Penkura News

Greetings, members of the Accord.

As some of you may already know, 10 days ago a kind YouTuber named FloppySword featured Penkura in a video. This video generated enough resources for us to temporarily set aside nearly all our side jobs that were keeping Penkura alive, allowing us to focus full time on the game for the next two months.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

We plan to maximize these two months by rolling out content originally scheduled for release over the next six to eight months. It will be a massive amount of work, but we are eager to use this rare opportunity.

Before we detail our plans for the upcoming patches, we need to address a small issue. With increased game visibility, we've seen a spike in feedback and bug report emails—from an average of two a month to over a thousand.
After three days of meticulous checking, we discovered that only about seventy of these were from legitimate copies of Penkura. Over 90% of the bug reports came from a nearly two-year-old version of the game. While we do not vilify piracy—understanding that finances are tight and people are cautious about spending on games—these inaccurate reports have significantly slowed our progress. It is error on our part, that we didn't predict such possibility but in the upcoming patch, we will modify the bug report system to more easily verify if the reports are from original copies of Penkura.

Now, regarding the upcoming patch:
In the last ten days, based on video review and conversations with players, we've remastered nearly the entire map to improve player navigation, added over a dozen new points of interest, expanded the lore, and increased the map’s size by about twenty percent with additional space for a second player base. We also resolved dozens of issues reported by players, enhanced the tutorial, and streamlined nearly all game texts for better readability by removing unnecessary filler words. Additionally, we've rebalanced some item production and energy generation and are introducing two new structures in response to player feedback. To heighten the challenge on the improved map, we will introduce two new creatures.

Unfortunately, due to the extra work required beyond what was initially planned, we must delay the release of this patch from April 20, 2024, to April 26, 2024.

Meanwhile, we are simultaneously developing three new levels, the first of which will be released about a week after the upcoming patch.
The second level will follow a month later, and we hope to release the third another month after that.

Below, we are showcasing a few teaser screenshots of the upcoming levels, featuring different flora and fauna and over a hundred new assets created over the past year. In the next two months, we aim to release all the content we’ve been working on, which will triple the game's size.


Between these major updates, we plan to release a small patch introducing the new language system, which allows players to program bots to help maintain their bases. This system should be ready in about two weeks. We are looking for players with little to no programming experience to test how user-friendly and functional it is within the game. Currently, three players are set to test this system, but we are open to more volunteers.

If you’re interested, please join us on our Discord channel at https://discord.gg/2ukYHQm and mention your interest in testing the new feature.

Thank you all for your time and support.

Till the next Dev-Com over and out.

Minor improvement based on player feedback.

As always, for more information regarding the latest technical support, patches, and updates please join our Discord Community.

LINK ----> https://discord.gg/2ukYHQm

Till the next Dev-Com over and out.

Penkura Main Branch Adjustment
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⊞ Improvements / changes / additions ⊞
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◈ Weapon/Tool sway when the moving option will now disable both animation movement and procedural physics movement of hands.

◈ Small glass effect decreases to player helmet/visor.

◈ The headbobbing option changed from "Only animated head movement" to "Limit headbobbing to physics only". This will reduce headbobbing by 80%, but make hands move as headbobbing is still present, this is a temporary solution, which will be improved at a later date.

In this latest update, we're enhancing the player experience through a series of key improvements.

Firstly, we've implemented a procedural animation system designed to dynamically adjust player bone positions and rotations based on physics, and in-process blending of two animations. This significantly enhances the overall game feel, introducing a more fluid and natural quality to character movement.
This improvement is also fully added to the entire player animation system, which means each new animation added to the game, will automatically use this addition without any additional work.

Responding to player feedback, regarding the flashlight's efficiency in outdoor environments.
Testing revealed that the issue is not with the flashlight itself, but how we rendered our foliage. To optimize performance, our grass/foliage system renders materials without relying on light normalizations.
This update includes an improved approach, to our foliage rendering, by altering how much light foliage absorbs, resulting in a brighter appearance at night while maintaining a darker appearance in the far view when not near any light source.

We are also adding our very own debug console system, this feature provides essential information for debugging complex aspects of the game. Activated by default with Alt + `, the console will improve our workflow and allow us to do more efficient troubleshooting in the future.

As always, for more information regarding the latest technical support, patches, and updates please join our Discord Community.

LINK ----> https://discord.gg/2ukYHQm

Till the next Dev-Com over and out.

Penkura Main Branch Adjustment
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⊞ Bugs/Errors ⊞
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◈ The player was able to install Data Storage on another Data Storage in the Blueprint Repository, destroying the previously installed Data Storage.

◈ When the player installs a MOD on top of another MOD, it will destroy the previous MOD, now it will deinstall the first MOD, put it in the inventory, and install the new MOD on top of it.

◈ When Dynka or Metos Feeder explodes, there can be a very bright flash of light under a certain angle.

◈ If the player died while being poisoned by the Metos bug, the screen stayed black after respawning.

◈ When activating the game, Penkura does not load the proper saved resolution settings.

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⊞ Improvements / changes / additions ⊞
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◈ Improved Crouch system, from now on when a player wants to uncrouch, rather than a simple line check above the player to see if there is enough height above the player to stand up, the game will check the entire space above the player to see if player entire body fits correctly. This system prevents the camera from glitching into minor gaps in collision mesh when trying to stand up.

◈ Improved rendering of all foliage in the game, from now on, textures on the foliage will decrease its light absorption depending on the time of the day and sun/moon intensity. Thanks to that, foliage will be brighter when lit by a flashlight or any other source of light, while still being very dark outside of any light source.

◈ Added procedural sway, shoot, and movement animation to the character.

◈ Added minor light aura around the player, that will gently lit the area of 5 meters around the player. This effect only works in very dark areas and provides only 1% of the light that a normal flashlight provides.

◈ To help players find small items in thick grass, all grass, and small foliage will now disappear when in close contact with items, and reappear when the item is removed.

◈ Added more items to the game world.

◈ Added additional lore content to the game.

◈ Minor improvements to the game Anti-Aliasing.

◈ Added debug console to the game.

A small patch, fixing issues found by the players.

As always, for more information regarding the latest technical support, patches, and updates please join our Discord Community.

LINK ----> https://discord.gg/2ukYHQm

Till the next Dev-Com over and out.

Penkura Main Branch Adjustment
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⊞ Bugs/Errors ⊞
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◈ MMC was capable of creating an item of amount 0 if MMC storage was full and the item could not be split.

◈ (MOD) Legs Supporting Micro Springs couldn't be created.

◈ Possible fix for mission "In Search for Answers".

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⊞ Improvements / changes / additions ⊞
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◈ Highlight function now understand if the item can have a fraction value.

A small patch, fixing issues found by the players. We expect another small patch in around 48 hours.

As always, for more information regarding the latest technical support, patches, and updates please join our Discord Community.

LINK ----> https://discord.gg/2ukYHQm

Till the next Dev-Com over and out.

Penkura Main Branch Adjustment
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⊞ Bugs/Errors ⊞
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◈ Weapons weren't able to check player storage for ammo.

◈ If the player loads the game before using the Lazarus Chamber, the trigger for conversation with Sara was incorrectly reset.

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⊞ Improvements / changes / additions ⊞
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◈ Improved user interface of all weapons/tools ammo counter to reflect reload at the moment of sound trigger, rather than instantly when the player presses the "reload" button.