New Features:

• knockout race is available in multiplayer
  
• in-race UI reworked for better visibility
  
• electric sparks effect when a missile hits a ship
  
• all the afterburners on ship are burning when using nitro booster Power-Up
  
• missed checkpoint warning to warn player before entering the next checkpoint

Fixes/Improvements:

• smoother camera handling
  
• options menu now sets/saves/loads settings as intended
  
• better controller handling in menus
  
• multiplayer menu UI changed for better uniformity
  
• track booster fine-tuned for better racing experience
  
• Power-Ups are easier to pick up
  
• incoming missile warning text is shorter
  
• time trial times fine-tuned based on real results
  
• game's size on disk reduced
  
• and a ton of small things

Hello everyone! Today's devlog will be about things we changed since the last time, thanks to the testing we have done, plus to show you the mostly finished map.


Check this picture, where every territory has a spy network and an enemy base:



I think this picture became super noisy. Hard to see what is relevant (cities and armies) and what is not, so in the end, we canned the idea of the enemy base and the spy network to be on the map so dominantly. Instead, we made it so that they are part of the cities they belong to, clearing up the picture.

New enemy base:



New spy network (yes, is just a flag, not as nice, but a lot more functional):




Let's start with a reminder of what I mean by the agenda system. My initial idea was that the enemy will have a random goal (mostly to conquer a random region) and it has 2 months to complete it. If the enemy can complete X number of it, depending on the difficulty level will make the player lose. There was 2 problem with it. For one, I started to think about how long I want my campaign to be. XCOM long war mod was great in a lot of regards, but it was too grindy for my taste. I realized that the game will need to take around 6-10 in-game months time. So only 3-5 chances for the enemy to score its objective. The other problem was that it is way too easy to cheese its objective of conquering a region with just 1 action which increases the loyalty of a region from the player.

So what is my solution? Well, I just defaulted back to the good old loss condition of losing too many territories. Easy to understand, works well, as if the player loses too many territories that it makes it impossible to come back, it instantly ends the game. But I still liked the general idea of the enemy focusing on regions, so I didn't throw it completely in the bin, just repurposed it. The enemy will be focusing their loyalty-reducing missions on a region (which will be the starting region of the player, in the beginning, just to make sure the player will have missions in the first month). But if the enemy sees too big of resistance (too many missions were countered by the player) it will change its target. The enemy will remember this though, so this will increase the likelihood of terror missions in this region, as a retaliation. This gives the feeling of the enemy being revengeful which I quite like.


Now, onto the new stuff. A lot of time was spent to make the regions and cities more distinct visually, and mechanically. Hopefully, you already saw this in the opening picture, but here are the 4 different cultures and their main cities:

In the north, you can see people building cities around mountains. These mountains are rich in ores, so you will find a high concentration of smiths in these regions.



As we go a bit more south you will find people living in a more temperate region. These are rather balanced regions, with just a slight preference for one resource.



The southwest portion of the map, gives home to a big desert, with a few oases here and there. These oases are the centers of the people living here and are renowned trade centers, so these regions are highly focused on supply income.



Lastly, the southeast portion of the map gives home to a more eastern-like culture, home of the biggest philosophers of the lands. No surprise then that these territories have a bigger concentration of scholars than any other.



The player will have to take into account the region 3 income types when he is deciding where to build additional spy networks in addition to the loyalty and defense benefits it provides. Plus the region bonus, if the player builds a spy network into all of the territories in the region.


So as you can see, the campaign map is close to its final form. We still have work to do on the base building portion, and to create a few menus for science/smith/barracks but otherwise, it starts to really take shape. The enemy AI works, can upgrade its armies, beat the people into submission, be revengeful if it meets opposition. I can't wait till we can actually link the combat portion with the campaign part!

-While in co-op mode both players can finally reposition the objects placed by the other player.
-Fixed missing objects after saving during a co-op session.
-Added multiple new locations.
-Improvements and changes done to every single location and map areas.
-Improved old letters and logs interface/fonts.
-Every letter and log has been revised/edited.
-Added multiple new placeable decorative objects.
-You now need to fix the elevators system in order to access the caves.
-New build menu layout, added a special build menu for track building.
-Improved sled track design.
-Special colliders added to each of the game’s locations to avoid sled collision issues and glitches.
-Improved sled physics settings.
-Fixed sled cables visual issues.
-Improved blueprints object design.
-Fixed hand-held drill animation bug.
-Improved distant terrain quality on very-high and max settings.
-Improved water reflection quality on very-high and max settings.
-Fixed small frame drops when opening up some menus (inventory, trade, hardware welding)
-Fixed small frame drops when starting or stopping the sled.

Version 0.94.01: Added a glass texture so glass is not completely invisible.

修复了部分错字。
更新了部分剧情的表现形式，对剧情内容未作修改。

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It’s been a rocky bit of progress the last few months for us, but we’ve been trying our best to be consistent with development and progress! One of the notable things to start off this devlog to share is the team now having a consistent working schedule compared to prior, the organization of our behind the scenes meaning we should be able to work healthier and progress the mod quicker than we have been the last while!

One of which came from a love and inspiration to the game Katana Zero and it’s writing, being a rewrite of the Dialogue Engine to allow for stuff like Text Effects!

We’ve agreed to not overuse them in the game’s writing and keep them for key moments that would benefit from being accentuated by them, these being a couple examples of the effects and how they can be used for emphasis:






Next on the overhaul hit-list of ours was the Settings Menu, which when adding new settings to the game, was a long time coming for a rewrite.
Some of you, following our Tumblr may have seen this feature posted as we do tend to post stuff like this as we go.

While we may have updated this, what we do to the game we strive to keep in spirit of what we overhaul, and for the settings menu, I think we did a good job.

The new design, instead of all the settings being right there, have been grouped into little categories which you can select. Each of them, much like the settings inside will have a description shown at the bottom of the menu above the language version.


Video Demonstration (Older Clip By Now)

With the new settings we’ve tried to make sure we can make the game as accessible as possible to everyone playing, meaning the game now features the following accessibility settings:

• Epileptic mode (to be added to the actual menu soon <3)
  
• Screen Effects toggle
  
• Text Effects toggle (also to be added to the menu soon)
  
• Colourblind Mode (for some puzzles)
  
• Dyslexic friendly font
  

If there’s anything else you believe we should cover in our accessibility features, do contact us about it!


As for the final overhaul, which is arguable to be less interesting, is a re-write to the game’s Spriteset, which to explain in an easy to digest manner is the bit of code that tells the game how to layer things like NPCs, Pictures on screen, backgrounds, and the map itself.
The small changes to it were the nerdy following:

• Cleaned up the weird clunky mess that was its code
  
• Made the game no longer check for changes to the background, fogs, and other small things every frame

And that concludes the nerdy section of this Devlog!

It was mentioned in our last Tumblr Devlog the glen was being re-sprited.
This is still the case and still undergoing work, and there isn’t too much to show yet. What can be told and shown is that as seen in our previously public demo of the game with the Moxie and Nevermore sitting animation, more NPCs who rather idle in places like Magpie will also be getting their own little animations for hanging out.

And speaking of a Magpie Idle animation, here it is!

(This animation only plays every once in a while and isn't a constant loop)

Still on the graphical polish side of things, recently we’ve finally been able to implement the step effects for Indigo Phosphor Grass, which ended up being more advanced than what you find in the Barrens due to how Indigo phosphor in lore works, however we’ll leave that reasoning for you to learn yourself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeEVjzeNoy0 (Ignore the Undertale trash piles, they're placeholder)

First small thing: We are finally at a point in which we are now completely confident in the details of our story pacing and how all the main story beats fit into the game, which means we’ve finally gotten the hardest part out of the way in that regard and we can confidently work freely on the mod without worrying about it anymore.

And second thing: We’ll hopefully be handling progress updates more consistently from here on out with posting small bits of what we’ve been doing on tumblr, and then from our big milestones or accumulation of posts on tumblr compile those into these big steam Devlogs.

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https://youtu.be/QtFS34CDWz8
https://youtu.be/JRaAYxV1agQ
https://youtu.be/l6eXoWP0EQw

Maybe one day Valve will make creating this section easier

Random Rules! Lost in Random™ has won the award for “Best Indie Game” at #Gamescom2021!? We are so happy and thrilled for our team of talented designers, programmers and artists! You know who you are! Get ready to roll on September 10th!

Dear Townscapers,

The time has come to venture out of Early Access and call this latest version 1.0.



Some changes include:

• A larger grid (unless you build very very tall)
  
• A mesh exporter (because I wanna see people make 3D prints)
  
• Performance improvements (that should be quite noticeable in larger towns)
  
• The ability to remap (and actually see) the keyboard controls.
  
• Gamepad support.

Many of you have dreamed of larger changes and bigger features. While I am afraid we don't have further development plans at this point, I am glad and humbled the game has sparked your imagination.

I have spent the last year off and on my ridiculously long Swedish parental leave. What little work time I’ve had, I’ve spent fixing bugs, working with Raw Fury on the additional platform releases, and admiring your beautiful Townscaper creations.

As always, let us know if you find any bugs.

Many thanks for all the love,
Oskar Stålberg

- Fixed bug when killing the clones in "The Game" doesn't give you the achievement;
- The Boss no longer teleports inside the pyramid or getting stuck on highgrounds in "The Fleeting Mirage";
- Added new barrier on the arena enter, preventing the Boss from glitching;
- Now the Main Menu button appears right after cutscene, after defeating Skitter in "Cosmos Beyond".

Welcome to the second biome, wimps.


Toxic environments infested with mutant bugs and mushrooms are what we get for dumping industrial waste straight into caves. Recently, some bigwigs came up with the brilliant idea of colonising the place. Suffice to say, the locals had had enough of the surface mess and forced the colonists to retreat.

They threw you into a dark and deep hole, didn't they? Those treacherous dead men are sitting now in their comfy leather chairs somewhere in their skyscraper.

The bailiff is coming and adding interest and operating costs to your already late payments.


Fungi and maggots inhabit the whole area. To add a fifth star to the tour review, toxic fumes and lava baths would still need to be mentioned....



...and friendly locals...



We are currently working on developing the second and third level design. We've recently improved our character movement system to ensure smooth carnage on the road to revenge.

In the meantime, Stay Furious mercenaries.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1121320/Chains_of_Fury/