Divergence: Online
Melee Overhaul and New Player Island LIVE
While still imperfect, this will allow players to "whack it" a lot more and we can move onto pushing more "version 2.0" sections of terrain and general bugfixes and improvements.
Also added is yet another player-owned island. We're not at liberty to give the location or name of the owner, but if you're nice to him on our facebook he may invite you within the walls of the stronghold he's building there.
Stage 1 Terrain Upgrade LIVE
A new vendor has also been placed inside the municipal cloner to allow players to sell their stuff and make some money.
Our goal over this week is to gather feedback on players experiences on the new island and if it's a positive update, we'll be applying that same upgrade to the rest of the game world, giving both Lomenia and Akkhera upgrades as well.
If you don't feel like running back and would like to request a location reset to the new area, please don't hesitate to make a request on our facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/415812755276522/
Sim-Zone Clarification For Newbies
The surface of Rook is a hotbed of tension between the three factions of survivors recently crash-landed on its surface, Darius Conrad, Omicron and Viconye Ritek. Survivors of the three factions find themselves competing for land, competing for resources, and competing for the rights simply to survive among the dangerous creatures of Rook.
We realized that a good number of players who play games similar to ours enjoy combat more than Divergence's over-the-top crafting and building. We also realized that developing our combat systems requires a lot of interaction, and we didn't want players to be forced to "test their new guns" on just any random jackoff who happened to be building their house in a field somewhere, so the solution for both the ingame and out of game dilemmas was the same; A "Simulation Zone".
In the game lore, ATC drones are busy terraforming a region of Rooks surface, wherein Rooks survivors can vent their daily frustrations and gun one another down without the nasty repercussions of "gunning down envoys of rival organizations and starting all-out wars".
Ergo, our game Divergence has its own game within the game as well, now called the "Simzone". The Simzone is where survivors of Rook can travel to and enjoy the experience and challenge of classic survival without incurring permanent repercussions back home.
In the simulated environment, players are met with realistic survival situations, forcing them to procure their own food, water, shelter, and tools for surviving encounters with others.
With regards to development of the game, The Simzone provides us a region of the game world we can designate as "go here if you want to test combat and survival", without needing to apply the same "over the top rules" to the entire game world, which anyone who plays the game will tell you is absolutely enormous. The Simzone essentially becomes a voluntary-testing zone and if you don't want to partake, you don't have to, you can simply fuck off as always and go back to building your castle in the sand of the Akkhera Desert for all we care.
If you want to take a break from running your field of harvesters, managing your power grid, pick up an AK-47 and blast fools up and down the streets, apartments, and woodlands over a life-saving can of beans, now you'll have a place for that.
Oh, and the best part about having a specialized zone just for this purpose? The rules of rest of the game still apply inside the Sim-Zone; Meaning you can take anything you like with you both into, and out of it. Meaning if you like our sci-fi guns, but have always had a love affair with Uzi's, Baseball bats, or cowboy hats, you'll be able to keep those toys you find while scavenging the Sim-Zone to be used wherever you like. Maybe you'll even craft new modern ammunition for that ancient M-16 to turn it into an even more lethal instrument of war.
Look for updates like these and more in the coming weeks, and as always, thanks for playing.
Vindicator VK-2 Suit + Theta-Blade Weapons Reveal!
Veli Vindicator know all about sacrifice and hardship.
Once a race of over twenty-billion, a mere 31,000 survive to this day; A number which continues to shrink more and more. As their enemies closed in around for the killing blow, with dusk all but certainly falling for their species, the remaining Veli huddled into filthy corners of long-abandoned underground bunkers awaited the end; The true end.
Just as the last glimmer of their species seemed moments away from blinking into nonexistence, envoys from two alien civilizations traveling in huge blackened ships broke through the planet-wide siege. Their mission; To return the secrets of an ancient technology taught to them by the Veli's warrior ancestors in the eons before abandoning the ways of the conqueror and adopting pacifism.
This technology came in the form of a mysteriously-designed "Vindicator Suit" known as the "Vee-Kay" or "VK", and it's companion weapon; A weapon that transcends the dimensions of spacetime through an theta-band dimensional-gate known as the "Theta-Blade".
Theta-Blade hilts comes in two configurations; Type-A and Type-B
Type-A hilts create a dimensional gateway at the aperture of the hilt which allows a blade made of composite material to be thrust forth and locked into place. The blade itself is of a material largely unknown to Terrans which ionizes all gasseous substances native to our universe on contact, creating a distinctive effect.
Type-B hilts work much in the same way but were designed to address the lack of available composite blades which can be mated to the hilt. Type-B hilts instead create a semi-stable "trap" for light, condensing it it a super-hot fillament which takes the shape of a straight line, focussed at the time. These blades deal damage of both energy and heat on contact with material and are almost instantly lethal.
Up to this point, Vindicator players have never had access to their own weapon, nor an upgraded VK suit to the prototype "VK-1" they begin with. Today, reaching version 0.4.2, we're happy to announce that this new suit, and the Tier-1 Theta-Blade are finally available to players and have decided to offer them as an incentive to new players!
Who all can use Theta-Blades? Just Veli?
Veli Vindicator and Verrator players get first-dibs, meaning that they can craft their first blade early in their career with their own version of the artisan profession. For right now, these schematics are simply included in those granted to Master Artisans.
Additionally, humanoid players choosing a career as a psychic can also use these weapons, as their activation and deactivation are controlled totally via thought which allows only the VK suit, or an individual with competent skills in telekinesis to utilize.
What all characteristics are customizable for these blades?
Crafting Theta-Blades involves assembling several individual components into a single weapon. The qualities and stats of these components result in many different individual aspects of the final weapon including but not limited to;
Blade Width
Blade Length
Blade Radiation (visually represented by "glow")
Blade Damage
Attack Speed
Focus (visually represented by now "needle-like" or "pipe-like" the blade becomes)
Power Drain (How much energy it requires to power and activate)
Blade Sound Effects
Discordance Stability*
Color†
*Discordance Stability is a rating of much stability the projected blade exhibits. Ergo, how well it can keep it's "discordance" under control. The more stable the blade, the less energy is wasted and consumed when used, and also the more stable and consistent the blade visually appears. While such an act increases energy-use, as with the other blade visuals, some players may even craft components which control the discordance of the blade with intentionally poor-materials in order to intentionally produce a blade with that coveted "unstable" effect. This is totally up to the player themselves which is more important to them; Efficiency or style.
†Blade Color is determined by first the hilt, than the chosen Resonance Catalyst introduced during crafting. A Resonance Catalyst is an element of material used between the hilt's power distribution manifolds and the emitter itself, converting the blade energy from low to high density. Essentially raw energy goes in, light with mass comes out. These elements can come in the form of anything from a highly-dense crystalline cluster, to anything that refracts light while maintaining sufficient density such as stones of undigested carbon found in the gut of species native to Rook, such as "Kurrat Pearls" found in the Akkheran desert.
Players in our community have been hearing for a while that we were nearing a stretch of development where, once we have the majority of core features in the game, we devote almost exclusively to fixing bugs and polishing many rough parts of the game, such as creatures/mobs, interface, animations, and all that good stuff. That's why we saved Theta-Blades and new Veli suits for last; we're nearing the home-stretch and we need every bit of help getting there that we can get.
That's why, during this period, we're offering these special incentives to anyone "on the fence" about buying-into our game and its perks. Once the game goes live in a few months, many of our perks are likely to be unavailable for purpose outside of the game.
First and foremost of these is, in fact, the ability to purchase this most-rare of species upgrades and stand-out among the other players.
When our game launched on Steam Early Access, we couldn't keep up with the demand. Once our EA launch exposure died off, we chose to shunt our exposure entirely and not use a single allowed exposure campaign for the last six months up to this point for the sole purpose of keeping our community small and manageable during alpha development.
Once the game officially launches, we're going to blast it with everything we have, all remaining exposure campaigns back-to-back resulting in millions of hits and hopefully tens of thousands of new players registering to the game. When that happens, new players are going to begin wondering "How in the hell do you get one of those?!?!" and those who supported us when we needed it most will be among the most elite of the pack.
That's also why we're making this our very first newsletter push via our website to let everyone know that if you were ever waiting for the right time to buy-into Divergence: Online, it's right now.
This shit isn't cheap! Where does the money go?
While we operate at max efficiency, even combining our living expenses, regretably we are still a 2.5-person development team. Most people have a hard time believing this, but it's absolutely true. In order for this game to become what the MMORPG community desperately needs right now, we simply cannot rely on Steam Sales alone and need to bring in enough financing to expand the team. That's why every dollars contributed to Divergence: Online goes to furthering that cause.
What specifically are you offering?
In addition to granting all players who previously purchased Veli perks complimentary suit-upgrades, right now all new players purchasing either the Vindicator or Verrator perks on our website will get both a free-upgrade to the Tier-2 VK suit (shown in images above) as well as a color crystal of any color on the RGB spectrum created just for them to be used in their first Theta-Blade. These crystals will eventually be super-rare named drops found in only the most dangerous of situations in the game world, including our upcoming world raid encounters and the infamous "Ennie Temple" region.
For the right price, we'll even modify the color patterns of your VK to a custom color of your choosing.
That's all we have for today. Thanks for taking the time to read and checkout our game, and for any questions you might have, please don't hesitate to drop by our Facebook group page and make a post!
facebook.com/groups/415812755276522
Sincerely,
-Ethan Casner
Divergence: Online Lead Developer
Divergence 0.4.0 Long-Awaited "PVE And More" Patch is LIVE!
Therefore we're beginning the process with version 0.4.0 herein referred to as "Zero Four Zero" for your viewing pleasure.
And so, without further ado; All the new sex!
PVE Arrives on Rook!
Our most-desired feature by a large margin has always been the prevalent outcry of "what could be if", coming to us in the form of, "Man, if this game only had some PVE!".
Taking place on an alien moon teeming with life, it's always been our goal to bring living, fighting creatures to the world's surface. As with anything though, when making an genuine MMORPG with just two people, things take time. Add onto that our policy of doing things the right way instead of the quick/cheap way, and yeah.
Lifeforms of Rook run a huge gambit of sizes and demeanors; From the meek scavenger creatures, to huge "Raid-Boss Encounter"-style desert dragons. PVE'ing in Divergence can be as small as hunting wild game, running for your life from predators, or even taking on legendary creatures requiring a dozen or more players to take down, such as our new world raid boss encounter.
Creature Harvesting
Players trained in Scout and (it's advanced version) Ranger can harvest raw materials from dead creatures in the form of Meat, Hide, or Bone. Each material serves different purposes, such as meat being used for pharmaceuticals and food, bone being fashioned into weapons and hide being a primary component in rustic clothing. The size and complexity of the creature Scouts and Rangers can harvest from is determined by their creature harvesting skill modifier, improved through unlocking skill boxes in both Scout and Ranger, as is the quantity of resources you get from a creature.
Cybernetics Profession
Finally, synthetic players can craft bodies for themselves more powerful than those little punk bitch android chassis! We've "almost completely" got our shit together with synthetics crafting and will be releasing the ability to craft and repair both the Markhaus Mk.4 Combat Synthetic chassis, as well as both Military-Synthetic chassis for players to craft through our new, and even more advanced than the original, crafting system.
Wood Harvesting / Choppable Trees!
You asked for it. We listened. Divergence now has both choppable trees, and the ability to craft a multitude of new items with gathered wood. Not only have we added tree chopping, but we've pushed it even further than any other survival-style game of today;
1. Virtually every single tree in the entire game world is now it's own entity and able to be chopped down.
2. Not only are trees choppable, but every species of tree additionally yields both different types of wood and in different quantities based on its size!
3. Each species of tree yields wood with unique stats and "toughness", allowing you to seek out and collect the strongest woods available for your structures. Bir wood might be good in a pinch to build a wall, but if you want a nearly-indestructible wooden fortress, build with Malkavian pine! The stronger the wood, the rarer the species.
4. Trees fall over when chopped down (and the animation looks like shit but so what? Seriously, we're two damn people, come'on!) and remain felled for anywhere between one hour and a month depending on the rarity of their species.
All New Armors + Resistances
With the introduction of the Armorsmithing profession through our staged release, we'll finally be adding the crafting of true armor into the game with resistances to common damage types based on the armor itself, the skill of the crafter and the quality of components they put into their work. The accessible armors (in addition to the existing DC armor) will be:
VRTek Spec-Ops
VRTek Reconnaisance Suit
Omicron Light Field Armor
Omicron "Infinity" Armor
New Vindicator Tier-2 "VK Mark 2" Suit for Vindicator Players
For too long have our veli players been afraid to log in out of fear of losing their ass due to being stuck with the Tier-1 Suit. Through our staged release, we'll be adding the Tier-2 Vindicator suit as a craftable schematic but come prepared, because the components are rare and (as with their ThetaBlade Weapons) will required some incredibly dangerously-acquired components. The New Tier-2 Suit increases the combat effectiveness of Vindicator players by at least 25% over the Tier-1 suit.
New Vindicator and Verrator Theta-Blade
Finally our Veli (and humanoid psychic) players will have a chance to craft their very first ThetaBlade, complete with a multidimensional omnispace microreciprocative blade called forth to the hilt the moment the weapon is activated. These weapons epitomize lethality in the hands of a Veli warrior and require sophisticated materials to assemble guarded by the deadliest creatures to inhabit Rook.
Sim-Zone "Survival" Region
We've had a lot of players pull us aside and tell us what a disservice we're doing the world not adding "survival"-style features into our game, especially considering the MMO climate of today. Seeing as SWG wasn't Survival, it wasn't something we imagined people would want, but you asked for it, so we decided that it would indeed be a part of Divergence: Online
Being a part of a community of survivors on an alien world, your character him, her, or itself need entertainment as much as regular jackoffs, so ATC Drones have begun construction of Rooks own "ongoing reality show" called "The Simzone".
"The Simzone" is a region set aside on Rook's surface where ATC drones create settings, fabricated out of ferrocrete, reminiscent of early 21st-century urban environments on Earth in a state of abandonment; A sort of "ongoing Kill-House" if you will, where both native and non-native inhabitants of Rook can enter-into and compete for scavenging swag whenever they like. Since all structures and items within the Simzone are fabricated out of ferrocrete, ATC drones can construct not just buildings and static objects, but even fully-functional weapons and devices, randomly (and occasionally non-randomly) scattered about the landscape as unique weapons and items found during that time in Earth's history, such as automobiles, assault rifles and weapons.
Keep in mind though that life doesn't like to be shut-out, especially in it's own backyard, so while you may encounter hostile entities roaming these wastelands in the form of humanoids infected with the Verrator virus, Rook's native wildlife will also find their way into the zone, lurking in the shadows and awaiting a chance to pounce on you while you reach for that can of creamed corn.
Both Hunger and Thirst will also be new features in Divergence, done in a way that rewards hunters and survivalists, yet doesn't punish crafters of those who simply do not wish to partake.
Vast Streaming and Loading Improvements
Several-minute loading screens are officially a thing of the past in Divergence thanks to a completely redesigned planetary synchonization system that now streams all data to your game client in a compressed state. What was once a minute-long wait time to get to the login screen from game-launch has been squashed to "so fast it basically doesn't even show our disclaimed screen anymore".
All this and more coming over the next couple weeks. While we're still far from ready, and in fact only just under halfway there, with your continued support we know we can take this game to launch. Stay tuned for more in-depth info about these and upcoming near-release features in the days to come.
Divergence: Online "Zero Five Zero" Massive PVE and Content Patch Announced!
This "big push", we've decided to designate based on it's internal version number for us, which brings Divergence: Online to v0.50 and thus will be named "Divergence: Online "Zero Five Zero".
Zero Five Zero represents a major milestone in our development which will take our game from being an MMO with tons of potential professions, unrivaled crafting, unrivaled player and guild housing and twitch-combat, to a game with "a life of it's own" as well.
Tons of New Players
You've probably been wondering why, instead of constantly advertising the game and trying to bring in new players, we've instead used exactly zero of our allowed exposure powers that Steam allows since our January launch.
The answer is that, we simply decided that, while people knowing about the game is all well and good, a good number of players simply cannot wrap their minds around the concept of "Early Access" and are reviewing as if, this game built by two people, claims to be solid, complete, and a contender to games with ten times the staff and one hundred times the money. At the time of this new post, we're sitting exactly 1% inside of "Mostly Positive", and we simply do not wish to "mass sell" the game in it's previous state "until it's further along", at which point we can feel more confident that the new players buying the game won't simply buy it, play it, then get one of those automatically-granted refunds from Steam. We just can't afford that stuff dudes, so we've been holding out since January for a chance to "sell a better, more complete version of Divergence" and finally Zero Five Zero will allow us to do just that. Again, "not finished', but far enough along that we're at least willing to, again, allow it to be exposed on Steam, resulting in (what Steam estimates we'll receive as) over one-million page hits on our steam page and lots and lots of new players.
Better get your house in order before the new neighbors see what a shit-hole your property looks like!
And so without further ado; Behold, our official list of upcoming features intended to be released in "Divergence: Online Zero Five Zero"
Trees Choppable/Harvestable!
Most trees in the game world will soon be able to be chopped down by the player, allowing their logs to be collected and turned into wooden defenses, structures, homes, and even huge forts!
Scout Profession
The Scout basic profession we released in previous builds will finally provide the player with a ton of useful features.
Build fires, camps, and basic defenses out of collected wooden logs, sticks, and natural structures.
Armorsmith Profession
This specialized-branch of Artisan will allow the player to finally craft body-armor for themselves and others with resistances and characteristics completely dependent on the crafting process itself. Create armor with high resistances to ballistic weapons, or even a specialized set with corrosion-resistance for you and your friends right before that big acid-spitting raptor hunt you're gearing up to go on!
Ranger Profession
Expanding beyond the basics of scouting, players will be able to then advance to scout's elite profession; Ranger.
Rangers will be given additional buildable schematics, skill bonuses and modifiers that enable them to;
1) Construct fortified defenses, huge wooden structures and even whole forts out of chopped lumber.
2) Reduce your likelyhood to "aggro" nearby wild creatures by making yourself seen less threatening to skittish creatures as well as more threatening to predators, drastically reducing your likleyhood of being attacked.
3) Track creatures by their species or other criteria, even players themselves.
4) Eventually even tame wild animals for your benefit.
PVE Comes To Divergence!
It's been a long-awaited feature since our January Early Access Launch and we're very pleased to say that Zero Five Zero will finally see the surface of Rook explode with dynamic life of all types both timid, friendly, inquisitive, and deadly.
Players will be greeted with lifeforms that can trample them, steal their goods, provide food and nourishment or even provide them nightmares in the dark evenings to come on Rook's surface. Players and their friends can now enjoy many more activities that simply gunning down newbies, such as hunting creatures for sport, food, materials, or simply something to run for your life from.
Creatures will come in many sizes, even including a massive boss-style raid requiring the collaboration (and firepower) of potentially dozens of players to "bring down the beast" and gain coveted resources and materials for ultra-rare crafted goods and new quest items.
New Vindicator Tier-2 Armor
Finally Vindicator will be able to quest for Their first upgraded VK suits in Tier-2. These new suits will allow Vindicator players a big boost to agility, rigidity and most importantly, combat power. Forging these suits will require exotic materials and undoubtedly cost many lives in the process, but the rewards for Vindicator players are great.
Theta-Blade Weapons
At long last, our signature weapon the "Theta-Blade" will be making its debut in Divergence: Online.
Theta-Blades, the ancient weapon of the Vindicator, will finally be available to be crafted by both Vindicator, Verrator, and psychic-trained humanoids alike. Crafting these weapons requires devotion and dedication as fabricating a weapon capable of opening a dimensional rift and transporting their blade through space and time during every use is no simple undertaking.
Omicron Factional Armor
Since, up to this point, armor served no practical purpose until other game features were in place, it had long drawn the short straw. However, with Zero Five Zero, armor will finally begin to see its day come in Divergence: Online. Our first set will be Omicron Light Field Armor, craftable by Omicron-aligned Armorsmiths, this armor relies heavily on laminated fibroplast and aluminium layers to provide it superior protection in the field against most kinetic damage. Anyone of any faction is able to equip this armor, although we hope to be able to offer armor-options for all three factions in the near future for our VRTek and DC friends as well!
Factory and Grid improvements
We'll finally be giving factories and grid terminals the love they deserve, creating additional layers of bug prevention that "catch" mishaps before they happen and jam up your sweatshop-running-business on Rook.
Turrets Improved
We're also in the process of allowing defensive turrets to visually track and fire upon enemies, instead of simply dealing damage. They were "better than nothing" before, but now they'll be something you don't have to be embarrassed of! In addition to their damage, players will now be able to craft-into-them increased turning speed based on the quality of materials they put in during crafting.
Additional Feature We're Trying To Fit In
Cybernetics Profession
If things go as planned, we're also planning on adding the Cyberneticist profession, which will finally allow players to craft those combat and military synthetic chassis we've all been so eager to see more of in game. Through cybernetics crafting, finally these guys will be able to create chassis for themselves that actually do have the ability to attack back XD
Doors and Gates
We'd love to be able to offer "actual doors" to players so that people didn't need to resort to "picking up and dropping walls" to get in and out of their property, while keeping others out.
Survival-Style Features
Divergence was always intended to be a game that rewards "survival-style play" without punishing those who simply wish to play it for it's incredible crafting or social aspects, such as dancing. To accomplish this, we've come up with our own new take on survival-style gameplay.
All humanoid players will have a thirst and hunger bar in addition to their existing HAM.
Thirst and hunger will begin to deplete the moment the player enters the world.
When thirst and hunger are controlled, the player receives a "healthy" bonus to stats.
Players also however will only suffer thirst and hunger depletion at a normal rate when outside of a hopper range with a "rest" component.
What's this mean exactly?
While you're "out in the world" hunting creatures, hunting players, doing your thing, you need food and water to survive. While you're at home on your couch, in a friends apartment, dancing in a cantina, or chilling in your castle, your hunger and thirst will deplete at a drastically-reduced rate which can be as low as just 1%, virtually nonexistant.
What we hope to accomplish with this is to allow players to play the game any way they wish, even if that be as a purely non-combative role and not be required to constantly "feed" their "survival-mode" requirements, while simultaneously offering players who do wish to venture out into the wilderness a real sense of survival gameplay.
Tell us what you think on our facebook group page!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/415812755276522/
That about covers it so far! We thank each and everyone one of you who've chipped in to help us make it this far and with your continued support, we've never been more certain that Divergence: Online can be the game we all know it deserves to be.
Lomenia Preview Live + New OSI Factional Armor
First and foremost, we're testing a whole new terrain foliage and population system, and to test it we've dumped a whole lot of plantlife right outside the Lomenia Municipal Starport. Depending on the feedback we get from players on our facebook group page, if all goes well, we'll be replicating this pattern across all of Lomenia, so come by our facebook page and weigh in!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/415812755276522/
While you're there, feel free to help us name a few of our creatures, or even give us your opinion of new Omicron factional armors!
Thanks for all your support and positivity guys, helping us get through this long stint of NPC development. It'll be worth it in just a few weeks :)
https://i.gyazo.com/3dd8169faf9f2a76596c0ca1bcdef5a1.jpg
MASSIVE UPDATE: Player cloners, Shuttleports, Architect and Tons More!
First and foremost, the Architect profession. Yay!
Contained within the architect profession are the crafting schematics for other additions people have been bugging us for; Player Cloning Facilities, and Player Shuttleports!
Both Cloners and Shuttleports are full facilities with their own power and maintenance requirements, which can be crafted as efficient, or as shit as the materials and components going into them during crafting. The better you craft them, the less power and maintenance costs they'll require, and for cloner, the more clones they can store per player.
For those not in-tune with what this means for players; Player cloners are facilities that players themselves can now craft to allow themselves and others to "clone" or "resurrect" at that location upon death, as opposed to the permanent ATC facility, which could potentially be a dozen or more kilometers from where you died. Player shuttleports are facilities that players can now craft which allow fast travel between points on the map, making it infinitely easier to travel large distances with relative ease.
Additionally, both Cloner and Shuttleports can be used as a source of financial income, allowing their administrators to set and choose how much money they require for players to use, and allowing the admins to collect that money from the structure management terminals!
ADDED: Architect Profession! Architect requires Engineering IV in the artisan tree, at which point you can then select and learn "Architect" from the available professions list.
ADDED: Craftable Cloning Facilities! Currently available in generic and forrest styles, but will be available additionally in desert styles in the future.
ADDED: Craftable Shuttleports! Currently available in generic style, but will be available in generic, forrest, and desert styles in the future.
ADDED: Swimming! Now biological players can swim through the water in three dimensions (sorry cyborgs and machines, you sink!) with WASD and SPACE/CTRL for up/down movement. Be careful about logging out at the bottom of rivers though because soon enough you'll be able to drown ;)
ADDED: All new terrain, terrain textures, and foliage. People bitches about the terrain being too mountainous, so we modified it to have a lot more plains suitable for construction. It is, however, missing a lot of details that we simply didn't want to wait for their completion before making this push so that players could have access to the other new features as soon as possible, therefore expect more big changes to the terrain and its foliage to happen in the near future.
ADDED: Melee Combat! It's been a long time coming, but the game finally has melee combat. The one and only usable weapon right now is the axe, and it won't do damage until we push out a new schematic allowing players to control the damage through crafting, but the system is now in place and we look forward to improving on it in the next several updates.
ADDED: With the addition of shuttleports, certain players with their own unique islands have requests that their islands be introduced into the game now. You will only see their shuttleport locations if they have given access to either the general public, or you personally.
FIXED: The weapon sounds will not longer sound muffled by default.
FIXED: Login scene now reflects and animation during planetary synchronization to let you know it is, in fact, doing something.
FIXED: Tons of small stuff that I don't feel like listing.
IMPROVED: Post-Processing has been improved - We've boosted some effects while toning down others to provide a middleground between a cinematic experience, but also not causing too much eyestrain. Additionally, Depth-Of-Field has been re-introduced into the game but in a manner that does not hinder the players ability to clearly see important details.
IMPROVED: Grids now function a lot better now and more reliably so.
PROGRESS: We're still pushing along our total overhaul to the server to prepare it for near-hack-proof implementation of creatures and NPCs. We're still developing more creatures through this time, so once the system is usable, you'll have all available critters immediately.
Other features that we expect to have finalized this week in conjunction with what we already have are the implementation of actual doors with their own permissions set by the owner to allow only specified players into your property.
Thanks for all your support in helping us add even more content to the game in the near future!
MASSIVE UPDATE: Player cloners, Shuttleports, Architect and Tons More!
First and foremost, the Architect profession. Yay!
Contained within the architect profession are the crafting schematics for other additions people have been bugging us for; Player Cloning Facilities, and Player Shuttleports!
Both Cloners and Shuttleports are full facilities with their own power and maintenance requirements, which can be crafted as efficient, or as shit as the materials and components going into them during crafting. The better you craft them, the less power and maintenance costs they'll require, and for cloner, the more clones they can store per player.
For those not in-tune with what this means for players; Player cloners are facilities that players themselves can now craft to allow themselves and others to "clone" or "resurrect" at that location upon death, as opposed to the permanent ATC facility, which could potentially be a dozen or more kilometers from where you died. Player shuttleports are facilities that players can now craft which allow fast travel between points on the map, making it infinitely easier to travel large distances with relative ease.
Additionally, both Cloner and Shuttleports can be used as a source of financial income, allowing their administrators to set and choose how much money they require for players to use, and allowing the admins to collect that money from the structure management terminals!
ADDED: Architect Profession! Architect requires Engineering IV in the artisan tree, at which point you can then select and learn "Architect" from the available professions list.
ADDED: Craftable Cloning Facilities! Currently available in generic and forrest styles, but will be available additionally in desert styles in the future.
ADDED: Craftable Shuttleports! Currently available in generic style, but will be available in generic, forrest, and desert styles in the future.
ADDED: Swimming! Now biological players can swim through the water in three dimensions (sorry cyborgs and machines, you sink!) with WASD and SPACE/CTRL for up/down movement. Be careful about logging out at the bottom of rivers though because soon enough you'll be able to drown ;)
ADDED: All new terrain, terrain textures, and foliage. People bitches about the terrain being too mountainous, so we modified it to have a lot more plains suitable for construction. It is, however, missing a lot of details that we simply didn't want to wait for their completion before making this push so that players could have access to the other new features as soon as possible, therefore expect more big changes to the terrain and its foliage to happen in the near future.
ADDED: Melee Combat! It's been a long time coming, but the game finally has melee combat. The one and only usable weapon right now is the axe, and it won't do damage until we push out a new schematic allowing players to control the damage through crafting, but the system is now in place and we look forward to improving on it in the next several updates.
ADDED: With the addition of shuttleports, certain players with their own unique islands have requests that their islands be introduced into the game now. You will only see their shuttleport locations if they have given access to either the general public, or you personally.
FIXED: The weapon sounds will not longer sound muffled by default.
FIXED: Login scene now reflects and animation during planetary synchronization to let you know it is, in fact, doing something.
FIXED: Tons of small stuff that I don't feel like listing.
IMPROVED: Post-Processing has been improved - We've boosted some effects while toning down others to provide a middleground between a cinematic experience, but also not causing too much eyestrain. Additionally, Depth-Of-Field has been re-introduced into the game but in a manner that does not hinder the players ability to clearly see important details.
IMPROVED: Grids now function a lot better now and more reliably so.
PROGRESS: We're still pushing along our total overhaul to the server to prepare it for near-hack-proof implementation of creatures and NPCs. We're still developing more creatures through this time, so once the system is usable, you'll have all available critters immediately.
Other features that we expect to have finalized this week in conjunction with what we already have are the implementation of actual doors with their own permissions set by the owner to allow only specified players into your property.
Thanks for all your support in helping us add even more content to the game in the near future!
Player Cloners Testing Now on Live
We've cleared out two good-sized areas on both Malkav and Akkhera (with an upcoming location being cleared right now in Lomenia) for players to test out purchasing clones for themselves which they can then recall to once they die.
The ATC Cloner will continue to remain online as a "default" cloner for those unable to afford new clones for themselves at other locations, but the really important part of this milestone is that like many of our structures before, these cloners will be craftable by players this coming week.
What all can you use a craftable cloning facility for?
1) Set an access fee which players must pay in order to store clones of their characters in your cloning facility.
2) Store those credits collected by players when they pay for clones and transfer those credits collected from clone sales to your own pocket!
3) Set each facility to run in either Private Mode, where only you and your friends can access and use it, or Public Mode where any random jackoff can use it and pay you for the service.
Feel free to drop by either location to register your clones and test out the service for us. They'll be added to craftable schematics list as soon as we get a little more testing in and in tandem with our release of both craftable shuttleports and the Architect Profession as well this week.
We also continue working on NPCs and hunting at the same time, so all of these changes are simply necessary steps in the larger machine. With any luck, we'll be in a position where we feel comfortable running our first exposure campaign and bringing in new players this month.
As always, thanks for your support!