Encased News

First content patch is out!

Since the release of Encased, we've been constantly releasing patches that fix bugs and improve the balance of weapons and abilities. In parallel with the work on urgent fixes, the studio was working hard every day on the first content patch, an extension that moved the game's story forward. So far, only a part of the story line is ready, and during 2020 you will see even more content patches, that will be followed by the full-fledged release.

Also, today, in celebration of the update release, we are distributing tickets under the Dome with 20% discount! If you've been waiting for a new content to start your adventure, now is the time.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/921800/Encased_A_SciFi_PostApocalyptic_RPG/

For fans of the Encased universe we start adding DLCs with additional materials. DLC data will be included in the "First Settlers - Supporter Pack" bundle, which will allow players to support the development of the game. As we promised, Kickstarter backers and players who pre-ordered the game will receive the set for free.

Bundle contains additional portraits for the players, the music album “First Settlers LP” dedicated to the first colonizer of the Dome, as well as a set of in-game items that will help you survive in the wilderness.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1133130/Encased_RPG__Soundtrack/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1133090/Encased_RPG__Portrait_Pack/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1209480/Encased_RPG__Run_and_Gun_Kit/

Want to know how today's update changed Encased? The list of changes is below!

The prologue has been redesigned;
Added part one of the first act for the new Committee;
The entry points to the storylines of the following factions have been added: Fops, Carmine Heights, Church of Maelstrom, Phalanx;

Added a skill tree for psionic abilities;
Added equipment that allows to use psionic abilities;

Added a mechanism for hiring companions;
Added companion: Crump;
Added companion: Yoko;
Added a unique companion model: Yoko;
Added a unique companion model: Crump;
Added Crump's companion quest;
Added Yoko's companion quest;

Added tutorial;

New story location: Landing capsule;
New story location: Landing area of the Concord station;
New story location: The internal premises of the Concord station;
New story location: Suburb;
New story location: Project "Emulator";
New story location: Robbed caravan;
New story location: Parking station "Magellan";
New story location: Wasteland;
New nonstory location: Pit;
New nonstory location: "Sonora" storage bunker;
New nonstory location: "Roadside Picnic" Transit Point (1 act);
Redesigned location "Petrol station";
Redesigned location "Magellan: Hall";
Redesigned location "Magellan: Warehouse";
Redesigned location "Magellan: Garrison";
Redesigned location "Magellan: Laboratories and infirmary";
Redesigned location "Magellan: Living quarters";
Redesigned location "Magellan: Administration";
Redesigned location "Magellan: Reactor Room";

Added an ability to rent buildings;
Added an ability to place bets in the underground arena;
Added an ability to participate in battles for the title of arena champion;

Added mines of various power;
Added exploding barrels that deal multiple types of damage;
Added flamethrower;
Added traveling merchants;

Graphics enhancements: Redesigned fog system;
Graphics enhancements: Fixed terrain shading;
Graphics enhancements: Added multilayered terrain;

Added several new relics;

Added several new portraits for the player;

Improved AI: Added scheduling system, now opponents are thinking tactics for several moves forward;
Improved AI: Added different enemy behaviors;
Improved AI: Now an enemy uses better positions to attack the player;

Numerous changes and minor improvements in the dialog interface;
The "equalize" button appeared in the barter interface;
Added companion management interface;
Fixed errors with displaying tooltips in the interface;
Added character avatars;

Added an ability to destroy doors with an explosion/shot;
Added the degree of rarity to objects;
Added "fog of war";

Added extended DLC support;

Added perks;
Fixed character's abilities;
Fixed description of some attributes;
Changed the cost and attributes of the weapons;
Fixed roof behavior on locations: now roofs always disappear when the character is underneath them;

Improved performance;
Added new location sounds;
Added sounds for interactive and non-interactive location elements;
Parts of vignettes are now with sound;
Added sound for servo armor;

Fixed memory leak problems at some locations;
Fixed the problem with ragdoll;
Fixed problems with passability on the level grid;
Fixed problems with corpses falling through locations;
Fixed bunker tileset, bunker locations rebuilt for a new tileset,
Added tileset for settlements;
Added tileset for concrete buildings;
Added environment models: medical office, garage;

Community requests:

Added an ability to load user portraits;
Added a photo mode to create screenshots;

Encased community is the most important for us - we are going to follow up those closely for your feedback on the game.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/921800/

Please Wishlist and click Follow to stay updated!

The game is still in the development so if you want to stay in touch on other channels than Steam you can follow us on social media and visit other cool resources with game updates information new artworks and lore pieces.

Encased: A Sci-Fi Post-Apocalyptic RPG

ːlwCheckPointː Character Generator - create a character that may appear in the game as NPC and get the cool story item.
ːchatː Official Discord Server
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ːchecklistː Twitter (game updates)
ːchecklistː Facebook (game updates)
ːchecklistː Youtube (trailers, livestreams and dev diaries)
ːchecklistː VK (game updates in russian)
ːchecklistː Instagram (art and stories)

Dark Crystal Games

ːRideCheckː Dark Crystal Games dev page on Steam
ːRideCheckː Press Center (presskit and publications)
ːRideCheckː Dark Crystal Games (news and jobs)
ːRideCheckː Artstation (art production and stories)

Black Tower Publishing
:tower: Black Tower Publishing on Steam
:tower: Black Tower's Blog

First Content Expansion Launches December 14th

Greeting employees!

Today we have finally deciphered classified radio transmissions from the Dome and learned details of the next major Encased update. The most important information is that the patch will be available on December 14th! You won’t have to wait until Christmas or New Year's Eve to start a new adventure. Experience a completely reworked prologue and see the real wasteland in the first story act.

First content expansion will have a lot of new content, such as:

New prologue;
Main quest expansion;
Companions;
Psy abilities;
Medicine, heavy weapon and hi-tech weapon skill trees were expanded and fixed;
Destructible objects;
Traps, mines and explosives with different types of damage were added;
Weapons with AOE damage were reworked;
Ammo system was redesigned;
Game economy was changed;
Some UI elements were updated;
New perks.

Steam page and Steam community are the most important for us - we are going to follow up those closely for your feedback on the game.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/921800/

Please Wishlist and click Follow to stay updated!

The game is still in the development so if you want to stay in touch on other channels than Steam you can follow us on social media and visit other cool resources with game updates information new artworks and lore pieces.

Encased: A Sci-Fi Post-Apocalyptic RPG

:lwCheckPoint: Character Generator - create a character that may appear in the game as NPC and get the cool story item.
:chat: Official Discord Server
:checklist: Newsletter
:checklist: Twitter (game updates)
:checklist: Facebook (game updates)
:checklist: Youtube (trailers, livestreams and dev diaries)
:checklist: VK (game updates in russian)
:checklist: Instagram (art and stories)

Dark Crystal Games

:RideCheck: Dark Crystal Games dev page on Steam
:RideCheck: Press Center (presskit and publications)
:RideCheck: Dark Crystal Games (news and jobs)
:RideCheck: Artstation (art production and stories)

Black Tower Publishing
:tower: Black Tower Publishing on Steam
:tower: Black Tower's Blog

Encased on Steam Awards 2019!

Every year Steam asks its users to vote for the best game in various categories. Because Encased is available now in early access, it can participate in this major event.

The Outstanding Story-Rich Game Award, in our humble opinion, is ideal for Encased. We would be very grateful if you could vote for us in this nomination.

We understand that Encased is currently in development and only our crazy writers have seen the whole story so far. However, we can confidently say that the story under the Dome is becoming more intense, exciting and fascinating with every minute!

If you’re not familiar with the plot of our game yet, we have prepared a special autumn sale discount for you.

Steam page and Steam community are the most important for us - we are going to follow up those closely for your feedback on the game.

Encased on Autumn Steam sale!

Dear employees!

C.R.O.N.U.S. foundation reminds you that today begins one of the most important and memorable events for the gaming community, the autumn Steam sale.

Dark Crystal Games will take part in the event too and join the largest autumn discount race. Starting today and until December 3rd you can get Encased and start your adventure under the Dome with 20% discount!

Also, don’t forget that in the middle of December we’ll drop a large content patch, that will bring into the game new story bits, new character progression options, psi-abilities, companions, locations and a completely redesigned prologue. Right now probably is the best chance to see the old prologue, before it’s changed forever.

Steam page and Steam community are the most important for us - we are going to follow up those closely for your feedback on the game.

KSU #39: new prologue, storyline, companions and custom portraits

You might remember the encoded teaser pic we’ve posted recently. The suggestion mentioned in the comments was right: those numbers are the disguised date of the first major content update. Today we are going to talk about it and about many other innovations awaiting for you in mid-December.

The New Intro

The first release version of the prologue had several drawbacks: a lot of text in the beginning, insufficient action, and too much Magellan (which was originally designed as a late game content).

The new intro looks completely different: a dynamic scene in transportation capsule descending under the Dome, a short run through the Concord station, and after that – the all-familiar gas station and the grim Nashville. By the way, Concord is an important piece of the storyline puzzle, a cargo terminal, located directly under the Spire station. From there, relics are being sent to the outer world, and it’s there where the cargo and new employees arrive. After completing a short training course, the recruits are assigned to numerous CRONUS facilities scattered throughout the Dome. But your protagonist has his own way, just like last time...

We’ve carefully finalized and decorated the locations of the prologue and fine-tuned the main quest logic, making it more comprehensible. In general, we are aimed at putting you in the game faster – so that those who are playing Encased once again can quickly get into new zones. But do not worry: the previous locations will also be available, and those who wanted to return to the Magellan (thoroughly revised and updated) will be satisfied.

The Main Quest

The new storyline is perhaps what players expected most from the update. We are firmly committed to maintaining the scale of events, so in the December update the game’s storyline will have lesser “vertical” changes but more “horizontal” ones, due to the many small branches (explicit ones or not) that bring players to the storylines of individual factions.

Players will have access to the prologue and the first act, the events of which unfold in the suburbs of the city built by CRONUS after the Maelstrom burst out of the Nashville caves. During two years the protagonist stayed in stasis, the world under the Dome has changed radically. The CRONUS Corporation collapsed and turned into some sort of a totalitarian state called the New Committee. Its priority goal, rather then the Dome exploration, became the construction of the Emulator – a special device designed to control the Maelstrom… It is to no surprise that several fractions formed after the collapse of CRONUS are waging a political struggle for control of the Emulator, because the one who controls the project controls the future of the Dome. And each of the factions has its own vision of the future. We will talk about those factions, their leaders and ambitions in detail in one of the following updates.

The protagonist, who’s reached the Junktown, gets into the thick of things, dealing with which alone will not be so easy. You do see where all this is headed, don’t you?

The Companions

Characters traveling with the protagonist make an interesting RPG even more interesting. In the December story update, two partners are waiting for you, each with their own quest, skill branch and plans for the future.

The first of them, a stern Orange nicknamed Crump, can be found in a bar in the suburbs. Just before the appearance of the player, he finds himself in an unpleasant situation, and will gladly join the protagonist, who is able to help him.

On the laboratory floor of the Magellan, you can find a scientist who will ask you to save his daughter, who is in trouble. We will not spoil exactly who the missing girl is. Let's just say that she is the second companion available in this update.

Encased partners can engage in dialogue, condemn player decisions, and give advice. You can quarrel to the nines with them (and then they will leave), or you can build friendly or even closer relations.

Companions can engage in battle. We heeded the wishes of the players, so we made it so that partners can be controlled directly.

The Modified Mechanics

When we were creating the gameplay, mechanics, and the Encased role-playing system, we could not even imagine that we were opening the Pandora’s box. Now that the game is in early access, many of the mechanics are still broken, and we are actively repairing them, adding new ones and modifying the old ones. There are many changes and we will talk about them point by point.

— Psychic abilities will be available;

— It will be possible to purchase a special psionic glove from in-game traders, without which psi abilities do not work in battle;

— The branches of medicine, heavy and high-tech weapons will be expanded and corrected;

— Many small changes will be made to the abilities of other branches;

— Destructible objects will appear: now the player will be able to blow up doors and some small obstacles;

— Traps, mines, as well as exploding objects with different types of damage dealt will be added;

— Weapons with area damage (grenade launchers, flamethrowers, etc.) will be reworked;

— The ammunition system will be modernized: the number of calibers will decrease, however, special ammunition with effects like poisoning and freezing will be added;

— A number of changes will be made to the game economy, prices and characteristics of most items;

— Some elements of the interface will be fixed and improved;

— Also new perks will be added.

Instead of an Afterword

We end this text with words of gratitude that have already become traditional. Thanks to everyone who believes in us. Thank you for the bug reports, support, criticism and dozens of hours spent in game.

In the coming days, we will begin to publish some story materials for the year 2018. Most of these ideas have been discarded, or got into the game in a very modified form, so if you want to learn how Encased was being developed, you will have such an opportunity.

And yes, today part of the team is leaving for DevGamm, which is being held in Minsk, to participate in the exhibition and compete for the Grand Prize, as well as prizes in the Best Desktop Game and Excellence in Narrative nominations.

Wish us good luck!

Steam page and Steam community are the most important for us - we are going to follow up those closely for your feedback on the game.