We're on the home-stretch, now! This release sees the inclusion of the final district of the game, the C.B.D, as well as a huge list of other improvements and bug fixes. For a full, very long list, check the "Nightly Build Feedback" forum, but the most noteworthy changes will be listed here.
Also, we said in the 0.6 update that our next major release would also include the boss encounter. Unfortunately, the boss fight is still currently getting another pass, but will be made available in the coming weeks.
In the meantime, there's still plenty to sink your teeth into.
The C.B.D
Like the Downtown District where you start, the C.B.D is the jurisdiction of Dracogenics. As one of the highest layers of the city, the C.B.D is littered with areas where you can peer down to the tiers below.
Also the entertainment area of the city, there are bars, malls, theatres, and even a convention centre to explore, and wreak havoc on.
Shader Overhaul
Satellite Reign makes use of a PBR material system (physically based rendering), which makes materials react to light in a more physically accurate manner. Some issues in our rendering pipeline have been found and rectified, and now metals look more metaly, plastics look plasticy, and leather looks leathery!
SSRR (screen-space raytraced reflections) has also been tweaked, with reflections being much more prominent in the puddles on the rain-soaked streets.
Gameplay Improvements
Along with general bug-fixes, some gameplay mechanics have been revisited and improved.
Stealth instant kills are now much simpler to execute, allowing you to issue the command regardless of your agent's distance from the target.
Hijacking no longer withholds a portion of your Hacker's energy while controlling an NPC, but instead just affects the energy re-gen rate, depending on the strength of the hijacked entity.
Nightly Builds
Some players are already aware, but we've been uploading nightly builds of Satellite Reign to Steam for the past several weeks. These builds, as the name suggests, are updated nightly, and contain the very latest changes and fixes we've made to the game. If you're curious to see how things are progressing (and are okay with risking a sometimes unstable build being downloaded to your PC), we suggest opting into the beta to check it out.
To give it a shot, right-click on Satellite Reign in your Steam library, and go to 'Properties.' The last tab will be called 'BETAS,' and it will have a drop-down list, where you can choose 'Nightly.' Click close, and Steam should update your game to the latest build.
So much to do, and so little time! We hope you enjoy this update, and please let us know about issues you come across while playing. We're all hard at work to get this game as enjoyable and bug-free as possible, and your feedback is invaluable in this process.
- 5 Lives Team
Nightly builds available for testing
We have automated our nightly build to upload to Steam.
This build is available to everyone, but it's slightly hidden away by default.
To access it, right-click Satellite Reign in your Steam library, select properties, and there should be a 'Betas' tab to the far right. Select this tab, and a drop-down menu will be available where you can select 'nightly.'
Be aware that this build will always contains work-in-progress changes. For example, right now, it contains a new metallic shader we are working on that is making some objects overly bright until they are setup properly.
In general, the nightly, while having latest bug-fixes over the default build, will also have new bugs or half-implemented features (and may sometimes have totally game-breaking bugs), so only grab this if you want to be on the cutting-edge and help us by finding new issues in the build.
Mike.
Update 0.62
Another minor update has just been released. Mac and Linux builds will follow shortlyhave now been uploaded.
Increased rate at which XP is awarded.
Fixed "dead spots" in Grid and Industrial districts, blocking camera movement.
Fixed a bug where saving and loading after assigning an item to an additional "pack mule" slot would cause the item to disappear.
Changes to wanted level timers.
Fixes to keyboard mapping.
Fixes to heavy weapon penalties and the respective augmentations to overcome them.
Skill panels now clearly display current skill level and next skill level.
Alpha Build 0.6 is now live for Mac and Linux
Windows build is also updated to 0.61
A few small new fixes included over build 0.6
XP is now correctly given for completing facilities.
Cars now correctly collide in Industrial area.
Some fixes for leaderboards.
Agents respawn at nearest relay beacon.
Various art and map fixes.
Balance tweaks.
Update to Alpha version 0.6 - The Grid District Added!
We've finally reached our internal alpha milestone. This means all of the game's features are implemented and functional. Additionally, we've unlocked the next district for you to explore! It's time to head into The Grid, home of The Eternals faction.
With this update, we've also transitioned to the latest version of Unity - Unity 5. We weren't originally intending to move over to Unity 5, especially not so late into development, but Unity 5 had features which ended up being essential for being able to handle the scale of Satellite Reign's city.
Please note that this is a Windows-only release. Sit tight, a couple of small Mac/Linux issues need to be ironed out, and then they will be updated shortly.
There are countless changes in this build, but some of the more substantial changes are listed below:
The Grid District
The Grid is the home of The Eternals, an organisation fixated on moving humanity forward through body augmentation, replacing their mortal flesh with machines.
The Grid is clean, wealthy and futuristic, setting itself apart from the rest of the city.
UI Improvements
Lots of improvements have made their way into the UI system.
Agents now have unique portraits.
New Agent clone screen.
Front-end menus.
Mission debriefs.
Unity 5
We now have access to the latest and greatest Unity has to offer. This brings the latest version of PhysX for improved physics performance, much improved profiling tools (to help Mike more efficiently squash bugs and performance hogs), improved CPU usage, and much more.
Lots of these new features won't be immediately visible, but they will help us deliver a higher quality final version of Satellite Reign.
New Abilities and Items
We've added new abilities and items, as well as improved those which were already existing.
You can now outfit your agents with drones, smoke grenades, sound-dampening grenades, shield boosters, and more.
There are also new tactical opportunities with stealth-kills. Get up close behind unsuspecting enemies, and get a headshot for an instant kill. Please note that while this feature is working, it will be undergoing some design iterations soon to improve usability.
Balancing Changes
This version includes balancing changes to almost all aspects of the game, including money, experience, health, armour, and more. There's still much more balancing to go, but it is closer to what you can expect to see in the final release.
NOTE: Due to both the above balancing changes and updates to missions, your old save files will no longer load. We try to avoid issues like these wherever possible, but with the amount of changes, loading your old saves would cause progression bugs and other unforeseen issues.
Known Issues
While we've made lots of improvements throughout the game, there are still plenty of issues to be found, and will be addressed in future updates. Some of them are listed below:
Long load at startup.
Cars throwing agents up in the air.
Environment streaming is slow if you move the camera quickly.
Out of Memory crash due to physics after extended play.
Game can take a long time to exit.
Framerate is still heavily affected by lots of on-screen characters.
Cars still aren't behaving correctly.
What's Next?
We're getting very close to our full release now. As mentioned above, we've reached our alpha milestone internally, and our beta milestone is very close behind. Our next planned update will include the game in its entirety, allowing you to play completely from start to finish, with all districts, missions, abilities, weapons, gear, augmentations, and the final boss encounter.
At that point, we'll be going into HARDCORE BUG-FIXING MODE TURBO EXTREME. We expect this to occur in about a month.
Have fun!
- 5 Lives Team.
Unity 4 to Unity 5 upgrade in progress
This is just a quick heads up to let you know we are still alive and very busy.
Getting some good frame rate improvements from upgrading to Unity 5.
We hope to have a Unity 5 based build out in a couple of weeks, featuring a new district, tons of bug fixes, new damage system, lots of new missions, skills, abilities, leaderboards and improved UI screens.
Mike.
Update Version 0.41 Release Notes
A new update is available for Satellite Reign.
Changes
Fixed researchers not joining after being bribed.
Fixed some areas of the ground not being drawn.
Fixed various navmesh breaks.
Fixed agents sometimes not being able to interact with anything after respawning.
Updated some icons.
Fixed escorted VIPs not entering facilities.
Fixed agents sometimes getting stuck when trying to move between districts.
Other miscellaneous fixes.
New District Released! Update to Version 0.4
After a long wait, we've finally got a new update for you, and it's a doozy! We've got an entirely new district, which doubles the previous size of the game world.
Industrial District
Introducing the Industrial District! This is primarily the turf of the Uzy Korporatsiya, or Uzy Korp, a Russian-based organisation. They control the city's imports, exports, and are big on armour manufacturing, so you'll want to keep your plasma weapons handy.
New Factions
New corporations now patrol the streets and compounds of the city. The previously mentioned Uzy Korp are located throughout the Industrial District, as well as in the compounds operated by their subsidiaries in Downtown, such as Ronin Industries.
The Eternals make their first appearance as well. A corporation born from a religious movement, they own and operate the City Surveillance Authority, and can be found patrolling their respective compounds.
New User Interface
While it's still very much a work in progress, you're going to see some big improvements in the UI, both visually and functionally. The in-game HUD is being revamped, and the menus have been overhauled as well. There's still more to go, but it's already looking great!
Streaming System
With the introduction of a new district, and wanting to have a full city without any loading screens, we've now got a system to stream the world into memory dynamically. Again, it's still a work in progress, but it has come with some nice benefits, including reduced GPU memory usage.
New Civilian System
You'll likely notice more people wandering around the city now. This is thanks to a completely new approach to populating the city. Previously, there were lots of people in memory, but they were often outside of the actual gameplay area. Now, there are people to be found all over!
New Tactical Opportunities
You'll now have new tools at your disposal to break your way into the various compounds throughout the city. The Hardwire ability allows for more of a brute-force approach to getting through security.
Ventilation systems can also now be exploited by your agents as a new way to sneak around. But, make sure you've evacuated any noxious fumes they might be funnelling.
Updates to OpenGL mode
Various bugs in OpenGL mode have been fixed, which should hopefully make things easier on our Mac and Linux users. As always, let us know if you come across anything that looks a bit funny.
There are still known issues in this build, some of which we plan to have fixes for shortly. We just wanted to get this in your hands as soon as possible!
We're also 20% off for the next week, so now's a better time than ever to jump in and give Satellite Reign a spin!
- 5 Lives Team
Update Version 0.2.11 Release Notes
We've got lots of new fixes and changes for Satellite Reign. The update is now live for Windows. Mac OS and Linux builds [Strike]will be available in the next 24 hours[/Strike] are now available.
Please note: there have been changes to the way missions progress is recorded, so some saves may list certain missions as being incomplete. This will not affect your previously-awarded weapons, gear or agent progression. You will be able to repeat the missions and attain extra loot though!
Changes
Mission action "give items" now being saved.
Setup missions to now display what items have been previously awarded.
Going back into completed facilities will now re-award lost prototypes.
Removed splash screen tutorials.
Added some missing missions descriptions and message broadcasts.
Fix for re-spawning and being able to re-trigger tutorials.
Fix bug where items were not being awarded after loading.
Fix mission "folder path" when clicking on mission messages.
Fix bug where agents will have no weapons if they re-spawn after their corpse is de-spawned.
Fix researchers not saving on current research item.
New researchers will now automatically replace external researchers.
Added 3 leg augmentations revolving around sprinting.
Added items shield boost and shield re-charger.
Stopped adding targets to battle when you try to shoot them.
Fix wanted-level reducing (now reduces at 2 speeds: when in danger and not)... UI is still coming.
Fixed Up-cursor key not scrolling the camera.
Fix bug with tracker sprite masking madness.
Police and Corporate soldiers shouldn't want to kill each other any more.
Fix bug where wanted and suspicious values were not being reset on death.
Info can now be purchased about what items will be rewarded from breaching facilities, once the info-broker has been found.
Fix disappearing laser-uzi bug.
Setup missions to show rewards (only items are set up so far).
Changed siphon amounts for ATMs (now gives slightly more money).
Reduced info costs for missions.
Shuffled research costs for items.
Changed research costs so it is now cheaper per-researcher, but items need more researchers to complete.
Fixed bug where agent was not being spawned from Police Station.
Added lots of new items and weapons (some only first-pass).
Increased XP for stealthing through compounds (also added progression stealth XP increase).
Fix bug where 'Teleport All' on relay beacons only worked once all agents were rescued.
Added ground plate to ziplines to make it more obvious where to click.
Fix agents dying and falling into cover (now always fall backwards).
Power generators and doors can now be Hardwired (doors require a Hardwire point to be Hardwireable).
Able to force-use Hardwire boxes now.
Add chance to be electrocuted when force-interacting with Hardwire boxes.
Added chance to fall from zipline when force-using.
Added ability to force-hack terminals.
Added chance to fail on force-hacked terminals (stuns agents and calls reinforcements).
Added varying chance to fail based on level of terminal/Hardwire box
More work on random missions.
Added fail info to info panel.
Reduce EMP resistance on agents.
Added 15 second grace-time after a wanted-level is added before it starts reducing.
Fix timers from turning into a full white square.
Increase size of terminal indicators and set up flashing sequence.
There are more changes, but Mike didn't record them in our internal changes document, so now we'll never know what he's been doing for the past couple of weeks.
Mac and Linux Version 0.2.10 Now available
Yesterday's update 0.2.10 is now available for Mac and Linux. Apologies for the delay. There is also a minor fix for the slowdown upon entering the civilian area in the tutorial. Additionally, this should alleviate some of the slowdown when loading a save. Windows users have also received this fix.
