Archive for the ‘Updates’ Category

Oh, the tangled webs…

Thursday, February 19th, 2009

Small new side quest up with a couple of interesting rewards. One is unlocking a new crafting (or maybe anti-craft would be a better way to put it).

It also, potentially, opens up a number of other small side quests, depending on your choices within the quest and elsewhere in the game. Most of these are fairly simple, but some require some serious jumps, and all reward skills. No guarantees, though.

And the token hint: the quest involves the Slags but by the time you get there, you might have forgotten the Contact that’s interested.

Cheers!
Kinak

Smoothing Stuff Out

Saturday, February 14th, 2009

Bunch of changes today. The biggest is that the Third Eye during the University quest have have their difficulty turned up a notch. Their XP awards and boss items have also been bumped up, so this should help smooth progression into the Slags quest.

If they’re too difficult now, could be made more difficult, or are just right, feel free to send feedback in. I’ll actually post a thread on the wiki forums also and see how that goes.

Other Changes:

  • The Sabre encounter (rescuing Dr. Amundsen) has been retooled, thanks in part to some suggestions by Argeth. Should be a bit more interesting.
  • There are new options in the Docks and Docks Medicine quests. Thanks to PaidPiedPiperPal for the suggestions.
  • Hideout information will now be displayed in the Main gang tab for members only. This one is also thanks to PaidPiedPiperPal.

Cheers!
Kinak

Contacts Revamp

Saturday, February 7th, 2009

I just rewrote a lot of the code on the back end for how Contacts work. So, from a testing perspective, just make sure they’re not doing anything weird.

If you’re curious what I did, I added another level of control so it also dynamically decides which choices are displayed (in addition to choosing which conversation you get and how it responds to your choices). I could do it before, but it was a gigantic pain, so this’ll make it way easier for me to put in relevant dialog options.

I’ll probably be going through over the weekend and creating some new dialog in places I wanted to before. And probably also apply similar code to the choice adventures.

Just as a general status update, after I’m done with fiddly stuff, I’ll be doing all the content that I wanted to do before the Survivors quest. Two side quests (one small, one big), some crafting and related things, some PvP additions, and the groundwork for Net access (including a trading system). I’ll keep everyone posted as we’re ready to roll each bit out.

Cheers!
Kinak

Minor Updates

Wednesday, February 4th, 2009

Two little updates today:

  • Energy, Hunger, and Body display their maximums in the character pane. This is partially to reinforce that there is an Energy cap (sorry Twitch) and partially in preparation for cybernetics.
  • The Squatter King will now continue offering his quest even after you’ve found the sewers, if you’re of a mind to help. Thanks Argeth!

Cheers!
Kinak

Fishing and Sushi

Monday, February 2nd, 2009

Dropped in two new skills, a new crafting type, a bit of Chemistry, and finally finished fishing (which has been hanging out there half done since the Docks quest). In related news, the University Bookstore has a new offering.

Cheers!
Kinak

Reset Option

Saturday, January 31st, 2009

Several players have asked about a way to go back and either re-explore or more thoroughly test earlier content. The way the content is put together in Metroplexity, however, is tied together very closely.

But, I’m not the type to say “no” to people testing stuff thoroughly, so here’s what we can manage. There is now an option under your quest log (if you’re done with the main quest content available so far) to reset your character.

For all intents and purposes this sets you back to a beginning character. Any non-quest items and your credits can be retrieved when you get back through the main quest content. Everything else, unfortunately, has to be wiped.

Now this is fairly intense, and honestly not exactly what people were hoping for, so there is an additional feature I added in there as a “thank you going the extra mile testing.” There is a leader board, visible from your character after you’ve reset or the profile of someone who has reset.

When we move out of Beta, the reset option will be replaced with a more interesting final version and everyone who’s reset will get prizes. And those near the top of the leaderboard (having tested all the content multiple times) get additional prizes.

So, thanks to everyone for their help testing. If you feel you mixed something up, want to compete for prizes, or just want to explore the content more, feel free to use the reset option.

There have been a few changes that will be of note to those resetting:

  • Items now display their type (Weapon, Shirt, etc.) and whether they’re a quest item on the description screen. I was very sparing with the ‘quest’ flag, so you won’t see it crop up often.
  • Short Burst has changed to be weaker normally but stronger as a closer. Beginning Techniques now include Short Burst instead of Lash Out so they sit more squarely in the range.
  • The interaction in the Southside Park quest between the two options is more clearcut.
  • The Clip of Explosive Bullets item and the quantity you get have been changes pretty notably.

Cheers!
Kinak

Bug Fixes

Saturday, January 31st, 2009

Quite a few bug fixes over the last few days, figured I’d report on them. Should have a big feature update later today, as well.

  • Chain of Needles should now work properly in chains. Thanks to Twitch for the bug report.
  • Various PvP reward encounters shouldn’t result in SQL errors anymore. Thanks to Atheos and Amojechr!
  • PvP encounters will no longer drop items even if you are defeated. Thanks to Argeth.
  • Special messages will now be sent out with PvP when you defeat an defender the same round you are defeated. Thanks to Argeth for pointing this out.

And, not really a bug fix, but I slightly changed the behavior of the Quantum Mechanics book.

Cheers!
Kinak

Electronics Revamp

Monday, January 26th, 2009

I just finished a retool of the Electronics system. You will now remember recipes from upgrades as you do with Chemistry experiments. Thanks to Argeth and Twitch for the suggestion.

There is one slightly weird thing about the way this works with Electronics. There will often (and more so when Hacking goes in) be multiple paths to the same final upgrade result. As such, the final results take the basic components (non-electronics items and circuits) rather than the intermediate steps. Some also require more than one Energy (so it matches up with the cost upgrading manually).

The system doesn’t know what recipes you had struck upon previously, so everyone will start out blank. The list should populate as you upgrade items from now forward.

Cheers!
Kinak

Gang Message and Fixes

Sunday, January 25th, 2009

First off, a feature addition: gang leaders can now post a gang message (visible from the main gang page) for members only. This will stay up until it’s changed or deleted. Messages can be added from the leadership tab. Thanks to PaidPiedPiperPal for the suggestion.

Other updates:

  • The back room of Little Eddie’s will no longer unlock from the Docks. Special thanks to Dannzy for helping me nail this one down.
  • The vigilante encounter in the Sewers will now give it’s rewards instead of a unsightly error. Thanks to PaidPiedPiperPal for this one.
  • The Third Eye will no longer pay off the wrong people at the Docks, only those who helped them get there. Thanks to Argeth for pointing this one out.

Cheers!
Kinak

Daily Updates

Thursday, January 22nd, 2009

Alrighty, we’ve got some cleaning up of stuff that I was letting slide during the PvP rollout.

  • Hel’s conversations both after her rescue and on the sixth floor allow you some more options to maneuver without leaving the conversation.
  • The Quad Riot sidequest can now be completed at the front door of the Happy Hour rather than having to go in and find the bartender there. Thanks to Twitch for this one.
  • There are now links at the bottom of the screen you get talking about not having a gang. These work basically like the one’s on the gang screen, to help people find gangs they’re interested in. Thanks again to Twitch for noticing I missed the obvious here.
  • Andrea on the beach should now give a specific conversation option for Dr. Myers quest rather than having it rolled into the normal help. Thanks, Twitch, for the suggestion.

Also, there’s been a PvP bug fix because people were getting the area control special encounters without controlling the area. If you still see this, please drop me a line.

Cheers!
Kinak