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DD#98 Annual Report, Year One on Steam Early Access

Hi, everyone. Welcome to another week's developer's diary.

December 8th, 2022 will mark our game's first year on Steam Early Access. Thus, I think it's time for this year's annual report. So, please take a seat. Let's start.

First, some data.
Between December 8th, 2021, and today, more than 300 updates have been released.
That makes more than 570 updates in total.
We successfully broke Steam's forum as it can only display 300 entries.
We got about 50 developer diaries, at least one for every week.
The Incomplete Chronicle has grown to more than 783KB
We have finished the main story in Queensmouth and are now in the Grand Library in a doomed city located in Egypt.
We currently have 14 fully 3D animated cut scenes, including 2 of them for some people's naughty ideas in their minds. Just you know, it's not a good idea to have sex with a succubus. My condolences if you insist you want to do that. On the good side, you will get another bad ending achievement.
Steam Workshop is also a perfect match for our powerful mod system. We even brought back the past iteration of our game in the form of the mods of our current iteration. The legacy from our past shall never be lost. And, you can even find anti-censor mods in the workshop. Not just to anti-censor sexy cut scenes but also including anti-censor of China. We will not forget what happened during the lockdown. But, to not risk the game itself getting censored, for now, it appears in the form of a mod. :)
Based on Steam data, the current "Average time played" is 4 hours 43 minutes with 4% of players having played more than 20 hours. I hope everyone is having fun in this strange world that mirrors our reality.
We also got an entire wiki just for the documentary. https://neolithia.fandom.com/wiki/NEOLITHIA_Wiki
The game reached its 18th anniversary this year and turned into an adult. :D

This is an interesting year.
I believe we are at a crossroads in human history once again. Whenever we are facing such a situation it calls all of us to action.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1519140/view/3119310025773834317
Thus, a lot of development efforts are reallocated in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine since February. Glory to heroes!

In order to make sure people in China can know what is happening in Ukraine. The game itself becomes media, carrying my daily Ukraine news, penetrating the Great Firewall. The previous plan of retiring the demo version after Queensmouth's main story is discarded. It's still updated fully in sync with the full game version so that people can acquire the news from Ukraine freely with Steam's auto update to bypass the censorship. The information is embedded in the game itself. As long as the game stands, the information shall flow. We now have about 260 entries in our game, one for each day, to the end.
It can certainly hurt the game's income on Steam. Not just because we are having a totally free demo version of the game that almost has all functions of the main game (except things not allowed by Steam, such as achievements and Steam Workshop), but I also saw a few people delete this game from their wishlist or just refund the game after I took my stance to fully support Ukraine. They said we shall not pick sides in politics. They said they hate America so they support Russia, as a result, they are now also boycotting our game. I don't care what they said. Because their voices don't speak for the rest of us. They made their choice and so shall we. You and I know the success of our game is not measured by how much money we make from it. You and I know when great forces are on the move in the world, we learn we're spirits, not animals. You and I know there's something going on in time and space, and beyond time and space, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty. You and I will stand with Ukraine to the end.
This is my best investment for the year 2022. This time I am not talking about profit as someone who can survive even in the worst economic environment in the stock market. This time we go beyond that for the decency of being human.


This is also the year we faced the lockdown in China.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1519140/view/3202629790208223587

Things may get a bit better now. But, remember those people who perished in such cruelty.
It's upon us, those who are still alive to carry on their memories.


Along the road of our everlasting game updates, not every one of us made it to this day. Maybe even ourselves, even this game means nothing at the cosmic scale. We are doomed to the void and leave nothing behind one day.


Even those we once thought immortal can pass away this year.


But, at least for now. We are still standing. The game is still updating.
I will make it to the end. Either the end of this epic story or the end of mine.

Ladies, gentlemen, and people whose awesomeness is beyond the definition of gender, let's toast for our next journey. A sale to celebrate our unique tradition will soon follow.

We have more content updates for this week. But, it seems some people are so horrified to even see a white paper right now.

Let us keep them in their blessed ignorance, as one day they may learn what is written on those papers. More details can be found in our daily updates log for this week. Have fun! :D


Today's changelog:
##########Content############
[Liu]You can now interact with the bookshelves in the Book Store
[Liu]Added a new document on the bookshelves in the Book Store.

Update, Version 20221201


English
##########Content############
[Item]New item: The "White Paper" (It's another anomalous item.)
[Item]New weapon/furniture: Urumqi Road Sign
[Crafting]New 3D printing blueprint: The "White Paper"
[Crafting]New 3D printing blueprint: Urumqi Road Sign
[Dark Cloud]Expanded the map of the Dark Cloud Cyber Cafe, and added a 3D printer.
[Dark Cloud]Added the blueprint of The "White Paper" on the 3D printer.
[Dark Cloud]Added the blueprint of the Urumqi Road Sign on the 3D printer.
简体中文
##########Content############
【物品】新物品:一张【白纸】(又一件异常物品。)
【物品】新武器/家具:乌鲁木齐中路路牌
【制造】新的3D打印图纸:一张【白纸】
【制造】新的3D打印图纸:乌鲁木齐中路路牌
【暗芸网吧】扩展了网吧的地图,加入了一台3D打印机。
【暗芸网吧】在打印机上加入了一份一张【白纸】的图纸。
【暗芸网吧】在打印机上加入了一份乌鲁木齐中路路牌的图纸。

Update, Version 20221130 (Today, Jiang Zemin Passed Away.)


English
##########Content############
[Item]New Item: The Great Elder's Glasses (Can have prefixes. It's a memento item in memory of someone who died today.)
[Skill]New Skill: Too Young! Too Simple! (Cause emotional damage and silence based on speech skills.)
[Bazaar]The magic item vendor now sells The Great Elder's Glasses.
[The Grand Library]Librarian Carsen can now tell you some information about each locked part on the current floor of the library.
##########System#############
[Mouse]Added mouse wheel support to the file save/load scene.
[Message Window]Message window now shall be able to handle line changes automatically. Localization files can still have "\n" to force line change. However, it's optional now.
[Message Window]Added a debug function to scan if the change affects any existing localization texts.
[Message Window]Made adjustments to three affected texts.
[Message Window]Increased the width of the message window.
[Localization]Each language can now define a list of characters as punctuations which will then be used in auto-break lines.
简体中文
##########Content############
【物品】新物品:一位长者的眼镜 (可以带有前缀。这是一个纪念物品,用于缅怀今日逝世的某人。)
【技能】新技能:图样图森破!(造成基于说服力的情感伤害和沉默效果。)
【巴扎】魔法物品商人现在开始销售【一位长者的眼镜】。
【大图书馆】图书管理员卡森现在可以告诉你当前楼层每个封锁的区域有关的一些信息。
##########System#############
【鼠标】在存档/读档界面加入了鼠标滚轮支持。
【信息窗口】信息窗口现在具备了自动将文本换行的功能。本地化文件中依然可以加入"\n"来强制换行。但是已经不是必要的了。
【信息窗口】加入了一个自动检查错误的函数扫描已有的本地化文本。
【信息窗口】调整了三处受影响的文本。
【信息窗口】增加了信息窗口的宽度。
【本地化】每个语言现在可以定义一组标点符号。在自动换行时会进行计算。

Update, Version 20221129





English
##########Content############
[Special Attribution]New Special Attribution: Gain Magic from Each Lost Sanity.
[Faith]Reduced the cost of switching to Atheism.
[Faith]New Center-of-Belief: Nihilism (+0.5 Magic per Lost Sanity. Let's embrace this madness for everything is meaningless. :D)
[Element]New Element Type: vs Authority.
[Element]Most police officers are now considered as parts of the Authority. (Including the police officers in Liu and Queensmouth.)
##########System#############
[Mouse]Added mouse wheel support to some other selection windows, including the faith belief and tenet selection windows.
##########DEBUG#############
[Element]Fixed a bug that the system does not consider some random police officers in Liu as human.
[Element]Fixed a bug that the system does not consider some random citizens of Liu as human.
简体中文
##########Content############
【特殊属性】新的特殊属性:基于每点失去的San值提高魔力。
【信仰】降低了转换成为无神论者需要的虔诚值。
【信仰】新的信仰核心:虚无主义(每失去1点San值,获得0.5魔力。San值归零,法力无边(误) (✺ω✺))
【元素】新的元素:对 当权者。
【元素】大部分的警察现在具有当权者属性。(包括王后镇和疁城的警察。)
##########System#############
【鼠标】对更多的选择窗口加入了鼠标滚轮的支持,包括信仰的核心和信条窗口。
##########DEBUG#############
【元素】修复了系统不能正确识别疁城部分的警官为人类的Bug.
【元素】修复了系统不能正确识别疁城的部分普通市民是人类的Bug.

Update, Version 20221128


English
##########Content############
[Prefix]New prefix: Repugnant (Increase the initial hatred of enemies in battles. It can be useful for tanks.)
[The Grand Library]The transition from the Teleport Circle to the Control Room shall be smoother now.
##########System#############
[Mouse]Added mouse wheel support on most of the selection windows. (It's based on your Windows Operation System's API. Thus, effects may differ based on your system.)
简体中文
##########Content############
【词缀】新词缀: 令人讨厌的 (增加在战斗中敌方对该角色的仇恨初始值。对坦克类角色比较有用。)
【大图书馆】从传送阵到控制室的移动画面转变现在更加顺畅。
##########System#############
【鼠标】大多数的选项窗口加入了对于鼠标滚轮的支持。(基于你的Windows系统API。因此效果可能因为每个人的操作系统不同而有差异。)