It's been a year since I launched STONKS-9800: Stock Market Simulator in Early Access, and I'm deeply grateful to everyone who's joined me on this journey to improve the game. Just so you know, TERNOX isn't a company. It's just me, working solo, occasionally outsourcing some graphics to bring our ideas to life. This has become my biggest project, and honestly, it's been quite a ride keeping up with it.
Over the past year, STONKS-9800 has expanded massively:
Enhanced company management and a CEO mode
The ability to interact with everyone you know
Golf, an arcade hall with a shoot'em up game and gachapon, poker, fishing
Yakuza events, financial regulations, and much more
I'm incredibly thankful for all the player feedback which has helped make the game more user-friendly and enjoyable.
What's next?
I underestimated the scope of the updates. I hoped to be ready for a full release after a year, but we're not there yet. In fact, this year won't see the full release either, and I'm falling behind on my update schedule again.
So, I'm updating the roadmap once more.
Already in Update 0.4:
New mini-games including golf, arcade games, and fishing
Direct interactions with the Yakuza and through employees
A city map that allows travel to various new locations like parks and temples
Companies can now go bankrupt, merge, or be acquired
Random event mode, annual business rankings, and plenty of smaller updates and news
I'll continue to improve stability and add minor enhancements in 0.4, but I also want to share my plans for the major 0.5 update.
Expect in 0.3:[/h2]
A rhythm-based karaoke mini-game featuring my own tracks styled after retro PC-98 sounds
Claw machine mini-game, allowing you to win toys for Amy and others
Enhanced competition among companies in the same sector, giving you a clear view of your rivals
The option to start a charity or research fund to utilize the endless billions if you're particularly successful
Future plans (not necessarily in 0.5) include a more comprehensive dating simulator.
In Version 0.6, I plan to introduce commercial real estate, which will offer higher profits but at a higher cost. This update will be dedicated to that expansion.
Afterwards, I'll focus on the story mode, which will be the foundation for the full release from Early Access. The full release might be a bit pricier, and will feature new characters to compete against or befriend.
I appreciate your patience as timelines can be tricky. Thanks again for your support. I hope you enjoy the game as much as I enjoy making it.
If you're not ready to play in Early Access, I understand. Please consider adding the game to your wishlist and waiting for the full release.
Following the recent sale, we noticed a boost in player activity and uncovered some bugs. We immediately set to work fixing them so they no longer interfere with your gaming.
We warmly welcome all new players and thank you for purchasing our game!
Boss Worm Bug in the Human Campaign - The fight now proceeds as intended, and the worm no longer dies within 10 seconds of the mission starting.
Old Bug with the Disappearing Cursor on the Undead Campaign Map - We really hope we were actually successful in fix it this time.
Several Old Animation Bugs - Missing frames in the transition states of some buildings have been corrected.
Before the next heist, what do you really want? One more update! Update #111 drops 2 new outfits, fixes issues with used (1/2 Uses) Blueprints selling for $1K, sorts buying list to best offers first, adds the Token count to the pop-up confirmation for respec, and improves the loot tables and some of the Blueprint stats and variety throughout the game.
Thanks to everyone sharing feedback, encouraging us to keep up the pace and especially to those 5 players who left a review since our last update :hype:
New Style Options
We're continuing to work on expanding the options for appearance and your individual style, so with this update we've added 2 new outfit choices - an armored sheathe and a stylish dress with some fly boots. More options will be coming later this month as we press on ear decorations, more skin detail options, more masks and glasses.
Used Blueprints - for $1K?
We fixed a minor math rounding error once you used one of a Blueprint's uses. If a Blueprint was sitting at 1/2 Uses, ... well 1/2 is as good as 0 right? It's worth $1K now! Lol, woops - that was bad math. Now the Blueprint pricing is fixed properly, and you'll get 50% of the value, as each use is truly worth it's weight in cubes.
Sorting Buying Offers
When you're shopping and looking to buy something new, we've now sorted the offers from contacts to put the best price first. While there can still be some subtleties beneath the price alone, this helps most purchases be less of a look-and-seek.
Respec Tokens
Respec'ing requires a SImStream Trainer token, so when considering confirming a respec you want to know how many tokens you have left. Thanks to some F10s on this subject, we've now added the token count to the pop-up confirmation window.
Reinforcements on Sigma 7 and 9
If you were facing Sigma 7 and 9, either could make first Escalation calls for reinforcements. While we want to highlight the differences between the different Sec AI, this isn't the right place to do it, so we have resolved the issue. Outside of some rare situations (... you quietly killed everyone with Sec Level 0), Reinforcements never appear as the result of the first Escalation.
On-Going Balance Improvements
We shared when the NANOFAB major milestone was hit that was we added over 300 new pieces of equipment and blueprints to the game that the balance would be a bit shaky for a while and that we had a list of to-do tasks to keep shaping the balance back toward optimal.
We're continuing to work on that each release, and this Update fixes some issues with medical item blueprints as well as increasing the variety and range of Blueprints that will appear in some looting situations. We've also fixed missing descriptions for a number of nano-drug blueprints.
- Added 2 new outfits options for characters - stylish and ninja - Fixed issue with 1/2 used Blueprints selling for $1K - Sorted buy offer list to put best price first - When confirming Respec, the confirmation window now lists how many Simstream Trainer tokens you have left - Fixed issue where Reinforcements could be called on 1st Escalation in Sigma 7 and 9 - Improved balance on Trauma Kits and improved variety of blueprints in loot - Corrected descriptions for NanoFab pharmaceuticals - Fixed bug that made deleting appearance from the library hard - Fixed bug with empty blue square and invalid Talent sometimes appear in character status pop up - Fixed bug with Credits screen
Lord of Rigel opened to Early Access on October 4, 2022. We initially aimed for a nine month Early Access period but based on your feedback more substantial overhauls to the game UI and AI were done over Early Access. Over 2023 we completed the core features in the Early Access Roadmap, and this year we've done additional optimizations, bug fixes, and new features.
We're pleased to announce that August 26 is the planned end of Early Access,
Your feedback and reporting has been crucial over the past year and a half, and over Early Access we've implemented the following key features:
Lithovore and Mechanoid species- The Tulocks and Synth
Custom species
Gigantic and Legendary Galaxies
Elder Species- The Rigelans and Arcturans
Diplomacy Victories
Final War
Galactic Tension and the Doomsday Clock
Megastructures- Dyson Spheres and Ringworlds
Additional ground combat units
Research Victory
Grand Menaces
In addition to these we've added numerous quality of life features based on your feedback (not an exhaustive list, but the major ones):
Leaders
Ship Refitting
Strategic AI overhaul
User Interface reskin and color selection
Event ticker filter
System sidebar in colony view
Cycling between systems and colonies in system and colony view
Player engagement options (chase, evade, circle) in tactical
Auto ship design generation in ship designer
Post combat report
Ship info tooltips
Loading and saving build queue presets
Sharpness graphics setting
AI personality type indicators in diplomacy and info screens
Build queue item movement
Threat diplomacy options
Tactical scan option
Advanced New Game Settings
Soundtrack and Art Book
With the release we'll also include the Lord of Rigel Art Book which has additional universe background and the full soundtrack will be available. A preview of the soundtrack is online but the released version will have additional tracks.
Artbook Preview
Lord of Rigel Soundtrack in Steam Player
Soundtrack Preview
For Returning Players
If you are returning to LoR after a while please check in the FAQ on deleting persistent settings and the input save files and .ini. Over early access we've done many changes to these files so starting with fresh settings and game saves will solve issues you might have with odd key bindings and setting behaviors.
We want to focus on any remaining game breaking bugs and critical balance issues but welcome any additional quality of life improvements. Through EA we've incorporated the vast majority of player feedback as new QOL improvements.
Rasvyat has released 3 days late, sorry for that, however it is now out, there's currently no in game tutorial, sorry, however the game is now available.
There are currently a lot of bugs however they will be resolved in the coming weeks, there is a multiplayer issue where the player may get stuck on the "Spawning Player" screen on some lobbies, the only real solution currently is to press ALT - F4 to force exit the game and host your own lobby, sorry for any inconvenience.
The long awaited controller support update has just rolled around. It is important to note that there is not yet controller support for menus (that is coming with the final act, trust me) but I wanted to release one last update to address urgent changes before the final act's release. See the patch notes below!
Patch notes
Added gameplay controller support.
Removed motion blur.
Fixed a bug with enemy navigation in the slime ocean, along with other various smaller bugs.
Unfortunately, we can not afford to continue working on Fire & Maneuver. We can not continue its development. If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment.
