Jun 20, 2024

Parasite - infidel

Sorry the new release took so long but it's a pretty hefty one. Firstly, the "engine" I used to draw the ingame entities has been removed in favor of low-level draw calls which made my life much, much easier (the usual scene with entities approach is amazingly ineffective and cumbersome for a procedurally generated open world tile-based game) and removed a whole class of bugs related to dynamically managing entities but it also exposed the ingame art in PNG format. You can find it now in the "resources/app/img/" folder along with the rest of UI images. Also this opens up the possibility of working on mod support in the future. I will create a sticky thread in the Steam forum where both potential mod authors and players can tell me their ideas so I can have a better understanding of the work needed to support that.

Not only that, the "engine" change now allows me to do simple animations and particles. Now all ranged weapon shots will draw particles and blood splots. I will likely improve and increase their amount in the future but that is not the game's focus so don't expect anything elaborate.

Secondly, the final mission of scenario A has been improved and reworked. There is now a new area type - corporate office floor. You start in the elevator and have to go through some hoops to go to your target. I won't spoil anything. Moreover, there are now two more variations of the final mission, so at the start of the game it will pick randomly what mission do you have to do to complete the game.

NOTE: I'm not entirely sure whether the old savegames will be completable (or loadable even) due to the scenario changes so I advise you to start a new game if you encounter a game-breaking bug after loading an old savegame. It wasn't possible to make the savegames 100% compatible this time.

Thirdly, some more QOL improvements to the game were implemented, read the full changes list below.

Now let me share a few thoughts. The first scenario is now in a good shape so the game is pretty close to public release (though I fully expect some bugs from the engine change and new additions). There are two large gameplay expansions that I feel like have the highest priority. One is all about the combat and another is base building. The combat was always bare-bones and simplistic due to the survival focus of the game. However, many people expect it to be much more viable. Because of that, I've been thinking about not only enhancing the combat experience but adding a viable combat-heavy path through the game. OTOH, the base building feels a bit lackluster and would go very well with the "cult experience" which is a natural extension of the chat gameplay. Both of these expansions would also work best in separate scenarios that would have this new gameplay as a theme and focus instead of the basic survival of scenario A.

So, I have three options to ponder upon: leave the expansions to be done after the game's release, implement one before the release or implement both of them. Tell me what you think.

NOTE: The game is now much closer to the public release so in a week's time I will increase the base price by 1 USD again (or your regional equivalent).

Changes:

Replaced the "engine" used to draw the game graphics (in-game images are now in resources/app/img/ folder)
New graphics, AI, generator, gameplay and music track (thanks MaxStack!) for corporate office area type
Updates to scenario A for the final mission to take place in new corpo area
Two more variations of the final mission of scenario A
Custom difficulty presets: creating new ones, editing, saving and deletion
Animated particles for ranged weapons shots
Blood splashes
Bullets hitting glass will produce a sound (no breakable glass, sorry)
Ingame minimap (accessed through mutation that is not that hard to find)
Team members will not be spawned in the very first area of the game (to make life easier for the new players)
Weapon can be marked as active in the inventory (it will be used for attacks instead of the first one in the list when no active weapon is set)
Dog host can bark to attract humans
Corporation area cannot be entered without a host

Fixes:

Uncommon AI now spawns as correct law type for the area
Fix for maximum alert and cannot leave logic (alertness will not go down once raised to max in corp)
Ambush will also finish after the last AI is under player's control
Nurturing ovum is disallowed once it reaches max level
Installing <REDACTED> on <REDACTED> is now an agreeable action (energy cost reduced to 1 when the host is agreeable)

Jun 20, 2024

2024.1 (Preview 13)

UBOAT - nihilcat

Dear captains,

There is a new patch ready for 2024.1 beta.

Localization:

- Chinese localization update by Alex Zheng, JM-LeiDao, 36 D, Xenon_Tennessee, 人生多忐忑, 肚子困脑袋饿, Parrot with Carrot.
- Japanese localization update by かねのもうじゃ.
- Czech localization update by Spid3rCZ.
- Russian localization update by Hard.
- Italian localization update by BeeTLe BeTHLeHeM.
- Ukrainian localization update by vovanvoks.
- Spanish localization update by Miguel Haakon.
- Portuguese localization update by AlexShuma.
- German localization update by Ruby.

UI:

- Added compass tool to the UI. It's accessible in the top-right toolbar.
- Added alternative depth meter tool to the UI for Type II U-boats.
- It's no longer possible to open torpedo launchers UI in TDC view.
- Fix: After completing a free roam without any notable successes by starting a new assignment, the summary of that free roam was opening with mission selection UI present on the screen.
- Fix: FAT/LUT panel was often not useable due to clipping with locked ship info.
- Fix: Tooltips of buttons near the top edge of the screen in periscope UI were partially outside the screen.
- Fix: Ship upgrade mode was still not always working correctly in play as skipper mode.
- Fix: Ship identification book was stopping to work, if it was opened after locking a periscope on a target that wasn't in the book.
- Fix: Base +8 modifier to discipline is now called "Base value" instead of "Base" to make it more clear what it means.
- Fix: Chronometer was blocking clicks on nearby elements.

Realism settings:

- Added a new setting called "Size of convoys" to allow for having larger convoys on machines that are able to simulate that.

Missions:

- From now on, all ships that are sunk within target squares of a GRT campaign objective are counted towards its progress. Previously, they were counted only during patrol assignments associated with that campaign objective.

Torpedo fire systems:

- Fix: The parallax correction dial on the TDC had its inner and outer indicators reversed. The inner indicator was showing values that should be displayed by the outer indicator, and vice versa.
- Fix: T5 torpedoes could move above water.
- Fix: Dud torpedoes had working propellers, even though they were sinking.
- Fix: Missed shots were reported too early.

Graphics:

- Fix: Wrong texture on springs on diesels in Type VII.
- Fix: There wasn't enough lighting present during decoration cutscene at night on Type IIA and Type IID U-boats.

Ports:

- Fix: Many ports didn't had any ammunition for defence guns.
- Fix: Merchant ships were docking at too shallow areas in Port of Edinburgh and were instantly sunk by hitting a shoal.
- Fix: Seam between terrain segments in Brunsbuttel.
- Fix: Various issues with lighting near Bergen with built submarine pens.

Crew:

- Fix: The crew could consume a lot of food in one go after leaving a port. This problem may still happen once in old game states, but shouldn't happen again afterwards.
- Fix: After ordering officer to go to work at the helmsman station, when Type VII U-boat has dived, the officer wouldn't go and there was notification about lack of helmsman appearing afterwards.

World:

- Fix: Canada now joins the war on 10th of September instead of 3rd.
- Fix: Ensured that convoys have reasonable proportions of merchant ships to escort ships in all cases. It was sometimes possible that a convoy was spawned with less merchant ships than there were escorts.
- Fix: NPC U-boats now less often sink ships in convoys when player is not nearby.

Voiceover:

- Officers no longer report reaching patrol area etc. when silent running is enabled.
- Sailors now never speak background comments during return to port cutscene.

General:

- Crew now disables gyrocompass only when silent run is ordered. If it's enabled back later on, the crew will no longer disable it again.
- Fix: After loading any game state with a sailor carried by a crew mate to safety, there were many issues present afterwards. If this was happening outside, the sailor that was carried was becoming stuck outside and it wasn't possible to dive because of him.
- Fix: After loading several saved game states in a sequence, where one of them had a skipper with Tight Packing skill, it was possible to cause an error, that was causing various side problems. Among other things, it was making it impossible to repair anything on the boat that required a replacement part.
- Fix: Fixed major issue in a save system that could change port types after game updates, for example it was possible for Port of Kiel scene to load in place of La Rochelle. This fix won't repair this issue in saves that were already affected by this problem.
- Fix: After loading a saved game state with another U-boat type, if certain steps were made before, it was possible for various issues to occur, like missing dialogue options with port officers and various problems related to ship storages.

Yours,
DWS

Jun 20, 2024

Update 0.0.5.6.2! Infinite Boombox is back and its better than it ever was!

Sketchy's Contract - Dimensionless Games

UPDATES

BOOMBOX

The Infinite Boombox you all know and love but BETTER!
While active the Boombox will -

Heal for 1 health per second while held.
Heal for 3 health per second when placed on the ground (this is actually 0.5 health more than the original boombox).
Heal for 5X the amount (5 health when held, 15 health when on the ground) if any dance emote is used while the boombox is active which will drain the Boombox’s resource bar (renamed to “BOOST”). The Boost bar lasts 30 seconds and can be replenished by paying credits.
If you are full health while performing a dance emote, the BOOST will NOT be consumed, this way players can still dance with the boombox at full health without worrying about draining the boost bar.
In summary, this new Boombox allows infinite music and healing while also providing the option to accelerate healing by using a resource to do so (just as you would pay credits for vending machines to gain access to small instant heals). This provides a perfect medium to those players who just want to listen to music and vibe with their friends without the need to worry about battery draining which kills the charm and immersion of the boombox everyone loves while also allowing players who don't want to stand around forever waiting for their health to go up as the time ticks away to heal much more quickly by simply using the vibe emote to do so.

GENERAL

Emotes that lock you in place can now be cancelled by moving your character rather than needing to use the cancel option in the emote wheel!
Increased the distance at which gatherables can be scanned from.
Reduced the trigger release delay to begin cooldown on Pulse rifle from 0.5 seconds to 0.25 seconds.

FIXES

Fixed an issue where looting an item while holding the boom box would shut off the boombox.
Fixed the healing description on scanned healing herbs.
Fixed an issue where environment AI were not spawning in Port Lumin.

I am extremely excited for you all to use this new version of the Boombox and to hear your feedback! I worked really hard to find a balance for it and I believe this one to be it! Go have fun with that Boombox and jam out to the music without worrying about battery! The Boombox has truly become iconic in Sketchy's and I would like it to stay that way.

Thank you everyone,

-Forsakenhalo