• fixed crazy mode randomly crashing on changing level
  
• healers won't get stuck now trying to heal novices hidden inside the meganovice
  
• Dr. Octopus may be safely repositioned in the boss room now
  
• rubber projectiles won't make effects (e.g. vampirism) multiply like rabbits
  
• "Get token" button (twitch integration) now works on OSX
  
• fixed several soft locks and other errors

Fixed a minor problem with the siren when detecting a new radioactive material.

Changes for Missile Launcher (new)

• Added effects for rockets
  
• Reduced rate of fire
  
• Now shoots 4 missiles at once
  
• Damage increased slightly
  
• Increased spread

Fixed

• Destruction with Repair Beam in the kill feed was displayed as a kill with Laser
  
• If you left the menu and were in the Lobby, you connected back to the Lobby
  
• AXEL sometimes had low spread of weapons in no aiming mode
  
• Repair Beam disappeared from GEAR when destroyed
  
• AI sometimes get stuck near large buildings in Egypt
  
• The flag could sometimes still appear inside or on a building
  
• The physics of the destroyed AXEL with the Conqueror skin was buggy
  
• Resetting horizontal sensitivity after using TRAK

Changed

• Reduced the reload time of TechSpheres
  
• Friends lobby was destroyed when exiting the menu after the game was over
  
• Railgun can now shoot without sight, but with reduced damage
  
• The mine is now slightly buried under the ground, the lasers look a little higher, does 300 damage when exploding on its own, 30 damage if it was blown up
  
• EMP slightly increased the radius of action, when damaged by EMP, modules and TechSphere cannot be used, control is not blocked
  
• Slightly reduced the rate of fire of the Turret

Added

• Dynamic camera behavior when jumping and falling
  
• New weapon: Missile Launcher

Hello everyone!

A very long and extensive update for all you guys to see how we've been getting along. It's a major wall of text, so I hope you all have as much fun reading it as I had writing it.

In this update, I hope to tell you a little bit more about what we have been up to the last couple of weeks, as well as what you guys can expect from here on out, as we're moving towards our first, new release using the Unreal Engine. If you've missed out on the whole discussion on why we decided to switch over to the Unreal Engine, you can find quite an extensive write-up about it by clicking here.

Before I get to discussing what our next immediate steps will be, I would take a moment to explain a little bit how we have arrived at this plan. As the quote goes (forgive me for not being able to find the source): 'Design is the successive application of constraints until only a unique product is left.' If there are no constraints whatsoever, there is no design to speak of either, as you could then decide to recreate the entire known universe.

It's no secret that our project faces quite an extensive amount of constraints. On the one hand, there are rather practical constraints, such as our financial resources, how much time people are willing to invest in it, what kind of expertise people bring to the project, and the like.

On the other hand, we have self-imposed constraints, such as that we want this project to be about life in and aboard U-boats, be at a rather inhuman level of historical accuracy and simulation fidelity, but also engaging and accessible to people who are less versed and familiar with the subject. There are many, many more of such considerations. I won't get into more detail about those in this message, but should you be interested, always feel free to send me a message and I'll happily elaborate on it. (edited)

It is also very much in our interest to engage our supporters in that process as much as possible. This serves multiple purposes. First and foremost, it's fun. No player has ever said: 'I wish the developers would have waited two more years for me to get my hands on it.'- except in those awful, alas far too commonplace, cases where developers rush a bad product to market for reasons I personally don't quite understand. As with the point above, I won't go into much detail either about other reasons to do so, but feel free to contact me if you're interested.

If you take these things into account, you'll quickly appreciate that we have a couple of challenges to face indeed. On the one hand, we're saying: we want to recreate and simulate a U-Boat at an extremely high level of fidelity. Understandably, that will take quite some time and effort. On the other hand, we're saying: we want our players to get their hands on something fun and engaging as soon as possible and expand on that iteratively.

I'm going to use a simile now that might come across a bit highbrow, so please forgive me for that. Anyone who has ever played chess knows that in almost all cases, the best moves to play are those that serve multiple purposes. We have thought about this in a very similar way. Although the end-goal of game development, especially in a project like this, is much more open-ended than in a game of chess, it is most definitely possible to come up with some 'opening moves' which are much more sensible than others.

The first thing we arrived at is reorganizing the internal structure of our project a bit. Quite basically put, our process is split up into three semi-independent tracks. I'll discuss them here in no particular order.

Track one (or two, or three) is the game design/prototyping. What we do here, is hammer out all those game-play concepts and mechanics that are not specific to the U-Boat itself, but can be applied (and will need to be applied!) all around the world of Crush Depth. Things like being able to turn a wheel, pick up an item, fire a gun, communicate with other players, and the like.

We are currently developing these actions on board a training vessel. The problem - one learned from our experimental phase in Unity - is that it's rather undoable to roll this out on the U-Boat itself.

A simple example here: rudder controls on a U-Boat are (amongst other places) on the bridge. A radio is in one of the front compartments. If we want to allow users to both steer a ship and turn on a radio, he has to move through multiple compartments, filled with items which he is not able to interact with, and don't look too good either.

From our time spend in Unity, we have learned that that is not well received by everyone. By putting the player on board a training vessel, we have much more control over what we expose the player to at this stage, making for a richer, more meaningful experience, as well as communicating a whole lot better what our end-goals are. In the later stages of our project, this training vessel will be neatly tied in with the rest of the world, serving indeed as a ship where people can learn and develop new skills needed to succeed in that world.

The second track we're running is the purely technical side of things. Think about networking, synchronizing sea states, maintaining and developing the frameworks we need to get our simulation to the level we want. Apart from that, it is also tasked with the deeper development and implementation of those game-play mechanics we develop in prototyping.

The third track deals solely with the U-Boat itself. Modeling the U-Boat at the level of precision and detail we want it to be is such a tremendous undertaking, that we're allocating a lot of our time and resources to it. This track is also responsible for the ideation of functionality that is specific to the U-Boat itself, such as (for instance) the rather complex firing and buoyancy system.

The idea behind setting up the project this way is, that each of these tracks can work and develop the game somewhat independently of each other, iterate on the project in quick succession, and (for lack of a better word) 'feed' into each other. Things that are developed by the guys in prototyping will give the player something to do and develop a feel for the game, but also lay the groundwork for the systems that will be needed on the U-Boat itself. Things that are developed on the technical side, will create more possibilities for game-play, as well as simply creating the world in which everything has to live. As those things are worked on, the U-Boat itself can grow into an extremely accurate digital representation of the real thing, without the people involved in that process (mostly modelers and researchers) having to worry about the game design and technical (by which I mean coding/programming in this case) side of it.

In the following updates, I'll be covering in more detail how those three tracks are developing and how this ties into a first Unreal version. Our supports through Patreon have been given somewhat more exclusive insight into that process already. For now, I hope you had as much fun reading this as I had writing it. Thank you all for your support, and expect an update on the progress soon!

ATTENTION HAUNTED SHORES FANS!

Our game is a psychological - type horror game that is meant to instill fear and a sense of urgency and anxiety in our players. If you have experienced seizures from flashing lights/strobe lights, or have a heart condition please use caution when playing this game. There are several jump scares and loud noises.

Our game is still in early access and is subject to changes and improvements at any time.

Thank you all for your continued support in our ever-changing game!

We hope to be able to bring you more content in the near future!

Enjoy!

Sincerely,
Wildebeest Labs

Fixed a bug that prevented the "Looking for Match" UI from properly updating if the match making ticket timed out without finding a match.

In this update we made some adjustments

• [Adjusted] - Growth speed of Zebra and Vulture
  
• [Adjusted] - Change on bushes and grasses
  
• [Adjusted] - Elephante gestation time fixed
  
• [Adjusted] - Fixed time to gain points on zebra and vulture
  
• [Adjusted] - Juvie Elephant damage
  
• [Adjusted] - Added more grazing areas

A short list for now... we'll be back soon with more ; )

Thanks!
High Brazil Studio

John here again, as a diversion from the world building and rock creation which has been dominating our time of late; I made a broom and did some sweeping today. Well, the sweeping is more of an animation for our villagers and the broom creation was digital but they will be able to clean up a lot more efficiently than I will.

There are a lot more of them after all.

We have talked about this previously and building animations are on our roadmap. Not for 0.8 mind, but it is not only Phil that has problems overreaching and deviating from the order of his todo list. This sweeping animation will serve as the default for all of the workers for the different buildings we have. Eventually each building will have its own animations, showing that they are in use and how many people are working there. For now however, we feel it would bring more life to the village to have them utilising this idle animation so the players can better see when their buildings are processing.

We are really looking forward to how busy the villages will feel. We already have a strong sense, as players, when the village turns from a few houses at the start into a bustling home full of villagers as we are growing it. Likewise, watching our villagers marching across the island delivering goods and collecting resources really makes us feel like proud fathers, seeing our progeny busy in their daily lives. By now, we have already added a few “inanimate” animations to buildings, like smoke rising from the smelters or the windmill turning its blades - something that really adds to the feeling of a lively village as well. Being surrounded by the rest of the buildings looking equally vibrant will really develop that sense and reinforce the desire to grow our bases. We shall continue assessing how to enhance that further and let us know if you have any suggestions!

Until next week!

Halloween is here! Zhia Lian, the demanding god of Whimsy, has new higher-level tasks for you to take on. The Halloween event now has over 90 quests! So get out there and see what whimsical random things she wants now! Just remember the first rule of the Cult of Zhia Lian ...

In addition to new quests and rewards for Halloween, this update also includes a bunch of fixes and improvements.

• Added auto-repeat back into crafting, for use primarily with recipes that don't always consume their ingredients.
  
• Skills and sub-skills are now properly listed in alphabetical order in the abilities window.
  
• Fixed a bug that prevented area-specific loading-screen tips from showing when you logged into the game. (They could only be seen when you teleported to other areas.)
  
• The search bar is now cleared when opening the recipe window from the "More Info" context menu.
  
• Changed "Virility" to "Fertility" for female pets during direct pet inspection.

• Players can move their characters a small amount even when they are performing "locked" combat animations. In other words, players can slide around while their feet are doing other things. This is an experiment in our ongoing animation work, as we continue to try to balance graphics quality with gameplay benefits.
  
• Players sit better on chairs.
  
• Birds sit properly on bird perches.
  
• Deer have a jump animation.
  
• Animal forms now display Bulwark Shield correctly.
  
• Skeleton archer animations play correctly.
  
• Smoothed out movement/rotation of equipment during animations.
  
• Many, many animations have been polished, including: Archery (and crossbows) animations; dance animations for Butterfly, Deer, & Owl; Psychology animations; animations for playing harp & fairy chimes; and others.

• We've reverted earlier Povus change that allowed monsters to auto-despawn even if players were near them. This was intended to be beneficial to players, but proved detrimental, because it could despawn corpses that you wanted to loot. For now, Povus event monsters no longer auto-despawn if any player is within 20 meters of them. (We'll revisit this idea soon, as we continue to evolve the Povus nightly event system.)
  
• Fixed genetic equipment breakage rate, from 50% to 5%.
  
• Gestation time is now properly modified by the special-event that's supposed to cut it in half. (For the next time we run that special event.)
  
• Ghostly creatures that spawn during Povus invasions now correctly have the anatomy type Incorporeal.
  
• Glajur now teaches individual Phrenology skills instead of the overarching Phrenology skill.
  
• Dog Ear actually wants insect meat now.
  
• Eltibule treasure map treasures will no longer generate out of zone bounds.
  
• Goats now spawn in Gazluk instead of sheep. The availability of wool and mutton has not changed.
  
• Ratkin Root-Tenders (and their servants) can drop wood as loot.
  
• Ratkin Miners can drop ores as loot.
  
• Swapped north/south east/west in Povus surveys.
  
• Fixed the Zukelmux World Boss Portal to actually teleport players to the Fae Realm rather than back into Gazluk Keep (for next Attack of the World Bosses event)
  
• We now display accurate damage of Song of Discord when a damage mod like Bulwark Shield is active.
  
• Having Giant Bat form no longer slows your jump or renders you unable to make the lift jump in Wintertide.
  
• Fixed typo in Murky Tunnel in Povus.
  
• Fixed Latent Charge typo.
  
• Added a check to prevent players from dropping items if there are already 20 entities within 5 meters. (This is to prevent players from dropping 100+ items in very close proximity, which breaks Unity's physics engine.)
  
• Reduced intensity of fogginess on foggy days. Most areas are dramatically less foggy; Povus is still notably foggier than other areas (but still half as foggy as last update).
  
• Fixed brightness changes to indoor areas, such as from "Brighter World" and "Echolocation".

Hey space travelers,

This was more of an interim update first, as we had so many fixes and optimizations between two updates that we didn't want to keep from you – but a significant change to the weapon system made us let it ripen a little more in the end: Area damage, coming with additions like physical impulses and timed damage functionalities. Along with an overall tooltip rework, these new features were applied to existing weapons and some new ones, but there is also room for many cool future things!

At the same time, the production of the story expansion is on fire. We decided to release the alternative routes for the Caduceus storyline separately, so be prepared for a big replayability update even before the actual expansion – can't wait to show you the new stuff!


Special thanks to:
Jhenox for feedback and a lot of insight, BunnyDeFluff for feedback and bug reporting, GamerArk for organizing a fanmade chinese localization (including SunFlowerBASARA who also pointed out some mistakes in the english script :D) and of course, Ashkin for continuous support – you guys rock! 🤘






Made to give explosions an impact radius that matches their visual appearance in the first place, this one escalated pretty quickly. There are now:

• 💥 Explosion
  Everyone likes explosions. They now have individual ranges and physical impacts based on type and size.
  
• ☢️ Decaying
  Some visual effects have already teased it: Heat or radiation weapons now leave a damage field behind on impact and do damage over a certain time.
  
• 🌀 In-Flight
  It is now possible to apply a constant effect 'aura' to in-flight projectiles. Beside the damage, they can also have physical impulses – and practically even negative ones. ;)

• Dutty Gun
  Leaves small spots of radiated area behind – enjoy the extra DPS!
  
• Dutty Boom
  Ok, this one was already there (and still is – if you own it, you'll keep it), formerly known as the Nuke Torpedo. It was moved to the Zion arsenal and given some fancy aftermath radiation effects.
  
• Dutty Nades
  Radioactive grenades – sounds like fun, eh?

With the addition of Area Damage, we now have some sick special device weapons waiting to get launched. Unfortunately, getting active device slots to accept weapons might still take some time...


Don't judge a book by its cover – but it's pretty obvious she's up to no good...


The Krieger Letters now have readable content and you can now deliver them to their rightful recipients. Gain the achievement for this 'Late Delivery'!



To pass the time before next BIG update, we have reactivated the Wicked Dimension – and the once-in-a-year opportunity to unlock rare spooky ships and weapons!








Continuing the tradition, the Pathfinder – one of the oldest ships available – was brought back to speed and decorated with fancy light effects.



Other ship changes:

• Mimi now has an additional turret slot
  
• Added a lot of additional ship descriptions
  
• Polished some stats (e.g. removed duplicated entries, added missing ones etc.)
  
• Added a lot of individual scan XP entries
  
• Removed credit requirements to craft pirate ships
  
• Hacking level and time balancing for all pirate ships
  
• Tyrell Wharf collision / FX optimization

• Fog of War is now black. Space changes to blue in map mode
  
• Station regeneration – stations enter a self-repair mode when losing hull (after a 'come back later' type of cooldown), reducing the risk of finding a bunch of debris where a station should be.
  
• Readable XP when it's opened for the first time
  
• Loot Magnet: change the attraction model
  
• Caduceus HQ bit of polishing
  
• The King is back. You may not know him and maybe never will. Roll out and find him! ;)
  
• Added a new stage to the tutorial, in which Auxilium introduces the scanning feature
  
• A new item (Shuttle Keycard) is added to the player's inventory at the beginning of the game - needed for an incoming update ;)

• Mine shotguns were re-balanced (Caltrop is now better than Scattergun, some prices adjusted) and their projectiles can be shot down
  
• Razor's Edge collision optimization
  
• Solid explosive projectiles like the Shell Breaker now have reworked graphics with animated trails
  
• Improved FX for radiation weapons and default mine explosions

• Loadout key shortcuts
  
• Tooltips: Show the initial DPS if it differs from the average DPS

• Nanobot emitters on regenerating ships and stations

• Support overriding fonts for translations
  
• Add a simplified chinese font
  
• Embed the game version to the binary version header

• Ship crafting consumes the full stack of the ship cargo items
  
• Shield damage is not included for tracked damage stats (stations/ships retaliate way too late)
  
• Loadout switch: Weapons/shields/devices should not deplete if it's the same
  
• Wreck Xanadu turrets should be also gaia
  
• Disable most player input actions if the menu is active
  
• Xentron Revealed: Atlas stops fighting after respawn (when getting killed)
  
• Menu: Fire animations after the GUI has been initialized so they don't stutter or finish instantly
  
• Static Message: correctly update the game and handle controller button down events
  
• Popup notifications don't restore the dialog input focus (E key)
  
• Some minor errors with the Dr. Cram Bokaj questline, added a callback after the quest counter
  
• Lost and found chest should be openable without hacking
  
• D2-Launcher had upgrade level 3 twice instead of 4
  
• Weapon fire rate ignores the energy constraints if min_fire_interval is also set (Mini Seekers fire rate is wrong)
  
• Laser TTL should not be rounded
  
• Tooltip DPS calculation should include p_hit_count_delay
  
• Tooltip DPS for multi-missile (burst) turrets is lower than in game
  
• Tooltips: Compare cargo weight and value
  
• Tooltips: Don't change the highlighted item alpha
  
• Tooltips: Laser "Fire Rate" is sometimes not shown
  
• Savegames: ship stat kill counter is not loaded
  
• ESC in ship trade cancels out of lower dialog first instead of ship trade HUD
  
• Quickload crashes when a question box is open (disable it)
  
• 5 ships (Ameba, Cessy, Gylfa, Icarus, Stansa) didn't have damage or regeneration FX
  
• Big Samson (Seraphim bodyguard) portrait had a CoC logo
  
• Some grammar and spelling mistakes
  
• Don't allow trading with stations in space
  
• Drop click areas overlap each other
  
• Shield collision/impact emitters are offset
  
• Ship loadouts: Do a free cargo space check
  
• Muzzle emitters are played in Inventory background
  
• FTA trade missions: Delete enemies on mission success
  
• Savegame Menu: Info messages are not shown as they are drawn behind the window (like "Can't save now. A dialog, event or fight is currently active")
  
• Gilliam ship emitter particles have regular gaps
  
• Engine-linked repeat emitters can still be duplicated once
  
• Analysis: Show trash trade icon only for collectable trash pieces
  
• "-1 item" message on player death
  
• Options Menu: Add a "needs a game restart" info popup when the font will change from a language change
  
• Infinite hit count to Flamethrower and Razor's Edge

Let's have a chat on Discord:



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