Update 0.3.2: Gaseous effects are here featuring dynamic smoke and others. And even more improvements to performance with a few important additions (Spoilers, we fixed the taskbar bug and added Steam screenshots)
Additions
New fluid dynamics simulation for SMOKE and gaseous materials. Casings, gunfire, dashing, explosions, and nerve gas produce smoke! Flying cars and vents produce visual air turbulence. All attacks interact with the smoke and gas.
Shader based so the entire setup uses about as much cpu as half a light.
Series of new light types added with less brightness and more ambience. Replaced and added some to most of the levels.
Improved trap visibility by bringing them in front of less important objects.
New glitch shader: shifted over a bunch of the post processing in platforming to GPU (everything draws faster).
The constable will now also talk at civilians if they are around and nothing else of importance is in range.
Replaced stretchy multi-surface chromatic aberration with a simpler shader that has no x scale stretching. (Should make things slightly easier to read when lots of stuff is happening at once and runs faster as well).
Rats, bugs, and birds are a bit smarter, also birds fly more like birds.
New steam achievement, Kill 100 dudessss. We are still working on achievements and will have a full suite ready on or soon after release.
Steam screenshots added, F12.
More garbage!
Optimized the way the map is drawn.
All light type objects now have a unified onscreen tracking system for optimization.
Now that the Steam overlay screenshot calls are working, let's get the community hub full of new screencaps! :D
Bug Fixes
Taskbar icon appears as it should now
Hostages only land on the ground, not tables or shelves.
Lots of unnecessary level architechture removed to speed things along.
All active objects could get misplaced or draw out of level will now destroy themselves instead of using extra resources.
Update all locks so they shouldn't draw off screen anymore.
As always, click Follow to be notified of announcements like these! Also, check us out on social media. It always helps to have people like and share our social media content. If you're on Facebook or Twitter, look us up! :D
Update 0.3.1.1 brings two new gang bosses, one new level, enemy trap mechanics, new dialogue/clues for the Rudeboys, and a whole suite of tweaks to give more performance to the lower end machines out there. It took longer than some expected to release this update, but we are still around and have a solid roadmap to full release(check the forums!).
Additions
Performance tweaks. We discovered and fixed a pretty serious variable saving bug that was bogging down everything when a fair amount of enemies/npcs were on screen. In the process, every major object type in game was revamped with performance in mind.
PUNCHBOTTTTTT (Biofreaks boss, see below) and Animus Twins boss are fully implemented
New level "Offset", slums and tech corps together!
Traps! 3 new traps will now be placed by the enemy in certain conditions. WATCH OUT.
Conversations for Rudeboys gang are now 100% finished
Higher caliber enemy weapons now literally fire their projectiles out faster, from a 50% increase on the desert eagle rounds to a 100% increase on the gatling gun (which now feels appropriately powerful maybe)
New civilians, no and increased the number of them in most levels to be appropriately bothersome
New suite of sprites for all enemies to give them head/arm aiming animations
Main menu updated with indicator arrows to make available options more visible
Quest/Clue phone numbers are now randomly generated so you have to actually earn/find them!
Flaming barrels with floaty fire particles
Uncompressed a bunch of sounds and music to decrease CPU usage
All enemies have at least 2 idle animations now
Reworked explosion mechanics to account for player armor when causing damage
All enemy reaction times and cover taking routines are improved, and now factor in their Movespeed.
Desaturated colors for bright objects/tiles in game because they were jumping out from the background too much
Set of new pipe tiles with gauges and valves and a few other background props
Birds and fire both have sounds now
Vending machines produce cans when hit/destroyed
Bug Fixes
Hostages only land on the ground, not tables or shelves.
Fixed sticky grenade bounciness and made it's door sticking ability more reliable at low to medium speeds.
Female civilians are around, now you can observe that women physically exist in New Babel.
As always, click Follow to be notified of announcements like these! Also, check us out on social media. It always helps to have people like and share our social media content. If you're on facebook or twitter, look us up! :D
Game Development World Championship - Helsinki, Finland
Howdy!
Jack here, no patch notes this time, but soon!
Just wanted to give yall a quick update on what we've been up to lately, and why the next update has been taking longer than expected.
We had the opportunity to present MiniLAW as a finalist in the professional category for the Game Development World Championship in Helsinki, Finland. I had an amazing opportunity to travel to Finland to present the game, meet some amazing devs from around the world, visit a few Scandinavian studios (Rovio, King.com in Stockholm, Sweden), and even speak to Finnish Parliament about the competition and the state of the gaming industry around the world.
We placed 3rd overall!
I wanted to personally thank all of you for staying active in the community, showing your interest in the game and providing us with outstanding feedback throughout this process. The Steam community in particular has been an incredible source of inspiration and cooperation for us, and we are on the final stretch of finishing out the last of the narrative events and tying in some multiple endings in preparation for full release.
As always, click Follow to be notified of announcements like these! Also, check us out on social media. It always helps to have people like and share our social media content. If you're on facebook or twitter, look us up! :D
Sorry about the tap-to-move bug that was induced with the addition of left stick movement. I didn't do my due diligence in testing!
This patch should make it right: double-tap to run should react to any input method.
Thanks for bearing with us and most of all, thanks for playing! You guys are the best! :)
0.3.0 - Lots of cars and no more black screens
We finally got the black screen bug figured out that many of you experienced. It is due to recent Windows 10 update and until Microsoft fixes it you have to use the following work around to use Windows 8 compatibility:
1. In Steam, Go to Library
2. Right click miniLAW and select properties
3. Now there will be three columns, pick the third named Local Files
4. Now click the first option "browse local files"
5. You will be in the game's folder now, right click the minilaw.exe and click on properties
6. Now click on compatibility and turn on Windows 8 compatibility mode
7. Should be fixed after this
With that behind us take a look at some exploding cars and other additions below!
Futuristic cars!
Which do you wanna pick?
They can be used for cover and are of course destructible.
Car details to look for!
Deflating tire noise
Glass breaking
Doors flying off
More Additions
You can now use joystick to move when using a gamepad.
Player and enemy bullets now travel through their targets in a deactivated state if they do sufficient damage and 'penetrate' the target completely. Bullets deactivated by penetrating hit will continue on for a few frames, directly hitting and stopping on any destructible objects or walls in their way. Adds a fair bit of "realism" to the gun battles and looks cool cause you can shoot through people.
Changed grab breaks; additional 'bop' sound and quick animation clarify that a grab break is happening. Also added a delay after a grab has been broken so they aren't spammable.
Added bulletin board tiles and pinned wall objects. Notes explode into bits of paper when hit!
Series of porcelain breaking noises that several objects (mugs, table lamp, sinks and toilets) play when they reach a certain point of damage. Sinks and toilets make additional verlet bits on breakpoint.
Optimizations and Bug Fixes
Shooting at enemies who are offscreen now comes with a stiff aim penalty; unless you have invested in aim you have roughly a 12% chance to hit someone while shooting at them. Aim boost increases this up to 100% hit chance with high skill and mods.
Disable narrative clues in endlesss mode.
Fixed the narrative bugs the "gurugary", "concerned insider", and "samuel thomas" plot lines.
Updated the "Soft Spoken" trait and it should now work properly.
Changed the wall interaction script to fix the stairs clipping bug.
We want to thank everyone for bug reports that you've been posting in the forums, they really help our development process and help all the players to get a better expereince.
As always, click Follow to be notified of announcements like these! Also, check us out on social media. It always helps to have people like and share our social media content. If you're on facebook or twitter, look us up! :D
Been seeing numerous reports of the dreaded black screen bug, where fullscreen mode is just a big ol' black void. Seems to occur on Windows 8,10 and as far as we can tell has something to do with the creator update.
We've issued a patch to the experimental branch to resolve this issue. Give 'er a spin and let us know how she runs!
Thanks for hanging with us on issues like this one, and stay tuned for more updates! :)
0.2.9 - Trading Cards Dipped in Lore
We're still fleshing out the phone/investigation system. Mainly "Renegade Justice" perps this time around. The much requested trading cards and all the accompanying goodies have finally arrived. A few more things to read about below!
More plot lines for you to discover!
We are continuing to build up the phone system in New Babel. This update features a polished "Renegade Justice" investigation plot line, look for some of the above bad dudes or maybe order a pizza?
Trading Cards and all the fixin's
You've been asking and we've got them ready:
5 Trading Cards will be available for consumption!
Use your newly obtained cards to craft 5 new badges and 1 FOIL badge, collect 3 new backgrounds and 5 new emoticons for you trouble when you craft too.
More Additions
Major adjustments and changes to how enemies experience THREAT. Give us some feedback on these changes please:
Killing/knocking out/forcing an enemy to surrender will cause all enemies within a small radius and within line of sight to take a resolve check via relatively high threat penalties. This includes surrendered enemies you heartless bastard!
Adjusted health and threat thresholds regarding enemy response to player threat. Basically all enemy types will respond to threats like having guns fired very close to them or people dying around them more significantly than before.
* Look out for some serious explosions following certain undisclosed events on the map screen!
* Three more variations to standing player character hitstate animation.
Optimizations and Bug Fixes
* Decreased how much unhappiness spreads in general from block to block in endless mode to reflect relatively peaceful time.
* Fixed oversight that was prevent player from blocking and moving backwards while crouching. Changed crouchwalk slightly so that certain parts of the walk cycle give you more speed.
* No player character moves have pushback during their cooldown frames anymore. Pushback only happens before the move is executed.
* More fixes to player block interaction should make it seamless.
* HQ locator arrow on map is now more visible via flashy text.
* Doubled report type speed to make it not as crawlingly slow without skip buttons.
As always, click Follow to be notified of announcements like these! Also, check us out on social media. It always helps to have people like and share our social media content. If you're on facebook or twitter, look us up! :D
We pushed an update not long ago to the experimental branch to introduce the narrative system, and the bug reports came in. We've squashed many of them, and are ready to move the branch over to stable. Here's a look at what has been fixed
* Added a few more narrative plot lines for Renegade Justice
* Added scrolling text buttons to the beeper log so you can read the full recorded messages.
* Cleaned up several narrative loose ends.
Other Updates
* Fixed in-game diegetic radio objects to play the full litany of tracks for increased musical variety while in-game.
* Various fixes to make player hitstate/back cover animations work together without weird looking transitions.
* Objectives menu (the thing that tells you you have to disarm the bomb) and phone are both unavailable to the player in endless mode.
* Improved door breacher grenade door stickiness. Fixed arbit mk3 not having thermograph feature.
Extras
You might find one hidden achievement! We've also submitted all the material for badges, cards, backgrounds, and emoticons to be reviewed. After we get the final sign off on those, a whole new steam-based play element will be ready to peruse.
As always, click Follow to be notified of announcements like these! Also, check us out on social media. It always helps to have people like and share our social media content. If you're on facebook or twitter, look us up! :D
The new narrative is coming along swimmingly. In preparation for the Steam Summer Season, we are pushing out an experimental branch that features a whole host of new phone conversations, narrative events, and clue drops that fill New Babel with life and vigor.
Narrative System
* Added Narrative Clues, enabling players to talk to citizens of the shady world of New Babel
* Added phone-based plotlines centred around the Animus Consortium
* Added 20% chance that any clue will be a Narrative Clue
* New portraits and dialogue for over 10 narrative events.
Other Goodies
* Added a new music track.
NOTICE: There will be bugs, glitches, and possibly crashes with this build. The phone system is in active development and there are tons of moving parts that add a whole new dimension to the gameplay experience. Bear with us! We are working through it dilligently.
We appreciate your involvement and correspondence, and look forward to seeing your feedback here in the community hub and on social media!
As always, click Follow to be notified of announcements like these! Also, check us out on social media. It always helps to have people like and share our social media content. If you're on facebook or twitter, look us up! :D
We took our time to develop a major phone system in this build, it's the first step towards more detective type encounters. Search for some numbers on your adventures in New Babel. We've also changed up the way melee combat works, added grenades, and a pixel perfect aiming LASER.
Melee Revamp
Unlinked movement from most melee moves. You can still move forwards during a move by holding in that direction after initiating the move, but most moves on their own do not move your character forwards. Most melee moves allow you to start and stop moving forwards while they are being executed. Possible max melee move speed now determined by player agility.
Grab also now functions like melee moves, where you do not move unless you press a direction while executing the move.
New groundpound move, performed by crouching and tapping forwards before primary fire, strikes the ground directly in front of the constable.
New leg sweep crouching offhand melee move that operates similarly to the dash version.
All pistol whip melee moves are snappier in animation and functionality. The third primary attack in a chain performs a heavy melee pushback move that does less damage and stamina damage than other moves. Walking while pressing primary now accesses this heavy pushback move instead of the offhand walk to uppercut move.
Grenades
Just as you would expect, you throw them they do bangy bang things. See them with descriptions below:
N98 Flashbang - Pyrotechnic stun grenade. Apertures in your headset protect you from the effects.
Goliath S171 - 2kg shotput, wrapped in 3cm of force dispersing riot gel.
X21 Gas Grenade - Nerve gas grenade. Disperses highly concentrated gas in small radius.
N57 Grenade - Pre-war technology based high-explosive grenade.
JS8 Grenade - Door breaching adhesive explosive charge.
Incedniary Grenade - SOON TO COME, but it does some fire.
Grenades take the "offhand" slot. Their supply refills at miniLAW HQ and are in the HUD. Grenades explode after a four second delay.
Grenades hit people, so if you bean them hard enough it bounces off of them and knocks them over. Shown below with the new N98 Flashbang!
More Additions
New laser sight coupled with pixel perfect aiming:
Reworked player muzzlepoint calculations. Changed laser to an actively calculated line with a point of impact, draws accurately up to 3 px tolerances. Player arm is a super accurate representation of where the character is actually aiming and pointing instead of an approximation as before.
New Endless mode: hitting left/right on New Game or Continue Game options in title menu switches the game mode from story to endless. Endless mode saves into a different slot and has no time limit. You can tell that a game is endless mode from the clock display, which does the 'DAY x' time count instead of hours remaining. Adjusted sky color changes because of longer possible overall game time in endless mode.
Reactor Mechanic Change: Most mods that make you stronger, faster, or increase your sensors or voice range now have a 'power drain'. In platforming levels, this power drain manifests as a slower recharge to your power bar. Having under 15% power now puts you in 'critical power mode', and you will move and perform melee moves at 50-70 percent normal speed. Moving and performing melee actions now slows your recharge rate to 50% maximum. Performing power draining actions now changes the color of the bar to indicate this drain, and being in critical power modifies those colors further.
Tactical reloads: reloading with a round chambered in the gun is slightly faster than reloading without a round chambered in the gun; dropping the slide takes about 1/8 of a second. A reload from empty is signified with an extra slide dropping sound. Ammo counts while reloading are more accurate.
Added 4 new augments.
Ragdolls now have an limit to the amount of blood they spew and they can also bleed from the head if sufficient damage is done to it.
New idle animations: player can go from a gun up stance back to a normal gun stance. Character makes sounds while idling now. New clackety sounds for various player gun actions.
New block/ragdoll collision sounds.
Bug Fixes
You can no longer try to aim while in a three point landing. Getting hit while trying to enter backcover from shooting no longer does a glitched animation.
Enemies can no longer surrender while being hurtled through the air, and can only do so after slowing down.
As always, click Follow to be notified of announcements like these! Also, check us out on social media. It always helps to have people like and share our social media content. If you're on facebook or twitter, look us up! :D
