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6/4/23 - Hotfix Update 1.7.1

Chaos Chain


Salutations, dwellers...

Hey guys!

I just got notified of an issue a few minutes ago and have a hotfix for you!

[h2]BETA Update 1.7.1 Change Log:[/h2]

Bug Fixes:
  • FIXED an issue in the "Dirty Rotten" side quest which prevented the dialogue from activating with one of the related characters


Changes & Additions:
  • The small light in the top right corner of the active member overlay is now green instead of red (Originally, it was meant to look like a recording indicator, but since I changed the appearance of them to be more like a computer screen instead of a camera, I have updated the color to match the signal bars)


Please let me know of any bugs or issues you may encounter so I can fix them. This update will be available shortly.

That's all for now, enjoy!

-Cryptic ːCStudiosː

Chaos Chain - Beta Release Discount!

Chaos Chain


Dwellers,

In honor of the game transitioning to the beta stage of development, I am running a discount on the game and the supporter pack DLCs!

Find out more below!

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1536730/view/3674420533452866316

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1536730/Chaos_Chain/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1777870/Chaos_Chain_Founder_Pack_DLC/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1865430/Chaos_Chain_Supporter_Pack_DLC/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2124170/Chaos_Chain_Supporter_Pack_2_DLC/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2306360/Chaos_Chain_Kickstart_Kit_DLC/

Enjoy!

-Cryptic ːCStudiosː

6/3/23 - MEGA Update 1.7.0 (Beta Stage Begins)

Chaos Chain


Salutations, dwellers...



So, I'm officially transitioning Chaos Chain into it's "beta" stage. This update is by far one of the largest updates I've ever released in my nine years of development and it may even be THE largest one I've done. With this update, about 95% of the features/backend work is done. I now plan to focus SOLELY on content additions including new areas, enemies, factions, equipment, quests, etc.



I did not get to every single thing that I had intended on for this update, but I did get a lot more done than I intended as well. This update took much longer than I had previously anticipated, but I have had a lot going on in both my personal life, I had a pet pass away, and with work - even working on some of my old projects with free major overhauls, bug fixes, and so on... Let's go over some of the cool new stuff for Chaos Chain.

Firstly, based on community request, travel by foot in between districts now has randomized events - a new list which is separate from the metro travel events - that can now possibly happen when fast traveling. Also based on community request, I've added extra combat-oriented random events for both the metro events and road events.



This is not a major change, but I think it looks pretty cool so I'm posting an image here to show it off, the interface for active and inactive members has been updated. Check out the overlay over top of the face images below.



Next, I've added unique abilities to each of the six occupational backgrounds to make them even further diversified to play as. Each class got one unique ability/skill. The descriptions during character creation were kept slightly vague on purpose so that you don't know exactly what you're getting, but you also now have the ability listed in your skills section, so you can find out more after. Current saves will even be updated automatically to work with these.



Something else to mention, there is now a sickness system in the game. It's pretty light weight and I tested it for awhile to make sure it wasn't obnoxious and/or too punishing, but it's meant to be part of the game's lore. As such, there is a small chance to get sick periodically and you'll need medication or rest to cure it. The tips screen as well as the quick reference screen have been updated to show the sickness status with info on it.



Lastly, I wanted to make mention of the version number system I've been using up until now. I've technically been using my own system for numbering each release, but it's both confusing to the community (multiple people have mentioned this) and it's not industry-standard which I want to move away from. From now on, it will be MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH like it is supposed to be and I have also included the phase (now beta) in the change log notes as well as the in game version identifier.

A lot has changed with this update. A quick glance at the change log will show you that, so if you encounter issues, please let me know, but be aware that it may just be an issue with using an old save if that's what you're doing. I TIRELESSLY TESTED EVERYTHING IN THIS UPDATE, but there is a chance I missed something, so please have some patience and I'll fix it asap. I need to know about an issue to fix it, so let me know either on the forums or on the discord channel. (Link to discord channel below)

One other thing I wanted to mention was that I thought it would be fun if we extended the game into the forums a bit, so I renamed the forum topic sections with some jargon from the game.



I've had a few people ask me recently if there's anything they can do to help me out further with the game. Honestly, just leave me a review, tell some friend's about the game, and if you're feeling especially generous, consider buying some of the support DLC as a tip for my work. If you already own it or don't want it, I also have a patreon (link on the forums) set up so people can donate if they are interested. Anyways, please take a look at the change log. This log does not even begin to showcase the amount of time I spent on this stuff, but it's a good sized list either way.

*Please note that these changes are not in any particular order.*

[h2]BETA Update 1.7.0 Change Log:[/h2]

Bug Fixes:
  • FIXED (Clean) food items not healing 5% like they were intended to (There was an issue with the calculation)
  • FIXED a couple typos
  • FIXED some tileset clipping issues
  • FIXED some tileset pathing issues
  • FIXED an issue where loading a save would cause the music in game to automatically change the next time you transfer to a new area (This has single-handedly been one of the simplest but most annoying and frustrating bugs I've ever dealt with in 20+ years of programming - I have thought I have fixed this at least 3 times in the past but I found that some variables I created were only being saved to the RAM and not to any data file like I thought they were - If you get into the game and no soundtrack is playing, just switch areas for the updated logic to take effect)
  • FIXED an issue where the soundtrack changed based on a plot related scene would cause the randomized (Time based) soundtrack system to get stuck (Goes along with the fix above)
  • FIXED a loop which caused rain effects to hog up more performance than it should
  • Removed some old and outdated code that is no longer needed
  • Disabled some leftover code from my previous games (Lawless Lands mainly) that was not in use here
  • FIXED some bright spots on some tileset items
  • FIXED raptor drone sprite right/left facings being reversed by accident
  • FIXED a bug which falsely allowed actor selection for skills which were user only
  • FIXED a bug which falsely allowed actor selection for items which were user only
  • FIXED a bug with the plug wound skill where it could potentially target a stalker drone and waste the turn since it cannot do anything for it
  • FIXED an issue where the player's character could face another direction while talking to Tara
  • FIXED enemies who are currently hijacked would only use a default brawl/punch skill
  • FIXED cycle command in combat being able to be used to swap character equipment when it wasn't the current characters turn and allowing exploits
  • FIXED cycle command not appearing greyed out when unusable
  • FIXED loner world modifier icon showing the wrong icon
  • FIXED certain hit style skills that result in no damage will now play the attack failed sound effect instead of a near miss of a projectile sound effect
  • FIXED no heat being added if you murder the unarmed mugger with the pistol in the "Words of Gold" side quest
  • FIXED travel events that were supposed to result in food poisoning resulting in regular poison which is much worse
  • FIXED a bug which caused fixers to lower heat for free
  • FIXED drone charge generator attachment not giving the mettle bonus that it was supposed to
  • FIXED empty space on the squad screen and expanded the options list so all 4 options show at once without needing to scroll


Changes & Additions:
  • Upgraded the battle callout system with a much neater, more refined structure, which also allows the system to now accommodate the possibility of having mixed enemy parties present and it will still work as intended (This also cuts down on future work for me regarding enemy groups)
  • --- The stuff between this line and the other similar line below are temporarily blocked off - I need to finish working on it and testing it ---*
  • Updated "Slow Descent P3" main quest journal entry
  • Added "Slow Descent P4" main quest
  • --- End temporarily disabled content - Still under development ---*
  • Added "Dirty Rotten" side quest (A few ways to complete it/different outcomes, can be found in Lamplight Market)
  • Added "A Real Meal" side quest (Can be found in Industrial Zone)
  • Prepared some future side quests (Dialogue, characters, etc)
  • Added new Steam achievements
  • Finalized some pre-existing areas (Plot related, hidden until now)
  • Added The Red Den: F1 area (Plot related)
  • Added The Red Den: F2 area (Plot related)
  • Added Moth (Red Saints Boss in Ashen Row) sprite, battler, and face graphics
  • Added Moth boss enemy type (Red Saints)
  • Plot related items are now written in green text in the inventory screens (I didn't realize until recently that ammo and plot related items were using the exact same color for their text)
  • Added new plot related items
  • Added unique abilities for each of the 6 different occupational backgrounds (These are automatically be added into existing saves)
  • Updated occupational background descriptions during character creation to reflect the unique abilities
  • Added "Avert Lockdown" ability for the technological background (20% chance to prevent system lockdown during system hacking)
  • Added "Blend In" ability for the civic background (20% chance each game day to automatically lower heat by 1 point)
  • Added "Still Standing" ability for the military background (Once per combat encounter, automatically self revive with 10% health)
  • Added "Bug Out" ability for the criminal background (For 5 action points, and if the current combat allows escaping, instantly escape the combat encounter with the entire squad - In the event that you use this in combat and escape is not allowed such as in a main quest fight, hunkered down will automatically be applied to the main character instead)
  • Added "Field Triage" ability for the medical background (Once per game day, restore all squad members - excluding drones - for 10 health and 20 mettle each)
  • Added "Bounty Collection" ability for the police background (There's a 30% chance to avoid gaining any heat when defeating outlaw groups, and also gain a credstick)
  • Cycle command in the equip screen now is greyed out when unusable and is unusable in combat just as it is during augware surgery
  • Enemies who are hijacked will now use ANY attack skills against their allies
  • Renamed "Burn" damage element type to "Heat" so it's not confused with the "Burning" status effect
  • Added sickness status effect (All features reduced by 15% - Muscle, Toughness, Finesse, Resolve, Max Health, Max Mettle)
  • Added sickness status effect animation
  • Updated quick ref sheet with sickness status info
  • Updated tips page with sickness status info
  • Throw debris skill now has a 2% chance to cause sickness
  • Facewrap now offers 2% resistance against getting sickness status
  • Medical mask now offers 3% resistance against getting sickness status
  • Respirator now offers 10% resistance against getting sickness status
  • Civilian gas mask now offers 15% resistance against getting sickness status
  • CBRN gas mask now offers 20% resistance against getting sickness status
  • Bio-Harmonizer augware now offers 10% resistance against getting sickness status
  • Immuno-Boost augware now offers 30% resistance against getting sickness status effect
  • Detoxifying filters augware now offers 20% resistance against getting sickness status
  • [Bio-Shock] cyber attack skill now adds 5% chance of causing sickness, lost 5% bonus to shock chance
  • Added a very low chance (15% default but it is affected by the character's resistance to sickness) to become sick when the dynamic weather changes (Chance is further reduced by 5% if the character is fully healed - There are NUMEROUS ways to combat this effect, I tested this for a few hours and found it to have a good balance of frequency without being overwhelming)
  • Cold and Dark world modifier now adds 5% chance to get sick during a dynamic weather chance (Look at the change above this one)
  • Rotten food now has a 15% chance to cause sickness
  • Chronic illness flaw now only costs 2x for condition healing (Was 3x) but now also has a 5% sickness weakness
  • All drones given 100% immunity to sickness status
  • All animal enemies (Including the new ones added in this update log) now have varying chances to cause sickness when attacking (Very low percent chances as it would get annoying if it was too frequent - All the chances are below 10%)
  • All animal enemies (Including the new ones added in this update log) now have varying resistances to the sickness status
  • Hopeless soul enemies now have a 2% chance to cause sickness status on attack
  • Hopeless soul enemies now have a 3% resistance to sickness status
  • Paying doctors for healing will now remove sickness along with all the other negative statuses of before
  • Updated sound effect for doctor healing effects
  • Updated the active party member face border
  • Added inactive party member face border
  • Added medication consumable (Cures Sickness, +5 Health, +3 Mettle)
  • Added multivitamins consumable (+1 Health, +1 Mettle, Long Duration: +10% Sickness Resistance (Immune Boost))
  • Added immune boost status effect (Multivitamins)
  • Added medication to random loot tables for containers
  • Added medication to medical related shop listings
  • Added multivitamins to random loot tables for containers
  • Added multivitamins to medical related shop listings
  • Resting now has a chance to remove sickness, chance increased if at full health
  • Resting now clears all negative side effects from using drug items
  • Drug items can now only be used on the user (Target self only - No more force feeding your allies drugs in combat - This does NOT include medical supplies)
  • Medical background now starts with 1 medication but no extra med kit (They still get 2 trauma kits and their respirator now protects against sickness)
  • Renamed Immunity (Poison resistance) learnable skill to "Nontoxic"
  • Added new version of Immunity learnable skill for the main character and companions (+20% Sickness resistance)
  • Reduced confused status duration by 1/3
  • You can now only change party members in your active squad from inside bars/nightclubs, the player hideout (Not yet implemented - that will come later in the main story), the player apartment, and a few other notable locations which will come later
  • Added alert to popup if you add a new companion and your active party is already at the limit (It tells you they're in reserve and reminds you how and where to go to swap characters - See the above change)
  • Desperate Times world modifier mettle loss per turn is now randomly rolled each round of combat and can be 1-3 instead of only 1 (Was barely noticeable before)
  • Added a blurred version of the "cybermetro" battlebackground as a background image when riding on the metro (It was just black nothingness before and felt odd)
  • Reading a data item for lore now only gives 3 exp instead of 5
  • The starting armor for the player character is now a padded jacket instead of a leather jacket (Slightly weaker - I found the starting loadouts were a bit too powerful super early game and selling everything amounted in a lot of money for upgrades and much better gear)
  • Added pepper spray consumable item (Chemical damage to Mettle)
  • Added provoke learnable ability (Basically, it's a taunt to make enemies target the user)
  • Added provoking status effect (Look at the above line)
  • The shake it off skill is now learnable for 1 skill point instead of a default skill
  • Added provoke ability to enemy skill lists (Human)
  • Added use pepper spray enemy skill
  • Added use synergy stim enemy skill
  • Added jump in front learnable ability
  • Added jump in front animation
  • Added jump in front to enemy skill lists (Humans, they will only very rarely use this if they are at full health, only regular enemies get this - not bosses)
  • Added check handling for enemy target-based skill usage in combat (Provoke/Jump In Front)
  • Added lick wound enemy skill (Wild/guard dog enemies - Functions identically to plug wound)
  • Added use synergy stim enemy skill to cybered enemy skill lists
  • Boss enemies no longer have any chance to retreat from combat (May change in the future/might be used in some specific fights, but for now it is disabled)
  • Updated death state icon art with something more fitting for the theme
  • Normalized contextual action text descriptions
  • Updated some metro travel events
  • Added nail gun exotic weapon
  • Added nail gun attack skill and animation
  • Added nail ammunition class
  • Added box nail ammo (Default, +5% shock)
  • Added masonry nail ammo (+1 Damage)
  • Added scrap flail exotic weapon (I made this an exotic instead of melee given the setting and the fact that they pose a threat to the user just as much as the target)
  • Added armican preacher marksman rifle (6.5mm, can double tap)
  • Added armican preacher attack skills and animations
  • Added all 5 variations of drones as battlers to be used for enemies in the future (Time for some electronic warfare, they've got enigma systems - hacking modules)
  • Added drone battle callouts list (6 variations of buzzes and beeps)
  • Drones now have a 10% base weakness to burn/heat damage, but still have a 10% resistance to burning state (The idea here is to elude that they are prone to overheating, but don't just catch on fire)
  • Added drone heatsink attachment [Inv: 2, Attachment, Drone Gear, -5% Glitched Res, +10% Burning Res, 20% Heat] (+10 Mettle, -1% Mettle Regen)
  • Drone supercharged battery now gives 5% heat weakness but lost 5% interference weakness
  • Drank (way) more coffee and energy drinks than I should have while working on this update...
  • All enemies that use guns with special attack types now have slightly higher chance to use the special attacks (Roughly 5%, Examples: autofire, burstfire, etc - This change is meant to make enemies slightly more difficult again as one of the recent updates added accuracy penalties to these attacks and these enemies were significantly easier to deal with in return)
  • Added stalker drone enemy type
  • Added raptor drone enemy type
  • Added orb drone enemy type
  • Added outrider drone enemy type
  • Added crawler drone enemy type
  • Added guard dog enemy type
  • Added guard dog enemy battler graphic
  • Added attack dog enemy type
  • Added attack dog enemy battler graphic
  • Added 7 security guard sprites
  • Added some motorcycle sprites (Will be used in the near future for the environment, thank you to AceHangman for making these!)
  • Added 8 dock worker sprites (Will be used in the near future, thank you to AceHangman for making these!)
  • Added security guard captain sprite and face
  • Added 11 randomized dialogues for the security guards
  • Added some security guards to the Industrial Zone
  • Updated the first floor of The Clouds with a black market hacker shop (This shop sells hackpads and a bunch of accessories for them)
  • Updated Digit's shop (He's no longer a wholesale retail outlet for all things hackpad/hacking related - His shop doesn't have a lot of the extra stuff anymore, but he still offers all hackpad types)
  • Added duster body armor (Heavier form of padded jacket similar to how the leather jacket has a leather trenchcoat variant)
  • Swapped some enemy body armor that were previously leather trenchcoats to the duster
  • Roid boss given pain suppressor cyware upgrade
  • Replaced throw debris skill with use pepper spray skill for corrupt police
  • Updated corrupt police loot drop lists
  • Updated several shops
  • Updated some tilesets with extra environmental assets
  • Added some new randomized ambient sound effects
  • Added some new item and skill icon art
  • Updated randomized loot tables with extra items
  • Updated randomized ammo loot tables with nail ammo types
  • Updated the randomized weapon/armor loot tables with several pieces of armor and various weapons
  • Balanced and redistributed stats to some enemies
  • Slightly increased the randomized stat fluctuation on enemies per enemy level, but also increased the experience they give when defeated
  • Added Red Saint backstabber enemy type
  • Added Red Saint backstabber enemy sprite and battler
  • Optimized some events and got rid of some extra unnecessary events
  • Relocated some characters and events
  • Updated some dialogues to be more realistic and sound better for the given situation
  • Expanded some main quest dialogues with more info and hints to help players
  • Updated the battle transition image
  • Increased brightness of the menu backdrop slightly to help with visibility
  • Improved shading on some environment objects
  • Updated and improved some environment objects with better overall quality
  • Updated main menu art
  • Reduced lightning flash and sound pitch/volume when in exterior areas so it wasn't so bright and loud
  • Reduced lightning sound volume/pitch when in interior areas so it wasn't so loud
  • Reduced opacity of rain effects slightly so it's not so bright
  • Updated the asphalt/hard ground footstep sound
  • Added more lights to a few areas to make it easier to see
  • Improved performance of the raindrop splash system
  • Tweaked the overall color adjustment for the game screen so that it is very slightly brighter (I found that it was a bit too dark)
  • Added 10 new randomized news clippings as lore when reading the data items (Many of them give a good idea of backstory of the game world and allude to various situations and problems that could potentially become further developed later)
  • Added 16 new randomized lore data items of various sorts (Thank you to worstcase11 for submitting some of these!)
  • Added 7 new randomized data types for use when delivering data to a data broker
  • Added a faint glow effect to all drone sensors to make them "pop" more in the environment
  • Moved around some characters (Quest related) to be more spaced out and not all clumped together now that we have more space
  • Added several new sound effects and background sounds
  • Added 5 new randomized names to the list to help with generating a character name if you can't think of one (We now have 365 names total in the list)
  • Updated a number of environment assets with pixel-based lighting effects (Pre-baked) instead of event-based lighting effects to improve performance and cut back on the number of events (Dynamic objects) in the game maps (This should help both performance and making things look more visually consistent)
  • Added some pitch variations to the randomized soundtrack list
  • Updated some backend testing processes for debugging (Heads up testers)
  • Reduced the maximum amount of rain drops displayed on screen at one time by roughly 15% because it was a bit much
  • When a character/enemy is under a status effect that forces them to attack but they are unable to (For example: out of ammo) they will now hunker down automatically
  • Changed stash system to be a function instead of per-event system so it can be easily placed and updated as needed
  • Added cyberroad picture for travel between districts on foot
  • Added cyberroad battle background for Lamplight Market
  • Added a main travel process for moving between districts via the road (On foot) for subdistrict transitions (Works just like metro fast travel)
  • Set up random encounter lists for exterior city areas (These will be used when traveling)
  • Added 30 randomized travel events for moving between districts on foot (Works just like metro fast travel, some of these have multiple outcomes and variations)
  • Weather effect sprites now always have a z coordinate of 999 so they appear over images and other effects (Not including interfaces)
  • Updated classification location of several items in the inventory to be more accurate
  • Updated credits scene
  • Autosaving will now play the save game sound effect but with low volume (So it doesn't get annoying)
  • Updated main menu screens with new art
  • Reduced the frequency of metro travel events
  • Removed the text green popup when finished fast traveling
  • Reserved further database space for future use
  • Improved logic handling of variable readout dialogues
  • Various other minor misc tweaks and changes as usual


Please let me know of any bugs or issues you may encounter so I can fix them. This update will be available shortly.

For more info on the game, visit the store page below!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1536730/Chaos_Chain/

A gentle reminder: if you're enjoying the game so far or have critiques you'd like to share, please consider leaving a review for me. This not only helps with much needed visibility, but also gives me important feedback for the game to help it become a better final product. Also, if you have questions, concerns, or requests, please visit the official Chaos Chain Steam Forums or join the official Discord Channel!

That's all for now, enjoy!

-Cryptic ːCStudiosː

5/23/23 - Preview of the Next Major Update

Chaos Chain


Salutations, dwellers...



This is a PREVIEW of the upcoming update change log. THIS UPDATE IS NOT LIVE YET AND IT IS NOT FINISHED - MORE IS BEING ADDED. This list is not final and barely stresses the amount of actual change the update brings with it.



*Please note that these changes are not in any particular order.*

[h2]Update 1.6.9 Change Log:[/h2]

Bug Fixes:
  • FIXED (Clean) food items not healing 5% like they were intended to (There was an issue with the calculation)
  • FIXED a couple typos
  • FIXED some tileset clipping issues
  • FIXED some tileset pathing issues
  • FIXED an issue where loading a save would cause the music in game to automatically change the next time you transfer to a new area
  • FIXED a loop which caused rain effects to hog up more performance than it should
  • Removed some old and outdated code that is no longer needed
  • FIXED some bright spots on some tileset items
  • FIXED raptor drone sprite right/left facings being reversed by accident
  • FIXED a bug which falsely allowed actor selection for skills which were user only
  • FIXED a bug which falsely allowed actor selection for items which were user only
  • FIXED a bug with the plug wound skill where it could potentially target a stalker drone and waste the turn since it cannot do anything for it
  • FIXED an issue where the player's character could face another direction while talking to Tara
  • FIXED enemies who are currently hijacked would only use a default brawl/punch skill
  • FIXED cycle command in combat being able to be used to swap character equipment when it wasn't the current characters turn and allowing exploits
  • FIXED cycle command not appearing greyed out when unusable
  • FIXED certain hit style skills that result in no damage will now play the attack failed sound effect instead of a near miss of a projectile sound effect


Changes & Additions:
  • Upgraded the battle callout system with a much neater, more refined structure, which also allows the system to now accommodate the possibility of having mixed enemy parties present and it will still work as intended (This also cuts down on future work for me regarding enemy groups)
  • Updated "Slow Descent P3" main quest journal entry
  • Added "Slow Descent P4" main quest
  • Added "Dirty Rotten" side quest (A few ways to complete it/different outcomes, can be found in Lamplight Market)
  • Added "A Real Meal" side quest (Can be found in Industrial Zone)
  • Prepared some future side quests (Dialogue, characters, etc)
  • Added new Steam achievements
  • Finalized some pre-existing areas (Plot related, hidden until now)
  • Added The Red Den: F1 area (Plot related)
  • Added The Red Den: F2 area (Plot related)
  • Added Moth (Red Saints Boss in Ashen Row) sprite, battler, and face graphics
  • Added Moth boss enemy type (Red Saints)
  • Plot related items are now written in green text in the inventory screens (I didn't realize until recently that ammo and plot related items were using the exact same color for their text)
  • Added new plot related items
  • Cycle command in the equip screen now is greyed out when unusable and is unusable in combat just as it is during augware surgery
  • Enemies who are hijacked will now use ANY attack skills against their allies
  • Added sickness status effect (All features reduced by 15% - Muscle, Toughness, Finesse, Resolve, Max Health, Max Mettle)
  • Added sickness status effect animation
  • Updated quick ref sheet with sickness status info
  • Updated tips page with sickness status info
  • Throw debris skill now has a 2% chance to cause sickness
  • Facewrap now offers 2% resistance against getting sickness status
  • Medical mask now offers 3% resistance against getting sickness status
  • Respirator now offers 10% resistance against getting sickness status
  • Civilian gas mask now offers 15% resistance against getting sickness status
  • CBRN gas mask now offers 20% resistance against getting sickness status
  • Bio-Harmonizer augware now offers 10% resistance against getting sickness status
  • Immuno-Boost augware now offers 30% resistance against getting sickness status effect
  • Detoxifying filters augware now offers 20% resistance against getting sickness status
  • [Bio-Shock] cyber attack skill now adds 5% chance of causing sickness, lost 5% bonus to shock chance
  • Added a very low chance (15% default but it is affected by the character's resistance to sickness) to become sick when the dynamic weather changes (Chance is further reduced by 5% if the character is fully healed - There are NUMEROUS ways to combat this effect, I tested this for a few hours and found it to have a good balance of frequency without being overwhelming)
  • Cold and Dark world modifier now adds 5% chance to get sick during a dynamic weather chance (Look at the change above this one)
  • Rotten food now has a 15% chance to cause sickness
  • Chronic illness flaw now only costs 2x for condition healing (Was 3x) but now also has a 5% sickness weakness
  • All drones given 100% immunity to sickness status
  • All animal enemies (Including the new ones added in this update log) now have varying chances to cause sickness when attacking (Very low percent chances as it would get annoying if it was too frequent - All the chances are below 10%)
  • All animal enemies (Including the new ones added in this update log) now have varying resistances to the sickness status
  • Hopeless soul enemies now have a 2% chance to cause sickness status on attack
  • Hopeless soul enemies now have a 3% resistance to sickness status
  • Paying doctors for healing will now remove sickness along with all the other negative statuses of before
  • Updated sound effect for doctor healing effects
  • Added medication consumable (Cures Sickness, +5 Health, +3 Mettle)
  • Added multivitamins consumable (+1 Health, +1 Mettle, Long Duration: +10% Sickness Resistance (Immune Boost))
  • Added immune boost status effect (Multivitamins)
  • Added medication to random loot tables for containers
  • Added medication to medical related shop listings
  • Added multivitamins to random loot tables for containers
  • Added multivitamins to medical related shop listings
  • Resting now has a chance to remove sickness, chance increased if at full health
  • Resting now clears all negative side effects from using drug items
  • Drug items can now only be used on the user (Target self only - No more force feeding your allies drugs in combat - This does NOT include medical supplies)
  • Medical background now starts with 1 medication but no extra med kit (They still get 2 trauma kits and their respirator now protects against sickness)
  • Renamed Immunity (Poison resistance) learnable skill to "Nontoxic"
  • Added new version of Immunity learnable skill for the main character and companions (+20% Sickness resistance)
  • Reduced confused status duration by 1/3
  • You can now only change party members in your active squad from inside bars/nightclubs, the player hideout (Not yet implemented - that will come later in the main story), the player apartment, and a few other notable locations which will come later
  • Added alert to popup if you add a new companion and your active party is already at the limit (It tells you they're in reserve and reminds you how and where to go to swap characters - See the above change)
  • Desperate Times world modifier mettle loss per turn is now randomly rolled each round of combat and can be 1-3 instead of only 1 (Was barely noticeable before)
  • Added a blurred version of the "cybermetro" battlebackground as a background image when riding on the metro (It was just black nothingness before and felt odd)
  • Reading a data item for lore now only gives 3 exp instead of 5
  • The starting armor for the player character is now a padded jacket instead of a leather jacket (Slightly weaker - I found the starting loadouts were a bit too powerful super early game and selling everything amounted in a lot of money for upgrades and much better gear)
  • Added pepper spray consumable item (Chemical damage to Mettle)
  • Added provoke learnable ability (Basically, it's a taunt to make enemies target the user)
  • Added provoking status effect (Look at the above line)
  • The shake it off skill is now learnable for 1 skill point instead of a default skill
  • Added provoke ability to enemy skill lists (Human)
  • Added use pepper spray enemy skill
  • Added use synergy stim enemy skill
  • Added jump in front learnable ability
  • Added jump in front animation
  • Added jump in front to enemy skill lists (Humans, they will only very rarely use this if they are at full health, only regular enemies get this - not bosses)
  • Added check handling for enemy target-based skill usage in combat (Provoke/Jump In Front)
  • Added lick wound enemy skill (Wild/guard dog enemies - Functions identically to plug wound)
  • Added use synergy stim enemy skill to cybered enemy skill lists
  • Boss enemies no longer have any chance to retreat from combat (May change in the future/might be used in some specific fights, but for now it is disabled)
  • Updated death state icon art with something more fitting for the theme
  • Normalized contextual action text descriptions
  • Added nail gun exotic weapon
  • Added nail gun attack skill and animation
  • Added nail ammunition class
  • Added box nail ammo (Default, +5% shock)
  • Added masonry nail ammo (+1 Damage)
  • Added armican preacher marksman rifle (6.5mm, can double tap)
  • Added armican preacher attack skills and animations
  • Added all 5 variations of drones as battlers to be used for enemies in the future
  • Added drone battle callouts list (6 variations of buzzes and beeps)
  • Drank (way) more coffee and energy drinks than I should have while working on this update...
  • All enemies that use guns with special attack types now have slightly higher chance to use the special attacks (Roughly 5%, Examples: autofire, burstfire, etc - This change is meant to make enemies slightly more difficult again as one of the recent updates added accuracy penalties to these attacks and these enemies were significantly easier to deal with in return)
  • Added stalker drone enemy type
  • Added raptor drone enemy type
  • Added orb drone enemy type
  • Added outrider drone enemy type
  • Added crawler drone enemy type
  • Added guard dog enemy type
  • Added guard dog enemy battler graphic
  • Added attack dog enemy type
  • Added attack dog enemy battler graphic
  • Added 7 security guard sprites
  • Added some motorcycle sprites (Will be used in the near future for the environment, thank you to AceHangman for making these!)
  • Added 8 dock worker sprites (Will be used in the near future, thank you to AceHangman for making these!)
  • Added security guard captain sprite and face
  • Added 11 randomized dialogues for the security guards
  • Added some security guards to the Industrial Zone
  • Updated the first floor of The Clouds with a black market hacker shop (This shop sells hackpads and a bunch of accessories for them)
  • Updated Digit's shop (He's no longer a wholesale retail outlet for all things hackpad/hacking related - His shop doesn't have a lot of the extra stuff anymore, but he still offers all hackpad types)
  • Added duster body armor (Heavier form of padded jacket similar to how the leather jacket has a leather trenchcoat variant)
  • Swapped some enemy body armor that were previously leather trenchcoats to the duster
  • Roid boss given pain suppressor cyware upgrade
  • Replaced throw debris skill with use pepper spray skill for corrupt police
  • Updated corrupt police loot drop lists
  • Updated several shops
  • Updated some tilesets with extra environmental assets
  • Added some new randomized ambient sound effects
  • Added some new item and skill icon art
  • Updated randomized loot tables with extra items
  • Updated randomized ammo loot tables with nail ammo types
  • Updated the randomized weapon/armor loot tables with several pieces of armor and various weapons
  • Balanced and redistributed stats to some enemies
  • Slightly increased the randomized stat fluctuation on enemies per enemy level, but also increased the experience they give when defeated
  • Added Red Saint Scraper enemy type
  • Added Red Saint Scraper enemy sprite and battler
  • Optimized some events and got rid of some extra unnecessary events
  • Relocated some characters and events
  • Updated some dialogues to be more realistic and sound better for the given situation
  • Expanded some main quest dialogues with more info and hints to help players
  • Updated the battle transition image
  • Increased brightness of the menu backdrop slightly to help with visibility
  • Improved shading on some environment objects
  • Updated and improved some environment objects with better overall quality
  • Updated main menu art
  • Reduced lightning flash and sound pitch/volume when in exterior areas so it wasn't so bright and loud
  • Reduced lightning sound volume/pitch when in interior areas so it wasn't so loud
  • Reduced opacity of rain effects slightly so it's not so bright
  • Updated the asphalt/hard ground footstep sound
  • Added more lights to a few areas to make it easier to see
  • Improved performance of the raindrop splash system
  • Tweaked the overall color adjustment for the game screen so that it is very slightly brighter (I found that it was a bit too dark)
  • Added 10 new randomized news clippings as lore when reading the data items (Many of them give a good idea of backstory of the game world and allude to various situations and problems that could potentially become further developed later)
  • Added 16 new randomized lore data items of various sorts (Thank you to worstcase11 for submitting some of these!)
  • Added 7 new randomized data types for use when delivering data to a data broker
  • Added a faint glow effect to all drone sensors to make them "pop" more in the environment
  • Moved around some characters (Quest related) to be more spaced out and not all clumped together now that we have more space
  • Added several new sound effects and background sounds
  • Added 5 new randomized names to the list to help with generating a character name if you can't think of one (We now have 365 names total in the list)
  • Updated a number of environment assets with pixel-based lighting effects (Pre-baked) instead of event-based lighting effects to improve performance and cut back on the number of events (Dynamic objects) in the game maps (This should help both performance and making things look more visually consistent)
  • Added some pitch variations to the randomized soundtrack list
  • Updated some backend testing processes for debugging (Heads up testers)
  • Reduced the maximum amount of rain drops displayed on screen at one time by roughly 15% because it was a bit much
  • When a character/enemy is under a status effect that forces them to attack but they are unable to (For example: out of ammo) they will now hunker down automatically
  • Changed stash system to be a function instead of per-event system so it can be easily placed and updated as needed
  • Updated classification location of several items in the inventory to be more accurate
  • Updated credits scene
  • Updated main menu screens with new art
  • Various other minor misc tweaks and changes as usual


AGAIN, THIS UPDATE IS NOT PUBLIC YET, FINISHED YET, OR FINAL. I will release it when it is ready!



That's all for now, enjoy!

-Cryptic ːCStudiosː

5/10/23 - Quick (Unfortunate) Dev Status Update

Chaos Chain


Hey guys.

Not many of you are on our community Discord Channel, so most people won't know this, but I was aiming to release the next major update for the game either this Friday, or next Wednesday if everything went according to plan... I'm probably going to need a few more days. I got some unfortunate news today.

I'm writing this after just learning that a family pet that has been in my family since I was a teenager - I'm 27 years old now - is being put to rest tomorrow as he has become very sick and his quality of life has diminished. I was very close with him at one point in time and what's worse is that he is across the country from me, so I cannot see him to say my final goodbyes before this all takes place.

I know that this is going to be on my mind pretty heavily for the next few days at least, so I appreciate everyone's patience as I take some time to mourn and also to continue working on the update itself. This kind of thing is really tough and I'm pretty down about it all.

I've been working very hard - both day and night - on the update. It will be very significant when I finally release it, but I'm just going to need a bit more time. I'm sorry for the inconvenience.

Thank you all for your understanding.

-Eric "Cryptic" Plasencia