Hello everyone! It's me, Miyoshi Shizuka.
Today, I’d like to share an update on our combat mechanics.
I have uploaded the video. so please check it out.

It’s not impossible for a child to defeat an adult.
If they can crush from above using a log gimmick, trigger a chain explosion with fire and alcohol, and bite down hard when grabbed—
Then victory just might be within reach!
This time, I’ll be introducing such tricky tactics.

Hey team- many apologies on the terrible launch of MHZ VR!

I had to make an emergency trip to Georgia last month before the launch, and thought it would be short enough that I didn't need to bring my computer and VR setup. Unfortunately, I'm stuck here acting as a sort of security guard for my sister and her kids until they can move away from the area.

With that said, the purchase-blocking issue has been rectified (you should be able to purchase it now if you need to [beta testers won't need to]), and I'm having my brothers send me my setup so I can troubleshoot the input and potential UI issues.

Thanks for your patience, support, and bug reports! I hope you're all having a better start to your summers than I am!

-Joe

Hotfix:

• Tutorial Eat/Drink sign updated with wrong configurable key

• Settings have reset to support optimal settings specific to Steam Deck.
  
• Dev Note - Steam Deck settings were falling back to PC configurations. This has been addressed and settings reset only for Steam Deck users to support these.

• Split side missions into Specialty and Challenge missions.
  
• Challenge missions on Nightmare now have more unique and challenging bot spawns.
  
• Glass Cannon
  
  • Removed the partial healing and shield modifier.
    
  • Removed Shield damage spillover protection.
    
  • Enemies now deal 100% more damage to the player.

• Renamed Shockwave to High Voltage.
  
• Reduced Snowdrift nearby enemy damage to 25%, reduced overall Cryo damage to 20%.
  
• Increased Blizzard tick damage from 20 to 60.
  
• Increased Fire damage bonus on Inferno from 10% to 15%.
  
• Increased bonus damage duration on Orbital Infusion to 8 seconds.

• Removed Fortune Cookie Super Item.
  
• Dev Note - This item is undergoing a redesign.

• Grenades now go through friendly players.
  
• Reimplemented Weapon Inspects.
  
  • Defaulted to "I" on keyboard.
    
  • Defaulted to Right D-Pad on controller.
• Iron Squires
  
  • No longer deals self damage.
    
  • Missed shots now increase spread by 10%.
• Headhunter
  
  • No longer deals self damage.
• BP-44 Harrier
  
  • Damage increased from 22 to 24.
    
  • Time Between Bursts lowered from .3 to .275.
• T30 Nova Burst
  
  • Damage increased from 21 to 22.
    
  • Lowered Damage Falloff Penalty.
• Sidekick-3 AP
  
  • Increased Damage from 35 to 39.
• PR14x Aeos
  
  • Increased Damage from 31 to 32.
• BAS-24 Warden
  
  • Increased Damage from 24 to 30.
• Affixes
  
  • Lifesteal Affix now has a chance to heal you for a percentage of your max health whenever you deal damage with the affixed weapon.

• Adjusted the Melee Phalanx hit timing to be more accurate with the animation.
  
• Adjusted several bots' weakpoints to be easier to hit.
  
• Updated the Mesmerizer's look.
  
• Ranged shielded enemies can now take AOE damage.
  
• Removed Nyxis from later parts of Zone 2.
  
• Removed Man-Spider from Zone 2 story mission.
  
  
• DeadEye
  
  • Properly gets hit by explosions and counts as a headshot.
    
  • Increased head size when detached from the body.
• Cryo Guardian
  
  • Reduced freeze shot radius by 15%.
• Void Spiders
  
  • Reduced AOE of their void explosion by 30%.
• Healing Drones
  
  • Reduced health by 50%.
    
  • Healing drones are limited to only 1 in a room in Adventure, Normal, and Hard difficulties.
• Fire Mindless
  
  • Removed DOT fire damage.
• Radiation Exploder
  
  • Removed radiation debuff.
• Lightning Axe
  
  • Adjusted teleport so it will not teleport within certain distances, based on difficulty.

• Added aim assist settings for Off/Limited/On.
  
• Adjusted the exit doors to an encounter to auto open at 30 seconds instead of 10 if loot orbs are not taken.

• Fixed an issue where the player could get a permanent black screen overlay if they jumped into death pits multiple times.
  
• Fixed an issue where players in co-op would sometimes spawn underneath the Safe Room or in the next encounter, softlocking the run.
  
• Fixed an issue where Lightning Axe bots could teleport when frozen.
  
• Fixed an issue where bots could jump while frozen.
  
• Fixed an issue where Nyxis Root was invisible to clients.
  
• Fixed an issue where Phalanx could damage players at incorrect times after being staggered or frozen.
  
• Fixed an issue where Headhunter would sometimes not refund a bullet when you scored a headshot.
  
• Fixed an issue where damage from Ignite was not being affected by certain items that boosted proc damage.
  
• Fixed damage bonus from Health Perk Child 3 not properly scaling with overhealing amount.
  
• Fixed an issue where item effect UI for Alien's Hand Super Item would not update correctly when you swapped weapons or picked up a new weapon.
  
• Fixed an issue where Alien's Hand would not correctly cap damage boost to 50%.
  
• Fixed an issue where Steroid Tablets Super Item would not display its current damage boost in the UI on being equipped, and would only do so after taking damage/being healed.
  
• Fixed an issue where Nitroglycerin Power Super Item would not correctly display the magnitude of its damage boost after you reload.
  
• Fixed a bug where Hot Sauce Super Item would not display its current damage boost in the UI on being equipped, and would only do so after taking damage/being healed.
  
• Fixed Recycled Plastic Super Item not clearing its damage boost when you picked up a new weapon.
  
• Fixed Boomerang Super Item not refunding shots that hit doors.
  
• Fixed Probability Cube and Hammer of the Artisan's Forge items not applying their effects to weapons picked up after the item was equipped on the joining client in co-op.
  
• Fixed Plastic Wand, Tourniquet, and Barbed Grenade items not working for the joining client in co-op.
  
• Fixed an issue where the Zone 2 teleporter did not show its exiting VFX.
  
• Fixed several collision issues in the Starting Ship, Zone 1, and Zone 2.
  
• Fixed several issues where bots could spawn inside geometry.
  
• Fixed an issue where in-game music would be muffled if you quit to the main menu, went to the starting ship, then started a level without ever pausing.
  
• Fixed an issue with weapon FOV when playing in widescreen.

Greetings, tactics fans! It's now been more than a week since we hit version 1.0; I've been dutifully collecting your bug reports and squishing them all (the bugs, not the reports) one by one. The result: we have another patch!

• as a convenience, the shop now accounts for units temporarily absent from the group when showing what equipment your characters can use, who wants what, and why. You no longer need to remember what equipment your absent characters use or cross-reference the army overview.
  
• fixed a long-standing UI annoyance where using a hotkey to select an attack would cause all of the red attack tiles to spawn in blank even if one of them spawned directly beneath the mouse cursor, forcing the player to move the mouse off the tile and back onto it to see the hit reticle and damage prediction text.
  
• fixed another, similar UI annoyance where using a hotkey to undo a move would cause most of the revised move tiles to spawn in blank even if one of them was directly beneath the current location of the mouse cursor, forcing the player to move the mouse off the tile to see the full move sequence to that space.
  
• for players who prefer to use keyboard shortcuts, the Tab key now replicates the "next character" function of the mouse wheel in character screens and the reserve supplies window.
  
• added Cancel buttons at every stage of the custom difficulty wizard at the start of the campaign. This lets the player opt out midway through instead of having to select every single option before canceling.
  
• day logs tracking wins and losses in the arena now distinguish between league matches and pick-up matches, making it easier to see your progress when reviewing the logs.
  
• fixed: the info bar could block tooltips labeling characters as wounded or absent in the army overview screen.
  
• fixed: if you dismissed a character with an excessively long custom name, the name could spill over onto the second line of the confirmation window and obscure the warning about how they'll be gone permanently once dismissed.

Following the version 1.0 launch, I became aware of community a consensus to the effect that high-level lissit were lacking the same variety of tools that other species' classes had available to them. After examining things, I agreed, and so I've given our scaly pals some more tools to keep them competitive with all the other species in the late game!

• reconfigured the barudit's late skill progression to ensure they more consistently get a greater variety of skills.(Previously, certain skills or masteries could be randomly skipped in favor of a bonus stat proficiency.)
  
• barudit now learn either Nimble Stance or Defiant Stance instead of Preemptive Stance or Defiant Stance, giving them some variance from the human melee classes (and increasing the chance of characters sharing different stances via inter-species friendships).
  
• new skill: Quick Shove. It's just like Shove, but it costs 2 energy and doesn't end the turn, allowing the unit to flexibly combo shoving with other moves. Barudit and Prophets now learn this skill.
  
• increased the Drake's Health boost from +18 to +23 and reduced its Energy gain from +2 to +1.
  
• given that gasul must split their stat-ups across numerous stats, the Protector now gets +8 Psy instead of +4 to help ensure that players always have a gasul promotion option that can heal competently in the endgame.
  
• the Prophet now gets +5 Strength instead of +4.
  
• you may notice that barudit now gain something called "Net Mastery." This doesn't do anything just yet, but rest assured--soon enough, it will... 😉

• in response to player suggestions, normal arena battles no longer end immediately when the last opponent falls! Instead, the game now checks for victory at the end of each turn, giving the player a chance to grab any item sack that might drop from the last opponent standing.
  
• the undo stack now properly supports Move skills which simultaneously swap the locations of two units (such as Twirl, Quick Twirl, and Trade); hitting Undo after using one now resets both units to their original spots simultaneously.
  
• special weapon availability in the shop now expands upon hitting Gharial League.
  
• Anatomical Treatises may now show up in the shop on rare occasions.
  
• removed most of the trash-tier and "practice" weapons from random item drops and chests, making them more worthwhile on average. (Moreover, given the breadth of experience-gain mechanics available in TIB, practice weapons just didn't seem all that necessary or helpful to keep in as random drops.)
  
• new rare item: Void Cloak. A dramatically more effective variant of the assassin's Shadow Cloak!
  
• nerfed Cut somewhat, increasing its energy cost from 1 to 2 and decreasing its damage from 50% of Strength to 30% of Strength.
  
• wrote a new rainstorm narration for Disciplined characters.
  
• wrote another variant for Teach Response dialogue.
  
• species that canonically float (e.g. shadowlings, spirits) now have an attribute that, when a portrait is displayed for a character of that species, causes the game to automatically make the portrait glide when it moves. This ensures that shadowling portraits always move appropriately when chosen for random events that can also occur for non-floating characters.

• fixed: a couple of null errors could occur when triggering a chain of explosions from multiple satchel charges.
  
• fixed: Twirling a non-flying enemy into a chasm was not queueing up the requisite fatal falling damage.
  
• fixed: due to a scripting mistake, guessing the wrong answer to a riddle during cavern exploration would cause the game to reveal the answer.
  
• fixed: paper scraps with riddle lines on them were not being removed from character inventories upon exiting a cavern, and were stuck indefinitely eating up inventory space.
  
• fixed: when playing with gamepad and creating a new custom character, canceling out of the new character screen did not return gamepad focus to the custom character browser.
  
• fixed: backgrounds that normally provide an additional physical trait were not doing so for custom characters.
  
• fixed: a cavalier could charge directly onto a tile with elevation 2 greater than the second-to-last tile, so long as the charge started on a tile no less than 1 elevation below the ending tile.
  
• fixed: a cavalier could charge and hit a tile with elevation 2 greater than the second-to-last tile, so long as the charge started on a tile no less than 1 elevation below the ending tile.
  
• fixed: the game never set the default move type for unique generated characters created via the GenerateUnique script action, causing these units to have their move type permanently set to "Swimming" when attempting to reset the unit's move type upon emerging from water. (This issue manifests most prominently in the main campaign with recruited spirits.)
  
• fixed: deployed units were set to face toward the central coordinates of a map, meaning that if a player deployed a character onto the very centermost tile of the map, at the start of battle, the game would temporarily assign them a facing direction of "None" and replace their sprite with a placeholder sprite until they moved. Freshly deployed characters now try to face toward the closest enemy on the map instead.
  
• fixed: randomly dropped leather boots and plated boots were showing up without a valid item image.
  
• fixed: narration about a character running out into the rain during the rainstorm event could continue to show the inside of the tent.
  
• fixed: narration about a wounded character during the rainstorm event could continue to show rain particle effects if the preceding character was a golem or someone otherwise outdoors.
  
• fixed: golems and spirits could be inappropriately chosen for certain two-character camp activities.
  
• fixed: when creating a custom difficulty, the game would override the player's choice of time limit, enforcing a 140-day limit regardless.
  
• fixed: certain, newer dialogue-processing variables were not being cloned when cloning dialogue-processing data.
  
• fixed: when generating special relationship labels for characters created from an existing character's NPC pool, if the characters were related, their relationship labels were getting inappropriately swapped.
  
• fixed: when generating special relationship labels for characters created from an existing character's NPC pool, the special relationship label on the newly created unit re: the original character was not getting capitalized.
  
• fixed a typo in one of the sad info response lines.
  
• fixed a small typo in Rohit's dialogue when he gives the player a deck during the Festival of the Ascendant Lights.
  
• fixed some mistakes in the hue-shifting mask for the Dese messenger portrait.
  
• fixed: one of the dialogue branches during the final confrontation was missing a portrait.
  
• fixed: spirits and golems could be chosen for the "slur" portion of the BPD Recruitment event.
  
• fixed: even if the player somehow managed to win the game without ever meeting Ishita Svaamee, the game would show one of her slides during the ending sequence anyway.

• new condition: Combat Victory Check. By default, this is set to true, meaning that the game will check for victory after every combat exchange where a combatant dies. If it is set to false, however, the game will not check to see if victory conditions have been satisfied until the end of each turn.
  
• when used in battle, the RemoveItem script action now supports using "Army X" nomenclature for the character name parameter; this will strip the named item from every character in the specified army, where X is the army number.
  
• added documentation for the -HOBBYVERB- special character.
  
• new special characters: -CHAR2HOBBY-, -CHAR2HOBBYTXT-, -CHAR2HOBBYVERB-, -CHAR2LIKE-, and -CHAR2LIKETXT-, allowing a reacting character to reference their own likes in proc gen dialogue.
  
• new Species attribute: portraitsGlide. If set to true, the portraits for characters of this species will always glide when they move.
  
• the game's undo function in battle now supports undoing Move-element skills with all types of after-attack behaviors, not just "Unlimited."
  
• fixed: the Together in Battle demo was inappropriately connecting to Telepath Tactics Liberated's Steam workshop instead of Together in Battle's.
  
• fixed: when the game detected EndConvImmediately in branch 0 of dialogue and there wasn't a speaker or any dialogue text in that branch, it would recognize the dialogue as purely a vessel to run script actions and wouldn't display the dialogue menu even if the branch was changed to one where there is a speaker or dialogue text.

All right, that's about it for this one!

A huge thank-you to all of you who've continued to leave nice reviews for Together in Battle! We're moving steadily toward our goal of 500 reviews. Reaching 500 reviews is a big deal for a game like this; it means that we'll have a shot at being not just "Very Positive," but "Overwhelmingly Positive"--though even if we just remain Very Positive, moving into the 500+ review tier will still help a ton with getting this game shown to more SRPG players on Steam.

If you're having fun, please don't hesitate to contribute your review. Every single one matters a lot more than you realize! 🙂


Building on the post-launch coverage from last week, we now have a very nice review from 89 Games; a fun promotional stream by FEtuber Dani Doyle (who I'm told is likely going to start a proper TIB video series); and continuing Let's Play series from Bumpy McSquigums, Special Caesar, and White Falcon! (I can think of at least three more channels with coverage in the works, too, but I'll save that for another day.)


With nearly all of the post-launch bugs now addressed, I'm going to dial back the frequency of updates and focus on creating a bigger, content-focused update with a bunch of cool new stuff; new toys for making custom characters, new content, and--what was it mentioned last time?--ah, yes, a new game mode. 😉

Feel free to let me know what sort of things you'd like to see more of in the Steam forums, on Discord, and--if you're old school--on the regular old Sinister Design forums.

Until next time!



Tactically yours,

Craig

Hello fans of Element-174! It's been a few months since I've shared the estimated release schedule for "Part 2," so I thought this would be a good time to update you all on the current process. Right now, day 19 of Element-174 is nearly finished with only one scene left to render. As a reminder, Part 2 will include in-game days 15-21. So work is going well towards reaching the goal of release around end of Q4 this year. It's important to note that even though there will be less in-game days than in Part 1, the content featured will be significantly more than Part 1's. For example, day 19 features almost as many lines of code/dialogue as days 1-6 in Part 1. Similarly, day 19 has almost as many images as days 1-6 (~828 vs 872). So you can see why it takes a while to develop!


Day 20 will be slightly larger in size than day 19 with around 23 scenes (4 more than day 19). Like many of the days in week 3 of the game, they will feature solo scenes for each of the 16 love interests, as well as shared scenes between simultaneous characters. In fact, about half the content in Part 2 will be comprised of the numerous throuple routes. These combinations will also influence the storylines for what will eventually be the final chapter of the game, "Element-174 Part 3."


I'll continue to provide updates on the development cycle as we get closer to September. In the meantime, I'll be working on trying to code, write and render the game, so that it meets the expectations of all those who have patiently waited. Until then!

“Transition into the Warped Universe is not merely geographic, it is existential. Individuals who volunteer for traversal are often driven by complex emotional and psychological motivations that include the desire for redemption, escape, or transformation. Understanding these motivations is crucial for the ongoing development of civilian acclimation protocols, therapeutic interventions, and mission suitability assessments.
As humanity continues to spread into new dimensions, it must also reckon with the psychological cost of leaving Earth behind, not just the world, but the self that belonged to it.”
- Dr. Elira Senn
Civilian Wellness Division, Celadon Station

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


So you’ve just stepped through the portal on Celadon Station. The world you knew is far behind, and ahead lies a station held together by ingenuity, stubbornness, and something stranger. Welcome to the Warped Universe.

Let’s take a look at what to expect in your first hour aboard Nexus Station. Whether you’re a veteran of sci-fi adventures or just curious what you’ve signed up for, here’s how your journey begins.
Your first steps on Nexus Station follow a 15-minute introduction through a vision of the recent past, the fall of Embry’s Hope, the first world consumed by the Void.


In this playable prologue, you’ll experience four core game modes:

• Third-person ground combat
  
• Turn-based ground tactics
  
• Real-time space action
  
• Turn-based space strategy

You’ll escort fleeing scientists, try out your first skill, clear asteroid paths for evac ships, and dogfight hostile fighters in orbit. As the planet collapses around you, you witness its final moments.

Then, everything goes white.

As your consciousness rethreads itself, your body begins to reassemble, this time by choice. This is where you define who you are in the Warped Universe. Appearance, name, core traits, this is your moment to shape your identity.
You open your own eyes once more to the pristine interior of Nexus Station, and your journey truly begins.


After a moment introducing yourself on Nexus, you’ll be thrown right back into the action, this time, it’s your choice of what type of mission you play and how you play it. Completing this, you’ll receive your first Artifractal Core, and learn to make your first piece of equipment, then it's back to the mission map to take on another challenge before receiving a Spark and learning how to upgrade your gear.


Next, you’ll be introduced to the two primary ideologies on Nexus Station. The Foundationalists focus on stability, order, and rebuilding what was lost. The Luminaries seek insight, exploration, and the expansion of what’s known in the Warped Universe. You’ll learn how to gain reputation with both of them through mission choices, unlocking rewards, new challenges, and your place in the social fabric of the station.


Your goal in Warped Universe is to rebuild what was lost after a cosmic catastrophe fractured reality itself. As a survivor and explorer arriving through the portal to Nexus Station, you join the effort to reclaim the galaxy from the chaos of the Void. Along the way, you'll build your strength, uncover ancient truths, and shape the future of this strange new cosmos.
Your main enemies are entities born from the collapse of the old universe, shaped by fear, memory, and instability. These creatures are unpredictable, often terrifying reflections of what was, or what might have been. They will challenge both your combat skills and your understanding of the universe.


Victory isn’t determined by a single event, it’s a long-term journey that involves rebuilding habitable planets, securing territory from Void influence, and strengthening your loadout through Sparks and Cores.
In the future, large-scale collaborative goals and factional conflicts may further define what “winning” means.
From here, you’re free to pursue missions at your pace, upgrade your kit, and learn how the balance of Light and Gravity shapes every encounter.
You’ve got a long road ahead, but your first steps? You’ve taken them..

A few much needed UI changes to help people navigate the first few steps. Getting the game a bit more intuitive to play by fixing some issues players have mentioned in their feedback.

Changes:

-Added option to allow AI advisor to set first buy/sell prices and thresholds automatically
-Added crafting button to bottom left buttons
-Added alert for if you're trying to buy an item but it's too expensive currently. Added a dismiss for this warning for individual items
-Added glow to crafting button when it first arrives
-Crafting recipes are now on by default

Bugfixes:
-Fixed range indicator being twice as large as intended on banners
-Fix bug in "Influential" trait

We have 22 new items for Plant Therapy across the base game and DLCs plus some fixes.









FIXES

• Mushrooms in Moonlight artwork was not showing up correctly in base game once you unlocked the Magic Mushroom Achievement. All good now!
  
• A couple of Halloween candles and the Skelly artwork were not showing up in the Park Slope vintage shop. They are back.

We hope you enjoy our latest update! Plant Therapy truly is a labor of love and we couldn't do it without you!

//XOXO Jennevieve and the Short Leg Studio Team

A reminder: If your game isn't updating, right click on the Steam icon in your tool bar and select 'Exit Steam'. When you reopen, it should show up!

You have 24 hours to hire one mercenary of your choice from five faction mercenaries.

Stand up for your freedom and forge your own path, for the sands of change are shifting...

Complete quests, collect tokens, and use roulettes to get mercenaries and precious rewards! But beware, after the end of the event, all tokens will disappear. Make the most of them while the event is on!