Apr 26, 2023

Pets, Creative Mode & More: Core Keeper’s ‘Paws & Claws’ Update Launches May 10!

Core Keeper - Bridie

It’s the one you’ve all been waiting for, Explorers — Core Keeper’s Paws & Claws Update will be coming your way on May 10th 2023!

This major content update features a brand-new Meadow sub-biome complete with cattle, as well as hatchable animal companions to help you on your adventure. With plenty of new mechanics and features for you to uncover, as well as new decorative items and materials (like glass!), we know you’re gonna have a blast with this one. Players can also expect improvements to combat and a whole host of community-requested features such as more rotatable objects and the coveted bucket. Don’t take our word for it, though, check out our trailer below!

There’s a lot of enjoyment to be had when exploring the underground, but we think the idea of having living creatures that follow the player and interact with the world around them breathes even more life into the game! The entire team had so much fun working on this update, and we’re really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this one.

There are just two more weeks to go until you can frolic with the Moolin, raise your very own pet pal, build a base made entirely of glass, and paint the town pink (or one of the other new paintbrush colours we’ll be introducing).

Animal Companions

This wouldn’t be the Paws & Claws update without the paws and claws (and other appendages). We’re excited to announce that we’re adding 5 different varieties of pets, each with multiple colour variations, and 3 different types of cattle to the game! Pet eggs can be found in various locations throughout the Core Keeper map, placed in the incubator, and then hatched into companions that can be equipped to aid players in battle via a dedicated pet inventory slot. Find out more about each individual pet below…

Subterrier

A canine companion that is out to smite your enemies, endlessly lick his paws and, in general, just be a good pal!

The Subterrier is a dog-like companion that will follow you into battle and defend you from trouble with its powerful jaws. With a chance to stun enemies, leaving them wide open for a well-timed hit of your sword, it’s no wonder they call Subterriers an Explorer’s best friend!

Embertail

Spontaneous and impulsive in nature, this pet is as fierce in battle as it is at clawing at furniture. But also incredibly cuddly.

Don’t let the Embertail’s fluffy fur and adorable toe beans fool you, this cat-like creature can really turn up the heat in battle with its fiery ranged attack. Its bright eyes also provide a useful +2 glow so that you can avoid being snuck up on by dastardly Cavelings in some of the darker parts of the underground.

Fanhare

This feather-eared rodent is an able companion, making up for its size by swinging poisonous, sturdy hair into the enemy.

The Fanhare’s big floppy ears and bunny-rabbit appearance make the temptation to cuddle and pet this creature almost unbearable…but think twice before you snuggle up to its poisonous pelt! With a ranged attack that can hit multiple targets and the chance to apply poison damage, the Fanhare is very much a look-but-don’t-touch companion.

Owlux

A swift, beaked ally that’s too shy to directly head into battle. But it certainly has your back when weapons clash!

The Owlux is an adorable bird-type creature that flies overhead to keep a watchful eye on you. With no offensive powers of its own, the Owlux offers a movement speed and damage buff to aid its master in combat.

Jr Slimes!

Baby Slimes in a variety of colours, each dealing damage associated with their fully-grown counterparts!

We here at Pugstorm sure do love our Slimes, and there have been A LOT of community requests for pet Slimes since we launched in Early Access. Well, your requests have been answered! Choose from the oozy Jr Orange Slime, the poisonous Jr Purple Slime, the slippery Jr Blue Slime, and the scorching Jr Lava Slime!

Introducing Creative Mode

Is building your favourite part of Core Keeper? Then you’ll be pleased to know that you can build to your heart’s content in our upcoming Creative Mode! No more hunting for crafting materials or upgrading equipment, simply start a world in Creative Mode, open the Creative Mode UI and choose from building materials, creatures, consumables, environmental objects, equipment, valuables, seasonal items, and more! This new mode is completely separate from the standard version of the game and will require players to create dedicated Creative-Mode characters that are only playable in Creative-Mode worlds.

Creative Mode comes complete with its very own togglable God Mode too. When enabled, this mode allows players to move through objects, destroy objects in one hit, and place objects much faster than normal. Items do not drop from destroyed objects in God Mode, but objects are also not consumed when used in this mode!

The final Creative Mode feature we want to talk about is the “Play world” button. When toggled, this button stops creatures and objects from moving or performing any actions. This essentially switches off the enemy AI and stops anything unexpected from getting in the way of your creativity!

Our First Piece of Official Merchandise

Deep in the Forgotten Ruins lives a strange race of underground creatures, shut off from the surface world…

…until now. Introducing our first piece of official Core Keeper Merchandise – the Caveling plushie! We’re working with the talented folk at Makeship to create these cuddly Cavelings, and we’ll be sharing lots more information on how you can get your hands on one soon. Until then, we hope you’ll enjoy some pictures of this little guy on his above-ground adventures!

Prototype image may not fully reflect final design

Changes to the Pricing of Core Keeper

You might recall we mentioned some changes to the price of Core Keeper that would be coming soon after the Paws & Claws Update is live. The price will change at 09.00 am UTC on the 29th of May and this will not impact users who have already purchased the game in any way.

It’s challenging to quantify the price increase as a flat percentage since the pricing for the game differs slightly from region to region, so we’re sharing a couple of key price points below to give you an idea of what to expect.

Updated Price in GBP = £12.99
Updated Price in USD = $15.99
Updated Price in Euros = €15,99
Updated Price in CNY = ¥62 RMB
Updated Price in JPY = ¥1,800
Updated Price in KRW = ₩17,500
Updated Price in THB = ฿330

Before we make any changes, however, we wanted to give new players one last chance to pick up Core Keeper at its lowest price point. That’s why, from the day the Paws & Claws update goes live, up until 05.00 pm UTC on the 22nd of May, you’ll be able to grab Core Keeper at 20% off its current price point!

Just 2 Weeks to Go!

We’ve been teasing some of the new content you can expect with the Paws & Claws Update over on Twitter, and we’ll be showcasing a little more of it as we approach the release date, so make sure you’re following us for more previews of what’s to come. We’re very excited and we think these next two weeks will fly by…and then it’s straight to work on the Crystal Biome! As always, you’re welcome to chat about updates with your fellow Explorers over on our Twitter, Discord, and Steam Discussions.

Apr 26, 2023

Devblog #54 -The upcoming Grappa map!

Isonzo - Major Raquel ~ヾ(・ω・)

Hello soldiers!

It’s almost time to get your assault on Monte Grappa started! Don’t forget, alongside this update will come the new weapons, Mac support and the Expedition Units Pack DLC. Be sure to check out our previous devblogs on these as well in case you’ve missed them.

https://steamcommunity.com/games/1556790/announcements/detail/6977806508505445576

https://steamcommunity.com/games/1556790/announcements/detail/5513009457817733187

The final standing

While along the course of the Piave all attempts at a breakthrough by the Austro-German troops were unsuccessful, the objective of the German General Otto von Below's was Mount Grappa. This range of mountains represented the keystone of the whole Italian front: winning its 1,770 meters meant that it would be possible to move into the plains of Veneto and leave behind both the Asiago plateau as well as the river.

On 20th November, the Austro-German troops occupied Mount Tomba and Fontana Secca, but three days later they were driven back to their original positions. Even lieutenant Erwin Rommel, already a protagonist at Kolovrat with his battalion of Württemberg, failed to break through because of his lack of knowledge of these peaks.

Want to read more about the history of the Battles of Monte Grappa? Read our devblog here.

https://steamcommunity.com/games/1556790/announcements/detail/3699183438970767121

For now, let’s take a closer look at the upcoming map and its objectives!

The battle for the Sacred Mountain

Your match will start out in Nomansland, a wooded area that has suffered a lot of damage from previous fighting. Trenches run through this dense forest, as well as a stream of water.

For the German Assault team, your first main objective will be Monte Tomba first, continuing along the ridgeline of the mountain towards Monte Palon and further beyond.

Your A & B objectives will be a Bunker Forest Capzone and a destructible objective which is a communications bunker, which can be found on the top. You’ll see stone barracks and resting areas on the backside of the mountain ridges.

Be wary of the steep climb! But then again, it’s a mountain top, so what did you expect ;)

If the Germans are successful, they’ll advance to Castel Cesil, a fortified area above the forest. This is one of the main objectives for the section of the map. The other one will be a heavy artillery piece that is located in the valley.

This area of the map will have several fortified positions that provide great overlooking areas, may it be the forest or the valley. This valley will also be a big divider between the two objectives! So be sure to be strategic in your plans for assaulting and defending them. Will the your team's snipers make those shots count, or will the Germans separate the defenders amongst the objectives in an efficient manner?

The third main objective will be Monte Palon, another destructive objective. Here your goal will be to blow up (or defend) the munition stock of the artillery gallery. This section of the map is especially interesting since it has multiple cave systems to defend or sneak around in.

If you’re afraid that the enemy might be camping out in the caves, you can always try to advance through the center, where you run into the main trench ‘artery’, which runs along the mountain ridge. Or maybe you find your own special route towards the objective?

And there it finally is, the snowy mountain top! Destroyed trenches, cratered landscapes, artillery batteries and crestling hills & valleys paint your final objective - Cima Della Mandria.

Your final A & B objectives will be a capzone and a destructible artillery battery. On the right side you’ll find a crashed ‘Caproni’ bomber leading towards the main trench in the area, leading to this final destructive objective. The final fight for glory on this Holy Mountain is shaping up to be a fierce one, so be sure to make it count!

Now to round it all up, here’s a flyover of the Monte Grappa Map.

Mehr Musik

You asked for the Isonzo OST to get updated with the German’s theme and the instrumental/piano version of Rinasceremo Insieme, so we did! Starting today, you can find these songs in your soundtrack folder as well!

Did you know that the piano reprise of Rinasceremo Insieme was actually earlier in the making than one with lyrics? The piano version used to be a guide track for the development team and the Tenor vocalist initially.

A few months ago, our landscape artist Kian, who's responsible for the map flyovers, was browsing the pieces of music that were created for the game and saw this one fit for the Piave flyover. That's when Bart, our composer, did some minor mix updates to make the track fit nicely on the Isonzo soundtrack album.

If you don’t own the Isonzo Soundtrack yet, you can get it now with a 20% discount!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2078340/Isonzo_Soundtrack/

Upcoming Anniversary

Upcoming Friday, April 28th, will be the Verdun Anniversary!
Go back to the origin of the WW1 Game Series at the Western Front.

The game will be available with a big discount along with some other aspects, so be sure to keep an eye on it!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/242860/Verdun/

See you next time soldiers!

Apr 26, 2023

Update 5.102

IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad - -DED-Rapidus

Dear Friends,

Today we have released another update 5.102 - two new Collector Planes, both of which arrived late in WWI and WWII respectively, and two new free historical campaigns.

The first one of them is the https://store.steampowered.com/app/2366322/2__SSW_DIV/ biplane. It came too late to the Great War to change Germany’s fortunes, but what machines did make it to front-line squadrons acquitted themselves well. The SS.DIV was the end result of a robust line of aircraft that saw service in the war and it came with a unique feature. The 200-hp SH.IIIa rotary engine had a crankshaft that rotated opposite of the engine and the propeller ’s rotation in an attempt to reduce the torque. The four-bladed propeller gave it a fast rate of climb and a high speed. The SS.DIV was even faster than Germany’s mainstay front-line fighter, the very successful Fokker D.VII. It was also very maneuverable, but reportedly had nasty stall behavior when pushed too far. The SS.DIV was armed with two 2 × 7.92mm machine guns.

In addition to Quick Mission Builder and Multiplayer modes, you can fly it in Career mode during Flying Circus timeframes if you own both this collector plane and either of Flying Circus volumes. In addition, in this case Against the Tide historical campaign (created by Jaegermeister) on the Flying Circus Western Front map will open up for you in the game for free - you'll become one of the Jasta (Jagdstaffel) 22 pilots that received these newest biplanes shortly before the end of the World War I.

The second new arrival is Messerschmitt Bf-109 G-6AS (also available on Steam). It was designed as a high-altitude interceptor and appeared in the Western Europe skies during late Spring 1944. 686 aircraft were built, 226 from scratch and 460 were upgraded from G-6 modification aircraft during repairs. The engine, DB605AS, was a modification of the DB605A. The installation of the bigger supercharger from the DB603 engine has increased the critical altitude and flight characteristics at high altitudes. The engine cowling became bigger, but it had a more aerodynamic form compared to a standard G6 cowling.

Another new historical campaign is added to the game for free - Wild Mustangs. It is available to all owners of the Battle of Bodenplatte and continues the story of 370th FG which started in the Lighting Strikes campaign by the same author (Jaegermeister).

As usual, there are other improvements and fixes as well:

5.102

New Collector Plane, the Great War biplane SSW D.IV has been released;
New Collector Plane, high altitude interceptor Bf 109 G-6AS has been released;
New free historical mini-campaign Against the Tide is available to players who own SSW D.IV Collector Plane and either of the Flying Circus volumes, thus having access to WWI Western Front map;
New free historical campaign Wild Mustangs set in the end of WWII is added to the game (it requires Battle of Bodenplatte);
Free historical campaign Wind of Fury has been updated (all aircraft have tactical numbers assigned, US vehicles are replaced by British ones in the British held territory, all missions were updated and re-tested);
Free historical campaign Sea Dragons (all aircraft have tactical numbers assigned, new aircraft types added, all missions were updated and re-tested);
New Ruler map tool added;
Dynamic visual damage decals appear on player controllable tanks correctly;
Bf 109 family FM corrected - the bug that reduced their listed climb rates a bit has been fixed;
Flying Circus Career: AI flight leader correctly takes off on certain airfields;
AI pilots priorities updated: now they will try to retain their bombs and rockets and will jettison them in combat only if they have an enemy on their six that is opening fire;
Spitfire Mk.XIVe with teardrop canopy: F24 photo control panel switches are now animated;
Spitfire Mk.XIVe with teardrop canopy: wing gun covers textures are aligned better;
Spitfire Mk.XIVe with teardrop canopy: it is now possible to set higher propeller RPM manually;
Bf 109 G-6 Late, Bf 109 G-14: BR-21 control panel typos fixed;
OnKilled event in mission logic won't trigger several times from MCU Command: Damage for AI controlled vehicles;
LCA is correctly visible in multiplayer (previously its gunner could appear hanging in the air).

Apr 26, 2023

Pre-Order Now Available as Railway Empire 2 Nears Scheduled Departure!

Railway Empire - Freeky

Pre-Order Now Available as Railway Empire 2 Nears Scheduled Departure

Deluxe Edition and pre-order details

Today we have announced details for the Deluxe Edition and pre-order offer for the highly anticipated railway management simulator Railway Empire 2, available now for pre-order ahead of the title's launch on 25th May 2023. The Deluxe Edition, which includes bonus locomotive skins, train station skins, and the digital soundtrack, is now available to pre-order. A 10% pre-order discount is available on Steam and Microsoft Store, with pre-install also available with Xbox Game Pass, and on PlayStation Store for PlayStation Plus Members.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1644320/Railway_Empire_2/

The wait for Railway Empire 2 is nearly over, offering hopeful industrialists bonus content for pre-ordering the Deluxe Edition and securing their stake as a tycoon in the golden age of locomotives. Take on the role of a railway magnate to build the most expansive empire by managing resources, constructing tracks, and growing connecting cities to build the greatest railway network through real-world cities across Europe and North America.

Building on the success of its predecessor, Railway Empire 2 offers same the immersive gameplay of the original with new content and expanded features, including 4-player cooperative multiplayer*, 60 historically accurate locomotives, improved track construction, real-time terraforming, a five-chapter campaign, 14 scenarios, free play, and new construction modes.

Railway Empire 2 will be released on 25th May 2023, with Xbox Game Pass for console and PC and will be available on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One consoles (supported through Smart Delivery), PC, and PlayStation 4|5. The title will be released on Nintendo Switch™ later this year.

Features

History in the making: In 1830 at the dawn of the age of railways, build a grand railway empire from scratch and choose from 60 detailed, historic locomotives that you can customize with your preferred colors and company initials.
A sprawling landscape: Huge and detailed game world covering the whole of the USA and Europe in one single map each*, as well as more detailed regional maps with more than 300 towns spread all over the US and Europe.
Endless Possibilities: Choose how you want to play from the 5-chapter campaign set across iconic regions of Europe and the US, 14 scenarios, the customizable free play mode, the relaxing construction mode, and co-op multiplayer* for up to 4 players controlling the same railway company.
Improved track construction: Laying Tracks is easier than ever with automatically placed signals, bridges that can hold more than 4 tracks, train stations with up to 8 tracks and new train station attachments to customize your stations. The land also adapts to your track layout as your tracks cross mountains, valley and plains.
Enjoy the view: Ride along your train and see the landscape rush by from the inside of the wagons or from the front seat in the driver’s compartment of the steam engine.*

*Denotes features not available on Nintendo Switch edition.

Apr 26, 2023

Ymir: A new dawn

Ymir - Ronchiporc

As those who follow news on the Ymir discord probably already know, since the beginning of this year I've been focused on upgrading the game to a newer version of the engine (gms2).
Yes, it is still Gamemaker but this newer version opens up much more possibilities (such as finally 64bit builds removing the memory limitations).

As i started focusing on QOL features last year, it became clear to me that above all else the biggest problem of the game is... loading times, which compound with all the other QOL flaws making it feel tedious and too time consuming.
Everything else would feel much more streamlined if the loading times were reduced between swapping from territory to world map, or going from city to its countryside territories.
Unfortunately because of how graphics were organized and the engine limitations this could not be improved upon without rethinking the whole graphics from scratch.

This upgrade meant redoing graphics rendering from scratch anyways, and I thought that instead of wasting time redoing the same overall system as in the current version of the game, it made more sense to take this opportunity to design something much more ambitious focused around the idea of optimizing loading times as much as possible.

This is going to be much more than a simple upgrade to a more recent version of the engine.
In fact it will probably feel much like a new game rather than an update, although the game mechanics themselves are not going to be modified.

But its going to take many months to complete, so much that i can't give any timeline but it could very will be this whole year.
This also means the current version of the game is going to remain unchanged in the meantime, also why there hasn't been any new update recently.

You may ask "why not take this opportunity to finally move on another engine?".
Well: graphics are only a small part of the game. By upgrading, i "only" have to redo graphics but i can mostly keep everything else unchanged.
Moving to a different engine would have implied redoing and translating everything else. Instead of a year, it would be 3. And that's just too much time to leave the current game standing still in the meantime.

As i make progress on the gms2 transition, I am feeling more confident about my most ambitious plan and it is time for a first teaser so you guys can get a better idea of the scope of the changes and why it's going to take so long.
I will reveal more as i keep making progress, but you can probably already speculate on the scale of changes based on this first screenshot!

Hexagonal tiles and spherical worlds

The first feature announcement of this update -which was already announced on the discord a while ago- is the transition to not only hexagonal tiles but also to true spherical worlds.
And yes, there will still be procedural worlds as well!
There's a reason spherical worlds are rare in games: it adds considerable headache to everything else.
But I always dreamed of it , and so that trumps everything else.
Plus, as seen in this screenshot, it will allow to make an actually accurate custom Earth map with real proportions, and that's pretty cool as well.

These are going to be exciting changes that will renew the experience of the game, but it's going to be a long wait. I hope it will be worth it and that you will forgive the time it will take to complete this change.