Sep 15, 2024

The Spell Brigade - jalapeno

ATTENTION BRIGADEERS! The Spell Brigade releases in 1 DAY! AAAAAAAAAAAAA

As part of our countdown to release, we’ve released a 5-part FAQ series featuring some much asked about topics regarding the game. You can check out our last 4 posts, where we delved into our co-op matchmaking, meta progression, friendly fire and revive system. For our final one, we’re going over all the different kinds of ✨SPELL UPGRADES✨ you can find in our game.

STANDARD UPGRADES

While on a mission, you will encounter many different upgrades to choose from and further customize your build. You will get upgrades mostly from leveling up. By collecting orbs you find from killed enemies and completed objectives, you increase your level. This level is shared among the whole team, so whenever that XP bar fills up, everyone in the team gets one. You get to choose between 3 upgrades, which include things like increasing your Move Speed or Max Health, but also Spell-specific upgrades that increase things like their Cooldown or Damage. Each upgrade is either Common, Rare, Epic, or Legendary.

NEW SPELLS

When you reach certain levels, you will get to choose a new Spell to add to your attacks. You can get up to 4 Spells at the same time. We have a limited number of Spells at the moment, but we’ll definitely be expanding on these during Early Access.

RELICS

Throughout your Missions, you will occasionally find a chest that holds something within. Find and break these open so you can collect these Relics and use their unique effects.

INFUSIONS

When leveling up, you’ll notice that the Spell-specific upgrades have a weird orb meter at the bottom. If you upgrade your Spell enough times, you will reach the big ones on the meter, allowing you to infuse that Spell with an element. You can do this up to 2 times, making all kinds of cool combinations. We have 4 elements at the moment and are planning to add more, so the possibilities will be growing exponentially.

AUGMENTATIONS

Complete objectives and you will be rewarded with a special type of upgrade. Augmentations are very specific upgrades for your Spells that give them a unique effect that really changes up the way they work. We won’t spoil them here, but trust us when we say that completing your objectives and getting these upgrades is definitely worth it.

Keep in mind that both the amount and kinds of upgrades are something that we plan to expand on during Early Access, so there will be many more upgrades in the future.

That’s it! Now that you have read all 5 parts, you have all the knowledge needed to become part of the Spell Brigade! And just in time, too! Tune in tomorrow as we’ll be live streaming the game to celebrate the launch. In the meantime, if you haven’t already, you can:

1. Join our discord for DAILY dev posts and intellectual wizard-related discussions.
2. Wishlist the game so you can get it as soon as it’s out!
3. Tell your friends so you can join the Spell Brigade TOGETHER.

BOLT BLASTER OUT

Sep 15, 2024

UPCOMING UPDATES AND NEWS

Heroes & Redemption - kaz

Hello heroes, we are here with big news today.
We are pleased to announce the changes and news regarding the upcoming release of Heroes & Redemption 1.0
You can view some of the updates and changes below.
There may be changes and additions in this list in the future.

New Items
- Poisonous Mist
  As the character moves, it creates acid clouds behind that deal damage to enemies.
- Aqua: Stream
  Sprays water in four directions around the character.
- Tome of Regret
  A curse has been added to the game. When you acquire this curse, enemies' health, speed and damage increase. Additionally, more enemies spawn.
Empowerment System
Empowered versions of each spell have been added to the game. For example, Relentless Strike has three empowerments: Storm Slash, Hellfire Strike and Supreme Strike. Each empowerment adds different attributes to the skill, allowing you to choose the one that best fits your playstyle.
- Sacred Aura
  - Divine Vampirism: Deals damage to nearby enemies and drains their health.
  - Divine Deceleration: Deals damage to nearby enemies and slows them down as well.
  - Ethereal Might: Deals much more damage to nearby enemies.
- Sacred Ring
  - Burning Radiance: Orbs deal additional fire damage to enemies they touch.
  - Soul Reaver: Orbs drain health from enemies they touch.
  - Ring of Aquanis: Orbs slow down enemies they touch.
- Flying Twins
  - Arc Spread: Fires three spells in a conical spread in the direction the character is facing. The number of spells created increases with the skill amount.
  - Dispersing Twins: Creates a number of spells equal to the skill amount and spreads them outwards from the character.
- Flying Seal
  - Tempest Seal: Now it's much, much faster.
- Arcane Storm
  - Arcane Maelstrom: The number of rotating circles now increases with skill amount.
- Titan's Lightning
  - Primordial Thunderfall: Creates an explosion where it strikes.
- Devastation Ritual
  - Apocalyptic Ritual: It reduces its size but spawns under enemies depending on the skill amount.
- Demonic Flux
  - Eldritch Demonic Flux: Removes the damage reduction with each bounce.
- Comet
  - Polyburst: Shoots 3 projectiles per shot instead of 1
  - Impactful Comet: Explodes at the location where it bounces, dealing area damage.
- Relentless Strike
  - Storm Slash: Marks the enemies it hits, and they will explode when they take another hit.
  - Hellfire Strike: Deals additional fire damage.
  - Supreme Strike: Swings much more powerfully.
- Conjurrang
  - Magnetized Conjurrang: It is now more powerful and brings experience crystals to the player.
- Binding Roots
  - Blooming Root: Blooms a plant beneath the marked enemy that shoots at other enemies.
  - Wild Grasp: Instead of slowing down, it now roots all enemies in its area.
- Sacred Ritual
  - Nova Vortex: It explodes twice.
- Chain Lightning
  - Shocking Surge: Stuns each enemy it hits.
  - Chain Havoc: Deals area damage with each hit.
- Lightning of Sodnir
  - Thunderfield: The number of thunder bolts now increases with skill amount.
- Aqua: Blast
  - Aqua: Riptide: Water now explodes in a larger area and deals more damage
- Poisonous Mist
  - Noxious Veil: It's always active.
- Aqua: Stream
  - Tidal Force: It now sprays water in 8 directions.
New Playable Characters
- Warlock - Gru'gosi Helldrum
- Hunter - Aelynthi Raloro
- Rogue - Mokdarr
New Maps
- Sewer (4th Map)
  
  Can you make it through this rat-infested sewer without fainting from the stench?
- Old Prison (5th Map)
  
  What can you do in this prison full of traps where old prisoners have spent years?
- Catacomb (Bonus Map)
  Limited time, stronger enemies but more rewarding... Can you survive in these familiar places?
Some Changes
- Performance optimization.
- Binding Roots appearance has changed.
- Titan's Lightning appearance has changed.
- The spell "Water: Blast" has been renamed "Aqua: Blast".
- No more buying soul shards one by one in our Blacksmith brother, with the 10x button you can buy 10 soul shards with one click! (If you have enough gold of course...)

Sep 15, 2024

Cruising Arkansas World of Trucks Event

American Truck Simulator - Tiktak

Please join us on Monday, the 16th of September, as we celebrate the release of our new Arkansas DLC, by taking part in our World of Trucks event – Cruising Arkansas! Enjoy the scenic beauty, wildlife, and incredible history of the Natural State while contributing to its impressive economy of agriculture, forestry and transport logistics.

We challenge our #BestCommunityEver to achieve the community goal of driving 125,000,000 miles (201,168,000 km) while delivering cargo to or from any city in Arkansas.

While you are #CruisingArkansas enjoying the beautiful locations it has to offer, you’ll also have the chance to discover some hidden gems found only on unmarked roads that are not visible on the map. There are also stunning water bodies to visit such as Lake Chicot, Lake Dardanelle, and Norfork Lake, not to mention the Arkansas, Mississippi, and White Rivers. The Natural State is also the home of the white-tailed deer, and northern mockingbird, and boasts the beautiful apple blossom as its state flower since in 1901 it was one of the largest apple producers in the United States.

As you participate in the Natural state’s economy, you’ll be able to help out in some of its main industries such as forestry, agriculture and logistics, with a new river port and airport hub to visit and a new sawmill, paper and steel mills deliver to.

And, during your travels, you can look forward to many spectacular views and highlights such as:

Pine Bluff Lock & Dam 4, impressive Arkansas River lock and dam engineering
Hot Springs, a beautiful resort city, famous for its naturally heated springs and bath houses
Arkansas Nuclear One, a nuclear power plant located on Lake Dardanelle
Fort Smith, a historic city established as a western frontier military post in 1817

As with past cruising events, you can use your own trailer and experience all these in the external market!

Arkansas DLC has 10 terrific new cities to explore, and we're offering a special reward for completing your personal goal, which will require you to deliver a job to or from all of them. All jobs for the event need to be 100 miles each (161 km) or more.

Come along with us and haul through incredible landscapes of mountains, forests, hot springs and lakes. Let's cruise Arkansas and enjoy the ride, it will be an awesome one!

Rules

Using External Contracts or External Market, with a World of Trucks-connected profile in American Truck Simulator, the community goal is to drive 125,000,000 miles (201,168,000 km) while delivering cargo to or from any city in Arkansas.

When a player completes a delivery to or from 10 different Arkansas cities, they will achieve their personal goal. Note that the in-game city of Texarkana spans both the Arkansas and Texas DLCs. Only jobs to or from the Arkansas portion of the city, shown as 'Texarkana (AR)' on the External Contracts job screen, count towards this event.

All jobs for the event need to be at least 100 miles each (161 km), or more.

You can check if your recent deliveries met these conditions using your Log Book in your World of Trucks profile.

Rewards

Personal: Players that deliver cargo to or from 10 Arkansas cities will gain a personal World of Trucks Achievement and a White-tailed Watch ATS truck paint job Steam inventory item.

Community: When the community goal of driving 125,000,000 miles (201,168,000 km) during deliveries to or from any city in Arkansas is met, and if the player has also achieved their personal goal, then they will receive a hanging Diamond Apple Blossom pendant Steam inventory item.

The event will be concluded on Sunday, 17th of November at 23:59 UTC.

We look forward to hearing from you about where you went and what you discovered, we're positive you'll love cruising the beautiful Natural state! So, please share your screenshots and videos with us using the hashtag #CruisingArkansas on our Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and Instagram profiles and we will share our favourite ones (we may even feature some of them in a future blog post!).

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2585150/American_Truck_Simulator__Arkansas/

Sep 15, 2024

Site-02 Transmissions #4 | Developer Log

SCP: Secret Laboratory - x3j50

SHOWCASE

“Would you want magically-generated waste entering the water table, the septic system, or even a deep, dark hole underground? You'd require a very specialised sewer indeed to ensure that your flushes don't come back to haunt you.

Welcome to the Acroamatic Abatement Section of Site-02. We are that sewer.

Site-02 houses several ectoentropic objects — objects capable of generating matter that violate the laws of physics. How does one dispose of materials touched by SCP-106? Is it safe to simply incinerate interdimensional corrosion? Where, precisely, would we be able to sprinkle the interspatial ashes? SCP-049, on the other hand, introduces a problematic number of necromantic remains. What does the facility do with the corpses? Not to mention the countless infectious anti-enthalpic hazards that the Overseers might one day arbitrarily decide to transfer here. Where would we even dump those xenospatial materials? These are the questions our department answers.

Here in DSS-08 (that's ‘Disposal System Section’, for the curious), our vast, cutting-edge subterranean facilities churn endlessly in the dark, transmuting toxic insanity into toxic mundanity. Come, and witness the fruits of our labour as we work tirelessly to neutralise the noxious esoteric slurry which threatens our world with an ecological catastrophe like nothing seen before.

Mind your step, though. Diving into this river of liquid miasma could be detrimental towards one’s health.

While your duty is above, we stay below, battling the ever-increasing load of supernatural effluence we’re deluged with day by day. If we don't clean up its mess, no one will.”

Excerpt from “Welcome to Acroamatic Abatement” seminar by Professor R. Keane, PhD.
Applied Occultism / Acroamatic Abatement Section

DEVLOG

Hi there, I’m the editor, and the above was a short introduction to one of the hallway variants that our level designers and artists are hard at work bringing to life. These new environments will be explorable in our upcoming update, ‘Heavy Duty’, and feature unique geometry that will provide a more exciting gameplay experience.

In this half of the post, I’ll be guiding you through an abridged version of the studio’s pipeline of completing a new room, from start to finish.

But before that, let’s discuss the elephant in the room.

Why are we working on the Heavy Containment Zone?

Many have inquired as to why we’ve funnelled many of our resources into the development of HCZ and not other zones such as the Entrance Zone.

The HCZ update initially started as an experiment to see if we were capable of handling a full-zone overhaul in the first place. Results of those experiments seem to lead to a resounding yes.

Our work into the new Heavy Containment Zone has laid out the benchmark for all our future plans related to zones. We’re proud to say that this will be our standard for environment design moving forward.

Still, why HCZ?

Aesthetically, Heavy Containment Zone is a very industrial area. Most of our creations were made with reusability in mind, which could potentially expedite the development of future projects by integrating the new textures, props, and mechanics. These include concrete textures, weathering effects, cleaning supplies, fire extinguishers — to name a few.

Procedural Concrete Damage (August 6th, 2024)
We’re very happy with how the Heavy Containment Zone is looking so far. The most valuable takeaway we’ve gotten from this venture would be experience. With the experience we’ve gained, on top of the time, effort, and passion we pour into our work, we’re certain that we can deliver something that we can truly be proud of. And, who knows? Perhaps our future zone updates will look even better.

First ever screenshot of the Heavy Containment Zone update. (January 15th, 2024)

LEVEL DESIGN

Quotes from Soup (Level Designer) and Cross Conception (Lead Game Designer)

While creating a new room, level designers follow a well-established pipeline in order to innovate, improve, and find creative opportunities to provide unique experiences for players. A group effort is required to create a room, involving not only level designers, but also environment artists, sound designers, game designers, VFX artists, narrative designers, quality assurance testers, and more.

The first step of the level design process is conceptualisation. A level designer may have an idea for a brand new room they wish to create, whether from a stroke of genius or inspiration from playing Mirror’s Edge for eight hours straight. Once an idea is formulated, the level designer will consider what kind of gameplay or visual benefit this room could contain, which will greatly affect the final product. This usually involves a certain specific goal in mind, which could range from “I wanted to make interesting SCP-specific paths,” to “I think it will look pretty cool.”

When building a room, very simple geometry is used. This is a process typically known as a greybox. This approach allows for the quick establishment of important environmental pieces that will be carried over to the final room. Considered in this step, among other variables, are how sightlines are presented, hiding spots, and traversal opportunities.

The Acroamatic Abatement Section (or the ‘Waterfall Room’, because Acroamatic Abatement is a mouthful) is designed to reduce the routes available to the player to one linear path that passes all 4 doors. This means, upon entering a room, a player does not have an equal (or near equal) distance to travel to every other door in the room. This layout creates opportunities for more interesting gameplay, as a player may need to decide whether they wish to pick a closer door that could lead to an unfavourable position, or choose a much further door at the risk of being exposed for longer.

During the greybox phase, the room is assessed through several iterative processes by the level design team in order to receive feedback and establish any required changes. For example, the Waterfall Room used to be absent of any cover, creating a massive sightline across the chasm. Through iteration, a series of pipes were installed at the railings in order to create sightline blocking geometry.

“One of the most important aspects that I considered when designing the room was the unique linear pathway through the room. While with a normal X intersection you can hug the closest wall, in this room, you are forced to cross the entire length of it in order to reach the other side. From there, I focused on implementing micro shortcuts for skilled players to utilise, such as jumping up on the railing to then jump over the gap onto the bridge. After that, I made sure that the generator in the room was out in the open, making it as difficult to camp as possible for both Humans and SCPs. Finally, one of the most important elements of the room was the cover, making sure that it blocked line of sight into the opposite room by using the pipes. Obscuring unfun sightlines is a huge factor that is taken into account when designing rooms.

During development, one of the aspects which was changed the most was the lighting. Originally, when I was designing the room, the lighting and mood of the room was much darker and gloomier. However, after consulting the art department, we made the room brighter to make it easier to plan around and to make the room feel more “worked in.” The art department has been amazing throughout the room’s design process, from creating the water shaders for the waterfall to making the room fit the theme of Heavy Containment.”
- Soup

“I was the one who originally designed the layout of the room, which included the U-shaped linear layout as well as the deep pit in the centre. However, due to more important concerns, I had to shelve the room. When we started hiring new level designers for the Heavy Containment Zone Overhaul, I tasked one of the new level designers to work on this room, giving them the general gameplay principle and then leaving them free to work on it however they pleased. It was only a few days later when I checked on the project, and saw the room on a 45 degree angle with a waterfall and river. The room had taken on an entirely different vision, and after some feedback and iterative development, we ended with what we have now. While the final product is vastly different from my original expectations, they did an absolutely excellent job, and I am glad to have more designers on the team.”
- Cross Conception

For those curious about the earlier room design that Cross mentioned, here’s what it looked like:

It has indeed gone through a lot.

IMPLEMENTATION

Quote from Moranatol (Art Supervisor)

Once the greybox is complete, it — alongside a design document — is relayed to the art department to undergo an art pass. The design document contains information pertaining to the specifications that the art team may need knowledge of while populating the room. In the art pass, the greybox is decorated by the art team through the addition of textures, props, and visual effects where required. Here, environmental artists go back and forth with the level designers in order to ensure consistency that reflects the level designer’s initial vision of the room.

Sometimes, new rooms call for new props. This room necessitated a new prop in the form of a control panel for the bridge connecting the two halves of the room. Then followed the usual art process of conceptualising, modelling, refining, and texturing. Thank you, Art Team, for your stellar efforts at making the game look pristine.

Once the art team is finished and the room appears nice and polished, it’s moved over in-engine and worked on by a programmer for implementation. Implementation involves inserting the new room into our facility generation system, as well as ensuring the collisions work as intended.

Lastly, a build with the fully implemented room is made and sent to the Quality Assurance Team for testing. QA Testers ensure that the room is bug-free, void of any scummy exploit spots, and that everything is working properly so as to not allow players to fall through the floor into the depths below. When a bug is found, the programmer will immediately be notified to squash the bug.

“When a room's level design is confirmed, I take their layout and I start correcting the main mesh. I fuse, divide some polygons, connect some edges,then I implement it inside the engine, and I'll add rough lighting based on the global HCZ look. I then apply UVs and choose the textures to be applied on the walls and all. Once this step is done, we work closely with the Level Designer responsible for the room and apply props based on the lines of sight and objectives the Level Designer was aiming for. Sometimes, it's also a way to revisit some parts of the room, since theory doesn’t always work, so we move some props and lights in order to adjust obstacles, lines of sight, or indicate specific areas of the room to the player. The room gets revisions and goes through several iterations. Finally, we start adding subtle details to it such as particles, light animations, and very specific props to the room. It's a huge team effort with LD to stick to their original vision for their room, and with Acroamatic Abatement, while we did deviate from the original design over time through iterative development, we are all very happy with how the room turned out.”
- Mora

Narrative Design

Quote from x3j50 (Lead Narrative Designer)

“Hi everyone, I’m x3j. You might recognise me from a Memorandum post or my work in the marketing department.

I’m not a writer in the traditional sense. While I indeed write, most of my time on HCZ has been spent ensuring ludonarrative harmony, a state of synchronised interaction between gameplay and in-world context. In order for an environment to feel like it belongs, there needs to be an effort in ensuring that whatever gameplay purpose a room serves is also complemented by story-telling that cements the room to be a believable part of the world. A hyperbolic example would be how the Heavy Containment Zone would not have a shopping mall inside of it.

The Acroamatic Abatement Section was a fun challenge to complete. What started out as only a water management plant, became something much greater and more representative of the insane world of SCP.

Site-02 produces a large amount of anomalous waste that needs processing. From SCP-173’s faecal matter, to the processing of amnestic gas from SCP-939, to the dead SCPs that require safe disposal… Integrating a waste disposal facility into Site-02 makes the entire facility feel more grounded and functional, allowing the player to see the facility as an actual place that exists instead of a maze of hallways. We communicate that through a myriad of different methods, from simple signs for world-building, to trailers like the recent 14.0 teasers.”
- x3j50

Conclusion

In conclusion, there are a myriad of conditions involved in making something as seemingly simple as a new room for the game. It’s a collaborative effort that requires several developers working together in unison to deliver only the very best to our players. When all is well and the Game Engine wills it, the room can then be declared as complete and ready to be packaged for release in an upcoming update.

This is, of course, not the only project we're working on, as there are far more developers throughout the studio all hard at work bringing other features to life — from the human models, to the experimental weapons, and the respawn overhaul. We're all working in tandem to ensure that 14.0 will be the best release it can possibly be for you, the players.

Let us know if you have any further questions for the teams behind the Acroamatic Abatement Section. We’ll try to get some dev replies out!

Otherwise, take a look at our Patreon for more updates regarding our new and improved Heavy Containment Zone. We just released an exclusive post a few weeks ago showcasing another new room being worked on, as well as some fascinating level generation we’ve been experimenting with. Join in on the discussion on our official Discord or the Steam Forums! We’d love to hear your thoughts.

One final point: ‘acroamatic’ means ‘esoteric’. I could have told you that right at the start, but, well, you might not have read the rest.

Thank you for your ongoing support.

Stay tuned, and until next time, we’ll see you in the dark.

Based on “Acroamatic Abatement” by “HarryBlank”:
https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/acroamatic-abatement