NosTale - Anime MMORPG - [CM] Daveius GF


Hello NosPlayers!

First of all, we want to say a big thank you to everyone for participating in this contest. We have received some really amazing artworks and we would like to congratulate all of you for your great talent and the passion you put into what you do, dedicating it in this case to NosTale.

Yasulein - DE-Alzanor


Unholy* - EU-Dragonveil


*EstElla* - INT-Valehir


Gladiolus - INT-Valehir


Jibanyan - DE-Alzanor


But that's not all! We loved your drawings so much that we have decided to give the next 5 most voted drawings' participants (6th to 10th) the title "Artiste":

Yondaimee - INT-Valehir


VenazaKP - EU-Dragonveil


Ptite-Sorciére - FR-Cosmos


MonicaVeronika - INT-Valehir


Emiyn - EU-Dragonveil


Our product team has been voting for their favourite drawings over the last two weeks and here are the results – congratulations to the 5 contest winners!

Over the next few days, we’ll prepare to ship the merchandise, which you’ll hopefully receive soon.

Congratulations to the winners!
The NosTale Team
Nov 17, 2023
BroadSword Playtest - Refractal
Integrated analytics for playtest analysis.
FOUNDRY - Pdx_Tauriel


Welcome everyone to another episode of FOUNDRY Fridays! My name is Michael aka Lxi and I’m the “oldest” member of the team. I joined MrMcDuck roughly six to twelve months after he started this awesome project and it has been a fun ride ever since! It’s exciting to see how the game has developed so far and your feedback has been a crucial part of the journey. Therefore today’s topic is about an often requested feature I’m currently implementing, the possibility to regrow plants and trees.

If you want to design a factory surrounded by nature you won’t have to design it around the existing plants and trees anymore. We’ll provide you with the tools necessary to plant trees and plants wherever you like from seeds.

How does it work in detail?
When you mine a plant or tree there is a possibility that it drops a seed beside the biomass you normally get. Currently it’s planned that each biome has two types of seeds: one for plants and one for trees.



Once you have obtained a seed you can use it like a building to place a plant/tree from the seed family. Use the radial menu which plant/tree you want to plant. Your plant or tree won’t spawn at its full height once placed, but will need time to grow. If you mine it shortly after placing it, you will get the seed back, so you don’t waste any seeds by accidentally misplacing it. As it’s growing larger it will yield a percentage of the biomass you would receive when it’s fully grown once mined, depending on the growth percentage.


Growth speed is accelerated for demonstration purposes.

I don’t want to mine 1000 trees to grow my own forest!

Great! We don’t want you to either! That’s where our new building, the Greenhouse, comes into play. The Greenhouse will be able to duplicate a certain type of seed by inserting a seed alongside with some other items/liquids. However duplicating the seed won’t work every time, there is only a percent chance that the Greenhouse will do so. This way we introduce a new kind of production cycle/gameplay: You will need to build “seed loops” and only extract the overproduced seeds to keep it going. Hint: The balancers provide a great way to help you achieve this by using the output priority setting.
Unfortunately I can’t show images of the Greenhouse yet, since the model isn’t yet finished.

Keep in mind that all of this is work in progress and might change in some ways, but it feels like this is the right amount of depth we currently want for this feature. Looking forward to your feedback!

All the best,
lxi

Follow us on socials:

Stay tuned for more news!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/983870/FOUNDRY/
Robocraft 2 - Freejam_ChrisC
Hello Robocrafters!

We are still working through the feedback we received since the launch in Early Access and hope to share more progress and information very soon. You can read our observations and initial plans from this announcement:

https://steamcommunity.com/games/1991140/announcements/detail/3819676210710371495?snr=2_9_100003_

We are planning to keep you all posted on the development of the game over the coming months and hope that you will all continue to watch our progress as we add more content, and features which will improve the game’s overall quality.

We have an update planned next week which will address the comments that “Weapons felt underwhelming” and will continue to update and improve over the coming months.

Friends & Party System
We don't have much to share this week regarding this feature, but because it is so prominently asked for we wanted to make sure that it was included in this announcement. Development of this feature is making progress. The designs are complete, and the UI art assets have been created and set up. The UI code is in progress. The back end and matchmaking code are due to start next week. We’re still drilling down to try to work out when we will be able to release it and will share when we know that information.



Never P2W, addressing the confusion
We’ve seen quite a few comments and even entire reviews that are telling players that the game is “Pay To Win”. This could not be further from the truth. All items in the game that can be purchased with premium currency are cosmetic.

We’re going to be making a bunch of changes to make this clearer to new users who misunderstood that the microtransactions were only for 100% optional cosmetic items and could not be used to unlock new parts or weapons.

We’re also planning to make changes to the Tech Ladder to bring it into the Main Menu and make it a branching Tech Tree similar to the one in Robocraft 1. All functional parts will remain unlockable for free (remember, never P2W). Once we have the design for these changes nailed down we’ll reveal more.

Scoreboard
One of the quality-of-life features that we will be bringing to Robocraft 2 soon is the Scoreboard! This will track an assortment of stats which you will be able to bring up by pressing the Tab key.



The scoreboard will track:

  • Kills
  • Deaths
  • Assists
  • Damage dealt to Robocraft
  • Damage taken by Robocraft
  • Points earned by achieving objectives
  • Total of all the above

We also wanted to show that a highly requested feature is in the works!



It’s a weird one to showcase visually, so we put this gif together which shows that if you make the terrible mistake of deleting a pilot seat which has complex logic wired up, you can quickly get all of it back by hitting undo!



Fun fact:
While Martin was working on undo, Unity’s in-built shortcuts would undo the addition of the undo input while testing undo. This did drive them a little crazy until they discovered what was happening.

Next Week, we’re going to release an update which will include several bug fixes, some map adjustments and our plans to make weapons not feel underwhelming! The items mentioned above are not going to be part of that update so stay tuned for more info and a date. Thank you for your patience and your support!
Nov 17, 2023
THE MULLER-POWELL PRINCIPLE: Foreword - Hater
Hi all! We hope you’ve enjoyed The Muller-Powell Principle: Foreword as much as you’re waiting for the full game!

As for the Foreword, we carefully read all your reviews and sincerely appreciate your feedback. Your insights and opinions are invaluable to us; they're the driving force behind our continuous efforts to ensure an exceptional gaming experience. We’re asking you to go on reporting any notable issues so we can make the upcoming game more dazzling.



The Muller-Powell Principle: Foreword Update #1 Changelist
  • Added mouse inversion
  • Added warning about photosensitivity/epilepsy seizures
  • Fixed a series of bugs found by players
  • Minor improvements
RaceRoom Racing Experience - Georg
A major update to our tyre model will be rolled out in December. It will bring substantial improvements to the way the cars handle at the limit and will have an impact on brake performance as well as the Force Feedback.

In order to provide context and facts regarding the changes, we felt it was time for a new development notes article. Enjoy the read and see you all on track in December!

Tyre Model v5 - Major update coming in December


During the development of our Porsche Pack 2023, we benefited from the precious feedback of various subject matter experts, real drivers and race team engineers. The development of a car for RaceRoom starts by plotting all the hard facts and measurable values that constitute the core character of the car. We then make the car available in closed beta to real life drivers and the first rounds of feedback are usually pretty quick iterations focussed on dialling in the car set up and its handling before going into more details. For the Porsche 992 GT3 and GT3 R, we got pretty close to full satisfaction, but... We had comments regarding excessive grip on the rear axle that resulted in understeer during corner exits and drivers also wished for a more lively behaviour in braking phases.

Now, we were 100% sure of all the data points about the cars, so there had to be something else causing it and that left one possible culprit, one of the hardest aspects of a vehicle simulation: the tyres. Little did we know this would occupy us for months and suck us like a whirlpool into an intense research phase during which we reviewed pretty much everything we knew about tyres and collected books on the matter, contacted various researchers and tyre engineers. This is where working among the KW Automotive sphere proved really beneficial as the network is truly immense and the accumulated knowledge to be found is astounding.

Since this summer, our internal physics chat channels have been at a boiling point. Discussions of tweaks to the tyre model variables, investigations into the core physics engine and comparing it with research data as well as logged data from race cars… It has been pure excitement all this time.

What you can expect from all this work is a much more dynamic feel, achieved by ensuring that the tyre reacts appropriately in the various operating conditions, such as tyre load and camber. Before this, the behaviour was correct in the optimal and most encountered conditions but did not change much when going out of that window as we lacked data on what should happen in those cases.

Now with the research we've done and data we've received we were able to fill in those gaps and also correct mistakes in certain calculations inside the physics engine.

The result is a much more realistic tyre and a much better overall driving experience.

You don’t need to trust our own words on that, here are some quotes from two of our subject matter experts:



Moritz Löhner - Professional esports driver, Moritz competed in DTM Trophy in 2021 and 2022 after winning the DTM Esports Championship. This year, he has accumulated experience behind the wheel of the Porsche 911 GT3 with Laptime Performance.

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author
I was pleasantly surprised by the new tire model, it gives a great sense of grip and connection to the tyres as well as a more realistic driving behaviour.

The car always felt kind of floaty before - disconnected from the road - and slides were rewarded too much. A healthy amount of slip angle is still fast and the way to go but not as much and abusive as before.



Tim Heinemann - Multiple winner of DTM esports, Tim has proved himself in real racing by winning the real DTM Trophy twice and he made his real DTM debuts in 2023 with Toksport.

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author
We all know that the tyre model, along with force feedback, is the most crucial aspect of a simulation. For me, it's essential to 'feel' the car to push it to its limits. This is precisely what we've been focusing on in this work. I'm pleased with the new model so far, and I'm eager to further refine it using real-life data and expertise.



As a side note, the new tyre will make the cars a lot less subject to rolling over, which is actually a great example of where our simulation proved imprecise beyond normal camber limits.

While the feeling for the car is greatly enhanced, the updated tyre physics should not require much change in how you drive or approach a car, it will simply be making a lot more sense at and beyond the limit of grip. Braking for a corner however, that's going to require some changes. In previous physics, you didn't really have to modulate your braking power much, and 100% brake input was pretty weak in comparison to real life measurements. If you have been tweaking your brake pedal sensitivity settings for RaceRoom to reach 100% input with less required pressure or pedal travel, you might want to revisit this as you will need more finesse in this critical phase once the update rolled out.



We know for sure that the changes will make it to you in our December update on selected cars. Feedback we got from test drivers and partners is confirming that the changes currently in beta are spot on and we are now working on adjusting all our other car classes with the V5 tyre approach. We are prioritising the most driven cars in RaceRoom but also the ones for which we have data. We will have to leave certain specs of tyres or certain ABS tweaks for a later update.

We don't want to stop there, however. We already know that there will have to be a V6 tyre:

During the research, we have had a close collaboration with Falken Tyre engineers
and received a steady stream of data that opened further paths of improvements in all areas, including effects of temperatures and wear on the mechanical grip.]

In order to secure a releasable package for December, we have to leave this kind of refinements to 2024 as we had run out of time to iterate enough times in testing.

The research also grew interest for the sim by professionals. In the last days, Manthey Racing started using the latest beta in their brand new simulator room and that practice program will surely lead to further feedback and paths for improvements I’m sure. Stay tuned for more on that in the future.



Credit - Manthey EMA


Roadmap for Content
Our 2023 content roadmap had some exciting content releases planned in the third and fourth quarters. However during the summer, we hit a bump in the tarmac when something went awry in our backend, causing noticeable issues. We have opted to play it safe and focus on figuring this out fully before resuming our content rollouts.

This situation has been an annoying setback as we had just hired a senior backend developer to start on a project to completely replace the old python web backend application. That old app has been causing us headaches for years, during which it has been maintained alive by successive teams. In the last months, we have had to spend time investigating these issues and looking for all possible culprits, fixing any issue we found along the way. We have taken the opportunity to also alter the infrastructure to make it more scalable. The positive news from this investigation and sequence of fixes is that it will be benefitting the game's stability for months to come, while we work on the new app.



Some remaining issue relating to Steam transactions is proving hard to debug however and this week, we have added extra logging steps in the hope to fully understand what breaks and why. This means that until a fix is found and deployed, we are considering any further major content release to be done through redeem codes sold on raceroomstore.com.

The content that was planned for release in our 2023 will be rescheduled to later dates. We will communicate on those new plans as soon as we are able.



Some background to these backend issues
RaceRoom is more than a game; it is an online service that was originally released in 2013. Any such service requires a strong server infrastructure and a performant, properly maintained backend. However, throughout the years, it hasn't received the care and attention it deserved. When we transitioned from Sector3 Studios and formed KW Studios in 2022, we have been allowed to put extra focus and resources on its development. Our platform's backend is due for a serious overhaul and refactoring.
The goal is clear – we want to ensure that RaceRoom remains relevant for another decade and steadily increases in popularity.




Long-Term Feature Plans

We haven't forgotten our long-term feature plans, and we remain as committed as ever. The interface upgrade has some elements already in-game, such as the replay interface, the options menu as well as the garage and car setup menus.



What remains to be done is the main menu and the content selection menus. The way we currently present content is quite unappealing and requires the user to make an effort to become familiar with a panel of car class icons and no way to sort by specifications, regulations, type of cars, etc. Improving the content discovery and surfacing all the awesome content that is to be found in RaceRoom is the most important part of the interface upgrade project as it plays such a huge role in how long a player is going to engage with the game. This is one of the areas where the future backend is supposed to deliver results and provide more possibilities to achieve our goals with the interface and improve upon the user flow and content discovery.

Similarly, backend development is required in order to complete our objectives with regards to the ranked multiplayer experience. While we wait for this in-game feature to be fully completed, we might come out with an interesting race organization system through Discord. Make sure to join our official RaceRoom Discord for more info on that. [ INVITE LINK - [url=https://discord.com/invite/raceroom]https://discord.com/invite/raceroom[/url] ]



OneBit Adventure - SpaceKryptonite
We are truly excited to bring you to the next phase of OneBit Adventure by bringing in so much new content and many more ways to make your character builds even stronger. This update brings a new Desert Dungeon which has a world of traps for you to avoid while you climb higher to go against the new Tremor boss. We’ve added 45 new equipment, 7 new enemies, 1 new boss, 12 new runes, starting HUB, and so much more! Grab some coffee or tea because this is a long one.

New Desert Dungeon


A new dungeon filled with traps to make your adventures a lot tougher than normal, but it is now the only place to get your fill of Smoothies which gives haste upon consuming! This dungeon has 2 sections where the first half is more congested traps and tougher, but the second half is more open desert filled with Cactus to forage. Keep in mind that you must be level 15 for this dungeon to appear.



New Tremor Boss


In the end awaits the Tremor boss ready to spring up from the ground to devour you! Avoid his lunges and poison attacks for a swift victory, but he is a tank! Killing the boss will guarantee a Rune drop as long as you are above 1500 steps. Runes are new powerful relics which we will discuss more below.

7 New Enemies


These new enemies are all exclusive to the new Desert Dungeon for now. They have very unique properties to them so learn everything about them before entering!

Your Starting Camp


Your starting camp can now transform as you explore the world of OneBit! Each character will store who you have recruited in your efforts to travel as far as possible. New dialogue have been added to help accommodate those who previously didn’t. Your starting camp will start off with Wizard Sapius and as you talk with new NPCs, you will get a notification when they are added to your camp. You may notice some new elements which we will go over.



Frank Forger


Everyone, say hi to Frank. He has a story of his own and he will be happy to share it with you once you have found him in the Underworld. You will need a Special Key which is dropped by Cthulhu in the Ruins and I’m sure Morgana won’t mind! Once you rescue him, you will find him in your starting camp and he’ll make sure to build a furnace before you get back. Interact with Frank and he will now be able to put your Runes to good use. Runes are rare relics used to buff equipment, but removing them will destroy the rune itself. If you don't discover Frank by level 20, you will get him and he will give you a story about how he got there!



12 New Runes


After reaching level 15, equipment will start to spawn with an open rune slot and so will runes. Runes have a drop rate of 5% from bosses except the new Tremor boss who guarantees them and drops more the further you go as long as you are over 1500 steps. Some amplify only weapon stats while others only work on helm and chest.

45 New Equipment


Here’s all the new equipment added to the game and it is quite the handful! Some equipment require you kill certain bosses to spawn while others do have rarity and level requires which will all be available in the in-game guide. These new equipment have new stats added to the game and with it, we have provided a description for all of that here. The in-game guide has been updated with all the new stats and equipment so read your guide to understand all you need to know.

Target Practice


Not much in a days work, but sometimes you want to know how much damage you actually do based off different builds. If you have already talked to Shintaro, then you may have gotten a gift of 2 dummies and 1 ranged target. These targets are invincible so they do not break, but have a starting hp of 100,000.

Major Changes
Before we dive into notes, let's bullet point some major changes that does affect your game in a positive way.

  • We have updated Blacksmith upgrades to cost Coins instead of Diamonds
  • You now have unlimited revives after running out of Normal Quick Saves
  • Remove Self-Slow from all weapons that previously had them
  • Overworld Bosses and Wraith now spawn more frequently. Previously was thousands of steps before you come across them.
  • You can now use Slice and Dice without enemies on an attack tile
  • New remastered soundtracks have been updated. Certainly take a listen to the Ruins/Cthulhu's music!
  • You can now skip all upgrades for the current adventure which is very useful once you have maxed out all that you could.

Pushing Shrines for a Future Update
Some may have saw our blog post on our website which said Shrines were coming. Unfortunately, this update had a lot coming so we have decided to hold off on making Shrines so we can better focus on balancing all new equipment. Shrines will be back in a future update with better features. We appreciate all the feedback and look forward to making it better than ever!

Updated log v1.3.167:
  • Added 7 new enemies
  • Added new Tremor Boss
  • Added new Desert Dungeon
  • Added new soundtrack for Desert Dungeon
  • Added 45 new equipment with over 20+ new unique stats. View table above for details
  • Added 12 new Runes which can be found by defeating bosses after hitting level 15
  • Added Rune Slot only for weapons with Epic rarity or greater and level 15 or greater
  • Added NPC recruitment with certain NPCs. You may find some already there because you have interacted with them prior.
  • Added Frank Forger who is trapped in the Underworld and needs a Special Key to rescue him. He can forge a rune into your weapon.
  • Added new Bandit NPC to Desert Dungeon who you can hire to help fight throughout that dungeon
  • Added 30+ enemy variant skins
  • Added 21 new Pets
  • Added 3 new traps (Arrow, Spear, and Fire trap)
  • Added 2 new items (Cactus Chunk and Cactus Juice)
  • Added unlimited No Heal Quick Save after running out of normal Quick Saves. Your hp, mana, and status effects will remain the same after saving. Currently, it doesn’t appear unlimited until you have consumed all normal Quick Saves.
  • Added 2 new dummy targets to test damage output. Unlock by talking to Shintaro the first time if you haven’t.
  • Added Skip All button for new Adventure Upgrades in the current adventure
  • Added a new Skin Dealer shop through Silver Da Kat. He will provide out of season exclusive skins to you at a premium cost, but also geared towards your class and can equip them right away.
  • Added new Dialogue to help with NPC recruitment for those that didn’t have any
  • Added 2x poison damage when attacking with Toxic Surprise
  • Added the ability to allow Dpad to move only when tapping and ignore movement when holding Dpad. When the Move Speed slider is at the slowest(leftmost) setting, it will disable Move Speed to allow this feature.
  • Added 2 new themes
  • Updated Conqueror Necromancer skin to use Dino Pirate instead of Zombie skin for Beyond the Grave
  • Updated Overworld Bosses minimum spawn steps to 1000 -> 500 steps
  • Updated Quick Save to save Barrier, Blood Barrier, and Mana Shield amount
  • Updated Wraith boss music
  • Updated Rats to turn gold when eating a Gold equipment
  • Updated Wizard Sapius and Silver Da Kat sprites
  • Updated upgrade cost currency to Coins instead of Diamonds. Cost is based off 100 per level plus percentages based off loot rarity
  • Update boss health meters
  • Updated first Elite max spawn distance to 650 -> 450 steps
  • Update Elite Reaper Slash AOE
  • Updated Castle to spawn at level 30 -> 25
  • Updated Slice and Dice to no longer require an enemy in order to use and can go through fence gates
  • Updated Bosses to no longer remain idle after they have taken damage
  • Updated Throwable upgrade coin cost for increasing amount from 100 -> based off weapon levelx100
  • Updated Throwable upgrade ore cost for increasing amount from 30,20,10 -> 60,40,20 for Quartz, Apatite, Amethyst respectively
  • Updated Throwable upgrades not allowing use of Ameythst and Apatite ore when weapon upgrade is maxed
  • Updated the Void to take damage before applying Void animation to the player
  • Updated Bosses to reduce poison damage by 50%
  • Updated Cobra and Snake to be immune to poison
  • Updated Beholder to drop 1x Adaptive Eye upon killing except when spawned with Chaotic Death Notice
  • Updated Mossy Hydra and Cobra boss sprites
  • Updated Poison damage to store percentage based on infliction rather than what poison percentage the player currently has equipped
  • Updated Burn to be able to stack with normal attacks
  • Updated Burn status to increase by 1% of burn damage when re-inflicted with burn. Previously, this was a flat +2 damage upon re-infliction
  • Updated Berserker to round up when the hp limit is below 0.5 hp
  • Updated Guide's dropdown to update scroll position to your selection so that you no longer need to re-scroll down to the next selection
  • Updated Guide to save last equipment and stat selected to make it easy to navigate between the two
  • Updated Ruins, Castle, and Wraith Battle music to remastered versions
  • Updated Wraith spawning to no longer be timer based. It will now spawn at random steps between 1000-2000 steps for level 1-5 then range based off level for the rest. Level 100 will spawn it between 2000-4000 steps.
  • Increased drop rate of gold equipment from main bosses by 10%
  • Increased wander distance for non-boss enemies from 10 -> 18 tiles away
  • Increased Wraith aggro distance from 20 -> 40 tiles
  • Increased Thief's base scaling hp from 1.3 -> 1.6. This is equal to Blood Knight's base hp
  • Increased Thief's base scaling mana from 0.9 -> 1.0
  • Reduced old equipment spawn level requirement to be below level 20
  • Reduced default Haste amount given from 10 -> 4. Smoothies will still give 20 turns of haste
  • Reduced dungeon length for lower levels from 200 -> 150 steps
  • Reduced max dungeon spawn distance from 4000 -> 1000 steps
  • Reduced cooldown for Grand Heal from 50 -> 25 steps
  • Removed Self-Slow from all equipment
  • Reduced drop rate of Chaotic Boss exclusive equipment by 80%
  • Reduced Poison status duration from 10 -> 4 turns
  • Removed Smoothies from Gold Chest. You can now find them in Desert Dungeon chests
  • Removed Uncapped FPS and have switched it with 300 FPS due to unknown issues occurring when FPS is uncapped
  • Fixed permadeath counter not triggering if the player quits immediately upon death
  • Fixed enemy’s armor reducing magic damage
  • Fixed an issue where sometimes a campfire would cloud save an older file when visiting campfire and not ending or saving adventure
  • Fixed Burn Aura not correctly damaging enemies by Haunting or Elite Force upgrades
  • Fixed Adventure Quests button appearing when the player is below level 10 and the resolution changes
  • Fixed Halloween boss skins appearing in November instead of October
  • Fixed Smoothies giving more than 20 steps of haste when haste is active
  • Fixed an error that occurred when a chaotic boss drop cannot find a proper tile to drop an item due to lack of space
  • Fixed Poison being able to heal the player if Poison Resist is greater than 100%
  • Fixed sorting character cards not positioning to the character you are sorting
  • Fixed the Void not hiding all UI when the player dies to it
  • Fixed player attacking allies and instead will switch places with the ally
  • Fixed spelling errors
  • Fixed blacksmith upgrade icon jitter when scrolling
  • Fixed the Void bug with Chest
  • Fixed Range being +1 over the intended limit for Tri bow
  • Fixed softlock when dying to The Void, but negated damage with Endure leaving the player in a state of alive, but not able to interact
  • Fixed Shield Bash going on cooldown when trying to cancel the skill
  • Fixed Baby Hydra being smaller than intended
  • Fixed Event Packs not saving after purchasing and closing the game
  • Fixed Silver Da Kat not appearing if you don't speak to him the first time you kill Eternal Wraith
  • Fixed Ricochet not inflicting status effects after the first target
  • Fixed double strike and triple strike not inflicting status effects per strike
  • Fixed certain range checks like Scatter allowing it to damage the same enemy more than once
  • Fixed Bosses traveling at supersonic speed due to incorrect collision checks
  • Fixed VIP not updating meter after gaining more VIP xp through Rankings than the max meter
  • Fixed Haste Proc occurring when the damage taken was self-inflicted
  • Fixed Boss and Wraith spawning immediately after caves and each other
  • Fixed dungeons being longer than 1000 steps at higher levels/steps
  • Fixed Free Revives being consumed even when using Dark Matter to revive
Above Snakes - Square Glade Games


🐍 We launched on GOG!
We know that you asked for this many, many times and we are happy to announce that we successfully accomplished to launch Above Snakes on GOG.com in a DRM-free version! You can acquire it right now at 20% off!

The GOG version will receive the same update support that the Steam version receives!

  • DRM-free (no platform required to launch the game, you own the files!)
  • 20% launch discount!
  • No activation, no online-connection required to play!
  • Receive all future updates for free!



More Updates?
We are happy to announce that we started working on another content update for Above Snakes which will include some new content (world pieces, quests, items, etc.), bug fixes and quality of life improvements. We aim to launch this update still this year. If you have a specific feature or content idea, please feel to request it in the comments below!

20% off on GOG, but what about Steam?!
We will also run a 20% discount on Steam starting in a couple of days, on November 21st!

❤️ Supporter's Club

If you want to support us beyond buying Above Snakes, there is a Supporter’s Club which will grant following benefits:
  • Behind the curtains looks into development.
  • Early access to internal Above Snakes builds.
  • Exclusive access to prototypes of New Games.
…and much more!



Thank you for your constant support and feedback. Without you as a community this wouldn't be possible!

Cheers,
Marc & Tobi

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1589120/Above_Snakes/



[Neolithic]To the End - orochi2k
Hi, everyone. Welcome to another week's developer's diary.

This is another very productive week.

First of all, we've reached the end of the story of the Paddy Field side quest.
All documents have been updated to the game's wiki, including the walkthrough and reward information.
Now, let's talk about some designs of this final part here. This is a story about a broken man, who lost everything in his life. Thus, the tune is supposed to be quite dark. In the previous design, you will find the corpse of the dead investigator and get your final clue and an item that can be used to solve this case. However, in the final moment of the development, I decided to turn it into an even darker story.


There is no escape from this madness. Even in death.
With Kayir's package, you can finally stabilize Kayir's situation. He will reveal to you a memory.

Of course, he is involved in this story. That's why I got him in the game before finishing this part.
You will find out all the truth behind this side quest. You will find Kayir's past. You will find out why he became this. In the end, this is always a choice to make.

There is no right or wrong. All that matters is if you are in his place, what will you choose?
No matter the choices, you will get rewarded with an item and its crafting blueprint to allow you to unlock Kayir's chect&key game much easier as you can gain the ability to blend in those scarecrows. All his legacy will be yours to take. Thus, it concludes another memory from that old Stone Age online.

One more thing about the Paddy Field storyline, the initial music puzzle now has a text version so that our players who have trouble hearing can also enjoy the game. Life is sometimes unfair, but that's at least something I can do to help.

There are quite a lot more I'd talk about about this story. Yet, that may all fall into the category of spoiler. Thus, I think I'd better restrict myself from talking more about it. Hopefully, you will enjoy this part of the story.

Now, let's move on to the 2nd part of this diary. That's about new faiths.
As many people on RMAsia discord love bunnies, our first new tenet is:

Bunny Worship!
The tenet works quite similarly with the Cat Worship. You can surround yourself with those fluffy bunnies and pet them to show your devotion. This is your faith to customize. As it's not mutually exclusive with the Cat Worship, maybe some of you will even add them both. Anyway, have fun. :D
The second new tenet is:

I blame McDonald's for this. For all your conspiracy theories. This time it is quite real. My local McDonald's gave me some free goodies and I added this tenet in the game. Hey! It's not too bad, right? Especially to people who prefer to use food to heal instead of taking potions. :)
With this new tenet added, our progress to have the seven sins is now at 2/7. But, I'm not here to judge. After all, it's ultimately upon every single person to decide how they want to live their lives and what they want to believe in. (Oh, okay, not just every single person. Every couple of married people too. :P) Anyway, the point is, those tenets are just there. Some may seem very messed up. But, it's still a choice. Fun fact: in Stellaris, people can do even more messed up things. Yet, that's a game for 7+ years old while our game is 14+ to 16+ depending on where you live. Oh, well, life is simply unfair. :)
In addition to the new tenet, we also expanded our faith system to include three new beliefs that you can use as the core of your customized faith system:



We live in a colorful world. It's people's difference and diversity makes it beautiful.
As for now, we get 20 different belief cores and 35 different tenets. The number will continue to increase in future updates. I am also open to suggestions. :)

Next up is a new way to make money.
It's literally just...making money.

A new 3D printing blueprint has been added to the game. You can get it from different sources such as directly purchasing it from some shady merchants or defeating some bandits and hoping them to drop it. Anyway, it's now possible to print money from all those 3D printers as long as you get enough material. Sounds great, right?
OK, here is the catch.
In addition to it being illegal in real life, one challenge of printing money is, that it's just not worth it. You will need to find specific materials to make the money you print look real. You will also need a highly skilled forger to model the money with all the details so that it looks real. Thus, let's do some math in the game,

f(x) is the profit you can gain from printing money and x is your 3D printing skill, 7200 is the cost of the material you need to print each batch of money. Thus, unless you can find ways to reduce the cost of the materials, it will take a long way to break even. You will need to train someone to have their 3D modeling skill reach about level 50. Thus, it's really a long way to go. Of course, they may find cheap materials somewhere in the game. But, that will be another topic. The point is, it's not that easy to make a lot of money even if you know all the details about how to print money. It's also illegal. :)
But, once again, it's still a choice that shall exist, a feature we shall have to make this world more free and colorful.

Of course, everything above is turning this diary quite heretical. Before any inquisitor breaks in and shouts at me or shoots at me. Let me introduce our next feature added this week. That is the Indulgences. Those pieces of paper somehow have the ability to amend all your sins or negative Karma as long as you purchase them and use them. At least, some medieval priests told me so. You can purchase them from Samujier Cathedral. You can also find them among the loots of certain enemies. You may find them useful when you are about to do something sinful. Oh, wait. I think I'm just making the diary even more heretical. XD

In addition to everything mentioned above, that's the daily routine of the development. More bugs got fixed thanks to your feedback, Samujier areas continue to expand, and we also got some life quality improvements. Please check the full update logs for details.

That's for this week. Steam autumn sale is upon us next week. We will have some discounts to welcome new players, and also, our will journey continue. Probably we will see another iconic figure from that Stone Age Online next week. :)


This week's full update log:
20231111
English
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[Crafting]New crafting content: Counterfeit Money. (The amount of money you can get is heavily depending on your 3D modeling skills. In theory, you will need at least lv50 to cover the material costs. Alternatively, finding somewhere to get cheap materials may also make it profitable.)
[Egypt]Random shady vendors in the Abandoned House may sell the recipe for "Counterfeit Money."
[Commodity Market]Random shady vendors may sell the recipe for "Counterfeit Money."
[Dr Kyofu's Lab]Added a 3D printer.
[Loot]Random businessperson-type enemies may now drop the recipe for "Counterfeit Money."
[Loot]Bandits now have their own loot tables. They may also drop the recipe for "Counterfeit Money."
[Wiki]All those methods to learn how to "Counterfeit Money" have been updated to the game's wiki.
[Liu]The entrance of the "Quarantined Neighborhood" is now more obvious.
[Siberia] Returning a stolen washing machine back to Ukraine now gives more reputation rewards.
############System#################
[Dialog Window]When the name of an item is displayed in a dialog, the system now automatically sets the color of that name.
[System]Added new system module: WindowsBase_TextProcess to handle global text process.
###########Debug##################
[Jackel's Nest]Fixed a bug that causes the nurse to sell blood at a very very high price. (Thanks to 渺兔's streaming.)
Fixed a missing icon for a book. (Thanks to 渺兔's streaming.)
简体中文
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【物品制造】新的制造项目:制造伪钞。(获得的金钱数量非常依赖于你的3D建模水平。理论上至少要到50级才能覆盖所有的材料成本支出。当然,你也可以找到便宜的获得这些材料的地方)
【埃及】被遗弃的房屋内随机出现的商人可能会向你贩卖制造伪钞的设计图。
【小商品市场】随机的可疑商人现在会贩卖制造伪钞的设计图。
【恐怖博士的实验室】加入了一台3D打印机。
【掉落物】随机的打工人类型的敌人可能会掉落制造伪钞的设计图。
【掉落物】强盗类敌人现在也有了自己的物品掉落列表,也有可能掉落制造伪钞的设计图。
【维基】所有学习如何制造伪钞的方法已经更新到了游戏的维基。
【疁城】被隔离的小区的入口现在更加明显。
【西伯利亚】将一台被偷的洗衣机送回乌克兰现在有更高的声望奖励。
############System#################
【对话窗口】当对话框中有物品名称显示的时候,系统现在会自动设施这个物品名称的颜色。
【系统】加入了新的程序模组:WindowsBase_TextProcess 可以全局访问进行文字处理。
###########Debug##################
【豺狼的巢穴】修复了导致护士贩卖血液的价格严重过高的Bug。(感谢渺兔的直播。)
修复了有一本书的图标缺失的Bug。(感谢渺兔的直播。)

20231112
English
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[Faith]When you enter the faith menu with the mouse deactivated, a popup will now appear to remind you to enable the mouse so that you can see details of those faith cores and tenets when you hover over them.
[Animal]You can now pet wild bunnies to recover some MP.
[Faith]New Tenet: Bunny Worship. (Function similar to "Cat Worship." Added for 渺兔. :D)
[Faith]Reduced the cost of adding "Cat Worship" to your customized faith.
[Faith]Gatling Bodhisattva now gives +8% firearm damage. (Previously 5%)
[Craft]Your 3D modeling skills now have an impact when crafting Analysis Pads.
[Craft]Your 3D modeling skills now have an impact when crafting Plastic Pants.
[Craft]Your 3D modeling skills now have an impact when crafting Plastic Shirts.
###########Debug##################
[Unfinished Building]Fixed a typo. (Thanks to Chuliko's Streaming today. :D )
[Pray]Fixed a bug that using pray in combat can cause some text display errors. (Thanks to Chuliko's Streaming today. :D )
简体中文
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【信仰】当你进入信仰界面并且鼠标被禁用的时候,现在会有一条提示来说明你可以激活鼠标并用鼠标来显示信条和信仰核心的细节。
【动物】你现在可以爱抚野生的兔兔来恢复MP。
【信仰】新信条:兔兔崇拜。(功能和【猫猫崇拜】类似。为渺兔加的。:D)
【信仰】降低了在自定义信仰中加入【猫猫崇拜】的费用。
【信仰】南无加特林菩萨信条现在提供+8%的枪械伤害奖励。(此前是+5%)
【制造】你的3D打印技能现在会影响制造出的分析面板的属性。
【制造】你的3D打印技能现在会影响制造出的塑料裤子的属性。
【制造】你的3D打印技能现在会影响制造出的塑料寸衫的属性。
###########Debug##################
【未完之建筑】修复一个错别字。(感谢粟可的直播。:D)
【祈祷】修复了在战斗中使用祈祷会导致一些奇怪的文字显示错误的Bug。(感谢粟可的直播。:D)

20231113
English
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[Maze underneath the Paddy Field 3F]New Boss: The Lost Investigator. (Instead of a corpse as previously designed, he is now something different. )
[The Lost Investigator]Other scarecrows will join him to attack you if you are engaged in a battle with him.
[The Lost Investigator]However, he will not join other scarecrows to attack you.
[Wonderland Travel Agency]The Lost Investigator is now a potential boss in Halloween-themed random dungeons.
[Faith]New Tenet: Glouries Gluttony
简体中文
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【水田迷宫3F】新BOSS:迷失于水田的调查员。(调整了一下设计,他不再是一具尸体了。而是,某种不同的东西。)
【迷失于水田的调查员】其它的稻草人会在你和他发生战斗的时候加入战斗。
【迷失于水田的调查员】但是,他不会加入到你和其它稻草人的战斗中。
【奇幻之地旅行社】迷失于水田的调查员现在是万圣节主题的随机洞穴中可能出现的Boss。
【信仰】新的信条:饕餮之愉悦


20231114
English
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[Faith]Renamed Glouries Gluttony to Glories Gluttony
[Faith]Glories Gluttony now gets a 50% discount when adding if you are a Lucifer worshiper.
[Faith]Carnal Exaltation now gets a 50% discount when adding if you are a Lucifer worshiper.
[Faith]Your first tenet now has a -80% discount. (Previously -50%)
[Kayir's Key]It now has the tag of "Key Items."
[Maze underneath the Paddy Field]New key item: Kayir's Medicine.
[Maze underneath the Paddy Field]New document: the Investigator's Note #4. (That's all the Investigator's Notes.)
[Maze underneath the Paddy Field]Both of them will drop from the Lost Investigator.
[Maze underneath the Paddy Field]A part of the story between Kayir and Father Emilio has been added to the game. It's inaccessible right now. Pending finishing the rest parts of Kayir's story. (This part of the story reveals a lot of truth behind this entire side quest and the Father's unique ability.)
###########Debug##################
[Maze underneath the Paddy Field]Fixed a number error in the Investigator's Note #3
简体中文
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【信仰】重命名了饕餮之愉悦的英文名称。
【信仰】如果你是Lucifer的信徒,加入饕餮之愉悦信条的花费降低50%
【信仰】如果你是Lucifer的信徒,加入爱欲飞升信条的花费降低50%
【信仰】你的首个信条现在有一个-80%的折扣。(此前是-50%)
【卡伊特的钥匙】现在有了任务物品的标签。
【水田迷宫】新任务物品:卡伊特的药
【水田迷宫】新文档:调查员的笔记#4 (这就是全部的调查员的笔记了。)
【水田迷宫】上面两项会在击败迷失于水田的调查员后掉落。
【水田迷宫】加入了一段关于卡伊特和埃米丽奥神父之间的剧情,目前还无法触发这段剧情,等待卡伊特的其它剧情完工。(这部分的剧情基本上会揭露这整段支线背后众多的真相以及神父的独特能力。)
###########Debug##################
【水田迷宫】修复了调查员的笔记#3的文本编号错误。

20231115
English
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[Maze underneath the Paddy Field]Mission Complete!
[Item]New item: Scarecrow Disguise
[Craft]New Crafting Blueprint: Scarecrow Disguise (Attributions scaled with your 3D modeling skills.)
[Random Citizens]They will react to your Scarecrow Disguise if you are wearing it.
简体中文
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【水田迷宫】任务完结!
【物品】新物品:稻草人伪装衣
【铸造】新3D打印蓝图:稻草人伪装衣(属性根据你的3D建模技能而变化)
【随机居民】他们会在你穿着稻草人伪装衣的时候对你做出反应。

20231115B
English
############Content################
###########Debug##################
Fixed a bug that Dr. Jackel somehow can make you unable to sell items to other vendors. (Thanks for 渺兔's streaming.)
Technically: Window_ShopSell now automatically resets $game_variables[100] and $game_variables[101] in its dispose function to avoid any future human errors.
[Bypass Password]Fixed the mission does not display the working location in Chinese localizations. (Thanks for 渺兔's streaming.)
[Boss Fight]Fixed a bug that caused COVID-19 Vector's boss fight placement somehow got messed up. (Thanks for 渺兔's streaming.)
[Item]Fixed a typo on Item-625 in Chinese localizations. (Thanks for 渺兔's streaming.)
简体中文
############Content################
###########Debug##################
修复了豺狼医生因为某种原因会导致你无法对别的商人出售物品的Bug。(感谢渺兔的直播)
技术上来说:Window_ShopSell现在会在其dispose函数里自动清理$game_variables[100] 和 $game_variables[101] 防止人为失误。
【破除密码】修复了这个任务在中文环境下有时不会正确显示工作地点名称的Bug。(感谢渺兔的直播)
【Boss战】修复了一个导致新冠衍体Boss战的敌方队伍位置错乱的Bug。(感谢渺兔的直播)
【物品】修复了物品-625的中文文本错误。(感谢渺兔的直播)

20231116
English
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[Maze underneath the Paddy Field]The music puzzle now has a text version for people who are hard of hearing to enjoy the game.
[Samujier Hospital]Added two new dialog options on the Skeleton Doctor.
[Samujier Hospital]Added two restrooms.
[Samujier Hospital]Added two sets of alchemy devices.
[Samujier Hospital]Added another nurse who sells alchemy ingredients.
[Alchemy]Silvers and Gold are now alchemy ingredients. (Please check the game's wiki to see their elemental effects.)
[Faith]Samujier faith now also grants the skill to pray.
[Faith]New Belief: Sikhism (Just a very basic version. More content to be added in the future.)
[Samujier Cathedral]Added a new merchant
###########Debug##################
Fixed a bug that a dead character can sometimes take their action again after being revived at the same turn. Now, when a character is dead, they will be removed from the action queue.(Thanks for 渺兔's bug report.)
简体中文
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【水田迷宫】一开始的音乐谜题现在有了一个文字的版本,以便有听力障碍的玩家也能享受游戏。
【萨姆吉尔医院】为骷髅医生加入了两个新的对话选项。
【萨姆吉尔医院】加入了两间厕所。
【萨姆吉尔医院】加入了两组炼金器材。
【萨姆吉尔医院】加入了一个新的护士贩卖炼金素材。
【炼金】黄金和白银现在可以作为炼金原料。(请参考游戏维基来检查其具体效果。)
【信仰】萨姆吉尔信仰现在自带祈祷技能
【信仰】新信仰核心:锡克教 (只是一个很基本的版本。更多的内容以后添加。)
【萨姆吉尔大教堂】加入了一个商人。
###########Debug##################
修复了阵亡的角色复活后同一回合会采取行动的Bug。现在角色阵亡的同时,他们会被移除出行动队列。(感谢渺兔的Bug报告。)

20231117
English
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[Faith]New Belief: Zoroastrianism
[Faith]New Belief: Mu-ism
[Item]New Item: Indulgence
[Samujier Cathedral]The merchant now sells Indulgences
[Loot]The following enemies may now drop Indulgences: The Possessed, zombies, demonic nuns, business people, bandits, and random citizens.
[Indulgence]It can be recycled into paper.
[Hello Stranger]After the combat simulation, when talking to Alicia, you will now have an additional confirmation before following her to start the next part of the story. (Thanks for 阿碳's video.)
[Samujier Cathedral]Added an altar.
###########Debug##################
[Special Tractor Operation]Fixed a typo. (Thanks for 渺兔's bug report.)
简体中文
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【信仰】新信仰核心:琐罗亚斯德教
【信仰】新信仰核心:巫俗
【物品】新物品:赎罪券
【萨姆吉尔大教堂】商人现在会贩卖赎罪券
【掉落物】以下敌人可能掉落赎罪券:被附体之人,僵尸,恶魔修女,商人,土匪,随机市民。
【赎罪券】可以回收为普通的纸张
【你好陌生人】在完成战斗模拟后,当你和艾丽西亚对话时,现在有了一个额外的确认,而非自动开始下一段的剧情。(感谢阿碳的影片。)
【萨姆吉尔大教堂】加入了一个祭坛。
###########Debug##################
【特殊拖拉机行动】修复了一个错别字(感谢渺兔的Bug报告。)



Latest news from Ukraine:
https://controlc.com/69d8ff61
{LINK REMOVED}
Nov 17, 2023
Celestial Command - Artaani



Change log
Improvements
  • Added Steam Cloud
  • In the graphics settings, you can now choose the shadows quality (this addresses the issue of disappearing shadows)
  • Added a description when hovering cursor over the navigation data counter
Fixes
  • Now new systems on the map are correctly unlocked when collecting enough navigational data.
  • The amount of navigational data required to unlock new systems on the map is now saved and loaded
  • Scientific data collected from wreckage of enemy ships is now correctly counted in the navigational data counter
  • The global map looks like a galaxy again
  • On the map, the "back" button no longer disappears
  • The energy generator no longer functions without fuel
  • The ship marker from the editor is no longer displayed in the regular world
  • The sound volume is no longer set to 10% when default settings are applied
  • The outdated F1 window has been removed
  • Obsolete keys have been removed from the control settings
  • Obsolete buttons have been removed from the sandbox menu





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