TLDR: I’m making a new game, it's called “A Song Of Sunlight.” The steam page is live right now, go check it out for all the details, and please wishlist it! (It helps the algorithm a lot!)

Surprise, I’m making a new game.

It’s been over a year in the making so far, and I would have liked to talk about it sooner but getting things this presentable took way longer than I ever could have guessed. In any case, I’m here now and I’m ready to start talking about it and promoting it- so here we go.

(I’ll also address ArmaCulture at the end, so keep reading...)

A SONG OF SUNLIGHT

A few things right off the bat- the new game is called “A Song Of Sunlight,” and it's a standalone game that doesn’t have anything to do with ArmaCulture. I know some might be a bit disappointed by this, but I have a feeling that if you enjoyed ArmaCulture, you will enjoy the new game as well. It’s set in an entirely different world than ArmaCulture, being a (hopefully) unique blend of sci-fi and fantasy. Another thing about it is that it's not going to be a strategy game, or anything strategy adjacent. It’s going to be a more traditional action RPG with a lot of the nontraditional Visual Novel type stuff like there was in AC (my signature formula for better or for worse lol)

One of my biggest regrets about the development of ArmaCulture is my lack of planning. I got so caught up in whether or not I could finish a game at all that I lacked the foresight to see that I had designed it with many problems it was far too late to fix. With those things in mind, I’d like to make a short list of things that I am deliberately going to try and improve over ArmaCulture with my new game, and a few things that will stay the same.


1.) Ease Of Play
This is probably the biggest complaint I’ve had about AC- it’s way too confusing, and way too hard. If you didn’t enjoy AC because of bad controls and confusing instructions, I totally get it. The game is poorly designed, and it shows.
A Song Of Sunlight (ASOS) is being designed with simple controls and clear gameplay in mind from the start. I want the game to feel natural and intuitive.

2.) Accessibility
With AC having such an emphasis on story, I always felt bad that the game was unable to support foreign language translations.
ASOS features the ability to change the in-game language as well as support for language translations of any kind in the future. Multiple control types are also supported, not just the keyboard. The game is actually designed around using a Controller (XBOX or PS), which is what I recommend, but other options will be available!

3.) Narrative
If you enjoyed the way that the story was told in AC, expect that but a bit... more?
ASOS will be very heavily story based. It will feature a mix of Visual Novel scenes and dialogue more reminiscent of the Nighttime interactions in AC (minus the choices). I’ve mixed these in with the normal gameplay in what I feel is a pretty dynamic and fresh way, so I hope that aspect of it remains cool for everyone.

I’ve heard and understand everyone’s feedback, so trust me when I say that I want this new game to be better in every single way than ArmaCulture. I’m really excited and passionate about this new game, especially the story. It means a lot to me personally, and I hope that other people will be able to get something out of it as well.

So, you might be asking, what is the game about? For an answer to that question as well as a lot more, head over to the Steam Page and see for yourself! If you have any questions about the game, use the forums on the new game’s discussion group. I’ll check it every once in a while.

I’ll say it a couple of times, but please wishlist the game if it looks interesting to you, It will really help the eventual release!

RELEASE PLANS

I’m going to be trying out something a bit different for the eventual release of this game. I’m currently working on a Demo of the first half (or so) of the game. When that demo is ready, it will be released for free on the new Steam page. Expect that sometime next year. Given how long it's taken so far, I would (conservatively) estimate that ‘part 1’ will be done around the fall/winter of 2024.

At that point, like with AC, I’ll collect feedback and make changes to the gameplay, fix bugs, polish etc.. before I work on the second half. When that’s done, the whole game will officially come out on the Steam page, as well as the soundtrack. Expect that finished game sometime in 2025.

To summarize, the game will “come out” in two parts, instead of three this time. So overall, less waiting between installments (more of a season 1 and season 2 of a story type of deal this time rather than a “the whole game was retconned and nothing from the last update is cannon anymore” lol) Hopefully, that sounds like a good deal.

ARMACULTURE PLANS

With this new game to occupy my time, I’m officially moving on from ArmaCulture for now. However, I’m not moving on from the ArmaCulture world. While ASOS is my current project, down the road I have big plans for another game set in the ArmaCulture world. The tentative title for this (prequel) game is “ArmaCulture: Zero,” and would focus on another, much larger war prior to the events of the first game that set the stage for the conflict in its story.

Another idea I’m toying around with is something like a ‘remaster’ of ArmaCulture that would overhaul the gameplay and art, as well as expand the narrative, to make it the robust experience I wasn’t able to when I developed it originally. (As in, the factory building stuff would be completely axed, lol. It’s pretty clear that there are way too many issues and I was never in love with it in the first place.)

WRAPUP

I know that was a ton of info, so thanks for sticking around. Please check the new game out, I feel that it's already a big step up from anything in ArmaCulture and better represents what I’m capable of as a designer (and please wishlist it if you are interested!)

As always, thanks for playing!

Just a few bug fixes to finish a productive week:

- Fixed a missing parameter preventing Ship Support from being used in the volcanic planet map.
- Fixed incomplete dialogue text and options when encountering a populated and protected planet.
- Fixed a serious bug where using heavy cannons and rocket launchers too much during a single mission makes rockets explode prematurely.
- Fixed a bug where customizable accessories wouldn't disappear when evacuating a soldier.
- Fixed a bug where some soldiers would get stuck in animation when reaching the retreat area.
- Fixed some rifle aiming animations for security guards and Krell'Sha Raider.
- Fixed cover animations of Techno Sorcerers not putting arms in the right position.


Regards,
Jorge

We just released a Moonbreaker hotfix! 🔥

The hotfix resolves an issue where the game defaulted to the lowest graphics setting for new players.
Existing players will need to restart the game to update to the latest version and manually change their graphics settings.

You can find the specific option by:

1. Pressing ESC to bring up the menu
   
2. Choosing Options
   
3. Clicking the Graphics tab to find the Quality setting

If your Quality setting is on Medium, you can switch to a higher preset setting (like Ultra or High) from there.



Want to share more feedback or issues? Join us in developing Moonbreaker:

• Join us in Discord and talk directly with the community and Developers
  
• Sign up for the Development Newsletter and get all our major updates in your inbox
  
• Check out all the latest news and get sneak peeks on Twitter
  
• Provide critical gameplay feedback and suggestions on Nolt
  
• See our task list and upcoming update milestones on Favro
  
• Or, find us on your social media platform of choice

We'll see you in the Reaches!
- Moonbreaker Team

-Scaled the damage of the Searing Totem better for shamans

-Added 1 additional item you can craft in the profession "Bartending" called Arcanum Wraps. They can be used as mana potions that restore 400 mana

-To go with the new item, a new quest is available in the Arcane Isles that needs you to bring the new item to them

20% OFF :goldenpuzzlepiece:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1176215

From feathery artillery to strange diets, Yi Ling is bound to be an incredible addition to any Aberration survivor's tribe in ARK: Survival Ascended. Speaking of which, the race is coming to a close to see which community creature will roam the landscapes of The Center. Only three more days to cast your vote!



Download in full resolution


Species: Yi Ling
Time: Late Jurassic
Diet: Omnivore
Temperament: Aloof


This feathered fella is so much bigger than the Yi species I knew in my day! Despite its aberrant size, Yi ling is still somehow light enough to cling to walls and it can even glide short distances. It’s light on its feet as well, able to dodge attacks on the run.

I’m glad Yi seems to prefer prey smaller than itself, because it can eject a spray of barbed feathers at an unhappy target before darting in to rip them back out. Its unique firepower may expose Yi in the short term, but its protective plumage regrows fast.


A tamed Yi makes for an excellent -- if precarious -- hunting mount. Some tribes use them as caravan scouts, others to torment enemy forces.

I’ve seen Yi scarf up the weird mushrooms, congealed gas balls, and nameless creatures scurrying around down here. Who knows what effect a diet like that would have on its feathery weaponry? Watch what your Yi eats, and you just might learn to sharpen its fighting skills!



Snail Games USA and Studio Wildcard have officially teamed up with Nitrado to be the exclusive commercial server host for ARK: Survival Ascended. Partnering with Nitrado allows for:

Enhanced ARK Mod Experience with Seamless Overwolf Integration
ARK: Survival Ascended will support Overwolf integration into Nitrado’s services, which makes it easier to manage mods directly from a web interface. You will be able to browse an expansive library of mods and easily manage them with a click of a button, no more messing around with .ini files! Critically, ASA’s direct server integration with Nitrado’s infrastructure enables the cross-platform online mod functionality between PC and consoles.

Unrivaled SteelShield DDoS Protection
We’ll also be working closely with Nitrado on their SteelShield protection services which defends against DDoS attacks, so we can ensure uninterrupted gaming on our ASA servers.

We understand that some people would prefer to manage their own servers, and so this partnership does not prevent you from hosting or managing your own non-commercial ASA servers with your own hardware.

Together with Nitrado’s seamless integration of ASA’s revolutionary cross-platform mod system, we're committed to bringing players the next evolution in ARK's journey!

You can read more details about the partnership here.



To recap previous announcements, we’ll be taking save games from the Official Network and providing the files to you so that you can host your own server and continue the progress you’ve made on the Official Network.

We intend to take two different save snapshots, one timeline will be communicated below and the second will happen during the week of the Official Network Shutdown in September.

• The first save snapshot from the Official Network will happen on Friday, August 25th (8/25) for both PC and Consoles, this process can take up to 12 hours and will start at midnight UTC.
  
• You will need to ensure your character is on its respective server, prior to the save taking place so we recommend making sure your character is there well before midnight UTC and stays on the server for the next 12 hours.
  
• Your items, dinos, and characters that have been uploaded to the ARK cloud will not be included in the save! So, please make sure to download anything that you wish to keep from the cloud prior to the save on 8/25.
  
• The first save snapshot will be provided on Wednesday, August 30th (8/30).
  
  
• On Wednesday, we’ll be providing access to your PC saves and you’ll also be able to directly rent a server from Nitrado who can host your PC or console saves.
  
• Nitrado servers using the Official Save games are now available for pre-order here
  
• Pre-order your server today and save an additional 20% discount using promo code: SAVEYOURARK
  
  
• You’ll be able to:
  
• Access to all official save games for all platforms – PC, PlayStation, and Xbox.
  
• Easily import the save game with one click using the web interface.
  
• Have access to a comprehensive guide and FAQs telling you everything you need to know about hosting servers.
  
• For more information, please visit this page.
  
• Pre-order and promo code are not available for XBOX.
  
  
• Remember we’ll be taking another save snapshot during the week of the Official Network Shutdown in September in preparation for ASA’s October release, with more details to come at a later date!

The Community Creature Vote is coming to a close, and the competition has been thrilling. The creatures that have been submitted are truly remarkable. Soon, we will know which entry will emerge victorious! You still have the weekend to vote for which creature will be added to The Center for ARK: Survival Ascended!

• The second round of voting ends on Monday, August 21st at 4 PM Pacific.
  
• The winner* will be announced in the Crunch of Friday, August 25th, 2023.

• Rank the creatures in order of most preferred to least preferred
  
• The vote is limited to 1 submission per person (duplicate entries will be discarded)

Below are the candidates that have made it into the final 10. Find out more information about the creature by clicking on the hyperlink attached to the name. Cast your vote here.

• Mesoparapylocheles
  
• Saivodus
  
• Shastasaurus
  
• Miracinonyx
  
• Pemphix
  
• Bajadasaurus
  
• Hatzegopteryx
  
• Orcinus citoniensis
  
• Thoracopterus
  
• Nothosaurus Ludicus

Overview of all the finalists here.

* Note that once the winner has been determined, we'll be reading through these threads and using them as inspiration for how the creature will be designed; aspects suggested may change.




Survivors on all platforms will be receiving an EVO Event! It will be active until Monday, August 21st.
All Official Servers across each platform will be undergoing this evolutionary change which includes:

*Note that these bonuses are multiplicative of the game's standard 1x rates.

• Official Servers: 2x XP, Harvesting, Taming and Breeding (imprint, maturation, hatch/gestation), 0.5x Mating Interval, 2x hexagon
  
• Small Tribe Servers: 4.5x XP, Harvesting, Taming and Breeding (imprint, maturation, hatch/gestation), 0.5x Mating Interval, 2x hexagon
  
• ARKPocalypse: 5x XP, Harvesting, Taming and Breeding (imprint, maturation, hatch/gestation), 0.5x Mating Interval, 2x hexagon
  
• Conquest: 5x XP, Harvesting, Taming and Breeding (imprint, maturation, hatch/gestation), 0.5x Mating Interval, 2x hexagon

Fan Art Gallery | Screenshot Gallery | Artist Feedback Form



Creator: Kittykatlapurr
Kitty is tormented in ARK Supreme on the Olympus map by her chat using the Chaos Creator mod. It was up to chat to decide if they wanted to make her life better or even worse!


Creator: Sanyxs
Is winning Ark: The Survival of the Fittest possible by only taming Phiomias? Sanyx proves that it is!




Head in the clouds, that one. by fritzmetzger


Rest in Pixels Saphira by @alkonavi


How about shaved ice ~~ by @k3zk_627


#colorfulARK by @falco_luna


"Watch out for Billy" by @TekARK_01


Sketch of the Manticore from ARK by korrigus


Umbra and her Theri by ArwennDelta




Screenshot by LabRat


Biggest boi by niinapiina


Screenshot by Radskan II


Enjoy your weekend!
Studio Wildcard

Twitter: twitter.com/survivetheark

Discord: discord.com/invite/playark

Reddit: reddit.com/r/playark

Instagram: instagram.com/survivetheark

Twitch: twitch.tv/survivetheark

Steam: steamcommunity.com/app/346110

Youtube: youtube.com/survivetheark

Facebook: facebook.com/survivetheark

Threads: threads.net/@survivetheark

Official Wiki: https://ark.wiki.gg/wiki/ARK_Survival_Evolved_Wiki

Dear friends!
We’re very pleased to announce that we’re participating in Steam’s Ukrainian Games Festival, taking place between 18-24th August, 2023. To mark the occasion, we’re discounting PARANOIA PLACE by a 20% OFF.

Thanks to everyone who has been supporting us all this time, peace to all and Glory to Ukraine!

Want more Paranoia Place gameplay? Check IGP channel:

As the Political Mastery team, we have decided to provide a more detailed explanation of our game and share our weekly activities as we progress with your ideas.

This week, our team has introduced an "event" system to the game, enhancing the overall game progression with dynamic elements. In this game, players must make spontaneous decisions at the start of each turn, involving world events, journalist inquiries, natural disasters, party intrigues, agendas, and ideological contradictions. These choices will directly impact the player's standing with the party leader, stress levels, finances, and voter support.



To further enrich the event system, we aim to mold character traits based on the player's decisions. For instance, if a player copes with stress by opting to smoke a cigarette during a stress event, they will temporarily alleviate stress but gain the "smoker" trait for their character. We will delve deeper into the development of character traits in a forthcoming dev diary.

As the Powehi Games and Political Mastery development team, we eagerly seek your input and ideas. Please share your thoughts by commenting on this platform, and feel free to join our Discord channel for discussions. You are also invited to play our upcoming demo for free. Thank you for your invaluable support.

This update works with DF 50.09 on both the Dwarf Fortress default and beta branches. The DF beta branch includes native support for Linux, which this DFHack update also supports.
Both DF and DFHack now run natively on Linux. If you're on Linux, we encourage you to try it! The interface is noticeably snappier, FPS is up, and load times are reduced. If you're subscribed to DF and DFHack on Steam, here's how to switch over:

• In the Steam client, open the properties for Dwarf Fortress
• In the "Betas" section, switch to the "beta" branch
• Let that finish updating
• Select the "Compatibility" section and deselect "Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool"
• DF should update again with the Linux native version

You can tell if you did it right (and sometimes Steam gets stuck somewhere along the way and you have to fiddle with it) if you no longer have Dwarf Fortress.exe in your DF directory and instead have dwarfort, which is the Linux binary. The plan is to "officially" release Linux support with DF 50.10, so once DF 50.10 comes out, you should be able to switch back to the default Steam branch and keep the native Linux support.

Then, do the same thing for DFHack. switching to the "beta" branch (if you're not there already) and turning off the compatibility layer.

Major caveat for this beta release

This particular beta release of Dwarf Fortress has address layout randomization enabled. This causes some trouble for DFHack since DFHack needs to know the memory addresses of several key data structures. For this release only, be sure to start DF by launching DFHack from the Steam client or by running the ./dfhack commandline startup script. That will normalize the address space and allow DF to run with DFHack. Otherwise, DF will crash on startup. Again, this is only for this release. Future releases will not need this workaround and should go back to allowing you to start DF from either the Dwarf Fortress or DFHack Steam client entries, or from either the ./dwarfort or ./dfhack commandline commands.

The DFHack terminal console works differently on Linux

You can run DF with DFHack by starting DFHack in the Steam client. However, if you want an external DFHack terminal console, you have to run from the commandline.

On Windows, you could use the show command to pop up an external DFHack terminal console. You could use this for running DFHack commands from outside the game window, and the external terminal is the only way to run commandline-interactive DFHack commands like tiletypes and the interactive mode of the lua interpreter.

Linux has a different method of providing a terminal console. You can't spawn it dynamically like you can on Windows. You have to start DF from the commandline, and the terminal from which you ran ./dwarfort becomes the terminal console. This should be a familiar process to many Linux users (most Linux commands work this way), but the change is jarring if you're not expecting it. We're also looking into providing a virtual console that doesn't depend on an existing system console so you can still get a console even if you run from Steam, but that work is far from being completed.

You can still launch DFHack from Steam if you want to. Many tools log information and errors to the console, though, so if you run into strange issues, it might be useful to try running from the commandline to see if there is diagnostic output there that can help you.
When you bring up the screen to assign units to squads, there are now widgets for searching and sorting. The default sort is by "best melee skill", but you can choose from a variety of relevant ascending or descending sorting orders.

You can also search. Searching matches either the unit name or a skill that the unit has. Sorting by "leadership" shows units that have any leadership-related abilities, like teaching and military tactics training, but if you just want to see dwarves with military tactics training, search for "tactics".

There have already been many good suggestions for additional sorting options, which we'll try to get into a future beta/release.
The "Assign to pasture" screen released in the previous DFHack version has been expanded and generalized to support cages, restraints, and pits/ponds. Please tell us if you have any additional needs for animal assignment that those screens don't meet!
exportlegends now sports a new integration with the vanilla "Export XML" button. Now you can generate both the vanilla export and the extended data export with a single click!
hide-interface hides all the vanilla UI elements for clean screenshots or distraction-free fortress watching. Even with the interface hidden, you can still pause/unpause the game with spacebar and move around the map with the keyboard or mouse. Hide that cluster of urgent notifications bubbles for a while and just enjoy watching your citizens scurry around : )

• devel/scan-vtables: Scan and dump likely vtable addresses (for memory research)
• hide-interface: hide the vanilla UI elements for clean screenshots or laid-back fortress observing

• exportlegends: new overlay that integrates with the vanilla "Export XML" button. Now you can generate both the vanilla export and the extended data export with a single click!
• sort: search and sort for squad assignment screen
• zone: advanced unit assignment screens for cages, restraints, and pits/ponds

• Core:
  • reload scripts in mods when a world is unloaded and immediately loaded again
  • fix text getting added to DFHack text entry widgets when Alt- or Ctrl- keys are hit
• caravan:
  • Correct price adjustment values in trade agreement details screen
  • Apply both import and export trade agreement price adjustments to items being both bought or sold to align with how vanilla DF calculates prices
• orders: prevent import/export overlay from appearing on the create workorder screen
• starvingdead: ensure sieges end properly when undead siegers starve
• suspendmanager:
  • Fix the overlay enabling/disabling suspendmanager unexpectedly
  • Improve the detection on "T" and "+" shaped high walls

• Surround DFHack-specific UI elements with square brackets instead of red-yellow blocks for better readability
• devel/lsmem: added support for filtering by memory addresses and filenames
• hotkeys: don't display DFHack logo in legends mode since it covers up important interface elements. the Ctrl-Shift-C hotkey to bring up the menu and the mouseover hotspot still function, though.
• suspendmanager: display a different color for jobs suspended by suspendmanager

• RemoteFortressReader: add a force_reload option to the GetBlockList RPC API to return blocks regardless of whether they have changed since the last request
• Items::getValue(): remove caravan_buying parameter since the identity of the selling party doesn't actually affect the item value

• dfhack.items.getValue(): remove caravan_buying param as per C++ API change
• dfhack.screen.readTile(): now populates extended tile property fields (like top_of_text) in the returned Pen object
• new(): improved error handling so that certain errors that were previously uncatchable (creating objects with members with unknown vtables) are now catchable with pcall()
• widgets.BannerPanel: panel with distinctive border for marking DFHack UI elements on otherwise vanilla screens
• widgets.Panel: new functions to override instead of setting corresponding properties (useful when subclassing instead of just setting attributes): onDragBegin, onDragEnd, onResizeBegin, onResizeEnd

• Added global_table global and corresponding global_table_entry type
• viewscreen_legendsst: realign structure
• viewscreen_new_arenast: added (first appeared in 50.06, probably)