Shinogi Chess Club - SomeGuy322
As the Shinogi Chess Club launch week continues, so do the fixes and updates! Thanks to more people trying out the game and recording footage I've been able to identify a few important weak points which I wanted to quickly address while players are still in the early chapters.

Update Details

Patch Download Size
  • Windows - 23.8 MB
  • Mac - 16.3 MB
  • Linux - 17.0 MB
Changelog
  • Improved scene timings in Chapters 3 & 4
  • Added new match debugging tools
  • AI: Minor performance optimizations
  • AI: Less likely to make poor Spy moves
  • AI: Adjusted Spawn move and mistake weights
  • Ambient world sounds no longer play during loading screen
  • Improved animations for character: Daisuke
  • Added blinking animation to character: Daisuke
  • Added tower highlight UI in Shinogi Chess
To start with the presentation updates, I can talk a bit about ambient sounds. Since Burden of Proof actually did not feature any ambient world noise, this is a somewhat new problem I've had to solve for Shinogi Chess Club. My earlier solution was simply lower the ambience when a script or cutscene causes the scene to fade out, but that ended up splitting my volume logic across multiple places and left me unable to easily adjust it for other scenarios. This new version now relies on a more centralized code block that detects the current game state and acts accordingly, with overrides in place to still allow external control. With this new change, loading screens now affect the volume of ambient noises which helps to improve the overall polish.

I found that the character Daisuke was lacking a bit in unique animation sets, so I included a new pose and added the blinking layer to his eyes like most other characters use. This should help make him feel more alive and animated in the scene, but there are still a few more characters that may need better treatment in the future too. I also had the idea to make the Tower mechanics more clear in Shinogi Chess by highlighting which squares you need to utilize to get a Capture. So I added in a little icon at low opacity which should do the trick, but further tweaking may need to be done in the future.



Finally, I was a bit unsatisfied with the decision making of AI still and wanted to correct a few issues. This part gets really complicated so I won't say too much, but the easiest thing to explain would be the performance improvements. AI moves may not actually be faster due to the added features but the memory allocation of the algorithm has been reduced, leading to more efficient move making. The likelihood of AI spawning a Pawn was a little too high, so it was reduced for most matches. Sadly this can still result in some bad moves due to this being a constant, but a larger overhaul on this was out of scope for this update.

The bigger change comes with handling of Hidden Pieces. Previously, the AI wouldn't account for subtypes at all, and this is still mostly the case to make balancing easier and lessen the performance hit. But with this update, it will now recognize situations where it may needlessly throw its Spy away by trying to capture something other than a Pawn or King. In previous versions, this was a pretty awful move that a human would never make, even for beginners. Hopefully the adjustment eliminates this from occurring as often, but there are always crazy board states that happen which can throw things off. In addition, this is a new customizable weight setting for each individual opponent, so there is still a small chance for early enemies to make this mistake - call it pity if you'd like.

Later on, I plan to talk more about the technology behind the AI and how that impacts guides & strategies within the game. This update would be a breaking change for anyone relying on guides or walkthroughs, but I haven't seen any so far. There are still quite a few shortcomings in the AI that I couldn't overcome this time around, but I've got many ideas on how to improve the algorithm in the future. Apologies if that was a long and boring writeup!

Community Showcase

Today I'd like to highlight this awesome playthrough of the first chapter by Sixkilla Gaming!



That's all for today! Thanks again to everyone that tried out the game and I'm so appreciative of all the continued support for this project. Don't hesitate to reach out here on the discussion page or on Twitter @RobProductions if you have any questions, and I hope you enjoy the update!
-Matt
Due Process - GEC_OZY
Weapon Changes:
  • F1-Legros buffed by trimming width of front post by 50%
  • Pistols reduced ADS weapon sway by about 30%
  • AP25 vertical ADS sway reduced by 15%
  • Brace vertical sway reduced by about 10% and horizontal sway increased by 40%. This should primarily be felt at longer ranges where ADS should be far more effective than brace.
  • BLK-TAR, F1-LeGros, KR82m, and Ingmar57 have had their Brace movement speed penalty increased from 15% to 30%. This is much faster than ADS speed but targeted at bringing down the effectiveness of stepping out of cover using brace fire.
  • All weapons now have random Aim Settle directions.
  • The mawp now also has a 15 degree aim cone for Brace/Hip to prevent any long range headshot silliness.

Other:
  • Enemy Offscreen Indicators now use world position instead of screen position. This will cause the arrow to point towards the grenade based off its relative position to you.
  • Enemy Offscreen Indicators now require an initial Line of Sight before tracking. They will continue tracking if you lose Line of Sight afterwards.
  • Attempt to bug fix doors sometimes getting stuck "open"
  • Starting the a casual private match password with special keywords allows players to play alternate gamemodes (currently only "shotgun" exists, eg "Shotgun9FX" would make a Competitive Shotguns gamemode lobby)
  • Fixed bug where lobbies could be transformed back into casual when someone joins after being manually set to a non-casual gamemode
  • Fixed more errors during loading
Jun 6, 2022
Slaves of Magic - slaveofmagicthegame
Hello everyone!

We have a new updated trailer for the game, which you can see on the store front page, or you can check it out on youtube here:
Oppaidius Summer Trouble! - Wiittorio
Hello, good boys and girls!

1 year ago, Oppaidius Desert Island! (the conclusion of the Oppaidius trip saga!) was released on Steam! To celebrate this, you can win an original Angela watercolor sketch:


You just need to retweet this tweet, and follow me on Twitter: [Tweet link]

I will raffle the winner on random dot org, 6 days from now. Good luck, everyone!

Latest months fanarts were Tifa and Cammy:



As always, the topless/nude versions are available on my Patreon, or, if you are a backer from 20€ and up, you can access them on the Exclusive Stuff channel on Oppaidius Discord for free!

June fanart will be Selvaria from Valkyrie Chronicles. It's almost ready!

For April Fools, we had fun with some fake free Jimmy kinda-NFT generator! More than 3000 were claimed! Those are some of my fave, made by the community:


So... already a year has passed...? Wow... I think, in the end, the game didn't perform too bad. Better than other Oppaidius games, and a lot of people enjoyed playing it. Still, it is affected by a lack of reviews, for some reason (if you enjoyed it, please consider to leave one, even just a single line!), and by Steam algorythm, keeping the game relatively hidden. If you know a friend who can enjoy it, please share the Oppaidius-word! And, if you can, please consider to support us with the Fan Pack DLC.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

Vittorio and the team
AQtion - AQtion!
All day and all night Wednesday, DM will be the game mode du jour! New faces and veterans alike, let's pile in and start fragging!

Click here to join in!
Roots of Pacha - Haren


Hello all!

Join us on June 16 at 11 am PT | 2 pm ET | 6 pm UTC as we play Roots of Pacha and answer questions from chat.

We hope you get a chance to check our demo. Roots of Pacha is a farming sim set in the stone age where you develop the ideas that shaped humanity.



If you enjoy the game you might also enjoy our “Demo Festival” where the community can unlock rewards for following us on social media. Find out more on our website.





Check out the demo & wishlist!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1245560/Roots_of_Pacha/
Oppaidius Tropical Cruise! - Wiittorio
Hello, good boys and girls!

1 year ago, Oppaidius Desert Island! (the conclusion of the Oppaidius trip saga!) was released on Steam! To celebrate this, you can win an original Angela watercolor sketch:


You just need to retweet this tweet, and follow me on Twitter: [Tweet link]

I will raffle the winner on random dot org, 6 days from now. Good luck, everyone!

Latest months fanarts were Tifa and Cammy:



As always, the topless/nude versions are available on my Patreon, or, if you are a backer from 20€ and up, you can access them on the Exclusive Stuff channel on Oppaidius Discord for free!

June fanart will be Selvaria from Valkyrie Chronicles. It's almost ready!

For April Fools, we had fun with some fake free Jimmy kinda-NFT generator! More than 3000 were claimed! Those are some of my fave, made by the community:


So... already a year has passed...? Wow... I think, in the end, the game didn't perform too bad. Better than other Oppaidius games, and a lot of people enjoyed playing it. Still, it is affected by a lack of reviews, for some reason (if you enjoyed it, please consider to leave one, even just a single line!), and by Steam algorythm, keeping the game relatively hidden. If you know a friend who can enjoy it, please share the Oppaidius-word! And, if you can, please consider to support us with the Fan Pack DLC.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

Vittorio and the team
Oppaidius Desert Island! - Wiittorio
Hello, good boys and girls!

1 year ago, Oppaidius Desert Island! was released on Steam! To celebrate this, you can win an original Angela watercolor sketch:


You just need to retweet this tweet, and follow me on Twitter: [Tweet link]

I will raffle the winner on random dot org, 6 days from now. Good luck, everyone!

Latest months fanarts were Tifa and Cammy:



As always, the topless/nude versions are available on my Patreon, or, if you are a backer from 20€ and up, you can access them on the Exclusive Stuff channel on Oppaidius Discord for free!

For April Fools, we had fun with some fake free Jimmy kinda-NFT generator! More than 3000 were claimed! Those are some of my fave, made by the community:


June fanart will be Selvaria from Valkyrie Chronicles. It's almost ready!

So... already a year has passed...? Wow... I think, in the end, the game didn't perform too bad. Better than other Oppaidius games, and a lot of people enjoyed playing it. Still, it is affected by a lack of reviews, for some reason (if you enjoyed it, please consider to leave one, even just a single line!), and by Steam algorythm, keeping the game relatively hidden. If you know a friend who can enjoy it, please share the Oppaidius-word! And, if you can, please consider to support us with the Fan Pack DLC.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

Vittorio and the team
FIREFIGHT RELOADED - Bitl
Hi all,

As the ENDGAME Beta was finished rather early, I decided to release the beta branch today!

To download the beta, right click your FIREFIGHT RELOADED listing in Steam and go to Properties.



Afterwards, go down to BETAS and switch the beta to "endgame-beta"



Steam will then install the update.

As of the current version of the ENDGAME BETA, here is the full list of additions since the default version of FIREFIGHT currently on Steam:

The ENDGAME Update ------------------ - Fixed a bug where closing the PLAYER MODEL menu sets your model to the currently selected model. - Enabled player bleeding in singleplayer. - Added respawning to singleplayer. - In HARDCORE Mode and on the max level, respawning is disabled and you will go to the credits upon death. - Whenever you respawn, you will keep half of the EXP you gained. If you keep losing EXP, you'll eventually drop down a level. - Upon reaching the maximum level and dying, you will reach the credits. - Combine Aces now shoot their secondary fire more often and will also fire their entire magazine. - The following commands now have autocomplete: - npc_create - npc_create_aimed - npc_create_equipment - Changed the kick a bit: - The kick has a longer delay. - The kick takes 2 hits to kill a combine soldier rather than 1. - The kick now allows you to kick people across the room so you can blast them with a rifle. - The kick now allows you to send an explosive barrel across the room and watchh it explode an enemy. - The kick will no longer gib opponents. - The kick has a reduced screen shake. - Removed the Jetpack - Added the Grappling Beam to the set of default weapons. - Press the Grappling Beam button to use it. - When active, using the Grappling Beam in mid-air grants the user 70% damage resistance. In addition, the damage of the user's kick is multiplied by 3. - The player is able to grapple onto enemies and items. - The Grapple Beam will only grapple on valid surfaces. The Beam will warn you with a sound cue if it cannot grapple to a certain point. - Fixed a bug where the MP5 didn't count Kash, EXP, or kills. - Fixed and updated the FGD. - Reskinned the arms, gordon model, and kick to blue. For reasons. - Old player model included. - Added an option to disable Portal 2 damage sounds. - The health will now recharge in intervals of 20. - There is an option to disable this function. - The health will now discharge if the health is above your maximum health (def. 200). - If the health is at or above 1000, the health will discharge faster. - Removed the More Health and More Armor Perks. - Removed the Max Armor and Mega Gravity Gun Upgrades. - Increased the Max Health upgrade cost to 50 Kash. - You can now only buy 15 Max Health upgrades, bringing you up to 350 max health. - You now respawn with all max health upgrades you have bought from the store. - Fixed a bug where all possible items wouldn't drop. - Added 2 new items: Big Healthkit and Big Suit Battery. - Big Healthkit gives the player 50 health. - Big Suit Battery gives the player 50 armor. - When you get to your max level, all your weapons will become part of the Mega Gravity Gun. - You can buy/earn/pick up weapons but you cannot keep them upon respawn. - The Shotgun now has a Semi-Automatic fire mode that can be accessed by pressing the Special Attack key. - Removed unused bindings. - Fixed up the Death of a Hero Achievement (validate during open beta) - All combine soldiers now have the ability to jump. - Gave the M249 Para better recoil. - The M249 Para now instantly kills on headshot (much like the Shotgun, 357, and the Sniper Rifle). - Lowered the recoil of the OICW. - Fixed a bug where Hornets can sometimes stay in mid-air. - sk_healthcharger_usesmoney and sk_suitcharger_usesmoney are now disabled by default. - Fixed a bug where ammo/items couldn't spawn. - Fixed a bug where the game kept setting the player's Kash to their Starting Kash amount on respawn. - Removed Multiplayer options from the Main Menu. - Changed the color of the Ministrider's armor to be the same color as the original Half-Life 2 Episode 1 variant. (check) - Fixed an issue where the Max Health upgrade only brought you to 300 health. - Added a new NPC: npc_player! - These spawn rarely and randomly. You will be notified first hand when these spawn. - They have a distintive blue outline and will follow you if they see you. - They dynamically switch weapons depending on how far an enemy is away from them. - They either use their own model or use the player's current model. - You can now slice Zombies in half with the Katana. - Zombies will now have a random chance of burning on fire after an explosion. - Added new intro video by DeviantXS. - Disabled Gamemodes by default to complement the Wave System. - They can be re-enabled with the "Restore pre-ENDGAME spawners" option in the ADVANCED OPTIONS. - Made gamemodes function more reliably. - Fixed many crashes! - Fixed the health regeneration rate perk not actually affecting health regeneration rate. - Decreased the maximum level from 50 to 20. - Removed the following achievements due to unfixable issues or being nearly impossible to get: - Note: If you already had progress for these achievements, or you have already unlocked them, progress and achievements will be kept on your Steam Account, and they can be achieved again using older versions of the mod. - Killionare - Fixed broken pain sounds on some NPCs. - Fixed "Schrodinger's Crouch". - Fixed nexttoken RCE exploit. - Fixed color correction. - Fixed issues with high FOV. - Fixed the game not loading map prefixes properly for gamemodes. - Added the "Entity Tolerance" option, to adjust the number of entities one could have on screen at once. - Removed the "NPC Limit" option in favor of "Entity Tolerance". - Updated the SDK's UI. - Added a proper Workshop Uploader to the SDK. - Lowered the volume of the Katana's sounds. - Buffed the Katana's damage. - The Katana is worse against Antlion Guards and Antlion Guardians than other enemies. - Added option to toggle glow outlines. - Added a new NPC Attributes system that allows the spawner to create unique enemy variants. - Added 6 new NPC variants: - Super Ace (Based on the Combine Ace): Faster, stronger, and more terrifying to fight. - Anti-Aircraft Hunter (Based on the Hunter): A stronger Hunter that fires RPG rockets. - Demolitions Hunter (Based on the Hunter): A stronger Hunter that fires frag grenades (and Incendiary Grenades on Hard and above). - Elite Hunter (Based on the Hunter): A stronger Hunter that fires Combine Balls. - Boom Squid (Based on the Bullsquid): A stronger Bullsquid that fires SMG rockets. - Elite Metrocops with the Metrocop AI. - Reworked Ministrider NPC. - Combine Shotgunners, Aces with shotguns, and player allies with shotguns will now randomly fire their secondary fire when moving, and only fire with secondary fire when standing still. - Combine Shotgunners and Aces with shotguns will get this bonus if the difficulty is on Hard or above. - Player allies will get this bonus if the difficulty is on Easy to Hard. - Super Aces will have this regardless of what difficulty it is on. - Added 2 new Tools to the SDK: - Workshop Uploader - Map Compiler - Increased the maximum number of threads that can be used with map compiling (256 instead of 32) - Increased map compilation performance - Increased VBSP map brush limit. (Credit to https://github.com/James-Holloway/source-sdk-2013-VBSP-improvements) - Disabled AI thinking optimizations. - Increased AI focus time. - Combine Aces and Elites now will take 1.5x more damage to the head instead of 2x the damage. - Combine enemies will no longer play a death sound when decapitated or on headshot. - Added Rocket Jumping. - Added the Incendiary Grenade, a secondary grenade that can set an entire area on fire. - It can be switched to by pressing the Special Attack button. - Zombines and Combine Soldiers can use them on Hard difficulty and above. - Gave the player 5 SMG grenades on spawn. - Removed the following weapons/items due to balance issues: - Egon/Gluon Gun (too overpowered and way too buggy to keep in-game) - Flare Gun (replaced with the Incendiary Grenade, doesn't fit with the gameplay) - Deagle (doesn't do anything different than the 357 Magnum other than firing speed and magazines) - Removed the following enemies due to balance issues: - Cremator (Was originally added as a way for the game to clean up dead bodies. After the function to remove bodies was removed due to instability, the enemy became basically useless and didn't fit in the game overall.) - Combine Guard (Didn't fit the game due to his slow speed. Basically replaced by the Elite Hunter.) - Fixed various "double body" issues with zombies. - Increased the spread of the M249 Para to affect hordes of enemies. - You can now throw knives at the enemy with your secondary fire. - Revamped the buy menu to be more moddable and streamlined. - Combine Elites, Aces, and Elite Hunters will fire instant-kill Combine Balls on the Very Hard difficulty and above. - You can now adjust how slow time moves in Bullettime. - The player now moves faster when in Bullettime mode. - Disabled double jumping due to incompatibility with bunnyhopping. - Improved the Combine Assassin AI and Model. (Credits to Maestra Fénix! https://github.com/MaestroFenix/restored_assassin) - A playermodel based on this model was also added! - Assassins are now able to throw Frag and Fire grenades (Fire grenades on Hard difficulty and above)! - The Katana now has a "Honorbound" mechanic. - If you kill an enemy with the Katana in Bullettime mode, half of the enemy's max health will be given to you. - On top of that, you can chain kill up to 5 enemies to get up to double the max health of the previously killed enemy. After 15 enemies, the kill multiplier will be disabled. - After leaving Bullettime you need to wait 5 seconds before you can use the kill multiplier again. - While the Katana is equipped in Bullettime mode with an active kill multiplier, you will not autoswitch to newly received weapons, nor be able to switch between weapons. - Fixed the Katana's hit registration. - The Katana now has more "reach". - Health regeneration is disabled by default in Classic mode, HARDCORE mode, and on any difficulty at Very Hard or higher. - In order to aquire health regeneration with either of these settings, you must unlock the Health Regeneration Perk. - Hunters can now jump. - Reverted from automatic navmesh based node placement to manual node placement due to issues. - You no longer spawn with the Katana. - It can be unlocked in-game when leveling up or by purchasing it with Kash in the Store. - Added the following enemies to the enemy roster: - Stalkers - Striders (requires "AllowLargeNPCs" to be set in order to spawn.) - Added a new map: dm_underpass! - Redid the perk system, giving it mod support and beter expandability. - Claw Scanners are faster in difficulties Very Hard and above. - If a strider is spawned in the level, they will warn them of the enemy's position. - Fixed a bug where killing Rollermines didn't count as a kill. - Antlions no longer kill Combine Soldiers instantly on difficulties harder than Easy and unless they are allied with the player. - The player and allies may now be allied with Antlions with the Bugbait. - The bugbait can now be acquired as a random reward at or after Level 10. - Antlions will be immune to friendly fire damage and will be fully healed in all difficulties below Very Hard. - Much like Player Allies, they will spawn with a blue outline. - This does not happen in Antlion Assault. - Added Lone Wolf mode: No allies will spawn. - The Combine Ace now has damage resistant armor vs most weapons. - This damage resistance activates in difficuties over Easy. - The damage resistance breaks at half health. You will know when it breaks when the Ace stops producing sparks when hit. - The damage resistance percentage depends on difficulty. - Normal-Hard: 4 damage per hit - Very Hard-NIGHTMARE: 2 damage per hit - Explosives have a greater effect on its shields then bullets. - 30%-50% of tamage from explosions is taken depending of difficulty. - The Ace will create a harmless yellow sonic blast when their damage resistance is destroyed. - The Katana is the only weapon that can slice through the armor effectively. - This can be disabled in the ADVANCED OPTIONS menu. - Combine Aces now rarely reload. - To balance this, Combine Aces now inflict less damage than before, no longer melee, and no longer use their secondary fire. - Combine enemies will now drop items when gibbed. - Changed the formula for leveling up. - Zombines now spawn in COMBINE FIREFIGHT. - Added a wave system/spawner difficulty system. - When the player levels up, the spawners will spawn tougher and tougher enemies based on an adaptive spawnlist system. - You can change your spawnlist in the "change spawnlist" menu. - You can now completely disable autoswitching. - Lowered the amount of manhacks a Metrocop would hold at once. - Your currently selected map now saves to a file. - Rare NPCs now spawn more on higher difficulties. - Added Death Notices.

Note that the build you are about to test is not the current development version, but is way more further ahead than the old "snapshot" branch. The "snapshot" branch will be replaced with the "endgame-beta" branch and future updates (if any) will be pushed into that branch until ENDGAME is finished later this year.

I hope everyone enjoys the ENDGAME BETA, and I will release more updates regarding future developments!
Kehinde Playtest - nel
I'm not updating the Playtest version anymore for now. Instead I'm updating the demo!
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