial.
Effects that trigger on level start now trigger on boss defeat instead. (In Mega Mode, these effects will only trigger if you haven't previously completed that level. This fixes the Spicy Bug.)
Fixed an issue that could cause Mega Mode to not save collected items if you died in a level, then stopped playing before trying another.

RECAP SINCE 0.16: CHANGES & FIXES (online play):

Improved item saving & sync in Mega Mode when the client connects to a game in progress.
Fixed an issue that could cause a player to be invisible when returning to HQ after a run in online co-op.
Fixed certain "delayed" attacks not working properly on the client. (Some of Zen Primus' fireballs and Echobeast's falling spikes are the major ones.)
Fixed Echobeast's summons not always rendering properly on the client (so his bounce-around-the-room attacks could hit you as the the client, but be invisible.)
Fixed a few places where the client wouldn't correctly display boss warning pings.
Fixed an issue that could cause the client to get locked out of miniboss rooms.
Fixed Burning Temple's Rolly Giant not animating properly as the client.
Fixed Clockzone's Miniboss Track not showing properly as the client.
Fixed an issue causing the client to not be able to see their own Core Points/Max CP.
Fixed a few more situations where resurrection capsules could show up in inaccessible places. (Thanks for keeping these coming!)
Fixed an issue causing online players to show different Max HP/NRG values than their partner shows.
Fixed an issue causing Contemplation Room gates to fail to close for the client.
Fixed some sync issues with Deepverse's Laser Snakes & Miniboss as the client. Still more work to do here, but it's less broken than it was.
Fixed an issue where Deepverse Wall Lasers would persist an extra half-second on the client.
Improved level-load robustness in online multiplayer to help ensure that levels load successfully in scenarios where your connection to your partner isn't great.
Improved connection robustness after a session.
Reclassified enemy bullets as "unreliable" network messages. 30XX's network layer attempts to resend most information between you and the host if it detects packet loss. In the case of enemy projectiles, this would mean that the network message to spawn a projectile could show up later than intended (because it'd be on a packet resend, not on the first try), causing projectiles to show up at weird times as the client, potentially including after an enemy is dead. Now, in the case of packet loss, the client just gets the benefit of the doubt, and no projectile is spawned.
Similarly, the client will now also filter out projectiles the host tells it to create from enemies that are already dead on the client's side (that the host may not be aware of yet).
Fixed the Unstuck button in online co-op. (It'd sometimes have bad results as the client.)
Fixed being able to interact with the Offering (midboss Aug choice award) before the miniboss is defeated.
Fixed one player in co-op being able to interact with the Offering twice.
Fixed an issue with Penumbra's Orb Blocks (the red/blue/green platforms that cycle when you hit a switch). Improved netplay sync, but likely still have improvements to make soon.
Added a game version check when trying to find lobbies, or when trying to join a friend's lobby. Public lobbies will no longer be returned by lobby search if the game version doesn't match, and joining a friend's lobby will now show an appropriate error message if game versions don't match.
Fixed an issue that'd cause the Choice Machine to not sync in online play.

Mar 31, 2021

Devlog #1 - We Who Are About To A Show Development Overview

We Who Are About To Die - JordyL

Here's a full overview of the entire development of We Who Are About To Die. This list is prone to change, of course.
Its broken into 4 major cycles with a ton of updates inside. The current update of WWAATD is β v0.7

WIP = WORK IN PROGRESS.

Don't forget to wishlist the game! It me helps a ton.

Core Update (α v0.0->v0.5)

[DONE] Basic movement, project setup (v0.1)
[DONE] Add damage, health, death (v0.20)
[DONE] Basic AI (v0.25) (for testing purposes)
[DONE] Preliminary spawning / game mode (v0.29)
[DONE] Prototype (v0.30)
[DONE] Main combat mechanics for sword,shield (v0.31)
[DONE] Blockout UI menus (v0.32)
[DONE] Make first arena level (v0.35)
[DONE] Combat mechanics for 2H, polearm and spear combat (v0.45)
[DONE] Peripheral combat mechanics (Shield bash, dash, stamina...) (v0.48)
[DONE] Finetune/finalise, iterate combat input and handling based on playtesting round

Unification Update (α 0.5->v1.0)

[DONE] Pit level
[DONE] Basic Arena level
[DONE] Grand Stadium level
[DONE] Battlemenu UI (unifying combat matches and career menu)
[DONE] Updated combat AI
[DONE] Team code & AI
[DONE] “many vs many” combat AI
[DONE] Game mode infrastructure (1 vs 1, 1 vs X, X vs X, X vs 1, Random)
[DONE] Design and implement tutorial
[DONE] Playtesting round

Feedback Update (β v0.0->v0.5)

[DONE] Gold & fame rewards for victory and kills
[DONE] equipment shop mechanics
[DONE] Equipment selling and picking up
[DONE] Adding sets of gear
[DONE] Loading screen with tips
[DONE] Crowd graphics and modularity
[DONE] Setup Steam page and setup marketing
[DONE] Major playtesting round

Progression Update (β v0.5->v1.0)

[DONE] Apply playtesting feedback
[DONE] Combat animation overhaul
[DONE] Difficulty scaling as game progresses
[DONE] Match intro overhaul
[DONE] All arenas update: new levels, level variations, way more detail., random levels..
Sound update
[WIP] Visual polish (asset & UI)
[WIP] Gameplay polish
[WIP] Adding sets of gear
[DONE] Gore Update
[DONE] Updated AI + add difficulty variables (reflex speed, aggression)
[DONE] Player skill progression + persistent health
[WIP] Death event
[WIP] Victory UI
[DONE] Auxilary inventory
Weapon damage types and bonuses
[WIP] Battle menu system
[WIP] Additional management features
[WIP] Durability and repairing system
[WIP] Random events System
Fame/Audience System
[WIP] Controller support
Saving (settings, char, etc)
Major bugfixing pre-release
Optimisation

Then, release!

Mar 31, 2021

PATCH NOTES BETA V.48

The Universim - Haren

PATCH NOTES BETA V.48 ()

https://store.steampowered.com/app/352720/The_Universim/

Hello Creators,

Our new patch is here. Since our last one, we've made huge strides in development. Some of it you will be able to see now, some are getting polished and will be ready in the next patch, and others we will tell you about in the future.

With this patch, we expanded our tutorial system, increased performance, and added building upgrades. We are also adding some additional life improvement features that hopefully will make everyone’s experience more pleasant. A lot of those systems in this patch were requested by you on our discord, steam, and social media. We are extremely grateful to have such a great community and we’ll keep working with you in order to create the best possible experience for everyone.

Thank you for your ongoing support and we hope that you enjoy this patch and we'd appreciate it if you'd leave us a review on Steam.

Now let's dive in.

Expedition Quest
Nuggets have always been curious about the world around and above them, but it is time for them to finally meet the thing that lies below. This quest is a part of a major mechanic that will be expanded on in the next patch. Prepare to dive deep underground and help your nuggets during their journey.

Shortcut System
Who doesn’t like taking a shortcut from time to time? By toggling on the shortcut menu with “x” the player can turn on a labeling system that will show them how to select menus and buildings with just a few keystrokes. For example, pressing B-1-1 will bring up an engineer hut ready to be placed.

Tutorials ( Part 2 )
We are continuing to expand our tutorial system. For the second part of this expansion, we added additional 6 different tutorials that will explain mechanics in the game such as:

Reservoirs and how they operate
Engineer Huts explanation
Explanation for the radius around certain buildings and how they influence the gameplay
Where to find the expanded building functionality
How to assign nuggets to buildings
How to get additional herbs to the hospital and why your hospitals might have an issue
Infection and how to fight it

We plan to continue expanding this system. If you have something that you don’t understand or find confusing, drop us a message on our discord. We’ll be sure to review it and potentially add a tutorial for it.

Ministers Revamp
As we proceeded with adding new systems to the game, we saw that Ministers needed more and more love. For this patch, we decided to take our time and redesign how their algorithms worked. Initially, all the ministers were “fixers” of issues but that wasn't enough. Now ministers do their best to prevent issues from appearing in the first place. We reworked almost every algorithm for the Ministers system and we’re eager to hear what you think.

Modern Movie Theater
We were starting to think that modern nuggets might be getting bored with the “talkies” that were being shown in the old theaters. So now they will be able to snack on their popcorn in fancy new theaters.

Planet Seed
Have you ever found the perfect planet to later wish you could start over? Planet Seed functionality will allow you to type the specific seed of the planet in the main menu and load that exact planet on which you played previously.

Improvements and balance changes

Full Screen Mode
Full screen mode support was added to the game, which should provide better stability and experience for some of our players.

Change in the saving system ( Archives Removal )
For quite some time we debated about our unique save system. Some people loved it, some people hated it. Based on our analytics and research, we had to take a step back and remove the archive dependent safe system. Now you can save the game at any time through the ESC menu and set up autosave frequency in the game menu settings.

Save Files Management
Since we started to rework our save system, we also added additional functionality to it. Now you can select all or multiple save files to delete. No more one by one deletion of save files.

Building Within a range Indicators
Engineers and Firefighters are important buildings for keeping your city afloat. Placing a building outside the range of Engineers Hut or Firefighters Hut will display an icon above the building you are trying to place indicating that engineers and firefighters won’t be able to reach it.

Concrete City
One of the main distinctive parts of the big cities is the amount of concrete in them. We added roads, we added tall modern buildings, but the city was still missing that little piece that sets it apart from other ages. So now you can have a true “concrete jungle.”

Educated Nugget displayed in the filter system
Educated nuggets now can be found in the filter system and you can see how many nuggets in your civilization have an education.

Performance
We keep working on our performance with every patch. For this patch we improved the resource distribution algorithms and their interactions with other systems, which should provide an additional 5%-10% of the performance improvement.

Extinct Animals Icon
A status Icon was added to the Hunters Hut that will appear when an animal is extinct and your hunters are no longer able to hunt it.

Construction Panel for the buildings that were automatically built
Previously, any building that was constructed automatically ( Black Market, Temple etc ), didn’t have a panel that would indicate the progress of their construction. Now you can see how long it will take to behold it in it’s glorious final form.

Bug Fixes:

Fixed: Main Menu planet had a wrong season
Fixed: Issue when certain seeds of the planet will keep repeating despite starting a new game
Fixed: Interaction with trees in certain cases produced an error, which was breaking save files
Fixed: Incorrect tree textures on birch trees
Fixed: Shader used for the main menu planet was breaking on certain PC’s
Fixed: An issue where not all objects were cleared up by nuggets when the building was placed on top of them
Fixed: An issue when the dead animal was not removed from the pool of animals and nuggets would get stuck in an infinite hunting loop
Fixed: After killing an animal, nuggets would not bring food back
Fixed: In certain cases roads were able to stop the bridge placement
Fixed: Bridge constructions sites now have a hover outline
Fixed: Bridge and roads were not reconnecting when the road position was updated
Fixed: Damage dealt to the nugget health was not calculated properly
Fixed: Lens Flare effects were bleeding through the planet
Fixed: Nuggets names were not updated in the residential tooltips
Fixed: An issue that would prevent the completion of the “Finish House” quest.
Fixed: Visual bug that was appearing when you try to enter the escape menu during a tutorial transition
Fixed: Search in the nugget list panel was not working correctly
Fixed: Building Status Icons were sometimes blinking
Fixed: Saving the game while load screen was opened, caused a broken save file
Fixed: Ecology panel sometimes caused an error that lead to a corrupt save file
Fixed: Tornado creator power had a chance to spawn multiple Tornado’s if the creator power was used in quick succession.
Fixed: Evolution tower could have been placed while being in the ESC menu
Fixed: Localization in the garage display panel
Fixed: Using the vortex creator power above the eatery to get cooked food and after that dropping them on the ground, caused an error that was breaking the game
Fixed: Picking up a space box with a vortex and then dropping it while pressing Press F to fly to, caused the space box to get stuck
Fixed: Using Vortex about the factory caused nuggets to get picked up as well
Fixed: Using Vortex above the lake calculated the usage of creator points incorrectly
Fixed: Picking up fruits from one bush sometimes caused other bushes to react as if the fruit was picked up from them as well
Fixed: Telekinesis system was not cleared correctly after it was canceled and code kept the reference from the previous object causing “Unable to pick up” effect.
Fixed: Extreme jittering in certain cases when the Vortex creator power was used
Fixed: Bug that caused tooltips to stay open on the screen
Fixed: Cupidon Rainbow effect was getting stuck on the screen
Fixed: Bug where nuggets would get trapped in the bunker
Fixed: Battery parts from the quest were not saved to the save file properly, causing the failure of the quest
Fixed: Bug that prevented the Ministers of Water from placing pumps in the Stone Age
Fixed: Bug that prevented the Minister of Agriculture from properly placing food production buildings

Let us know how you feel about our improvements and if we nailed it. Your feedback means a lot to us and we take it seriously. If you would like to see something to be added to the game, please make sure to join our discord channel and drop your suggestions there. We are always checking it.

Thank you, everyone!

Make sure to follow us on Twitter!

All the best,

The Crytivo Crew