Hello DOLMEN fans,

We are thrilled to announce that our publisher will be hosting 2 separate streams playing through the DOLMEN preview build on their channels. The preview build is an edited version of DOLMEN which contains a number of areas and bosses you will be able to find in the full release
The streams will be hosted Tuesday December 14th at 10am ET, 3pm GMT, 4pm CET and Friday December 17th at 10am ET, 3pm GMT, 4pm CET.

The stream can be watched on the following channels:
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/primemattergg
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/PrimeMatter/

Or right here on Steam,

We hope to see you there.

-Fixed multiple crash causing bugs regarding the new enemies.
-Fixed crash causing bug regarding the camera control, prevention implemented.
-Hunter boss, and its system is now finished and active.
-Overworld enemy depth miss-match fixed.

Steam cards as well as other Steam community items for Milo and the Magpies such as emoticons, badges and backgrounds are now available to unlock! 😻

Also, we’re extending the ingame contest till the 25th of January! So if you haven't completed the form available after finishing the game, there is still time to fill it and submit it before January 25th, for a chance to win an exclusive Milo and the Magpies prize! Meow! 🐈‍⬛


Milo and the Magpies is coming to mobile devices on January 26th 2022 with a price tag of 1,99€/$ 🐾🗓️

Pre-order now 🐈‍⬛

🍎 iOS https://itunes.apple.com/app/id1529462789
🤖 Android https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.com.JohanScherft.MiloAndTheMagpies

Thank you all for your support! 💓 Milo can't wait to chase some magpies on your mobile! 😻

-Fixed issue with the anti cheat not detecting modified damage values.

Changelog:

• typo: objective "Stepanakert" in Yerevan scenario
  
• Yerevan objective fix
  
• scenario editor: CTRL-9 hotkey to edit forts (ESC to leave)
  
• fix: soviet allied nationality string
  
• map fix: wrong terrain type (city) near Pyatigorsk

That's right everyone, Aspire: Ina's Tale is launching in just four days' time!

We are super excited for you to get your hands on this beautiful game on Friday, December 17th, & can't wait to see the content that the creators amongst you make.



Don't forget to join our discord (link below) or head to Lurkit if you want to request a review code.

If you want to try Aspire: Ina's Tale before Friday, you can still download the demo from the store page.

Discord: https://discord.gg/xTpncb8gKs

Thanks for your continued support. This is an awesome community!

All our best,
The teams at Wondernaut Studio & Untold Tales

That's right - I've been hard at work on a new demo based on feedback from the last one!

• Shorter demo (old one was about 1 hour in length average, so it should be much less than that now)
  
• The same area as the first one, but completely redesigned given design feedback.
  
• New tutorial segment that is less confusing
  
• Some updated graphics and new object designs
  
• New UI, including less annoying terminal speed warning. It's no longer a red vignette blocking the screen, it's just part of the UI
  
• More scannables and lore
  
• The ability to reset the level to the start, with clear stats (This is useful for speedrunning)
  
• New composed music
  
• An unlockable secret level, and new blue crystals that you can find and smash
  
• Level Select menu (although you can only select one)
  
• Settings menu where you can lower graphics settings, adjust audio, gameplay, and controls
  
• Speedrun stats records available in the level select menu
  
• Controller support, and button mapping (although some issues may remain that I'm aware of)
  
• Lots of mechanic bug fixes (it feels very crisp now - I can't break it!)
  
• Coyote time actually works and I can't break it! Even on pipes / sliding surfaces :)

So although it's not release quality yet - it's much much closer to release quality.

Expect it to be out early next year!

I'm hesitant to show you too much, but here is a short video that shows off a few of those features.
This is very early in the demo, before you get the climbing picks. It shows:

• Reset to start
  
• New UI
  
• New terminal velocity indicator
  
• Very brief and limited view of the new demo area

Stay tuned for more, folks!

Anyone who plays video games encounters program errors sooner or later.

These types of errors have hindered players since the emergence of the gaming industry. We are used to them and not-so-affectionately nickname them "bugs." Bugs can be found everywhere, and World of Warships is no exception. Our project comprises millions of constantly updated lines of code, a huge amount of content, and a complex system of interactions between players' computers and our servers. All this creates a multitude of relationships in which mistakes can occur. Today, you will learn about how we reduce the number of bugs that reach the main server and how we fix those that are overlooked.

---

The term "bug" is probably familiar to most gamers.

A bug is an error that causes the actual result of a program's operation to differ from the expected one.

In the early days of the game, we divided bugs into two main types: bugs in the game content and bugs in the code. Now, there are many more types.

---

Quality assurance (QA) teams are responsible for finding and fixing bugs in World of Warships.

QA departments exist in most World of Warships development teams. For example:

• Content: Checking models, sounds, visuals, and more.
  
• Game logic: Checking the correct operation of the game mechanics.
  
• Server core: Checking the correct operation of the game servers.

QA's job is to understand how certain things are implemented in the game. To do this, they study the documentation and communicate with developers. After that, they develop testing processes and schemes that are used to check the program's compliance with its expected behavior.

Both negative and positive tests are carried out when testing the program:

• Positive testing uses scenarios that match the normal, expected behavior of the program. For example, checking that a user can enter the game client upon entering the correct password.
  
• Negative testing involves performing "incorrect" actions deliberately (abnormal scenarios). For example, checking if it is possible to log in to the game client by entering an incorrect password or leaving the password input field blank.

Other types of checks are carried out if deemed necessary: performance tests, user friendliness tests, and others.

In World of Warships, testing can be simplified into several main stages.

Internal testing:

• Various types of functionality testing at all stages of functionality creation, such as:
  
  • Ideation
    
  • Design
    
  • Development
• Integration testing, or checking that all the individual parts of the game work correctly when put together and added to the main game code.
  Testing an assembled build for obvious defects before an external test.

A build is a specific version of the game client that can also be used for testing.

Tracking absolutely all relationships and their results in various elements of such a large project as World of Warships is not possible even for the largest QA teams.

Therefore, external testing begins in parallel with the final stages of internal tests:

• Testing of a pre-release build of the game by a small group of volunteers (Supertest and Clan Test).
  
• Public testing, which is open to everyone.

External testing also allows us to check the operation of the game on a wide variety of computer and software configurations.

The World of Warships development team is also involved in external testing. We have a mechanism called "Traffic lights" in the studio. This is a special page that all teams fill out after playing on the Public Test Server. On this page, staff can leave feedback about each new tested version feature, as well as give it an assessment that is later taken into account when summing up the testing results.

Based on the results of external testing, we fix the last identified errors in the current build of the game. If it is impossible to fix the errors, we may even have to remove certain features from the coming update.

This was the case with Asymmetric Battles in Update 0.10.9. A bug that led to incorrect operation of the mode and required additional time to fix was discovered during the Public Test stage. As a result, the mode was removed from the update.

---

Why do bugs occur on the Live Server? Bugs occur for a variety of reasons and at different development stages. From commonplace errors in the program code and the human factor to non-obvious interactions and errors at the stage of creating a design document for a new version.

An error may be present, for example, already at the stage of developing an idea and will still be considered a bug.

For example, the mechanics of temporary invulnerability of an aircraft carrier squadron immediately after an attack, which could earlier be used to overcome the enemy's air defense zone, can also be attributed to bugs. This particular use of the mechanic was not foreseen in the design stage of the aircraft carrier update and was later fixed.

To prevent similar situations, we try to start testing as early as at the stage of discussing new ideas.

In addition, game elements that work perfectly in isolation can "break" when combined with other game elements due to various interconnections and conflicts that arise.

For example, in one of the internal tests of the Ranked Battles update, we found that they caused errors in the operation of Clan Battles—players were not able to start a battle because matchmaking took an infinitely long time. The cause of this was not the most obvious relationship, but it was fortunately found and did not reach the Live Server.

Another cause of bugs—one that is rather difficult to track down—is the huge variety of our users' computer configurations, which, together with the complex client-server architecture, can lead to unexpected behavior of the game code on specific computers.

For example, in one update, due to the date format in Japan being different to the format used in Europe or America, the game code was not able to process this information, and the post-battle statistics were not displayed for some players.

What players consider to be a bug can sometimes not be a bug at all because the program behavior seen by players is actually the expected outcome. In such situations, it is important to analyze player feedback and, possibly, change something. The opposite can also be true—a bug can sometimes become part of the game and the decision not to fix it can be deliberate.

For example, the unique sound of X Shikishima's guns had an error in the audibility range setting (it could be heard at a greater range than was intended), and this error was fixed. However, you noticed that the sound lost its unique quality due to the fix, so we returned this "error" to the game.

Bugs can also be tentatively attributed to technical problems in data centers or Internet providers. Unfortunately, there is little that we can do in such situations, and we cannot always help players, regardless of whether we know the source of the problem.

It should be understood that it is impossible to track down absolutely all bugs. The result of the QA team's work is that a new functionality works as intended, without critical bugs and flaws, and that it can be released on the Live Server.

---

Why do some bugs take so long to fix? The required time period for correcting a particular error depends primarily on its nature. Some defects require a significant investment of time as early as the error analysis stage. Indeed, in order to correct an error, we need to reproduce it accurately and understand the reason or reasons why this error occurred.

For example, a recent bug caused torpedoes to launch incorrectly when the launching ship was turning. This was a mistake in the game logic, and any changes and fixes to the game logic are always very risky because they affect absolutely all players and affect the very basis of the game—its gameplay.

Therefore, to fix such an error, it is necessary to accurately analyze player complaints and various reports, find the cause of the problem, and develop and verify a solution. In special cases, it can be necessary to rewrite the game code to fix a bug or optimize it using new technology. This process is called refactoring. Despite the fact that nothing seems to change from the player's point of view, this process takes quite a long time.

In addition, the time frame for correcting errors depends on the ways in which fixes are delivered to players. For example:

• To fix some bugs, it is enough to make small fixes to the server side of the game, which most players will not even notice.
  
• The situation is more complicated when the error also affects the player's client or it is necessary to carry out server maintenance to fix the error. In this case, a small patch can be prepared and additional work performed on the server. The server is not available to players during this time.
  
• Fixing some bugs requires so many changes in the code and additional tests that fixes can only be released with the release of the next major game update.

The decision on how to deliver each fix and the priority of bug fixing is determined by numerous factors:

• Bug severity: Inoperable Random Battles should be fixed as soon as possible, but a typo in the ship's performance specifications can wait a bit.
  
• Scale: Some errors affect all players; other errors occur for one player out of a thousand.
  
• Risks and necessary fix tests: As mentioned above, sloppy fixes in the game logic can only make things worse.
  
• Time spent on server maintenance and the update size: To fix an error, we will need to turn off the server for several hours, and players will need to download quite a big patch. In such cases, it is worthwhile to think again how important it is to fix an error immediately because many players will not be able to enter the game for a long time.

Unfortunately, despite all of our desires to fix all possible bugs, the resources of the World of Warships team are finite, so we focus on fixing the most critical and frequently encountered bugs.

---

You can always inform us about any errors you find via one of the following resources:

• Player Support
  
• Game forum
  
• Official World of Warships Discord server

To help facilitate quicker and more efficient error fixing, please add the following to your report:

• Error description.
  
• Screenshot, video, replay, or any other visual confirmation of an error. If you attach a battle replay, make sure to indicate the timing of the error.
  
• WGCheck file. Detailed information about this file is available in a separate article.

In today's article, we did our best to tell you about our "invisible front" in the fight against bugs in the simplest possible way. We want to thank you for your bug reports, feedback, participation in our tests, and playing World of Warships! Without your contribution, we would not have been able to quickly find and correct various errors that have occurred in the game.

The Anacrusis will release on Steam, Xbox Series X|S, the Epic Games Store, Xbox One, and the Microsoft Store on January 13, 2022! We'll be on Game Pass and Game Pass for PC on launch day as well. You should still watch the video though, we give more details about the launch, explain why we really want feedback from everyone who plays the game, and there's a bunch of new bonus footage at the end!



The best way to stay up to date on the latest news about The Anacrusis is to smash the Wishlist button attached to this post (or on our Steam page). If you love co-op games and want to play them with a group of wonderful humans, join the Stray Bombay Discord. We're also actively recruiting testers for observed playtests from the Discord community, so you may even get a sneak peek at the game. And if you make mods and would like to be among the first wave of modders for The Anacrusis, the signup form for early access to our mod tools is here. Follow us on GameJolt!

It’s been quite a journey the past half year (and then some) for the Gen Z team. We’ve been through some ups and downs; and you, our lovely community, have been there with us, ever patient. As always, we cannot be more grateful for the dedicated followers that have found a home in Östertorn.

(For those of you who would prefer not to hear anything more about the Xbox update and content parity, or Game Pass, skip ahead to the next section with the bits that are applicable to the community as a whole)

We’re finally back to content parity on all platforms! So, what has happened these past 7 months?

In March and April, we realized that a growing number of issues we had fixed in the past kept coming back as we iterated on the game. The more we researched and reflected on this, the more we realized it was less about the content and features we were developing, and more about long-hidden compatibility and/or platform-specific issues.

Some of you might remember that we discussed platform and matchmaking bugs in previous letters we’ve published. In the end, they were still the biggest hurdles to get the Xbox update out the door for content parity, which is something we aimed to maintain at the start of 2021. Unfortunately, due to production and release constraints, we had to split-ship May’s update to ensure something reached the community, even if it was only a part of it.

We maintain the ambition to ship our updates for Generation Zero simultaneously across all our platforms moving forward. This was part of the decision to continue as we did these past months, to get back to what we (tried to) promise. Split-shipping was a misstep on our part, and even if we made the decision based on what we felt was best for the team and the game at the time, we have walked away from this experience with a lot of learnings and areas we will try to avoid in the future.

What Happened - In More Detail

As many of you might have noticed, since the Xbox update has gone live Nov. 30th, there was an additional reason that we were delayed as much as we were, and that was in preparation for our inclusion of Game Pass. Normally, this would have continued in parallel with other developments and updates, but due to our agreed-upon deadlines, coupled with the split shipped tech debt we incurred just months before, it created a perfect storm of conflicting priorities. We had to make a conscious choice of how to continue for the sake of continued development (i.e. updates to the game) with the resources that Generation Zero currently has, and is able to sustain in a healthy manner in the long term. We do have a smaller team and put focus on everyone’s health. This sometimes causes lost time for our planned roadmap, or missteps in development, for the right reasons we believe.

So, what was the main issue in more detail? Generation Zero was branched off the Apex Engine over 4 years ago. This has been the version the game has run on since that happened, with some strategic improvements and feature implementations that came from our backend and engine teams, but otherwise has been on its own path with the project team. That being said, we all know that tech never stops moving forward.

When it came time to prep the game for Game Passes inclusion, after all that was mentioned above, we eventually realized what the issue was. For us to function on Windows 10, and implement cross-play / matchmaking properly, our engine needed to add GDK (a toolkit for our developers to plug into Microsoft / Xbox’s services). Previously our branch of the engine had only used XDK (before the latest generation of consoles were released). From all the ways we tried to approach this, and all the consultations we had internally and externally (even with our partners), we eventually uncovered that our branch of the Apex Engine would not be compatible. That meant we had to work from the ground up to figure out how to integrate these missing components to the engine to make it run properly with the necessary requirements (basically simulating what the API for Xbox’s GDK does, from scratch). While it was somewhat straightforward, the time it took to execute was not insignificant. Once this wrapped up, we did get through certification with some minor warnings, but those were quickly addressed and we resubmitted.

What the horizon looks like moving forward into 2022

Now that our delays are out of the way, and we’re on our way back to smoother developments, we can get into the juicier bits. During the course of the delay, much of the team who couldn’t directly help out on resolving the ongoing issue with Xbox were hard at work looking forward, which means we’ve banked quite a bit of work to kick-off 2022.

We’ve got quite a bit in store for you all, but we can’t quite get into the bigger parts of that just yet. But let's just say that 2022 will hold a lot of fun new content that we are certain you will enjoy, and we can’t wait to share more in the coming weeks.

What we can show you for now is a bit of the extras we had planned for base building. Not only are we making some tweaks and improvements to the experience, but we’re also bringing in some additional (and free) buildings into the mix!

Resistance High Reinforced Pylon
Tall reinforced pylon, great for adding corners and end posts to high walls.



Resistance Scaffolding Platform
Scaffolding platform that provides a flexible elevated shooting position. Great when combined with high walls.



Resistance Scaffolding Ramp
Scaffolding ramp that can be used to provide access to scaffolding platforms.



Resistance Decorative Hedge
Decorative hedge that is sometimes used by the Resistance to camouflage important positions.



Resistance Tall Spotlight
Tall decorative lamp post with multiple spotlights.



That is all from us for this time, but with the update and Game Pass behind us, we can finally start talking more about what the future will hold, both short and long term. Until then, have fun building your bases and fighting for Östertorn!

-The Generation Zero Team