This is a small follow-up patch to fix some bugs in v190:

• Some fixes for Hit The Road - remember interrogation dialogue and morale from memories about characters you left behind, also timestamps or retained memories will take into account your travel time
  
• Fix for Asian characters not showing on debug menus due to the Unity upgrade
  
• Fix for crash in multiplayer when someone throws a molotov at a moving vehicle
  
• Fix for vehicle not showing in pip in multiplayer

v192 will be in the "publicbeta" branch for a while, before pushing it to the main game. If you want to try the latest features as they come out (and help test them!) it's a good idea to start using this branch. But keep in mind:

• Because it's the bleeding edge it could be less stable
  
• If you want to be able to play online co-op with someone you'll need to be on the same version as them
  
• If you go back from the "publicbeta" branch to the main branch you may not be able to load savegames created on "publicbeta".

To use publicbeta, just right-click on Survivalist: Invisible Strain in your Steam library and go to Properties, then Betas and in the drop-down select "publicbeta".

Fixed a bug that could cause expeditions to crash when using stun rounds

We are happy to announce that we have added support for monitors with a 16:10 aspect ratio and added 2 new resolutions to choose from in the settings menu - 1920x1200 and 1280x800.

Here's a screenshot of what the menu looks like at 1920x1200:


If there are any other aspect ratio's or screen resolutions that you'd like us to add please let us know in This Discussion Thread in the Community Hub or connect with us on the Official Devoid Prototype Discord.

We have also seen that a lot of you would like a way to rebind keys and, we are working towards making this happen in the not too distant future, it requires quite a lot of work though and we would like to get our controller layouts feature in first as this will help mitigate any problems that may arise from the default keybindings until we can complete a comprehensive rebinding system.

We will be releasing our first roadmap for the game in the next 2 weeks to give you all a clearer picture of what we are currently working on beyond the scope of our usual 'in progress' list and so that you can see what there is to look forward to as we progress towards our full release.

Then of course this update also includes the usual changes and bug fixes:

• Yarinet Base missing market items.
  
• Yarinet Yard missing market items.
  
• Plasma turret not showing up in Equipment list.
  
• Chemical Battery not displaying correctly in Equipment list.
  
• Bounty mission would break the game in weird and wonderful ways in medium and high risk star systems.
  
• Various minor fixes on the GUI.

• Added support for 16:10 Aspect ratio – 1920x1200, 1280x800.
  
• Various minor changes to ship mobility values.

• Player ships are sometimes positioned incorrectly after warping. (testing)
  
• Some cases of missing market item icons. (seems to be fixed)
  
• Some rare cases of save corruption. (saves can be repaired, seems to be fixed)
  
• Improvements to graphics, lighting, and colors.
  
• Additional Codex Entries.
  
• General improvements to AI.

As always, we appreciate all your feedback and support!
Safe Travels

And we're super excited to jump back into VS updates - especially with our September Tournament coming up this weekend!

Speaking of which: You can register for the tournament here

And we'll also be streaming the entire thing over on Twitch: right here (click me)

With this update we're introducing two exciting new additions to your arsenal!


For the first time since launch we're introducing a new panel type:
Holy!



While standing on this panel you will take 25% less damage from enemy attacks, making for a great way to boost your defensive packs!


You're on your last leg, the opponent clearly has the upper hand and you see no way out?
Then it's time for LAST HOPE our very first LVL X Type VOC.



Using this VOC immediately puts you into an "Determination" state for 6 seconds - re-filling all your VOCs and granting you one last chance at victory. Botch this chance though and... you lose.
USE THIS VOC WITH CAUTION!

With that all that's left are the many balancing changes we've included after seeing your tier lists and shoveling through your feedback!

If you've got any changes you'd like to see, or if you've discovered VOC/Characters/Styles that need some balancing let us know in our Discord: https://discord.gg/zS33UCb

Check out the Changelog below, and we'll hear each other soon!
-Daniel and Gal

+ New Panel Type: "Holy"
+ Standing on this tile reduces damage taken by 25%
* Fixed Audio output device not switching when disconnecting or changing
* VOCs:
* Lv1 Senpai: Removed Repel status effect
* Lv1 Panic: Now increases own Crush gauge
* Lv2 Mosquito Now auto-tracks enemies
* Lv2 Dualeaf: Increased range by 2
* Lv3 Companion -> Lv1
* Lv3 Repair+ -> Lv2
* Lv3 Anthem: Slowed down speed and increased HP loss
* Lv4 RepairAll -> Lv4
* Lv4 Destruct -> Lv3
* Lv4 HolzWalz: Now spawns 2 logs per panel instead of 3
* Lv4 Bomboyage: Now also detonates after 3 seconds or when on Lava panels
+ LvX Last Hope: Refills all VOC cooldowns and enters Determination state
* Styles:
* Lv1 Grass/Metal/Lava -> Lv0
* Lv1 Ninja -> Lv0
* Lv1 Invis: Invisibility now lasts longer
* Lv1 SuperArmor: Now blocks Stun, Freeze and Flinching
* Lv1 Eject: Now removes all target Buffs
* Lv1 Guard: Increased duration
* Lv1 Invert: Now also flips VOC used
+ Lv1 Holy: Spawns Holy tile on target
* Characters:
* Saffron: Removed faster cast speed and weaker attacks
* Bella: Ultra Targeting Shots now apply Stun and have more Ammo
* AV.atar: Ultra now has short stun and reduced damage by 25% while charging
* Jeremy: Fixed Ultra not comboing into itself
* Farmadile: Ultra now has same properties as Gigantree, increased Health and spawns Plantraps in front
* Punk: Determination now lasts longer (3 sec. -> 6 sec.), passive triggers when under 45% health
* Bombarbara: Fixed Ultra not having I-Frames
* Spark: Buffed passive to 50% damage buff for 4 seconds

• LOD1 adjusted from 30% to 17% of screen space.
  
• LODCULL increased from 0% to 1% screen space.
  
• New background environment for Granite God Mesa.
  
• New background environment for Dive in the Hive.
  
• New background environment for Sidewinder Spin.
  
• New background environment for Arch Angel.
  
• Lightmap quality increased 25% for Arch Angel.

Knock-knock, travelers!

Today is a remarkable day – the first day of autumn and the last work day of this week! So we’re in a somewhat lyrical mood.

As you might have noticed, we took a short break last week, but we are back now and ready to share with you events and notes about the game process!

For example, our animators have created a visualization of how our team looked at the beginning of the sprint and how it looked at the end:



The art department continues creating beauty; as a result we have these new, stylized portraits of the characters for our project:



Furthermore, we are currently focusing heavily on tooltips and UI friendliness.
We'll try to showcase the updates in future diaries!


But games don’t survive on good design and programming alone. Our sound designer has also been diligently working on some misplaced and mixed-up sounds in some game locations.



Can you guess where this is from? Write your answer in the comments!


And finally, we'd like to share a short conversation with our game designer, Green, which took place over morning coffee:

- When you joined the project, was it difficult to integrate into the new environment?
- I joined the project in the spring of 2022. It wasn't difficult to integrate; if anything, it was the opposite. I was very motivated and inspired. I had completely changed my line of work, but my previous experience in IT helped me settle in quickly. Of course, figuring out someone else's work was problematic, as we practically completely reworked the initial concept and significantly expanded the story that accompanies the gameplay.

- What was the most challenging task you faced while working on "Knock"? And which task was easy and enjoyable to work on?
- The most challenging task was answering this question. Probably, the events in the game became both the most complex and, ultimately, the simplest tasks for me. It's not a secret that this part was significantly changed at some point. It expanded to incredible sizes, and I had to take into account an impossible amount of information from the writers. But once you get into the flow, everything becomes clear, understandable, and easy to implement. What's disappointing is that I learned the whole plot right away.

- Did you encounter any amusing incidents during development that later became easter eggs in the game?
- Of course, and we tried to highlight those in the developers' diaries. I wouldn't want to spoil too much, but for example, once the scaling of a regular boar broke, and it became gigantic, and filled in half the screen (laughs). It's probably one of my most favorite bugs in our game. And now there's a chance to actually encounter that boar in the Frontier.

And now, like the elf from this updated animation, we’re going vanish into the weekend! Don't forget to drop by our Discord and other social networks.



See you in the next diary!

• Earn a Solo Victory with Rosanova to unlock the Mini Elites Challenge
  
• Location: Music Concert
  
• Mostly Mini Elite Enemies
  
• Mini Elites Only Drop Gold Pieces
  
• Enemy Mass Multiplier 0.5
  
• Super Nova Outposts 4
  
• Super Plasma Outposts 0
  
• New 3D background
  
• New music track
  
• New Loyalty icon will replace Solo after earning a Mini Elites Victory
  
• To play, select Rosanova as the Captain then select Mini Elites from the Select A Challenge screen
  
• Added Unlock Missions & Steam Achievement
  
• More Loyalty Challenges may be added in future updates

Loyal Crew Rosanova

• Get a Mini Elites Challenge Victory with Rosanova to unlock
  
• Loyal Crew Rosanova can immediately join the crew at the start of a run
  
• Rosanova must not be Banished to join your crew

Select A Challenge Screen

• Adjusted spacing and sizing of challenge description text

General

• Fix - Warp gate not showing on main menu

Hello friends! Every Friday 17:30 UTC/GMT we hold a “Let’s play together” competition. During next 24 hours everyone is welcome to try and score the best time in a preselected level. Join our Discord server and keep Discord running while playing — your results will be automatically published in the #lets-play-together channel. You need to get 5 stars to qualify.

Glittering prizes include:
1) Top 3 winners receive one random card each. Collect 18 locomotive cards and advance to next set of 8 all new cards! Complete that second set and enter a final tier of 12 rare cards! Assemble all cards from all tiers and receive a special prize. Easy!
2) Every player registered by our Discord bot has a chance to get a card. The number of cards depends on the number of participants: one additional card for every 10 train connoisseurs on the list. More players means more prizes!
2.5) One non-Champion from the top 10 gets a Challenger Card - introduced along with 12 new loco cards from Myths And Rails and Editor's Bulletin!



Visit our Discord server (#lets-play-together channel) to learn more.

A level we are playing this week is
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3023977402

Now open your game - the link is right there in the main menu.

Good luck everyone!

September 1st, 2023 PATCH NOTES
------------------------------------------------------------------
New Character
Lum, the Gambling Panda is now available to play! Some of Lum's moves can summon an item from a separate deck of item cards. Try to get lots of items going to create exciting gameplay!

Minor Card Adjustments
--All dodges now have text with “You may” about the option to punish so that the cards are more clear that the punish is optional.
--Argagarg Z’s now says “If you get hit” rather than “If this gets hit” for consistency.
***--Midori’s blocks clarify that he doesn’t return them to hand if he used them as an honor throw. Adjusted font size, too.
--Valerie Rainbow Disc (Super2). Wording changed to “When you open with this and don’t get hit” to be consistent with similar wording on other cards.
--Updated the stat reference cards for Jaina S2 and Geiger S1's recent changes.

Bug Fixes
--The game no longer asks you to "rejoin matchmaking queue" when your opponent disconnects during a friend match.
--Fixed cards sometimes having blank art at the start of online matches
--Fixed Midori sometimes showing blank art cards during his Dragon Form transition
--Implemented a more sensible error message if you search for a YomiTag that doesn't exist.
--When you start a friend match and the opponent disconnects before you've chosen your character, trying to back out of that character select screen will now allow you to leave the aborted match directly, instead of forcing you to choose a character then leave the match from there.
--Fixed a tutorial soft-lock where the opponent Valerie would refuse to play her move (when she's forced to end a combo in E to teach about the edge, but she lost her E card beforehand).
--Sound: In combo practice mode, when opening or closing the R1 quick controls panel at the right side of the screen, the swoosh sounds are now correctly coming from the right channel, rather than from the left channel.
--Tutorial: During part 4, on the turn where you're forced to knock down with a throw, disallow powering up with a pair of throws. This prevents getting accidentally forced to wild swing two turns in a row. If you try to do it, the throws are highlighted in red, and a red tooltip says "Normally these are legal to power up with, but let's save them to throw."
--Fixed a case where dodges that auto-hit with some damage (Eight-Point Counter, True Power of Storms, Phase Out) would mess up the combo display of the next combat by adding the dodge's own hit again.
--Fix: When you dodge into Dragon Form, or play it to punish an unsafe-on-block attack, you now correctly transform.
--Removed all quests from the Event Hall career location. (They weren't supposed to be there.)
--Fix: Jaina's Dragonheart's self-damage no longer help the opponent's black gem storm (Shadow Tentacles) to trigger. (Because the black gem storm says "If *you* deal at least 10 damage in a turn [...]".)
--Visuals: When opening the big known-hand-cards overlay, the cards now immediately appear at the correct place, rather than appear elsewhere then move for a second towards their correct place.--Updated the red gem storm card text so that the damage taken on block is "block damage". (This was already the case rules-wise, so this update is just a visual fix.)
--Updated the status effect icon for the white gem storm (Invigorating Winds) so that it mentions the updated effect (draw 2 cards, rather than fetch up to 3 combo cards).
--On the gem select screen, if you have the mouse over one of the cards then use the keyboard to zoom (defaults to spacebar, rather than the mouse's right button), you'll now zoom that moused-over card.
--Gameplay fix: The purple gem storm, Hyper Tempest, no longer lets both players have the edge at the same time.
--When a player's deck is empty, we now implicitly reveal that player's entire hand as known-hand-cards.
--Midori's known-hand-cards now recovers correctly after transforming into dragon form, then back to human form.
--When an ability like Hot Coals deals damage through an animation, we no longer have the victim play their "get hit" animation if they are knocked down. (The animation only makes sense if they aren't knocked down.)
--When Arc Shot forces the end of the combo, skip the "Continue combo" phase, even against Slow Time Spiral. (Since you can't actually continue your combo then.)
--When you use Time Spiral Hurricane in a situation where you can't combo afterwards (e.g. after a dodge, as a block punish, or when the combo gets stopped by something like Arc Shot), then you no longer get a message telling you that you can combo into infinite Time Spirals.
--You can now see Dragon Midori's cards in the character reference screen. Open Midori's deck, then press the triangle button, as shown on screen, to switch to Dragon's cards (or click on the button help with the mouse).
--The character select screen now shows characters' starting life.
--Minor visual fix. Specials and supers below 10 speed now correctly show the speed watch icon without a ground shadow. (Normals still show the ground shadow.)
--Gameplay visuals: When you combo into a super move, the victim now plays their "get hit" animation at the end of the super move video, rather than hidden underneath the video.
--Jaina's Arc Shot ability now plays an impact sound effect when the flame arrow comes down and hits the opponent.
--Card mods for cards played on the table now stay fixed at the moment they get played on the table, instead of incorrectly getting updated afterwards. For instance, under Legal Limit, a single Grave throw that's played on the table will no longer claim to deal 3 damage (because Legal Limit caps *future* cards' damage to 3), and a normal attack played after it will no longer claim to deal 0 damage. Instead, the initial throw will claim 7 damage and the normal will claim 3 damage, correctly.
--The career mode's feed history can now be opened by mouse-clicking on the button help in the top-right corner. This used to work, then was broken, now is fixed.

Together with the upcoming art contest we made some small fixes to the game. Thanks to everyone that reports bugs, we really appreciate it!

As always, we encourage every one of you to give us feedback or opinions about the game on our Discord or on Twitter!

• Added "Jungle" art contest

• Fix Stream Wars guess input is missing
  
• Fix join-in-progress for Rate It!