Oct 9, 2023

Content Update 1: A Dangerous Galaxy LIVE Now! ✨

Jumplight Odyssey - Chan

Hello, Spacefarers!

A Dangerous Galaxy is upon us!

Update v0.2.0 is our first major Content Update for Jumplight Odyssey! Based on a bunch of incredible community feedback, of which we have explored in-depth in our “What We Learned in Early Access So Far” Steam Update, our focus for a Dangerous Galaxy is on…

Improved Player Agency (More Captain Controls!) 🧑‍✈️
Effective Communication on Game State Information 📊
Game Stability ⚓

We’ve spoken a lot about what to expect in this update both in our Constellation Reveal Post (and Stream) and our beautiful Early Access Starmap…

But let’s get into it! What exactly IS “A Dangerous Galaxy”?

The Big Wins

Viva La Asteroids! The Return of the Asteroids means only one thing… We’re introducing Spacesuits and Helmets! This means that your crew can now navigate perilous, low-oxygen conditions safely to repair and construct as needed! Worth nothing that Asteroids are not quite yet at their full lethal potential. Over the next few patches you'll find they become more dangerous as they affect your ship in different ways. Asteroids will get deadlier, but rest assured that you'll have tools to deal with them.

We’ve added Storage Configuration! You can now select exactly what resources your storage can hold. No more Medigel in the Produce!

Improvements to our Crew’s AI is a massive, ongoing focus for our Engineering team, but we’re very proud to announce that we’ve added Dynamic Queueing in this update! Crew can now “line up” for use of a buildable, keeping your ship’s production streamlined – there’s even some fun animations we’ve added in there too!

After lotsa’ feedback from y’all, we've given Water and Power a huge balancing pass – there will now be more of it! As we continue through Early Access, we’ll also be making further tuning passes, refinements and giving you more controls to track and manage these resources, but after this update it is much, much easier to obtain Water and generate Power!

We’ve added Officer Orders to forcibly: Send Crew Off Shift, Prioritise Repair and to Send Crew to Medical Bay! We’re continually working hard to empower Captain Orders and this is a good first step in the right direction.

Robot Depression should be alleviated! Robots are now less likely to become isolated as they are now included in regular greets from the rest of the Crew. Please let us know if you do notice your robots are still too mopey.

Away Missions now have a better auto assign system! The logic for the auto-assign will now take into account crew health, morale, or needs. No more crew coming back only to immediately pass out from exhaustion.

After a Shuttle returns from an Away Mission, your rewards are now immediately dropped off into a drop-off inventory in the Hangar Bay! Crew can then walk over and begin to fill Supply Shelves, and the Shuttle may immediately be sent out again!

We also have a NEW BUILDABLE! Our Radar Operator Station. Marines can operate this station to give Fighters a +10% bonus to Threat intercepts and can identify incoming Threats on the Radar earlier.

For the full MEGA LIST of every single change that will be coming with this update, you can keep reading below - this was just the cliffnotes!

Full Patch Notes

Officer Advice

Dead Officers should no longer completely bust your game! We’ve also made vast improved functionality to situations where Divisional Officers become Dead, Unconscious, Broken, etc. Hurray!
We’ve added a counter that indicates the number of times certain Objectives need to be completed. This should hopefully make things more clear for your decision-making!
We’ve also added Officer Advice for: Low Rest, Low Hygiene, Asteroids, Low Water, Low Social, Low Plastic and Low Weapons Lockers. Doing so should reduce the steepness of the Captain Learning Curve for newer Players!

Build Mode

While Editing a room in Build Mode, you can now hover on objects in other rooms to quickly swap to editing that room instead. Hurray for a more intuitive UI!
The Debris Tool has experienced some improvements: now it is clearer for you to decide if you would like to Rebuild or Delete debris!
We’ve added a brand-spanking-new toolbar that exposes action buttons to Delete and Undo Delete for objects within a room.
We’ve also improved validation checking for previously “invalid rooms” not directly attached to the Turbo Lifts. This should be much better now.
We’ve also resolved the problem where, if constructing a new Shuttle in the Hangar Bay while an Away Mission was out, your build could be “invalid”. This shouldn’t happen any more!
We’ve fixed an issue where O2 distribution in unbuilt space was considered more holistically. Now, each unbuilt space has its own O2 levels.
Zutopan Boarders were sometimes able to teleport between unbuilt areas of the Catalina’s Decks… We’ve neutralised this supernatural threat.
We fixed a bug where, when quickly moving the cursor in Build Mode with a Buildable Object in hand, you would be allowed to place it in otherwise invalid locations. Remember: the Engineering Officer on the Catalina is always watching, Wazowski. Always watching.
Somehow, very impressively, some folks were able to create a New Room on the Flight Deck that was extremely invalid. This shouldn’t happen anymore.
We have fixed the issue where Observation Doors were backwards in the build, resulting in them not finding their associated windows.
The Indestructible Turbo Dishwasher…. Now can be picked up.

AI & Pathfinding

The bug where the wall would “suck in” the Engineers trying to construct nearby… We’ve made vast improvements here, but please contact the Bridge if it still does happen regularly!
As aforementioned, Crew can now equip appropriate Spacesuit and Helmet attire before attempting certain tasks in risky areas with low oxygen. We still have more to come here, but for now… Enjoy!
Again, as aforementioned, you now have the ability to configure your own storage to suit your Construction and Building intentions. This means that Storage Items (Fridges, Racks, etc.) now have a “tab” to configure which items can be stored inside. Storage can also now be restricted to only accept “Local Input” or “Local Output” – meaning Resources produced/used within the same room!
We also aforementioned Dynamic Queueing: now, Crew will functionally “queue” for most Needs-based Buildables, instead of waiting for other Crew to finish using it. Worth noting that the Crew don’t physically form a line, but linger around with a status of “Queueing for X”. Sometimes, they even get a lil’ impatient animation (you can also find this in their Personal History Log).
Stinky Improvements: interestingly, two Stinky Crew cannot Meet ‘n Greet. The stink is too strong! There are also more behaviours and animated hookups for social greetings when a Crew is, indeed, Stinky.
There were some instances where the Captain’s Chair would hold Euphora hostage… This should not occur any more. Ideally.
There was a reported bug where Crops would appear fully grown but would produce nothing - keeping the Crew in a Harvesting animation loop. This should also be fixed!
We’ve also resolved a bug where multiple Crew would attempt to use the same object at the same time, resulting in the second Crew member awkwardly attempting to start continuously, then only running part of the task.

Stability

Fixed issue where all crew members would spin to change into an outfit simultaneously on start, introducing a wicked lag spike.
Fixed a series of errors in the back end that were impacting stability - you should hopefully experience a smoother time in the game!

Game Balance

We’ve implemented Power Consumption Prioritization in case of power outages. Now, Power Stations are the last to power down and go offline – or as our Engineers put it; “brown out ”. We’ve also Increased power output of all reactors and have reduced passive Power consumption of Buildables – keeping the maximum for most around 5.
As aforementioned, we’ve made a big balancing pass on Water, with specific adjustments to Water Consumption. Not only have we changed Small Water Tank’s capacity from 50 to 100 and Large Water Tank’s Capacity from 150 to 300. Additionally, we’ve reduced Water use across all objects, and we’ve removed Water Condensators from all layouts.
We've added a Power Station with Nuclear Reactor and batteries, as well as a Water Works with Water Tanks to every starting layout type.
Resource processors (metal extractor, centrifuges, etc) now draw an amount of power at the start of a task/process, instead of continually drawing power while used.
For advanced Captains, we’ve removed passive water consumption and plants now consume Water only upon initial use.
We have also made massive balancing passes to Outputs, Growth Rates and Chance Multipliers on all Crops.
We’ve updated the Build Cost of High Density Batteries from 15 Metal and 5 Plastic to 16 Metal and 6 Plastic. Inflation comes for us all.
You’ll find that we’ve removed the passive oxygen generation that occurs on room types so that O2 scrubbers and planters are the only source of oxygen generation aboard.
We’ve also balanced the Med Bay slightly by granting the Medigel Tank a higher priority than using the Medical Bed. We also reduced the Medigel Tank Medigel requirement from 4 to 2.
Euphora’s Needs have been rebalanced: she should now take care of herself much better!
Viva La Asteroids: Asteroid Events are now happening once again!

UI/UX Improvements

Most importantly, Ham has been taking modelling lessons and now has an improved pose for portrait rendering.
We’ve added better Gamepad support for the Load Game screen to frame the Save Slot UI correctly when navigating via gamepad. We also improved the More/Less information arrow in Chapter Select so that buttons correctly orientate when using a Gamepad (and expand for more information).
The Save Widget (I am told it is apparently called a “throbber”, I’m so sorry to pass on this cursed knowledge) now has a very nice looking animated icon.
Fixed an issue where a Build Mode Plan would incorrectly show a reimbursement cost as being unaffordable whenever that resource is already in a deficit.
In the Manifest and other crew selection screens, we’ve now added dashboard warning lights for each of your crew members. Red indicates the crew's Needs, Health or Morale is in a Critical state (sub 40%); Yellow it’s Diminished (sub 70%); and no colour warning means that crew status higher than 70% (aka; Lookin’ good!).
Crew Portraits now have a correct aspect ratio on Ultrawide resolutions!
We’ve improved the legibility of Crew’s speech bubbles.
The Crew Icons in Mission UI Panels should now correctly colour Dead Crew as red.
The Character Needs Badges are now displayed in Crew thumbnails.
All Crew badges now display in all character picker screens!
We added new Officer Trait Icons to the relevant configurations.
Fixed an issue where the Crew’s overhead speech bubbles would render when viewing the ship from the external camera.
There were some thumb clipping issues on Officer Toolbar highlights that should be fixed now!
The Twitch Extension bug where Crew member’s nameplates were visible even outside the ship should be fixed now!
Feedback form is no longer hidden when we determine there is an issue with accessing it. We now display the icon no matter what and instead display an error modal informing that there is an issue accessing it.
The description of Euphora’s Odyssey now includes whether the Tutorial is currently enabled or not!
The Ship Log, and Crew Member History Log will now combine similar events if the same one happens again.
We’ve enabled the Basic Storage tab to Fighter Inventory Configurations to display Ammunition Inventories for each Fighter.
Fixed issue where the “Current Odyssey” tag was being displayed while viewing save files from the front end. This instead only shows while in a run, in the pause menu.
We’ve fixed an issue where the upgrade requirement icon would not consistently show up in information panels for buildables. This should now be consistent!
We’ve fixed wrapping on the Cursor Sampling header element.
There were broken icon refs for TurboLifts (Transit Hub) & Turret Control that we’ve fixed, and we’ve added an icon for Unbuilt Space now!
Fixed text boundary issues on EndGame screen so longer strings don’t stretch out the panel anymore.
We’ve updated colours for ARM alert for readability, updated ARM Widget to match minimum font size, as well as scale dynamically when overset.
Fixed the glow elements on the Chapter Select description toggle. They are now correctly glow-y.
We’ve undergone a broad pass of UI transparency to improve the legibility of text.
We fixed an issue where input prompts on the expanded Alert Levels panel would be displayed up the top, overlapping and cluttering into other elements.
Fixed several instances where strings within the Settings menu only displayed English strings.
The Alert Levels should now no longer clip for Japanese and Chinese fonts.
The Settings buttons now extend the width of the screen.
The Deck Navigation header supports multiline text for longer language strings.

Visual Improvements

The Ostrich Leg bug created by carrying and hauling animations should be… Resolved. Legs should now not snap backwards when carrying things.
The Hangar now has improved lighting control based on the Current Mission State of the ship.
There are now additional Thinking animation variants! Big brain time!
Characters were sometimes intersecting with the Fusion Reactor when entering and leaving a room.
We’ve fixed an issue where, when Grow Lights were built, the glow VFX stuttered, then disappeared.
We fixed an issue where the Robot would haul resources, but they would not be within its tiny, robotic hands.

Optimisation

We’ve improved performance when attempting to deconstruct Very Large Rooms™
We’ve also improved performance in the Asteroid and Frozen Biomes.
There are new, improved graphical quality settings! With options to toggle Off, Low, Medium and High. Some of these adjustable graphics settings are AO, Reflections, Bloom, Anti-aliasing and shadows.
We’ve done some passes so that now the environment art on each Deck renders more efficiently.

Save/Load System

When an Error occurs during a Save/Load, we now display more meaningful messages as well as an Error Code for us to debug more accurately. Let’s kill these Save/Load bugs once and for all!
There was an issue where run saves no longer loaded if users deleted their Global profile.sav file. This should now be fixed.
We’ve fixed an issue with initialising some growable tasks after a Load In.
Resources are now correctly retained for construction in progress during a save; information displayed should now be more truthful.
We’ve fixed an issue where buildables that were damaged would not be repaired until their health was updated.
An error would sometimes occur when exiting back to the Main Menu, resulting in a state where the ship would be visible in the background. We’ve fixed this!
We also have fixed a problem where all body bags would default to Pleadian visuals rather than Zutopan or… God forbid… Ham-shaped body bags.
We’ve also fixed an issue where build resources for unconfirmed construction plans would increase when Reloading a save. No longer!

Audio

Biomes now have a single audio focal point - this improves our camera focus logic. Lots of words to mean: better soundscape vibes in your Biomes! We’ve also balanced audio in several System Biomes.
We’ve made improvements to the Power Switch Audio and the Turret Audio.
The VO PA Announcements for Mission Confirmed were sometimes cut off – they should now dominate the airwaves, as they should.
Some players experienced a problem where the Alert Level VO would stop working after Jump 1.
There was also a bug where Recalling a Shuttle before it left would trigger SFX to persist on that Shuttle.

Away Missions

We’ve implemented a new Away Mission specifically for Water. Water Extraction missions! Huzzah! These are now the only mission type that will award Water, BUT will award it in the hundreds!
Using the “Auto Assign” button when a spacecraft has crew assigned will now replace any crew with Low Health, Morale or Needs, in favour of new, healthy, well-rested pilots.
Additionally, there have been vast improvements to the Auto Assign logic for Shuttles when picking Crew for Away Missions.
As aforementioned, we’ve done some work in balancing Ammo + Fighters.
Fast Fighter had a bonus that was being incorrectly applied. That’s been fixed and now matches the description on the Fighter.
Survey Missions now additionally apply a Mission Speed Bonus to other Resource Extraction and Salvage Missions.
We’ve rebalanced resource rewards for Verdant Worlds, White Dwarfs and Ringed Giants biomes.
Barren Systems now contain Metal rewards for Away Missions. Yummy.
We’ve rebalanced all sectors, especially focusing on how Star Systems are generated. Here, we’ve reduced randomization slightly for a higher guaranteed “thematic system” – i.e. The Black Eye sector will likely have more Black Hole Biomes.
We've standardised mission rewards - scarce and rich resource deposits should deliver more consistent rewards on away missions.
There was a discrepancy that sometimes occurred between the stated results of missions in the UI and the amount of Resources actually rewarded which has now been eliminated. This information should now be more truthful.
We’ve balanced Away Missions and their success rate to feel more “fair”.
We’ve fixed the issue where pooled resources such as Water will now correctly deposit into the pooled supply when the Shuttle returns.
Once a ship returns from an away mission, rewards are now immediately deposited into a drop-off inventory within the spacecraft’s flight bay.

Camera Booth / Character Portraits

We’ve done a MASSIVE refractor of the Camera Booth system in general. Character Portraits should now have more stability and better error handling to stop portraits not rendering after time.
As mentioned, Dead Officers no longer break the game.
Lots of technical passes and improvements.

In-Game Text

Implemented a fix for an issue where Therapy tasks were displaying <do not loc> missing strings.
Placeholder traits for Self Destructive are no longer visible.
Fixed an issue where the Crew name wasn't being correctly assigned for the “Persistent” Officer Influence string.
Also fixed an issue where Mission DurationTimes were broken on a few languages
Fixed missing and broken strings on command consoles where Division Member strings are incorrectly displayed.
A few typo fixes in English.
We’ve updated the Away Mission ‘Auto-Assign’ crew tooltip to reflect the new functionality added to this button.
We’ve also improved the Starmap balancing system strings.
Updated names and categories for the Localised QA credits.
A round of fixing up rich and scarce resource strings in missions.
The Observation doors are now more consistently named.
There’s been an improvement in the general formatting of strings, better line breaks etc.
We’ve fixed a range of issues where smart strings were not set up, resulting in unformatted text.

And that’s all, folks! If you’ve gotten this far, thanks so much for reading everything. As
always we’ll keep our eyes peeled for your feedback, and will continue to work away to making this game the best it can possibly be.

Keeping your hope bars full,

<3 Chan and the LoG Team

Oct 9, 2023

Interview with the winner of our Name the Beast PvP Tournament

Death or Glory - John - Death or Glory

September 3rd, 2023 was a special day in the history of Death or Glory! An official PvP tournament was held between members of our community. Many had arrived to test the game during our Open Beta Weekend event. The race was on for new players to quickly learn the game at an advanced level in order to compete. The tournament offered cash prizes, along with the honor of naming a powerful upcoming character. Prior to the tournament, the fearsome reptile, who will be released sometime during the Early Access phase, was only known as “The Beast.”

After a grueling battle, three champions distinguished themselves through exceptional play. Coming in at third place was Agent, a brilliant content creator. A newcomer with the handle Sucrash was second; she worked hard to unlock three characters just moments prior to the start of the tournament! First place was taken by a veteran card game player, Master Tilt.

Q: Master Tilt, congratulations on your glorious win! Can you please tell us a little about yourself?

A: (I am) a lifelong gamer with a great passion for gaming and game design.

Q: How long have you been playing card games? Do you have a favorite?

A: Magic The Gathering came out during my preteens and I really enjoyed playing primarily that for many years, but I had been into other card games like Speed, Blackjack, Poker, Deuces and Uno since I was much younger.

Q: What is your current impression of Death or Glory?

A: It's a very fun and surprisingly unique fighting card game with a fresh art style.

One of the most unique features is its core concept: a 1 on 1 duel between two unique characters that represent archetypes across any genre you can think of, each with very distinct themes and mechanics. Unlike many other games in the genre, it feels "fast-paced" in the sense that almost every turn and choice feels tense, engaging and impactful.

Q: Do you have a favorite character in Death or Glory yet?

A: My favourite character at the moment has to be the character I won the tourney with, A.T.A.C.R. They have some really cool and unique resource management mechanics and some massive risk/reward plays and combos that are very satisfying to pull off. (BFM > D&D. Fight me.)

Q: As someone who grasped the game quite quickly, do you have any tips for new Death or Glory players?

A: Have patience.

Take time to explore each character through the campaigns thoroughly before picking a main character, playstyle or even trying multiplayer. The single-player modes have a variety of challenges that will help players develop a more well-rounded understanding and strategy for each character and unlock more cards that will assist in creating an effective and customized playstyle.

It's also important to have patience within the matches themselves, it's usually ok to PASS and take a little damage to build up a combo, wait for defensive measures, or just to avoid having too great a card deficit.

Q: Enryu, the name you picked for the Beast, is a great fit! Can you tell us a little about how you came up with the name?

A: The name Enryu, like the concept of The Beast itself, is inspired by Japanese lore and Kaiju specifically. The name is rooted in Japanese mythology and is common in Japanese pop culture like Anime and Manga. One literal translation being "Flame Dragon", I thought it was appropriate because of the fiery-looking traits The Beast displays as well as to pay homage to the origin of its inspiration.

Q: Last but not least — would you opt to capture Enryu, allowing the mages of Pearly Gates to hone him into a fearsome magical weapon, or release him back into the wilderness, knowing that there is some chance he could still pose a threat?

A: I don't believe beasts of any sort should be caged because of their threat to humans; as this world, this land, this realm, was their domain for an eternity long before our egos were born; and it is in fact humans who have proven themselves the greatest threat to their existence and possibly all of existence itself. May The Beast "Enryu" roam free, because it is we who may one day need them to save us from our own hubris.