Jun 15, 2022

Project Genesis - Noel8CS

Conquer the Skies in Battle Craft!

In Project Genesis, being able to defeat your opponents in FPS combat environments is only half the battle, and experienced Pilots understand that understanding the fleet of battle craft and the variety of weapons they can wield is critical to mission success in the space theater.

Choose Your Perfect Battle Craft

Whether you prefer nimble and agile smaller ships or resilient and durable larger battle craft, the 8 battle craft in Project Genesis afford you a variety of options to empower your specific playstyle.

Within the hangar bay, you'll have the option of outfitting up to 4 battle craft loadouts, allowing you to equip the battle craft you prefer to pilot with the weapon arsenal of your choosing.

Choosing one of the lighter battle craft will provide a speed advantage over your opponents, but you'll need to keep an eye on your ship's shield and armor values, as the lighter ships are much more susceptible to being destroyed with burst damage.

Want to go with a heavier ship? We have a selection for you to choose from, but keep in mind that with the more durable ships comes a significant reduction in speed and movement. You'll be able to tank much more incoming damage in your dogfights but you will need to rely on your gun skills to outplay your opponent as your ability to dodge incoming damage will be much more difficult.

Select Your Ideal Weapon Loadout

Each battle craft can be equipped with a primary and secondary weapon loadout, with a wide variety of weapons at your disposal to form the most lethal combination to destroy your opponents. In the battle craft menu, and each time you spawn while in-game, you'll be able to select the perfect loadout for the game mode, map, and combat environment you are facing.

Primary weapons are available in several categories, including hitscan, projectile, & beam weapons.

Hitscan weapons are a Point of Aim = Point of Impact weapon; this means that when you fire your weapon, the bullets will instantly impact your opponent in the same way firing a pistol in an FPS environment functions.

Projectile weapons in Project Genesis deal significant amounts of damage, but require you to anticipate your opponent's movement and lead your shots slightly to account for the time it will take your projectile ammunition to travel to your opponent's location.

Beam-style weapons such as the battle craft laser are all about your skill in tracking your opponent. Acquiring and accurately tracking your target will reward you with increased damage over time, and in the right hands can melt an enemy battle craft rapidly.

Secondary weapons in Project Genesis feature homing-style functionality, providing burst damage to your opponents to complement your shots on target from your primary weapon.

The newly-implemented battle craft targeting system is designed to aid you in dealing damage to your opponents and you will now receive clear visual and audio queues that will notify you that your weapon is on-target and ready to be fired. Although your opponents do have the ability to dodge secondary weapon fire with skillful maneuvering, long sightlines and open environmental areas will aid your success in wielding these powerful weapons.

Dominate Space in Style

So you've chosen your ideal battle craft and weapon loadouts, and you've started to master dogfights in space. But what if you could send your opponents back to spawn in style?

You can! For a limited-time only while Project Genesis is still in Early Access, you can cement yourself as one of the earliest supporters by becoming a Platinum Founder. With an animated emblem, banner, 8 slick skins & much more, as a Platinum Founder you can not only traverse the cosmos in style, but your opponents will know exactly who they're messing with every time you win one of your dogfights.

Check out what is included in the Platinum Founders Pack and start conquering your opponents in high-fashion:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1651913/Project_Genesis__Platinum_Founders_Pack/

Jun 15, 2022

Simutrans Extra #2: Simutrans for Android, Extended Pier System, and more!

Simutrans - Roboron

Welcome to another Simutrans Extra! For the ones that join us for the first time, Simutrans Extra is a series of articles bringing you the latest news of the Simutrans world, in a bulletin format. You can read previous editions in the Simutrans Steam News section.

We have been very quiet this year so far, but there are nonetheless exciting things to share! We'll also be celebrating the 25 years of Simutrans during the second part of this year, so stay tuned: special publications coming soon!

But now, let's review what has been happening these months in the Simutrans world, starting with the biggest plate: the Android port.

Simutrans for Android

Since the past year and thanks to the initial efforts made by krosk, we have a working Android build of Simutrans. This was one of the major goals for Simutrans, and it is finally here!

Publishing the game to the Play Store was a long effort (which prissi took personally), due to Google's review process. And it is mainly the reason why this Simutrans Extra number took so long to publish - I was waiting for that process to end.

Although the build an publishing is already done, that does not mean that there's nothing left to do: Simutrans has not been designed to be played on mobile, and a lot of work needs to be done to adapt the current interface to mobile characteristics.

You can download and play Simutrans from the Google Play Store:
=> https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.simutrans

Or directly from the GitHub releases page:
=> https://github.com/simutrans/simutrans/releases/tag/Nightly

For the Google Play Store, you can play the current nightly by joining the beta program. If you encounter any problems or have any suggestions feel free to post them on the Simutrans International Forum.

New directory structure

Traditionally, Simutrans has had two main directories:

Base directory - Simutrans installation and paksets go here.
User directory - Savegames, configuration and other user-specific stuff go here.

However, with the new pakset installer it was clear that this separation was not enough; we have added a third directory:

Paksets install directory - Simutrans paksets installed by the installer will go there.

Why? Well, when Simutrans is installed in the system, the user usually does not have sufficient permissions to allow paksets installation. Also, operating systems (like MacOS) have been pushing for self-contained programs, which was not compatible with pakset installation in the previous directory structure, and involved some hacks to even make it work in the first place.

From now on, paksets will be installed in a separate directory (inside %appdata% on Windows and the user directory on Unix-like systems. Note: Name still to be decided). Worry not, because this will not affect traditional Simutrans installations (including Steam) - Simutrans will still be able to read your paksets from the base directory!

Pak128 maintained again

This year started with a bad new: pak128 (default pakset on Steam) was marked as unmaintained, after 5 years without updates. After the announcement was done, however, Simutrans user garro (Gianmarco Garrisi) expressed interest in maintaining it again, and prissi also made some necessary maintenance.

However, this effort is losing momentum. So if you want to collaborate, check "pak128 revive: How to contribute" post in the International Simutrans Forum:
=> https://forum.simutrans.com/index.php/topic,21329.0.html

Elevated Way Support System for Simutrans Extended

We have not yet talked about Simutrans Extended in Simutrans Extra, and I owe you a proper presentation. But for current Simutrans Extended players, this is a new worth mentioning.

A new system for elevated way supports (formerly know as "Pier System") has been incorporated recently into Simutrans Extended (Simutrans' main fork). The Elevated Way Support System, developed for months by PJMack, is (in the word of its author):

A new system for elevated ways that allows not only half-height elevated ways, but elevated ways on uneven terrain. Such method involves an new object type pier and new ground type pier-deck where the ground is placed on top of a pier. The system also allows the pakset designer to place restrictions on the ribi of ways both on the pier-deck and under it, as well as place restrictions on what types of piers can be built on others what other types and what types of piers can be placed on the same tile as another.

You may find helpful this video-tutorial made by MG about this system

How can YOU contribute to Simutrans

Simutrans is an open source project. That means that anyone - including you - can improve it! Did you ever want to contribute to Simutrans but you have no skill for coding? Worry not, you can contribute to Simutrans in a variety of ways:

Translating

Simutrans is constantly updating and adding texts so we are always in need for translators:

To help with translation use the SimuTranslator web tool.
To request a translator account use the Translation Sub-Forum.

Painting

Simutrans is always looking for artists! If you want to paint graphics for Simutrans, check:

The "Creating images" section of the Development Index..
The General Resources and Tools Sub-Forum.

Coding

Check out the Technical Documentation Sub-Forum.
Do not open Pull Requests in GitHub. Use the Patches & Projects Sub-Forum instead.

Reporting bugs and submitting suggestions

Report bugs on the Bug Reports Sub-Forum.
Send suggestions to the Extensions Request Sub-Forum.

Jun 15, 2022

The Golden Week of 1.0 spoilers, part III: Novas, Premium Store and Tamer Pass

Temtem - Tsukki

Welcome to day 3 of our Golden Week of 1.0 spoilers, a week where we share spoilers on what’s coming with version 1.0 and shortly after!
Today we tackle the very delicate issue of microtransactions with as much honesty and transparency as we can.
But first, as it’s now tradition, a disclaimer:

Our stance on p2w situations

As we’ve talked about multiple times in the past, Temtem is going to feature a season pass and a premium cosmetic store. These features are planned to release during the “launch window” just like the Competitive changes mentioned yesterday, so please don’t expect these on day one, but soon after that.

Before diving deeper into the features, we’d like to clarify one thing: every item that can be obtained from the Tamer Pass or the Premium Store is purely cosmetic. There won’t be any items that will give you an advantage in the game. None of the items will allow you to level up faster, train your Tems better, or anything like that. We’ve been pretty adamant about this since day one and we plan on keeping this same approach in the future of Temtem too. We want these cosmetics to be a choice for our players, and not an imposition needed in order to keep up with the game.

Now, onto the features!

Novas

Firstly, we need to tell you about a new currency: Novas.

Novas are the premium/paid currency for Temtem, and the main way of obtaining them will be purchasing them via in-app purchases, but you will also be able to obtain some Novas for free just by playing the game. Novas are the currency that will allow you to purchase the premium Tamer Pass and most of the items located in the Premium Store.

The Tamer Pass

This naturally leads us to the Tamer Pass. The Tamer Pass is strictly linked to Seasons, and it will feature two tracks of rewards: a free one, available for all players, and a premium one, which will be only available for players who purchase the Premium Tamer Pass using Novas. There will be 60 levels of rewards waiting for you with ~80 different rewards (~60 in the premium one, ~20 in the free one). As an important side note, none of these rewards will be tradable.

And how do you level up the Tamer Pass? Almost everything you can do in Temtem (completing activities, playing ranked battles, breeding, finishing a radar…) will grant you Tamer Pass XP. The idea behind this is to avoid forcing players into something they are not interested in. Instead, we want to allow all playstyles to thrive and be able to take advantage of the Tamer Pass rewards.

For the most dedicated players, the Tamer Pass will also feature a new set of Weekly Quests, which includes 4 free quests and an additional 4 more quests available to users who purchase the Premium Tamer Pass. These Weekly Quests can be different tasks, but they will challenge you to explore a the game a bit more and to try features that you might not be so comfortable with, but you may end up loving. When completed, the quests will give you a good chunk of Tamer Pass XP and also grant you a small amount of Novas.

One last thing to know for now about the Tamer Pass is that completing the Premium track will grant you enough Novas to purchase the next season’s pass without any additional cost. Even without the Premium Tamer Pass, the free track will also feature some Novas as rewards, which you will in turn be able to spend in the Store, or save to purchase the next Premium goodie you like. Novas do not expire, so you’ll be able to save them for as long as you’d like to.

The Premium Store

The Premium Store, on the other hand, is much simpler, featuring cosmetic items that will rotate daily or weekly. Players will be able to purchase some items using Novas, while other items will be available with Feathers (remember them? You’ll learn all about them tomorrow). There will be two tiers of items:

Featured items: A curated weekly list of three items that will usually match the season theme. These items are only purchasable with Novas and will only be available for a week, but in later seasons they will be included in the “regular items” pool.
Regular items: These items come from a pool of items and four of them will be randomly selected each day. They are different for each user, so make sure to check them regularly so you can get your favorite ones! One of these four items will always be purchasable with Feathers, so you will always be able to get something in return for your dedicated gameplay time.

So what kind of items are these going to be?

As for the cosmetic items that are going to be present in both the Tamer Pass and the Premium Store? Well, you already know a lot of them. Furniture, housing items, different hairs, hats and clothes for your character, and mounts (both Temtem and prop based ones, like the super secret 🛵) are among the ones you already know. However, we’re also working on some new cosmetic items that will arrive on 1.0 and that you’ll be able to get with these new features. It’s important that you know that none of the cosmetic items you’ll be able to purchase in the Premium Store are tradable. You won’t be able to trade any of these, nor any reward from the Tamer Pass.

Want a little snippet? Among these new items that we’re working on now there are Temcard Seals — an item that can be applied to any Temtem so that, when that Tem is called into battle, it pops out of the Temcard with a new visual effect.
Want more? Another new item is the Battle Outro Animations (just where could we have seen this recently?), which are some cool new effects played when you beat your opponent in a competitive match.
We’re feeling crazy talkative today, so let me tell you about the new Sprays, which are a new kind of emotes that will display some cool artworks in the world, for everyone to see, and that have been created just for the occasion! Better yet, let me show you:

That’s it for today! We know this post is shorter and less exciting than its predecessors, but we felt like talking about this honestly was needed, and fair. We hope you can now feel a bit more reassured about the upcoming premium cosmetics, and that you’re excited to read about Tamer’s Paradise tomorrow!