Jul 12, 2022

Arma 3 Creator DLC: S.O.G. Prairie Fire Update 1.2 & Sale

Arma 3 - LeClair

Third-party Arma 3 developer Savage Game Design released a major content update today for their Arma 3 Creator DLC: S.O.G. Prairie Fire.

Update 1.2 adds a new 25 km2 terrain, as well as multiple new factions, vehicles, weapons, equipment, missions, and more.

To celebrate the new release, S.O.G. Prairie Fire will be discounted by 25% for a limited time on Steam.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1227700/Arma_3_Creator_DLC_SOG_Prairie_Fire/

Update highlights

New terrain: "The Bra"
This unique new terrain, covering 25 km2, enables players to design and run missions around an infamous section of the Ho Chi Minh trail in Laos, nicknamed “The Bra” by MACV SOG units, due to the road shape, viewed from the air.
Updates to Cam Lao Nam
The 1.2 update adds the US Embassy in Saigon and the train station and new city buildings in Hanoi - each recreated from period photographs and thoroughly detailed to add more immersion to urban fighting. Numerous new Vietnamese city house models have also been added.

New factions:

ANZAC Army, SAS, and Pilots
ARVN Marines
CIA "Air America"
Royal Laotian Army (RLA)
Pathet Lao (PL) Army
The new factions feature 400 new soldier classes, able to wear 20 new uniforms (with 65 variants), 14 vests, 5 packs (with 12 variants), 4 accessories and 11 new headgear items.
Other factions have been upgraded, with new faces, weapons, headgear and camouflage patterns. The 4 MACV SOG team advisers we worked with now have their faces recreated in the game, along with new Montagnard and Vietnamese faces.

16 new vehicles/vehicle variants

MiG-19S Jet Fighter
F100D Jet Fighter
PT-76 Light amphibious tank in 2 variants
M113A1 Armoured Personnel Carrier with 7 model variants
PBR boats with 2 model variants
STAB boats with 3 model variants
8 new UH-1 helicopter variants
M151 armed with M40A1 recoilless rifle

5 new static weapons

M40A1 106mm Recoilless Rifle
Mk18 40mm Grenade Launcher
H-12 (Type 63) 107mm Rocket Launcher
SGM 7.62mm Machine Gun with 3 variants
MG42 7.92mm Machine Gun with 2 variants

New weapons / weapon variants

F1 Submachine Gun and bayonet
M1 Garand Rifle with rifle grenades, scope and bayonet
L1A1 Rifle with rifle grenades, scope, bayonet and 10, 20 and 30 round magazines, including NZ, Australian and SAS variants
L1A1 + XM148
L2A1 Light Machine Gun
M14A1 Light Machine Gun
M1918A2 BAR Light Machine Gun
vz.54 Sniper Rifle and scope
5 new M16 / XM177 variants, M203 grenade launcher, new scope and bipod
18 new mines and traps

Additional multiplayer scenarios

CO12 Eldest Son II mission (MACV SOG / Khe Sanh)
CO06 Black Spear mission (SEALs / Cam Lao Nam)
New Zeus variants for The Bra map (Master, East, West, Independent)

Various fixes and quality-of-life improvements

The version 1.2 changelog can be found on the Bohemia forums. The new content is further introduced in a new OPREP blog post by developer Savage Game Design.

Sale

The Arma 3 Creator DLC: S.O.G. Prairie Fire is available for purchase on Steam with a 25% discount until July 19th. The DLC’s soundtrack is also on sale during this time at 25% off.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1227700/Arma_3_Creator_DLC_SOG_Prairie_Fire/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1616620/Arma_3_Creator_DLC_SOG_Prairie_Fire_Soundtrack/

Enjoy the free update and see you in Laos!

- Bohemia Interactive & Savage Game Design

Creator DLC is a label for original Arma 3 projects made by third-party developers and published by Bohemia Interactive. It enables external talent to earn a financial reward for their work, while players get to enjoy more quality content. For more information, please visit the Arma 3 website.

Jul 12, 2022

Behind the Doors: Valley of Kings

Doors: Paradox - Big Loop

It’s Tuesday once more, which means it’s Behind the Doors time!

Welcome back everyone to the second post, this time featuring a long lost ruin forgotten by time.. Valley of Kings.
And while you may not be familiar with this specific door, you can watch your favorite streamers play it exclusively right now. We present to you Valley of Kings, a level from the Ancient Ruins category.

“A little magic can take you a long way.“
Roald Dahl

Fun fact: Valley of Kings derives its name from the Valley of Thracian Rulers in Bulgaria, where our studio is based. Well, we are based in Sofia, not the actual Valley..
In this level, the iterative process was King and our team had the task of brainstorming ideas based on the already made prototype. The process of our 3D artist creating a prototype to having a finished level design is a strenuous one highly dependent on the imagination and teamwork of everyone involved… but that might be a story for another time...

"We want a level with ruins"

The first prototype on the left shows the literal representation of “We want a level with ruins”. And yes you guessed it right, it didn’t work out so well. As a whole, the prototype seemed empty, barren almost. The frame of the door was crumbling, it seemed like the only thing keeping it together was the door blocker, which in its distinctive style seemed out of place. The statues looked cool, that’s for sure. Even though they were simple placeholders, the team needed a direction and the statues were definitely the right one.

"The Intermediary"

Moving on to prototype number two (center) you will notice there is one thing missing - the crumbling door frame is gone and in its place is an intricate frame design with circular symbols, which defies the laws of gravity. Needless to say, it didn’t make the cut. The statues are now two identical hooded figures holding swords - simple and yet very effective at helping the team come up with original ideas.

"And the winner is.."

Prototype number three (right) proved to be the winning design in the race. After the second iteration the team felt satisfied with the placement and overall silhouette of the door. At that point, the details started going into their respective places - where to put the puzzles we chose and which mechanics fit into the general aesthetic of the level and category.

The final design of Valley of Kings was inspired by a few ideas.

Firstly, we included a runic cipher seen in the steps below the door. The actual runes were a mixture of Elder Futhark, Proto-Bulgarian and Anglo-Saxon writings found in real-life locations around the world.

Secondly, the magical blue crystal and its interactions were inspired by tabletop games and fantasy art designs. Without spoiling the level too much, we can safely say that an unexpected and beautiful twist should be on your radar when you press Play.

And finally, the winter scenery. Winter is a big part of this category as you will see from both this level and Frozen Fate. We want to present a sense of desolation with these doors - they were forgotten by both time and man. And don’t get surprised by the bright green leaves seen around the statues and ruins - they are not accidental.

Thank You for reading this week’s Behind the Doors. Don’t forget to join our Discord to get notified about all our future posts and announcements, as well as chatting with the team and community!
If you enjoyed our demo and want to see more from Doors, check in with your favorite puzzle streamers, because plenty of them are already playing an exclusive 15-level version! (And Valley of Kings is one of them!!!)

Jul 12, 2022

Bug Catcher Update Out Now!

Hokko Life - Micki_Team17

Bug catching connoisseurs!

A brand-new update is out now, adding a bug survey into Hokko Life. How many will you catch? 🐛 🐞

New additions

Collecting

Bug Survey! (aka Bug Tournaments) Every 2nd of the month there's a big bug survey, collect as many of an insect as you can to get a prize!

10 New Butterflies
30 New Fish

Requests

Notification board: Check the notification board to find out if any villagers have new requests for you. Go and speak to Moss for more information!

Crafting

You can now deconstruct items crafted on the crafting bench! Select Deconstruct to get the resources back from an item in your backpack.

Painting & Designing

Added paintable objects to the Painting Tool: Egg; Sign; Round and Square Floor Items; Landscape and Portrait Wall Paintings

Multi-select mode added to the Design Tool! Hold Shift on KBM or choose Multi-Select in the Tools Menu

You can now choose "Dark Mode" background in the Design Tool

Other

Japanese language added

Fixes

General

Fish should no longer spawn or swim to places underground
Community: Fixed a bug where fishing tournaments wouldn't be saved properly and got reset on game restart
Community: Fixed black screen bug when using the weather control device around midnight
Community: Fixed an issue where buying a house while being introduced to house buying would break the intro flow
Fix for issues caused when pressing certain buttons simultaneously or in quick succession
Community: Rain/Snow now correctly affects crops even if you don't visit the level with them in
Community: Fixed an issue where design requests requiring a material would say they were completable when they weren't
Fixed some cases where the hud would show over another UI after selecting something from the backpack.
Villagers should no longer request housing changes when that merit hasn't been unlocked
Villagers should no longer request paint when paint hasn't been unlocked
Community: Fixed issue where some pickups weren't collected when picking up lots of things at the same time
Fix for issue where, despite what Oma says, it's not "sunny outside" and is in fact still raining after intro cutscene
Selling Money Bags to Moss now gives you cash instead of nothing.
Fix for being able to throw more bombs than you have
Fix for furniture placement breaking when trying to place an item on a path on a raised area
Community: Fix for appearing in request dialogue instead of the amount
Community: Fix for dyes getting placed when selected from backpack, and then not being able to be picked up
Community: Fix for exterior wall and roof patterns being removed from backpack if selected outside of the building properties screen
Community: Fix for repeat placement on infant trees and plants placing fully-grown versions
Fix for cursor disappearing when backing out of the save screen in the Painting Tool when using Gamepad
Flower growth merit now properly affects petal regrowth
Fix for Mine Helmet getting destroyed when switching to another hat in the mine levels
Fixes for issues caused by bridge being placeable anywhere in the Forest Path level
Editing an existing design will now properly take the required resources from your backpack
Community: Fix for villagers not saying anything when you immediately speak to them again
You can now no longer place a bridge somewhere you can't reach
Fix for HUD overlapping building customisation ui
Fix for villagers items being destroyed if you cancel placing them after opening their moving in boxes
Fix for moving in boxes not getting placed in villagers' homes
Fixed for some wearables having snow on them
Fix for butterflies landing in water
Fix for snow remaining after quitting to main menu and starting a new game
Community: Fix for issue where speaking to a villager quickly after a previous conversation causes the characters to stand there in silence and stare at one another
Community: Fix for avatar and villagers floating about the floor in some levels
Fix for issue where controller icons wouldn't correctly update if connecting a controller at certain points in the game
Fix for correct map texture not displaying for meadow combination 01a-00
Tweaks to collision across lots of items
Fix for weird dialogue camera when confirming a new house location not focusing on Rosa or the player
Community: Fixed issue where you couldn't dig holes in the Grove
Fix for previous seasonal content being displayed in slots in the seasonal store that should be empty
Fix for bug where bait wasn't being given as treasure
Fix for villagers snapping to position when talking to one another
Fix for cursor size setting not affecting placement mode
Fix for cursor speed setting not affecting design and painting tools, and placement mode
Fix for successful purchase audio playing on house purchase when purchase was unsuccessful
Fix for an issue where you couldn't dig next to trees
Fix for villagers rotating strangely when using whistle function in photo mode
Community: Fixed a bug preventing glasses, beanies, fedoras and other items not appearing in the fashion store
Fix for not being able to complete a request if the villager is winning in a tournament
Fix for ordering of scores on the tournament leaderboard being wrong
Fix for home exterior decoration requests being marked as completed as soon as they're accepted
Community: Fix for trees around the Workshop being choppable and infinitely regrowing
Fix for trees at the back of the small wood being choppable
Fix for players and villagers spawning in impossible-to-leave locations during house cutscenes
Fix for backpack not updating correctly when dropping or destroying bait from the bait bag
Community: Fixed a bug preventing the player from digging holes where insects are
Community: Fix for snow on Design Tool pieces when designing outside during the winter
Community: Fix for being unable to place infant trees on the raised area of the meadow
Fix for fishing challenges staying active after sleeping
Community: Fix for floating item crates
Fix for loss of control when being shown the full backpack ui after picking flowers
Fix for cursor being able to be moved out of area when selecting items in the crafting list
Community: Fix for player sliding around without animation if moving very slowly
Fix for placement audio playing when an object can't be placed or when using repeat placement
Fix for visible pop caused by cloud shadows
Fix for control settings not changing language correctly
Fix for being able to hand in less produce than required for Oma's requests
Multiple fixes for Photo Mode being locked by player position
Various fixes for fertiliser

Visual

Fix for player hud showing on top of the build select screen after tutorial
Fix for issue where lights would turn on during the day, or off during the night
Community: Fix for cash popup showing wrong amount before filling up
Fixed issue where the insects section of collection book ui wouldn't display properly in collection cutscene
Fix for bandana being too small
Fix for villager meshes popping to a location when sitting or standing from sitting
Community: Tweaked camera and tree position on main menu so larger hair styles are not obscured
Tweaks to visuals and collision on beach
Fixed attachment of skirts on villagers

Changes

Butterflies behaviour tweaks for less jerky animation, more running away from the player, and less flying through buildings
Added the "Bugs run away less" Merit.
Reworked the request system to be more reliable, causing less long delays between requests.
Request amounts now scale based on how long the player has been playing
Request bonus rewards are no longer given all the time, but are awarded for quality of item, or speed or completion, or sometimes randomly
Smoothed loading on the Crafting interface, optimised refreshing of list
Smoothed loading on Collection book interface
Collection book ui updated, now shows more information about the creature the more of them you catch.
Added Deconstruct button to crafting interface, allowing you to deconstruct crafted items and get their resources back
Added collision to some placeable objects
Larger walkable area on some meadow layouts over river stone crossing
Fishing tournaments are now on the 17th day of the Season
Improvements to performance in the city centre and small wood
Visual improvements of brush packs in carpenter store
Increased the chance of rain during autumn
Increased the chance of snow in winter
Community: Selecting a money back in your backpack will add all cash from all money bags.
Amount of bombs now shown on equipment ui
Dialogue camera is no longer affected by player zoom, ensuring dialogue camera is correct at all times
Removed annoying collision on infant tree meshes
Reworked randomisation function to correctly follow weights on randomised items
Villagers now move in with a bed
Mail is now ordered by date it was delivered
Mail is now split into several letters when having lots of things delivered
Game now remembers if you have snapping on/off on object placement
The fish you are being rewarded for are now listed when speaking to Derris about new or record fish
Tweaks to characters' eye movements to make them a bit more natural and less intense-stare
Villagers now always show random dialogue, even when you have interactions with them (follow, request)
Bait is no longer removed if you cancel fishing without snagging a fish
Increased brightness of the mining hat's light
Insects in a level refresh every few minutes so there's constant variation
Added a bunch of new sound fx
Added new music tracks and updating existing with polished versions
Villagers move quicker to catch up if they fall behind when following you
Added more safety checks to the save system, aborting saves if anything goes wrong to safeguard progress
Weeds no longer override equipment when pressing interact
Reworked avatar eye and mouth textures
Reworked villager eye textures
Decreased sensitivity on input screens that change amounts to avoid too-quick changes
Unlocked camera when on interior placement mode
Community: Tweaked camera in house type 2 to help with visibility on 16:10 aspect ratios
Added performance options: disable distant lights and shadows
You can now close the backpack/emote menu/equipment options with the same button you opened them with

https://store.steampowered.com/app/824000/Hokko_Life/

Getting crafty with the design tool and want to show off your creations? Looking for game tips? Or simply want a welcoming place to hang out? Join our Discord community!

Jul 12, 2022

Steam Dev Diary # 6 - Roadmap Update 2022

The Fermi Paradox - cry-havoc ( Fermi Paradox dev )

Dear Fermi Paradox Community,

The Early Access version of our game has been live for a year and we are very happy with how far we've come. We want to thank everybody who supported us with the development of The Fermi Paradox and provided us with a lot of honest critique and crucial feedback. We could not make this kind of game without you.

We have added 6 major updates since our Early Access release in (named Mercury, Venus, Deimos, Mars, Luna and Farside) and now have roughly 70% of the game's features and content implemented.

Looking back over the last 12 months it has become much clearer for us how long we need for updates and which parts of the development take more time than we anticipated. Our estimation is that we will stay in Early Access until Spring 2023.

To bring The Fermi Paradox to a good state that we are happy with, we want to implement the following topic bundles.

Jupiter Update (First Contact Rework): Contact between a spaceship and an alien civilization or colony is still quite underwhelming in the current version. We would like to explore in more depth the consequences of two alien societies interacting with each other and we’ll look at themes of coexistence, occupation and infiltration. Note that this will not include full permanent multi species planets/systems.

Ganymede Update (Synthetic Species): Biological species of an advanced techlevel might create artificial lifeforms. There is a chance that these synthetic creations will rise up against their creators and build a civilization of their own.

Callisto Update (Galactic Imperialism): Space travel and interstellar communication in our game is relatively slow (even after breaking the lightspeed barrier) so it will be hard to create a galactic federation or empire. But a sufficient number of colonies of the same species can use decentralized approaches to coordinate their dominance over the galaxy.

Saturn Update (The Nano Age): With this technological level a species will be able to modify matter on the atomic level, create tiny nanotechnology machines and directly modify their bodies on a cellular level.

Titania Update (Full Utopia / Dystopia): Achieve 100% Utopia to let your aliens sink into blissful happiness or be driven to uplift other lifeforms… But your galaxy can also turn into a dark forest where full dystopian species try to wipe out every sign of life in the galaxy.

Uranus Update (The Warp Age): When matter can be transformed into energy, the ways to personal teleportation and object replicators are open. The laws of space-time will be bent as access to other dimensions or even timelines might be possible.

Neptune Update (Meta Gameplay): Difficulty levels, achievements, unlockable species and a storyteller mode will make replaying the game more interesting.

Pluto Update (Transspecies): When a technologically advanced society learns enough about other aliens in the galaxy, they can use this knowledge to evolve into a complete new lifeform that can integrate every other species into their fold.

Gaia Update (Godlike Age): When technology is indistinguishable from magic, a single civilization might become capable of transcending to another plane of existence or harnessing the energy of the entire galaxy.

In each update we are also working on the following aspects::

Fixing bugs (big thanks to our Discord community for patiently reporting issues to us)
User Interface improvements (for better overview and explanation of the game features)
More story events (to add more variety or when our community has cool ideas)
Balancing of already implemented features
Accessibility features
Keyboard and controller support

We don't want to drag the Early Access phase forever, so we decided to tackle the following aspects after we finish the main game, either as free updates or as a part of an expansion.

Multi Species Planets : We want to make the species to species interaction more meaningful. But having a permanent population of many different species in the same star system is quite complex and we are still not sure if we will add this feature to the game.

Dynamic Planet Appearance : With evolving technology, the appearance of a planet could also change. For now we only describe these changes in our texts and are not sure if we should also change the visual appearance of our planets.

Custom Campaigns and Special Game Modes : We have a lot of ideas for campaigns ( like we had in our demo version ) or game modes with very different starting conditions. These features will take a lot of balancing work so we may do them later.

Psionic Abilities and other Fantastic Elements : Even if mental powers are a staple of many science fiction stories, we think that these elements don't fit well into the stories that we want to tell in The Fermi Paradox. But it might fit into a separate game mode or add on.

Languages : It only makes sense for us to finish the English text of the main game and then decide if we will translate “The Fermi Paradox” into other languages. We are always happy to hear what languages the community would like us to support, but we can't make promises right now if the game will be translated into those.

Platforms : We will focus on making the PC version great and then decide if we create a version for platforms like Switch, Mac, Linux, Mobile, Xbox or Playstation after we finish Early Access.

Modding : Since we will add and change features constantly during Early Access it does not make sense to add a modding system before we finish the Early Access version.

Also, there are some things that are out of our scope for a small indie team or don't fit with the vision that we have for our game:

Multiplayer ( cooperative or competitive )
Very detailed customization of characters
Classic strategy game elements like moveable units or base building.
Detailed grand strategy elements with the micromanagement of a lot of resources / values.

We hope this gave you a good overview on what we still have planned for the rest of the Early Access development and what you can expect in the next months.

Keep in mind that game development is far from an accurate science, so the order and content of things that we planned can always change. We are interacting constantly with our players to understand what is important for you and what you find really interesting about our game and plan accordingly.

Finally, I want to give a big thank you to all the people supporting the Early Access version, writing reviews and feedback, providing us with ideas and suggestions on our Discord, the Steam Forums or other social media and sharing and streaming our game. That really helps a lot.

Thank you and see you up in the stars, voyager.

Jörg from Anomaly Games

Join our Discord server: https://discord.gg/n5bDJ7pRVM
Follow us on Twitter: @FermiGame

Jul 12, 2022

2022 Summer Plans: Update 1.17.1, Events, and Surprises!

World of Tanks - The Dot

Update 1.17.1 is coming your way, Commanders!

Frontline, our most epic game mode, is returning to World of Tanks with an updated progression and other balance adjustments. We'll be sharing a separate article with you in the coming months that will go into more detail about all the exciting changes we’ve made to your favorite mode, so stay tuned!

You can find the full Update 1.17.1 patch notes via this link:

FULL PATCHNOTES

A Feast of Great Events Awaits!

A host of great activities with exciting gameplay and cool rewards are yet to come, Commanders! Here's what awaits you this summer:

SUMMER GLOBAL MAP EVENT
Iron Age, a new Global Map event, is coming to World of Tanks! Once again, the most powerful clans will lock horns to prove their superiority and earn a bunch of valuable rewards, including mighty Tier X vehicles. Get ready for heated battles, and may the strongest win!
WOT 7 TOURNAMENT (EU servers)
The next iteration of our WoT7 tournament series will take place in August, featuring exciting matches with Tier X vehicles, magnificent tank commanders, and fantastic rewards. Gather your friends and compete against others, or sit back, relax, and follow the action during our livestream.
FIRST MAN ON THE MOON (NA servers)
Come celebrate the first man on the moon! On July 15th, we will celebrate this historic moment with in-game missions and space-themed rewards.
CLAN SHOWDOWN (ASIA servers)
Call your clanmates, because Clan Showdown is coming around in August! Take part in this exciting tournament and fight it out to earn gold, bonds, and special customizations. May the best clan win!
THE 12TH ANNIVERSARY OF WORLD OF TANKS
This August, World of Tanks will celebrate its 12th anniversary. And to get you in the festive mood, we've prepared an awesome celebration with a beach party, gifts, and exciting adventures! We invite all players, old and new, to come join us!
FRONTLINE
The second launch of Frontline 2022 will take place in August. All in all, this epic mode will keep its main principles from the first launch. However, to make things even more exciting, we've adjusted the progression system and changed some of the balance parameters. And most importantly, we've added more rewards, including new ones that you've never seen before!
BATTLE PASS SEASON VIII
Battle Pass Season VIII is here for the entire summer! As always, there's a whole bunch of valuable Base and Improved Rewards up for grabs, including unique Warhammer 40,000-themed 3D styles. Don't miss this opportunity to get your hands on them while you still can!
UPDATE 1.18
After a hot summer full of events, Update 1.18 will land in World of Tanks! This update will introduce some exciting new content, so stay tuned for more details!

Get ready for these upcoming summer events, Commanders!