Hello again hackers. Here's very overdue update. Today we have one sizeable feature, an update to how food is procured, and a spattering of bug fixes. Originally, this update had a new contact, new perks, and new subroutines, unfortunately, they need a bit more time in the oven. Instead of pushing the update even further down the road, I decided to stitch up what I have and release an update today.
Changes
Added restaurant and vending machine to purchase food an beverages, and removed the menu from the Rest screen when interacting with the bed. The tutorials have been updated to reflect the change.
Added Ravencore career path and basic mechanics. While working for Ravencore, you will earn no money from completing contracts, but will earn a salary that is paid out every Friday. Ravencore specific perks and company features will roll out in a future update along with the Ravencore Operations. I wanted to include them in this update, but we are already waaay past the day I wanted to have this update out.
Added day of the week to the status screens.
Tweaked the IC status screen, so IC names wouldn't be cut off.
Fixed the running sound that was loud and jarring,
Fixed a bug preventing the initial batch of contracts from populating after intalling Workhop.exe.
Probably a dozen other things I forgot to write down in my notes.
New Build Patch #7 - (Test Branch)
The patch has a bunch of fixes, tweaks, balancing and upgrades, primarily in regards to performance. The change log below also includes a few items that have been pushed out in a flurry of hot-fixes over the last few days, The biggest change of note is that the game will no longer autosave when changing levels. The game saves when resting, quitting, or when using the 'Save' button from the pause menu.
Changes
The HOST does not start sweeping the system until System Heat is above 0.
Drastically improved performance of IC, especially when they initially spawn in.
Remove 'Loops' from program commissions, as they weren't being balanced properly.
Tweaked the target subroutine ratings for offensive programs, to bring the difficulty of commissions more in-line with what players should be able to do. This will be expanded in the future to factor in the different attributes of every subroutine, but this will help for now.
Completely restructured how the game data is saved and loaded. It will now load data from the main menu when you hit "Continue or New Game", and never again. The game now only saves data when you hit Save and Exit, the new "Save Game" button from the pause menu, or when resting. This change radically improves performance, and should help with crashing. However the trade-off is the risk of losing data if there is a crash, as the game doesn't autosave nearly as often.
Neural Stress is now applied when loggin into cyberspace, not when leaving realspace.
Dopamine is now reduced by an equal amount when you suffer Neural Stress.
Dopamine in excess of 100 bleeds off when resting, but won't be reduced below 100. If below 100, it still increases by 3 per hour rested, to a maximum of 100.
Lowered PaperClip's complexity and RAM costs (new programs only).
RAM Overflow now causes damage to your cyberdeck every 9 seconds, based on the overflow relative to your Response and Processor (higher Response and Processor decreases the damage.)
Bug Fixes
Fixed a bug preventing PaperClip from working as intended.
Fixed a bug where an citizen's employee system wasn't showing up in their system log.
Fixed a bug with Roxxie Dialogue that would trigger her side quest when trying to exit the dialogue.
Fixed a description for Multi-System Download jobs, under-estimated the size of target files.
Fixed a bug where Multi-System Upload jobs would provide two upload files instead of one.
Fixed a bug where Event Results (messages from Spook) during Overwatch jobs would show up blank.
Fixed a bug where Spook would fail to pay you after an Overwatch job.
Fixed a bug where the Program Commission function wasn't validation the OnNode trigger properly when checking for valid programs.
Fixed a spelling mistake during character creation.
Fixed a bug where the Meet with the Haven Collective journal entry wasn't automatically removed from your journal. This won't affect saves that have already met with them, but you can still double-click the red x in the top right corner of the journal entry to delete it.
New Build Update #4 (Test Branch)
Hello hackers! I'm back again with a slightly overdue update. I was hoping this update would be more content heavy, but I after massive list of changes, tweaks, and bug fixes took up most of my time, I decided to pull the trigger an release it as-is.
I apologize for the delay, but I honestly didn't do a lot of work in August. Which isn't fair to you guys, but I need to squeeze in all the summer I can up here in Canada =).
The orginal plan for this update was four new side quests, four new Contacts, each with perks and features, and adding a couple points of interest to the city level. Unfortunety as I played through the game (over and over again), I kept encountering things I wished were better, or clearly needed rebalancing or reworking. Not to mention the bugs.
Anyway although this update doesn't have all the bells and whistles I had originally planned, I feel it takes the game to the next level as far as balancing, quality of life, and performance are concered. With all these adjustments out of the way, I'm confident the next content update (with everything I didn't get done in this update), will be much faster.
New Stuff
Added a new Side Quest for Roxxie.
Added one new Contact
Added two (2) new Perks that can be unlocked.
Added two (2) new triggers that can be programmed: OnSweep and OnEnter. OnSweep is triggered every ten seconds when the HOST runs a scan of the system, (which only happens if there is no Active Alert). OnEnter is triggered after entering a node.
Added three (3) new variables that can be checked with an If/Else command: Alias, IcClass, and Shield. Alias checks how many remaining Alias tags you have, while Shield does the same for your total Shield value. IcClass checks the type of IC you are targeting (Black, Blaster, Barrier, Gate, or Sentry).
Changes and Upgrades
IC Analyze window now displays the IC Class (Black, Blaster, Barrier, Gate, or Sentry).
The Subscriber List node in an Email server can be searched using either a Username or Real Name of a citizen. This will provide the Real Name, Username, and Phone Number of the person, assuming they have the proper corporate affiliation. Searching Monarch Global servers for info on a Angel-Zeng email address won't do you any good (for example).
You can now Archive addresses to make your Address Book less cluttered.
Deleting a program from your library will now unload it from your hotbar.
Tweaked the neural stress costs of hacking to scale with the difficulty of the system you are entering, as originally intended.
Reworked how Shields are handled. Previously when running a Shield subroutine, it would do nothing if the player already had a number of Shield tags greater than or equal to the subroutine rating. This effectively made it incompatible with the Shield Mod, unless the Shield Mod tags were reduced to less than the Shield subroutine rating. Now there is a Shield Software rating, and a Shield Hardware rating, that are checked independantly. First, damage will peel off tags from the Shield Software, with any overflow being applied against the Shield Hardware tags.
Total Shield rating is displayed in your matrix stats window if your total Shield rating is greater than 0.
Increased the Connection Bonus from the second safehouse to +20% Response and Bandwidth, which is now properly reflected in your Stats in the cyberspace HUD (but not in the character screen).
Added feedback in the log about the effects of Viruses.
Resting will only have an effect on your Dopamine level, if it are less than 100. Dopamine in excess of 100 can only be obtained by other means.
Hot Bar slots are now numbered.
Decreased Cryptography growth speed.
Decreased Intelligence growth speed.
Overhaul of the programming mechanic. Program instability now needs to stay less than 150% of the Programming Rating to prevent bugs, down from 300%. The CPU Load, RAM, Heat, and Complexity of Viruses and specialized anti-IC programs have been increased. Using an If/Else branch in your program now only increases the Complexity by 25% of the lower-complexity branch, down from 100%. Added the groundwork for a Perk that will reduce this to 0% (perk not implimented yet).
Reworked the Cyberdeck Repair cost to scale with your power supply and motherboard values. You can no longer swap out your motherboard or power supply until your 'deck is repaired.
Reworked Masking. Now every 10 seconds the HOST will roll a scan test using a number of dice equal to the System Rating, + Tracking Tags, plus one for every whole point of System Heat. Every hit rolled will generate a Tracking Tag, which will give them more dice for future tests. If the Tracking Tags ever exceed your Masking + Stealth rating, the system goes into Full Alert. The system now goes into Passive Alert as soon as a single Tracking Tag is generated.
Reduced the System Heat generated by Tattle Tale IC by 90%.
Checkpoint IC now generate 1 Tracking Tag and force a Masking Test.
Checkpoint IC got improved visuals.
Reworked Viruses. They now have a significantly increased Complexity, Heat, RAM, and CPU Load costs. This means the rating, and effect of Virus subroutines will be much lower than before. However, viruses now infect their Net Effect on the infected IC every 3 seconds, and will last until the IC is defeated.
Rebalanced Specialized IC Killer subroutines, such as Fragment, that target an IC Body attribute directly. They are 10x as effective as a universal Disruption subroutine of the same rating, but have ~2.5x the Complexity, RAM, Heat and CPU Load, only work on one type of IC, and have no effect on IC Firewall.
Bug Fixes
Overwatch jobs will now trigger properly when entering the target system after 11:00 pm, or being in the system when 11:00 pm rolls around.
Fixed a bug that causes a memory leak and fps drop in cyberspace when not locked on to an IC.
Natural Hardening now properly clamps the Neural Stress discount at 0 (no more negative integers), preventing players from actually healing stress if the discount was higher than the stress-cost of the system.
Fixed a bug where the hardware strain from Overclocking was only being applied if your Avatar was crashed, and not when logging out safely.
Fixed a bug where Spam and Tar tags were not being reported correctly in the Analyze window.
Fixed a bug where Degrade wasn't properly updating the IC Attributes.
Fixed a bug causing your Movement Speed to be reset, effectively making the Celerity Mod do nothing.
Fixed a bug causing Tattletale IC to spawn with 0 ratings in all attributes.
Fixed a bug with the Law Office System not spawning three pathways, making several nodes inaccessible.
Fixed a bug with the Corporate HQ system, only spawning 4 of the 5 red-level nodes.
Fixed a bug that was causing the log to be inundated with messages about purged viruses when a virus was running. This was due to the functions checking if a value was greater than OR EQUAL to zero, instead of just checking if it was greater than zero.
Fixed a bug causing Dopamine to reset to 100 when resting, if it was higher than 100.
Fixed a bug with the PSU inventory, and Mobo inventory widgets not scrolling.
Fixed a bug that could prevent players from obtaining the facility blueprint prior to an Overwatch job.
Fixed up some spelling mistakes.
Fixed a bug preventing OnAvatarHit triggers from activating.
Fixed a bug in Cog's Dialogue where the price of the Overclock perk would show up as ¥1000 when first offered (it still only cost ¥500).
Fixed a bug causing many duplicates of chips in Cog's list of chips for sale.
Fixed a minor bug where the number of owned RAM chips wasn't showing up in the chip inventory screen.
Fixed a bug that sometimes caused the System Log in a PPS to show up as blank.
New Build Patch #6 - (Test Branch)
Thanks everyone for their bug reports and feedback. This patch should address everything that was mentioned. I have been working on the next content update, but wanted to get this patch out instead of waiting for the update to address the bugs of QoL changes.
The next update will focus on adding four more contacts, each with at least one unlockable perk, and some side quests.
Change Log
Changed up the icons used for the system map, and added greater clarity for which nodes are accessible.
Nodes on the system map view will check every second to ensure they are unlocked if they are supposed to be. This should help with a bug that sometimes cause pathway 'nodes' to not unlock in a cascade.
Players can now manually enter phone numbers into the PiggyBack Trace software.
Changed the way the RootAccess software handles commands. This prevents some undesired behavior, such as invalid errors, or duplicate messages.
Tracked non-contract objectives and activities now show up in the cyberspace HUD.
Rebuilt the Program Commission Description Generator. It should now be a lot more clear, and conversational.
Bug Fixes
Fixed a bug causing the System Log in a Personal Private System to not generate logs properly.
Fixed a bug that was generating too much Programming XP. Hope everyone enjoyed the little boost =).
Fixed a bug in the Law Office Layout A, that caused two pathway icons to show up blank.
Fixed a bug that would cause a new Haven system address to show up in your system address book, every time the message from the Haven Collective was opened.
Fixed a bug with some collision in the Haven level.
Fixed a bug causing players to get dumped into a black void if they tried to exit a node before it finished loading. There is now a 4.5 second lockout on Node Exits, preventing this from happening.
Fixed a bug with Multi-DCN Subversion contracts not generating objectives or descriptions properly.
Fixed a bug preventing the Client's phone number from being added to the players Phone Book.
Fixed a bug preventing a full system alert from being triggered by a failed Masking Test.
Fixed a bug with Spook's Dialogue where a player would get stuck in a loop when trying to turn in the facility blueprints.
Fixed a bug with the Hospital and Bank systems that were causing some nodes to not generate or show up without an icon.
Fixed a bug with the program commission description generation, that was causing weird descriptions.
Fixed a bug where Roxxie only paid out ¥250 instead of ¥500 for completing here first program commission.
Fixed a bug with the program commissions where a commission with two subroutines that both had Delays or Loops could not be flagged as complete.
New Build Patch #5 (Test Branch)
New Build Patch #5 - (Test Branch)
Changes
Significantly reduced the offset of window-tiling, to allow more active windows before they start being pushed offscreen. Now players should be able to have far more active windows than they should need.
Fixed an exploit that allowed infinite Cryptography XP my interacting with an unlocked node.
Add a debug button on journal entries to remove journal entry items.
Bug Fixes
Fixed a bug that caused the phone to behave strangely when answering a call by clicking the button instead of pressing E.
Fixed a bug that caused your Rig Power to always be reduced to 1 after compiling a program, regardless if you alloted program power.
Fixed a bug when deleting a program, where the wrong program info is displayed, and the script would pop-up and fail to be destroyed. The script no longer pops-up when the program display is for the destruction que.
Fixed Roxxie's program commissions not being removed from the list once accepted.
Fixed Journal listings for program commissions not being removed.
Fixed a bug that was preventing Roxxie from showing you her Utility Programs, which is where you purchase the PiggyBack Trace program. You can acquire this software now by asking her about her Utility Programs.
New Build Update #3 (Test Branch)
New Build Update #3 - (Test Branch)
Hello again everyone. This update adds a new take on the old 'selling programs' feature, some foundational changes for future updates, a bunch of quality of life changes, balancing, and some bug fixes. Full change log below.
As for the next update, I have a few options, and I thought I would get your opinion. Would you rather have:
A) Additional contacts, each with their own side quest, trainable perks, and services.
B) Ravencore and Company Ownership mechanics.
C) More IC and Node Designs.
D) The next part of the Main Story.
Update #3 Change Log
New Features
Phone mechanic for sending and recieving messages from contacts. By default this is accessed by pressing "P" when not in cyberspace. Players can read text messages, receive phone calls, or make outgoing calls to contacts who have provided their contact info. This is a foundational mechanic for a future update which will more contacts, side-quests, and more perks. Currently, it simply adds flavor and explains the realworld chat mechanic.
Programming Work. Players can unlock the option of doing programming jobs for Roxxie. She will stipulate the conditions, such as a "Rating 4 Disruption, inside of an If/Else Branch while looping 3 times". Once players have the program in the library, Roxxie will verify if it's correct and transer some creds.
Added MediDoc Coverage. For ¥40 per day, all emergency medical costs are reduced to ¥0. There is a 72 cooldown once it's purchased before it's active. Dryad now recommends activating this right away, but the option is left up to the player.
Changes
Changed how general tests are performed. Now when a dice rolls a hit, it is reserved. You will keep that die as a bonus hit, and roll one less die on subsequent tests. This will allow players to build up their hits over multiple rolls. If you haven't rolled a test in 3 seconds, the reserved dice are released.
Motivation is now earned randomly from completing contracts. The greater the difficulty vs. your Street Cred, the more likely you are to earn Motivation.
Updated the tutorial description for how Tests work.
Added Motivation tutorial.
Mousing over the rest test results in the Matrix Log will show a breakdown of the dice roll results.
Reworked the Health mechanics. It's now a base of (Fitness x 10), + (Nutrition x 1), + (Hydation /2). For example, with a Fitness of 4, a Nutrition of 100, and a Hydration of 80, your current Health will be 180. (40 + 100 + 40). This will increase the average Health compared to the previous version, however the Injury Slots have been reworked, requiring higher Health to unlock additional slots.
Increased XP earned for skills, and decreased the XP earned for Street Cred. This should help players have the skills appropriate to their new Street Cred rating.
You can no longer earn Cyber Stealth XP when the system is in Active Alert.
Added a Neural Stress indicator to the real world hud, so players can easily tell their stress level at a glance.
Tweaked the way hardware prices were calculated. This lowered hardware costs by 10-15% across the board, and also prevented issues of negative-valued chips being generated.
Built new low-poly meshes for chips, for when players tinker with their cyberdeck. The high res models were tanking the fps. This change will drastically improve performance, but the chips aren't quite as pretty.
When tinkering with your cyberdeck, an info panel will pop-up when hovering over a chip, displaying the chip specs.
Players will no longer start a new game with the Shield Mod for free.
Bug Fixes
Fixed a bug in Roxxie's chat, allowing things to be done out of order.
Fixed a bug in the intro text screen, causing the mouse cursor to become hidden, making it difficult to click "Start".
Fixed a bug that caused Loop commands to not verify or compile properly in Oracle.
Fixed a bug when using an If/Else branch that stopped the script from running at the "Else," line.
Fixed a bug in the name generator that would sometimes return a blank first or last name.
Fixed a bug that would prevent you from backing out of the net login screen.
Fixed a bug that caused players to interact with the wrong object in the starter safehouse. This was caused by the array interactable objects nearby not getting flushed fast enough.
Fixed a bug causing players to lose all of their Dopamine when sleeping. Now players earn 3 Dopamine per hour spent sleeping. Everyone enjoys a good nap.
Fixed a bug that allowed players to still swing their weapon after it's dismissed, triggering OnStrike triggers in any programs currently running.
Fixed a bug when hovering over a program in your library, where it wasn't displaying the program script correctly.
Fixed a bug where your processor wasn't being restored to normal levels when a program was done compiling. (You will need to compile a new program for this fix to apply).
Fixed a bug that caused a blank button to populate in the "Target System if Known" list, without an active contract.
Fixed a bug that failed to show the maximum power output of the current PSU in the Cyberdeck Stats screen.
Fixed a bug that failed to show the number of slots of the current Mobo in the Cyberdeck Stats screen.
Fixed a bug causing Checkpoint IC to have 0 for every attribute.
New Build Update #2 - (Test Branch)
New Build Update #2 - (Test Branch)
Added intro cinematic.
Added Haven level. The invite will arrive when your Street Cred will rise to 2+
Added Overwatch feature. The option to start this will appear after your Street Cred rises to 3+. This may get tweaked in the future, but I wanted the threshold low enough that players in the test branch could access it quickly.
Increased the amount of Street Cred earned for completing a contract.
Fixed a bug that removed too much XP when your Intelligence increases, if you possesses the Genius trait. If your Intelligence XP is currently a negative value, it will be increased to a minumum of 0 when it is next gained.
Fixed an issue with two map layouts that were causing some nodes to be inaccessible.
New Build Patch #4
New Build Patch #4
Readjusted the interaction range again, as it was making it difficult to interact with certain objects in cyberspace.
Contract files are now removed from your storage when move to the send-in window, preventing a 'negative/infinite storage' exploit.
Fixed a bug that would cause the character creation to lock-up if left idle too long.
Sprinting speed in meat space is now based on Mobility, not Fitness, as was originally intended.
Sprinting now increases Mobility XP (as well as Fitness XP for burning Stamina).
Intelligence XP is now earned whenever a skill (not an attribute) increases.
Can no longer open your deck storage in meat space by pressing left control. Now left control opens the main character menu to the cyberdeck tab.
Killer IC now spawn properly once more.
Made some small adjustments to the safehouse furniture layout to avoid interacting with the wrong object.
Fixed some spelling and grammar mistakes.
New Build Patch #3 (Test Branch)
New Build Patch #3
Change Log
<*>Time now ticks slower with six second equaling one minute in-game (10:1). <*>Improved the IC Analyze window to show Matrix Cohesion, and better display the IC name and rank. <*>Rebuilt the way contracts and systems are generated. Previously every contract in the workshop board had a system generated, and every employee for every system had their personal system generated. This lead to A LOT of unused systems being generated, but allowed for more detail contract descriptions. Now the contract systems and employee systems are generated when the contract is accepted, which significantly cuts down on unnecessary system bloat. However this means the contract descriptions can only be generic. <*>Capped the number of each type of system that can be generated. <*>During contract generation that is a chance that the contract will use an existing system. The odds of this scales as the system count of that type approaches the cap, until it is guaranteed. <*>Nodes in previously hacked systems will keep their unlocked status for future hacks unless you set off an active alert, or disconnect (instead of logging out). <*>Locked-out inputs while your avatar is crashing in cyberspace <*>Tweaked the size of the interaction range, and slightly adjusted the location of objects in the safehouse to help avoid interacting with the wrong object. <*>Reworked the mechanics for logging into cyberspace which should prevent the crash-bug. Note: I couldn't recreate the crash, but I found something that *could* cause a crash and fixed that. <*>Fixed a bug with the training buttons that required you to have 11 motivation, instead of 10. <*>Updated the on-hover tooltip for Health to help breakdown where it's derived from. <*>Increased all non-zero difficulty contracts by ¥10. <*>Increased the range and number of contracts offered. <*>Tweaked the rate of XP decay for Fitness, Quickness, and Fortitude. Removed the XP decay for Mobility. <*>Truncated the XP values displayed in the character screen. <*>The landlord is collecting rent once more. It will be deducted from your account at midnight.
New Build Patch #2
New Build Patch #2
<*>Killer IC (such as the Samurai) will now turn aggressive and chase the player the moment they are hit with a program. <*>Increased Samurai 'hit' distance. <*>Player now slows significantly while executing a program. <*>Added a material effect to IC when they take disruption damage. <*>Added material effect to Hagan's Wall, Tattletale and Checkpoint IC when they are crashed. <*>Contracts will now be removed from the journal as intended upon completion. <*>Players should no longer fall through the floor when entering certain nodes. Some higher level node layouts were not generating the entrance properly, so the only thing there was the visual placeholder, but no physical mesh. <*>When you hover over any of the software in your program library, it will now display the program script. This will help show you how to replicate some of the existing programs and will help you debug any programs you make. <*>Oracle will no longer allow you to compile a program that does not end with a semi-colon. Failing to end the program with a semi-colon will cause a bug that can crash the entire game. <*>Reworked the Analyzer subroutine to have a large AOE effect, with a visual effect that represents this.
