Oct 5, 2023

Dev Blog #5 - Introducing Combat Chef Eggie

GladiEATers - MilkBubblesGames

Eggward’s Egg-sistential Crisis

For many of us, Eggs are the first thing we learn how to make. In GladiEATers, Eggs are the first thing you cook – emulating life! With over 13 Egg Creatures alone, we knew we wanted a chef to specialise in Eggs.

Initially, we thought up a character = Eggward, a crazy bald man, inspired by my own choice of hair at the time, who obsessed over Eggs. However, Eggward kind of gave us the creeps and we wanted to go a bit more upbeat and positive with GladiEATers’ first chef… that was the initial path that led into Eggie’s design.

Laying down Eggie’s Posing

The yolk of eggs has a bright sunny imagery that we wanted Eggie to mirror. In our initial pose studies, we thought about what would embody that energy best. Of what we came up with, pose 3 ended up too delicate of a step for the bashful egg creatures Eggie commands. Pose 2 was a bit too reserved and hunched over but pose 1 has such a brilliant skip in their step that our choice was made clear.

Another thing that felt very natural for Eggie was her Egg basket, a prop that has that integral link with the process of raising chickens, collecting eggs and, in general, life on a farm. Eggie’s egg farm origin brings attention to how food is sourced, a vital part of the process for any aspiring chef.

Costuming Egg-stravagence

Eggie’s costuming started with a long maid dress and apron, visually incorporating her farmer heritage. There was a lot to love in this original sketch. Eggie’s side bird character was an adorable idea, but we felt it took the spotlight away from Eggie.

Also, we adored the puffy cloth shirt, inspired by traditional Portuguese garb - it brought a puffiness to Eggie’s apparel that suited her so well.

Importantly, Eggie’s long dress had a great flow to it, but we scrapped it for two reasons. Firstly, it covered up the exciting leg pose we had set out for Eggie in our posing sketch above; you can’t see that dynamic leg kick as well with the dress covering… her legs. Secondly, the dress didn’t feel very practical. If we wanted Eggie to invoke images of someone running through muddy fields chasing after chickens, a dress didn’t do that.

Our solution to Eggie’s dress conundrum? Denim! A pair of cut up denim jean shorts or *jorts?* felt perfect to allow Eggie the movement she’d want. In terms of material storytelling, denim has always been an icon of farm life. Also, with the cup up nature of the shorts, you could almost picture Eggie cutting them up herself; her go getter attitude coming through again. A little band aid on her knee and Eggie’s active character was on full display.

Contrasting Colour

Eggie’s hair buns were originally set out to resemble two white eggs. We did try it – but ended up going with the more discrete egg similarity by letting that be her natural hair colour.

It was at this stage that we really saw the contrast between her upper, traditional puffed shirt, and her denim shorts come through. We leaned into this further by giving Eggie radiant golden hoop braclets and earrings.

Story Telling

We always want a chef’s design to speak for them. Eggie’s design tells a tale of family and the importance of food in one’s heritage. How do we give Eggie’s family a presence in her design, while not actually showing them?

For us, that was the heart-warming embroidery in Eggie’s apron, done by her sisters prior to her journey to the CALosseum! Each stitch is a different level based on their age, Benedita, Sofia and Camilla all wanted to stitch in pitch in.

Another key piece of Eggie’s family was her grandmother, avo in Portuguese, Ines. Ines was the matriarch of her family and prior to her departure, Ines gave Eggie her golden Egg locket. The gold matches her hoops, so it is both sentimental and stylish.

Finishings

So that’s Eggie! As with all our chefs, once we decided that we wanted the chefs to have a physical presence in the CALosseum amongst the GladiEATers, we created a pixel art variant of Eggie. This was paired with emotes for when they are taking a turn, defeat a GladiEATer or one of their GladiEATers expires.

Thank you for your egg-ceptional support as always! We’re egg-stremely grateful the community’s interest in GladiEATers and can’t wait to share more egg-citing content.

Oct 5, 2023

Total War: WARHAMMER III - Hotfix 4.0.4

Total War: WARHAMMER III - CA_KingGobbo

Greetings!

Thanks once again for all of your ongoing reports and feedback since the launch of 4.0 and its subsequent hotfixes. We've just rolled out hotfix 4.0.4 which addresses the following:

Fixed Wood Elves not having unique outposts in notable capitals e.g. Altdorf, Castle Drakenhof (unique outposts have also been added to Wei-Jin and Zharr-Naggrund).
Fixed Nakai's long victory reward (increased Hero recruitment rank) not functioning properly for his faction.
Fixed an issue that prevented the AI from assigning tasks to units during the deployment phase when defending a settlement. This was being caused by the units' strength being significantly lower than their maximum, causing the game to softlock.
Belegar's unique grudge to re-capture Karak Eight Peaks now gives the reward it did in the initial release (An Oath Fulfilled).
Fixed an issue where Gotrek and Felix would gain their magic items multiple times when first spawning.
Fixed the Chaos Dwarf occupied versions of the Empire Fort buildings not displaying correctly in the building browser, along with the amount of corruption they spread per level.
Fixed the Teleport button in the Ultimate Scheme tooltip/popup not showing as inactive when teleportation was not possible. It now also correctly shows the cost of teleporting in the tooltip.
Fixed the Speed & Malice skill not applying to Doom Knights of Tzeentch units.

Please continue to talk to us about your experience in Total War: WARHAMMER III, positive and negative, so we can continue pushing the game to where we all want it to be.

If you continue to experience any bugs or issues after updating to 4.0.4, please report them over on our support forums.

Thanks for your ongoing support and patience!

—The Total War Team

Oct 5, 2023

Patch 2.01

Cyberpunk 2077 - Vattier

Patch 2.01 for Cyberpunk 2077 and Phantom Liberty is live! It fixes the most common issues players have encountered and improves overall performance of the game, especially in Dogtown.

For details, check out the list of changes below:

Phantom Liberty-specific

Balls to the Wall - When talking to Paco, repeating the blue dialogue option from the Corpo lifepath will no longer block progress.
Dog Eat Dog - Fixed an issue where it was possible to earn multiple Relic points by triggering the first meeting with Songbird more than once.
Firestarter - Fixed an issue that could cause V to get stuck in the wall or roof after performing a Finisher on Kurt Hansen.
Moving Heat
- Fixed an issue that could cause all traffic to disappear after completing the quest.
- Fixed an issue where triggering combat in the garage in specific scenarios could cause various disruptions to quest flow.
New Person, Same Old Mistakes - Fixed an issue where the gate to Bill's hot dog stand was closed.
Somewhat Damaged
- Fixed an issue preventing the player from scanning the Neural Network system.
- Various fixes for devices in the bunker.
The Killing Moon - Fixed an issue that caused the doors leading to the shuttle to not open.
You Know My Name
- Fixed an issue where V could remain connected to the sniper nest, blocking quest progress, after repeatedly switching cameras at the end of the sequence.
- Reed will now wear his party outfit during the dialogue with Songbird.
Addressed an issue where some phone calls necessary to continue the main story began with a delay.
Various visual fixes for animations, lighting, scenes, VFX, and more.
Performance improvements for both PC and consoles, especially in the Dogtown area.

Quests & Open World

Automatic Love - The distortion effect caused by talking to Johnny and selecting a specific dialogue option at the end of the quest will no longer persist on the screen.
Ghost Town - Fixed an issue where the quest could get stuck on the "Defeat Nash and his people" objective if the game was saved during combat prior to Update 2.0.
Gig: Breaking News
- Fixed an issue where Ted Fox's car didn't spawn.
- Fixed an issue where the gig wouldn't trigger after approaching the quest area.
Gig: Going-Away Party - Fixed an issue where it wasn't possible to get in the car with Flavio because it spawned underground.
Gig: The Lord Giveth and Taketh Away - Fixed an issue where the Militech SUV spawned underground.
Killing in the Name
- Fixed an issue where leaving the quest unfinished could block clue scanning, preventing the player from progressing in many quests.
- Fixed an issue where the Bartmoss Collective website wasn't visible in some cases.
Playing for Time - Fixed an issue where healing and radio icons disappeared from the HUD after the car chase with Takemura.
Space Oddity - Fixed an issue where the quest didn't activate if the location was approached prior to Update 2.0.
The Heist
- Fixed an issue where Jackie wasn't present in front of the Afterlife.
- Fixed an issue where, when riding the elevator to the 42nd floor with low FPS, V could fall through the floor and die.
The Prophet's Song - Fixed an issue where completing the quest could cause the police system to turn a blind eye to V's crimes.
The Ripperdoc - Fixed an issue where, if the player got into the driver's seat from the passenger seat, Jackie would return to the noodle stand and refuse to drive to the ripperdoc.
Fixed an issue where NCPD Scanner Hustles could remain uncompleted even after looting the necessary containers.
Fixed an issue where some Iconic weapons wouldn't appear on wall of the Stash in V's apartment.
Lowered the value of the Attribute check required to enter the area where the Thermal Katana can be looted.

Gameplay

Made it possible to properly switch to Arm cyberware by cycling through weapons.
Addressed an issue that could cause V to become invulnerable to all damage.
A wrecked NCPD cruiser without wheels won't be patrolling the streets of Night City anymore.
Fixed an issue where some obsolete mods in the Inventory and Stash weren't properly exchanged for a new weapon mod.
Fixed an issue where weapons obtained pre-Update 2.0 could have a Tier that's too high when compared to the player's level.
Removed various obsolete Crafting Specs.
Disassembling a Budget Arms Slaught-O-Matic will now give 1 crafting component.

PC-specific

Fixed an issue where the UI could show controller inputs when playing on keyboard and mouse.
Players unable to get achievements due to an issue that prevented Phantom Liberty achievements from unlocking on PC before a backend fix implemented on the day of the release will have them retroactively unlocked after loading a save from that playthrough.
Improved image quality of DLSS Ray Reconstruction in the Ultra Performance setting.

Miscellaneous

Various crash fixes.
Vehicle radio volume has been adjusted so it's no longer too quiet compared to other sounds in the game. If you've turned down the volume of other sounds in order to better hear the radio, you may want to re-adjust the volume before you continue playing.
Added sounds for the Basilisk that were missing.
Fixed an issue where the player could earn an infinite score in Trauma Drama by shooting at enemies dropping from a helicopter repeatedly.
Growl FM and Dark Star websites will now be visible when playing without Phantom Liberty.
Fixed an issue where disconnecting the internet didn't result in an error message being displayed in My Rewards and Cross Progression tabs.
The song History by Gazelle Twin and Trash Generation will now be disabled when the "Disable Copyrighted Music" option is turned on.
Fixed an issue where hair didn't cast shadows when Ray Tracing was enabled.
Players who pre-ordered Phantom Liberty but didn't get the Quadra Sport R-7 "Vigilante" will now receive it.
Several improvements and changes to Ukrainian localization, including fixes for lines where the translation lost its original meaning.

REDmod

Fixed an issue where tweak mods would not compile in REDmod.
Added Phantom Liberty support to REDmod.

Hey, chooms! Please remember that these are just the highlights. There are more improvements and fixes in this patch, so check them out for yourself in the game!

Oct 5, 2023

Demo Updated! New interior lighting, crosshairs and real-time aiming reticules

Robocraft 2 - Freejam_ChrisC

Hello Robocrafters!

It is update time! We’re working right now on polishing in preparation for Robocraft 2’s entry into Steam Next Fest. A bunch of new players will join us over that time and we hope that they’ll enjoy the game and be a part of our community leading up to launch later this year!

INTERIOR LIGHTING

Surprise! The new interior lighting is now live! We shared the first look of this just a couple of days ago and you can see it in action via these images

We have some more improvements to the environment planned that we’ll share later too!

REAL TIME AIMING RETICLES AND CROSSHAIR

We have also made live the new aiming system! Most noticeably you’ll see the crosshair updated with new visuals. And depending on the weapon you use, you’ll see a different Crosshair.

For example, this is the new Plasma crosshair:

You’ll be able to see exactly when the next shot can be fired as the recharge bar on the side fills!

We also have small real-time aiming reticles that show in real time where your gun is currently aiming.

https://static.wixstatic.com/media/062663_e257fc4bf09b4590b147f35e579de8a6~mv2.gif
This can actually be particularly useful even if a weapon has been shot off as you can still see where it is aiming. I’ve used this personally to help guide my shots for plasma when the gun is still on the top of my machine.

If you are using multiple weapons, the crosshair will select the most useful crosshair for that particular build. So for example, if you have a plasma and Laser set up, it will show the crosshair for plasma because you need to see the reload speed of Plasma. All weapons will show the real-time aiming reticles

TECH LADDER CHANGES

When we introduced the timer to Robocraft 2 for the tech Ladder, we said we’d remove it once servers were up 24 hours a day. We have now done that. But we’ve also reduced the amount of Robits needed to progress through each step of the tech ladder. Essentially, every match you play could give you enough Robits to unlock the next step of the Tech Ladder.

BATTLE GATE OPTIMISED

We have also updated the Battle Gate which will make it use less resources as it is built with fewer blocks.

POWERFUL ROBOT SWITCH UP

The Powerful Robots have had a bit of a switch up on the maps! Ma’adim terminus will now feature the Marauder while Helas Basin will include the Judicator.

ONE OF THE MOST REQUESTED BUG FIXES IS LIVE!

A HUGE requested bug fix has now been made live! You should no longer see the camera go inside your robocraft when parts like turrets are destroyed.

MORE LANGUAGES

We’ve added support for the following languages on Steam

Italian
Korean
Polish
Portuegese (Europe)
Portuegese (Brazil)

SERVER FIXES AND LOGGING

We’ve been working on some other fixes to server crashes that have been reported and added more logging so that we can help identify issues and debug other reported crashes.

Thank you everyone for the huge support over the last week. If you haven’t wishlisted Robocraft 2 already! You can do so by visiting the Steam Page:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1991140/Robocraft_2/