This is a big one!! Many big improvements have been made to the engine that drives the game to create a smoother and more responsive experience. Lots of polishing of graphics and tweaks to the gameplay. A new hard difficulty level. And at last, a whooping 100+ levels added in a new "Retro" level set.

Here is a list of the main changes:

• New Retro level set
  
• Hard difficulty level added
  
• Faster, smoother game engine
  
• Various tweaks and bug fixes
  
• All control methods vastly improved
  
• Added game controller deadzone option
  
• Helper bot hp halved
  
• Better gem brick clarity
  
• Better spacing of the status bar
  
• Player shrapnel is now harmful, much like the original game
  
• Tips moved to end of level stats screen
  
• Added a minute to time limit
  
• New brick designs

General:

• Added Radial Edge Blur on riding Rails
  
• Adding Particle LODs
  
• Analytics added
  
• Asset collisions tweaked
  
• Asset tweaks
  
• Collision updates
  
• Disabled multiple animation ticks when out of player range
  
• Disabled multiple object ticks
  
• Editing LODs for assets
  
• Material Optimizations
  
• New assets added
  
• Pillar Lights BP updated
  
• Pylon animation and timeline optimizations
  
• Pylons no longer animate when the player is out of range
  
• Pylon optimizations
  
• Rail BP updates
  
• Removed unused blueprint code
  
• Speed gates have new meshes and materials
  
• Various other BP tweaks
  
• Various other bug fixes

Level:

• Added a stop velocity box above the arena in case the player is launched too far upward
  
• Credits now displayed 10 seconds after the boss is defeated instead of 15
  
• Fade distance on lights changed
  
• Kill volumes moved and edited
  
• Lights in level tweaked
  
• Map updates
  
• New debris blueprint created and added throughout level
  
• Siloam tower center ring strut split into playable and deco collision versions

Character:

• Added functionality to ignore look input when using anim camera
  
• Added functionality to switch between Gameplay & Anim cameras
  
• Adding invulnerability for a short period after respawn
  
• Airtime variable added to grapple component
  
• Animation improvements
  
• Camera bugs fixed
  
• CameraController tweaks
  
• Character optimizations
  
• Energy now given to player when attacking weakpoints with the dagger
  
• Healing Energy bug fixed
  
• Heal time tweaked
  
• Inputs now disabled when respawning
  
• New respawn animation added
  
• Player can now properly stand on the Goliath
  
• Pushback function added to grapple component

Enemies:

• Added new material for Riven weakpoints
  
• Changes to wrecking ball, different collider for movement, increased damage radius, randomize velocity on hit
  
• Drone behavior tweaked
  
• Drone optimizations
  
• Editing collision so the player can’t get stuck under the Riven’s legs
  
• Fixed animation bugs
  
• Fixed bug that caused the Cannon pylon to not activate when the Goliath shield goes up
  
• Fixed bug that caused the Riven to dance endlessly
  
• Fixed bug that caused the Riven to not reset when the player dies
  
• Fixed bug that caused the Riven to reset intermittently
  
• Fix laser interrupt bug
  
• Fixed Riven collision after shield break
  
• Hit anim montages tweaked
  
• Jericho meshes now randomized
  
• Laser attack can now be interrupted
  
• Laser behavior tweaked
  
• Modified Riven respawn behavior when player dies
  
• Other wrecking ball updates
  
• Riven attack ranges tweaked
  
• Riven behavior tweaked
  
• Riven hit animations randomized
  
• Weakpoint BP updates
  
• Wrecking ball damage system tweaked

Sound:

• Added pylon activation sounds
  
• Character damage sound effects changed
  
• Fixed Thruster doubling SFX bug
  
• Footsteps volume lowered
  
• Healing sound effect added
  
• New voiceovers added
  
• New sounds attached to animations
  
• Remixed coin pickups and footsteps to make it so they are quiet but not changed by dynamic mix
  
• Riven footstep sounds tweaked
  
• Sound prioritization changes
  
• Various other sound mixing tweaks
  
• Various other volume tweaks

UI:

• Checkpoint activation text now displaying on HUD
  
• HUD hidden when respawning
  
• Menu tweaks
  
• Riven health bar hidden when pausing game
  
• Riven health replaced with new UI assets
  
• Subtitle option disabled until subtitles work
  
• UI optimization
  
• Visor effects added

Thanks to Polish Indie Games Foundation we got a scholarship for Game Developers Conference - the biggest and most important event for game developers. Almost 30.000 devs from all over the world came to San Francisco to talk, play and make games.

(Funnily enough, it coincides with the start of the Kickstarter, so we're not getting any sleep whatsoever. Come, part with your money in style!)



Since we are in the motherhood of Late Capitalism, our Creative Director got himself a photo to immortalize this grand moment.



We are showcasing the game wherever we can, and get great feedback from developers of much bigger and popular titles, which leaves us both humbled and motivated.


(The game was also tested in hazardous conditions of GDC parties.)

It seems people genuinely love it. We also got a ton of valuable feedback. We would also love to get some feedback from you, so don’t be afraid of spamming the comments section.

We hope to come back to you with a bigger update after the GDC, so stay tuned!

Patch Update
We've pushed a patch out this morning with a number of smaller adjustments and fixes. You can check out the specific changes here.

We may issue more of these smaller adjustments and fixes as we continue and will mention them here when they go live. Check back here in the weeks to come for future fixes and adjustments.


As part of our series on upcoming changes that will be included in our next major update, this week we will focus on the Scoring and Rewards system. As always, these changes are subject to change before we release, but we want to share these with you so you will know what type of changes to expect.

Our goal for these changes is to both incentivize players and to make all scores and rewards easily understood in their context. Let's walk through the changes...


Valor Points become... Fellowship
One of the upcoming changes is that we are changing valor points to fellowship. This change is being made to promote that the forces arrayed against Sauron are working together. You are rewarded not for acts of individual valor, but rather for your work arm in arm to hold back the forces of darkness. They won't be points, but rather simply Fellowship represented by the following symbol.



It is important to note that this will not at all change the amount of points you have. This is purely a cosmetic change as we will simply no longer be referring to Valor Points, but rather how much fellowship you have earned.


Simplified Costs- no rarity
Along with this change, we are getting rid of the old notion of rarity. This was a carry over from our old design that, from a design perspective made sense, but as many pointed out, in a PvE game, felt out of place and was hard for players to wrap their head around.

For this reason, we will no longer have rarity. When the update goes live, we will have only two types of cards- Standard and Legendary.

(...click thumbnail to see full image)

All Common, Uncommon and Rare cards will simply become Standard Cards with a cost of 1,000 Fellowship to unlock.

(...click thumbnail to see full image)

All Legendary cards will remain Legendary to denote how powerful and exceptional they are and will likewise remain at a cost of 3,000 Fellowship to unlock.

Please note that this will not affect your existing unlocked cards or point totals. If you already bought your cards at higher (or lower) costs, your points will simply remain and this will only impact future purchases.

(Eagle Eyed Players will notice other changes in the card detail screen, but that's a topic for another day.)


Simplified Scoring
Our original desire was to use scoring as a way to measure how you approach your play, but the complexity of the game meant that a lot of the ways we can measure how you play would end up preferring some play methods over others. One aspect of the game we really want to emphasize is allowing players to play the game how they want to.

Additionally, we saw an aspect of the game where players were simply playing to maximize score rather than simply defeat Sauron. People would play the game, but either be disappointed, or play in multi-player and berate others for not maximizing their scoring.

Additionally, if you failed, there was no measure of progress. You just got a flat score for failing, which didn't promote progressing or rewarding you for almost completing the game.

This was not what we had intended.

For these reason we are taking a different approach to score.


Flat Score for Quest Completion
All players will receive a flat score for completing a quest, and that score will be 1000 Fellowship. You will note that this means you will be able to buy a card after every successful completion of a quest. That's part of our philosophy of scoring that you should always be able to get something new when you complete a quest. Sure, you'll have to still save up for Legendary cards, but we feel that those cards should be worth playing a few times to unlock them.

(...click thumbnail to see full image)

You'll be able to use those points for other things, but we'll cover that in a future news update.


Failure Progressive Score State
Currently, when you play the game, you get only a small reward for losing a quest, whether you completed all but one location or just one. We wanted to change that.

When the new update goes live, the game will award you 1000 Fellowship ÷ the number of locations possible * the number of locations completed. In practice this means that you will get a portion of the 1,000 possible Fellowship based on how close you come to completing a Quest.

For example, if there are 5 possible locations available for a player to complete, they will earn 1000 ÷ 5 * the number of locations they complete. If they complete, say, 3 of the 5 locations, they will earn 600 Fellowship, whereas if they complete 4, they will earn 800 Fellowship.

We feel that this will be more casual player friendly and encourage players who are making progress, even if they aren't beating a given quest.

(...click thumbnail to see full image)

Before you see the score, however, we're adding a hint screen that will give you more insight into why you failed so that you can improve your play.

(...click thumbnail to see full image)


Quest Challenges
Wait, you are probably saying, how do I prove my prowess in playing a quest if I can't tell my friends I beat their 490 score? That's where quest challenges come in. Instead of scoring how you beat the quest and limiting your options on how to play to maximize that score, we've instead added quest challenges.

These are quest specific achievements that you can earn to get score bonuses, and they are available every time you play. While a few of these challenges are universal to all quests, there will always be unique challenges custom built for each quest that allow us to create unique and custom score bonuses that fit the narrative of each particular quest.

There will always be five challenges and each will add 200 Fellowship to your score, allowing up to double your potential score in an individual quest.

Here's a sample score screen with the challenges listed for a particular quest.

(...click thumbnail to see full image)


Quest Rewards
We want to incentivize you to play each quest more than once and for that reason, we're changing rewards. In the current game, you receive a reward for beating a campaign or an encounter. We've decided to make sure you not only get a reward for defeating a campaign, but also for every single quest you beat. Not only that, you will receive extra rewards for the first few times you beat a quest.

(...click thumbnail to see full image)

First Time Play-through
The first time you beat a quest, you'll receive a card reward (actually you'll receive 2 of each card). This will vary per quest and be tied to the narrative of that quest.

Second Time Play-through
The second time you beat a quest, you'll receive an avatar cosmetic. Again, this avatar will be unique to the quest and related to narrative. It might be an ally, it might be a character who is part of the story.

Third Time Play-through
The third time you beat a quest, you'll receive another avatar, but this one will be a dark avatar- featuring Sauron's minions, and again, tied to the narrative of that quest. We realize that earning 'bad guy' cosmetics isn't everyone's cup of tea, but for some players, having the ability to have a bad guy avatar appeals to their own inner shadow.

After the third time you play-through, you'll earn your standard score and any challenge related score. We won't add any additional bonus items.

Incentivization

All of these rewards are great, but you are probably wondering how you'll know what you'll earn. For some people, they love the surprise, but for others, they want to know what they get for beating a quest.

For that reason, we're changing up the play menu to include a reward listing. If you really want to keep the surprise, just ignore this section of the menu, but if you are one of those people who simply must understand what they are earning at all times, you can simply click on a specific quest, hit the reward button and see exactly what you will earn- or have already earned- in each particular quest.

(...click thumbnail to see full image)

(...click thumbnail to see full image)


But wait! There's More!
You may have noticed in that above screen an item marked 'Hall of Heroes.' In addition to all of the rewards we mention above, you will also receive a bonus reward for successfully playing through a quest the first time with each individual hero.

All you have to do is beat the quest with each hero to earn the reward. This is a one time reward only, but since you earn 500 fellowship for each, it's very worthwhile to come back later and retry quests with new heroes to earn more Fellowship.

(...click thumbnail to see full image)

(...click thumbnail to see full image)


And one more thing...
If all of the above wasn't enough, we have added one more type of reward- The Hero Specific Challenge. For each hero in the game, we're going to be adding a specific challenge that this particular hero will need to overcome in order to earn a specific card reward for that hero. The challenges will be unique to each hero, and aim to capture the style of that hero's play.

(...click thumbnail to see full image)

To understand what you'll need to do to overcome each hero's challenge, you will go to the Hero detail screen in the Deck menu. There you can find out the specific requirements you'll need to meet in order to obtain that hero's unique reward.



Don't forget that you can check out our Twitch channel at https://www.twitch.tv/ffigames every two weeks at 1pm Central US time / 6:00pm UTC (though keep in mind Daylight Savings time, which has already begun in the US, so this time might vary).

Our next stream is tomorrow, March 27th.


Next week, we'll talk about cosmetics and some other upcoming items you'll be able to spend all that Fellowship on.

That's it for this week. We'll be back with more next week and until then may the winds blow ever in your favor.

Hi guys!

On Thursday evening at 6 p.m. (german time) we're doing a german anniversary livestream for Pizza Connection 3!
We show what has changed over the course of the year based on your feedback. Of course we will also be happy to answer any questions you may have!

Be there, at 6 p.m. we start with the Pizza Connection 3 livestream with product manager Timothy and PC3 developer legend Stephan on Twitch:

https://www.twitch.tv/assembleteam

Hope to see you there!

• Removed RTL language translations (Hebrew, Arabic). more

• Fixed crash when opening technology tree.
  
• Fixed blueprint loading related to trains and temporary stations. more
  
• Fixed that the quick bar and shortcut bar weren't aligned on UI scales other than 100% and 200%, making the game literally unplayable. more
  
• Fixed fuzzy search in the select-a-filter GUI could show empty groups. more

You can get experimental releases by selecting the 'experimental' beta branch under Factorio's properties in Steam.

Learn to play 3 hits from alternative rock icons Radiohead! “Fake Plastic Trees,” “Jigsaw Falling Into Place,” and “Airbag” will be available today on Steam.

https://youtu.be/S3hc65dBfiM

E Standard - Lead/Rhythm/Alt Rhythm/Bass
https://store.steampowered.com/app/899860/

Custom Tuning: Lead/Alt Lead/Rhythm; E Standard – Bass
https://store.steampowered.com/app/899861/

E Standard – Lead/Alt Lead/Rhythm/Bass
https://store.steampowered.com/app/899862/

Click below for a direct link to Radiohead Song Pack III with all 3 songs. For individual songs from the pack, click the links above.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/899859/

So we are f2p now!

It happened slightly earlier because it was handled by Steam support manually.

First of all, let me say welcome to our new and old players!

Let me remind you that we are a team of two people and we are not professional game developers. We have regular work so we can work on a game only on our spare time. So changes are not delivered as fast as we'd like to, but we are trying our best.


If you have bought a game during the last month before f2p, you can write your character name in the comment section below and I will manually give you a patron status!

Hey Everybody!

So excited to be launching my first game this week! This is the beginning of seeing a dream become reality :)

I am working hard to cram as much goodness into the Initial Release build as possible leading up to release. I'm very happy with how the game has turned out so far and hope you will be to.

This has been a one-year time-boxed project and I had to scope things down hard to fit into the schedule. These last few week has seen more changes and improvements than seems safe leading to a launch, but so much of the early stuff was back-end and foundational that these updates are really amazing and just make me more excited to keep going :D

I've got a ton of plans post-release, but staying on target for now ;) Rest assured, you can look forward to usability and bug fixes as well as content and mode updates on a regular basis.

You can find out more at the company site, stay informed with mailing lists & get involved in my Discord or volunteer as an early access playtester.

Peace,
Chani.