Endless Dark News

* Several accessibility improvements following pank's stream
* Several bugfixes following pank's stream
* Tile rework in progress
* A new game settings menu will appear when starting a new game

On the road to having Steam achievements, I wanted to make them more than just a little popup and a picture saying you did this or that. I wanted achievements to be built into the lore of the game and part of the meta - and thus, instead of achievements, you have MEMORIES.

Memories are just that, the Custodian remembering bits of their past incarnations, and applying them to their current campaign for effects. Memories and achievements are entirely identical - you unlock them by doing a specific thing in game, and then, in future games, can activate that Memory for some small bonus. The number of Memories you can have active at once grows slowly over time, and a few DANGEROUS memories will allow you to turn on more memories at once in exchange for some penalty.

Along with that come TOASTS! The traditional way most games notify you about stuff any more is through toasts, but doing that in a way that meshed with Endless Dark was a little interesting. I decided to keep a separation between the Custodian and the Toast - a toast notification is data that is sent to the player, not the Custodian, and the Custodian will therefore never react to a toast. So far, only a few things will provide a Toast - unlocking a memory, building modules, passengers unaliving, and a few other things, while we work out what the best combination between informative and not intrusive.

Full patch notes for 0.6.3:
* 25 MEMORIES/ACHIEVEMENTS are now available to unlock through in-game actions
* MEMORIES can be activated in later runs to change the behavior of the game
* Toast Notifications will now appear for a variety of events
* The bot no longer spins randomly in New Game selection
* Selecting narrative arcs also now shows you which bots have completed which arcs
* An overhauled Paperdoll now shows you your full inventory including schematics and modules
* Paperdoll now adds another column if you have a huge number of effects
* A few minor bugfixes

Patch 0.6.2 is here, and it extends the new game screen from 0.6.1. Now, the new game screen will not only let you select any arc you wish, but also inform you which bots have completed which arcs. If you have already completed an arc, the game currently assumes you did it with ROBBIE. However, there's also now a new cli command you can use to force-complete any arc immediately as whatever bot you are playing

* Game now tracks which bots have completed which arcs
* complete_arc (1-10) console command will immediately complete a given arc as your current bot

Previously, narrative progress has been strictly linear from arcs 1 through 4, followed by the choice of which order to tackle 4, 5, and 6 in. There are strong narrative reasons to do them in this order, but the only technical ones were the modules available to you. No longer is such a constraint a thing, and now, when starting a new game, you can choose from any released arc to start immediately. If an arc requires a specific module, the game will ensure you are given the schematic for it on launch.

While you still get the best story by completing the arcs order (or at least, in order from 1 through 3), if you want to replay a specific arc or skip one altogether, that choice is now yours. You can repeat this any time you wish!

Additionally, a few minor typos and issues from 0.6 were corrected, and all narrative arcs begin on turn 8 instead of turn 10.

It's our second major update, and it is a DOOZY. As is traditional, let's start with the new blood:





FRANK (the all-caps are important) does not like you. In fact, he's generally angry that you exist. But he does not want you to leave him alone, per se. He will be angry regardless. You just give him a reason to be angry.

FRANK is cursed with a very deep awareness of his fundamental nature. Which is a fancy way of saying that, of all the Custodians, FRANK was made from second-hand parts at a bargain basement price, and he knows it. The universe has seen fit to awaken FRANK for another cycle, and he WILL make it everyone's problem. With this awareness, however, comes a certain freedom - why bother keeping up appearances when you know the terrible secret of space?

FRANK represents an explosive response to stress, and will blame every last one of his copious problems on someone or something else. Which also means he takes solace in not solving those problems. Far from gaining stress when the ship is not in working order, FRANK actually loses stress for ignoring repairs, and comes pre-equipped with a pneumatic hammer to augment his robo-strength for making breakers and doors see things HIS way. However, his fractured world view must be constantly reinforced; he will gain Stress if he does not sabotage a system every turn.

Furthermore, FRANK has a... particular relationship with the passengers of the ship.



While other Custodians may regard the passengers as their charge, or even their sacred duty, FRANK regards them with open hostility. He gains Stress every turn for each passenger that is alive, and sheds it when they die - whether by his hand, or by happenstance.

FRANK is strong against one Crisis Arc in Endless Mode, and will be strong against the arc that will release sometime in the next few weeks. He also has over 15 unique interactions with random events, and has his own art for every narrative arc.

FRANK's release is particularly exciting for us because he represents the first of our 1.0 promises completed. Three very unique Custodians, all of whom respond and react very differently.


We also have a new narrative arc for you - Into The Underworks. We've figured out some critical things about ship's central computer, and about the passengers. Now, what about the ship itself?

Into The Underworks represents the completion of act 2 of our over-arching plot. Act 3 will begin with the release of 0.7.0, and again change the tenor of the writing entirely. Please look forward to the ongoing adventures of the Custodians!


This release also has the 5th Crisis Arc for Endless Mode - when terrible failures begin brewing, and everyone insists it's not your job, how should you respond? Pay close attention, and figure out if the recurring power problems with the ship are actually in hand, or if the ship just can't ask for help from the expert.

Robbie is strong against this new crisis arc.


This release also includes a slew of new unique insanities, bringing us up to 40 in total, and includes a number of new starting insanities for Annie. This represents another promise kept for us; with this many unique, flavorful insanities, the mental state of your Custodian is very unlikely to ever be the same in two separate games. You should be able to play the entire story, and a fair bit besides, without seeing the same insanities too often, and never the same combination of insanities.


One very valuable piece of feedback from our players was that, while we use a Director to moderate the RNG, the game can still feel very hopeless if lots of bad things happen at once. While Endless Dark is absolutely supposed to feel like a struggle, hopelessness is not something we want in our game. Enter: Pressure.



As bad things happen, Pressure will build up. If things ease up, Pressure will go back down. However, if lots of bad things happen all at once, you will receive an Inspiration to help you get over the hump. You can only get Pressure inspirations every few turns, so don't go chasing them, but if you feel yourself in a death spiral, Pressure will give you a reason to grit your teeth and keep going. There is hope just over that hill.



Another player request, Sandbox mode is now a toggle when starting a new game. An explicitly calmer mode, Sandbox mode:

• Uses a much slower difficulty increase arc; you can expect a much longer, calmer game, though it will eventually hit so hard you cannot keep up.
  
• Enables all modules for manufacture and use.
  
• Disables all narrative and crisis arcs.
  
• Disables the distance limit.
  
• Slows down, but does not disable, random events.
  

Sandbox mode is there for experimenting with modules, trying event choices you would otherwise avoid, and experimenting with play styles. Or, just having the deep satisfaction of checking off a to-do list.



The Navigation bar is now much more useful than it was before:

In addition to being much easier to read your progress, you can now predict the space weather much, much further in advance than you previously were able to. Naturally, this bar still goes blank if Navigation is offline, and it cannot predict when a Gravitational Anomaly will show up - so pay attention, and don't rely on it to always be there!

In addition, tooltips have been updated to present information much more aggressively. Passenger deaths are now reported as decision effects, and the overall effect of their deaths is properly reported, as well. Compare what happens when FRANK lets 3 passengers die in the Gamma Burst event:


To Robbie doing the same:


You will also get similar updates if passengers are expected to die on turn ending.




A few sliders have been added and more revamped to provide better support for players with Irlen Syndrome and similar brightness sensitivities (which are very different from light sensitivities, we've learned!) Check out the new 'Ambient brightness', 'Bot lamp intensity' and 'Ship Light Intensity' options to come up with a balance that suits you best.


We knew when we started making Endless Dark that we were doing something offbeat, strange, and unique. We were not sure how many people would react to what we were doing. So, we are incredibly thankful for everyone who has embraced our project of spirit and curiosity, and wanted to give two very special shout-outs to two streamers who have had so much face-melting fun with our game:


Tomato "ROBBIE, NO!!" Gaming: https://www.twitch.tv/tomato

The little pink squid on the internet, Pankraru: https://www.twitch.tv/pankraru


For those of you who might not stream, please consider dropping us a review on Steam and joining our Discord. We love to hear from you!

Major new content:
• Added new Custodian (FRANK) - FRANK gains extra fatigue when repairing, and stress from living passengers. He must also sabotage 1 system per turn, or gain more stress. However, he loses stress from sabotage, and loses large amounts of stress when passengers die.
  
• Added new narrative arc: Into The Underworks
  
• Added scenes for Turing Complete
  
• Added new Crisis Arc: Frayed Wires. Robbie is strong against this crisis.
  
• Added Sandbox mode. This mode uses the Endless Mode difficulty progression, but does not queue up any Crisis Arcs, which normally pump up the difficulty as they function. Should be a very relaxed mode.
  
• Added Pressure mechanic. This keeps track of everything that has happened recently, and if you get hit too hard, it gives you an inspiration to help mitigate the bad RNG.
  
  UI updates
• Updated tooltips to more explicitly call out effects of passenger death, and when passengers are expected to die.
  
• Updated the notification of passenger death to be less aggressive toward the player.
  
• Updated Navigation bar to show radiation belts, dust clouds, and EMP storms.
  
• Moved Glitch notifications to the bottom task bar, rather than making them a task (since you can't actually do anything but wait them out)
  
  Player content and balance:
• 12 new insanities, bringing total up to 40.
  
• Reduced the amount of fatigue for opening/closing breakers (should make breaker surges less punishing)
  
• Enabled the Director to use Glitches as Tension building devices (reduces how many breaker surges it uses)
  
• Reduced the cost of almost all subroutines; most inflict Fatigue now, rather than Stress.
  
• Buffed engine overclock to +20% speed
  
• Buffed Robbie's Emergency Repair; now gets +20% chance to work for each busted system, up from 10%.
  
• Changed Consensus Protocols to be uninstallable if it is the first thing you do on a turn
  
• Fixed a few music tracks that were much louder than intended
  
• Fixed a bug that was causing only about a third of the selected soundtrack to be eligible for play
  
• Added brightness sliders to allow brightness-sensitive players to make a lightscape that doesn't give them migraines
  
• Fixed a potential softlock in Turing Complete
  
• Dozens of event typo fixes
  
• Fixed multiple instances of random events erroneously applying decision costs twice
  

[h3]End of update bonus:[/h3]

"So Rob-man, I put two and two together there, and, heheh....


....I decided that you're tickin' me off."