Quasimorph News

[h2]Hello, mercenaries![/h2]



Our new major patch, The Dragon Reborn, is now available!

A big thank you to everyone who helped us test the patch: thanks to you, we were able to catch many bugs and abuses, and also were able to slightly reconsider the patch balance. We will continue to fine-tune the new mechanics even after the patch release, so don't forget to come to our Discord and leave feedback.

[h2]Disclaimers:[/h2]

• Please note that this patch will wipe saves. So, don't rush to update if you want to continue playing on your old saves.
  
• Beta patch saves WILL work on the main branch of the game. So if you started playing a save on Thursday, you can continue from there.
  
• Currently, English, Chinese, Russian, and French localizations are complete, but we continue to work on other languages: right now they are already fully playable, but we would be grateful if you could help us update the localization.
  

[h2]Patch Highlights:[/h2]

• Rework of resistances, armor, and damage.
  
• Complete overhaul of barter: fast trading (can be enabled in settings), dynamic market of supply/demand.
  
• AI overhaul: "factional" logic of relationships during combat.
  
• First narrative factional arc consisting of three missions.
  
• Addition of a large number of new items, weapons, and armor.
  
• Addition of new stations.
  
• Added tracks for the first and third phases of quasimorphosis for the Martian bramfatura.
• Added mission difficulty indicator.
  

[h2]GENERAL[/h2]

• Global rework of overall balance, armor, and weapon characteristics:
  Added limits on resistance and evasion and accuracy
  Reworked shooting modes
  
  
• Reworked barter
  Quick barter (no more wasting time)
  Stations now consume, produce, and transport resources between each other.
  The value of items on the market is determined by supply and demand.
  The value constantly changes depending on the player's activity and the activity of game factions.
  Added fast trading: the ability to trade without entering stations: it can be enabled in the game settings.
  
  
• Reworked movement mode mechanics:
  The game cycle now consists of turns, and turns consist of action points. A turn is a set of action points for the player depending on the selected movement mode. And an action point is already what used to be a turn and a "basic update" for all game subsystems
  You can only change the mode at the beginning of the turn before any actions are taken, otherwise the switch will occur on the next turn (the switch will be displayed in the interface)
  Fixed cases where enemies intercepted the player's turn due to a change in movement mode
  
  
• Toxic puddles will now evaporate over time until they completely disappear.
  
• Added mission difficulty, now each mission will have varying difficulty, which will affect the number of enemies and rewards. You can see the task difficulty in the mission tooltip when hovering over the station.
  
• Reworked player character death visual, now the death screen will be displayed after the player character's death animation finishes.
  
• Now if there are more than 6 corpses in one cell, they will turn into one impassable pile of remains.
  
• Reworked enemy behavior, they now attack not only the player but also other representatives of hostile factions.
  
  
• Changes in the quasimorphosis mechanic:
  The collapse of opponents can now occur all over the map, not just in the player's line of sight.
  Human opponents can turn into possessed over time. Possessed retain equipment, injuries, and status effects after transformation
  Quasimorphs after the collapse (and possessed after transformation) will belong to a separate conflict side "Wild Quasimorphs" and will be hostile to all conflict sides on the mission. However, such quasimorphs will be allies for Tezctlan on Venus. If the player is on Tezctlan's side and has maximum reputation with his faction, then wild quasimorphs will be his allies
  In missions against quasimorph factions, the level of quasimorphosis will not decrease to the level of doubt (except for defense missions)
  
  
• Reworked injury and health mechanics:
  Any decrease in a character's health leads to the appearance of a wound.
  Weak wounds have no negative effects.
  The effects of amputations depend on the type of damage that caused the amputation.
  Significantly reworked the properties and parameters of medications.
  The logic of character states has been reworked, and new states have been added, further status effects (infection, poisoning, dependencies, frostbite, and shock).
  Visual display of status effects on the player has been added.
  Each status effect has its own progression logic from 0% to 100% and has 4 stages (the first 0-25, the second 26-50, and so on). Each stage has its own set of debuffs applied to the character.
  Dependency status effects (narcotic, alcoholic, nicotine, and kavakha) may occur with a chance when using corresponding items. With each use of such an item, the chance of addiction increases. Using such items on a character with an existing addiction will reset its progress to 0% but will not remove it. There are separate items for treating dependencies.
  Treatment of a status effect occurs through the use of items that reduce the progress of specific status effects by a certain percentage. If after application the progress of the status effect is 0%, it will automatically pass.
  
  
• The duration of defense missions has been changed from 150 to 80 turns.
  
• Improved the model and texture of the ship. Both for the regular and "Support Set" versions.
  
• Mission duration for defense missions has been changed from 150 to 80 turns.
  
• Improved model and texture of the ship, both for regular and "Support Pack" versions.
  
• Xiomara's Skull will now be awarded even in the case of mission evacuation, not just upon successful mission completion.
  
• Increased rewards for completed tasks, and costs from rewards are now added to the player's account with the beneficiary faction.
  

[h2]UI / UX[/h2]

• Mission goal descriptions now include clarifications about the location of the task objective.
  
• Added a screen to display item prices, where you can learn about changes in the price and demand for various goods.
  
• Added a quick trade option, which allows trading with stations without landing. The option is enabled in the settings under the General tab.
  
• Added an option to disable camera shake.
  
• The camera has been reworked to remove shake in some cases.
  
• The visual display of interaction restrictions with items and interactive objects while running has been reworked for greater clarity.
  
• The description of the Pyromaniac perk has been supplemented. It is now specifically indicated that the perk affects the duration of fire on the ground (+1 turn) and the duration of burning on the target (+1 action point).
  
• Added display of critical hit chance for melee weapons on the mercenary class screen.
  

[h2]FIXES[/h2]

• Balancing adjustments to barter.
  
• Slightly reduced the radius in which enemies react to shots and sounds.
  
• Fixed: Character couldn't move to an adjacent cell if there was a fence obstacle nearby.
  
• Fixed: Interacting with containers and corpses consumed an extra action point.
  
• Fixed: Flamethrower was hitting targets behind closed doors.
  
• Fixed: Disc gun was not dealing damage to enemies in front.
  
• Fixed: Disc gun was not dealing damage to the player.
  
• Fixed: Fire was spreading through closed doors.
  
• Fixed: Discharging the grenade launcher produced extra fragmentation grenades.
  
• Fixed: Skull icon wasn't appearing on the ground after picking it up.
  
• Fixed: Highlighting selected enemies didn't illuminate all parts of the enemy's body in some cases.
  
• Fixed: Bullet decals were displaying purple after level load.
  
• Fixed: Softlock when a human enemy turned into an obsessed and started moving.
  
• Fixed: Pact of Ibo didn't heal.
  
• Fixed: Various arsenal sorting bugs.
  
• Fixed: Quasimorphosis level increased when quasimorphs phased back into the bramfatura.
  
• Fixed: Limb amputation of a corpse caused errors and softlocks.
  
• Fixed: AI behavior causing mobs to shoot "from the dark" or idle instead of attacking.
  
• Fixed: Delays between turns caused by actions of mobs outside the field of view.
  
• Fixed: Softlock when the baron transformed or when loading the game in a baron state.
  
• Multiple fixes related to the mechanics of wounds and status effects that led to corrupted saves.
  
• Fixed: Meddock healed amputations.
  
• Fixed: Goods obtained by the player during fast trading were not participating in the economic process.
  
• Fixed: Visiting the Promised Earth station resulted in a black screen.
  

We would appreciate your feedback! Join our community on Discord to be the first to hear game news and receive notification when the patch release occurs! Also, follow us on Twitter!

Good luck in battle!
Best regards, Magnum Scriptum Team.

[h2]Hello, Mercenaries![/h2]



Our new major patch, The Dragon Reborn, is now available in the beta branch! We've already discussed the patch details in this devlog.

[h2]How to Access the Beta?[/h2]
Anyone interested can access the Beta through the special section in the game's "Properties.":
Betas -> Beta Participation -> 0.6 Beta



[h2]Disclaimers:[/h2]

• Why beta? We want to test the patch, its stability and balance before its release. If you're interested in helping us, you can access it through the beta functionality. Don't forget about feedback and send your reports through the in-game form.
  
• Currently, English, Russian, and French localizations are ready. For other languages, we have prepared interim localization, but there may be errors in it. We would appreciate it if you could help us update the localization.
  
• Remember that this patch will wipe saves. So don't rush to update if you want to play on your old saves.
  

[h2]Patch Highlights:[/h2]

• Rework of resistances, armor, and damage.
  
• Complete overhaul of barter: quick trading, dynamic supply/demand market.
  
• AI overhaul: "factional" logic of relations during combat.
  
• First narrative faction arc consisting of three missions.
  
• Added a huge number of new items, weapons, and armor.
  
• Added new stations.
  
• Added tracks for the first and third phase of quasimorphosis for the Martian bramfatura.

[h2]GENERAL[/h2]

• Global rework of overall balance, armor, and weapon characteristics:
  Added limits on resistance and evasion and accuracy
  Reworked shooting modes
  
  
• Reworked barter
  Quick barter (no more wasting time)
  Stations now consume, produce, and transport resources between each other.
  The value of items on the market is determined by supply and demand.
  The value constantly changes depending on the player's activity and the activity of game factions.
  
  
• Reworked movement mode mechanics:
  The game cycle now consists of turns, and turns consist of action points. A turn is a set of action points for the player depending on the selected movement mode. And an action point is already what used to be a turn and a "basic update" for all game subsystems
  You can only change the mode at the beginning of the turn before any actions are taken, otherwise the switch will occur on the next turn (the switch will be displayed in the interface)
  Fixed cases where enemies intercepted the player's turn due to a change in movement mode
  
  
• Toxic puddles will now evaporate over time until they completely disappear.
  
• Added mission difficulty, now each mission will have varying difficulty, which will affect the number of enemies and rewards. You can see the task difficulty in the mission tooltip when hovering over the station.
  
• Reworked player character death visual, now the death screen will be displayed after the player character's death animation finishes.
  
• Now if there are more than 6 corpses in one cell, they will turn into one impassable pile of remains.
  
• Reworked enemy behavior, they now attack not only the player but also other representatives of hostile factions.
  
  
• Changes in the quasimorphosis mechanic:
  The collapse of opponents can now occur all over the map, not just in the player's line of sight.
  Human opponents can turn into possessed over time. Possessed retain equipment, injuries, and status effects after transformation
  Quasimorphs after the collapse (and possessed after transformation) will belong to a separate conflict side "Wild Quasimorphs" and will be hostile to all conflict sides on the mission. However, such quasimorphs will be allies for Tezctlan on Venus. If the player is on Tezctlan's side and has maximum reputation with his faction, then wild quasimorphs will be his allies
  In missions against quasimorph factions, the level of quasimorphosis will not decrease to the level of doubt (except for defense missions)
  
  
• Reworked injury and health mechanics:
  Any decrease in a character's health leads to the appearance of a wound.
  Weak wounds have no negative effects.
  The effects of amputations depend on the type of damage that caused the amputation.
  Significantly reworked the properties and parameters of medications.
  The logic of character states has been reworked, and new states have been added, further status effects (infection, poisoning, dependencies, frostbite, and shock).
  Visual display of status effects on the player has been added.
  Each status effect has its own progression logic from 0% to 100% and has 4 stages (the first 0-25, the second 26-50, and so on). Each stage has its own set of debuffs applied to the character.
  Dependency status effects (narcotic, alcoholic, nicotine, and kavakha) may occur with a chance when using corresponding items. With each use of such an item, the chance of addiction increases. Using such items on a character with an existing addiction will reset its progress to 0% but will not remove it. There are separate items for treating dependencies.
  Treatment of a status effect occurs through the use of items that reduce the progress of specific status effects by a certain percentage. If after application the progress of the status effect is 0%, it will automatically pass.
  
  
• The duration of defense missions has been changed from 150 to 80 turns.
  
• Improved the model and texture of the ship. Both for the regular and "Support Set" versions.
  

[h2]UI / UX[/h2]

• Mission goal descriptions now include clarifications about the location of the task objective.
  
• Added a screen to display item prices, where you can learn about changes in the price and demand for various goods.
  
• Added a quick trade option, which allows trading with stations without landing. The option is enabled in the settings under the General tab.
  
• Added an option to disable camera shake.
  
• The camera has been reworked to remove shake in some cases.
  
• The visual display of interaction restrictions with items and interactive objects while running has been reworked for greater clarity.
  
• The description of the Pyromaniac perk has been supplemented. It is now specifically indicated that the perk affects the duration of fire on the ground (+1 turn) and the duration of burning on the target (+1 action point).
  
• Added display of critical hit chance for melee weapons on the mercenary class screen.
  

[h2]FIXES[/h2]

• Fixed: characters could not move to an adjacent cell if there was a fence barrier nearby.
  
• Fixed: interaction with a container and corpses consumed an extra action point.
  
• Fixed: flamethrower affected targets behind closed doors.
  
• Fixed: the disc launcher did not damage enemies in front.
  
• Fixed: the disc launcher did not damage the player.
  
• Fixed: fire spread through closed doors.
  
• Fixed: when discharging the grenade launcher, extra fragmentation grenades were issued.
  
• Fixed: skull display on the ground after picking it up.
  
• Fixed: in some cases, highlighting of selected enemies did not illuminate all parts of the enemy's body.
  
• Fixed: bullet decals were painted purple after loading the level.
  

We would appreciate your feedback! Join our community on Discord to be the first to hear game news and receive notification when the patch release occurs! Also, follow us on Twitter!

Good luck in battle!
Best regards, Magnum Scriptum Team.

[h2]Hello, Mercenaries![/h2]

Today we'd like to share some news about the progress of our upcoming patches (one of which is just around the corner!).

On the bright side: for the past couple of months, we've been working on a major patch "The Dragon Reborn" scheduled to release in mid-March (we're aiming for around March 14th). It's a REALLY big content patch, effectively expanding the game by almost one and a half times. We can compare the amount of content to the transition from End of Dream to the early access release.

Unfortunately, the Magnum modifications won't make it to this patch. We've decided to postpone them because they require more time for iteration, and we wouldn't want to introduce a feature that's too raw. Some dishes need more time to cook ;)

However, we don't want to delay it until the next major patch ourselves, so we'll add it in an intermediate patch closer to May of this year. We understand that this might disappoint some people, but we assure you - the upcoming patch will indeed bring a lot of content, so we're confident that you'll understand the reasons for the delay.

So, what can you expect from the new patches?

[h2]New locations in planet orbits[/h2]

Tsiolkovsky - Earth



Mechta - Venus



HAVOC - Venus



Volcano - Mercury



Citadel-1 - Mercury



[h2]AI opponents and new enemies[/h2]

This is one of our favorite features that significantly affects gameplay. As we've mentioned before, we'll add different behavior patterns for different enemies, improve the mechanics of transforming into the possessed at high Quasimorphosis levels.

And finally, the friend-or-foe system: mobs will attack each other under conditions of hostility between their factions. For example, station defenders will also consider phasing Quasimorphs as enemies!
It'll be interesting to see how your raids and tactics change.

Of course, you can also expect new enemies:

• 4 new enemies from
  
• 2 new robots
  

Why , you might ask?

[h2]A storyline arc in three acts leading to [/h2]
This is the first major storyline arc consisting of several missions that will significantly affect the situation in the Solar System.

We won't give you many details because we don't want to spoil it, but we'll hint that the events of the arc will begin on Venus, where you'll have to collaborate with , penetrate , retrieve , fight , and permanently change to !

[h2]Rework of medicine, resistances, damage types, overcap of accuracy and evasion stats, and movement mode switching mechanics[/h2]

We've noticed that much of the feedback revolves around sudden spikes in difficulty. Therefore, a whole complex of changes in this patch is dedicated to smoothing out this curve and finding solutions aimed at making the gameplay more predictable and smooth.

Where it used to be suddenly very difficult - it should be "not suddenly" difficult (but still difficult). Where it used to be too easy - it will be harder, because we want to make the game more interesting to play.

We tried to rebalance the game in a way that you always feel resistance, but we tried to reduce the overall number of "sudden" events that lead to death - be it one-shots or puddles. Again - we're looking forward to hearing your feedback on these new systems, so come join us on Discord and be sure to share your impressions.

[h2]Complete overhaul of the barter system and new barter functionality[/h2]

In fact, this is a transition to a "fair" economic model where stations accept goods to produce other goods from them. Goods physically move from station to station. The cost of goods changes depending on supply and demand. Logistics is disrupted as a result of mutual captures of stations by warring factions.
We're sure you'll find a way to abuse even such a trading system... But that's also part of the experience, so enjoy!

[h2]Items! Lots of them! A whole lot![/h2]

40 new types of weapons
79 new armor/clothing items 4 new medical items
5 new food items
2 new grenades
3 deployable robots
45 new barter items factional chips items

Many of these items are directly related to different factions - we want the fight against different corporations to imply different tactics and equipment selection.
Also, expect a rebalance of existing weapons, armor, crafting recipes, disassembly, and, of course, enemy equipment taking into account factional items, etc.

[h2]Lots of UI fixes and tweaks[/h2]

We consistently work in this direction with each patch. This patch will certainly be no exception. You'll be able to find a full list of fixes in the patch notes before the patch is released! We're planning to release on March 14th, but we'll inform you additionally in case of unforeseen circumstances!

Join our community on Discord to be the first to learn about game news and get notified when the release happens! And also follow us on Twitter!

Thanks for your attention!
Good luck on your ventures, mercenaries!

[h2]Hello, Mercenaries![/h2]



It's time to share our plans for the future. After the release of the latest patch, we decided to slightly re-plan the content of the upcoming patch to refine some existing mechanics and address issues identified by both us and our community.

Today, we'll tell you what to expect in the upcoming patch and showcase what we're working on. Let's start with new content:

[h2]Ship Upgrades[/h2]
Ship upgrading is one of the major features of the upcoming patch. We want to make it valuable and interesting. Upgrades should be defining improvements that influence the player's strategy in achieving their goals. The upgrades will visually alter the appearance of the Magnum.



As this feature is substantial, we might implement it in several phases.

[h2]Expansion of the Teztclan Story Arc[/h2]
The global threat of Teztclan and its legions should be a more evident generator of events, stories and fun. We aim to provide players with more narrative content and food for thought. Additionally, the story should influence the game mechanics and Solar System state.

Furthermore, some characters from the prologue and demo will reappear, and we'll introduce some new ones.

[h2]Enemies AI[/h2]
We understand that the AI of enemies requires a significant overhaul. Currently, many creatures operate within the same simple logic. Our goal is to make enemies more dangerous and "intelligent," introducing more variations in the behavior of human enemies, professional soldiers, zealots, fauna, and quasimorphs.

We also want to experiment with adding small events related to the behavior of enemies or specific groups during missions. Finally, we aim to incorporate faction influence on character behavior, meaning, for example, station defenders would fight not only players but also quasimorphs.

[h2]Rework of Resistances, Medicine, Evasion, Accuracy, and Action Points[/h2]
We've gathered numerous player suggestions and feedback on these key systems, and we believe we can significantly enhance the player experience interacting with these systems.

We want to add more dependency effects from various drugs, new wound effects, and amputation effects depending on the type of damage. Additionally, we plan to introduce positive effects from overlimits of certain character stats, such as accuracy or evasion. For instance, exceeding the accuracy limit may increase the critical hit chance.

The Action Points system requires an interface and behavior logic overhaul to reduce player questions and eliminate some abuses of this system.

[h2]Stock Exchange[/h2]
We aim to make the stock exchange interface more informative and add clear goals and tasks for factions. The main idea is to make faction motivations clearer and more understandable. Currently, all corporations choose one of the basic strategies like Defense or Expansion. We want to develop this system so that strategies align with faction story motivations and arcs.

[h2]Barter Rework[/h2]
Barter needs serious improvement. We plan several enhancements, both in terms of mechanics and overall system convenience.

For example, we want to revamp the barter interface to display items that players can receive in the exchange. The logic by which factions request items from players will also be reworked to make the demand and supply system slightly more logical. This will likely eliminate existing barter abuses but may introduce new ones. The spice must flow.

[h2]Display of Mission Difficulty Level[/h2]
It's always helpful to know what challenges a player will face during a mission. Therefore, we'll add a display of the mission's difficulty level in the mission start window. This is an important and useful change that will help you choose tasks that are "within your capabilities."

Moreover, we want to diversify internal conditions that affect the number of enemies, level sizes, and rewards for completing tasks.

[h2]Content[/h2]
In addition to adding new mechanics and reworking old ones, we will continue expanding your arsenal and enemy rotation. In the upcoming patch, you can expect:

• New types of lightning-shooting weapons
  
• New sets of armor and weapons
  
• New enemies
  
• New stations
  

Additionally, we will continue seeking community suggestions for improving the convenience and depth of the game: players provide us with a lot of useful feedback on interfaces and game logic. For example, to enhance readability, we want to redesign the graphics for characters with different statuses, such as burning, freezing, and shocking.

[h2]Changes to the Roadmap[/h2]
We want to inform you in advance about changes to our plans for the next patch. We've decided to postpone two features:

• Ranks System: Regarding ranks, we want to spend more time testing this system and will showcase our progress in one of the devlogs after the patch release.
  
• Jupiter with Moons: In the previous patch, we began introducing new stations and satellites in the orbits of existing planets to expand the rotation of contracts in starting regions. Jupiter and its moons require a lot of work with new assets – we want planets and hazards on them to be significantly different.
  

While we plan to release both of these features within the first half of 2024, we'll keep you updated!

[h2]Patch Release Window[/h2]
Currently, it's challenging to specify the exact update release date, but we are sticking to the roadmap: you can expect the patch sometime in March of this year.

Join our community on Discord to be the first to hear game news and receive notifications when the release happens! Also, follow us on Twitter!

Thanks for your attention!
Good luck on your ventures, mercenaries!

PS
A small surprise for Supporter Pack owners: we are going to update the Magnum skin slightly to better complement the ship upgrades ;)

Hello, mercenaries!
In this patch, we worked on addressing numerous bugs and overhauled the game code to facilitate future updates and error handling. Additionally, a new track has been added!

We are continuing to prepare a substantial content patch and will soon be back with a devlog, where we will share details about this patch.

CONTENT
Added a track for the first and second phases of Quasimorphosis for the Moon's bramfatura.

GENERAL

• New Year's items have been removed from the generation lists.
  
• Error handling has been added for system errors. In the event of an abnormal situation, an error code message will be displayed (for example, when the game fails to save due to insufficient disk space). Non-working saves will be marked in the interface.
  
• Turrets are removed from the list of attackers in defense missions.
  
• Interaction with the elevator and ladder no longer consumes a turn.
  

UI / UX

• Opening the pause screen (and thus saving/sending a report) is now available regardless of whether the player's turn is active.
  
• When opening the pause screen (Esc screen), the camera will now center on the player.
  
• When evacuating from a defense mission, a message about returning to the ship will now be displayed instead of the elevator.
  
• Crafting item or level-up notifications will now be displayed sequentially if there are multiple notifications.
  
• Damage resistance icon colors are inverted: when there is no damage resistance, the icon color will be red, and if there is, it will be green.
  

FIXES

• Fixed black save previews.
  
• Fixed a bug where shotguns knocked the victim through a closed door.
  
• Fixed a bug where the player would teleport upon entering a previously visited level if they entered the level in a different way the last time (e.g., through a ladder).
  
• Fixed a bug where attackers in defense missions did not capture the station when they completed without the player's involvement.
  
• Fixed a bug where bullets in a weapon would disappear if the weapon reload occurred during the mission exit.
  
• Fixed a bug where Priya Marlon's talent did not work after loading the game in a raid.
  
• Fixed a bug where grenades on the floor were invisible after loading the game.
  
• Fixed the display bug on timers. In some time ranges, the time was displayed incorrectly.
  
• Fixed the accuracy display bug for weapons on the ship arsenal screen.
  
• Fixed impassability issues with some room presets.
  

Good luck during your raids!
Regards, Magnum Scriptum Team.