This update adds some stuff for new games, and another batch of bug fixes. Initially this update was going to be larger, but it was running long so I had to call it done so I could push some of these fixes out and not keep Freelancers still waiting to get paid.
Since the last update I have moved across the country and got settled into a new town, and I admit, I didn't put as many hours into this as I normally do. I apologize I didn't have more done on this update and sooner but I was . Rest assured I'm back into the swing of things.
Change Log
Upgraded to Unreal 4.22 to take advantage of the newer features.
New game intro cut-scene. Now this is my first crack at a proper cut-scene complete with unpaid amateur voice acting. It will be refined as we move along in development and I master the art of movie-making.
Started building an exterior scene. You'll finally get a glimpse outside the bunker during the intro scene, but the full exterior scene(s) won't be accessible until a future update when it's complete.
Rebuilt the aptitude test from the ground up to include much more explanations about game mechanics. Also added the option to skip the test completely.
Upgraded the "chat" and email mechanics to flow smoother and allow for proper conversations.
Added a blinking light to the monitor when there are unread emails. This change was made mostly to direct new players on where to go when they wake up in the bunker for the first time.
Laid the ground-work for the expanded company simulation and updated quest system, but chose to put a pin in them instead so this update wasn't delayed further.
Operations will no longer be offered for Ravencore attributes that have reach level 5 (the max).
Fixed a bug preventing Freelancers from getting paid when turning in a contract, and getting confirmations from Ravencore.
Fixed the addiction pop-up from listing the cost twice, and in two different currencies.
Fixed a minor typo in the BypassCheckpoint tutorial description.
Fixed an exploit that would make you invulnerable if you entered the Net with 0 Masking and 0 Body. Now you will crash immediately.
Hardware Upgrade Patch #4
Change Log
Fixed a bug with IC Breach subroutines not checking firewall_burn properly, causing some undesired behavior.
Increased the transparency of the chip inventory window.
Fixed a bug with Ravencore Support not properly lowering the Global Trace %.
Fixed a bug with data transfer speeds not being calculated correctly. Now it simply divides the size of the file by your bandwidth rating.
Fixed a bug with the Financial Node not generating the transfers needed to be tracked for investigation contracts.
Fixed Pro Bono Upload contracts not generating a valid upload file.
Fixed a bug where players could retain their invulnerability past the Aptitude Test.
Fixed a bug with Ravencore's Hardware Rebate not paying out any money for hardware costs.
Fixed a bug with the triggers for the 'Strange Email' quest line not spawning.
Fixed a bug where high level contracts would show up as blank, once you attained a certain rank in Ravencore.
Fixed a bug where the Ravencore Credit line was available after raising their Wealth to 3, instead of 5.
Restructured user names to use a dash ("-") to seperate the name and the numbers to avoid mistaking lower case "L" for numerical "one". For example 'Marshal64' would now be 'Marshal-64'.
Renamed "Gateway Speed" to "Bandwidth" to match the new hardware title.
Couldn't recreate the 'motherboard dead slots' bug, but tweaked the way chips free up slots when uninstalled. Hopefully that resolves the issue.
Added the Shield subroutine to the merchant in Haven.
Hardware Upgrade Patch #3
Change Log
Organized the chip inventory using a similar layout to the chip shop instead of a long list of every owned chip.
Fixed a bug/exploit that would increase the number of contracts offered by Ravencore by opening the first email from Valentino repeatedly.
Fixed a bug with the New_Day function not syncing to the actual date/time when continuing a new game.
Firewall Burn and Masking Burn are now reset every level as intended.
Search Admin will no longer declare "0 results found".
Rebuilt the "install program" mechanic for contracts requiring you to install programs in a system. This resolves the "Error. File not in storage" bug.
Clamped the hardware refunds for existing saved games to $100,000 when converting to new hardware system.
Refactored the IC_Defeated function, as some of it seemed to be working, and some not. It's now split into 6 smaller functions and seems to be working as intended.
Changed the Rest mechanic to no longer wait for a function call from the world_clock to tell it the timer was complete before reducing neural stress. Stress is now reduced directly, independent of the clock, as soon as the Rest button is clicked. The 'stress bug' seemed to be caused by a bad function call, however I was not able to reproduce the bug before to tell if this will definitely fix the issue.
Hardware Patch #2
Change Log
Fixed that nasty bug preventing Operations from granting rewards. The reason I couldn't reproduce it is because the first time you complete one, it works fine, but subsequent operations within the same session are bugged. Special thanks to codell1 who was able to dig up this key bit of info.
Fixed a bug/exploit allowing players to 'clone' the display chip by picking it up before placing the selected chip.
Fixed a bug with Oracle not calculating the discount from your rig's processing power.
Fixed a bug that caused you to "rest" whenever time is fast-forwarded, if you had rested previously.
Fixed a bug with new games causing "dead" sockets in the rig that you couldn't place chips into without swapping the motherboard.
Fixed a bug with Code Tagger IC not providing combat XP
Fixed a bug where you weren't given the subroutines for Shield, Stun, and Datamine if you started with those programs. This affects new games only.
Fixed a bug with the starting Shield, Stun, and Datamine programs not being executable with the hotkeys. This affects new games only.
Changed the starting salary from $400 to $300 daily, and increased starting comission from 20% to 30%. This is as it was intended, and what you would be set to if you got demoted back down to neophyte. The base values were never updated in a previous patch.
Hardware Update Patch #1
Change Log
Fixed a bug with the intro-scroll that might cause the bunker level to not load, and the game data to not be saved after character creation.
Fixed a bug with the combat_mode variable not being reset in-between levels.
Fixed a bug with the User Node users not being reset in-between levels.
Fixed a bug where the target file wasn't being deleted when a contract was turned in.
Fixed a bug where the desktop screen wouldn't disappear after clicking the button to access the RIG.
Fixed an issue which may have prevented the your RIG from 'flipping' so you can access the motherboard when trying to upgrade your hardware.
Expanded Hardware Feature
This update completely changes how hardware stats work. Gone is the simple menu, with numbers you click and upgrade. Now you collect 'chips' and choose which chips to slot to bolster your rig stats. Do you want to avoid combat? Slot a bunch of Masking chips. Want to kick in nodes and fight ICE? Slot more Firewall and BOD chips. You can swap up your chips easily in the real world.
Currently there are 10 chips for the 6 different stats, but this update also paves the ground work for gaining special and unique chips as rewards, or loot for hacking certain R&D nodes. In the next update, focusing more on simulating the world, companies will create new chips on a regular basis, with a new type of chip coming out on average, once per day (game time). Of course you will be able to hack their systems and download the blueprints and 3D print them yourselves, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.
Existing saved games are still valid, however you will need to build your rig from scratch. You will be given a one time payment, based on your current hardware stats, to spend on new chips, a motherboard and a power supply.
A lot of work has gone in 'under the hood' to improve performance and kill bugs. This includes a changing how the game saves and loads data between levels. This is going to improve performance and solve some persistent issues. However there are likely going to be a few bugs caused by this massive change I haven't caught, but this is a big change for the better, and I'll be tackling any bugs as fast as possible.
Please post any bugs you find in the Bug Reporting discussing. As always big updates like this can sort of be disruptive, shaking up existing games, and I apologize.
Change Log
NEW FEATURE: Custom Rig Hardware. Your Rig is now built of several parts; The motherboard, the power supply, and chips. The motherboard is how many chips slots are available. The power supply determines how much power drain from chips you can afford. The chips determine you statistics, such as Response, Processing, Bandwidth, Firewall, etc.
Completely rebuilt the way the game handles the transfer of game data and variables. Previously every level would load the data when the level was opened, and save the data at various points. Now the data is saved in a 'container' that exists throughout every level, and is only 'loaded' once when the game is started. This has cleared up a lot of the save/load bugs and caused the game to run much faster when transitioning levels.
Sped up the Root Access loading text, and changed the font.
Added feedback to the disable telecom command to let you know when to disable the node
Rebuilt the file-upload mechanic completely, from file generation, to how they are saved and loaded, in an effort to squash the 'blank upload file' bug. I was able to replicate the bug before the changes, but not since so it seems resolved.
Further optimized the bunker level to improve performance
Further optimized the system level to improve performance
Re-worked the Analayze IC display to be part of the normal UI opposed to floating in the world. This prevents the information from being cut-off, and creates a cleaner look.
Fixed spoofing admin accounts. They can now properly be spoofed from anywhere without having to return to the User Information node. However you must have entered the User Information node at least once to unlock the ability to spoof accounts in that system.
Fixed a bug with the chat pop-up sometimes coming up blank.
Fixed the patrol waypoints in several systems, which was causing the patrol to get too close to the checkpoint.
Fixed a bug causing patrols to remain stationary after bypassing them using admin privileges.
Fixed a bug that could cause the Key_Emulator to be fired twice, causing the lock image to be superimposed over the minigame, making it impossible to complete.
Fixed a bug causing the contracts offered after starting a company to be blank, which in turn prevented your employees from working.
Patch #56
Got the latest batch of bug fixes rolled out. The patch size is significant as I'm currently in the process of building more levels for the game, which will be available in an upcoming update.
Change Log
Fixed a bug causing a system to dump you instantly when rebooting the system.
Fixed a bug causing time to 'skip forward'
Fixed a bug with the character creator not displaying the proper skill values.
Fixed a bug with the character creator not granting the proper processor when picking Hardware as your top priority.
Fixed a bug with the charater creator causing it to display the Destroyer trait, and grant the trait if you chose traits as your lowest priority.
Re-worked the 'turn-in' mechanic. It's now automated, unless your performing a contract requiring you to type in specific information.
Updated visuals in the bunker
On a side note, my temporary workstation (computer) isn't used to this level of heavy lifting, making the cooking, compiling, and uploading process an all-day affair. I was hoping to have this out much sooner. Sorry for the delay and thanks everyone for the feedback and bug reports!
Update: Running You Company 2.0
The update is finally here, and only a couple weeks past due! Thanks for the patience everyone. This update has major changes relating to running a company, but there are lots of tweaks and adjustments based on your feedback that ripple through the entire game.
Change Log
Overhauled the company mechanics.
-Increased the number of employees you can hire from 20 to 80.
-All employees start with low stats, and cost the same to hire.
-In an attempt to mirror the Ravencore career, your employees will manage themselves. They will take automatically check the contracts available, and take one fitting to their rank. You will no longer have to manually assign them jobs.
-Employees will accumulate Neural Stress, and rest when it gets too high.
-Employees have a quota and will always try and attain it. They will also have a Loyalty rating, which determines how far above their quota they will work everyday.
-Employees will manage their own money, upgrading their Hardware and Software stats when they can afford to.
-You will manually promote and demote employees.
-Performing management tasks will not only take time, but you will accumulate Neural Stress. Like hacking, if you are too burned out you cannot perform these tasks.
The passage of time has been re-worked. You will no longer 'jump forward' in time when programming, resting, or performing management functions. Instead time scrubs forward at a rate of about 1 hour per second. This allows for better ability to check for events and actions as time passes.
Programming now takes 1 hour (or 2 hours with the Bad Scripting Habits background trait), regardless of program complexity.
Updated the Rest Function. The max time on the slider has been reduced to 12 hours. You can no longer rest if your Neural Stress is at 0%, or rest longer than it would take to reduce your Neural Stress to 0%.
There is now a warning when you attempt to rest with an active contract.
Reworked the message center mechanics. Emails with attachments, or that want a response will no longer be removed from the list until the attachment is downloaded or the message is responded to. This will be important as we get closer to rolling out the story updates.
Lowered the distance the Node Name display is visible from 100 meters to 30 meters. This still makes it much easier to ID nodes when running around, without completely removing all sense of exploration. It also cleans up the UI, making it much less cluttered.
Rebuilt the Disconnect button in the Net level. It now seems to be bug-free and working as intended.
You can spoof accounts from anywhere in the system, however you will still need to access the User Information node to gain User privileges, and the Personnel Files to gain Admin privileges.
Security Patrols (Guardians) now require Admin privileges to bypass.
The Hunter IC has been buffed by shortening the base trace time, and by reworking how Static tags affect races. Now they slow the interval of the 'tick' based on the % of Static Tags vs the Static attribute, to a maximum of 3x when IC Sensors are reduced to 0. Reducing Sensors to 0 no longer shut down the trace, the IC still must be defeated.
IC assigned to nodes have been re-adjusted, moving the debuffing and tracing type IC to lower-sec nodes, while having the higher-sec nodes equipped with IC that focus on destroying the player.
The Hunter has been replaced by Enigma in the mid-tier checkpoints. This better fits the concept of the Enigma IC; trying to make your future battles harder.
Completing Operations now applies progress towards your daily quota.
When a checkpoint is crashed, bypassed, or spoofed, all checkpoints within 2 meters are destroyed and replaced with a copy that completely lack collision or logic. I have not encountered the double-checkpoint, or invisible wall bug since making this change.
Fingers crossed*
Restructured how Operation "XP" is awarded post contract (still need to read the email to get the reward). The game now has a second check. If any stat is over 100% the XP needed when the 'career info' screen is opened, and levels it up accordingly.
Ravencore stat-progress will be displayed as "-" when the stat reaches level 5, instead of continuing to display as a %.
Hotbar input are now properly locked out when the Root Access and Bank Account screens are open.
Data Anomalies are currently disabled for non-quest items/rewards.
Salary in the Career Info screen is now displaying properly of you have the Negotiator Perk.
Changed the "Install program.exe" commands in Root Access to no longer be case sensitive.
Fixed a the command "disable lights(all)"; it was using the old square bracket syntax.
Phone systems now have a System Log so you can cover your tracks easier
Updated the non-combat log messages to decay much quicker, and be much more visible.
Found and removed some old debugging code that was causing Ravencore Wealth XP to climb without performing an operation.
Changed the message box to blank for a second and fade in when a new message is received. This makes it much easier to notice when the text changes.
Fixed a bug with purchasing the Ravenbond, where it would credit your account instead of debiting it.
Updated the Ravencore Security text description to reflect that Operations are no longer checked every 6 hours, which was probably causing some confusion.
Lowered the rate of Operation availability due to the increased rate it is checked.
Updated how story-levels are loaded/saved. This fixes a bug that was causing the wrong system to be loaded, and by extension the target node would be missing. As a bonus, the change will make adding more content easier in the future.
Fixed a bug preventing the targeted security camera footage from appearing in the folder.
Fixed a bug with Camera subversion jobs that would prevent it from being flagged as complete.
Added a 3 second delay before the UI appears when logging in.
The Mysterious Email quest line has been tweaked to make objectives more clear (but not too much).
The 'monologue' window has been visually updated instead of being a grey slab with some text in the middle of the screen.
The Journal has been visually updated. Just making it look better for now, as it will receive some bigger changes with the upcoming story update.
I originally had some additional things I was planning on adding to this update, but I felt it was better to get what was done out there instead of delaying the update more and more.
Patch #55
This patch has bug fixes, tweaks, and some quality of life improvements. The full change log is below.
I've been working on the next proper update which should be out in a couple weeks, which will overhaul the current mechanics for running a company, and add a couple new features and goals for the player to work towards.
Change Lock
Fixed a bug causing the RootAccess to open twice when pressing Enter.
Updated some Motherboard stats that weren't balanced
Fixed a bug with the Ravenmark bond which prevented it from working. Also increased it's cost and payout by five times. It now costs $5000 and pays out $175 daily, making it more viable for the phase inthe game when you would unlock it.
Fixed a bug preventing IC from being cleaned up on level transitioned if they defeated you in combat.
Fixed a bug in the mysterious email system preventing the spawned sections of hall from being cleaned up on level transition.
Fixed a bug in the mysterious email system where the final room was not spawning in the proper location, preventing the hallways from reach the entrances.
Fixed a bug causing duplicate entries of unique system addresses in your address book if you leave and re-enter the systems.
Tweaked the spawn locations of several decorations to prevent clipping.
Fixed a bug with system generation for Overwatch missions.
Fixed a bug with Spook's animation.
Fixed a bug with the system logs in the employee's home system during Overwatch legwork that was displaying 20 logs without dates.
You will now receive an email from Spook if you fail to show up to an Overwatch mission.
Overwatch missions can now be run daily, assuming the team makes it out unscathed. For every injury the team suffers during the run the respawn timer of the Overwatch missions increase by 1 day. If you get booted from the system before the run is finished, the team suffers an additional injury.
You will now receive an email from Spook whenever a run is available instead of having to check manually.
Tweaked the System Addresser UI, including adding the current contract info to the panel, making it much easier to reference info when trying to locate systems in the directory.
The passbreaker mini-game will now close if you run a BruteForceAttack while it's open
The Career Info panel now displays your progress towards ranking up Ravencore attributes.
Added a Disconnect button to the Net level so players can disconnect without having to travel to a system.
Patch #54
Some bug fixing and balancing. Thanks for all the great feedback!
Change Lock
Fixed the Oracle bug preventing you from cooking $0 cost program with a negative account balance. Thought I found this before, but missed part of it.
Fixed a bug in the RavenSniffer.exe operation. The generator was setting the required command string to have square brackets (install [RavenSniffer.exe]), but Root Access was checking for the command string without square brackets (install RavenSniffer.exe).
Fixed a bug preventing the ProBono Operations from being generated. This was also the culprit behind the suddenlty dissapearing operation with the name "///".
Reworked the contract generation for Ravencore contracts. It will now offer a guaranteed easy, medium and hard contract. As you increase the company's Network rating, more difficult contracts will be offered.
Reworked the forumula for calculating contract difficulty. Or more accurate I used the proper formula from before the big update on May 13th. Contract difficulty accelerates much faster as you rank up.
Fine-tuned contract payouts based on where in the system the target node is. There is no longer such a jump between blue nodes and green nodes, while red nodes pay slightly more.
Beefed up the SAMURAI LX-20 starting Firewall rating from 6 to 9.
