[Neolithic]To the End News

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

This week's main focus is on extending the story content of the side quest known as the containment breach. I will try to make this diary spoiler-free.

Two gates previously locked in the quarantine sector of Site Demeter are now unlockable. Some toy cars were added as a bonus.

After getting through those two gates with the help of our hacking skills and...the toy cars, we will finally meet the director of Site Demeter. A 40-second action cutscene will play and a Boss fight will start.

The cutscene itself may contain spoilers.
So, I will just post one frame of it here.

It's rendered into 1920*1080.
However, the RMXP engine cannot handle that without losing some compatibilities to old machines that I still don't want to drop support. Thus, the game will use a 640*480 version of the cutscene.
Let me know if anyone wants the original size version of this cutscene.
I may decide to post it somewhere else later.

After that, we are going to see the part of the unethical experiment of this facility.
I do not enjoy making such content.
But, there are villains driven by their dark desires, committing atrocities in this world.
Things will be even darker when we find out how they become villains in the first place.

That's for this week.
The game will be released into early access on her birthday.
That's next week.
I will put an additional dairy by then, to provide more details.

Here are some plans for now:
1, The public beta that's known as the demo will continue updating till the main story in Queensmouth comes to an end. Previously, I planned to finish this part by the release date of early access. However, I got delayed while also trying to add some additional unscheduled content here and there all the way in the last few months. But, anyway, I am just not satisfied to leave the public beta in such a state.
Meanwhile, I can't delay the early access release date as the date itself means a lot even to the in-game story.
As a result, the public beta period will extend even after the game is released into early access.
Thus, the purchase of the game will not be necessary for a while longer.

2, However, in order to thank everyone who wishlisted or followed this game, the game will release into early access with a discount and a price that will be the lowest historical price of all times for the first week.

3, From there, the price will slowly increase as more content gets added to the game. The first price increase will likely take place when the main story in Queensmouth is done. But, honestly, I can't predict when that will happen. There are a lot more contents I want to add.


Today's changelog:
#########Content################
[Containment Breach]
The story continues.
The second gate in the quarantine sector can be unlocked.
Added a 40-second cutscene. (It can be skipped by clicking ESC or the right mouse button.)
Added a Boss fight.
#########System#####################
the "counter-attack" tag in the code is now English. (Previously it was in Chinese. Thus, it may cause some unknown issues in some systems.)

English
#########Content################
Extended the side story "Containment Breach" to the point where the first gate of the quarantine sector can be unlocked.
Added 4 more toy car variations. (Red, Blue, Yellow, Pink.)
#########Debug#################
Fixed a bug that the Servant of Bazaar is showing debug information when you sell love story to him.
简体中文
#########Content#################
支线剧情“收容失效”的剧情发展到了解锁隔离部第一道大门的位置。
加入了四种新的玩具车家具造型。（红色，蓝色，黄色，粉红色）
#########Debug#################
修复了你在向巴扎的仆人贩卖爱情故事的时候会出现debug信息的BUG

English
#########Content#################
New furniture: D.T. Toy Car (Green)
It's a toy car that can be turned ON/OFF. It will move randomly when turned on while staying still when turned off.
It's a reference to a defunct brand of toy cars. Thus, it's only sold in the 1978 version of Queensmouth.
#########System#####################
Removed the transparency of the item detail window to make it easier to read.
简体中文
#########Content#################
新家具：D.T.公司玩具车（绿色）
这种玩具车可以被启动或关闭。启动时会随机移动。关闭时不会移动。
因为其本身影射了某个已经停产的玩具车品牌。所以，仅在1978年版本的王后镇销售。
#########System#####################
消除了物品细节窗口的透明度，使内容更方便阅读。

English
#########Content#################
People in Liu may make some comments if you are wearing a ghost sheet when talking to them.
The scavengers in Queensmouth will mistake you for zombies and attack you if you are wearing zombie disguise clothes.
If they defeat you in such a case, they will just kill you, resulting in a game-over scenario.
Zombie dogs will join a battle initialized by nearby zombies if they also detected you.
Zombie dogs will make zombies nearby to join a battle initialized by them. (As your zombie disguise clothes cannot fool those dogs, they can bust your disguise. Thus, it can be quite dangerous.)
简体中文
#########Content#################
疁城的市民会在你穿着幽灵床单和他们对话时做出一些评价。
王后镇的拾荒者会在你穿着僵尸伪装衣时把你当成僵尸并攻击你。
在这种情况下，如果他们击败了你，将会直接导致游戏结束。
僵尸犬现在会加入附近的僵尸引发的战斗。
僵尸犬引起的战斗会吸引周围侦测到你的僵尸加入。（因为僵尸伪装衣对僵尸犬无效，因此可能导致伪装暴露，被周围的僵尸群殴。）

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

It's quite unfortunate that I have to fly to the southwest corner of China to solve a lawsuit as someone's defendant lawyer this week. Thus, the development is hindered.

It's a place near Ruili, the infamous COVID-19 quarantine town. The good news is, I didn't need to go in there. Otherwise, they will likely not allow me to get back so soon.

Anyway, let's go back to see what we have this week.
First, a dynamic enemy group system has been developed so that most enemies will have their battle group matches exactly what they display on the map. For example, if you were surrounded by three zombies on the map when the battle begins, you will see exactly three zombies you will fight in the battle with their types also matches what they are on the map.
Thus, it may provide some tactical options to decide how many enemies you want to bring into one fight. Planning AOE skills and magic items accordingly, you may systemically clear an area match more effectively or strategically divide and conquer the obstacles you are facing by luring some of them away and taking them out one by one.

However, it's not always necessary to fight all the enemies.
Thus, here comes the second part. The ghost sheet.
It's a clothing item that can disguise you into a ghost-looking character so that any hostile ghost-type enemies in the area may be confused and will not attack you. It's pretty much just like the zombie disguise clothes we have before. The ghost sheet is its counterpart for safely going through any areas that are infested by hostile ghosts. The clothes may also have different prefixes to make each of them somewhat unique.

Of course, not all ghosts are hostile. A new type of ghost has been added to the game. They are just lost, wandering around without purpose with no intention to unleash their wraith against the living. As they are relatively friendly, they can be turned into allies with little effort. You may also just hunt them down to get some additional loots. Just beware, their hostile versions may join the battle as well if they have detected you.

Other relatively small changes include new story content of a certain NPC if he survived the event of the Unfinished Building; System improvements and optimizations; Life of quality improvements of using cheat codes; new item drop list for ghost enemies.

That's for this week.
The development is delayed. But, the early access date will not change. It's an important day for someone. I may go down to more details about the release plan in next week's diary.

Today's changelog:
#########Content#################
Added a new type of non-hostile ghost. They are weaker, but much easier to turn into pets.
They have the same drop list as the vengeful sprites.
Other hostile ghosts that have detected you may join the battle if you attack non-hostile ghosts.
Slime enemies have been updated to using the new dynamic enemy group mechanism.
The vendor on the 2nd floor of Ardham Hotel now also sells Ghost Sheets at a very high price.
#########System#####################
Added more precious control over dynamic shop item price. It now also check item types instead of just item id.