So, the cat’s out of the bag: you must have seen by now the news about Lakeburg Legacies’ first closed beta. It’s something we’ve been working on for a while, especially since we have recently reworked the entire early game experience. But don’t worry if you missed the news or if you haven’t been selected to take part in this closed beta: we’re definitely going to launch more beta sessions in the future!
In the meantime, let’s have a look at what we’ve been working on lately.
Upgrades for the production buildings
In addition to buying new worker slots, players can now also buy upgrades with varied effects. Manon, our Art Director, is currently spending her time revamping the interface of the production buildings in order to replace our old placeholders.
For now, thanks to Simon’s programming magic, two different upgrades are available: thanks to them, the player will be able to increase resource production, and reduce the amount of materials needed to produce some resources. Moreover, we’re definitely planning on improving this feature and adding more upgrades in the foreseeable future!
The Assassins’ Guild
As usual, Justine has created gorgeous backgrounds to illustrate the many buildings you can build in the city of Lakeburg. One of them is the Assassins’ Guild, which is the last of the Illicit buildings to appear, when the number of villagers becomes high enough.
Indeed, the appearance of Illicit buildings depends on the population’s size. They can have highly negative effect on the village, unless their worker slots are filled.
The Assassins’ Guild might be the most terrible of them, since it has the potential to greatly diminish the villagers’ life expectancy… 💀
English localization
As you perhaps already know, the entire team working on Lakeburg Legacies is located in the gorgeous cities of Lille 🍺 and Bordeaux 🍷, in France.
In order to translate the game from the baguette 🥖 language to English without losing the medieval and light-hearted style our Narrative Designer Ambrune adopted, we called on a professional translation agency. After preparing the localization kit, Ambrune has been going back and forth with their linguists for the past few weeks in order to ensure they had every information they needed.
When the game is released in 2023, the game will be playable in French, English and German!
More backgrounds!
Another background Justine has recently worked on is the Painter’s workshop, where workers produce paintings for the most distinguished people of Lakeburg.
Fun fact: in order to gather enough references, she had to dive deep into the “weird medieval paintings” side of the Internet, and has obligingly shared her funniest finds with the team…to our great delight!
Final preparations for the Closed Beta
Since we are organizing our very first Closed Beta for Lakeburg Legacies, the past few weeks have been filled with playtesting the game and checking for bugs.
Thus, there are still many features we have yet to polish and properly explain through in-game tooltips, signs and feedbacks. In order to make the game more comprehensible for our beta testers, our Game Designer Chloé has prepared tutorials which Frédéric has then implemented.
Aaaaannd that’s all for today! We can’t wait to have players outside of the Ishtar Games team test the game and give us their feedback! We’re planning on dedicating a special blogpost to the Closed Beta in July, so stay tuned! 👀
Do you dare to enter the Dragon's Den, Governor!? 🔥🐲 Join this 5-player Dash poker Cashgame with 50M buy-in Saloon in the Featured tab! Demonstrate your poker skills and fly to the top of the Leaderboard to win a Hyper Spin!🏆🌀
1. We are extending the deadline for submitting screenshots by two more days, so the contest will end on 8 June 2022 at 23:59 CET.
2. We have received some wonderful pictures, but the HUD is in the image. Here's a hint: You can turn off the HUD with the keyboard shortcut "H".
3. You can save uncompressed images on Steam. To do this, select the "Steam" tab in the Steam client, then "Settings", then "In game" and tick "Save uncompressed copy". For this copy you should choose a separate folder because the screenshot will be saved two times.
4. You are invited to submit smaller image formats than the desired 4k. It is primarily about the pixel density, the resolution is important, but not everything. If necessary, a screenshot can be scaled up to 300 dpi in an image editor for printing.
First things first, let's talk about the most hotly discussed topic right now for Sable, optimization!
So! We did promise a significant change with this newest patch but we bumped into some further issues that we want to take the time to overcome and get right. We have made progress with this update and welcome your feedback on how the game performs for you. We know it will be different for everyone, but we hope that most of you will notice a positive difference. Rest assured, we'll keep on tweaking and working on optimization with future patches.
For those of you who felt motion sickness whilst riding Simoon (or Sandcutter), we'd like to hear from you about how it feels now. The camera had some changes made to make the whole experience smoother.
Now for the fun part, Photo Mode! 📸
Woo hoo! You can now take beautiful pictures of the world during your travels! Please note this mode has to be enabled in the settings menu before using it. Once enabled, the default buttons to enter Photo Mode are X on the keyboard and Up on the D-pad for your controller.
A certain someone had too much fun taking shots on their widescreen monitor...
We would love to see all your beautiful pictures, and I've heard that we might even think of doing a little photo competition soon...!
Now onwards, to the updates!
Features
Photo mode. Capture the perfect snapshot of your adventures in Midden! This mode has to be enabled in the settings menu before you can use it.
Added antialiasing as a display option. It is enabled by default.
Reworked the navigator to work more smoothly.
Added a display option to resize the text in the game.
Rebound keys in the menu to improve usability for international keyboards.
Camera
Made several fixes to the camera. The biggest one: it should now follow Sable more smoothly while on the bike, which hopefully should prevent some cases of motion sickness reported by players.
Performance
Upgraded engine version to fix problems with frame pacing, which should reduce micro-stuttering.
Optimized terrain rendering, AI agent simulation, culling readback, and virtual camera updating.
Reduced texture memory usage.
Bugfixes
Fixed mouse deceleration.
Reworked the mechanic when Sable calls out to Simoon.
Fixed so that waypoints can no longer be placed outside of map boundary by mistake
All menus can now be closed with the Esc button
Fixed an issue that cause the map to be cut off in certain resolutions
Fixed an issue that would cause the current quest to be unmarked when Sable collects an item
Fixed an issue that would cause Sable to be forcefully teleported while approaching the Black Desert Cartographer's location.
Thank you again for your feedback and support, more is always welcome, and we'll read all the replies here and on the forum.
just recently I watched the new Doctor Strange movie and realized: Wow, being able to redirect a car falling down from the sky after being smashed by a weird demon through a portal... that's pretty neat. While you can not perform magic in our game, we will provide you with other ways to take control of traffic!
Welcome to The Traffic Management Update - now available in Open Beta before the full update launches on July 12th!
Introducing: The Traffic Management Update
Safety first. We always pledged that. And that's why the Brighton Police Department invested heavily into new tools and guidelines to help all officers in their craft.
Check out the trunk of your patrol car - new goodies await you! Use your cones and barriers to block off individual lanes, entire streets, secure accident sites, or annoy other drivers! The latter one is a joke, please don't do that.
Use your commands!
Why do you have hands? Yes, to carry things from A to B. And yes, also to hold a gamepad. But more important: You can use them to perform gestures & issue commands!
With The Traffic Management Update, you receive a variety of options just for that!
You can now order...
NPCs to stop and wait
NPCs to walk to a different location and wait there
NPCs to not use the sidewalk at all
NPCs to turn around and use a different route
NPVs to wait
NPVs to turn around and use a different route
NPVs to reverse drive
We highly recommend using a combination of tools and manual commands to redirect traffic in a way that suits your present needs.
Note: The option to order NPVs to reverse is not present in the beta yet! We currently plan to release a hotfix on June 28th which will contain this option.
Mod your ELS!
Oh lord, never ever could we have anticipated the huge amount of mods you would create! It was clear to us that you really want to receive even more options to modify, personalize and optimize the game.
That's why we couldn't wait to introduce ELS Modding which enables you to adjust both sirens and blipping, customize all lights on all patrol cars, change the frequency, switch up the brightness and variate the colors.
Note: Of course, you can currently only use ELS mods with the beta branch and NOT with the stable branch.
Of course, we've both updated the official mod kit and written a guide to help you with your creations! Check it out here:
While we give you a bunch of new options to direct traffic yourself, it was crucial to optimize the AI at the same time. We're shipping a bunch of AI improvements that include a smart reaction to sirens, a better approach to intersections, an advanced lane switching behavior... and more. If you want to take a closer look at the changes, we've created an article with a few example videos:
Bug fixes, performance improvements & other new features
As with the last updates, the team put a tremendous focus on fixing a bunch of longstanding bugs. You can take a closer look at them in the patch notes further down below.
We also resolved a bunch of crashes - and improved performance plus framerates across the board. In addition, you can now adjust the spawn density of NPCs and NPVs while fleeing has become an official arrest reason!
How do I enter the Open Beta?
We've made the process as easy as possible to include you, the community, early on during the development of the game. To join the Open Beta, you only need to perform the following steps:
Right-click on Police Simulator: Patrol Officers in your Steam library.
Select 'Properties' in the menu.
Select 'Betas' in the sidebar on the left.
Select 'Beta' in the drop-down menu and confirm your decision to switch to that branch.
An update should now start - you are now officially part of the Open Beta!
To switch back to your stable save game, just repeat these steps again - but instead of selecting 'Beta', you just select 'None'. Easy.
Everyone can test the beta extensively and provide feedback on its features, balancing, and bugs. Feel free to send us your impressions on Discord, in the Steam Beta forums and on our Socials.
Save game to unlock everything in the beta
By visiting this link, you can download a save game for use on the beta branch (and only on the beta branch!). This save game will unlock all features immediately. You also need to know that you must copy the save game into the following folder:
C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Boston\Saved\SaveGames You can find the folder more easily by typing %localappdata% into the Windows search.
Since the save is named Career_0beta.sav, you have to delete any other save game which might also be called Career_0beta.sav. We recommend doing a backup of the old save game as well should you want to keep it for the future.
Of course, this is completely optional and intended to help those who want to see everything unlocked in the beta from the very start. The old method of unlocking stuff does still work.
Here are the official patch notes for The Traffic Management Update
No more talking, now it's time for the Open Beta!
Traffic Management
Added Traffic Cones: Players can now place traffic cones around the accidents and on the road in general, to make traffic around them more manageable
Added Road Barriers: Players can now place road barriers on roads and around accident sites, to make the NPVs take a different route
Added Hand Gestures: Players are able to order NPVs to stop/continue driving and do a u-turn, which makes the player to be in control of the vehicle drivers around him
Giving orders to NPCs: The player now has the ability to make an NPC wait, or evacuate the area they are currently in to make the player be in control of any situation around him
Modding
Added a new modding system for ELS: Players now can change their police vehicle emergency lights and sounds for the emergency siren (can't wait to see what you'll create!)
AI & NPC Improvements
Improved the way NPCs and NPVs react to the police car with lights, emergency siren and lights & siren together
Improved traffic behavior at intersections
Added AI improvements which make the AI more human-like: NPCs react to the police cars sirens and actions around them, if there are gunshots or taser being deployed (instead of chilling like nothing has happened at all and that is just a regular occurence in their neighborhood, just like an old lady throwing flower pots at you just because you've been a biiiit louder when gaming, smh)
Changed the stopping distance between NPVs in traffic and on accident sites
Added more functionality to NPCs feet making their walking more realistic
UI
Added the names of NPCs in Encounter reports to make it clearer what actions and NPCs caused loss or gain of the CP/SP (now you know who to blame)
Improved the handbook, added categories to make it easier to search through the handbook entries
Added warning pop-up messages after player changes the spawn density/range settings
Adjusted in-game credits (it's me!!)
Gameplay
Players can now arrest someone for fleeing
Performance
Improvement of overall in-game performance
Balancing
Adjustment of NPC spawning range and density in multiplayer
Tutorials
Added new Tutorial "Radar-Gun" which explains how to use the Radar Gun
Added new Tutorial "Stun Gun" which explains when and how to deploy a taser
Added new Tutorial "Flashlight" which explains how to turn on your flashlight
Added new Tutorial "Driving with a broken Windshield" which explains when a driver should be detained for their broken windshield
Added new Tutorial "Open Patrol" which explains the basics of playing an open patrol shift
Added new Tutorial "High Crime Area" which explains to the player what is a high crime area in the game
Added new Tutorial "Fleeing" that explains what should be done, if an NPC is fleeing
Adjusted Gun tutorial text to make it clearer when it is allowed to use your gun during the shift
Happy Birthday!
Decorated the precincts to celebrate our upcoming anniversary!
Bug Fixes GAMEPLAY
Fixed a bug where a player would get stuck in a fleeing dialogue
Fixed issues where SP could get farmed
Fixed an issue for there being no CP loss after tasing an injured NPC
Fixed issue where a player could tase a driver NPC
Fixed an issue where Traffic Stop parking slots would not get properly filled by the NPVs
Fixed issue where a player would not be able to give orders to a detained NPC
MULTIPLAYER
Fixed a bug where in Multiplayer the second player would see NPC outside of their vehicle
Fixed Multiplayer issue in which the second player was not able to interact with NPCs
Fixed an issue where there would be almost no NPCs during a Multiplayer session
Fixed patrol vehicles animations when both players interacted with it at the same time
NPCs
Fixed an issue with floating NPCs
Fixed an issue where there were no NPCs in the holding cells
Fixed NPCs clipping into vehicles in accidents after they would step out of their vehicle
PATROL CAR & TRAFFIC CARS
Fixed bug where Utility vehicle could get damaged too much visually
Fixed NPV clipping and floating issues in accidents
Fixed a bug when a police officer crashed inside a vehicle in accident it would add more evidence (technically, that's realistic, but...)
Fixed issues where the cars number plates would float
Fixed NPVs reacting to the Emergency Siren while they were driving the opposite direction
Fixed NPV teleporting after using the police ladle
WORLD & GRAPHICS
Fixed the ability to clip into various objects after opening the trunk of a police car
Fixed issues where objects at accident sites would be fallen over unnaturally
Fixed Emergency Lights not showing properly on low & medium video settings
Fixed issues where certain precinct walls had gaps
UI
Fixed a bug where video settings would not get saved
Fixed a UI overlap when a player would receive "Your First Shift" tutorial
Fixed tutorials not opening their correct handbook page after pressing "H"
Fixed an issue where video settings would not get applied after pressing "F" button
Fixed multiple text overlaps in UI
Fixed various translation issues
CONTROLS
Fixed loss of input after attempting to give directions to the NPCs
MISCELLANEOUS
Fixed bugs where uniforms would have graphical issues
Fixed various other minor bugs
CRASHES
Fixed bug where the players game would crash after taking arrestee into prison cell hallway
Fixed various other crashes (thank you, everyone!)
- Puncher Hitbox Adjustment - Reload "Jam" Glitch Fix - Sewer Level 9 & 10 Balance Fix - Enemies have a higher chance of giving more coins upon destruction - Fixed glitch that gave double heart/coins from Tina
#RaceRoom’s Summer Sale has started, with big discounts available on everything in our store!
50% off all cars & tracks 25% off Packs
With almost 200 cars and 128 track layouts to choose from, Raceroom delivers you the complete motorsport experience. Love touring cars? Well, which era: we’ve got a full range of officially licensed WTCC and WTCR cars from across the last decade and more, plus classic tin-tops going right back to the ‘70s. Are GTs your thing? Then you can choose anything from legendary Group C monsters to the latest GT3 machinery. We’ve got full grids from across the years of DTM and ADAC GT Masters, plus single seaters, electric racers, hillclimb specials, Cup cars and more.
We put a huge premium on the accuracy of our physics, using real-world telemetry and data from teams to hone our cars and give you the most accurate driving model possible. We recently overhauled our Force Feedback system, and we’re incredibly proud of the results: they’ve been critically acclaimed and even credited by the community as being among the best in class.
Raceroom has been optimised over the years and doesn’t require the absolute latest hardware to run at its maximum graphics level, meaning you don’t need the latest, most expensive graphics card to experience the thrill of racing – and we also deliver a fantastic VR experience.
It’s the perfect time to pick up the cars you love and the tracks you’ve always dreamed about driving on. Buy an individual livery; buy your favourite car model; buy a whole class of cars in one of our excellent value packs – or even better you can get every single car and track currently available in #RaceRoom’s Premium Pack!