This is an implementation to move to in-app purchases.
As of March 1st, it will be basically free, and you will be able to remove the watermark with an in-app purchase.

Apparently it would seem that running the animated attacking title while doing the initialising in the background may help towards giving an amateur feel to the game. Running it like that did give some stuttering to the animation under certain circumstances, running it in serial would have alleviated it to some extent.
It was there for 2 reasons:
- to mask the background setup
- to emphasise the idea of the game bombarding you with words, e.g. that you were being "attacked" by them.
On the second point, nobody seems to have associated the "attack" part of the name in the way I'd meant for it to be taken.
Therefore, as it has not appeared to address either of the reasons that it existed, I have decided to remove the titles from the game. On starting the game it will now go straight to the help (if still enabled in the settings) or the main menu.

Fixed an issue where an error would occur if you did not obtain mines early in normal mode.

I will soon fix and update any issues that cause the game to freeze on certain devices.

I apologize for any inconvenience.

February saw the final releases of the 1.11 beta series, and the start of internal experimentation and development for 1.12. I originally intended for 1.11 to also feature pax generation changes, but the scope of the changes became too big to just be a "plus one more thing" feature during a beta period, so it has now been reassigned as the major feature of 1.12.

Work on the new pax generation system has begun, with many experiments done in February, to put some ideas to the test and see which ones are practical and which ones are not. The guiding principle is to try to model natural demand for pax trips, and then adapt the designs to the reality of a real time game. Solutions have been found for some the challenges of adapting this idea to the game, but a lot of work still remains to be done.

https://carloscarrasco.com/nimby-rails-february-2024/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2943460/Master_of_Pieces__Jigsaw_Puzzle_DLC__Whispers_of_Nature/

Ahoy mateys!

The last month or so has been a whirlwind of activity, with the sails raised full so we could hit our latest target deadlines. Overall, things are looking great and we’re getting so much closer to truly opening up the ship for a full inspection. You can read more about those tentative plans in the mini news post from earlier this month.

Now, that brings us to the first item from that list, so without further ado here is my interview with Jen Vaughn, Captain and senior game designer on Orphan Age:

For those who may not know you, when thinking of the narrative/gameplay plans for the project, what was it that drew you to wanting to work on Orphan Age?

Honestly, I saw it as a challenge. A simulation game where the player also cares about the characters, aside from popular SIMs games where you create a vanity character that is you. RPGs and visual novel games, those narratives are crafted to make you fall in love with (or hate!) certain characters and I saw this genre as a new challenge for me.

Plus, so much media about dystopian times follows the major political or military or future important characters; focusing on the ‘every person’ affected by a crumbling society and how they live their life is much more interesting. If perhaps a bit too germane, as we watch in real time many of the world’s leaders and billionaires buy remote homes in climate crisis-’resistant’ locations.



While not uncommon in most genres of games, kids aren’t seen as often as the main characters in a survival sim game. What advantages or disadvantages do you feel there are in utilizing them as both the heroes and narrative focus in our story?

In Orphan Age, the kids grew up without a lot of resources and the idea of ‘’fun’’ is new to them. Narratively and in game play they must relearn how to be kids, in addition to keeping up with their chores that keep them alive. This is one of the strongest points of the game, to help the kids reclaim a moment of pure, unabashed joy.

Kids are fantastic as heroes because their goals and wishes are not always logical and can change at the drop of a hat. They are also challenging - I would never say it’s a disadvantage! - because they might not have the same skill levels as an adult but we fudge it a bit with it being the future and these kids grew up hard. Also, if there are no adults in the game to compare skill sets to, who is to say we are wrong?

Forged by the fire, sharpened by society - we were all kids once and the melancholy flavor of the game is a real connection point for those of us, myself included, who experienced fractured or lost childhoods.

What can you tell everyone about our band of intrepid orphans? You know, without major spoilers…

These kids are cute as shit. That’s all I can say.

Heh, but really the original character designs Laura Bisson made helped maintain the cuteness factor even through art direction changes. Maureen was the only character in the game when I first joined the team in 2022 so it was a joy to collaborate with Laura on the rest of the characters (hopefully they will all be in the game eventually).

The kids are spunky, full of heart but not untouched by trauma. Each orphan will have their personal quest where the player can explore more of the world’s lore and the character’s personality all with a uniquely terrifying backdrop. The player can choose to help all the kids fulfill their (somewhat reasonable) dreams, help just one or two, or plow forward with only the group quest.



In the world of Orphan Age, what trials do these kids have to go through?

These kids are going through all of the trials essentially. From struggling to find food and water, to maintaining their mental health. As any simulation player knows, the basics of living are how you keep pushing the game forward but it’s using characters’ special traits that can unfold more narrative highs and lows.

Since the kids are technically wanted for [REDACTED AT THIS TIME], they can only go out at night which presents its own type of trial. As animals, we’re all ‘scared of the dark’ in some aspect because we believe we’re masters of our own stories, the pilots of these bone and flesh mechs called bodies. So we’re working to capture some of that fear when the kids go out to explore by night.

What do you hope players get out of taking on the roles of our Orphans?

First and foremost, I hope they have a damn good time. But almost tied with that, I want to instill hope and the need to be a part of the change in the real world in the players.

Some people have given into the idea of a world collapse, that it’s easier to see themselves living out a Mad Max-style future than be a part of the change. It’s a way to absolve their own guilt and inaction. And please don’t think me ill-informed, of course, I know most of the pollution is made by major corporations. But there is collective action and there is individual action that can help.

In parts of the Global South and many countries with indigenous populations, they’re already making small gains against climate change by adapting and also having lifestyles less intertwined with single-use plastics and food waste. So this optimism and flexibility can be applied to supposed first-world nations and their economies of over-abundance.

Not to even mention the political leaders who create laws while not keeping in touch with what the average person goes through. Rent is too high, food costs too much - I’m not saying playing Orphan Age will create a wave of people crying “Eat the Rich’’ but it is definitely sewn into the fabric of the game.

There’s also the hope - this may sound silly but it’s a big goal - that by playing Orphan Age will help spark compassion in the players they might not have had before. And not the kind of compassion that ends at the main menu when they exit the game. Unfortunately, we’re living in a world with multiple wars and ongoing exterminations of people, the Congo, Ukraine, Palestine/Gaza to name a few. While a war is not the background of the game, we cannot create and develop within a void, so we’re obviously working on a plan for some charity streams and some other real-world work.

No game made with children as the heroes in dark times will be without flaws, it’s impossible to get something with such a delicate matter 100% right but we hope we’re able to inspire courage in those who felt nothing before. For players to enjoy the story of Orphan Age but prevent it from happening for future generations.

And that covers this month’s updates. No “Around the Studio” this time, as we’ve spent most of February fairly head down on hitting our latest milestone goal. In fact, as I finish writing this the rest of the team is deep into our build week as we prepare to send our latest milestone build onto our publisher.

With that, I bid you all adieu until next month! We’ll be back with another interview, and if my schedule allows for it, a second news post sharing a high-level look at our game systems for Orphan Age—no promises on both, but I really want to get both out in March. If there’s any topics you’d like to see discussed in a future news post, please let me know in the comments or join our Discord and chat with us about it there!

Fixes:

1. Fixed the issue in Mode Wild Brawl where market regulation and logistics squads ignored iron ore resources.
   
2. Fixed the issue where accumulated level buffs were not cleared when abandoning progress in Mode Wild Brawl from the main interface.

Optimizations:

1. Completing any faction's Mode Casual unlocks Mode Wild Brawl and Mode Heroic Incarnation.
   
2. Strengthened the Guardian Idol and Fearless Idol.
   
3. Enhanced the effects of all priority recruitment builds.
   
4. Weakened Divine Judgment and Punishment of Sin.
   
5. Adjusted the victory options in Mode Heroic Incarnation to 5.
   
6. Added a prompt of "Unable to complete achievements" on the Heroic Incarnation selection panel.
   
7. Greatly strengthened the attribute enhancement effects of exclusive unit builds.

Additions:

1. Added a "Directly enter combat phase" option to the settings menu in Mode Heroic Incarnation.
   
2. Added "Disarmament Plan", "Precision Movement", and "Precision Synthesis" to the level buff pool.

Hello!

It's time for another development update.

Last month I didn't really work on the AI stuff due to over working on it for a month so I decided to work on some other stuff I have had on my list for a while.

• Modified Kill Feed to show the team color you are in instead of "highlight" color and improved performance.
  
  
• Fixed some issues I found with Kill Cam UI.
  
• Switched chat system to another to have much more flexibility.
  
• Added friend list back to main menu which is much better than before (for me atleast). It will show basic stuff like avatar, nickname and friend's online state. You will be also able to join the room your friend is in and message the friend.
  
  
• Made some small changes to FPS & Ping UI.
  
• Now when you click a player's name on scoreboard you will be able to see some information of them. For example level, avatar and able to open their steam profile if you feel like it.
  
  
• I've made some progress on Castle's textures, here is couple pictures. This is subject to change
  
  
  
• I started to rework the "City" map, but it's in very early stage.
  
  
• Overall performance improvements like always.

That's all for this development update.
Have a great rest of your day, until next time!

Stay connected with Project Zero:

- Wishlist and follow Project Zero!
- [[url=https://twitter.com/ProjectZeroEU]Project Zero Twitter[/url]]
- [[url=https://discord.gg/BYCzkHH5WS]Project Zero Discord Server[/url]]
- [[url=https://patreon.com/project_zero]Patreon[/url]] (If you want to support PZ development and see more development updates!)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2257910/Project_Zero/

Admirals,

We are glad to announce the next upgrade of Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts in beta state. The main content of the patch is considered finished and should be not having any critical bugs. You may test the Beta v1.5 for as long as we keep it in beta state. If all is ok, we will fully release, probably within the next week.

You may easily switch to the beta mode by following those instructions:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1069660/discussions/3/3191362449922656706/

Please read below what the new update includes:



31x NEW HULLS

• USA “Modern Light Cruiser II”' which is a very close recreation of the Brooklyn-class, as a special new detailed hull. It can be found in the light cruiser hulls from 1925 and has a displacement between 9,900 and 13,900 tons.
  
• USA “Modern Light Cruiser III”' is a hull offering cruisers quite similar to the Cleveland-class. It can be found in the light cruiser hulls from 1939 and has a displacement between 11,250 and 15,200 tons.
  
• USA “Modern Heavy Cruiser II”' occupies the previous place of Modern Heavy Cruiser II and the previous hull is renamed to “Modern Heavy Cruiser III”. The new hull offers cruisers quite similar to the Whichita-class. It can be found in the heavy cruiser hulls from 1935 and has a displacement between 11,500 and 15,900 tons.
  
• Austro-Hungarian “Advanced Compact Cruiser”' which is a very close recreation of the HNLMS De Ruyter. This Dutch cruiser, which was made on a tight budget is speculatively offered as an alternative hull for Austria-Hungary, producing cruisers which could fit their ship arsenal if the nation had survived World War I. It can be found in the light cruiser hulls from 1925 and has a displacement between 6,900 and 8,900 tons.
  
• Austro-Hungarian “Advanced Armored Cruiser”' is a speculative hull of a wide and robust construction that can be something between a small battleship and a cruiser. It can be found in the heavy cruiser hulls from 1926 and has a displacement between 12,000 and 19,000 tons.
  
• Austro-Hungarian “Large Armored Cruiser”' is another speculative hull of a wide and robust construction that produces very durable warships but not very fast. It can be found in the battlecruiser hulls from 1929 and has a displacement between 22,000 and 29,000 tons.
  
• Austro-Hungarian “Advanced Small Battleship”' is another speculative hull of a wide and robust construction that produces very durable battleships but rather slow. It can be found in the battleship hulls from 1929 and has a displacement between 32,000 and 39,000 tons.
  
• Austro-Hungarian “Modernized Dreadnought I”' is a strong hull for battleships that focus more on resilience than on speed. It can be found in the battleship hulls from 1927 and has a displacement between 44,000 and 60,500 tons.
  
• Italian “Advanced Fast Cruiser”' producing cruisers very similar to the Montecuccoli-class. It can be found in the light cruiser hulls from 1935 and has a displacement between 8,500 and 10,900 tons.
  
• Italian “Large Fast Cruiser”' producing cruisers very similar to the larger ships of the Condottieri-class. It can be found in the light cruiser hulls from 1939 and has a displacement between 10,350 and 12,900 tons.
  
• Italian “Small Modernized Dreadnought”' is a hull which produces modernized battleships similar to the Giulio Cesare battleship. It can be found in the battleship hulls from 1929 and has a displacement between 24,000 and 29,000 tons.
  
• Italian “Hybrid Destroyer II”' is basically the largest destroyer that the nation can build, at the size of a small cruiser. It can be found in the destroyer hulls from 1935 and has a displacement between 5,050 and 6,250 tons.
  
• Spanish “Advanced Compact Cruiser”' producing cost-effective cruisers. It can be found in the light cruiser hulls from 1925 and has a displacement between 5,900 and 8,200 tons.
  
• Spanish “Advanced Small Cruiser”' producing cruisers similar to the size of the Navarra-class cruiser. It can be found in the light cruiser hulls from 1925 and has a displacement between 4,500 and 6,300 tons.
  
• Spanish and Chinese “Large Cruiser I”' is a speculative hull that produces cost-effective large warships. It can be found in the battlecruiser hulls (the previous hull was renamed to “Large Cruiser II) from 1929 and has a displacement between 22,500 and 28,000 tons.
  
• Spanish and Chinese “Advanced Small Battleship”' is another speculative hull that produces cost-effective battleships. It can be found in the battleship hulls from 1929 and has a displacement between 23,500 and 32,000 tons.
  
• Spanish and Chinese “Hybrid Destroyer”' is a hull that is very big for a destroyer and small for a cruiser but can be useful for nations with a tight budget. It can be found in the destroyer hulls from 1935 and has a displacement between 4,750 and 5,950 tons.
  
• Chinese “Large Torpedo Warship”'can offer experimental large ships which can fulfill a role that have never existed, to cover the sea with swarms of torpedoes against the enemy at the expense of smaller protection and gun firepower. It can be found in the battleship hulls from 1936 and has a displacement between 31,000 and 43,000 tons.
  
• Japanese “Experimental Torpedo Cruiser II”' producing fast cruisers with the ability to host many side torpedoes. It can be found in the light cruiser hulls from 1930 and has a displacement between 7,100 and 12,000 tons.
  
• Japanese “Modern Light Cruiser III”' producing capable all-around cruisers. It can be found in the light cruiser hulls from 1935 and has a displacement between 10,900 and 14,900 tons.
  
• Japanese “Modern Heavy Cruiser V”' producing cruisers with advantages and disadvantages similar to the Atago-class. It can be found in the heavy cruiser hulls from 1939 and has a displacement between 14,400 and 18,900 tons.
  
• Japanese “Modernized Battlecruiser”' offers not the fastest hulls for a battlecruiser but focuses more on resilience and number of secondary guns. It can be found in the battlecruiser hulls from 1929 and has a displacement between 42,500 and 57,500 tons.
  
• Japanese “Modernized Dreadnought IV”' is another battleship alternative for the nation which is very resilient and a stabile gun platform but rather slow. It can be found in the battleship hulls from 1927 and has a displacement between 42,000 and 69,500 tons.
  
• Japanese “Modern Battlecruiser II”' offers designs of versatile, very fast and powerful battlecruisers which though have not much resilience. It can be found in the battlecruiser hulls from 1935 and has a displacement between 38,500 and 54,000 tons.
  
• French “Modern Light Cruiser II”' is a speculative hull that can produce fast and reliable cruisers which though are expensive. It can be found in the light cruiser hulls from 1935 and has a displacement between 9,500 and 12,500 tons.
  
• French “Modern Heavy Cruiser III”' is a speculative hull that produces powerful and expensive cruisers. It can be found in the heavy cruiser hulls from 1937 and has a displacement between 15,500 and 18,500 tons.
  
• French “Advanced Modernized Battleship”' offers a good compromise for producing a battleship that is powerful but not overly expensive that uses superior fire control. It can be found in the battleship hulls from 1929 and has a displacement between 30,000 and 54,000 tons.
  
• French “Flotilla Leader”' is basically the largest destroyer that the nation can build, at the size of a small cruiser. It can be found in the destroyer hulls from 1935 and has a displacement between 5,250 and 6,550 tons.
  
• Russian “Modernized Dreadnought I”' is a new hull which offers cost effective battleships. The previous hull took the name “Modernized Dreadnought II” and was enhanced with new parts and different scaling. The new hull can be found in the battleship hulls from 1919 and has a displacement between 27,500 and 35,000 tons.
  
• Russian “Flotilla Leader”' is the largest destroyer that the nation can build, at the size of a small cruiser. It can be found in the destroyer hulls from 1935 and has a displacement between 5,350 and 6,650 tons.
  
• British “G3 Battlecruiser”' offers the possibility to create similar gun and tower layout as the historical British design of the G3-Battlecruiser (the previous N3/G3 Battleship, has been renamed to “N3 Battleship and received some new towers).. It can be found in the battleship hulls from 1923 and has a displacement between 42,500 and 55,500 tons.
  
• New parts and improvements for various other older hulls.

NEW GUNS

• New Mark 3 USA guns for calibers 16-inch guns.
  
• New Mark 4 USA guns for calibers 6-inch up to 16-inch guns.
  
• New Mark 5 USA guns for calibers 6-inch up to 9-inch guns.
  
• New Mark 4, 5 quad USA guns for calibers 6-inch up to 20-inch guns.
  
• New Mark 4 and Mark 5 British guns for calibers 4-inch up to 7-inch guns. (offering the more realistic style of guns of that time for the British).
  
• New Mark 4 and Mark 5 Austro-Hungarian guns for calibers 3-inch up to 12-inch guns.
  
• Changes in the late tech Japanese gun models of calibers 8-inch up to 13-inch.
  
• Full Update of almost all Italian guns for all Mark tech levels.
  
• 3D model improvements for various other guns.

BALANCES AND GAMEPLAY IMPROVEMENTS

• Faster and even more effective Auto-Design procedures.
  
• Balances on ship weights and maneuverability properties.
  
• Battle AI adjustments.
  
• Accuracy balances and optimizations of the logic, increasing fps. Note for modders: The parameters “acc_mod_vs_tiny_ship” and “acc_mod_vs_huge_ship” are no longer in use, as the system uses different internal formulas.
  
• Slight penetration adjustment. The average amount of penetration power needed to actually penetrate a specific armor width has been decreased (coefficient reduced from 0.25 to 0.2). This results in more impactful shell hits and an overall even more realistic damage model, not having an overpowered effect of armor.
  
• Research has been balanced according to the latest feedback.
  
• Rebalanced base accuracy of big guns and improved the mechanics so that the final applied accuracy does not reach insanely high numbers when range is found but is closer to the inherited base accuracy of the gun. These changes also fix the issue of having overpowered medium guns of caliber 15-inch or lower and very underpowered larger guns due their previous very inconsistent accuracy and low fire rate.
  
• The Screen Mechanics have been reworked to function similarly as the Scout mechanics. Ships will no longer be separated from their divisions but will operate within their division. This change should fix cases where the ships often had to move to many different directions and sometimes cause chaos in formations, when players gave many movement orders.
  
• Added a new button which allows the player to disable the automatic change of Division leader due to being damaged and slowed down. By default this function is enabled but players can set it as they want for their divisions. This was a feature widely requested by players.
  
• Some improvements on the UI functionality of the campaign, for example. showing the sum of ports of a nation, the occupied port tonnage when selecting a port to send your ship etc.
  
• Average initial distance of enemy ships in campaign battles have been increased so that the AI which wants to fight at effective high ranges does not seem that it wants to retreat.
  
• Added tooltip for the campaign political action “Cancel Alliance" that explains why it can be disabled.

FIXES

• Fixed an alliance condition which could wrongly create tension at sea regions where there were no enemies of the alliance.
  
• Fixed some issues which could cause formation inconsistencies.
  
• Fixed issue on campaign which caused the evaluation of Minor/Major Defeat/Victory text messages to be inconsistent.
  
• Fixed accidental torpedo launches towards friendlies when the enemy was far away in the direction of the friendlies.

SPECIAL

• Added mini-map window on the campaign world map so that browsing the map is easier and faster, especially when you want to send ships from one side of the map to the other one.

LANGUAGE SUPPORT

• Greek language localization support.
  
• Korean language localization support.

*==============================*

You may share your feedback here:

Steam Forum:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1069660/discussions/3/4299319719339285740/

Official Forum:
https://forum.game-labs.net/topic/43855-beta-v15-feedback/

NEW CONTENT

Collectibles - Find the new collectible cards that can be found around the mansion

Achievements - Brand new achievements to unlock!

FIXES

Fixed a bug where exiting puzzles just before finishing them would break the camera.

Fixed a bug in which several songs of the Soundtrack overlapped.

Fixed a bug where closing the game during puzzle animations corrupted the save file.

Fixed a bug where the hand puzzle did not show its annotations.

Added a missing sprite in the Ox puzzle.

Fixed a bug in which when respawning, duplicated steps were heard.

Made multiple minor changes to smooth the overall experience.

Increased the player's speed in the basement.

Expanded the player's vision limits in 3D.

Multiple minor QOL updates