I've really, really been wanting to do a huge content update on the game with new weapons, buffs, and room layouts, but between other projects I'm being paid actual cash money (the real kind, not the buttwipe variety) to not ignore, I haven't been able to sit down and really dig in.
With that said, I wanted to give back the community something a little bit more substantial than the normal bug-fix build, so I decided to hunker down and just slam out a bunch of highly-requested Quality of Life improvements to the game.
Probably the biggest of these changes is a new New Game+ feature, which lets you take your character and start the campaign over from the beginning.
While putting NG+ together, I also had an idea for an easy-to-implement, optional harder difficulty mode, which can only be accessed in New Game+. It doesn't make the game that much harder, but it should at least mix up the encounters you've gotten so used to this past year.
Lastly, I've been making a concerted effort to improve game performance as much as I can. Unity engine being what it is, the game will never be as performant as games on higher end engines, but dang if I'm not giving it my all! In addition to adding some optimizations to the AI routines -- allowing them to be throttled when enemies are a little further away, I've also decided to bake in the lighting for some of the more static scenes (i.e. the Ony Express interior), meaning shadows and stuff won't have to be calculated in realtime. This has only been done in a few of the scenes so far, but I'm planning on giving each of the areas a major optimization pass. Hopefully this'll be able to curb some of the complaints I've gotten about game performance.
So that's it! Thanks for sticking with me all this time, I know it's been a long time since I last updated you guys. I'll be trying to push towards a content update in the near future, but in the meantime, enjoy these other new features and let me know what kinda stuff you want to see in the WASTED discussion boards!
Saiyonara!
- Arthur "Mr. Podunkian" Lee
Changelog for build 968:
- This build includes the modding system work from the previous, opt-in update. The modding system is still very early, and some annoying Unity-engine level bugs're holding it back a bit, but it should be usable for those who want to mess with it, while also completely ignorable for those who don't. Included are a few mods, including one that turns off the S.O.B. for all you people out there who never learned to love the poor guy.
- I've added an optional Iron Sight aiming mode to all of the weapons. This is a toggleable feature in case you're one of those sane people who think maybe having low resolution textures right up on your eyeballs isn't necessarily the best idea. Still, it's somehow made the game's combat feel more enjoyable for me, for whatever weird placebo-effect reason.
- Could it be? A New Game+ mode? With an optional harder difficulty mode? Why, yes it most certainly is! Once you've finished the main campaign, you can access New Game+ from the home computer. Keep in mind that only certain data transfers over to New Game+ (your character stats/buffs, items in your Player Stash metal box, TP in your piggy bank, unlocked recipes and customizations). The game also allows you to carry over any house-upgrades, except the ones that occupy the back lot of the player house.
- Performance upgrades all around. I've done a lot of work optimizing and streamlining the code where I could afford to. I've also done some visuals optimization to the Player Home interior, as well as the Ony Express and Ony Express interior areas, which should've net a nice framerate boost to those areas. I'll be taking a look at the other outdoor areas in future updates!
- Factions you've pissed off will now forgive you after a period of 24 ingame hours. That means all you guys who, uh, "accidentally" fed Vulture Val some face-bullets can now rest a bit easier. (Keep in mind that sleeping at home only advances the game clock by up to 12 hours, so you'll still have to pass the time in other ways!)
- And finally, the game engine was upgraded to Unity 5.6p3, the latest available version. This required a lot of work and potentially might have broken some stuff, so please report any issues you have on the boards!
Update (5/5/17): Looks like some minor bugs made it through to this build, so I went ahead and hotfixed them:
Changelog for build 972:
- The Final Countdown now properly explodes, killing its user and actually being somewhat final again.
- Reduced the AI logic throttling overall, and excluded the S.O.B. Paladin from the throttling effect as it was causing it to occasionally stop chasing the player, which is probably something a lot of people wish it'd do anyways.
- Added a crosshair toggle to the options menu. The crosshair can be enabled, disabled, or hidden when iron sights are used.
- Fixed an issue with some rooms being incorrectly connected to others, particularly in the Dorms area.
Update (5/6/17): Just pushed another hotfix that resolves the rest of the bugs you guys reported originally for Build 968. A special thanks to Rusbel who helped identify these bugs before they became a bigger problem for everyone else!
Changelog for build 974:
- Resolved a weird issue where all of Jim Atomic's lines were removed, causing the radio to stop playing completely whenever it was time for another riveting installment of The Buzz. Sorry guys.
- Fixed an issue where having a contextual buff/debuff would break the ability to interact with Weapon traps.
- Identified and replaced a duplicate of the Hangover "Sadist Sangria." The duplicate was replaced with a buff called "Bruiser's Brew" that has the same 25% bonus damage as Sadist Sangria, but applies when the player has >50% health. (Thanks Xabre2th for pointing this out!)
- Fixed the "Iron Sights Only" setting for crosshairs actually doing the exact opposite thing it was supposed to.
