Hello, Storm Strikers! In this post, we want to discuss what the development team is targeting for the second quarter and what important events we are preparing for.
The article is a bit long, but I would appreciate your interest.
2nd quarter roadmap
First, the list of tasks selected by each team for the second quarter is as shown above. Our goal is to complete at least 3 or more of these. Below, we will explain why these tasks were chosen for our work list.
Technical Team
Shop
The store system is essential for the ongoing operation of the game. Having a store allows players to spend the in-game currency they've earned, which can provide a small but significant motivation to play the game. Therefore, the development of the store system is our top priority.
Mission
The mission system provides players with daily and weekly missions to give them short-term motivation to play. Currently, the fun of playing the game is the sole reason to play, which we believe is too much of a burden. To alleviate this, we think developing a mission system is appropriate.
Hero Mastery
There are players, including some of our staff, who only play specific heroes. To make the game more enjoyable for these players, we believe a system where playing a hero increases their mastery, unlocking skills, titles, emotes, and other items, would be beneficial. It also allows players to show off their understanding of the hero to others.
Account Leveling
Sometimes, hero mastery alone might not fully show how well someone knows Storm Striker. We think an account leveling system, by revealing the account level to others, can compensate for this.
Hero Rotation
We plan to sell heroes, but obviously, new players will not have any heroes initially. Therefore, we're preparing a system that offers a set of heroes that can be used on a weekly or monthly basis.
Optimization
We've made several optimizations but believe there's still more we can do. Providing a smoother gameplay experience remains a priority for us.
Design Team
Modern Mode
Modern Mode is a system that exchanges attack power for accuracy. This is a solution to one of the biggest challenges the design team has faced.
From data gathered over the last six months, we found a significant problem: 70% of new players choosing melee heroes in their first match do not play the game again. Most of these players did not even achieve 30% of the average damage. In contrast, new players who chose support or ranged heroes in their first match continued to play in 80% of cases, and they rarely quit the game mid-match even if they chose a melee hero later.
This suggests that new players selecting melee heroes struggle to survive in the game. We believe the root cause is a lack of enjoyment due to not being able to deal damage or feeling useless in the game.
Modern Mode aims to address this by systemically assisting melee heroes to land their skills, even at the cost of reducing their damage by 25%.
Maximus and Alice will be the first to receive this adjustment on April 11 for testing. Based on the outcomes, we plan to consider applying it to all melee heroes.
Shifu Release
Originally, we planned to release Shifu in March. However, we realized in March that we needed to rebalance before adding new heroes. Electra was rushed out due to high anticipation, leading to ongoing adjustments post-release. We intend to prepare Shifu for a higher quality release.
Replacement skill expansion
Currently, Storm Striker have no hero swapping and growth elements. We believe the skill change system is a unique feature that needs expansion for players to enjoy mixing various skills for combat. We aim to prepare two swap skills per slot to offer broader choices.
Improvement of unused skills
Unfortunately, some replacement skills are currently seen as unnecessary. These unused skills fail to showcase Storm Striker' appeal. We aim to improve these skills to encourage players to think about which ones to use based on the situation.
Balancing
Balance adjustments are an ongoing challenge for PVP games. We plan to introduce changes to various skills and add new heroes, always aiming to maintain enjoyable gameplay.
Art Team
Effect Improvements
We have long recognized the issue that effects make it difficult to discern the battlefield situation. To address this, the art team has defined several rules for effects, and in the update at the end of March, we have started changing some skills to effects that improve visibility. We will continue to improve effects in the second quarter to ensure the screen is not cluttered.
Sound Improvements
Hearing is also a sense used to comprehend the battlefield situation. We have identified that currently, many unnecessary sounds are being played. We plan to refine this by focusing on essential sounds while still enhancing game immersion.
New Hero Production
Following Siphu, we are in the process of creating a hero named Lightning. We are committed to creating an attractive hero.
Trailer Production
Like other games, we believe Storm Striker also needs a trailer that is separate from in-game footage, one that encapsulates the world and the narrative story of Storm Striker. However, we prioritize quality in trailer production, so even if it takes a long time, we will prepare to present it with a high level of completion, even if it means showing it to our users later.
Cinematic Video Production
We regret not preparing even a simple story video for the release of Electra. Cinematic videos are short animations that explain each hero's story and the world. Starting with the hero Lightning, we plan to prepare and show videos that can raise anticipation for new heroes before their release.
About Early Access and Official Release
To solve the development team's concerns together with our users, we launched an early access on November 17 last year. Through early access, we have learned a lot from our users and accumulated know-how on operation. We originally planned for the early access period to be six months, which makes May 17 the six-month mark. We do not yet have a plan for what to do on May 17, so it is difficult to give a definitive answer to our users about future plans.
However, one thing we can say for certain is that Storm Striker will definitely have an official release. We anticipate this could be as early as the beginning of Q4 or as late as the end of Q4.
It's true that we are in a difficult and challenging situation due to the lack of players. But we haven't given up because we believe that once we have shown everything about the game, our users will enjoy it. For now, all we can ask is for you to trust us. The game is still lacking in many ways and there's much left to develop, but we will not give up, and we would be grateful if our users could also keep their faith in us.
Lastly, Regarding Developer Comments
As the person responsible for writing this notice, I have always believed that it is right for our users to see the content and form their own answers regarding announcements, patch notes, and official statements from the development side. I have been cautious about adding developer comments to explain and interpret on their behalf. However, writing this has made me reconsider my stance. Going forward, while it may be difficult to comment on every item, we will make sure to add comments, especially on aspects that may be sensitive to our users, so that our intentions are clearly communicated.
- Added plugin for Autodesk FBX import - Added plugin for Network filesystem support - Added plugin for Steam support
Changes
Editor LVR - All Surface button in color picker is now default on. - Removed Radial Menu material presets. Now its just user defined texture. - Added Radial Menu moved back button: L0S1 - Added Radial Menu support for dynamic icon changing.
Fixes
- Fixed Cinema mode (3D kino) - Fixed Decomposer: wrong save file path when save path is defined elsewhere than data root. - Fixed Radial Menu: All Surfaces toggle in Color now has icons.
We’ll tell you about the changes and the things that we are working on that haven’t got into that patch.
Attention!
We fixed the chat filter error when several languages were turned on by default;
BUT! You have to manually set the chat filters if your character was created before the patch of 07/04/2024.
For newly created characters, we would also strongly advise setting up your filters yourself, since the default values may not satisfy your preferences
Patch #2:
AI:
Tooltip:
enemy level is now visible (but not for bosses);
another iteration of level dots;
All common mobs take 3-5 times more time to start regenerating health;
Boar:
nearly impossible to kite it by just running around it;
has a higher chance to miss with its attacks;
Skeleton:
takes twice as long to cast its regenerating spell;
the regeneration lasts 10 seconds (1-3% of HP), can be dispeled;
AI XP gains:
increased the XP gained from skeletons;
bosses don’t give XP, except for animal bosses (temporary decision to prevent XP abuses);
Rivulet Island - Beginner’s Land:
Black Territories:
no Black Zones (free PvP) on the surface of the Island;
the mine is now safe from PvP;
50% of the spider cave are covered by a safe zone, but it is harder to farm resources there (safe and unsafe zones are divided by cascade of spider webs);
Only 2 more days until RimWorld - Anomaly and free content update 1.5 are out! They both release on Thursday, April 11 at 10 AM Pacific time. (There’s also a timer counting down on the store page!)
The RimWorld - Anomaly original soundtrack will be available on April 11th as well! This OST comes with 11 tracks and nearly an hour of awesome tunes made by RimWorld composer Alistair Lindsay.
Also, Anomaly is launching with full support for 10 languages! On release day, you can play Anomaly in English, German, French, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian, Latin Spanish, Simplified Chinese or Traditional Chinese. (Huge thank you to our community translators for helping us out with these!) All of these translations will be editable via the translation GitHub pages to allow for changes and improvements.
🚨 SPOILER WARNING: Read at your own risk! These preview blogs WILL SPOIL some of the surprises in the expansion. 🚨
Today’s preview blog talks about the less-obvious and more-insidious threats you’ll face in Anomaly. Terror comes in all shapes and sizes.
Obviously, the golden cube is no threat. It’s no more than a beautiful gift sent by a good friend. This hand-sized cube shines like gold, but is impossible to scratch. As everyone knows, cubes make perfect companions.
It’s always invitingly warm to the touch, like a trusted pet or a hug from a good friend. If you look closely, you’ll see more than gold in the delightful way light plays across its surface. If you love the cube like we do, why not make a sculpture of the cube?
Don’t listen to the others who say that we’re unhealthily captivated by the cube. Ignore those who claim that our curiosity progressed to fascination and into obsession. That we’re psychically compelled to interact with it, and we feel sick if we can’t. They’re just jealous of our perfect, wonderful cube.
THE NOCIOSPHERE
The nociosphere is very much not as lovable as the cube. Even being near it hurts. It’s made of dark metal, covered with curved and jagged grooves, and emanates sensations of pain.
More worryingly, when it appears, the sphere appears to be increasing in activity. It’s not clear what will happen when this peaks but, if you capture it, you can decrease its activity by suppressing it. Then, you can study it.
If you study the nociosphere, you can learn that it has a single purpose - to inflict pain. If you can keep it suppressed, you will learn how to intentionally activate it, turning it into a weapon to use against your foes.
When activated, the nociosphere will teleport to a remote location of your choice and unleash a barrage of pain on anyone nearby. The nociosphere will continue to hunt down living creatures until it is destroyed, or it chooses to depart. This leaves you free to love the cube.
THE OBELISKS
We’ve gone from squares to circles and now to triangles. There are three varieties of obelisk, each with a different horrific effect. They all arrive from space, and they all radiate the same putrid psychic energy, which gradually intensifies as it approaches some dangerous limit.
You can send colonists to suppress an obelisk to prevent it from activating. You can also mark it for study to try to learn its purpose and perhaps make use of it. Or, you can attempt to destroy it - but doing so may unleash dangerous phenomena.
Once you’ve completed your research, your colonists will discover that it is a fragment of a much larger archotech structure that can act on organic matter at a distance. You may discover its function sooner than that, though - sometimes the obelisk self-activates, and sometimes merely suppressing or studying it is enough to unleash its power.
Love the cube.
The warped obelisk can turn living organisms including animals and people and trees into bloody flesh monsters. A colonist can be mutated in several different ways, from growing a bone-bladed tentacle to twisting their internal organs into something thoroughly alien.
Less monstrous but just as terrifying is the twisted obelisk. This doesn’t change an organism. Instead, its crackling energy seems to pull on nearby living things, eventually snapping them away to “somewhere else”. If a colonist is taken, you’ll have to hope they can find their way out of the endless rooms and hallways.
The final monolith-wannabe is the corrupted obelisk. This uses its inhumanly complex power to duplicate intelligent creatures, theoretically without limit. Your colonists’ twins are not always hostile, but the duplication process is imperfect and any twins will need the finest medical care to survive.
THE ENDGAME
The monolith is the source of everything. The monolith is the conduit. Its power must be defeated. It threatens to twist and destroy everything we know.
But the only way out is through. You must grow the monolith’s power, widening the conduit that leads into the void, until you can finally crack it open and face the world-twisting hell it unleashes. Only then will you be able to step through into a place of nightmares, touch the machine god, and choose your fate.
ANOMALY’S RELEASE DAY
That’s all for now! RimWorld - Anomaly and free content update 1.5 release this Thursday, April 11, 2024.
Please wishlist Anomaly on Steam and share the news with your friends! We’ve seen how excited people are and all of your awesome comments, videos, fanart, and threads.
Hello again after a long time! We've been working on version 1.5 of Simply Cubic for a while, and finally, here are the update notes.
Major Changes
Gamepad Support: We've introduced gamepad support for Xbox Gamepad, Dual Sense, and Dual Shock controllers. Now you can play the game entirely using a gamepad, including all UI interactions.
Keyboard Support: Previously, Simply Cubic required a mouse to play. Apart from a few shortcuts, there were no keyboard interactions. Now you can play the game entirely with your keyboard - yes, no need to use your mouse!
Changes to Path Simulation Rights: To make the game more thought provoking and challenging in the later stages, we've reduced the rights given to the player to simulate the path in many levels.
Minor Changes
Bug Fixes Fixed an issue where repeatedly pressing Space on the keyboard during simulation would cause the player's cube to exit the path.
Significant improvement in UI and overall game performance.
Minor changes to interface, with new icons added for inputs.
Fixed a tutorial error that appeared in level 10 but was related to level 11.
Changed the descriptions of several tutorials.
Improved camera rotation. Now the camera rotates around a specific target instead of itself. If no path is selected, the camera rotates around the player. If at least one unit of the path is selected, the camera rotates around the last selected unit.
Camera sensitivity settings have been added to the options.
Fixed a bug that allowed cubes to merge and made some levels impossible when trying to push multiple cubes simultaneously.
As we discover new bugs and shortcomings in the game, we will continue to fix them. Have fun playing!