Black Ice News

Hi everyone! Want to know about what’s coming up in Black Ice? I’m planning on releasing a big new patch pretty soon, but first, I’m going to playtest it at PAX South (come see me!) and then release it shortly thereafter. The patch should be out in early February. Until then, I wanted to tell y'all about all the cool stuff I've been working on. I'm doing a level overhaul, adding crazy mobility to the player, a UI update, and laying the groundwork for even further improvements. Check it out!




For a number of reasons (that we have discussed in detail on the forums), I need to switch the level generation from procedural to hand-designed. That means the geometry of the world will look more or less the same each time you log in, instead of randomizing, although things like corporation types (and therefore loot, enemies, and colors) will still be randomized. This means I can spend time on more interesting places to fight in, and, crucially, a lot smarter AI. The updated AI that can handle overhangs, complex climbing paths, and catwalks! Here are a few shots of some new geometry:




I’ve been talking about this for a while, and it’s finally happening. I have been working with Metkis (the same artist who did the logo) for a while, but he’s the one actually creating the new UI. This UI will retain the usability of the current UI, while also scaling correctly for up to 4K, and just look way better. Check out some of the work in progress:




I’ve added the ability for the player to mantle up onto surfaces, and also made all Jump items work as double jumps. The result of this is that the player is *massively* more mobile, and able to navigate the much more complicated and interesting game space. It’s really fun to see how high up you can get, especially as enemies are chasing you. We should talk about the jetpack, though - I am planning on removing it (although you will still be able to cheat to get one). Jetpacks make it too easy to get away from the enemies, which makes them a lot less scary. Plus, if players can’t fly, I can make all sorts of cool walls and barriers that the player might have to fight their way around, and that makes the world a lot more interesting to traverse. Here’s what it looks like running across rooftops *without* a jetpack.




I’m also working with my friend Nonadecimal on a quest system that will not only have hand-written cyberpunk stories, but also procedural quests! For instance, to take down a particular corp, you might need to recruit a physical security expert to work in tandem with you, but first, you’d need to free them from another corporate prison where they’re being held. Exciting stuff!



After that patch, I’m thinking about doing a weapon overhaul, so that you’ll actually be able to see the weapon you are holding, although because of that, I will need to limit it to only one weapon used at a time. Mayyyybe two. This part is still in the concept phase, but the nice thing about that is that it’ll make it easier for me to balance enemy health, so that you won’t need to use a bunch of weapons at once just to kill things.


That's all for now! It’s been a heck of a year for a lot of reasons, and progress hasn’t been as fast as I’d like, but I’m really excited about the direction that Black Ice is moving. I think y’all are going to love the changes.

By the way, you may notice a lot of red and green servers in Black Ice this week. This is normal. Happy holidays!

As always, I'd love to hear your suggestions, so please post on the forums, email me, or check out the Black Ice Twitter for the latest updates!

• Added Allied Server links - servers with a blue link between/around them must be hacked at the same time, and their minions are allied!
  
• Enemies are
• much* better at climbing up things, and more of them can be active at once with
  
• Completely redid the tutorial, to help ease players into the game.
  
• Ziggurat buildings >>
  
• Added a loading screen with hints while buildings are spawning
  
• Added a glitch effect to the screen when the player takes damage. This can be disabled under Video Options
  
• Added more terrain types - now the world isn't just a flat plane with a single hill, it can have many hills of multiple types, as well as some steppes. More to come!
  
• Added "pie slices" to the controller inventory and shop menus, to really emphasize that it's a radial menu
  
• Added a scrollbar to the controller inventory and shop menus, so you can see how far down the list you are
  

• Added a toggle option to stop menu movement
  
• Tutorial and UI now understands when you remap keys
  
• Reflections now are off by default, and require the highest quality setting. They severely affect performance, so try turning them off if you are having any lag at all.
  
• Only new characters go through the tutorial now. Any character can skip the tutorial, but you should do it at least once!
  
• Servers you hack, as well as the SHARK, now drop loot that you can either equip immediately or within 3 levels
  
• Toggle Heal items now scale 100% better with level!
  
• Enemy blood particles no longer glow so brightly in large quantity
  
• GITSfish are much better at pushing players out of the hack radius
  
• The player can jump higher by default
  
• The player can step over taller objects without issue
  
• The hack radius now "woops" out toward you when you start a hack
  
• There are less dangerous things near the spawn point, such as Dark servers.
  
• Items dropped by the player can be picked up faster, especially in single player
  
• The controller gui now shows item rarity colors
  
• Scrolling through items on a controller is faster now
  
• Buying an item with a controller while an empty slot is selected will attempt to equip the item immediately
  
• Shops can now be lots of different levels
  

• The Puss-Puss super-rare unique minion no longer describes itself as a GITSfish
  
• The Kokinator unique shotgun now properly shoots both missiles AND fireballs
  
• GITSfish will no longer rocket players up into space
  
• The "Boosh" achievement will now only trigger from
• player* mines
  
• Enemies can no longer fly after climbing a building
  
• Enemy lasers no longer make a loud annoying sound when the player dies or pauses the game
  
• Info box screens no longer stay visible after their server is hacked
  
• The UI no longer switches immediately to the mouse/keyboard UI when the mouse moves a tiny bit (like if the table shakes)
  

• Servers spawning on steppes might hang over an edge a bit, it should be fine
  

As always, I'd love to hear your suggestions, so please post on the forums, email me, or tweet me! Especially if you have ideas for building shapes or terrain types - as long as it doesn't require an overhang!

That's all for now! Check out the Black Ice Twitter for more frequent updates about the game!

Edit: Just patched a few more things on top of this:

• Shops will spawn more frequently
  
• Shops will no longer spawn above level Finality's level
  
• The damage taken glitch effect will no longer invert the camera
  
• Light blue (miniboss) servers will show correct colors now
  
• Old save files with minions in them will work again
  
• Colorized enemies with the Huebris perk should no longer be converted permanently
  

• Added Allied Server links - servers with a blue link between/around them must be hacked at the same time, and their minions are allied!
  
• Enemies are
• much* better at climbing up things, and more of them can be active at once with
  
• Completely redid the tutorial, to help ease players into the game.
  
• Ziggurat buildings >>
  
• Added a loading screen with hints while buildings are spawning
  
• Added a glitch effect to the screen when the player takes damage. This can be disabled under Video Options
  
• Added more terrain types - now the world isn't just a flat plane with a single hill, it can have many hills of multiple types, as well as some steppes. More to come!
  
• Added "pie slices" to the controller inventory and shop menus, to really emphasize that it's a radial menu
  
• Added a scrollbar to the controller inventory and shop menus, so you can see how far down the list you are
  

• Added a toggle option to stop menu movement
  
• Tutorial and UI now understands when you remap keys
  
• Reflections now are off by default, and require the highest quality setting. They severely affect performance, so try turning them off if you are having any lag at all.
  
• Only new characters go through the tutorial now. Any character can skip the tutorial, but you should do it at least once!
  
• Servers you hack, as well as the SHARK, now drop loot that you can either equip immediately or within 3 levels
  
• Toggle Heal items now scale 100% better with level!
  
• Enemy blood particles no longer glow so brightly in large quantity
  
• GITSfish are much better at pushing players out of the hack radius
  
• The player can jump higher by default
  
• The player can step over taller objects without issue
  
• The hack radius now "woops" out toward you when you start a hack
  
• There are less dangerous things near the spawn point, such as Dark servers.
  
• Items dropped by the player can be picked up faster, especially in single player
  
• The controller gui now shows item rarity colors
  
• Scrolling through items on a controller is faster now
  
• Buying an item with a controller while an empty slot is selected will attempt to equip the item immediately
  
• Shops can now be lots of different levels
  

• The Puss-Puss super-rare unique minion no longer describes itself as a GITSfish
  
• The Kokinator unique shotgun now properly shoots both missiles AND fireballs
  
• GITSfish will no longer rocket players up into space
  
• The "Boosh" achievement will now only trigger from
• player* mines
  
• Enemies can no longer fly after climbing a building
  
• Enemy lasers no longer make a loud annoying sound when the player dies or pauses the game
  
• Info box screens no longer stay visible after their server is hacked
  
• The UI no longer switches immediately to the mouse/keyboard UI when the mouse moves a tiny bit (like if the table shakes)
  

• Servers spawning on steppes might hang over an edge a bit, it should be fine
  

As always, I'd love to hear your suggestions, so please post on the forums, email me, or tweet me! Especially if you have ideas for building shapes or terrain types - as long as it doesn't require an overhang!

That's all for now! Check out the Black Ice Twitter for more frequent updates about the game!

Edit: Just patched a few more things on top of this:

• Shops will spawn more frequently
  
• Shops will no longer spawn above level Finality's level
  
• The damage taken glitch effect will no longer invert the camera
  
• Light blue (miniboss) servers will show correct colors now
  
• Old save files with minions in them will work again
  
• Colorized enemies with the Huebris perk should no longer be converted permanently
  

Hi everyone! First off, you might notice that Black Ice is listed under Super Duper Game Company now. Don't worry, that's still me, Super Duper Garrett Cooper, I just built a company around the game!

Also, there's cool stuff coming just around the corner! I've been talking for a while about linking multiple servers together for added challenge, and the gif above is how it's going to look when two servers are allied. That's going to be one of at least two types of server links - and feel free to suggest more in the forums!

Of course, the next patch will come with a ton of bug fixes and improvements. For instance, I finally figured out why GITSfish could launch you into space. I've got more up my sleeve, so stay tuned!

If you're at RTX in Austin, Texas next weekend, be sure to stop by and say hi!

Check out the Black Ice Twitter for more frequent updates on the game!

• CHROMA SUPPORT - Black Ice now has Chroma support for Razer Chroma products like the Razer Blackwidow Chroma - watch as the colors on your keyboard and mouse react to the game! It even has your cooldowns!
  
• (and other brands listed here!) Thanks to C63 Industries LEDL plugin for all the glowing support :D
  
• Server Visual Update - Server lines now come in more interesting shapes, sometimes with slopes! The lines on them are also much cleaner. I generate the meshes by hand at runtime now! Hurray, trigonometry!
  
• Desaturation - The color drains out of the game when you're at low health now!
  
• Valuable Information - Weird stories have been going around the grid. Now you can find them and sell them for bitcreds!
  

• The main menu GUI has been updated (more awesome work by Metkis) but it's not done yet
  
• Pathfinding update - Enemies are better than ever at climbing all over things and finding you quickly
  
• The game world now expands infinitely by default in both single and multiplayer. This can be lowered in single player by going to advanced options when starting the game.
  
• Physics tweaks to how the player falls and handles slopes - feels better now!
  
• Stores are less common now
  
• View distance (specifically for servers) is higher now
  
• Player Health, RAM, and RAM Regen are higher at level 0
  
• Player Health scaling is higher across the board - try a tanky build!
  
• Instant Heal items are stronger
  
• Jetpacks don't go quite as high now (but are still super fun and useful)
  
• Lasbreakers do a lot more damage now
  
• The Crosshair is slightly larger and is much easier to see in all situations
  
• RAM Returned has been renamed RAM Regen for clarity
  

• Players can no longer blink under the hill. If you haven't played in a while, there's a hill now! More terrain later!
  
• Holding down the button for an instant heal item will no longer repeatedly play the error sound
  
• Falling off a building no longer makes you fall really quickly
  

• Chroma colors current do not understand key remapping - this will be fixed!
  
• Valuable Information doesn't display properly on controller-specific GUIs
  

That's all for now, but stay tuned! I might not always be posting them on Steam, but I'm working on updates almost every day! Check out the Black Ice Twitter for more frequent updates on the game!