Hello, fellow mutants,

It’s been a while since our last dev blog update, so we wanted to share with you some interesting features and additions that we’ve added before the game goes into Early Access on October 24.

New range enemy Spaceman has been added to the game. It is a smaller enemy, but due to its trace weapon and in combination with other monsters, it’s not something to take lightly when embarking on missions.



Revolver is a new sidearm that is added. It can be obtained from pickup drops in derelict or as a mission reward. Even though it has a slower fire rate and smaller magazine than the pistol, its higher damage grants you the ability to one-shot smaller monsters if you are a good shot, of course.



New garment sets have been added to the game. They are not only cosmetic but have some interesting buffs. They are obtained as a reward for the campaign’s completion.





More guns! New tiers of all base weapons have been added to the game with a new look and better stats. MK2 and MK3 weapons are something that will help you make the late-game runs much easier, so don’t wait much when you receive those schematics. Gather resources and craft them so you can have a better chance in late-game fights.





Critters needed some love as well, so we have added additional behavior for them when they are not attached to monsters. So be careful when you are running around not to bump into them or try to kill them; they might fight back.

Ranged critters like Blasters, Ensnarer, and Dotter now impact how monsters behave when they have them attached. This change will impact how you go about facing an enemy that has Blaster on compared to the enemy with the Shield on.

A lot of UI/UX improvements have been added to the game.

We have transferred information about what mission is going to be launched inside the Shuttle itself, making it easy to know what mission you are embarking on right before you start it.



We have moved the jump sector to have its own place with a new UI. That will also be the place where you can reset your campaign. There is no need to leave the session in order to do that now.



Tips to help you out while you are getting familiar with the game have been added, from tips about how to complete missions to how to use your pet gun.

Additionally, we have added banners, making it easy to know when the task or objective has been completed.



Last but not least, as some of you might have seen from our social, we have created a bunch of new, different, and interesting levels.









That’s all for now! We hope that you have enjoyed reading about all the new features and additions.

We’re eagerly waiting for you guys to jump in the game and give us feedback on all that we have been working on so we can improve and bring this game to the next level with your guys’ input.

See you in the next Dev Blog!

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Optimization:

• Reduced the amount of triangles we render in by millions.
  
• Optimized all the textures.
  
• Made the terrain into a virtual texture for a lighter load.
  
• Optimized all memory issues.
  
• Made sure all meshes gets culled.
  
• A lot of minor factors to increase performance.

Changelog

• Fixed B777, B787, CRJ 900, Learjet 45 reversers
  
• Added F18 canopy actuator animation
  
• Fixed GPWS glide slope warning now only triggers when on the localizer

Hi everyone,

We just operated an update to apply the following changes:

- Added health drops from destructible items
- Fixed Marian sometimes not triggering Flux Thrusts on the host whereas it does client-side
- Updated DLSS plugin to the latest version, now supporting TLAA
- Tweaked Comet arrow visuals for more clarity
- Made some solid objects not affect the camera to reduce unexpected camera movements
- Fixed some minor graphical issues in Kirklees Keep
- Fixed some issues with the Comet arrow shard interacting with other shards
- Fixed Little John's EWGF Shard FX not playing on clients
- Fixed Tuck's whirlwind FX not being interrupted on clients
- Fixed an inconsistency where going back to Mission Selection screen after completing a mission would indicate the wrong difficulty setting
- Improved some Shards-related sound effects
- Fixed Finisher moves cameras sometimes not playing
- Fixed Robin's Heavy Attacks: when performing the heavy attacks and walking backward, Robin would face the camera away from his target

We hope you are having fun playing Gangs of Sherwood and that these changes will make the experience even better!

We weren’t kidding when we said “It’s all in your head!” Welcome to the Ethereal Workshop, located inside Ethereal Island Colossal’s cranium! Zarroë has achieved what was previously thought to be impossible by bringing to life Triple-Element Ethereals (and beyond!) using the power of “Meebs” and curious new Structures we’ve never encountered before! Head to the Ethereal Workshop and help the Colossal reach its goal of creating a symphony of beautiful and mind-bending music!




It’s been a long time since Single and Double-Element Ethereals were discovered, and after such a long wait, we are very excited to introduce the first-ever Triple-Element Ethereals! You’ve already met Meebkin, our googly-eyed friend with a greater-than-average affinity for the Meeb critters you’ll get to know on Ethereal Workshop. This courteous caretaker houses Meebs inside of its baton-like instrument and rhythmically twirls it to help the Critters make their enchanting sounds. But Meebkin isn’t the only new Monster brought to fruition on Ethereal Workshop! Visit the new Island and discover four more Ethereal acquaintances!




Double-Element Ethereals have finally arrived on the Colossingum with a series of brand new quests, costumes, and trophies to be won! These new permanent quests and affluent attire will be arriving on a bi-weekly basis, starting on October 19th! We are also excited to announce that the Colossingum Level Cap will also be increased in the coming weeks so you’ll have even more reason to climb back to the top!




Now that you have experienced two rounds of Celestial Ascension, we are excited to introduce an all-new feature called Early Ascension! This new process will allow you to attempt to Ascend a Celestial with an incomplete inventory! But beware…there is some risk involved. Unsuccessful attempts will result in some of the eggs being lost, however you will receive a “Wildcard” in return which can be applied to any inventory! So, whether you’re zapping an egg or powering up a Wubbox, Wildcards will be a valuable resource to have in your pocket.

Thank you for joining us during our Anniversary Year Event - we couldn't have done it without you, and we are so grateful for your love and support. Happy Monstering!

You can read the whole review here, but we just wanted to share the opening paragraph, cos we love it:

"The problem with most goofy first-person shooters is they put being goofy first, and being an FPS second. The results tend to be tryhard slogs. To demonstrate how it should be done comes along Super Buff HD. This is a shooter that acts dumb as rocks, looks incredibly silly, but is an absolute blast to play."

Thank you Buried Treasure for having impeccable taste. And thanks to all early adopters who were there at the start, before Super Buff HD became The Next Big Thing, which should be happening any day now.

Thanks for your support!


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1295220/Super_Buff_HD/

Please be aware that we will be conducting scheduled maintenance on Steam Knight Online Servers and service will be temporarily unavailable.

Maintenance time will be as follows:
Knight Online Server Time (EST): 21:00
South America (PET): 20:00
Turkey: 4:00

Duration: Approx. 4 hours

During this server maintenance;

* Lobo Boss will spawn every 3 hours in the Ronark Land Bowl area. (Respawn time may change forward or backward randomly.) (4 Weeks)
- Same items drop as the old Lobo boss.

* 'Blessed Talisman Enhancement Item' has been added to the auction for all servers in Akara's Altar system.

* The entry method for the UTC event has been changed.
1. Log in by clicking the new menu button on the NPC between 16.55 - 16.59 server time. (When the application is completed, even if you click the menu button, it will only be said that the Application is completed)
2. When Under the Castle opens at 17.00 server time, the first 50% of the applicants and 50% of the random users will be able to enter the event. After this process, no one can enter.
3. Only first applicants or randomly selected users can log in for 5 minutes.
** There is an error in the informational text in the UTC NPC. This error will be fixed in the next maintenance. **

* The appearance of Gab's Adamant and Blessing items has been renewed.

* Fixed the issue where the party leader could not delegate party leader authority to the player at the top of the party interface.

* Prison door opening times have been changed in the Lunar War event.
- Old 120 Seconds > New 60 Seconds

* An update has been made regarding the notification that appears when destroying items

Have Fun,
NTTGame | Knight Online Team

Small patch that addresses the following items.

• Fixed slider on blueprint craft amount
  
• Fixed crash after reaching max level
  
• Fixed UI prompt to interact with untamed dino's
  
• Made taming treats pickup able after placing

Greetings!

It is time to dive into the upcoming Flavor Pack - Legacy of Persia - giving a brief overview of the why and the what! The region has a rich and vibrant history making it both exciting and interesting to work with, not the least because it differs significantly from the regions we've chosen to cover in the past - Persia lies at the crossroads of the world, with a multitude of external influences combined with strong local traditions. Naturally while our focus has been on the Persian region itself, we've also aimed to shake up a portion of the world at large by revising how the Clan government works, so even if you're not playing in the Persian region there's something new and exciting to experience.

Co-writing this Dev Diary with me is Lucas Ribeiro - our skilled and multitalented 2D Art Lead at PDX Studio Black, who has been deeply involved with many of the features of this pack!

► Discuss Dev Diary #136 on our forums!







For starters, our data pointed out that Persia is already a very popular starting location for our players. The region is within the top ten most picked starting locations and the most popular one outside of Europe.
Despite originally not having much flavor dedicated to the area and no bookmark characters attached to it, our players were still going for Persia playthroughs. There’s no better endorsement of the interest in the region than that!

But, player data aside, all history enthusiasts know how rich and interesting Persia is, even more so during Crusader Kings III’s time period. We saw this as a chance to create very interesting gameplay opportunities.

At the 867 game start, the Abbasid Caliphate is reeling from the Anarchy at Samarra. A moment in history when many Caliphs fell victim to a deadly struggle for power while insurrectionists raged up and down the Tigris and the Euphrates, such as the Kharijite and the Zanj Rebellions. Meanwhile in the east, Iranian rulers rose to challenge the Abbasid Authority. This time period, known as the Iranian Intermezzo saw a partial revival of Iranian culture with the ascension of the Saffarid and Samanid dynasties. About a century after the start date of 867, the Iranian Daylamite Buyids came to power, subjugating the Abassid Caliphate.

This Iranian comeback is then cut short by the Seljuk Invasion. A dynasty of turkic warrior nomads take over Persia and the Levant, submitting both Arabs and Iranians to their rule. Further on the east the Ghaznavids defeat the Samanids, cementing the end of the Iranian Intermezzo and leading into the state of Persia as we see in the 1066 start. The Buyids are not playable on the 867 start, as their founder, a warrior from the mountains of Daylam had yet to leap into history. But a last holdout of the dynasty can be found in Shiraz at the 1066 start.





Since the area of the flavor pack is almost entirely made up of Clan Rulers, for Legacy of Persia, we have decided to reimagine how the Clan government works.

Our aim is to more closely represent the familial struggles of the powerful clans of the time and the bureaucratic apparatus that backed their interests.

The Clan government is now directly tied to how your house members interact with each other. Each house will have a Unity Level that can be changed by intervention of the house head and by its members treating each other kindly or badly. A harmonious clan will have a consolidated succession, while an antagonistic one, not so much!

Clan rulers employ an office of bureaucrats, their Tax Collectors, to levy troops and coin from their vassals. The competence of a Tax Collector will dictate how much they manage to extract from the vassals assigned to them. Each Tax Collector manages a Jurisdiction with an associated Tax Decree. For example: You might want to place all your non-muslim vassals in a Jurisdiction with the Jizya Decree and maximize your gold income.

More details on the Clan Government design on a future dev diary.





Persia and its surrounding areas are populated by a variety of different iranian-heritage cultures. We strived to give each one of them an original combination of cultural traditions that allow for a variety of new playstyles. The Kurds with their hard-to-convert culture and mountain cavalry, the Daylamites with their two-pronged spear wielding mercenaries and so on.
Persian culture, of course, received special attention. With new traditions about their famous scholarly pursuits and elaborate systems of water cooling and irrigation.

Iranian cultures have also received new clothes, headgears, hairstyles, beards and unit models, making them more appropriately distinct from the Arabic cultures. Also, due to their importance in the region, Turkic cultures have also received some sorely-missed assets, such as the Sharbush hat and the very recognizable Seljuk braids.






In Crusader Kings’ 3 starting date of 867, Islam has been the dominant religion of the upper classes in Persia for over a century. Still, Zoroastrian practices are still very much alive and widespread in the peasantry. We’ve done a general pass on religion in the region, adjusting provinces and characters to a more accurate historical representation. Tenets and doctrines for both Islam and Zoroastrianism have also received lots of adjustments and tweaks. Jizya, for example, has been moved to a tax jurisdiction type unlocked for muslim clan rulers. Both religions have received new decisions and events to flesh them out some more. They’re also strongly tied to the Struggle system in the region, speaking of which…






With Legacy of Persia, we are bringing a new Struggle, the Iranian Intermezzo.

This struggle seeks to represent the historical dissolution of the Caliphal authority over Persia and the ascension of new, powerful, Iranian Rulers In the 9th and 10th centuries. It also reflects a shorter historical period when compared to Fate of Iberia’s Struggle, so it is likely to be resolved more briefly and intensely.

Unlike Fate of Iberia, participant characters are clearly divided into factions. The Caliphal Supporters against the Detractors. A lot of new interactions are unlocked by this dynamic, such as convincing a character to switch sides, sponsoring turkic invasions against supporters, or waging war to install Caliphal Supporters.

The struggle has three phases, Unrest, Stabilization and Concession. The Concession phase is of a new type, a so-called Ending Phase. If a struggle gets to an Ending Phase, it will instantly trigger an ending. So, unlike Struggle Ending Decisions, where there is a dominant character that pushes the button to trigger it, every involved character can contribute to an Ending Phase by triggering relevant catalysts.

We have designed four struggle endings (three as decisions, one as an ending phase), which can be pursued in different ways, depending on the personal perspective of your character.

Will the Caliph be able to reestablish their power over the region? Will a powerful Shia ruler overtake the Sunni, creating a new Caliphate? Maybe an Iranian ruler will usher in an era of Persian dominance, forever boosting cultures of Iranian-heritage? Or, a Sunni Caliphal Detractor might oust the Caliph and take their place as head of faith?

In the Iranian Intermezzo Struggle we went for a more nuanced, granular approach, where the endings are subdivided into options that have different effects, according to your character’s culture, religion and whether they are part of the Supporter or Detractor faction.





With Legacy of Persia we are adding a new bookmark, the Persian Revival, with five Iranian-heritage characters to choose from. These were picked both for their historical importance and to provide for a wide variety of gameplay styles.

In the mountains of Daylam we see a fan favorite, Rostam Bavandid, one of the last Sassanids in the game and a secret Zoroastrian. A great character if you are going for a “Sassanian Restoration” style playthrough.

In the southern reaches of Persia, Muhammad of the Tahirids is a loyal vassal and supporter of the Caliphate. His nephew, though, rules an independent emirate in Khorasan and is desperate for help against the invading Saffarids. This character was a great pick for us, since he’s split between internal and external conflicts in the Caliphate.

Since we mentioned Saffarids, we have Yaqub, the coppersmith. This lowly peasant rose to power through extraordinary military prowess. In one of his many battles, he was swordstruck and horribly disfigured. But, despite all these difficulties, this upstart is pushing back against the might of the Abbasids. He was an obvious choice for us, since he is an interesting historical figure and a sort of folk hero of the Iranian traditions, having restored Persian as the official dialect of the region (after it was supplanted by Arabic).

Next, we have one that will be familiar to the achievement hunters, Suri of the Ghurids. Although historically Suri is mostly known for running away from the Saffarids and hiding at his buddy Abdullah Habbari’s court, his dynasty eventually grew into a huge Empire. Being Tajik and Mahayana, he’s stuck between the Muslim and the Buddhist world, creating opportunities for interesting gameplay. There’s also a lot of juicy mines in the region that Suri can go claim and fuel his future conquests. Good luck to all players out there going for the “Rise of the Ghurids” achievement!

Lastly, we have Ismail of the Samanids. Despite being distant in the line of succession, historically Ismail came to supplant all of his relatives and assume control of his brother’s Emirate. The Samanids under Ismail grew into a true empire, only to be overtaken later by the Ghaznavids and the Seljuks. An interpretation of Ismail’s likeness can now be seen stamped on the Tajikistani currency, the Somoni, which is named after his dynasty.

That's it for this time! More details will follow soon!

---

Join the struggle for medieval dominance in Legacy of Persia, the new Flavor Pack for Crusader Kings III, releasing on November 9.

https://youtu.be/kwKbVALjXpE

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2313540/Crusader_Kings_III_Legacy_of_Persia/

Hey All! I hope you've been having fun blasting Karen bots out of the sky and experiencing my game! It's been amazing to get a 100% positive review score and see streamers and youtubers cover the game! Launching a game is certainly stressful but is also a very rewarding experience!

First off, AotK will be getting a big update pretty soon. Version 1.1 will bring controller remapping support as well as an in-game studio news feed and Kurse challenge events! A bit more on those features below:

• Remapping support is pretty self-explanatory. This will allow you to remap buttons however you see fit! It's nearly complete, and I was hoping to get this out much sooner, but that last 10% of adding this feature is causing some major issues, so it's been a struggle! It's on it's way though.
  
• The in-game news feed will allow us to communicate with everyone in-game without having to launch new builds. This feature will only be available if you're connected to the internet, so offline play won't show a feed. It's also planned to add this to all Studio Primitive releases both past and future. I'm particularly excited about this as a way to further connect with you and let you know about the awesome things we're doing with Studio Primitive.
  
• Kurse challenge events will allow players to compete with one another in a leaderboard to see who can complete a run using a given Kurse selected by the developer. I'm still figuring out how exactly to score the runs, but I'm thinking it will work based on number of deaths and run time. And of course, there will be some kind of reward for the top players! The idea is to rotate this seasonally and issue a new Kurse challenge regularly.

These updates are taking a bit of work, because I want to make sure they are done right. I don't have a date yet for when 1.1 will be released, but hopefully it will be soon! Thanks for your patience!

In other news, my brother Grant is going to join me in Studio Primitive making games! While I work on 1.1, we are also creating small jam games for everyone to try! The objective is to get used to working together and continue to build an audience for our games. We try to document as much of the game development as we can, and keep the fans updated during our live Devstreams on YouTube! If you'd like to follow along, follow us on YouTube and catch us live!

https://www.youtube.com/@studioprimitive

That's all for now, thanks for playing the game! Your feedback and response to the game have been incredible and I've enjoyed interacting with everyone!

Joel