Greetings, Deceit 2 players! It’s been a busy three weeks since launch. To date we have released some major performance updates, and graphical improvements, and today we are releasing our first brand new feature! As always, thank you for your interest, support and constructive feedback for all things Deceit 2.

Okay, let’s get right to it! We're thrilled to be releasing our first brand-new feature that will take your gameplay to the next level: the Mastery System. Composed of Accolades, this system is designed to reward your cunning, skill, and strategy as you navigate the treacherous world of Deceit 2.

We are regarding the Mastery system as an evolving feature, and whilst your progress will be consistent there will be more tuning, content and features to come! As ever your feedback will be incredibly important as we shape the future of Deceit 2.

For now, enjoy some more details on the Mastery system, and how it’s structured:

As you complete Accolades you'll earn points, the harder the challenge the more points you'll receive. The total of your points (Mastery Score) will unlock new badges at different milestone. These badges are referred to as your 'tier,' beginning at Wood and culminating in the coveted Master tier.

While Plinths and Gold Skins are still in the pipeline, we're excited to share that Plinths are coming next week. Gold Skins will be exclusive to items. And yes, Plinths are those stylish platforms you'll stand on in the main menu!

For those climbing the tiers, every thirty minutes you'll see how you stack up against the community, with stats showing the percentage of players at or above your tier. Reach the Master tier in an Accolade, and you'll find yourself on a leaderboard, vying for that elusive #1 spot.

Your Accolade gains will be displayed on the Game Summary screen, and you can always check your overall status in your Profile on the Menu.

Your overall tier will be proudly displayed as a badge behind your portrait in both the Play scene and the Game Summary screen. Curious about someone's mastery score? Just click on their portrait to find out!

We're looking forward to expanding this system with additional rewards and Accolades for you to conquer and master. Your feedback is invaluable as we continue to develop this feature.
So, are you ready to embark on this journey of mastery and claim your rightful place in the world of Deceit 2? The Game Master is watching…



These are just some of the plinths which are coming soon!




Alongside this update we’re also releasing the latest bug fixes:

• Accolades have been added to the game!
  
• The ‘In-Between Auto-Trigger’ Custom Option is now enabled by default (including in Matchmaking!). This means Reality will slowly progress towards the In-Between without a Weak Point needing to be active. For those wanting to know the exact formula, scroll to the bottom...*
  
• Adjusted the timeout logic to hopefully stop players incorrectly disconnecting, which would most notably cause them to be kicked from their parties.
  
• Improved the execution cinematics.
  
• The music during the escape sequence has been enhanced.
  
• The Escape Key holder can no longer use Rift Teleports in the In-Between.
  
• You can now Ping and use Quick Chat whilst Handcuffed.
  
• Various minor map adjustments for visual enhancements and optimisation.
  
• Removed the now obsolete ‘Shorten Intro Cinematic’ Custom Option.
  
• [FIXED] The Adrenaline syringe can be used up without granting the effect.
  
• [FIXED] The Adrenaline syringe’s buff doesn’t stop the Terror’s ‘Scream’ ability from draining your sanity.
  
• [FIXED] You can ping players using the Invisibility Medallion.
  
• [FIXED] The Invisibility Medallion goes invisible when using it.
  
• [FIXED] The Decoy won’t spawn if you cancel the animation before it’s thrown.
  
• [FIXED] You can climb on top of the lockers in the Staff Room.

• At the start of a Reality phase, a total value is computed based on the number of alive players. You’ll enter the In-Between once this value reaches 0.
  
• The first Weak Point activated reduces this value by 9 each second (unchanged).
  
• Future Weak Points reduce this value by 6 each second (unchanged).
  
• The ‘Auto-Trigger’ value reduces this value by 3 each second.
  
• The duration that you’re trapped in the In-Between is 60s + 20s per active Weak Point (unchanged).

FROM: High Command
TO: Arma 3 Users
INFO: 10th Anniversary, Update 2.14, Creator DLC
PRECEDENCE: Flash



Full SITREP blog

Hey everyone!

It’s time for another progression blog. These past two weeks were all about visual improvements to the shapes, building and various menus & UI!

As per usual, make sure you wishlist shapez 2 here on Steam to support the development of the game! Following the game will also make sure you stay up to date with the latest news. Thanks!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2162800/shapez_2/



Since Devlog 008, we have released two new Alphas! Patreon Supporters gained access to Alpha 9 last week, with all-new progression, research UI, new visuals, massive performance improvements and much more! If you’d like to get your hands on the latest Alpha version, consider supporting us on Patreon.

---

So, what have we been working on the past month? Let’s talk you through the highlights.


We made a couple of changes to the general look of all shapes in the game. The sides of shapes are now solid black and the height of every layer has been lowered. This will make shapes with many layers a lot less tall and clunky than before.

Be sure to let us know what you think about these changes!




We have completely reworked the progression of the entire game. We swapped around the Halves Swapper and the Stacker, as we found that the Halves Swapper was too complicated to be unlocked that early into the game. While we were working on this change, we figured it was a good time to look at the rest of the progression. We got a ton of feedback from the community on the progression system, so we made a lot of changes to the later stages of the game especially. We hope that the newly reworked progression system will feel more natural than the previous one. Patreons can experience the new progression in Alpha 9.




Stackers have been updated to be more of a challenge to use. The old design, with the input on one side and the output on the opposite end, had one very clear, obvious and quite boring optimal setup that everyone would use.

The new design has the output at a 90 degree angle compared to the input, either on the left or the right. This will make Stackers a bit more tricky to use, and allows for multiple different solutions to the problem.

We also made stackers faster to keep optimal designs similarly compact even with the added space for creative problem solving: now instead of needing 5 Stackers per full belt, you will only need 4!



All variants of the Rotator building have updated design concepts to more clearly display their use.



Half Cutters have been renamed to Half Destroyers to more accurately reflect their functionality. Their design has had a big update, featuring a fancy laser beam of destruction.



Additionally, the Full Painter building has been updated with a new design concept.




We added what we call the ‘Skill Academy’. Essentially, these are tips that appear in the top left corner to guide new players through the early stages of the game. This is not the tutorial, but should help prevent confusion when players are new to shapez or factory building games as a whole. These can be toggled off, if desired.



Speaking of the tutorial, you'll also spot the "First Steps" section. This is, in fact, the tutorial. It will guide you through the early sections of the game while you're playing, by giving you pointers to what things are what exactly is expected from you while playing Shapes 2.


A lot of screens got various degrees of updates. The research screen got a reworked concept, and should now more clearly show what you can unlock, when you unlock them, and how you unlock them. The progression system has also received an update, with side goals that are unlocked once reaching a specific main goal.



The research unlock screen got updated to display the new tools you unlocked and how they work. The current visual of the unlocked tool is a placeholder.



The in-game shape viewer has had an update to make the shape code editable, allowing you to view any shape you want. Hours of entertainment guaranteed!



Finally, we gave the building and island toolbars a fresh lick of paint for better readability.



We would love your feedback on all these UI updates, so let us know what you think!


Blueprints have received a big update in two parts. Now, when selecting one or more space stations, you’ll get an overview of all buildings and connections, as well as the total cost of everything that’s placed on or connected to them. You’ll also get a more in-depth overview that breaks down the amounts for each type of building.



The second big update lets you copy, cut, rotate and paste your selection of space stations. This means you’ll be able to grow the factory faster than ever and increase your throughput with just a few clicks, as long as you have the resources!



You can accumulate more blueprint resources by delivering shapes of completed research.


We made big strides when it comes to performance! Below, you can watch a showcase of what it's like playing on a Macbook M1 Pro at 4K. This save features 540.000 buildings.



Of course, the FPS isn't the greatest, but these machines aren't really made for games. You would already hit 60 FPS on modern machines. Shapez 1 would already run at 1 FPS under these circumstances.

We still have a lot more performance improvements planned, so the game will run even better when we enter Early Access. Rest assured that we work very hard to make this game playable on as many machines as possible!


The procedural map generation has been improved. You should now come across more interesting shapes to work with. The nodes remain placeholders for now.

The Overview Mode view for these resource nodes has also had a visual update!




Tunnels can now be set to automatically place tunnels connection your space station.



We added a new concept design for the 1x1 Shape Miner platform. Just look at this little guy go!



We continue our work on trains and will soon be ready to do a deep dive into how exactly they will work and what you can do with them.

Additional mouse and keyboard settings have been added to the settings menu, allowing you to set your horizontal and vertical mouse sensitivity, as well as the keyboard camera movement speed. It goes up quite a lot, in case time is of the essence.

---

That’s everything for this blog. Let us know if you like what you’re seeing! The next blog will go more in-depth again, so on the lookout for that one dropping in two weeks.

Again, please consider wishlisting the game if you haven’t yet!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2162800/shapez_2/


We hope you enjoyed devlog 010, and we’ll see you again soon!

~Tobias & the shapez 2 team


Twitter / X YouTube TikTok Discord Reddit Patreon

Hey everyone!

It’s time for another progression blog. These past two weeks were all about visual improvements to the shapes, building and various menus & UI!

As per usual, make sure you wishlist shapez 2 here on Steam to support the development of the game! Following the game will also make sure you stay up to date with the latest news. Thanks!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2162800/shapez_2/



Since Devlog 008, we have released two new Alphas! Patreon Supporters gained access to Alpha 9 last week, with all-new progression, research UI, new visuals, massive performance improvements and much more! If you’d like to get your hands on the latest Alpha version, consider supporting us on Patreon.

---

So, what have we been working on the past month? Let’s talk you through the highlights.


We made a couple of changes to the general look of all shapes in the game. The sides of shapes are now solid black and the height of every layer has been lowered. This will make shapes with many layers a lot less tall and clunky than before.

Be sure to let us know what you think about these changes!




We have completely reworked the progression of the entire game. We swapped around the Halves Swapper and the Stacker, as we found that the Halves Swapper was too complicated to be unlocked that early into the game. While we were working on this change, we figured it was a good time to look at the rest of the progression. We got a ton of feedback from the community on the progression system, so we made a lot of changes to the later stages of the game especially. We hope that the newly reworked progression system will feel more natural than the previous one. Patreons can experience the new progression in Alpha 9.




Stackers have been updated to be more of a challenge to use. The old design, with the input on one side and the output on the opposite end, had one very clear, obvious and quite boring optimal setup that everyone would use.

The new design has the output at a 90 degree angle compared to the input, either on the left or the right. This will make Stackers a bit more tricky to use, and allows for multiple different solutions to the problem.

We also made stackers faster to keep optimal designs similarly compact even with the added space for creative problem solving: now instead of needing 5 Stackers per full belt, you will only need 4!



All variants of the Rotator building have updated design concepts to more clearly display their use.



Half Cutters have been renamed to Half Destroyers to more accurately reflect their functionality. Their design has had a big update, featuring a fancy laser beam of destruction.



Additionally, the Full Painter building has been updated with a new design concept.




We added what we call the ‘Skill Academy’. Essentially, these are tips that appear in the top left corner to guide new players through the early stages of the game. This is not the tutorial, but should help prevent confusion when players are new to shapez or factory building games as a whole. These can be toggled off, if desired.



Speaking of the tutorial, you'll also spot the "First Steps" section. This is, in fact, the tutorial. It will guide you through the early sections of the game while you're playing, by giving you pointers to what things are what exactly is expected from you while playing Shapes 2.


A lot of screens got various degrees of updates. The research screen got a reworked concept, and should now more clearly show what you can unlock, when you unlock them, and how you unlock them. The progression system has also received an update, with side goals that are unlocked once reaching a specific main goal.



The research unlock screen got updated to display the new tools you unlocked and how they work. The current visual of the unlocked tool is a placeholder.



The in-game shape viewer has had an update to make the shape code editable, allowing you to view any shape you want. Hours of entertainment guaranteed!



Finally, we gave the building and island toolbars a fresh lick of paint for better readability.



We would love your feedback on all these UI updates, so let us know what you think!


Blueprints have received a big update in two parts. Now, when selecting one or more space stations, you’ll get an overview of all buildings and connections, as well as the total cost of everything that’s placed on or connected to them. You’ll also get a more in-depth overview that breaks down the amounts for each type of building.



The second big update lets you copy, cut, rotate and paste your selection of space stations. This means you’ll be able to grow the factory faster than ever and increase your throughput with just a few clicks, as long as you have the resources!



You can accumulate more blueprint resources by delivering shapes of completed research.


We made big strides when it comes to performance! Below, you can watch a showcase of what it's like playing on a Macbook M1 Pro at 4K. This save features 540.000 buildings.



Of course, the FPS isn't the greatest, but these machines aren't really made for games. You would already hit 60 FPS on modern machines. Shapez 1 would already run at 1 FPS under these circumstances.

We still have a lot more performance improvements planned, so the game will run even better when we enter Early Access. Rest assured that we work very hard to make this game playable on as many machines as possible!


The procedural map generation has been improved. You should now come across more interesting shapes to work with. The nodes remain placeholders for now.

The Overview Mode view for these resource nodes has also had a visual update!




Tunnels can now be set to automatically place tunnels connection your space station.



We added a new concept design for the 1x1 Shape Miner platform. Just look at this little guy go!



We continue our work on trains and will soon be ready to do a deep dive into how exactly they will work and what you can do with them.

Additional mouse and keyboard settings have been added to the settings menu, allowing you to set your horizontal and vertical mouse sensitivity, as well as the keyboard camera movement speed. It goes up quite a lot, in case time is of the essence.

---

That’s everything for this blog. Let us know if you like what you’re seeing! The next blog will go more in-depth again, so on the lookout for that one dropping in two weeks.

Again, please consider wishlisting the game if you haven’t yet!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2162800/shapez_2/


We hope you enjoyed devlog 010, and we’ll see you again soon!

~Tobias & the shapez 2 team


Twitter / X YouTube TikTok Discord Reddit Patreon

The following hotfix is currently being delivered to your kingdoms:

• Fixed several texts missing in the German version
  
• Fixed issues with exiled prisoners happening with save games created prior to version 1.5.0
  
• Fixed performance issues with campaigns that were created with a version prior to 1.5.0

Note: Issues with save games could carry over to new games when the new game started after a player loaded an affected save game.
Affected save games should be fixed with the new version and can be resumed as usual.

The Ultimate Evil has finished kicking all of the overworked Snots under the next closest furnitur, and is now ready to give its faithful underlings a truly evil demo tour through Dungeons 4. The Dungeons 4 demo is now available on Steam and the Microsoft Store (for Windows PC and Xbox Series X|S) and will run until the game’s release on November 9th.

Being in a very giving mood, the Ultimate Evil has also deemed his excited underlings worthy of a 10% pre-order discount which will be available until the 9th of November. The game will launch with Steam, Xbox Game Pass for console and PC, and will release on Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PlayStation 5.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1643310/Dungeons_4/

Two of the Ultimate Evils followers will also be doing a livestream of Dungeons 4 on Friday 29th of September at 7pm CEST.

The evilest of demos ever made (certified by his mighty evilness himself) will be taking players through the first 4 devilishly difficult campaign levels, including all the cunning cutscenes and nefarious narration found within these first few chapters. They will also meet Thalya, the Absolute Evil’s right-hand General , and some of the iconic minions from the series. The game promises all the real-time strategy, dungeon-building Evilness™ of the previous 3 games, along with new enemies and challenges.

Dungeons 4 is available now for digital pre-order ahead of the title's launch on 9th November 2023, including a 10% pre-order discount available up until the game's release on Steam, Epic Games Store, Microsoft Store and PlayStation* Store. The game will be released on Steam and with Xbox Game Pass for console and PC and on Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PlayStation 5.

• Everything is better with Dwarves™: The Dwarves have arrived to build their underground strongholds and the hardy little fellows (although they don’t like being called that) compete with the Ever-Expanding Evil for space and resources.
  
• It makes your Dungeon great again: Dungeons are up to four times larger than before and there are many more creatures who wait for the All-Commanding Evil’s orders to conquer the Overworld. Now the time has come for massive armies and truly sprawling dungeons!
  
• Ripe for the taking: The Overworld is bigger than ever before. Gain Evilness by beating Mini Bosses like the obsessively harmonious Unicorn and use it to transform the Overworld into stunning biomes of pure evil.
  
• New and shiny: An ability-based Perk system for Thalya, the Absolute Evil’s trusted *cough* and most loyal subordinate, grants her impressive new powers. The Absolute Evil can now enjoy taking over the world, governing the creatures and slapping subordinates even more with the customizable Evil Hand.
  
• Minions, everywhere: The Horde, the Undead and the Demons wait to do the Absolute Evil’s bidding, with more creatures than ever eagerly following the gesturing Evil’s orders, and Snots will play a much more prominent role this time.
  
• Many ways to tell the story: A long campaign, narrated by the beloved English Narrator from previous titles, as well as several skirmish maps all to challenge your rule as the Absolute Evil.
  
• Change the world: Spread your Evilness across the Overworld to bring lush and green environments over to the dark side, now shining even more vibrantly and beautifully evil as you spread your evilness across many new biomes.
  
• Work together, slay together: 2-player co-op multiplayer with both players managing one Dungeon together. All skirmish maps and the campaign are playable in co-op.

The 'Uprising' update (v1.1.1) is here! 'Uprising' our way of celebrating the remarkable journey CounterAttack has taken with the incredible support and feedback from our passionate community. Together, we're reaching new horizons!



The Uprising update brings a few new features:

-Improved Player Ship Selector
-25 New Attachments including an attachment to surpass Battle Pods Adj
-2 New Levels: 'Anomaly' a new special level, and the elusive 'Gate' level (can you find it?)
-Improved background graphics for several levels
-New Secrets (some are VERY secret)
-Capital Ships carry over between levels
-You can refund accidental upgrades by holding space breaks and pressing 'buy powerup' again
-Some tweaks/improvements to boss fights
-New Unity Engine (2018->2020)
-Many Fixes
-Better performance



This update is live on all platforms and continues to support cross-platform play. I hope to see lots of pilots online! A big thanks to everybody who participated in the Beta. The bug reports and feedback were invaluable!

Looking for fellow pilots to team up with and defend Earth from the Automaton Uprising? Join us on Discord!

Hello Executives,

Small patch today fixing the following:

• Fixed multiple maintenance facilities in the same system causing issues.
  
• Missile command can no longer be built on outposts.
  
• Fixed issue if wormhole generator was switched off and then blown up it would cause a slowdown.
  
• Troop transports now save what armour is applied to troops.
  
• Gateway probes now repel each other.
  
• Fixed issue with buildings trying to explode when under construction.
  
• AI now responds to Infesters in its own base.
  
• Drop pods now traverse the galaxy better.
  
• Fixed Executron overview screen buttons floating off the screen on widescreen aspects.
  
• A bug with the Executron map has been fixed.
  
• Fixed bug where alliances were not being correctly displayed on loading screen.
  
• Updated graphics on all asteroid derelicts including adding furniture.
  
• Updated graphics on HQ asteroid.
  
• The forcefield on the super laser asteroid has been replaced with a non hackable door which has also been added to the missile asteroid too, to gain access to the control room you now need to go to the new power generator and switch off the defences there.

I might look at just posting these small updates from within the game as a sort of news page but equally I think people like to see the game is being worked on.

Cheers,
Rob

The formula 'An inevitable Tornado and a Headwind' has been modified to count the teammates when the Secret Weapon mission is completed.
The issue where the board effect UI turns off when hovering the mouse over normal auras has been fixed.
Formulas requiring specific teammates will now be removed from the deck if the teammates leave the team.
Issues where non-releasable Teammates like Nimar could be released during scouting, tour events, etc., have been corrected.
Teammate Scar’s abilities 'Agile Claws' and 'Sharp Claws' have been modified to change each of the sides, instead of changing all.
There have been some changes to the Pydamir and Potiato missions.

“HOOKHAUSEN: VERY HANDSOME, VERY EVIL PACK” NOW AVAILABLE TO “AEW: FIGHT FOREVER” PLAYERS!

Latest “AEW: Fight Forever” DLC Features AEW Stars HOOK and Danhausen

Vienna, Austria / Jacksonville, USA / Tokyo, Japan - September 28, 2023: TTHQ Nordic GmbH, All Elite Wrestling (AEW) and YUKE’S Co., Ltd. today released the HOOKHAUSEN: Very Handsome, Very Evil DLC pack for AEW: Fight Forever. Featuring AEW stars HOOK and Danhausen as playable wrestlers, the
new pack is now available for PS4™, PS5™, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and PC at $7.99.

The HOOKHAUSEN bundle also comes included in the AEW: Fight Forever Season Pass and AEW: Fight Forever Elite Edition.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2252040/

Check out HOOKHAUSEN here: https://youtu.be/viqZ56KLMj4

Buy the Game Now:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1913210/AEW_Fight_Forever

For more info visit: https://aew.thqnordic.com/

Visit AEW on Twitch: http://twitch.tv/aewgames

Follow AEW on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AEWGames


Enjoy & stay tuned!