If you're reading this, ANARCHY's final update of 2023 is live! Rendezvous (0.1.4) packs big changes to ParAdise's combat & field experience, a whole set of Steam Inventory Items, a new quest UI, pathfinding adjustments β and so, so much more!
Utopia on Earth
The preview already introduced field battles and variations as the two flagship features coming with Rendezvous. Since we've covered them there, I'd like to use this post right here to not only look at what's new, but also at ParAdise itself.
In other words, we'll use Lorna's question as a starting point to pose two questions of our own. What can ParAdise do for you? And secondly, what does ParAdise want from you?
One of Four
Initially, Lorna's little adventure was conceived as a prologue β and in many ways it still is! There's lots of exposition including a whole bunch of question marks. In regards to ANARCHY, ParAdise carries a special responsibility to establish ground-rules from which we can extrapolate the rest of the game.
However, ParAdise also has a story of its own. TRACHI's goal to portray social dynamics is here represented by Lorna's struggle not only to make sense of the world β but to find her place in it, too.
Introduction
At the moment, ImmigrAtion is just a Fragment with a little snapshot from Lorna's past. Those of you accustomed to TRACHI however already know: Things are rarely as they seem. At some point between tomorrow and February 28th, we'll rip away the tapestry and expose the world for what it is.
For a brief time, Lorna will get what she wants. A large load of truth, served with a gigantic slice of humble pie. Fortunately for everyone involved, Lorna won't have to cope by herself.
Vox Populi
TRACHI itself is full of people who love nothing more than to lend a helping hand. Whether it's a battle to the death or any other forms of social interaction, Lorna can count on the fact that everybody involved wants to leave their mark β including you.
After all, some of you were already around when TRACHI's calendars struck 1923. Contrary to our three-day vacation in and around a now famous city, we're no longer just standing by.
The World & You
AUTONOMY's interaction boiled down to triggering dialogue and/or changing scenes. In ANARCHY, we'll also be interacting a lot. However, there is now a whole range of interactable objects eagerly waiting to be used.
From Monoliths to Fragments to Signposts, Quest Boards, shops and doors and ladders β ParAdise already serves an entire buffet of interactions arranged exclusively for you. All of these and the ones currently planned follow a single, overarching goal.
Progression
TRACHI has always been about personal growth. What's new in ANARCHY is the ability to quantify this kind of progress via stats, equipment, consumables or quests. For that matter, a major chunk of development time was spent on establishing pipelines that not only facilitate changes to these systems, but also present them to you.
A user interface that accomplishes all of that is not just a commodity, it's an essential element of every game with an ambition to call itself an RPG. Coincidentally, one of these elements has also been reworked for Rendezvous.
Laundry List
Quests by itself operate on a meta level. They don't do much on their own, but they're often the main indicator of where you currently are within a game. Starting from which quest is available where and when and how β all the way to what they want you to do. Which doesn't count for much if the game keeps that information from you.
For that reason, the Quest UI itself has undergone a complete rework. There is a now clear distinction between quest text (narrative flavour), requirements to complete the quest and β last but not least β rewards. This should give you a clear idea of what you need to do in return for what β and why someone wants you to do it in the first place.
Motivation
For all the breadcrumbs and leitmotifs I'm trying to implement, I constantly remind myself that these things don't necessarily mean much to everyone. If you prefer to run around and kill things for fun, that's okay! In fact, you're actively being catered to.
By far the biggest change ANARCHY brings to the table is the introduction of combat segments. Battles not only constitute the third pillar on which the entire game is built upon, they are also the most striking indicator of how well you've navigated the RPG systems mentioned above.
Frontier
Shortly after the release of 0.1.3 (Marche), I set my mind on transferring combat from dedicated battle maps to the field map itself. Even though fights in ParAdise were already heavily impacted by things you brought along, there was always a potential for more.
For starters, I wanted to put an emphasis on the place you're initiating battle from. Secondly, I wanted to give patrolling combatants the ability to join the battle too. Those are two of the reasons why β starting today β field maps will feature the entire trinity of exploration, conversation and battle segments.
DMZ No More
In effect, groups of enemy combatants are now placed directly on the field. Walking up to one of these then triggers a battle. Every combatant in range is placed on a map-wide grid where you then also get to deploy your friends.
The battle itself keeps running until one of three events occur. Either you win and get to continue exploring β or you're defeated and reconstructed at the last Monolith you rested at. In addition, there is also a new Escape command that functionally works the same as being defeated β except enemies don't get to dab on your remains.
Persistency
No matter how the battle turns, the overall rules of the world stay the same. Things die if they're killed β and stay dead until something triggers a Monolith. This means you're largely in control of respawn cycles, barring those that happen when you're defeated and/or flee a battle.
Most objects (e.g. ladders or doors) remain unaffected by Monoliths. There's also an option to eventually introduce enemies that only (re)spawn under certain circumstances β if they respawn at all.
Coherence
If you've played ExcommunicAtion, you're already aware that spawning things is not a power reserved by Monoliths. In fact, Ganymede himself already publicly proved that TRACHI's people are not as irreplaceable as they claim to be.
In fact, most characters were already a collection of different versions that represent a snapshot of a specific moment in their lives. Which brings me to my final point for today.
Variation
From ANARCHY's (conceptual) birth in February 2023, I was eager to solve two things. First and foremost, I wanted to give you the ability to customize the appearance of TRACHI's people. Like every other type of interaction I mentioned, the primary goal here is to give you more control.
The system shipped with Rendezvous introduces variations as a piece of equipment that changes the visual getup of the character you're equipping it on. To equip as specific variation, you need to have the corresponding Steam Item in your Steam Inventory.
Ecosystem
It's been a big effort building this bridge, but the good news is: We got it built. Integrating Steam into the pipeline enables variations to be driven directly by your Steam account.
In other words: Your personal collection of variations is driven by your participation in the patch-challenges each month. If you'd rather skip these, you can still purchase the Items through the Steam Item Store a couple of months after they're no longer obtainable ingame.
Fundraising
As with everything else I've mentioned so far, the monetisation model also tries to leave you as much freedom as it possibly can. I believe everyone should have a chance to interact with the game, which is why there's no up-front price tag on any of the TRACHI games.
However, I am also incredibly ambitious. There's thousands of talented artists struggling to make a living by producing the same triple-A fanart over and over again. If possible, I'd like to shake things up and introduce these people to an upcoming brand.
Long story short
In my mind, TRACHI deserves to be big. On the other hand, good things take time. That's why I set aside two full years to graduate from RPGMaker to a big boy engine the same way I started as a writer and became a person making video games.
The end of 2023 marks the end of my initial training arc. Starting next year, I'll have to perform. If you'd like to be around for that: I'll be right here! And if there's ever anything you'd like to see β I'd be delighted to make a change together with you!
At any rate, I wish you all the best for 2024. π Big hugs to you β and a giant shoutout to both my family and friends for putting up with me. I'll be back in a week or so with more plans and a little roadmap for our journey towards ANARCHY 0.2.
Until then, I remain β as always β your biggest fan! π
We've had the daily, but now you can also play the weekly! You can replay it as many times as you want, but you're forced to use a specific build depending on the weekly seed, and your squad count.
Changes
Added are you sure popups for quitting a run.
Misfire Mantle will shoot a max of 30 bullets.
Chrysalis growth per stack slightly reduced.
Chrysalis bullets spawn slightly smaller.
Made maxes for growth from Black Powder and Chrysalis.
Fixed laser sniper hitbox expanding strangely with Chrysalis.
Laser sniper hitbox goes away once the laser fully disappears.
Haunted Lanterns fire rate buff reduced in base and stacking.
Fishing Raft is now 2 cost (was 1).
Computer Raft is now 1 cost (was 2).
Buddy Banner now has a 30% damage buff (was 50%).
Fixes
Fixed bug with Dolphin rock hitbox persisting after it gets destroyed, resulting in players getting damaged from seemingly nothing.
Fixed staying in pause screen making the game lag.
Fixed Black Powder not affecting bullet hitboxes correctly.
Fixed problem where you can get stuck behind the Egg merchant on Ship of Gear
Fixed problems with popups.
Fixed pirate mateys not bouncing off of metal rafts.
Fixed pirate mateys and snails not reacting to bumper rafts.
Fixed lightning not always breaking rafts.
Local player drop icon stays full when dropping out in the hub by holding back.
New update available, we make the following improvements and corrections:
Adjusted the contact collision with skeletons.
Updated the sound of the Giant Crab in stage 06 of the first section, changing it from drums to sounds of heavy footsteps.
Adjusted the crab contact collision.
The activation of the fire and water bar has been updated, the fire bar will be visible once the special fire abilities are activated, and for the water bar, it will only be visible with water contact.
Added a smoke effect to the village fire.
Jump adjustment on the edges.
Also, we are participating in the Steam winter sales until January 4, 2024, so you can find the game with a special discount.
Thank you very much for supporting the game, and Happy new year's eve holidays! :)
IMPROVEMENTS - general improvement to the law approve and remove system - multiplayer join system - search elements on calendar
FIXES - seats were not refreshed on multiplayer - more errors related with committees selection - many fixes regarding constitutional laws - occasionally freeze happening in multiplayer matches - a UI navigation issue
Small patch aimed at adjusting the balance of Endless Mode. Please keep the feedback coming, I'm hoping I can get Endless Mode to be fun and challenging. If you do have feedback, please leave it over on the Steam discussions or over in my discord.
Cheers, Aarimous
General Changes:
Player upgrades (Health, Ability Damage, Melee Damage, and Pickup Range) will now all have some randomness in the values. On average there isnβt much of a change, but it should add some additional texture to each run.
Lowered the value of the βBasic Relicsβ which you can start getting once you already get all the relics.
Changed the Discord link to be my Aarimous Discord as I will be retiring the Chess Survivors discord.
Endless Mode Balance:
In endless mode I removed chest elites for the spawning pool
XP needed per level will now scale by 10% more per level, previously it was following the same amount increase as the core game where it increased by 5 each level.
Endless act difficulty modifiers will now scale each act increasing roughly 10% per additional act
Player upgrades will no longer be an option for level ups in endless mode
Act rewards for endless mode are now not always full of rare relics
Bugs
Fixed a bug where ability properties with endless upgrades would not respect the limits on act upgrades.
Fixed a bug where some of the text on the game over screen would show incorrectly
Fixed a bug where after rerolling the relics/level up rewards a scroll bar would appear when it wasnβt there before the reroll.
Fixed some issues with the Portuguese Translations
Fixed a bug where the stats and info during level up rewards would not correctly display the current base value of the ability
A patch with various gameplay improvements and new content has arrived. In this update, we have many GIFs, which might take some time to load.
Let's take a look!
New Crafting Chains & Items
We've added new items such as twine, gold, hides, leather, and updated the recipes for crafting and building.
For instance, gold is necessary for crafting a new gilded shield and a gilded two-handed axe. Twine can be used for building new objects such as an archery target.
You can obtain hides from animals and then create leather from them by using a tanning rack.
Trading
Added trading and a trader, which you can find marked on the compass.
You can use gold coins from raids to buy various resources. Additionally, you can sell them, for example, hunt and sell hides for coins.
Changed Roof Placement
The roof placement issues have been resolved, now you can easily swap its orientation like this.
New Building Elements
Added new building elements: stakes, archery target, hanging rack, long table, wooden throne, tannery rack, and round table.
The objects can be placed indoors and outdoors.
Changed the fireplace and addressed its placement issues. Also, corrected the incorrect orientation of the window wall.
Iron & Other Balance
Now you can get much more iron from smelting iron ore β it takes 30 seconds for 2 iron ore to become 1 iron. The maximum stack is set to 10 for ore.
Added more flax to the map.
Fixed an issue with the two-handed axe cutting down trees too quickly.
UI Improvements
Made UI improvements with updated icons and more understandable notifications.
Music Loop Fix
Fixed music in Survival, looping non-stop. Added a bigger change delay. More music will be added later.
Survival Landscape Adjustments
Flattened landscape near the lake. Connected certain fjords. Work in progress.
Survival Warrior AI Update
Instead of roaming randomly in the woods, they are now concentrated around the camps.
Now they can search for you within a certain radius near the camp.
They return to the camp if you successfully run far enough away.
Deer Tweaks
Improved deer AI, they run farther away and then start walking instead of staring at you. They may still stare for a bit when you come closer, this staring period might become shorter.
Better Sprinting
Improved sprinting animations, added a slight post-process, and adjusted the sprinting camera position.
Attacking Control Adjustments
We have further adjusted the attacking controls, incorporating the received feedback. Updated dynamic turn caps. Camera movement during stances mode / attack holding is much slower now, while control intensity is increased, and when released the movement is faster.
It's a tangible change and may take some time to adjust to playing with it, however, it should be more satisfying and allow for more effective fighting.
Important Block Update
Blocking has become much better in this patch, as the issue causing artificial delays and preventing quick consecutive block inputs has been resolved.
This addresses the frustration of unintuitively missed blocks and allows for more effective usage.
This brings significant benefits to multiplayer, especially considering that the delay was more pronounced there.
Stamina Recovery Update
When you fight a few enemies at once, stamina drains quickly, and it's bad when you don't have any opportunity to fight back at that moment.
We have addressed this in a specific way: now you receive a stamina boost after each successfully blocked hit. However, constant stamina draining is slightly increased when you are holding the block.
This adjustment provides you with a better chance to actively fight multiple warriors at once and emerge victorious.
Camera Shake & Effect Update
Adjusted default attacking camera shakes to be more stable.
Added dynamic camera shakes when hitting an enemy.
Additionally, with these shakes, we incorporated some camera effects to make the hits feel more impactful.
Kick Improvements
Fixed the issue with hitting invisible walls. Getting up after a fall shouldn't bug characters. Additionally, increased the kick impulse for ragdolls.
Resolved the kick animation problem when holding a bow and made adjustments to the first-person bow pulling animation.
Dual Wield Control Update
The issue of incorrect second-hand attacks has been resolved with the updated control. Now, the second hand always attacks upon a special attack press.
The second hand isn't controlled with mouse movement mid-flight like the first hand, instead, it functions as an additional hand.
The speed of dual-wield attack animations has been adjusted to be more effective in combat.
With all the puzzles complete and the objective attainable... bug fixes and polish are all that is left... and I am officially moving this out of ALPHA and into BETA. Sooooooo close to release it's making me itchy. hahaha
+ Fixed water sometimes coming over top of escape boat. + Fixed Bonehead Lock distorting some objects + Updated Pa's video monitors + Updated temp smoke to detailed smoke on Building 3. + Updates to many object Textures + Updates to many Materials to enable GPU Instancing + Added spark and ash FX to Building 3 Fireplace. + Added New VOs for Horror Doll + Added TV Remote to the Home scene + Added Multiple screens to TV for credits and stats + Added some more small details to scenes + Tweaks to a few object LODs
PLEASE send me any and all bug reports and feedback on puzzles here or on Discord!!!