Hello, Animaze community!

Happy content release day from the Holotech team! We're happy to present two new props you can use to customize your avatars: Round deco glasses, Round Glasses with Arms and also a fairytale inspired Jungle Background



Don't forget you can make the props to fit your scenarios and personality by customizing them! You can find useful information on how to use and customize the props at this address and how to change backgrounds at this address

As always, we love hearing what you think about the new features and Animaze! Tell us what you’d like to see added to Animaze on our Discord server, email us at support[@]animaze[.]us, or message us on Twitter!

Happy Streaming,
The Holotech Team

I had to fix a couple things and I also added a few more small features.

These were not working as planned. If the planet temperature was between 200 and 400 Kelvin, the cave temperatures would not be calculated correctly, and would have been set to 0. Now cave temperatures should correspond correctly with surface temperatures.

Now your ship computer will display the low and high temperature for a planet. This will show both at the helm of your ship, as well as in the star chart.



Now the ship computer should take a planet's high and low temperatures into account when issuing a warning about "surface hazards."

Also, don't forget that Realms Deep is in less than four days! Watch the new Star Explorers trailer at it's world premiere this weekend. There are also supposed to be some other games being showcased too :)

EA 1.0.8

・ For event CG, replace with 2 clear copies.
・ Corrected the author's clear turn from 7 to 8 for Extra Chapter 18.
-Fixed the problem that the barrier sometimes increased when the original damage was 0 when the barrier was deployed.

Patch version 1.0.5 will be applied onto our servers on August 12th – bringing with it two additional raids for up to 20 players to challenge! A maintenance announcement will be made separately for the server downtime details.

Waves in a Tempest
The entrance teleportal to the raid is in the Shanghuai Grassland, right at the Barracks Ship Port. Both an easy and normal difficulty are added, each featuring one boss encounter to challenge between 10 and 20 players! Wukeng, standing before the entrance teleportal, will offer you a quest to go and kill Jiagong – the boss in this raid.



Easy

• Unlocks Sunday (August 15th) at 12:00 server time
• Can receive loot once per boss per week, resets Sundays at 6:00 server time
• Recommended Item Level: 50
• Drops: “Mysterious Turtle” Mount, Collectibles, Pet related items
• Matchmaking: it’s possible to search for a group automatically or create it manually.

Normal

• Unlocks Thursday (August 12th) at 12:00 server time
• Can receive loot once per boss per week, resets Thursdays at 06:00 server time
• Recommended Item Level: 60
• Drops: Level 75 Gear, PvE Sealstones III, Weapon & Bracer Talisman II Recipes, Exquisite Pork with Fish Spice Recipe, etc
• Matchmaking: you can only enter the raid manually, no automatic matchmaking is available.

Horror of Huaixiu
The entrance teleportal to the raid is in the Huaixiu Village, in the Comet Stream area. Both an easy and normal difficulty are added, each featuring one boss encounter to challenge between 10 and 20 players! Wick of the Turquoise Lantern, standing before the entrance teleportal, will offer you a quest to go and kill Qiu Ying – the boss in this raid.



Easy

• Unlocks Sunday (August 15th) at 12:00 server time
• Can receive loot once per boss per week, resets Sundays at 6:00 server time
• Recommended Item Level: 50
• Drops: Collectibles and Pet related items
• Matchmaking: it’s possible to search for a group automatically or create it manually.

Normal

• Unlocks Thursday (August 12th) at 12:00 server time
• Can receive loot once per boss per week, resets Thursdays at 06:00 server time
• Recommended Item Level: 60
• Drops: Level 75 Gear, PvE Sealstones III, Weapon & Bracer Talisman II Recipes, Exquisite Salted Duck, etc
• Matchmaking: you can only enter the raid manually, no automatic matchmaking is available.

Open World
Starting with the reset on Sunday, August 15th, the following additions are being made:

Bounty Hunter
For the weekly “Blood Ruvia Bounty (weekly)” fight, there’s now a chance to receive item level 75 Pants as well as the “Blightbeast’s Eye”.

Envoy of the Turquoise Lantern
For the weekly “Turquoise Lantern Spirits (Boss Battle)” fight, there’s now a chance to receive the level 75 Top as well as the “Torn Robe of the Turquoise Lantern”.

Items

Weekly Limits
Mysterious Parchment (current): increased to 18 per week

Chinese Dietetics
Two new recipes can be achieved through the raids, for the following effects:

• Exquisite Pork with Fish Spice
  • Physical strength +34
  • Magic Power +34
  • Haste +34
  • Physical defence level +11
  • Magic defence level +11
• Exquisite Salted Duck
  • Physical defence level +8
  • Magic defence level +8
  • Mastery +34
  • Crit resistance +45

Miscellaneous

Raid Entries
You can now enter raids as often as you wish and are no longer locked out after having cleared it once per week. Similarly to our dungeons, you won’t be getting any rewards for clearing it a second time in the same week – but you will be able to train or help others with this change. You’ll get the “Instance Escort” buff automatically as a max level player, which enables the above behaviour.

Sword Master Adventure
Added the option to replay specific Cutscenes again through the new tab in the Sword Master Adventure (CTRL + L) Menu.

Cultivation > Weekly Event
The Quest “Group Expedition” has been updated to require clearing, after August 12th, either of the 2 easy version of the new raids.

Bugfixes:

• Fixed some length and overlap issues for Voiceovers in Cutscenes.
• Adapted the PvP UI in the Character Menu
• Talisman Recipes no longer appear with broken display in Cooking Menu.
• Item Level 75 Rings and Amulets now also give Mysterious Parchments when being used for developing your pet.
• Apprentice reward for reaching PvE Gear Level 60 can now be claimed.

Arise, young prince, and check out the epic new gameplay trailer for our upcoming RPG Adventure, Tails of Iron! Finally revealing the brutal, soulslike combat that awaits potential saviours of the realm, you might want to hold onto your whiskers! This latest preview also showcases the range of deadly skills on offer, including dodge rolls, parry bashes, ruthless ranged attacks, and the immensely satisfying executions. Watch now...


Arriving 17th September, prepare to embark on a perilous quest across a deceptively charming, immersive, hand-drawn world. When the deadly Frog Clan invades, Redgi, heir to the Rat Throne, must assemble a band of fearless comrades and fight back to save his crumbling kingdom. This compelling conflict is narrated throughout by the iconic vocals of the legendary Doug Cockle (recognise him?).



The trailer also unveils the savage boss fights that lie in store, when taking on the Frog clan’s oversized generals. From the lance-touting Lans Alot, to the rat-flesh-feasting Bloki Magu, these cold-blooded amphibians each present their own unique combat challenge. You’ll need to observe their individual movesets and react accordingly in order to come out triumphant.

• Brutal combat, inspired by the souls-like genre, featuring dodge-rolls, parry bashes and fatal executions
  
• A vast and treacherous Kingdom comprised of six distinct biomes, each with its own hidden paths and secrets
  
• A compelling story narrated by the deep, raspy vocals of the legendary Doug Cockle
  
• Customisable attack styles with a vast array of distinct weapons and armor
  
• A range of side quests offering players additional gold on-the-side
  
• Hidden blueprints to forge new and powerful weapons
  
• Savage boss fights against the Frog Clan’s deadly, oversized generals
  
• A gorgeous and lovingly crafted 2D hand-drawn art style

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1283410/Tails_of_Iron/

Hello comrades, and welcome back to another DevDiary for No Step Back. After Comrade @ManoDeZombi (as chairman of the People's Commitee for Focus Tree Production) introduced you to the historical and shared branches of the Soviet tree last week, today we will be talking about the Opposition against Stalin.



The opposition to Stalin during the 30’s was diverse and divided. Thus I guess it is fitting that the work on the various paths for the Soviet Union has been divided between several CDs unlike normally, when one tree is designed by one CD. Thus the creation of the CD Soviet.

I got the honor of writing this diary, so I shall do my best at covering all the options available for the alternative communist branches.

It is also my first dev diary, as I am relatively new to the Content Design team at HoI. Hope you like it!

Please note though that at the moment of writing this dev diary, a lot of things are still being worked upon, and copy edits to be done, so there will be changes before release.

Even before Lenin’s death, there was a bitter power struggle within the party. Lenin introduced a ban on factionalism, which Stalin later used to defeat his opponents. But before that happened, several sub groups had formed behind outspoken leaders. Initially the strongest ones were Kamenev and Zinovyev and their so called “New Opposition”. Their main opponent, back in the early 20’s, was Trotsky, leading what came to be known as the Left Opposition. On the other “side” of the spectrum was the Right Opposition, fronted by Bukharin. Of course, there were other groups as well - as the Workers’ opposition, and the Decemist faction, and nothing was stable for long as allegiances shifted.

Stalin, forming his own faction, aptly called the "center", and using his position as party secretary to his advantage, played the others against each other, gradually gaining total control of the communist party.

While all this was happening, the surviving leaders and generals of what had been the disunited white movement were plotting in Manchuria.

As communist you will have three main options. One is to stay with the center and keep Stalin as country leader. That option has already been covered, so let’s move on.

The second option you have is a move to the left.




As you can see from the tooltip, if you go down this path, you will end up in a civil war. There was simply no way Stalin would just hand over power to Trotsky or his allies. You have a few things you can do to make life easier for you once the war starts, and to prepare for what comes after.



You can send trusted advisors abroad, in order to keep them safe from Stalin. Relatively safe anyway, stay clear of ice picks.



You can tie closer bonds with Smirnov, and his Workers' opposition, who were always close to the left opposition anyway.



Additionally you can convince a few notable Military Officers to side with you. That will strengthen the ties with the military, making your side stronger in the upcoming civil war. Like e.g. Primakov (portrait is work in progress by the way, just wanted to show you one of the new guys):



Also, Stalin agitated a lot against what he called “wreckers” - organized workers doing planned sabotage - associated with the Trotskyists. Whether historically true or not, you can use that tactic against him and actually organize wrecker squads.




As can be seen from the screenshot above, you can point your finger at the Right opposition, in the hope that Stalin’s paranoia will hit them, rather than your people.

When you feel ready, you complete the “Ignite the Flames” to start the war - unless of course, Stalin’s paranoia has forced your hand already.

We’ll return to the Civil War in a sec, but first, let's take a peek at the other end of the alternative Communist Branch:




If you want to oppose Stalin, but don’t feel Trotsky is your guy, you can always go to Bukharin, and the Right Opposition. In order to confuse everyone, this time we have “the right” to the right of “the left”... But at least “the left” is to the right of “the center”, to keep some chaos… (There’s a reason for that though - which you can probably guess from the above, but more of that later).

Bukharin was one of Stalin’s first allies, and he used him to thwart Kamenev’s plans. Later he got brushed to the side and accused of plotting against Stalin. When the game starts he is out of favor, out of power, but not entirely out of options.

Just like the Left Opposition you can try your luck at removing Stalin by starting a civil war:



It should be noted though, that the Right opposition will have a much lower support within the military than the Left Opposition has - it is after all “Trotsky’s Red Army” - so if push comes to shove you might have to get some help from abroad.



For example, you can offer Vladivostok to the Japanese, making them more inclined to support you when the war starts.



Other options include e.g. trading future resource rights in return for Military factories.
If you are lucky, some nations might even send a general or two to help you.


But before we delve deeper into the Civil War, let’s take a step - not back - but rather to the side. I mentioned there’s a reason the left and the right are together in the focus tree and that is of course because, as I said before, alliances shifted all the time, and if you want, you can actually join forces against Stalin. And ally with Zinovyev and Kamenev if you want to do that.



By choosing the “cooperative” option, you get access to more advisors and get a higher level of popular support, but you also get penalties due to the many differences of opinion in the party.





But of course, you don’t have to do this, if you’d rather work alone, you can always use the other side as scapegoats.

Another (very) important part in this part of the focus tree are the focuses intended to help you prepare for the actual war. You can start infiltrating the military, to gain control of a larger part of the Red Army/Navy/Airforce when the war starts, secure more generals and admirals to your cause, or simply divert Stalin’s attention to the military branch, making him target them instead of your political leaders, weakening his own forces before the actual show of force.



Similarly you can infiltrate the NKVD. This can be extra useful if you are planning on having the Right Opposition replace Stalin. More on that soon.


Ok, so let’s return to the actual Civil War mechanics:

In general, the mechanics are very similar to the Spanish Civil War mechanics, although slightly simplified as the sheer number of Soviet states would make it overwhelming.
The first thing you have to do is decide from where you want to start the uprising. Depending on which branch you have selected you will be presented with slightly different options. This is roughly what it will look like for the Left Opposition. (again bear in mind the rather rough appearance of the Decision text etc - it is a work in progress image after all).



Once you have established a base, which will then be your base during the civil war, you can start infiltrating neighboring states - as long as Stalin hasn’t made a crackdown there first. In general it is a good idea to keep the supply situation in mind when planning your civil war. Only controlling states with a poor supply situation will make your attack on the capital much harder.



When the war finally starts, the states you have infiltrated will be the ones you control, so doing some thinking ahead can be recommended. Note that you cannot infiltrate central Russian states, nor Leningrad. Stalin and his cronies have too tight a grip on those for them to be taken.

The Military support focus unlocks a number of decisions that can be taken:




These will ensure that you get more officers and/or a larger portion of the armed forces when the war starts. However, as with almost anything the opposition does this also affects Stalin's paranoia. The more people you try to sway to your cause, the likelier he is to randomly swing at his opponents, real or believed.

You can also, as mentioned before, interact with other countries. Either by offering various concessions or by just doing a fundraising campaign (Left Opposition).

So far so good. However, Stalin won’t sit idly by while you are preparing to remove him. First of all, as soon as he gets wind of the plot, he will make crackdowns in various states, blocking them from being taken over by the opposition, as can be seen in the next picture, where Mykolaiv is secured by Stalin.



Additionally, he will use whatever means at his disposal to ensure the loyalty of Generals and admirals. So if you dally too long, you might lose a few key ones - having to fight them rather than having them on your side.


But perhaps most importantly, Stalin will continue with his own focus tree. And, as those of you who read last week's diary remember: that has effects on the opposition…



So the longer you wait with kicking off the war, the more people Stalin will have had time to purge. So it’s basically a balancing act. Some purges can be avoided, but it will cost you, and the paranoia will continue to increase. And if it increases too high, there is a risk that Stalin will actually start the war, rather than you. This is not only bad because you don’t get to choose the time, it is also bad as you won’t get the bonuses that the focuses that kick off the war gives.

And sooner or later you have to start that war:


With for example this guy in charge…



“And sooner or later you have to start that war” - to be totally honest; that is not entirely true. If you go down the Right Opposition path, you can actually try to remove Stalin in a different way. If you manage to convert the current NKVD chief to your cause, you can attempt to assassinate Stalin instead, and then stage a coup claiming power in the chaos that reigns after that.

You have to do this before Stalin’s ally (and basically 2nd in command) Beriya becomes head of the NKVD, however, or else it will be too late. If you succeed, you will have a window of opportunity in which you can move to replace Stalin's temporary successor with the man of your choice. Thus basically replaying the historical events of 1953, only some 15 or so years earlier. But beware, if the attempt fails, Stalin's paranoia will increase greatly (rightly so this time, I guess) - and that might lead to him launching a full scale war against you, so you’d better prepare for that eventuality...

Infiltrating the rank and file of the NKVD in addition to getting their chief on your side certainly increases the odds as well.



So you fight the civil war, defeat Stalin. Then what?
Well, if you do it as one of the two communist branches, you can still do basically everything that Stalin could - apart from those focuses locked behind the The Centre focus. Not all, but most of the industrial and military focuses are still valid - as are most of the foreign policy ones.

But going through all this must surely lead to something else as well, right?

And yes it does.

For the Left opposition the “bottom half” (more really) of the tree looks like this:



You have the “Permanent Revolution” sub branch that helps you spread world revolution:




If you have Trotsky as your leader, he also gets an upgraded trait when you go down this route.

You can make final call on how to deal with any remaining opposition groups as well (goes for both left and right opposition)



If you go for the Builder of the Red Army focus ( only available with Trotsky at the helm) you can also have Trotsky assuming command of your field forces.



Aside from restarting world revolution you will have the decision on how to proceed with what was once the Soviet Union. How far will you decentralize? Either you can go for a fully decentralized state, including giving greater autonomy to the republics, in effect releasing them as puppets and then helping them get stronger:



Or you work towards giving the Supreme Soviet increased power, basically removing the need for a figurehead leader



If you are going down the Right opposition path, you will have a similar amount of things to do after the take over, but with a slightly different mix:



The “Back to the NEP” sub branch contains various focuses for revamping the Soviet economy, with the goal of turning the country into an economic powerhouse.



You can also upgrade Tomsky’s traits, again improving your ability to compete with the USA for example.



You can also get puppet wargoals and bonuses against non-communist neighbors through the “Enemies of the people” focus.

Like the Left Opposition you can go down the “Supreme Soviet” path, but you can also choose to keep your current leader and instead go for the “For the Common Good” sub path.



This further strengthens your country, and also your allies. Ending with the Socialist Humanism focus:



And here's a summary of the new leaders you can get through these parts of the Focus tree:


That was all from me for now. I hope you liked this little peek into what’s going on with the not so Stalinist Soviet things!

And hopefully I can come back with more details at some later stage.

Oh, I almost forgot, the entire Communist Focus Tree:


There are a few extras, but you'll have to check those out on the forums!

It's time to hit the road for real riches! Monsters of at least 5 levels from yours can drop gold ore, which can be combined to get various useful items, such as gems, wealth potions and a cumulative boost that will be in effect for the entire duration of the event and for a week after it.

When combining treasure chests, you can get the "Treasure Hunt" enhancement, which increases the amount of health, gold picked up and the chance of items dropping by 5%. (Re-combining will increase the bonus up to 10%).

When combining chests with riches, you can get the title "Rich Man", which increases the gold picked up by 3.5%.

Killing a representative of the opposite faction allows you to take half the gold ore that he had with him, and once a day your faction will receive a boost for the number of combined items of this event.

Good luck with your adventures!

Hi there, Lightbringers!

In this week’s dev blog we are pleased to announce that the first animation patch for Empire of Ember has finally been implemented in the game!

This first pass includes improved first-person animations for the different styles of combat; that is, melee, bow, spell and staff attacks.

These improvements will be most noticeable during melee combat. This should make the animations feel more responsive, cleaner and balanced than before. The main difference now is that players will need to use their reflexes to block attacks in time, or cancel attacks in progress. Melee users will now be able to block with a magical shield, and also have a new unlockable “shove” ability to counteract enemies that are using shields.



Implementing the animations for Empire of Ember hasn’t been a bed of roses all the time, as there have been some very challenging moments. Most issues have been a consequence of the hired animators not properly testing their work in-game. Even animators with 20 years of experience had trouble copying FBX files from Maya to Unity, or would not know how to use an animation controller, for instance.

This has unfortunately slowed down progress. Improving the game’s animation has taken about four times longer than expected, and has been more expensive than originally planned. On the bright side, all the setbacks have given main developer Kevin Jenkins the chance to make other improvements that resulted in a better outcome and thus, a better game.

Further additions to the animations are planned for the future, but as these are not a pressing concern anymore, the developers will focus on other fixes for the moment.



Since the Steam Early Access release in late March, the dev team has been working really hard to polish the weakest parts of the game. All feedback from users has been very useful so far to introduce new features as well as helping fix bugs, so we welcome you all to try the game and let us know how it can be further improved. You can have an impact in shaping Empire of Ember and helping it reach its full potential!

If you would like to help us, please wishlist and follow the game and tell everyone about it! You can also follow our progress by joining our community on Discord, Steam, and our Social Media channels: Twitter, Facebook and Reddit.

See you soon! Take care and have a great week :)

Hello, this is Astellia Royal.

This is to inform you of regular maintenance on August 11(Wed).
Please find details for more information.

■ Maintenance Notice
- Date/Time(PDT): Wed, August 11, 2021 17:00 ~ 19:00 (120Min)
※ Maintenance time and contents may subject to change and it will be announced via this notice.

■ Applied Contents
1. Item
- Added 2 Wings Avatar Item Collections.
[Collection Details]
Milky Way Star Cluster Wings Collection: STR +10, INT +10
Milky Way Battle Type Wings Collection: AGI +10, WIS +10
* Wings Avatar Item Collection is activated when one of the 3 Wings Avatars is registered.

2. Product/Shop
- Added to Function&Convenience > Reliquary: Astellian's Wings Box
- Function&Convenience > Reliquary: Discounted price of reliquary by 20%
* Period: after the maintenance on Aug 18 ~ until the maintenance Aug 26
* Target: Silent Milky Way's Reliquary / Granvel's Destiny Box / Granvel's Contrast Box / Granvel's Welcom Box

■ Changing Battle Pass Notice
Start New Battle Pass: "End of Journey" - With starting a new battle pass, the existing 'Dream of Summer Days' will be ended.
- The new battle pass will be in progress from August 13, 2021 to September 1, 2021 and you can check it in the battle pass.
※ Refund for the existing battle pass is not possible if you have purchased and used it before the maintenance.

※ Note: when purchasing items
1. Items in the Product Vault can be refunded within 7 days of purchase.
2. Items purchased by using Gem and Asper can't be refunded.
3. Restoration of Gem, Asper, item, and transfer of these requested due to user's mistake are not possible.
4. Information of probability-type item can be found in the probability-type item composition announcement. (Added when ending maintenance)

■ Note
1. Please log out of your game before maintenance to ensure that your game data is stored properly.
2. Players will not be able to access Astellia Royal during the update.
3. Please contact customer center if you have any question related to the maintenance.

Thank you.

Publisher Leonardo Interactive and developer Madlight Studio are pleased to announce that the futuristic, third-person, sci-fi puzzle platformer, Seed of Life is out today on PC via Steam for £19.49/ €22.99/$24.99 and will be available with a 20% launch discount for a limited time.

Embark on an epic adventure as you take on the role of the Seed of Life’s protagonist, Cora, as she navigates the labyrinth-like world of Lumia, a dying planet ravaged by strange alien creatures that are stealing its lifeforce. As the last known survivor of Lumia, Cora must find the mysterious device called the Seed and restore life to the planet before it's too late.


Seed of Life is an epic adventure game about the persistence of life. You are Cora, the last known survivor of Lumia, a dying world ravaged by alien invaders that are stealing the planet’s lifeforce. Your only hope to save your homeworld is to activate The Seed, an alien device capable of generating the essence of life and save your planet from annihilation. Will you be the light that conquers the darkness?

As you look to the light and navigate your way through a labyrinth-like planet, you’ll come across strange capsules and learn special abilities that allow you to defy the laws of nature and conquer the dangers of a dying world on the brink of destruction. With the help of a cute alien assistant named Nar, you will be able to solve challenging puzzles and topple increasingly menacing invader foes in order to save your world.

Seed of Life Features:

Amazing Scenarios - Explore a breathtaking sci-fi universe set in a dystopian future. Seed of Life features beautiful graphics and a unique art style where bright colors meet complete darkness.
An Emotional Journey - Seed of Life is a story-driven game with a dramatic, engaging story full of mysteries to be revealed that will keep you curious and excited to discover more.
Gameplay Focused - This adventure is packed with RPG elements, puzzles and dangerous creatures. Find Talisman capsules to learn new abilities, collect Lumium to upgrade and strategically use your items to defy gravity and overcome different challenges.
Stealth Combat - Escape from Namurian Shadows roaming the land in search for the remaining Lumium
A World to Discover - Explore a beautiful and vast labyrinth-like semi-open world where secrets are hidden in every corner and environmental challenges will test your skills. Navigate dangerous paths, clear objectives and find interest points. There’s always something new to uncover!

Seed of Life is out today PC via Steam for £19.49/ €22.99 / $24.99. For more information on Leonardo Interactive, please visit the official website.