Jan 17, 2024

Stop the blunders! New demo version is out!

Master of Chess - BRANE

It's 2024, it's the year MoC comes out. And if everything goes well it should be out in couple of months. It's weird writing those words when there's so much more to do, but I'm excited for it. Future is bright!

If you want to talk chess or game development, join here: https://discord.gg/HYV8Zz8V2Q.

What's new?

It's been so long since last demo version that it's hard for me to list out what has changed. Better question would be: what hasn't!? You'll find threats detection feature (you'll know it when you see it), a much improved AI, more polished UI, improvements in UX, more translations. Everything changed. (for the better, I hope!)

What's gone?

I've added as much as I've removed to deliver a more focused and polished version of the demo. So the demo no longer contains:

📰 Separate Tutorial screen. It's now built in the first match.
🤵 Player creation process. I wanted to let the player see the game in action as soon as possible. You're immediately presented with pre-created player from France - Matteo Martin.
🔑 Key Moments simulation. I don't have good explanation why, it just was too buggy after I added many AI improvements in the game and I decided to cut it out for a moment.

What's the plan?

There's two threads I'm trying to follow.

First and foremost I'm looking into creating an alpha build of MoC. There's plenty of work to do, but I think I'm getting close. It will be rough, but it will be first real insight into the full game.

Secondly, I'm working on releasing a completely free app about chess opening repertoire creation. When folks saw the opening graph screenshots, a lot of comments were about how they would be interested in something like that, even if it was standalone. Now they can have it!

So a lot more work left. Check out the new demo and let me know what you think!

Jan 17, 2024

No Save Game Compatibility with NEW Combat

Archmage Rises - LordYabo

August of last year I said we would make best efforts to maintain player progress as we release updates to the game (you can read about that here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/506480/discussions/0/3809535864677346416/ )

Unfortunately, despite best efforts we won't be able to make old save games work in the new update. I'm really sorry. :crying_yeti:

What We Did

NEW Combat is a massive undertaking rewriting how items, spells, player progress, character creation, monsters, abilities, and gear all work. With so much change we knew it would be challenging. We got sample save files from the Discord community to test with. We tasked a programmer with solely working on this problem.

He did, and hit a dead end.

We made another attempt, with a new programmer for new thinking. Today I got the results that it just isn't going to work. Now, the work on this is jeopardizing our ability to release NEW Combat on Friday.

The problem has to do with the simulator nature of the game and bad data which has accrued from several versions ago to today. We can load the data, world, progress. So on the one hand, loading previous saves actually works. But once you load your old save, you can't save it anymore... That's where things are currently breaking.

We really made best efforts on this to protect player progress, but it just can't be done.

What You Can Do About It

If you would like to continue your existing save file, we've created a new branch called "legacy" that you will need to switch to before the new combat update releases on Friday.

If you haven't switched branches before, here's how to switch branches in Steam:

1. Open up Archmage Rises in your Steam Library

2. Click on the gear just below the banner on the far right

3. In the dropdown menu, click on "Properties"

4. In the new window that pops up, click on "Betas" on the left side menu

5. You should see an option called "Beta Participation" - click on the dropdown menu to the right of that and select "legacy - Legacy & Rivals (Pre-Combat Update)" which should now change your branch to the Legacy branch.

Now that you're on the new branch, it should prevent your game from auto-updating to the new combat update build that will release on Friday.

When you're ready to switch back to the most recent public build of the game, you can follow the same process to switch back to the "default" branch by selecting "None" under the Beta Participation dropdown menu.

Is This Going To Happen Again?

Very unlikely.

The new data structure of everything is THE new data structure of everything. We see no reason to change it again. I was in a meeting yesterday about the rest of the roadmap and nothing coming is close to the work we've had to do for new combat. Adding features like factions, world spell casting, enchanting, it all builds on top of what we've got here. It doesn't change the base.

That being said, while we don't foresee any more issues in preserving save games from now on, in August I was smart enough to write the following so I'll repeat it here again:

Q: Are you promising I will never lose progress during Early Access?
A: No! I'm too experienced to make that naïve promise. I'm sure at some point, maybe more than once, it just won't be possible. What I am promising is much more effort and robust tech put into testing and preserving player progress. Dropping it from forced restarts 50x before 1.0 to maybe 5x.

Today is one of those "impossible points". Really sorry about it.

Jan 17, 2024

BUG AND STABILITY FIXES

LEGO® 2K Drive - jenna.white

Bug Fixes
-Fixed an issue where players are unable to view more than their first 50 vehicles in MyHub
-Fixed an issue where the player is unable to view the rejection reason in the vehicle approval process
-Fixed an issue where some players are unable to accept party invites
-Fixed an issue where the player is unable to place flair while trying to complete instructions
-Fixed an issue where the player is unable to place parts in the Garage
-Fixed an issue where the propeller part is missing on custom vehicles
-Fixed an issue where players are unable to unlock “Xperienced” Achievement (players above level 30 must complete a story activity)

Stability Fixes
-Fixed crash when some players navigates to the Collection Tab
-Fixed crash when the player restarts races
-Fixed low framerate issues after completing a race

Jan 17, 2024

The Year Ahead

Slime Rancher 2 - erin

Happy 2024, Ranchers!

As we kick off the new year, we want to give you a brief overview of the exciting plans we have in store following our last update, Come Rain or Slime, back in November. Here’s what you can anticipate this year:

Our next major content update will allow players to more fully customize the world around them with the ability to place gadgets nearly anywhere in the world. Gadget sites will be a thing of the past allowing you to transform the Conservatory and the rest of Rainbow Island with new gadgets and decorations. We’ll have more info to share regarding this update in the next few weeks, so make sure to keep a close eye on our social media accounts!

Following the gadgets update, the team is on track for another update Summer 2024. For now, we’re keeping the details under wraps as we firm up what will be included in this mysterious update. We’ll share more with you as we approach the summer months.

Finally, we are targeting Fall 2024 for our third update of the year. The team’s working hard on this update and it’s absolutely gordo-sized, so we appreciate your patience!

Our passions are constantly fueled by the love you have shown Slime Rancher 2 and our studio. Like being struck by a bolt of lightning, you energize us!

As always, we thank you for your continued support and patience. May you never lose your sense of wonder, and may our work never cease to delight you.