Fuchian Chronicles News

Hello everyone! It’s been about a month since the release of Chapter 2, and so it’s time for a little update on my progress on Chapter 3.



Thus far the only space based content has been individual battles, but Chapter 3 will introduce the first real space based map! Considering space based exploration is one of the marketed selling points of the game, I’m happy to finally introduce some space exploration. While ground based maps will still be the focus, I plan on having more space maps later on.

Of course, Chapter 3 will still have ground content.



Chapter 3 will also have the first look at a bunnoid locale. It’ll be the first real chance to learn a bit about the bunnoids and their culture, who have so far been more or less a faceless enemy. What are the bunnoids like? Are they really all machines? Do they all eat carrots? You will finally be able to start answering some of these questions, though the answer to the last one is almost certainly yes.

And finally, I’ve been gradually adding new features and improving on some existing features in the game. One of the major new additions to the game is… the Databank!



The journal system I’ve been using, though functional, is rather inelegant and limited. Now there will be a proper in-game encyclopedia, recording enemies, equipment, lore, and more! More encyclopedia entries will be added as the game progresses, and I may add additional categories (such as character profiles) later on. I’m working on other features as well, but I’ll save them for a future blog post.

One last thing: Thank you thus far for the support, including catching bugs I missed and giving suggestions! I posted in the suggestions thread earlier but would like to re-iterate: if you agree with someone else’s suggestion, especially regarding game difficulty, please say so! It would really help me gauge which suggestions would help improve the game the most.

Once again, thank you for playing my game, and I hope you look forward to Chapter 3!

- ShenTzu

Fixed a bug where losing to the bunnoid patrol when going planetside doesn't actually result in a gameover.
Fixed a bug where Energy Crystals aren't consumed upon use.

Thanks to Derumania for catching these!

Thank you for waiting, as of this post, Chapter 2 of Fuchian Chronicles is now live! Kimi is being deployed on the GFE Canis as war with the bunnoids rages on. What will Kimi encounter on her first proper mission?

If you've played Chapter 1 previously, simply load up your latest save and continue playing from there. And if you'd like a refresher, you can press J in game to open the journal and get a recap of the events and your choices in Chapter 1. You can also review tutorials there to get a refresher of gameplay elements.

Along with the new chapter, many new features have been added to the game. See below for the major changes:

• Autosaving added! By default, autosaves occur every 5 minutes (not including time spent in dialogue/cutscenes/battle), but you can change this in the journal (press J). Autosaves are automatically placed in the first save slot, so please use the remaining slots for manual saves.
  
• Mid-battle equipment changing added! Since the skills available to you are based on what you have equipped, this is a feature I wanted to have since the beginning but couldn’t since it broke a few things. But I got it working now! Scroll down the command menu when it’s your turn and you can have the currently active party member change their equipment. You can’t do this consecutively though, so make sure to plan your equipment carefully.
  
  Keep in mind that you can’t change ship equipment mid-battle because that makes no sense.
  
• Armour Piercing Ammo has been reworked! Instead of giving a percent attack bonus, using this item now adds an Armour piercing “element” to gun attacks, which does more damage to armoured enemies. Armoured enemies now have slightly increased defence to compensate, making them more resistant to regular attacks. Which enemies are armoured? Their appearance is a good indicator!
  
• “Level up” mechanic added! It’s similar to the traditional level up in RPGs in that party members get exp after fighting, and once a threshold is met they gain extra stats. However, the stat gains are minor and meant to reflect Kimi and her fellow soldiers gaining battle experience. Grinding remains optional as promised, and all fights are possible without “leveling up”. I mainly added this mechanic as an extra incentive to fight the optional encounters, and to make story fights a bit easier for those who want it.
  
• New Achievements! In addition to new achievements relating to Chapter 2, there are now achievements relating to how many NPCs you help around the ship and how many battles you’ve fought in. You don’t need to help all the NPCs to earn the achievement, but you will need to help more NPCs than there are available in Chapter 2.
  
  If you’re loading from the end of Chapter 1, you can talk to Nina (the gray haired cafeteria lady in the Mess Hall) twice after the opening cutscene to update the total number of people you’ve helped. Nina will also let you gain some extra stats to make up for the “level ups” you may have missed when fighting enemies in Chapter 1, and doing so will add 10 to your progress for the “Diligent Cadet” and “Veteran Soldier” achievements. This feature will be removed once the game is complete.
  

Several minor tweaks and features have been added as well:

• New items/equipment/skills menus for more functionality, primarily to prevent use of incompatible items/skills. This means that you can't accidentally waste ammo items by using them on characters that don't have guns equipped anymore! As a result, ammo items can no longer be used out of battle, but to make up for that, using them in battle no longer uses up your turn. The “Deploy Strikecraft” skill no longer consumes the actor’s turn as well.
  
• Message backlog feature added. Press “Page Up” during dialogue to see the backlog.
  
• Updated options menu with more settings such as FPS sync and message speed. If the game suddenly seems to be running in slow motion and/or if your monitor runs at over 60FPS, please turn FPS sync on.
  
• Save screen updated to show what chapter you’re in. Don’t worry if you see a 0 above your location in the save file, it’ll be updated to show the current chapter upon changing to a new chapter.
  
• Shift key now toggles between running and walking instead of needing to hold it down when the “Always Run” option is enabled.
  
• Minor changes to dialogue to make the speech more “foxy” with some new expressions.
  

As before, I playtested this as much as I could, but may have missed a few things. If you see any bugs/typos/errors/etc please post it the relevant thread in the Community Hub, same with suggestions. I avoid posting in the suggestions thread as to not influence discussion, but rest assured that I do read it!

Finally, the price of the game has been increased as I said it would in the Early Access notes. The price will continue to increase every time a new chapter is released, but you'll get access to all chapters of the game regardless of when you bought it. This means that those who buy the game early in development will effectively get the game at a steep discount. It's my way of thanking people for supporting me during development.

Thank you again for playing my game! I hope you enjoy Chapter 2, and future chapters as well!

- ShenTzu

It's been a while since I last posted here, so I thought I should update you guys on how Chapter 2 is coming along. As of this post, I'd say the chapter is about 70-80% complete, and should be released late March or early April. What's in it? Here's a sneak peek!







As you can see, chapter 2 will introduce the future player ship and primarily take place on the ice planet of Eiskrem (pronouned Es-khrem). Things don't look so good for the Empire there, but can you turn the tide?

As for game features, one of the main things I was thinking about is that there isn't much of an incentive for players to fight the optional battles since they only give crafting materials, which are pretty common place as is. I still firmly believe that the player shouldn't be forced to grind exp in order to progress in the story, but perhaps letting the characters gain some bonus stats by fighting could be an option. The logic would be that Kimi and her party gain battle experience as they fight more enemies, and I think it'd be a good way to let players "level up" and make story battles a bit easier if they so choose. What do you guys think?

That's it for this update! I plan on posting blog updates like this every month or so from now on to keep you guys updated, but I also post shorter updates such as new screenshots on my Twitter @ShenTzuGames. Look forward to Chapter 2!

For the past two months or so I've been uploading little lore bits about the various ships of the Galactic Fuchian Empire to my Twitter account (@ShenTzuGames), and now they'll be available here in the community hub as well! Everything I've posted so far will be uploaded shortly, and I'll be posting more every week until all ships are accounted for.

Not all of the ships featured will play a major role in the game, some might only be mentioned in passing or only be in the background. Even then, I still wanted to do this to better flesh out the world and give more background on the workings of the Empire. Hope you enjoy it!