Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic - Matt (Hooded Horse)
Thank you for making version 1.0 a success!
Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic has reached a new peak of 8,200 concurrent players. Since our launch on June 20th, over 80,000 new players have joined our community. We couldn't have done it without your amazing support!
Random Map Generation Update
We're excited to share that the Biomes DLC now features random map generation! This highly requested feature is just one of many updates in version 1.0.0.3, including numerous fixes and improvements to enhance your gameplay experience. https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/784150/view/4235154200370532276?l=english Your Steam reviews and feedback have been invaluable and continuously helped to improve the game. Thank you once again for your support and dedication. We look forward to seeing you explore the new random maps and enjoying the latest updates!
Hi everyone, Thanks to everyone who's played the first PSYKO Playtest and given feedback. I've pushed a new build. A brief of what's changed:
Better medkit loss feedback
New levels and current levels made harder
Short time-based 'Trial' levels
Level Graph
Art is improved, more head/tail lights on vehicles.
Weapon/Bike skins + reticle colors
New enemies: Sniper, Jetpack dude, Shielded cars.
Difficulty and Metagame
Overall, gameplay should be much more difficult. Each level has a number of Medkits that you start with. Some levels offer the ability to pick up more of them, or make a choice between extending your clip and taking an extra Medkit. I'm expecting that this playtest may go more poorly than the last, only because now it won't be so easy, and some of the lack of polish might become more apparent. There's no way around this though. I'll work out these frustrations over the next few builds.
Note: Saves are reset
I've made too many changes to saving to be able to safely migrate old saves without breaking things. If you've already played the first playtest, you'll still need to play through the first levels to gain access to the rest of the graph, unfortunately. It's worth noting that over the course of the next few playtests, this may happen a few times until the game stabilizes. As I'm writing this, I realize it may be wise to make a temporary button in playtest builds to 'unlock' all the levels.
Level Menu
There's a level graph now. The idea here was to be able to have odd, interesting challenges that might be a little harder, or deviate from the main type of gameplay. Since the graph is like a tree, some levels end up being optional to progressing down the main path. They still have ranks associated with them. For example, the level 'Bumper Bikes' tasks the player with getting 10 collisions kills, but not doing this level doesn't prevent you from progressing to the 'Hari Coptu' boss level.
Level Ranks
Each level now has a set of ranks that can be achieved. Some are scored based, some are time based. There's also a newer type of level which are called Trials. A trial is a set of 3 sequences. Kill all enemies in the sequence to progress to the next. You're ranked on how quickly you can complete it. The current trial levels are simple for now, but they'll be quite a few more, and they'll get a lot more interesting as I learn how to use my traffic and enemy pieces.
Unlockables
I've added weapon and bike skins to the game. You'll find them on the left hand side in the menu truck. There are only a few right now, and the ways of unlocking them are by collision kills, headshots, kills, etc. I will come up with more interesting challenges for these. I'm going to avoid having things feel like you have to grind. The challenges will be more along the lines of making you do cool, interesting things.
New enemies
Sniper
They work like most FPS games; stay out of their line of sight. This feels fresh in a traffic scenario where you're having to move yourself in between the traffic, and plays to one of the pillars of 'Using traffic as cover'. We'll see how this goes. They can be frustrating, and I think they can use louder feedback when taking their shot.
Jetpack dude
For now, the enemies in the jetpacks are the same as all the others. They fire their pistol, albeit they can fly over traffic and can put more pressure than the more passive enemies in cars. I might have them deal damage on their explosion when they hit the ground. That could be an interesting mechanic, we'll see.
Shielded Cars
While simple, this concept has potential. Since the shield blocks the front line of sight, you need to pass on the sides of the vehicle to kill them. This idea needs more fleshing out. I had wanted them to accelerate with you, so that to kill them you need to drive quite fast and this increases danger (risk vs reward). Having cars change speed though was confusing visually. You need visual and sfx feedback to communicate changes in speed in traffic, otherwise you cannot perceive it with everything going on, so I've procrastinated on this.
If you've played the first playtest, there isn't a LARGE amount of new playable content; that will be coming over the next month or so, but I wanted to give an update.
Whilst working on the next big content and feature update (V0.10), the plan is to continue to release weekly improvements, bug fixes, and quality of life things. If you have any suggestions, we would love to hear them and include them in these updates! The best place to discuss your ideas is in our Discord.
Changes:
Added functionality to craftable signs: now, when you place them near a building, they will describe the name of that building (since previously, there was no way to keep track of building names after they were built)
Added an extra tutorial step to help explain that you can click on the optional tutorials in your notebook
You can now use a mine cart, even if a villager is on their way to use it (alleviating the issue of mines being hard to use in larger towns)
Villagers now walk outside the cart rail area when they are done with the mine (to stop your cart from ramming into them as often)
Villagers will now pick random seats at campfires and taverns, as opposed to always in the same order
Changed tavern lights to come on only after someone sits down, rather than also if they are on their way
Fixed villagers hitting their tankards with ghosts at taverns
Fixed tools showing through windmill door when crafting
Fixed being able to place houses from workspaces (such as the smithy or windmill) which could cause issues. Now, bookmarks relating to buildings and the town will appear disabled in such situations
Fixed villager / player relocation not happening as soon as a construction was destroyed
Slightly improved relationship icons and made them more consistent