1. This update fixes the upscalers so that they actually upscale properly!

Basically the image quality is now as you'd expect with no jagged edges etc.

Game is still hard coded to "FSR3 Balanced" mode.

2. I've also had to tweak the post processing system as I was using a very old one so some of the bloom effects are slightly different, but not by much.

3. Mouse scroll wheel is now also working again for UI elements - however, the mission planning map still doesn't zoom.

4. Fixed a bug with the targeting pod camera when you have a wingman so it now longer messes up your targeting pod or causes fps drops.

5. Set up the cloud shadow, rain and other weather systems. Nothing much to see just yet but there will be shortly ːsteamhappyː

Glad to announce that "Looking Up I See Only A Ceiling" is now available in Belarusian! 🥳

Thanks to Pan Antoś for the translation!

• Remade the forges
  
• Forges now have infinite storage
  
• Forges now have dynamic recipe selection
  
• Added Rich Presence
  
• Added an option to reset your save file

• Replaced Bonus 25% Forge Speed purchase with Bonus 25% chance to double Coal
  
• Removed multiple upgrades that were not compatible with the new forges
  
• Updated forges UI
  
• Updated forge augment costs (Gems to max all forges unchanged)
  
• Updated most forge's recipes base speed
  
• Updated most forge's recipes resource cost
  
• Updated most alchemy recipes costs and outputs
  
• Updated transmutation amounts (1 and max >> 1, 10 and 100)
  
• Updated calculations for time warps
  
• Moved AFK mode to Mine Settings
  
• Generator Speed upgrades are now additive
  
• Generator Speed delay reduction increased (0.2% >> 1%)
  
• Generator Output is now calculated through (Power * Speed)
  
• Generator Speed and Power upgrades are now separated
  
• Generator Entries now display how many resources you have
  
• Added a default sort order for inventory items
  
• Account deletions are now automated
  
• Improved Abyss Tier description clarity
  
• Clarified that relics require 'The Caves' floor 500 to unlock
  
• Improved forges item display amounts
  
• Saves are slightly smarter in case of data corruption

• Fixed an issue which could cause the generator to delay the progress display
  
• Fixed an issue which would cause cloud save checks to happen on every login
  
• Fixed an issue that caused landscape mode UI to have a 16 pixel gap in the middle
  
• Fixed an issue which would cause birds to fly into hard to tap places
  
• Fixed an issue which would cause popups to break on very rare occasions
  
• Fixed multiple issues with the Japanese, Korean and Chinese localizations
  
• Fixed an issue which could double logins and break popups
  
• Possible fix for a false positive invalid email when the password is too big (over 32 chars)

Intro text changes

I'm not fond of how video games typically handle smoking and drinking they often portray it as cool without showing any consequences. The approach I've adopted involves an 'Addiction' trait. If you start smoking or drinking, your character acquires this trait. Once addicted, you need to continue buying cigarettes and alcohol to maintain your character's mental sanity. Otherwise, the character's boredom will increase rapidly if contraband items are not easily accessible. Moreover, smoking and drinking can be fatal for your character. Exceeding a set limit increases the likelihood of your character developing cancer. The game will alert the player once a certain threshold is crossed, advising them to cut back. Additionally, drinking too much will give the player a 'Drunk' trait, which will be represented by a post-processing effect and reduced visibility.



Both the player and AI can perform certain actions like eating, drinking, smoking, etc. The key feature is that these actions can be carried out while performing other activities. For example, player can smoke while running, walking, sitting, or lying on the bed, etc. The only limitation is that the player cannot sprint, but jogging and walking are perfectly fine.
PS: As the game nears its public beta phase, I've decided to post updates once or twice a week. Apologies for the default character in the gif. I have the 3D models of the prisoners ready and integrated, but I'm currently working on some optimizations to reduce draw calls while the build is under review. Thus, I captured the gif with a default character.

Hey guys, I've just published version 3 of Epic Battle Fantasy 4!
You can update the game by selecting it in the "betas" tab of the Steam client.

Since I'm currently working on a mobile port (66% done), all of the new features and optimizations from that are being added in this Steam update. This version will go live as the default version in a week or two if no major issues come up.

Version 1 and 2 will remain accessible in the betas tab, but I cannot guarantee that your save files will work if you go from a newer version to an older version. Version 3 will not modify your version 1 save files, it will simply make new copies of them.

The cover art for this post was made by "名戸(NaT_A)" or @NaT_A_fugue on Twitter.




• Added 16:9 widescreen support:
--- This is by far the biggest change!
--- This extends to 20:9 in battles on mobile
--- Players and enemies have had their intro animations extended
--- Dragons have longer necks, and tentacle enemies are longer too
--- Spell animations that fill the whole screen have been modified to fit
--- Maps are zoomed in a bit to fill the screen
• Redesigned the user interface:
--- Made it mobile-friendly (bigger text and icons, this should help on Steamdeck too)
--- Made it look more like the EBF5 interface (including status icon changes)
--- The map menu is now hidden and a button must be pressed to open it
----- (the Esc, Enter and M keys and right click also work)
--- The minimap now shows screenshots of the maps and points to the next destination
----- (you can also zoom in on the minimap)
--- Some useful tips are added throughout the interface
--- Enemy names and HP values are shown next to their life bars in battle
--- The credits scroll!
• Added 4 new weapons for each character, all found on Battle Mountain
• Added 8 new summons, found throughout the game
• Added 6 new achievements
• Added 4 new special skills
• Added a "Treasure Finder" cheat like in EBF5
• Added a new "Double MP Cost" challenge
• Added player portraits for in-battle dialogue (adds a lot of flavour)
• Added new dialogue for the 12 main bosses, and for some summons
• Added the option to show a grid on the map
• Added the option to disable screen shake (improves performance a lot)
• Added the option to double game speed (if your CPU can handle it)
--- (There is also a button in battle to enable this)
--- (lower your graphics to make the most of this option)
• Added the option to change the GUI skin color (same as EBF5)
--- (blue is still the default option, brown and black are new)
• Added 20 fan art images to the gallery
• Added a couple of new NPCs

• Menus with a lot of icons should now open faster
• Map transitions should now load faster
• Expensive effects have been replaced with cheaper ones (glow and blur filters, etc)
--- (In most cases these changes shouldn't be noticeable but improve performance)
• Intro animation has been simplified to work in widescreen and be easier to follow
--- (yeah I know, not everyone will like this one, the old one was really laggy)

• Improved the layout of the starting town for beginners
--- (added paths, rearranged some rocks, higher contrast arrows, etc)
• Improved the general visibility of the main path through areas
• Fixed the Stagger status being consumed by non-damaging skills
• Made Lumber's final hit Stagger chance higher (70%)
• Made Mana Drain's effect inversely proportional to Syphon resistance of target
• Made Hail Storm hit once and have a high chance of freezing for one turn (30%)
• Made volume options scale logarithmicly
• Reduced Dark Player Dispel resistance to 50% (except on More Resistance challenge)
• Fixed an exploit where you can use the summon power variable for other skills




Version 2 of the game never left beta - so I know a lot of you have never played that version.
Here's a list of what was added in version 2:


• Removed the Steam DRM (Steam no longer needs to be running)
• The Steam overlay works now – this makes it much easier to take and share screenshots
• Replaced the saving system with EBF5’s: a new type of .meow file is used
• Added a confirmation prompt before overwriting save files
• Added the option to delete save files
• Added the backup save feature from EBF5 – you can now backup, name and share your save files
• Added the Zero difficulty option, which offers no challenge at all
• Added similar resolution and window options to what EBF5 has (up to 1080p, Best Fit mode, etc) (I personally played the game just fine in 1440p, but that requires a super fast PC)
• Added the option to re-send medals to Steam by clicking on them in-game
• Added the option to delete all medals from the main menu
• Added the option to reset all stat boosting items if you want to apply them differently
• Added the ability to close most menus by right-clicking anywhere
• Added buttons to quickly select different players in battle
• Added buttons to quickly access the forge menu from the equips menu
• The shop menu now allows you change quantities by 10 at a time
• Players now regain HP and MP outside of battle much faster than before
• A mini options menu has been added to the first screen of the game

• Added the Cheats and Challenges menu from EBF5, which includes:
• Cheats: reduce foe resistance, reduce foe HP, increase player SP, increase Limit Break charging, even EXP after battle, learn any skill, get first turn in every wave, trigger more automatic abilities, and scan foes automatically
• Challenges: increase foe resistance, increase foe HP, increase foe evade, increase foe attack, rare foods banned, foes attack first in each wave, foes do not respawn, revived players do not get a turn, and foe HP bars are hidden
(I recommend the foe resistance challenge, as many bosses will have different weaknesses, forcing you to try new strategies)
• As in EBF5, cheats temporarily disable Epic medals, and unlocking Epic medals with all challenges enabled will earn you a gold star
• Smoothed out the formula for enemy damage scaling over level 32 (no more sudden spike at final boss and Battle Mountain)
• Changed the summon power formula so that summon damage does not increase slower at level 33 and above
• Reduced player MP growth over level 20, to prevent nearly unlimited MP
• Foes drop much more AP towards the very end of the game, making it much easier to max out your skills
• Foes have up to 12% less HP from the Jungle and onwards to Newgame+ (again to speed up the pace)
• Party buffs, heals, and status effects now apply to the backup player too
• Buffed Sacrifice, Bubbles/Bubble Blast, Hyper Beam, Gaia Seed, Syphon, Debilitate, Dispel, and changed Dark Flare
• Soul Arrow no longer copies stats that are lower than yours
• Some unfair foe attacks have been nerfed (Flame wraiths only use death on hard mode now, etc)
• Tired status now increases Earth damage, instead of Stun status doing this

• Many low-quality sound effects have been replaced with sounds from EBF5, and some animations have totally new sounds
• Sound effects will no longer play multiple times at once, making many spells sound less painful, especially AOE spells
• Music and sounds are no longer forced into mono format
• Bitmaps (such as medal icons, limit breaks, etc) have been upscaled so they look better in high resolutions
• Updated the fan art gallery so the full images are included, instead of just thumbnails, and added a LOT of new art
• Wallpapers in the installation folder have been replaced with higher-resolution versions, and a World Map file has been added

• Fixed the rough edges on text shadows – the UI looks a bit smoother now
• Fixed a major memory leak issue that slowed the game down during long sessions
• Fixed some typos in equips and skills, making some broken effects work correctly now (better Power Metal healing, etc)
• Fixed some broken foe behaviours and incorrect bestiary descriptions (Green Bush, Black Dragon, etc)
• Fixed some scaling issues in the Endless Battle mode (summoned foes are at wrong level, limit break charging effected by difficulty, etc)
• Fixed the alternative animations for Mighty Oak and Praetorian not being saved correctly once acquired




Since I have your attention, please wishlist my new Hidden Object game!
There's still a lot of work left to do on it, but the Epic Battle Fantasy characters will be in it!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2624670/Hidden_Cats__Dogs/

Hey!

Its been another month and time for an update from the developer - aka me :)

In case you missed it, Public Multiplayer Beta is open!
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1079260/view/6242613536165636826

The active members in the community might have noticed I have been kind of quiet for most of February.
November, December and January are pretty busy months me with Fireworks Mania as I always try and have something new ready for the Christmas/New Years as its the high season for this game obviously.
So after this, I needed kind of a break from the game to recharge the batteries.

However, I got "help" with taking a break, as I have been freaking sick like 3 times during the last two months. It was like a new flu every week for some members in the family.
So that "helped" me do nothing - because I couldn't.

Anyway, knock on wood and without jinxing it, I feel good now - lets hope for no more sickness :)

Oh yeah, and I also recently was on vacation - that helped too.

However, I'm back now! 💪


Even though the main focus for 2024 is still multiplayer, there are a lot of things and features around multiplayer that I also need to figure out and implement.

One of these things are Shells and Mortars as a build-in feature. As you might know, Panini (mod creator) have been so awesome to create some scripts to enable shells and mortars via mods in the current version of the game. On top of that Amnestey (mod creator) and others have been building a lot of shells for that system for all players to enjoy. Pure awesomeness!

However, this script from Panini is not working in the multiplayer version and as it is right now its not even possible to make it work due to lack of some features in Netcode For GameObjects (a Unity package the multiplayer is build on top of).

As Shells & Mortars have been on my own todo for a long time to add as a build-in feature in the game and Mod Tools, it made sense to look into this now (also because Amnestey and Keltusar keeps bugging me about the lack of Shells and Mortars in multiplayer :D).

Therefore, for the last week I have mainly been focusing on implementing that. Its not working yet, but I'm making progress and I even live streamed like 3+ times this week working on it.

These are not necessarily live streams I encourage you to watch as it's mainly me being confused about how to approach this in the best way - however I have done a lot of progress and made it simpler and simpler which is good.



Latest live streams

When Shells and Mortars will be ready so I can push the first version to the multiplayer-beta I don't know yet, but I'm doing what I can.

Here is the change log for the multiplayer-beta version since last Developer News.

No updates have been pushed since last Developer News due to the mentioned above.

This is all for now - need to get back to work on the next update :)

YouTube | Twitter | Discord

- Enjoy!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1079260/Fireworks_Mania__An_Explosive_Simulator/

Welcome, friends! Version 1.20 has arrived

New in this version:
-New unit types: Aircrafts + Warships
- 24 new units to add to your arsenal
- Aircraft
- Anti-air
- Airfields, Air H.Q, Marine H.Q

Prepare for a deeper strategic experience with the introduction of a more advanced aircraft layer along with anti-aircraft weaponry for heightened strategy.

Stay informed with expanded information panels detailing the newly added classes.

V1.2.1
-Multiple selection and game flow improvements
-Fixed selection remaining on screen
-Fixed selecting multiple units in the same time
-Bug-fixing
-Unit tweaking


Your feedback has been invaluable in shaping this update. Thank you for being a part of our community. Happy gaming!

- Fixed a bug where the join prompt wouldn't move in the multiplayer lobby
- Player score satellites no longer affect the physics of player moons

Test of my Procedural asteroid and asteroid destruction method..

The method while still requiring some work/tweaks runs pretty fast so shouldnt interupt gameplay and works by virtue of modelling concentration of masses within a asteroid and those denser regions will form fragments from which a embedded explosion seperates them.

The gameplay mechanic i will build around this is to say have nukes which could be used against fleets, but they will likely shoot them down and the energy dissipation means they wont be hugely effective. But if you could use a burrowing missile into a large asteroid (video is approx 3km wide) that can fragment large pieces of asteroid flying away at a speed that could easily take out a few ships or severely damage them (since the fragments are about 500m). With this approach if defending a region from attack you can carefully place your missiles to burrow on a certain side of the asteroid, you can then remotely trigger the explosion as the enemy approaches you and in one action you can severely damage their fleet.

Im going to leave this part for the moment but i will soon be..

* Integrating this asteroid type into the general asteroids. I will test to make sure they run as good as current ones so frame rates arnt hit.
* Destruction will be enabled but it may initially be limited to a single explosion per asteroid. There is no reason it cant be more, i just havnt tested how it looks.
* I'll add some sort of particle dust effect local to the explosion, this should hide the change in mesh and ideally i'll add some sort of trail to the asteroids.
*I'll be refining the geometry, you can just about make out in the video there is one Vertex that hasnt changed for whatever reason. Since i know a TRI shouldnt be above a certain size, i can do a smoothing pass to eliminate sudden changes in geometry.

I'll be back to the ship builder now which has external components linking to the outer frame, I am now going to be doing the same for the internal components. The new ship builder and asteroid tech will be released in the next version which will be a major revision and follow me actually trying to market the game for once!