Hey HIO fam, we are back with a new dev blog! We're going to talk about a lot of brand new stuff. This dev blog will be a miscellaneous of features we introduced in the game during the last weeks.
In the last dev blog, we introduced Adam's apartment. We implemented a new feature to the HUB since then. Do you remember the BIG MOUTH ON THE WALL?
Yes, this creepy big mouth is hungry, hungry of blood! By feeding it with monsters and humans hearts, you unlock points that let you break walls and expand your apartment. The more blood you give it, the more blood it craves for.
This new feature lets you build new rooms and furnish them. Also, you can change the wallpaper of the rooms to fit your taste!
We also implemented the Phone. People will call you from the city. Thanks to this new communication system, you can listen to the voicemail and find out if anyone in the city needs your help or have quests for you! It's useful, as well as pretty!
We also changed the spawn system of the monsters. Before this update, all the bots spawned together at the start of the game. Now there are different spawning waves of monsters during the match.
Also, we improved the mobility of Adam. We added one of the most requested features during the playtest: The possibility to leap over a lot of various obstacles. You can jump over cars, bushes, benches, and hedges.
In Hell is Others, you see other players as monstrous creatures. We needed a way to know who you killed. We decided to associate the player's nickname with his heart. So once you killed an Other, you can see his nickname displayed in the item "heart" tooltip.
The Silence & The Fury is bringing with it a whole herd of improvements, bug fixes, and of course, new factions. Take a look at the highlights in the video: https://youtu.be/KkV-0wS9yaU
Hi everyone! We just wanted to give a quick heads up that our Clouzy! demo will be coming down on July 16th. We hope that you all have really enjoyed what you’ve gotten to see of the game so far and are looking forward to getting the game once it releases! If you’re ever wanting more Clouzy! content, feel free to follow us on socials where we’ll be posting more snippets showing off the game!
The huge visual update to EVE Online – Bring Out EVE’s Colors – is now live as part of the Foundation Quadrant! This update represents another step in the ongoing commitment to investing in exciting technology, setting EVE up strongly for its third decade, and ensuring that New Eden continues to set the standard as a visually stunning universe. Thank you to all Capsuleers who helped test these new graphical features on the Singularity test server and for providing valuable feedback.
At a high level of graphical performance, every activity in space and every visual interaction will be affected by this graphical update, as well as all ships, citadels, planetary bodies, and more. You will now see more of how the colors of EVE Online and New Eden were intended to look than ever before.
The visual update includes: - Shader adjustments - New lighting changes - The colors of New Eden becoming brighter and deeper - Gradients smoothing out and highlights being better represented
There is now more realistic representation of the interaction of light with objects and how it is perceived. This has led to more accurate display of roughness and reflectivity on object surfaces such as ships and asteroids, for example, making differences in texture stand out. The darkness of space and the brightness of your ship or nearby celestial bodies will regularly appear more distinct.
With visual changes of this magnitude, you won’t be able to resist undocking and seeking out the stunning wonders of New Eden, or even just re-visiting your favourite spots in space and comparing current screenshots to your older images! Due to that scope, there will still be elements that require adjustment and change in future updates, so your feedback is still valued and welcomed!
This commitment to setting up EVE for its third decade has seen new foundations to the core visual technology of EVE being laid over the past few years in preparation for both the deprecation of DirectX 9, as well as an eventual move to DirectX 12. As part of this journey, this update delivers further developments that will make the overall transition to DirectX 12 smoother.
Historical Jigsaw Puzzle: World War I - Zuckrprinz DEUS VULT!
Dear Puzzle Friends,
I would like to announce the release of Historical Jigsaw Puzzle: World War I ! The name says it all: it is a traditional jigsaw puzzle game about the First World War, very simple^^
You will find 40 original photographs and illustrations dating from 1914 to 1918, completed by trivia related to each puzzle. The information is based on official and established sources such as the Encyclopedia Britannica, the BBC and many others. Who knows, maybe you will learn something new about the First World War too!
Further, I would like to ask you for your feedback, if you think something should be improved, or if you find any bugs, please share it with me on Discord or in the Steam Community Hub! This is my first game ever with no background in game development nor programming (God bless YouTube tutorials), therefore I still have a lot to learn and improve.
I hope my game will “help” you procrastinate for few hours 😊
This update sees the release of two DLC packs: the Rise of the Valkyrie Pack available to Season Pass holders or separately for purchase, and the Team Fortress 2: Pyro pack, which is a free download for ALL players - the team have really enjoyed dabbling in the Team Fortress universe, and we hope you enjoy this characterful addition to Evil Genius 2's line-up!
Recruit the Pyro as a Henchman and increase your firepower… literally! Pyro can indiscriminately engulf their surroundings in an inferno, fan the flames on those tiresome Agents in the aftermath, and even extinguish less friendly fires with a puff of compressed air.
What self-respecting Evil Genius can resist harnessing such destructive power?
Pack includes:
New Henchman (Pyro)
Accompanying Side Story objectives to recruit Pyro
3 Loot Items (Briefcase of Australium, Briefcase of Intelligence, Payload)
It’s time to unleash the Valkyrie’s voice! When the Evil Genius decimates the plans of a rising star in the Opera world, you better believe she’s going to seek sonic vengeance. Your minions will need to best this devastating prima donna and her powerful friends, in a saga of shattering performances that will test their nerves, eardrums, and glassware.
Doomhilda’s destructive voice is legendary, possessing the power to stop her enemies in their path – or even inspire her allies to victory. Can the Evil Genius convince Doomhilda to join their side as a Henchman, or will this woman with the voice of an ‘angel’ see them facing the final curtain call?
Pack includes:
New Henchman (Doomhilda)
Accompanying Side Story objectives to recruit Doomhilda
Alongside these content packs we have of course continued to focus on quality-of-life improvements and key areas of community feedback, and while many of these have their own entry in the patch notes below, there are a few higher-level areas we'd like to call out here.
There has been a clear and consistent call to make your Cover Operation a meaningful secondary source of income, and with this update you should see a marked increase to the Gold you can make when setting your casino items to "Scam Tourists". With this update, those of you who want to place greater emphasis on money making opportunities within your Cover Operation should find yourselves able to do so, and we'll continue to monitor this change in the weeks ahead
In the June update we significantly increased the impact of Decor items across the board, but we weren't satisfied with the messaging of these effects, so we've made additional changes here. Each Decor item, where applicable, now displays its area of effect in a solid colour that matches the stat that it affects: Pink for Vitality, Yellow for Smarts, Green for Morale. Items within Decor's area of effect will also become tinted with the colour of the relevant stat, clarifying which Decor item is active. A small number of Decor Items have had their boost effect modified to increase their utility, and those are called out in the specific patch notes below.
Many Objectives require the completion of narrative Research, and some of you have got in touch to ask for a way to avoid losing progress when switching between Research Projects. With this update you can do exactly that, switching between Research Projects with a minimum of fuss while retaining progress made, as well as adding the option to suspend Research entirely if you want your Science minions to focus on the Control Room for a while, for example. Of course, you can still cancel a Research Project entirely if you just need the Gold back in a pinch.
Henchmen have been rebalanced, with the intent of more significantly differentiating their effectiveness based on their type:
Deception henchmen now roam the Cover Operation, dealing high Harass damage allows them to deter Agents and Tourists without initiating combat, where their effectiveness is weaker.
Muscle henchmen have had a rebalance, making them less effective in the Cover Operation but more obviously tuned for direct combat.
Science henchmen now sit somewhere in the middle, with average combat and Cover Operation effectiveness making way for their boosted, more outlandish abilities.
Each Henchman's Stats now better reflect their specialisation.
Agents and Super Agents have received additional, though less significant balance adjustments, and Crime Lords should pose more of a challenge across the board.
We're aware of a small number of players continuing to encounter problems when playing Evil Genius 2 with wireless headphones - please get in touch with our Customer Support team if you're one of them, so we can track down the root of the problem.
As always, thanks for your continued support of Evil Genius 2.
General
Super Serum VFX has been modified to remove an undesirable flickering effect.
The "Share Game Information" options setting is correctly preserved.
The Build menu can be consistently accessed after selecting a Decor or Lair Item during the Tutorial.
Added an option to Accessibility settings to reduce the risk of burn-in when playing Evil Genius 2 for extended periods on certain OLED displays.
Tooltips added for FidelityFX Super Resolution 1.0 in Graphics Options.
"Select All" option added to the DLC select screen.
Added an option to remove individual key bindings through the "Keyboard & Mouse Controls" menu.
Agents that arrive during specific narrative Objectives will correctly leave the Lair when their Resolve is reduced to zero.
Agents being Escorted past a Paywall Trap will no longer cause the Trap to briefly activate.
Animations on the Objective Tracker have been reduced for small increments of Objective progress.
The completion audio for Objectives and Research Projects will no longer repeat under unusual circumstances.
Updated IRIS alert when Rogues are stealing Loot items.
Pinball Bumper musical notes are correctly previewed while the game is paused, and the sound effects for these notes has been improved.
The same Pinball Bumper musical note can be previewed multiple times.
Updated sound effects for Stun Guns and Stun Rifles.
The "Pyromaniac" trait correctly gives minions a small chance to set opponents on fire during combat.
The level of Agents accompanying a Super Agent is displayed correctly when they are imprisoned in a Holding Cell.
Cursor added to indicate an area cannot be marked for Security Zones.
Narrative characters will correctly display a Distract overhead icon when Tagged for Distract after escaping a Holding Cell.
The camera can no longer pass through the second level of a Doomsday Device on the "Montañas Gemelas" Island Lair.
In new games, characters will no longer clip through folding chairs on the beach level of an Island Lair.
The number of minions that will be auto-hired or bought is now displayed when viewing Workers in the Minion Training screen.
Locked Training Items are no longer displayed when changing tab in the Minion Training screen.
The HUD correctly displays when Research has been manually paused.
Information panels for Rooms display correctly when navigating back to the Room tab.
The Character Selection menu closes correctly when a hotkey is used to select a character while this menu is open.
Research Project icons have been corrected in the Side Panels of the Research menu.
The confirmation pop-up when using a gamepad to collect Optional Objective Rewards has been removed.
The selected Side Story is correctly displayed after navigating to another tab of the Objectives screen, then back again.
Information for the Martial Artist no longer unlocks in the Rogues' Gallery after unlocking the Mercenary minion type.
An input prompt has been added for returning to the list when viewing a completed Objective.
The cursor control keys can be used to correctly navigate the Minion Manager list.
Saves can now be correctly deleted when using a gamepad.
The menu bar is more easily accessible following a Game Over when playing with a gamepad.
Locked Items are correctly highlighted in the Build Menu when using a gamepad.
Hidden Build Menu buttons are no longer selectable during Talking Heads.
It is no longer possible to navigate away from the Benchmark results screen by selecting hidden buttons.
Text and localisation improvements
Achievements
Agent Steele can be captured during the Side Story, "The Melting Point Of Steele" to earn the Achievement, "Can't Be Fooled".
Campaigns
Characters who have been turned to Gold statues no longer become unselectable in unusual circumstances during Maximilian's campaign.
Tamara Krast can no longer be Tagged for Kill or Distract during Maximilian's campaign Objective, "Gold Fingers, And Toes, And...Well, Everything".
Listening Devices will be placed correctly by Agents in Maximilian's campaign Objective, "Hostile Takeover".
Removed Listening Devices will consistently count toward progress in Maximilian's campaign Objective, "Hostile Takeover".
Golden Statues can no longer be placed in external locations during Maximilian's campaign.
Notable Engineers will no longer Repair standard Lair Items during Maximilian's campaign Objective, "M.I.D.A.S. Touch".
Kidnapped Scientists are attributed to the correct Force of Justice during Maximilian's campaign Objective, "If You Build It, They Will Scream".
V.O.I.D. Worshippers no longer have their names overwritten, and will be assigned jobs correctly during Zalika's campaign.
Firing V.O.I.D. with a completed Research Tree will result in a reward of Gold being added to the Aftermath Scheme, with more Gold available if the device is fired at Level 2 or 3 during Zalika's campaign.
Offscreen indicators display correctly when viewing a different floor from the required items during Zalika's campaign Objective, "Damage Control".
"Random Sample" Schemes now require only a Level 1 Criminal Network in Zalika's campaign Objective, "Barely Living Proof".
Agent infiltration positions have been updated during Zalika's campaign Objective, "Damage Control".
P.E.A.C.E. Agents are attributed to the correct Force of Justice during Red Ivan's campaign Objective, "P.E.A.C.E. Corpse".
Peacekeeper Soldiers can no longer be Tagged for Distract during Emma's campaign Objective, "Tourist Season".
Rewards are correctly displayed for the "Uncover Agents" Research Project in Emma's campaign Objective, "Spectres".
Confirmation pop-up added when returning to the Title Screen from the Credits at the end of a campaign.
The "New Main Objective Available" IRIS alert no longer plays at the beginning of the credits after completing a Campaign.
Side Stories
Minions no longer move into the air when clearing Gas Clouds on specific areas of the "Montañas Gemelas" Island Lair.
A S.M.A.S.H. Region must now be Scouted before the Cabal Side Story, "Giving Up The Ghost" to become available.
Characters will no longer be set alight when escorting Incendio to a Holding Cell during the Side Story, "Unwanted Guests".
Crime Lords allied with the player can no longer be tagged for Capture.
Full Metal Jackie can no longer be tagged for Capture in the Side Story, "Up In Arms".
The Super Bot can no longer be Tagged for Kill in the Side Story, "When You Cut Me, Do I Not Lubricate?".
Schemes to invite Critics to the Lair now spawn in a broader variety of Regions in the Side Story, "Fugu State".
Additional guidance arrows added to the Side Story, "Learn The Ways Of the Technician".
Schemes referencing the Flame of Prometheus no longer spawn during the Side Story, "What's Mine Is Mine".
The Threat Scheme, "Hot To Trot" now displays correct VFX during the Side Story, "The World Is Hot Enough".
The Threat Scheme "Slippery Slope" displays the correct VFX during Side Story, "Imbalance of Power".
Arms Dealer Goons display the correct job name when demonstrating weapons during the Side Story, "Heavy Metal Queen".
Medical Investigators are correctly attributed to the S.M.A.S.H. Force of Justice in the Side Story, "King Of The Fountain".
Geniuses
Maximilian's "Train Faster" Ability no longer affects minions outside of his visible aura.
Emma's "Plotter" Ability now displays correct VFX when used on Espectro's Clone.
Henchmen
IRIS will correctly disable her Security Network Ability if she enters a wounded state while this Ability is active.
The Ability duration bar is displayed appropriately for all Henchman abilities.
World Map
World Map Regions can now be navigated by using the Q and E keys on a keyboard, or by using the bumpers on a gamepad. Button prompts have been added to Region Side Panels to indicate this.
The Lockdown alert indicator is no longer displayed in Regions that have not been Scouted.
Heat bar animations now display correctly at all levels, including when a Region is in Lockdown.
Heat gain for Schemes in S.A.B.R.E. Regions with a Level 4 Criminal Network have been brought in line with other Force of Justice Regions.
Items
Doors display correctly as open or closed at greater camera distances.
The Agent Disguise Simulator is now displayed correctly at all camera distances.
The "R.A.Y.G.U.N." VFX will consistently display during longer Interrogations.
Investigator Agents will correctly gain Suspicion after encountering the R.A.Y.G.U.N. or Induction Chair items.
Loot items which are immune to Durability damage will no longer be marked for Repair.
The Melee Trainer Lair Item is correctly affected by the Hubbard Slice and Sands of Time Loot items.
The Broken Time Machine now correctly applies traits to Agents in addition to minions.
Advanced Guard Posts can now have their Power disabled.
The Loot items, "No. 2 Memorial", "Mr. Scruffles", and "John Steele's Defeat" can no longer have their Power disabled.
Text displayed in the Side Panel of the "Secure Holding Cell" and "Unpleasant Holding Cell" no longer overlaps.
Character position markers are no longer misaligned when selected while using the R.A.Y.G.U.N. Lair Item.
Henchmen will play their bark correctly when ordered to interact with the Cabal Induction Chair.
The "Egg Pod" Infirmary Decor Item now gives a boost to Restore Vitality jobs.
The "Brain Hologram" Laboratory Decor Item now reduces Smarts decay.
The "Food Disposal" and "Condiments" Mess Hall Decor Items now give a boost to Restore Smarts jobs.
A new district: The Downtown district is the heart of the city of Brighton. Skyscrapers are lined up here one after the other and create an impressive skyline. The district consists of five neighborhoods in total: Callahan, Callahan Financial Sector, Chester, Baytown, and Conway. A little further out, you will find wide-open spaces... and the large Conway Stadium! The symmetrical street layout is a testament to the district's youth.
A new car: We are also introducing a new addition to your vehicle fleet, waiting for you in the parking lot. Please welcome the Gladiator 6! This SUV is perfectly suited for your next car patrol and will greatly enhance the enjoyment of all future shifts.
A new tool: Say hello to the brand-new police computer! As part of your car, it allows you to perform a background check on any suspects you may come across after you have checked their IDs, license plates, insurances, and other stuff. Of course, you can also use the police computer to learn more about the vehicle itself. By the way: Should you currently be on foot, you can, of course, use the police computer as well.
Oh, we also have some fresh handcuffing reasons and a handy reset button for you. More about that down below.
What comes next?
In a few weeks, we plan to release an update that adds a bunch of new languages to the game. In August, the Open Beta for the long-awaited Nightshift With Friends Update starts, with the full release coming later. In addition, we will of course release new hotfixes in-between the bigger updates to tackle some bugs or balance a few things out.
Update 1.1.0 - Here are the full patchnotes for today!
Along with the new features from The Background Check Update, we're also shipping a bunch of fixes, improvements, and quality-of-life additions. Some of them are based on the feedback we received from players as part of the Open Beta - thanks a lot to all of you who participated!
IMPORTANT: Please, please keep in mind that the save games created on the beta build and the save games created on the stable build might not be compatible with each other - which can lead to problems. If you plan to switch you should make sure that you backup your save file beforehand. You can find your save file at the following location:
C:\\Users\\”USER”\\AppData\\Local\\Boston\\Saved\\SaveGames You can find these more easily by typing %localappdata% into Windows search.
KNOWN ISSUE: When you are on the last day of the week (Sunday) and then take a day off, you will come to a shift selection screen without any shifts to select. In case it happens, re-loading the game fixes the issue. We will fix this issue in an upcoming hotfix.
Without further ado, here are the full patch notes for today!
New Features
New Tool: Police Computer
New District: Downtown
New Patrol Car: Gladiator 6
New Handcuffing Reason: 'Fake License Plate'
New Handcuffing Reason: 'Stolen Car'
Reset Player Button: An 'I am stuck, pls help' button in the escape menu. Can help unstuck a glitched or stuck player. NOTE: This fallback option can potentially lead to other issues - caution is advised!
Gameplay
Casual Mode is now the default option when creating a new career
Increased days that can be taken off per week from 2 to 4
Reduced bonus points multiplier for arresting a wanted person from 10 to 5
Ambulances can now get up to three injured persons into one vehicle to reduce the overhead of calling one for each NPC
Fixed that more than one ambulance could be called for each injured person
Fixed an issue with evidence for stolen ID and fake ID. Updated relevant police handbook pages accordingly
Fixed most situations where NPCs disappeared after being stunned. This is not Harry Potter, after all.
Fixed an issue where the tutorial for littering was shown at the wrong time
Police Car & Traffic Cars
Improved acceleration and max speeds for all patrol cars
Improved colliders for all patrol cars
Improved fallback system for called service vehicle spawning when no suitable spawn point is found. This should fix them spawning inside of other vehicles and inside of the patrol car.
Improved some traffic stops to include more free parking spots for cars to pull over
Fixed a traffic stop location where one lane was not blocked properly, allowing cars to drive around the traffic stop
Fixed an issue where pulled over vehicles from a traffic stop did not provide the detainment reason for "Traffic Stop"
Fixed patrol cars slightly hovering above ground
Fixed most situations where cars began to hover while driving
Fixed various situations that could lead to flying cars or cars in extreme conditions for accident callouts
Fixed a potential issue with accident callouts where involved vehicles were not cleaned up properly after the callout ended
Fixed an issue that may have lead to vehicles falling through the map in accident callouts
Fixed some collision problems with break-off parts of damaged vehicles
Fixed some situations that could lead to cars driving with open doors
Fixed that parked cars can spawn inside patrol cars near precincts
Fixed that when starting a new shift, a damaged car from the previous shift was not properly cleaned up
Fixed that some precinct doors were not opening in a car patrol shift
Localization & Texts
Improved the police computer tutorial text descriptions to mention all applications and their brief functionality and importance
Improved various tutorials
Fixed various localization bugs
Fixed various typos and text formatting errors in the police handbook
Sounds
Fixed expired ID detainment triggering wrong VO (expired license plate)
Fixed missing voice line and subtitles for arresting an NPC for carrying a switchblade
UI
Various UI improvements
Fixed back button in audio settings not being clickable
Miscellaneous
Fixed various crashes and fatal errors
Fixed various graphical bugs and glitches
Changes from Beta to Stable
Added new tutorials for background checks
Reduced the total amount of past violation records shown in background checks
The "Gladiator 6" is now unlocked with the second neighborhood in Downtown
Fixed some buildings not properly rendering shadows in the distance in Downtown district
Fixed a missing building in Baytown neighborhood
Improved police handbook entry and tutorials for background checks
Improved the police computer tutorial text descriptions to mention all applications and their brief functionality and importance
Added new entry to background checks: "ID Status"
Fixed that background checking an NPC that was asked for ID without justification gave the NPC evidence to make it justified
Fixed wanted NPCs not having an open warrant in background checks