Nov 11, 2023

Talented - TurtleFox Games

Hello Talented Gamers!

It's been a truly amazing first week for Talented - 3259 people and counting have picked up the game and the vast majority of the feedback has been extremely positive and constructive. We cannot thank you enough for that - we take the move to Steam very seriously and it's good to see that our work to make a solid groundwork before releasing paid off!

Some Ground Rules

This is a continuation of a devlog I've been running since the start of Talented over on itch.io, if you'd like to see more about the history of the game we've worked hard making do head over there! I aim to get these out around every 2 weeks (but sometimes life gets in the way!).

Just so we're being completely transparent, anything discussed in these devlogs is subject to change - they're intended to be an insight into development rather than concrete feature announcements! (although we do our best to only mention things we're confident are coming)

But I know what's really on everyone's mind! What's next for Talent Ed?...

New Challenger Approaches

The first thing on the list for 0.11 is our 5th Character Class, this is the first one we've developed since the Summoner in 2021!

We're committed to getting right, so we don't want to reveal anything until we're happy with how it's looking internally - but I can tell you we are prototyping a completely new resource and trying out a second way of getting Talents, both unique mechanics for Talented!

Legend Has It

Something I've wanted to do ever since Version 0.1 is a tier of *extremely* powerful Talents, that bend the rules even further than Epics.

This update, finally, I get my wish with Legendary Talents. These Talents will cost more Talent Points than any other and only one will be available on the tree each run - but should you find it here are a few of the effects we're thinking:

[Bullseye] (Archer) Double your Critical Strike Chance
[Overconfident] (Warrior) Your Combo Meter doesn't reset at the end of the Night
[Scourge] (Summoner) Enemies have a 25% chance to spawn a fly on death

Additionally, some Talents that have had to be nerfed in order to remain Epic Talents will be upgraded to Legendary. For example:

[Echomancy] (Wizard) Whenever you cast an ability, that ability will cast a second time for free after a short delay

Note: The plan with all Legendary Talents is for them to be useful (if not ideal) in any build, that way you'll never be sad to see them.

We've Listened!

Finally, we want to take some time to address some of the major areas of feedback on the 0.10 build. The two points we want to focus on for 0.11 are:

- Certain classes being reliant on specific Talents/Builds.
- Mastery 10+ feeling difficult in an unfair way.

We'll dig into both of these in a future devlog, but needless to say, things like Archer's reliance on [Piercing Blows] and Wizard's Orb build are definitely on our radar for next update. You can also expect changes that shift more of the high Mastery challenge into the late game of the run, giving you more time to craft a build before feeling the need to restart.

Phew, that was a lot - thank you so much if you made it through! Please keep the feedback rolling in, we're dedicated to making Talented the best game we can. Next time I'll hopefully be able to go into more detail on the new class.

Stay Talented

Nov 11, 2023

Nailing It - Craftomation Dev Diaries, November 2023

Craftomation 101: Programming & Craft - ElJorro

Hey mates,

Since it's been less than a month since the previous edition of these diaries was out, we haven't introduced much content to the actual build… On the other hand, there have been a lot of discussions, drafting, and decision-making. Some exciting news is waiting for you below!

Is it Early Access Yet?

The Early Access release was looming for months now, but there was no particular date for it, as we were analyzing your feedback and considering the amount of features we want in the game by the time it heads to the shelves of Steam.

After many hours of meditating over the calendar, discussing stuff both internally and with our friends in Valve, we finally agreed on the date, which is… not to be disclosed yet, naturally: we want to be entirely sure everything's in place before we make the big announcement. But rest assured, that there is a date nailed to the wall sometime around our studio.

And it's probably safe to say that you should follow the news especially closely in the mid-winter. Wink-wink, nudge-nudge.

Getting Warmer

Lots of other stuff is nailed to our physical and metaphorical walls these days, as picking a release date also implies having a list of things to be done. And boy, do we have a list! The top item on it would be to create a proper (though temporary, reserved for the EA stage) final goal for the game.

One of the options was to have the players build a rocket to send it to other planets for further expansion… But we decided that this task would probably be too big for the current stage of development. Maybe we will return to it later, but for now we agreed to stick to the core theme of the game: terraforming.

Terraforming in general was on our minds after we studied the most recent feedback. Apparently, many players (ourselves included) are starting to get somewhat frustrated in the mid-late part of the game: new mechanics and new lands emerge, but the player still has to expand their base by placing new Bonfires along instructing Craftomates to fill them with fuel, over and over again.

Looking into how we could make the gameplay less repetitive, we've drafted a couple of ideas which we will be experimenting with over the next couple of months.

One way to make things easier would be adding one item every decent game must have: dynamite! It will temporary unfreeze surrounding areas, allowing you to harvest some vital resources without crafting additional Bonfires.

(Actually, it might not be dynamite in the end - we're discussing the visuals of this device right now: if you have your own ideas, let's discuss them on Discord, shall we?)

Another step would be to return CargoMate to its’ initial form. Some players were disappointed with the temporary nature of Craftomate that we introduced a couple of months back. Apparently, this way it is too cumbersome to include Cargomates into perpetual processes.

Now they're here to stay, and what's even more exciting: we'll allow Craftomates to take out stuff from a Cargomate's backpack on the go! If you were looking for a mobile food dispensary, this might be you chance to write a program for one:

But perhaps the biggest issue that we were looking forward to get to for a long time - is an interface to help the players better manage Craftomates. We want you to be able to tell one robot from another without having to hover your mouse over them, so we'll think on improving the coloring mechanics first.

After that, we'll start working on an interface for sorting Craftomates by various features. Also, we want to introduce a feature that would display the current path of a Craftomate upon hovering mouse on it.

What’s Next?

As of right now, Ivan the programmer is taking a little vacation, to prepare his mind for the final leap into the release. But before he went away, he rolled out a couple of important QoL features, including nested tooltips (which you can even pin to stay on the screen):

And that upgrade for ‘Find & pick’ node that allows you select a source for a Craftomate to pick items from:

Once Ivan gets back, he will start off with making counters (finally!) appear in the game, and then proceed to making that epic robot-management interface. This is going to be a fun winter!

See you again in a month with more Craftomation-related goodness!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1724140/Craftomation_101_Programming__Craft/

In the meantime, here's another bunch of things that you can do to help Craftomation 101 see the light of release ASAP:

Share this post with a friend who might like Craftomation 101
You can even scribe yourself into the game's credits: most of our games’ localizations are community-made, and we now have a spreadsheet for those who are willing to help us translate the game into their native language
Buy the supporter pack to gain access to exclusive WIP stuff and full-time access to the devs’ ears and minds
And of course, play the free demo on https://ludenio.itch.io/craftomation101 or Steam, leave us a comment, or come to Discord and discuss your experience with us

Nov 11, 2023

Experimental Update - 1.25 (Quality of Life++)

Survive the Nights - a2z Interactive

We have released 1.25 on our experimental branch. Please report bugs and issues in game using the F1 menu. If you'd like to track the patch progress and follow more closely with development, check our changelog and please consider joining our Discord.

How to get into experimental branch:

Open Steam and go to your games library.
Right click on STN and select "Properties"
Navigate to the "Betas" tab and select "experimental" in the drop down menu.
Close the properties window.
You will find a single experimental server titled EXPERIMENTAL_SERVER. Join this for some testing.

Patch Notes - 1.25 (Experimental Update)

Vehicles

Vehicles no longer flying into the air from incorrect gravity.
Vehicle pivots and suspensions are now improved so that they spawn with correct wheel position.
Reviewed and fixed all vehicle spawn point positions to make sure they're not floating.

Environment

Players no longer see building interiors load after spawning.
Window fortifications no longer appear brighter/darker as you walk closer/further away.
Police station interiors working again
Prison interiors working again.

Server

Performance improvements when there are more than 8 players online.

Fixed highlighting in the inventory right click menu.
Machine parts quantity now displays in red to indicate that parts are missing.
Home no longer disappears from the map.
Unarmed UI no longer appears when joining.
Fixed incorrect message indicating that item cannot be placed when entering placement mode.
Hint for using a can opener now only shows when picking up canned items.
Disabled "Show Popular Servers" options by default. This allows player owned servers to be found more easily.
Show/Hide guide button now fits in the guide tab.
Burst and full auto attachments now have the correct icon image.
Yellow highlight now wait 30 sec before showing. Should aid the player only if they’re really struggling.

Interaction

Tools can now be used to build blueprints (drill/screwdriver/hammer)
Explosions no longer trigger electric doors do open.
Guide steps that involve crafting can now be achieved by finding the items.
Harvesting fuel is now a hold instead of press.

Crafting

Weak locks can now be crafted with raw ingredients instead of having to craft the combination lock first.

SFX

Fail sound is played when player doesn’t have any build items
Sound is played when adding build materials using E
There is now a sound to indicate you cannot fortify due to missing items.
No longer hear bush rustling sound when walking near blueprints

Admin

Added /blueprint or /bp command for getting all required items for a blueprint (do command while looking at the blueprint)
Added new admin toolskit UI that makes inputting admin commands really quick.
/trygive now works even when the search contains disabled items.

Links

Discord: https://discord.gg/survivethenights

Patreon: https://patreon.com/a2zinteractive

Changelog: https://changelog.survivethenights.net

Twitter: https://twitter.com/STNgame

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/STNgame

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/a2zinteractive

Website: https://www.survivethenights.net

Merch: https://teespring.com/stores/a2zinteractive

Nov 11, 2023

Announcement on the Adjustment and Compensation of the Probability of Guaranteed

江湖客栈-The Jianghu - 东木酋长

After the limited time event of 'Tongtian Horse Husbandry' opened on November 11th, it received enthusiastic support and participation from a large number of owners.

However, during this event, we also discovered many shortcomings and problems.

The main issues are summarized as follows:

1. The number of drops of the protective prop [reins] is too small;

2. Some orange props actually drop fewer drops than purple ones;

3. Lack of publicity on the probability of all basic drops and guarantees;

4. Failure to activate the tradability attributes of dropped and activated items in a timely manner.

Due to our lack of experience, we have had many negative experiences mentioned above. We would like to express our sincere apologies to all the hosts who have participated in this' Tongtian Horse Husbandry 'event, Orz!

To this end, we will make the following corrections and provide compensation to all owners who have previously supported and participated in the 'Tongtian Horse Husbandry'.

The correction plan is as follows:

1. The number of occurrences of 'reins' and' flat peaches' X2;

2. Increase the probability of occurrence of '99x flat peaches' and' 199x flat peaches';

3. The number of 'reins' and' flat peaches' in the orange bottom protection pool will definitely be greater than those in the purple bottom protection pool;

4. All the limited time skins, horses, and reins obtained from the 'Tongtian Treasure Pool' and 'Tongtian Horse Husbandman' will be available for sale to Tongtian'er, and all can be put on the 'Loulan Market Booth'.

For all our hosts who actively participate and support us after the opening of the 'Tongtian Horse Husbandry' event.

Due to the lack of design for this event, it has caused significant inconvenience to everyone.

To express our apologies, we will inform all hosts who have supported us before the next update and maintenance:

[Buy One Pay One Compensation]

Namely, if you obtained 99 flat peaches through sponsorship before the update, we will compensate you with an additional 99 flat peaches.

If you have already found a satisfactory Mingju through the previous flat peach search, you can also directly exchange it for the corresponding level of 'Tongtian Treasure Pool' sponsorship package.

This compensation will be fully confirmed and distributed manually.

The collection time is unlimited and permanently valid (that is, if you come to find Xiao Ai in 2024 and say you sponsored Pan Tao on November 11th, you will also be eligible for this compensation).

Could you please take a step and contact QQ: 261897659 Xiaoai to receive more help and receive your compensation. [/h3]

The following is the announcement of the probability of the basic pool and all guaranteed pools for the 'Tongtian Treasure Pool' and 'Tongtian Horse Husbandman':

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1881610/view/3802787712107546797

Nov 11, 2023

Announcement on the Adjustment and Compensation of the Probability of Guaranteed

江湖客栈-The Jianghu Playtest - 东木酋长

[Buy One Pay One Compensation]

Nov 11, 2023

Announcement of the Dropping Probability and Guarantee Mechanism of the Horse

江湖客栈-The Jianghu Playtest - 东木酋长

[Tongtian Horseherd]

The reward quality and probability obtained after normal activation are:

Minimum rules

Circular minimum guarantee: On the basis of the probability of basic minimum guarantee, for every 6 times of activation, you must receive a minimum guarantee reward in the circular minimum guarantee pool. This guarantee can be triggered unlimited times.

Special minimum guarantee: On the basis of the basic minimum guarantee probability, for every 30 times of activation at most, you must receive a minimum guarantee reward in the special minimum guarantee pool. This guarantee can be triggered unlimited times.

Ultimate guarantee: On the basis of all guarantees, the 'Tongtian Horse Husbandman' has also set up a specific ultimate guarantee pool. If the desired horse is still not obtained during all guarantee processes. You can directly obtain the 'Bi Ma Hu's reins' through basic rewards and various guarantees, and exchange it for a famous horse at the' Tong Tian Ma Hu 'interface.

【 Tongtian Treasure Pool 】

The reward quality and probability obtained after normal activation are:

White [regular product] Fashion skin: 45%

Green [Good Product] Fashion Skin: 30%

Blue fashion skin: 16%

Purple [premium] Fashion skin: 7%

Orange [Premium] Fashion Skin: 1.7%

Red [Yipin] Fashion skin: 0.3%

Minimum rules

Circular minimum guarantee: On the basis of the probability of basic minimum guarantee, for every 6 times of activation, you must receive a minimum guarantee reward in the circular minimum guarantee pool. This guarantee can be triggered unlimited times.