Chaos Chain News

Salutations, dwellers...

Headline for those who don't want to read this whole thing: ːcleanfloppyː *MOST* SAVE GAMES FROM PREVIOUS VERSIONS SHOULD BE WORKING FROM HERE ON OUT AS DEVELOPMENT MOVES FORWARD!!! ːlunar2019deadpanpigː

So, I have some good news for the game! Last night, with the help of a friend who is also another programmer, I was able to make some changes to the game's code that will accommodate most old saves/save games moving forward. It is still Early Access, so some things may still change that require a fresh start in the game after a huge update, but now it will be a lot less frequent.

I did considerable testing on my own last night with my own saves and all of that testing showed me that it is working well. Even if I make drastic changes, the old saves still work just fine.

This morning, a tester of mine was kind enough to email me her save file from 2 updates ago, and I was able to get that successfully running in my dev build as well. No noticeable issues whatsoever.

Now, with all of that said, there are still a few caveats. As I said above, huge updates may still require a fresh start every so often, so that is one thing to be aware of. That's just part of the Early Access development process and there isn't much I can do about that. Another is that the further back your save is from, the less likely it will run smoothly as development progresses. To put it simply, the older the save on the newer the version of the game, the less likely it will be stable and you may encounter issues here and there that are not present in a stable, new start.

Aside from the few stipulations, this is a really huge and really great change because to be completely blunt, I absolutely hate having to reset people's progress. Yes, I give a ton of warnings on the store page and in announcements and stuff, but it still is not a great situation, but some of it is in fact beyond my control as the game is still coming into a state of being. At least now, it will be much rarer to need to restart.

I can modify entire areas, add new quests, characters, equipment, modify enemies, and so on - all while using old saves and they still continue to work after the changes are made. This should make testing easier, and it should also make it easier to just simply play and enjoy the game as I continue working on it without you being forced to restart after every big update. Again, some big updates might still require it, but not nearly as much now since the game back-end stuff is all pretty much finalized. At this point, it's mainly just gameplay content I'm working on.

The game is very stable, bug free as far as I'm aware, and runs smooth as butter after yesterday's optimization improvements. Hopefully, I can maintain this, and you all can enjoy the game without annoyances of restarting constantly whenever large batches of new content is added.

Hopefully by the end of next week on Friday the 13th - spooky - I will be putting this build (1.2.5) out and with it, I'll be including a couple of new quests and changes to the "Helping Hands" quest as it takes way too long currently to complete and it's not meant to. I will also as usual be including improvement tweaks and optimizations as I go to keep everything running smoothly and possibly even the second companion if time allows. No promises, but that is my goal.

Thank you for reading!

-Corrosion ːCStudiosː

Salutations, dwellers...

PSA: Hey guys, this is a bit of an unfortunate thing, but it's come to my attention that a lot of people have been stealing my work through digital piracy, so I activated Steam's anti-piracy protection on my game files. I have dealt with this issue before, but decided to look the other way for over 7 years, but it gets really old seeing your hard work posted online by someone else for free. I try to keep my game prices low so that everyone can afford them, but still, I see my games stolen all the time. I appreciate everyone who has supported my work legitimately.

Since the files are now encrypted, you may get a false positive from your antivirus provider. RELAX - Steam would not allow infected files to be distributed on their system. For more (official) information, please refer to this link: https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/5F3D-1477-AFF9-C4F3

Check out the change log below.

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

[h2]Update 1.2.4 Change Log:[/h2]

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed chameleon cloaking biware price
  
• Fixed and cleaned up some graphic clipping (Particularly related to lights)
  

Changes & Additions:

• Added new Steam Achievements
  
• Activated Steam's anti-piracy protection on the game's files (YOU MAY GET A FALSE POSITIVE WITH YOUR ANTIVIRUS THAT THE GAME.EXE IS UNTRUSTED NOW - THAT'S JUST BECAUSE IT IS A NEW VERSION OF THE FILE AND UNKNOWN AT THE MOMENT - RELAX, STEAM HAS ITS OWN FILE VERIFICATION AND AUTHENTICATION SYSTEMS - YOU'RE SAFE)
• Further improvements to make the mouse more accurate (Minor this time)
  
• Added a 1.5 second cooldown on event position saving updates for exterior city areas with a lot of events (Before this change, it was rapid and constant, it should now be more optimized and help with performance)
  
• Repositioned some of the hub position-auto-saving events (To be more efficient)
  
• Rewrote the transitional intro text to be more specific about ongoing events in the game world (Explaining your character's position in the game world in the beginning)
  
• Updated Stubborn Love P2 quest description
  
• Added Helping Hands side quest (Pretty long side quest with some good benefits if you complete it)
  
• Renamed pain pills to painkillers
  
• Intro red blur image changed to blue
  
• Added rain effects to the intro
  
• Added support equipment slot (Total slots now 15)
  
• Added cloak support equipment
  
• Added Auto-Injector support equipment
  
• Reclassified several of the accessories to go in the new support slot
  
• Camel Pack gadget now goes in the support slot
  
• Added a new character interaction
  
• Added some new skill/stat checks
  
• Added new graphics for new characters, equipment, etc
  
• Updated a few shops
  
• Updated some dialogues
  
• Gas masks now block the accessory slot (So you can't equip a respirator and gas mask at the same time mainly)
  
• Added Accuracy IV learnable passive skill
  
• Added Accuracy V learnable passive skill
  
• Added more detail objects to exterior areas
  
• Added a bit more clutter to some areas
  
• Increased volume of all loudspeaker announcement sound effects based on feedback (10% each)
  
• Increased contrast of all environment items by 5 points
  
• Added some shadows/shading to certain environment objects to make them "Pop" a bit more
  
• Slightly increased the radius of visibility around the player character
  
• Got rid of some old leftover code and database items
  
• Added a 20 frame (1/3 second) pause after map transfers to help with event processing (This change is to help ensure that everything on the previous map before a transfer has ample time to process and finish their tasks and then once the transfer is complete, it should help the new map events run smoother)
  
• Reduced rolling fog opacity slightly
  
• Menu fog effect replaced with descending scanlines (Looks really good and gives off that "Cyberpunk" vibe)
  
• Menu fog effect now plays in all menu windows (Never realized until now that this wasn't happening already)
  
• Battle fog z coordinate is now 9999 instead of 1 so it shows above all other windows and entities on screen
  
• The menu will now reopen after the world map screen is closed (It threw you back into the game before)
  
• Active party member image overlay now has white brackets around the upper left and bottom right corners to give some depth and add a slight "camera" effect
  
• Active party member image overlay opacity reduced slightly so it's easier to see the character portraits
  
• Updated Sergeant Ash's dialogue (Not yet finished)
  
• A few other minor adjustments and tweaks
  

NOTE: You MUST start a new game.

Please let me know of any bugs or issues you may encounter on the forums. The update will be available shortly.

That's all for now, enjoy!

-Corrosion ːCStudiosː

Salutations, dwellers...

Here is a new update for the game. This is to make some adjustments and improvements based on the giant update from just a few days ago. Check out the change log below!

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

[h2]Update 1.2.3 Change Log:[/h2]

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed some typos
  

Changes & Additions:

• Tweaks to the intro (Some of the new effects didn't look good)
  
• Reduced the range for the protest shouts/sounds to activate by 2 (To help with performance)
  
• Improved protest loop handling and performance (They were impacting FPS slightly, the timer and on/off switch are now both globally controlled so they cannot become stuck on or off if the player leaves the area before the countdown finishes)
  
• A few other minor adjustments and tweaks
  

NOTE: You DON'T need to start a new game.

Please let me know of any bugs or issues you may encounter. The update will be available shortly.

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

If you're enjoying the game so far, please consider leaving a review. This not only helps with much needed visibility, but also gives me feedback for the game to help it become a better final product. Also, if you have questions, concerns, or requests, please visit the forums!

That's all for now, enjoy!

-Corrosion ːCStudiosː

Hey everyone!



This is just a heads up that Waste Walkers and ALL DLC is on sale right now for a large discount!

Grab them now while the discounts last!

Store page for those interested:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/371100/Waste_Walkers/

You can also find the complete bundle here:
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/339/Waste_Walkers_Complete_Bundle/

Enjoy!

-Corrosion ːCStudiosː

Salutations, dwellers...

This is just a heads up that the game now features Steam Cloud! My other projects included this already, but I previously had issues with it in the development (early access) period, but I got it all sorted today. Hell yeaaahhh!




I also just released a major update a little while ago, so if you're interested, here's the link.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1536730/view/3190247426147293409

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

That's all for now, enjoy!

-Corrosion ːCStudiosː