Hi everyone! Today we’ve got a nice update for you that should make a lot of players happy. Cryobays can now be used to spend Genome points gained from leveling up once they have been activated. In Permadeath mode a respawn must be available from that bay before points can be spent.
Experience required per level has been seriously reduced (It was ridiculous. Seriously, props to anyone who reached level 70).
Added new ways to gain experience points and adjusted existing rewards.
Crafting & Upgrading (depends on tier of item crafted)
Finding and activating undiscovered Echo Emitters
Hacking locked objects (based on difficulty)
Killing enemies (based on difficulty)
Unlocking Keycard (number pad) doors.
Repairing world Items (cryobays, cyano-tubes, battery backups)
Previously earned experience will be applied directly the first time you hit continue, and is now stored outside the world save for extra protection.
Current level, experience bar, and points available to spend have been added to the AARM menu. Gaining a new level will cause the AARM to beep and display an icon.
*There is no fly text for experience gains or leveling up but it can be added if it’s something that you feel strongly about. Let us know!
On top that large change, we’ve got a number of other additions, changes and tweaks! As always, read on below for the full list:
NPC Updates
New NPC “SW33-PR” adds a little flair to a futile job.
Wandering NPCs now take the hint if they can’t move in their intended direction.
Widows have had their attack range explained to them and no longer try to attack outside of it.
SEC-RT NPC will no longer pretend they are a Widow if they are hit from behind.
Some NPCs have decided that bald is beautiful.
Combat Updates
Dodging is now faster and farther.
Aiming transitions in more quickly.
Melee attacks have a longer range but have had their dash removed for light attacks.
Strong melee attacks can be held for a while.
Strong melee start trigger has been adjusted to be less likely to trigger when clicking quickly (looking at you, Stalkers).
Fixed an issue with inconsistent hit detection on the Surgical Laser.
Added recoil to Surgical Laser secondary attack.
Javelins projectiles travel faster and have had the spread reduced on their secondary fire.
Enemies no longer get knocked back when you block without a shield.
Misc Updates
Fixed a performance issue with the mini-map display.
Footstep sounds stop if you die while running.
Dev Blog #86: Update coming soon
Happy friday! We hope you've some exciting weekend plans coming up (perhaps including some PAMELA?). We've got a quick status update to share.
In the next week or two, we'll have a major feature rolling out - the ability to level up using Genome Points in-game, without dying first! This is a much-requested change that we've been meaning to do for some time, and we're pleased to say it's almost ready for showtime. Along with this change is an extensive balance pass; you'll now collect experience points for a wider variety of activities, and the points required per level has been substantially decreased to make endgame less grindy.
Along with this, we've got a handful of bugfixes and a new little robotic NPC to add some extra life to Eden. These will be rolling out with the Genome Points improvements in the next update.
Stay tuned for more details on how this new functionality will work in our changelog post when it goes live, and have an awesome weekend!
Dev Blog #85: Status Update
Happy Wednesday! We've been a bit quiet lately as we've been investigating some major optimizations, as well as rounding up feedback from the influx of players from the Summer Sale.
One thing is clear - we've still got some work to do on the optimization front, which was outlined in the roadmap we posted a few weeks back. Here's that again, in case you missed it:
This is going to be a bit wordy and a touch technical - follow along if you're interested in the juicy details!
After our Level Streaming part 1 update, we heard a lot of positive feedback that performance had been improved, but many of you were still not getting a smooth gameplay experience.
We're currently working on 2 new features: Level Streaming part 2, and Texture Streaming (which is a built-in feature of Unity 2018.2)
Level Streaming Part 2
When we say "Level Streaming", that essentially refers to loading chunks of the game world in-and-out as needed, rather than loading in the entire game world in one massive chunk at the beginning. This has 2 implications - streaming the game improves load times dramatically, and also reduces the amount of memory, CPU, and sometimes even GPU being used during gameplay.
The "Part 1" of level streaming that we integrated recently was limited to props, such as chairs, tables, chests, etc. due to technical limitations on the Unity Engine side at the time. With the fixes that they've implemented over the last few months, we're now able to proceed with "full" level streaming, meaning we can load and unload level geometry (and lighting data!) in real time during gameplay.
There are a couple technical hurdles we still need to clear in order to get this shipping to you guys, but we're digging into it with the Unity folks and are seeing some promising results in testing so far. Level geo and lighting data takes up a great deal of RAM and CPU power, so reducing the amount of this stuff being loaded will yield tasty gains. Stay tuned for more updates on this.
Texture Streaming (AKA Updating Unity 2018.2)
The other main optimization point we're looking at integrating in the near future is Texture Streaming. Unreal games have been using this feature for years; you may be familiar with the infamous texture pop-in that sometimes happens when using this technique.
Well, the kind folks over at Unity have recently implemented this into the core of the engine with their recent 2018.2 release. We're SUPER excited about integrating this into PAMELA, since we've got a huge amount of textures in game between all the characters, items, and environment we've crammed in there.
The biggest challenge here is updating the game to Unity 2018.2. Those of you familiar with game development will know that updating engine versions is one of those things that can really make you sweat... with good reason!
Since we're also developing HYPERGUN and it's not live yet, we've been keeping that game running on the latest and greatest (and riskiest!) Unity version, including recently updating to 2018.2. This gives us a good test bed, if you will, for identifying potential hickups before making the significant plunge with PAMELA.
On that front, we've definitely encountered a few red flags. Bug reports have been submitted, work arounds are being investigated, and once we feel a bit more confident, we'll be testing this version with PAMELA. Our testing on HYPERGUN has shown that texture streaming does indeed work quite well, improving loading times and performance even on a smaller, simpler project. This bodes well for the future performance of PAMELA, and may save some of your GPUs in the near future!
So when's the next update coming?
Great question! Everything we've discussed above is somewhat in the R&D zone, in that we're testing and working with cutting-edge engine features that have yet to be extensively tested. If it all pans out, these 2 significant optimizations should yield some MAJOR performance improvements across the CPU, GPU, and RAM.
Unfortunately this is also taking a bit longer than we thought it would. Long term, it's definitely best to get these major structural changes done sooner than later, so that we've got a rock-solid foundation to build our Story Update upon later this year. Sadly this does mean in the short term we're stuck being a little sparse with the updates, whie we're getting this all taken care of.
Hope that sheds some light on what we've been up to, and where we're going. All in all we're super excited about what we've got in store this year, and want to thank you all for the great feedback and especially patience while we make sure to do this all properly!
Until then - have fun, and talk soon!
Patch: PAMELA V0.4.0.4 is live - Saving Fixes
Happy Monday! We've got a hotfix ready for you today with a few tweaks that may resolve some rare instances of saving/loading breaking.
Not much else to say than that - give the update a try if you were experiencing issues in those areas!
Fixes
Fixed a potential save/load timing issue that could caue saves to become corrupt
Tightened up corrupted save check, there were a couple of errors that were failing too gracefully to be caught
Added a couple of analytics events so we can see when/if the error still happens or if this fix is catching it (or both, but lets hope for the best)
Visual Roadmap, and 40% Discount During Summer Sale!
Happy thursday, and happy Summer Sale!
For those of you who've been on the fence about pickup up PAMELA, there's never been a better time than today! After working like mad this past year on stabilizing, improving, and expanding the content of the game, we're very excited to be offering this discount over the next few weeks.
Also, probably more excitingly for many of you, we've finally settled on our roadmap for the rest of the year, leading up to a PAMELA V1.0 release! We've laid it all nicely out in this handy image - everyone loves pictures, right?
It is fairly self explanatory, but here's some more explanation for those interested:
Summer - Systems Update, versions 0.6-0.8
Before moving into our big content push for version 0.9 and 1.0, we feel the best decision is to make sure that what is currently there, is fully polished and performs as well as possible. To this end, we'll be implementing a more fleshed out version of level streaming (that was previously impossible, due to the bug Unity recently fixed), improving enemy AI and combat behaviors (a much requested topic!), adding ranged enemies, and adding the ability to level up your Genome Points in-game, without having to die.
Alongside these bigger topics will be a good amount of bug fixing as things pop up, but those will definitely the highlights!
Later Summer - Geist Update, version 0.9
The Geist update is something we've been eager to push towards for some time. Without spoiling too much, this update will enable exploration of the nanite-infested area in the Oasis courtyard, along with updating other areas throughout the world and adding several new enemies to contend with. It will also introduce some new mechanics and threats throughout the world which we think will be pretty exciting!
Fall - Story Update, version 1.0
Last, but absolutely not least, is the long awaited, much requested Story Update. The reason we've left this last is that we feel that to do it justice, it really depends on all of the aforementioned work to shine. Again, without spoiling too much: you'll finally be able to work with PAMELA in her attempts to regain control of Eden, providing new objectives and a more cohesive direction to the gameplay. For those of you who aren't as interested in the story, you'll more or less still be able to play in the same fashion you've been playing thus far (sandbox survival), but we do hope that you give the new content a look once it drops as it's going to be a pretty big overhaul!
We'll also be localizing to various languages, adding Steam Achievements, and Trading Cards!
We hope that this is exciting news for all of you - we're certainly eager to get this all done! We've intentionally left out exact dates for these updates; it's tough to plan with exact certainty, as much as we'd like to promise the exact day that content will drop. Think of this more as a guide of our priorities going forward, and roughly when to expect things.
We'll be continuing to keep you all informed as to our progress as usual, and will be rolling out most of this in bi-weekly updates (except for the larger content updates and Story, as those are more all-or-nothing type updates).
Hey everyone! We've got another update ready for you today that fixes a few remainings issues that were introduced with our recent Level Streaming update. We've also added a new option so you can manage your Data Privacy in accordance to the new GDPR, this can be found in the main menu settings.
When we added level streaming, the way items were spawning in was causing some items to fall through furniture or get stuck inside colliders and were inaccessible. Every item spawn point was combed through and adjusted so this shouldn't be a problem anymore!
There was a few other bugs that have been fixed as well, such as Nirvana not being able to be put into Full Power, and some issues with XP and Genome Points not being given correctly or at all.
As always, read the full changelog below!
Features
Added new settings option to comply with GDPR. (Main Menu Only)
Balance/Improvements
Removed some bad NPC spawn points.
Moved the positions of item spawn points that were affected by new item loading and collider updates.
Fixes
Items will no longer fall through furniture and props, a regression from when level streaming was introduced.
Nirvana now is able to go to full power.
Fixed a bug where players weren't being given XP upon death.
Fixed an issue where players weren't being given the XP bonus in permadeath game mode.
Hotfix: PAMELA v0.4.0.2 is Live: Saving and Lighting Fixes!
Happy Wednesday! We've got a little hotfix ready today, with a fix for a saving/loading bug that has been plaguing some of you recently.
There is still one loading issue that we haven't been able to resolve, which we are *hoping* is more rare than the other and have added a check for in which you will be prompted to create a new game if you're running into that issue. We're still investigating, and created a thread about this issue. If you are still running into it, you can drop your information there and we can dig into it.
Here's that thread: https://steamcommunity.com/app/427880/discussions/1/1693798344651896426/
We also recieved a new build of Unity which should resolve the SmartScreen popup issue that some of you may have been seeing on Windows 10.
Let us know if this helps in the comments, and please do visit that other thread of you're still having issues so we can get as much info as possible to track it down. Have fun!
Fixes
Fixed a bug to do with saving and loading Disruptors, which was corrupting save games
Fixed a Unity issue causing Windows SmartScreen to pop up a warning when the application is launched
Rebaked lighting to fix an issue in which not all lighting data was loading correctly - let us know if you are still experiencing extremely dark areas!
Update: PAMELA v0.4.0.1 is Live: LEVEL STREAMING and Physics Optimizations!
The day has finally come - the Unity bug blocking level streaming has been resolved! We recieved a surprise custom build of the engine on tuesday, at which point we immediately dropped everything else we were doing to jump on it and verify the fix.
Level Streaming - How it Currently Works
After a lot of testing and investigation these last 2 days, we feel confident that it's stable and ready for you all to jump in! One clarification on how the system works: during loading, it still counts up through "Loading Area: Arcadia, Origin Station, etc." as the bar fills up. This is because some base geometry is still loaded for all areas; we're planning on setting these up to be streamed as well, which should now be possible in the latest version of Unity and will further improve loading. All that being said, ALL of the props and dynamic objects in the game are now streaming, so you should no longer see a massive freeze at the end of loading like you did before!
Feedback, and Next Steps
We haven't done a ton of benchmarking before/after integrating streaming, since we've been focusing mainly of getting this ready for you guys, so it would be awesome to hear your experience in terms of load time improvements, performance, crashing, etc.! All of our testing in prototype scenes pointed to some significant improvements so we're hoping that translates to you all having a much smoother experience from now on.
As noted above, we have one last level streaming optimization that we'll be looking at in the near future which was previously impossible due to the Unity issue. This would even further reduce loading time and improve performance, at which point we'll be moving fully onto some huge new content and story updates. We're planning on having a proper roadmap ready to share in the next few weeks from now, so stay tuned for that!
Physics Optimizations
Aside from level streaming, we recently identified some physics optimizations in our Player hierarchy and certain props, which reduces a solid chunk of our physics overhead. This optimization is also included in today's update.
Power System Tweaks
Last but not least, we squeezed in some Power System tweaks. Find the full details below - the main goal is to make the system more rewarding, providing better benefits if you make the effot to fully repair a District!
Let us know how this update works for you in the comments. Thank you again for the patience all these months while we've been waiting on this fix - we're beyond thrilled it's finally been resolved so you can all dive in!
Features
Level Streaming of Props and Dynamic Objects - Hundreds of thousands of objects are no longer being loaded up from, and are instead loaded in/out as needed during gameplay. This means faster loading times, improved performance, and for some of you, we are hoping it should reduce crashing.
Balance/Improvements
Physics Hierarchy Optimization - For those of you familiar with Unity lingo, we've cleaned up a lot of unnecesary rigidbodies on player objects, as well as certain props throughout the world. We also did a pass on simplifying collision meshes for various props. Together, these fixes should reduce overall physics cost by a significant margin.
Reduced Bleeding effect duration and damage by 50%
District Power Tweaks
Full Power is no longer available unless 1 Cyanotube has been repaired
Repaired Cyanotubes now decrease District power consumption by up to 100% if all are repaired in an District
Full Power now reverts to Emergency Mode if District energy falls below 10% while power is active
Improved respawn logic for Cyanotubes and Battery Backups
Power Stations now show Cyanotubes repaired in their corresponding district
Fixed some naming issues on Power Stations and Power Switches
Fixes
Added a missing collider to some walls in Arcadia
Letter to the Community
Hi all, we’ve responded here and there in the comments section about this, but in the interest of having it all in one place, here’s a bit more explanation behind our announcement of HYPERGUN last month. Hopefully this will address some concerns, and give you a clearer idea of how we’re making decisions behind the scenes.
To those of you expressing concern about having PAMELA and HYPERGUN in parallel development: we hear you, and we completely understand the sentiment. Your support, in many cases from day one of release, means the world to us, and the passion you have for what we’ve been building since then is truly humbling. It's tough to succinctly explain the development process this past year since launch; there's been a lot of ups, as well as some big downs and hurdles which we didn't see coming in some cases. Part of that is because PAMELA is our first game as a studio, though of course that's not an excuse for anything - just background.
The decision to start on HYPERGUN in parallel with PAMELA is definitely not one motivated by greed or desire to burn the community here, in fact quite the opposite. We've been struggling with some significant barriers on the technical side of things (see our posts about a Unity bug, which has been blocking a new level streaming feature that will enable us to improve load times, performance, and reduce crashing) that are at times out of our hands. Seeing (valid) complaints about these things as developers is really tough when we're not able to address them without external support, from Unity themselves in this case.
In light of this, knowing that the core issues causing a huge amount of the frustration in the community/reviews are out of our direct control in this case, we had to make a call on what to pursue during this time. Part of that has been regular updates to PAMELA in terms of adding new content, fixing bugs, and balancing/polish, and of course part of our time has been spent developing HYPERGUN (a much simpler title, in comparison). We felt as though rather than forging ahead on adding huge amounts of new content (and thus further worsening loading times and performance; more content = more stuff to load/render), it was the better decision to wait until we can fully smooth out the foundation to build upon without being hamstrung by technical woes.
Although, we haven’t just been waiting: aside from regular bug fix and content patches, we have been laying out some big plans for the Summer for PAMELA (internally, so far, but we will be sharing these plans in the near future once we're happy and confident in them). Suffice to say that what we're planning is a major overhaul of the game's structure and story, as well as adding new areas, NPCs, armor, and more throughout that period of time.
While we don't expect this to completely alleviate all of the concerns, hopefully it at least gives you all a bit more of an idea WHY we're doing what we're doing. There's no way we're walking away from PAMELA after the 3+ years of time, energy, and resources we've invested into it; you've got our word that we're finishing what we started. We’ve been doing our best to not just tell you this, but show you, keeping up with our bi-weekly schedule of updates. In the past we’ve had several “blackouts” while investigating multiplayer, and developing level streaming (which we were hoping to have launched back in December, were it not for the technical issues), and we’ve made a point since then to avoid keeping you in the dark like that again.
For those of you who’ve stuck with us since launch over a year ago, we hope that you’d agree that the game’s quality, content, and stability has been dramatically improved since then. We’re confident that if you come back 6 months from now, you’ll see some changes that excite you even more than everything we’ve done this past year.
Hope that sheds some light on the situationm and the future of both PAMELA and NVYVE Studios. Thank you so much for the support, feedback, patience, and at times blunt honesty that helps to shape PAMELA into the best game it can possibly be. It really does mean the world to us. Talk soon.
Update: PAMELA v0.3.4.1 is Live!
Happy Thursday! It's that time again - we've got another solid update live.
Stalker Balancing
Let's start with Stalkers. We've had nearly unanimous feedback that these guys were much too difficult and didn't feel fun in most cases. They've recieved a lot of love these past few weeks, and now spawn much more intelligently based on a combination of factors. Your Genome Point level will now impact how many Stalkers spawn, to the point where in the first few levels they will not spawn at all. They also do less damage, spawn a bit further away from the player, and more... check out the changelog below for the full details.
Game Mode Customization
The next most exciting point this week is new Game Mode customization settings. These allow you to tailor your experience beyond the Permadeath/Non-Permadeath settings we previously implemented. This goes both ways - you can toggle some hardcore settings (like Seekers always being hostile, or no ranged weapons spawning) to other more sublte tweaks, like decreasing the rate at which your Hunger depletes.
Optimization
On the optimization front, we've done a pass through over 1000 textures, reducing the size of the game files on disk by rough 1GB6 with little to no impact on in-game quality. This should reduce memory usage while in game, as well as smoothing out certain types of in game loading and performance. We're still waiting to get confirmation of the Level Streaming bug being fixed on Unity's end, but rest assured that is still very much in the works.
And More!
There's a few more bugs and tweaks in there as well, if you care to read the full log below! We'd love to hear your feedback on all of this, especially the Stalker balancing and Game Mode customization. It would also be cool to hear whether or not you're seeing load time or performance improvements from the optimizations we've done.
As always, let us know your thoughts in the comments and forums!
Features
Game Mode Customization - added various toggles and scaling modes, which can be selected when starting a New Game. Some settings can drastically increase difficulty, while other can make the game less punishing, such as decreasing Hunger and Thirst decrease rate:
Always Wanted - Seekers are always aggressive and attack on sight
Melee Only - Only melee weapons can be found or crafted
Wounded Effect - Move more slowly when health is low
Added a light sensor to the AARM, making it easier to determine the light level in an area without placing down a Solar Charger or Hypdroponics
Balance/Improvements
Optimized Texture Settings across over a thousand textures; size of build on disk has been reduced significantly, and memory usage should be lower and somewhat more stable during gameplay
Optimized several scripts, which should save some memory
Huge Balance pass on Stalkers:
Increased Cloaked sound effect volume
Increased spawn distance from player by 10m
Reduced damage from 40 to 20
Added an alarm that plays before Stalkers begin spawning
Reduced max Stalkers spawned at any given time to 3
Stalkers to spawn per night will only increase by 1 if all Stalkers in the current light have been killed
"Respawn" Deaths (in permadeath, with no cryo core) now reset the Stalker count to 0 (previously the count continued to increase even after death)
Max stalkers per night is now capped by the players Genome Point level (spent, not earned) divided by 3.5 rounded down. This means that the few first levels NO stalkers will spawn, then gradually increase every few GP levels until reaching an absolute max of 20 stalkers @ GP 70
"Continue" Deaths (non permadeath, or permadeath w/ cryo core active) - Disables stalkers for the remainder of the current night, cuts number of stalkers to spawn for the next night in half (also rounded down)
Fixes
Seekers no longer bleed when hit
Fixed Solar Charger missing its description
Fixed Solar Charger + and ++ version not providing increased charging rates
PAMELA vocals now correctly respect Audio Volume settings
Fixed a bug where loading a game would respawn all Stalkers for the night regardless how many were killed previously
Fixed a bug where sleeping/loading a game after midnight would not trigger Stalker spawns that night
