Dec 19, 2024

JAMs - maplesyrupghost

Hey people! WINTER SALE is here!

I slowed the droprate down to 1 item every 20 minutes now and am labelling them "Season 2" items, the DLC functions the same as it did during the introductory period, but is now available for $0.02 US cheaper than ever before: $1.17!

There is no actual difference to how I am doing things I just wanted to let you guys know that I'm still over here makin' items, and if you saw my last news post I had to take marketability off of the first half of the items, we'll sort those out later, stack them up for now, and now that we have inventory tagging you can just choose the new "S02" items and it would only show the new ones which are from this new slower paced world, should be helpful for sorting through them.

I started building a fanbase on Bluesky, it may look strange that a clicker game featuring animated jars of jam is posting music videos all day, but I'm just trying to grow us larger and larger with each passing day. I really love this Bluesky world and how JAMs is becoming a force to be reckoned with now, so if you are just confused coming from that world --- thank you so much for listening to the tunes I am posting and clicking those like buttons, that's plenty of support and it's helping us grow! I remember how excited I was to hit 100 fans there and now we are headed to 10,000 strong soon! I'll keep our video wall as clean as I can, let me know if you have any favorite songs to blast out to the JAMs world this holiday season, as long as they are an absolute JAM of a bop.

And of course Happy Holidays! I'm over here building or branding or rendering or expanding JAMs in one shape or another, pushin' buttons that make us go faster.

Cheers! ːLIS_butterflyː Follow us on Bluesky! ːloveminingː ːbluegemː

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3220730/JAMs/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3263290/JAMs__Extra_Drops/

Dec 19, 2024

Dec 19, 2024 Patch Notes

Shardbound: Forge Your Path, Master Your Strategy - tom.anderson

Leaderboard:

The Leaderboard is now working, and it’s your chance to see how you stack up against other skilled Rangers in the Realm. Compete for glory, climb the ranks, and prove your mastery!
But that’s not all—when the season concludes, your placement will determine the incredible rewards you’ll receive. The higher you climb, the greater the spoils!
Sharpen your strategies and prepare for battle. The path to victory awaits!

Gameplay Changes:

Change durability on Weapons to be lost even when damage is only dealt to Armor.
Updated description of Armorsmith.
Updated the wording on many cards.

Card-Specific Changes

Bloodbound Pages
- Can now trigger once per turn instead of once per round
Chronoslap
- Effect can now chain between targets
Hollow Fae
- Increased Stats
Quantum Turnkey
- Stats reduced
- Now reduces the cost of a 1 random spell instead of all spells in hand
Rankbreaker
- Stats reduced
Starfall Templar
- Stats reduced
Tome of Echoes
- Is able to be triggered once per turn instead of once per round
Warpgate
- Increased cost
- Reduced stats of spawned Quantum Turnkey

Bug Fixes and Changes:

Fixed an issue with matchmaking where Bots were selecting decks with inappropriate power.
Fixed an issue with cards in hand being highlighted as castable when they has no valid target.
Fixed an issue with Chronoslap showing incorrect damage floater.
Fixed an issue with Distorter VFX
Fixed an issue with Enlistment Decree always providing lower of 2 values when upgraded.
Fixed an issue with Flesh Offering not giving VP to the Commander when used to kill an allied Unit that was holding VP.
Fixed an issue with Grasping Tentacles causing Commanders to T-pose when targeted.
Fixed an issue with Grim Inspiration where the second Thrall would not draw until after deploy of another card or end turn.
Fixed an issue with Phase Attuned Gauntlets buff persisting after equipment is destroyed.
Fixed an issue with Roar: Immobilize sometimes not working when adjacent to crystals.
Fixed an issue with Slow Reflexes causing targets to have negative stats.
Fixed an issue with Soultaker sometimes doing too much Bloodtoll damage on Thief.
Fixed an issue with Supply Requisition giving stats that didn't match description.
Fixed an issue with Supply Requisition giving units negative armor.
Fixed an issue with Matter Transmogrifier applying incorrect attack buff.
Fixed an issue with Osprey Deadeye applying vulnerable to Crystals.
Fixed an issue with Summon Blades where the spawned Zephy Monks were not properly receiving buffs/debuffs.
Fixed an issue with Starfall Templar's Vulnerable debuff not being removed when Starfall Templar dies.
Fixed an issue with Tempest Hound being able to stun Resilient units.
Fixed an issue with Tome of Echoes returning equipment to hand on death.
Fixed an issue with Vengeful Veteran's damage multiplier applying too many times.
Fixed an issue with Wind Step which caused units with Sluggish to permanently lose movement.
Fixed an exception caused by Bouncing a unit next to an enemy unit.
Fixed an exception caused by Bouncing a unit while Banner of Conquest is in play.
Fixed an exception caused by Bouncing Starfall Templar.
Fixed an exception caused by starting a match with Matter Transmogifier against Grave Spores.
Fixed an exception caused by Grim Inspiration when hand is full.
Fixed an exception caused by Pawnbroker
Fixed an exception caused by Soul Shifter w/ Engage if Bounced to hand and turn is ended.
Fixed an exception caused by Soultaker
Fixed an exception caused by Precise Detonation when used on a boulder created by Stone Prison.
Fixed an exception caused by Tome of Echoes when hand is full.

HUD/UIUX:

Fixed an issue with multiple cards showing error text in the upgrade screen.
When upgrading cards, if there are not enough of a card to consume they will now be hidden from the upgrade pool
Fixed an issue with in the Collection where the wrong Faction's Power was shown after upgrading a Commander or Relic.
Fixed an issue with rewards showing as claimable when they had already been claimed.
Fixed an issue with card rewards showing incorrect icon on quest rewards.
Fixed an issue with the News button in the main menu not showing the News notification when new News is new.

Dec 19, 2024

0.6 Update - Turbo Charged Engine

NervBox - Qwolf

Hi Nervs!

We’ve been hard at work upgrading all of our systems to prepare for the next phase of development: Mod Support. This is the biggest upgrade we’ve made to NervBox since we launched, and nearly all of the underlying systems and tools have gotten a full upgrade.

The TL;DR for all of the upgrades is: higher quality, better performance, and improved tools.

First and foremost we upgraded to the newest version of Unity: Unity 6.
Unity 6 brings us some long-awaited performance and tooling improvements that we wanted to get, not only for us, but for all modders who will build with NervBox in the near future.

On the rendering side, we’ve switched to the Universal Render Pipeline (URP) to take advantage of the latest and greatest rendering features Unity has to offer.
In NervBox 0.6 we’re already using the new lighting system called Adaptive Probe Volumes for lighting dynamic objects, VFX graph for some new visual effects, and a smattering of rendering performance improvements.
In the future, we’ll be looking at taking advantage of the new Forward+ renderer, GPU resident drawer, and native dynamic resolution and foveated rendering tools to squeeze even more performance and quality out of the Quest hardware.

On the audio side, we replaced our audio raytracing solution with Meta XR audio raytracing. Audio raytracing is an expensive but magical effect that brings physicality straight into your ears, and we feel it’s a critical feature to have in a fully physics-based simulation. While Steam Audio did a decent job, it was too slow on Quest to where we only raytraced player voices, yet still struggled with optimization. The new Meta XR audio raytracing is much higher performance allowing all sound effects to be properly physicalized for a higher quality sound-scape, while also bringing tooling improvements to boot.

Finally, we’ve created an all-new firearms framework. This new framework was built with a modular approach, allowing guns to be built by assembling different components (such as ammo loading, slide behavior, and chambering) to create a final weapon. Our goal with this system is to allow for any gun to be created, without additional code needed.
We’ve added four new guns which were not possible to make using the old system, and upgraded all of the existing guns with new animations, enhanced recoil calculations, general consistency improvements, and a new aiming system. The new aiming system greatly improves aim comfort and accuracy, while allowing easier improvements in the future.

One final note: we were planning on releasing an all new UI with 0.6, but ran into some pretty gnarly build stability challenges in the final stretch of testing, causing it to be pushed into the next update. We can’t wait to show you the last few features that didn’t make it into this release, but they’ll be here soon™!

Make sure you take a look at our roadmap to see what we’re working on next: https://trello.com/b/EZ9qQMyu/nervbox-roadmap. For any feedback, feature requests, or bug reports, please join the discord: https://discord.gg/EkRXj9YxXD

Happy Holidays!
💜 NervBox Team 💜

Patchnotes

Engine

Upgraded to Unity 6.
The render pipeline has been upgraded to the Universal Render Pipeline.
- URP gives us access to new performance features and optimizations, many of which we have not yet enabled.
- URP with the new Render Graph system will allow us to create new and performant VFX and post-processing effects on Quest.
Upgraded to the new Adaptive Prove Volume dynamic lighting system.
- Better lighting quality, improved performance, and much better tools (for us and modders).
Replaced the audio raytracing solution with Meta XR Audio.
- The old audio raytracing system was very slow on Quest, even though it was only raytracing player voices. Switching allowed us to enable raytracing on all audio sources, while also improving overall performance.
- Enhanced raytracing effects with proper diffraction (sound bends around objects).
- Better tools and workflows for us and modders.
Various backend preparations have been made for modding. This includes tools, workflow optimizations, and more.

Interaction

Added a new virtual controller system. The virtual controller vastly improves the aiming feel and stability, allowing us to refine further aiming in the future with things like shouldering and hand filtering. We currently have three virtual controllers:
A rifle controller that handles two-handed aiming of longer weapons.
A pistol controller that handles the secondary hand of a pistol, which rewards players for holding the weapon properly.
A slide controller that helps control how weapon slides feel.
Added smoothing to releasing objects. This will also be applied to grabbing in the future.
Almost every hand pose for guns has been reworked to have less clipping and generally look better.
Added some additional finger movement for controllers that do not have hand tracking such as Quest controllers. The middle, ring, and pinkie fingers will curl based on the index finger when nothing is held.
Added general grip event sync.
Fixed the sandbox gun not making a sound when freezing or unfreezing an object.

Player

The torque calculation for the player’s arms has been improved. Player arms should be less wobbly and match controller targets more accurately.
Rewrote XR input handling.
Added a custom elbow solver for two-handed rifles, pushing player elbows down instead of flipping when trying to shoulder a rifle.
Added new impact effects for when the player is shot at or stabbed. This is also applied to NPCs.

Guns

The gun system has been completely rewritten. These new guns are more realistic, more consistent, and overall should provide a better experience. The system is also significantly more modular, allowing for more variety in types of weapons.
There are four new guns:
Olympia Break-Action Shotgun, our first articulated weapon. Use the action button to open.
CX8 Pistol-Carbine, a semi-automatic carbine designed for two-handing.
Revolver, complete with a functional spinning cylinder and individual round loading.
M4 Auto Shotgun, a semi-automatic shotgun with a high fire-rate and quick action.
Added new animation systems for most guns.
Added a laser aiming module to the Glock.
Reworked gun recoil and impact forces.
The jet thruster now has a new model and new VFX. See the contrails of your friends as they fly by!
Sync of guns has been completely redone to be more consistent across players. Things like chambering and slide locking are now properly synchronized.
Fixed bullet shells hitting objects and creating extremely loud sounds.
Fixed bullet shells not always playing collision sounds.
Rewrote chambering logic to be more consistent, Guns now perfectly chamber a bullet in time with their RPM.
Improvements to multiplayer weapon interactions, such as other players grabbing slides, inserting magazines, and keeping the bullet chambered between players.
The pump-action shotgun slide no longer has a spring, allowing for easier racking of shells. The overall feel of the pump-action shotgun has also been improved.
Fixed bullet trails sometimes splitting apart when spawning.
Small adjustments to bullet trail visuals.

Levels

All levels have had their lighting redone, audio reworked, and general performance optimizations.
Fixed gaps in geometry on New Park City and Labs.
Fixed the joint demos in Labs.

Audio

Upgraded FMOD and replaced Steam Audio with Meta XR Audio.
Jetgun now has the Doppler effect applied.
Reworked internal audio systems for better performance.
General audio adjustments regarding levels and ranges. General audio mix is still being worked on, so let us know how you like it!

Gamemodes

Fixed an issue where players could deal damage to each other in the tutorial.

Networking

Fixed InvalidState error when trying to join another lobby after being disconnected by a host.

Dec 19, 2024

Chronicles of Vaeltaja Has Entered the Winter Sale 2024 and Gets an Update Soon

Chronicles of Vaeltaja: In Search of the Great Wanderer - Vaeltaja

Welcome Traveler,

it's been quite a year for Chronicles of Vaeltaja with lots of changes, improvements and added content. I was planning to end this year by tying up all the loose ends in the existing areas and bringing the rest of the 'Islands of the Prophets' content, but unfortunately this past month has been quite busy in many ways and I had to give myself some time to rest also. Therefore the 'Islands of the Prophets Part 2' update has been delayed until next year. However, that doesn't mean the rest of the year will go by without an update. So, let me present you the 'Conjurer Unleashed' update!

When the update arrives in a few days, you can finally witness the true power of the 'Conjurer' character class. This means some fundamental changes to how the character class works. So far the Conjurers have been able to summon creatures, monsters and undead to aid the party without any control over their behaviour, but after the update things will be different and Conjurers will be able to learn how to control them.

At the start, when the Conjurer's 'Summoner' or 'Necromancer' class skills are low, summoned creatures act on their own, but once those class skills get better the Conjurer will be able to control their actions. For example, if 'Summoner' class skill is 5, Conjurer will learn to control Nikaru, which means that the Conjurer can choose which enemy the summoned creature will target and what skill it will use to attack. But it doesn't end there: Once the Conjurer gains the control over the summoned creature, also the time the creature stays in the battle will be twice as long.

And it gets even better! When the class skill is high enough the Conjurer's true power will be unleashed and it will give the Conjurer the power to keep the summoned creature in the battle as long as necessary. But there's more: The summoned creature will also learn a new skill. For example, if 'Summoner' class skill is 10, Conjurer gains full control over Nikaru and can keep it in the battlefield until the battle is over. Nikaru will also learn a new skill that can be used in battle.

These changes will add some extra depth to the 'Conjurer' class and make it a viable option when choosing the party.

Even though I won't give a specific date for the update, it's arrival is only a matter of days. Detailed patch notes will be released once the update is live.

Meanwhile, if you don't already own Chronicles of Vaeltaja, now is a good chance to buy it. The game will probably not get a better discount in it's Early Access period.

Thank You and have a happy holiday!

Jani/Witchgrove Games