The Zone: Stalker Stories News

Plenty of progress this month, particularly in the realm of bugfixing. Many issues were uncovered and solved with this patch.

Of course I haven't been slacking on new content either! For existing saves already in Chapter 2, you'll soon find your way into a new side quest involving Rufus the trader -- with permanent consequences based on your performance and your decisions. New quests, new art, new enemies, new polish.

Lastly, a fair bit of work has gone into better tutorials, as well as extending controller support. The Jobs board now has custom controls, and the cursor is much more accurate on screens which still use it. Custom controls will be forthcoming on the rest of the side job UI too.

Next update I'm hoping to show off a new and improved Train Yard without the constant level transitions imposed by the old system. Tweaked art is taking a while and I'm struggling with the camera, but soon...

There are a few other non-critical issues left on my TODO list, but once they're sorted, I'll be able to get cracking on more weird and wonderful things for you to experience out in the Zone...

Please remember to report any issues you encounter on the discussions board! I will fix them if you do.

Changelog:

• Power Plant boss final art & animation completed
  
• New enemies and enemy distribution in Power Plant
  
• New controller interface for Jobs board
  
• Finished Hunter's Bequest side quest and alternate path
  
• Finished Rufus's Lifeline side quest and alternate path
  
• Much more accurate controller cursor
  
• Fixed story crashes in Chapter 2-3 & side quests
  
• Fixed dialogue options appearing at inappropriate times
  
• Improved story stability all round
  
• Fixed crash during radiation sickness alert
  
• Fixed crash during battle repositioning
  
• Fixed crash when finishing certain quests
  
• Fixed crash in quest log when viewing certain quests
  
• Fixed many potential memory leaks
  
• Fixed radiation sickness ailments being applied improperly
  
• Fixed some problems with animations looping
  
• Enemy HP bars & other UI are no longer recoloured on certain battle backgrounds
  
• Improved Esper event behaviour
  
• Added sounds for card dragging & targeting
  
• Renamed Points of Interest to Opportunities
  
• Refactored Opportunity item pickup behaviour
  
• Fixed item stash sprite not appearing
  
• Made item stashes more visible
  
• Updated & clarified Side Jobs tutorial
  
• Better colours on Jobs board
  
• Refactored enemy battler code
  
• Fixed some Hospital anomalies
  

After last month's massive update, this one needs to be a touch more humble... but still features some major news.

The biggest change is, we're introducing a shiny Fog of War system. From now on you'll need to properly explore and uncover areas, and you can see your progress as you go -- progress which will be stored in your saved games.



This also makes the scanner more useful as it will help to keep you pointed you in the right directions.

Other highlights include new hand-crafted art and animations for the Power Plant boss, and a much more comprehensive battle tutorial. This tutorial will go into detail about important mechanics of which even veteran players might not be fully aware.

Lastly, we're raising the price of the game by $1 in consideration of all the new content. There's a lot more game now than there was, and I believe the price should reflect the year of hard work we've put in.

For the next update I intend to focus on introducing several new enemies and, particularly, writing -- two half-implemented side quests need to be finished up, and there is progress to be made on the main quest as well.

As always, please report any issues you come across, and I shall fix them ASAP!

PS. If you happen to know anyone who might be interested in helping with art, game design, or marketing/promotion, do tell them to get in touch. It would make a big difference.


Changelog:

• New interactive battle tutorial
  
• Persistent Fog of War on exploration map
  
• New art & mechanics for Power Plant boss
  
• Engine update to Godot 3.6 RC1
  
• Added visible numbers when gaining Shield, damaging Shield, and healing
  
• New backgrounds and replaced temp backgrounds for some battles
  
• Reworked area transition system
  
• Reworked combat positioning, with new abilities for some enemies
  
• Added Falloff card property
  
• Added TTS to research screens
  
• Fixed crash on Power Plant boss attack
  
• Fixed rare softlock when loading
  
• Fixed problems with Scanner & improved performance
  
• Some general fixes to card tips
  
• Some intro rewrites for brevity
  
• Fixed buff durations showing in the wrong place on some cards
  
• Removed unreliable item encountered mechanic
  
• Fixed player buffs not showing on combat start
  
• Fixed Slimed and other cards not respecting Unchanging property
  
• Fixed some shader issues in Power Plant boss room
  
• Fixed some audio issues in Power Plant boss room
  
• Fixed erroneous voice ticks in PoIs
  
• Fixed occasional problems with Stamina readout
  
• Fixed superfluous damage numbers showing on rare occasions
  
• Visual improvements to some Power Plant rooms
  
• Inventory now properly defaults to Storage if no Pack equipped
  
• Various new, clearer icons
  
• Better normal map loading for some battle backgrounds
  
• Added controller version of area transition hint
  

Quick fix for a couple of critical issues:

• Fixed Story intro gang fight not triggering
  
• Items now properly unequip when starting new Story
  
• Fixed broken PoI on defeated Core
  

Why is this month's update so late, you ask? Because it's bloody massive, that's why. Zone's Early Access release is 1 year old this month, and I wanted to make it something special.

All 25(!) rooms of the Power Plant are now in, most with their own unique encounters, including a special challenging boss room. Add to that whole slew of new features, items, cards and all sorts.





Some of the art assets are temp and still need brushing up as our artists couldn't get them done in time for June -- but that shouldn't take much away from the experience.

It's been a hell of a year. Didn't make as much progress as I wanted to, but then, when does an indie dev ever? What I do know is I'm still here plugging away and will continue to do so until this game is finished.

As always, if you find anything broken, please report it and I'll take care of it immediately.

Enjoy a big new chunk of the Zone!

Changelog:

• 20+ new areas in Power Plant
  
• New PoIs, items, cards, ailments and abilities
  
• New debuffs and radiation effects
  
• New research options for radiation
  
• Fixed crash when opening card view outside combat
  
• Top right bar now opens and closes reliably
  
• Fixed issues with acquiring Ailments
  
• Fixed Ailments not saving/loading properly
  
• Fixed timers not resuming after opening Options
  
• Fixed various intermittent bugs
  
• Fixed radiation being added while gameplay is paused
  
• Fixed combat tooltips not showing buff amounts/durations
  
• Added voice beep to explore encounters
  
• Ambient audio now pauses while Options menu is open
  
• Screen no longer jumps when transitioning between exploration areas
  
• Better shader overlay for Power Plant
  
• Fixed potential crash when leaving Points of Interest
  
• Fixed several problems with item stashes
  
• Rewrote Points of Interest handler code
  
• Added Options slider to customise audio balancing
  
• Fixed audio balancing for TTS SAM in Options menu
  
• TTS audio balancing is now faster
  
• TTS SAM now obeys voice volume settings
  
• Fixed TTS setting changes not saving/loading properly
  
• Fixed several audio sources not obeying volume settings
  
• Fixed Amethyst Ring equipping to wrong location
  
• Card buttons now show at proper size in research UI
  
• Fixed visual layering issues with several Burner anomalies
  

I tell you, I hate level design -- but I'm so damn dedicated to this game that I'm doing it anyway. In fact 'level design' describes most of what I've been up to this past month.

The interior of the Power Plant is taking shape, and you'll be able to explore the first few rooms in this update (highlighted in yellow in this little preview):



That should give you an idea of the content avalanche that's on the way, and even this preview doesn't show the full extent of the Power Plant's size or its mysteries!

Other new features include fresh functionality added to the TTS engine, new music, some UI improvements, and more...

As usual, the new stuff is accompanied by a slew of fixes big and small, including some important steps forward for general stability. Please keep reporting any bugs you find so that I may fix them.

Until the next update... Stay safe out there, Stalkers!

Changelog:

• New accessible areas in Power Plant (more to come)
  
• New NPC in Power Plant: the Hermit
  
• New soundtrack for Power Plant biome
  
• Added TTS support for Points of Interest
  
• Added audio balancing during TTS
  
• Fixed crash when approaching item stashes
  
• Fixed major bug causing intermittent errors
  
• Fixed inventory crashes
  
• Fixed player HP being reset to max on load
  
• Reworked combat enemy behaviour, hopefully fixing many issues
  
• Fixed click navigation walking to wrong coordinates
  
• Stat upgrades are now correctly applied when starting a new game
  
• Fixed I key not opening inventory
  
• Disabled manual saving during story segments for stability
  
• Fixed player not showing up correctly behind obstructions in some areas
  
• Fixed wrong damage resistance behaviour on Spit card
  
• Fixed controller cursor misbehaving when out of bounds
  
• Fixed some animation positioning on Knife Swarm enemy
  
• Better voice options on game start
  
• Added correct portrait for Battle Drone enemy
  
• Added unique footstep sounds for Power Plant
  
• Fixed Burner anomaly audio