Death Trash News

Hey, everyone.

Welcome to our seventh regular monthly update.

This is mostly a bugfixing update while we continue working on new content. August was a pretty slow summer month for us, not at full strength in presence nor mentally, but it's good to see the game continously improving.


[h2]Update Notes[/h2]

[h3]General Improvements[/h3]

- savegames: remember combat mode and selected weapon; use exact player position for both players
- updated lockpicking parameters: adjusted timings, disallow lockpicking targets considerably higher than skill value
- added more visual FX to explosions
- updated visuals for a few terminals and buttons to better clarify purpose
- fixed a few buttons in the tower location not updating their state
- made Aksa jog towards other room instead of walk

[h3]Usability and UI Improvements[/h3]

- action bar differentiates items with modifications now
- make some weapon switching shortcuts differentiate items with modifications, too
- melee: don't make character zap nearer to enemy when using manual attack mode (Shift key)
- fixed point and click commands (e.g. dialogue) having difficulty reaching moving NPCs
- renamed 'Undo' in merchant tab to 'Buy back' to make clearer that this is about buying back sold items and not refunding purchased items
- UI: fixed cursor navigation issues in some item grids
- UI: fixed storage container navigation issues for second player
- UI: fixed some other minor visual issues with inventories etc.
- fixed some message text jumping position when entering dialogue
- fixed a few visual issues with the settings menu
- added animation to damage portion in scene health bar
- fixed a recurring UI error that caused scene text to be stuck
- fixed minor issues with weapon selection through action wheel
- fixed some minor UI issues on different font heights
- fixed several other minor UI issues

[h3]General Bug Fixes[/h3]

- fixed throwing grenades causing recoil
- fixed not getting Lost And Blind achievement when delivering quest item before starting quest
- fixed a few other potential issues with blind man
- co-op: fixed some issues with the ranged combat tutorial
- fixed error handler not triggering on actual errors when there was a silent error beforehand
- fixed UnityInputManager not supporting controller vibration
- fixed some rare crashes
- lots of updates to framework and tools
- removed some obsolete assets from the game, previously accessible through debug console
- additional minor bug fixes, level design and text fixes


[h2]Thoughts[/h2]

We adjusted the lockpicking values, having the challenge be more influenced by the skill versus lock difficulty ratio, and added a minimum skill value needed for the high difficulty locks, so skill upgrades are still necessary for some of the high difficulty locks instead of pure player skill and thus also trial and error. Feel free to give more feedback about the lockpicking specifics.

The action bar should be more useful with these bug fixes and the improvements in the last months. If you haven't tried it out yet with mouse / keyboard controls: The action bar is visible while having the inventory open or having the selection screen open (default: 'C') and you can drag abilities and items into it.

As mentioned, August was a bit of a slow summer month for us. September should see us at full strength again.


[h2]Feedback[/h2]

As always, we appreciate any feedback on the changes we made to the game. Best way to give feedback is through the F1 in-game tool as it adds a bit of game context to every feedback item sent.
We recently added a convenient shortcut if you just want to take a quick look at different things: Open the in-game console with Shift+F10 and enter Playtest to get a list of jump points to the existing content. This won't interfere with your existing save games.

We have a beta branch where we update the game a few times before we push that update to the main branch. More infos over here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/941460/discussions/0/3427823001996731965/

Thank you for your continued interest in Death Trash.

Have a nice week!

- Stephan

Hey, everyone.

Welcome to our sixth regular monthly update.

This update is another push forward in quality, including many tower location fixes, small content improvements, adding a few ranged weapon mods, an update to lockpicking, and lots of bug fixes and other improvements.

[h2]Update Notes[/h2]

[h3]Content[/h3]

- added a few ranged weapon mods throughout the game
- tower location: added another possibility to remove permanent weapon
- tower location: fixed an issue with NPCs getting hostile
- tower location: made malfunctioning doors clearer
- tower location: prevent some soft-locks
- tower location: fixed a quest bug
- added dialogue for returning to Aksa
- some level design improvements
- added more audio to Tauris, some skill usage and merchant and container browsing

[h3]Gameplay Improvements[/h3]

- lockpicking: added timing challenge
- lockpicking: failing raises attention on NPCs and makes target object unusable for a short duration
- stealth: fixed a few issues with stealth and NPCs not stopping following player
- stealth: when bumping into a character while in stealth, said character now turns around and increases suspicion
- stealth: updated suspicion decay
- stealth: fixed issues with Vanish ability
- pickpocketing: fixed not working with point and click commands
- pickpocketing: fixed warning icon of nearby NPCs not shown before pickpocketing
- pickpocketing: made failure by nearby NPCs watching more obvious through UI feedback
- pickpocketing: make pickpocket failure through nearby NPCs depend on target position and not player position
- make characters investigate attacks against doors
- updated some NPC behaviours regarding grenades and other explosions
- increased experience points for spider enemy

[h3]Technical Improvements[/h3]

- Unity Input Controller Manager: supporting more controller scenarios and improving check for active device when multiple devices connected
- Unity Input Controller Manager: implemented controller vibration
- updated list of screen resolutions to include those with lower refresh rate than screen max
- Steam Deck: enabled co-op menu
- Cyborg Vision: apply low performance mode when framerate drops too low
- internal framework and tools updates

[h3]Usability Bug Fixes[/h3]

- fixed throwable item selected instead of ability on respawning
- fixed a delay on switching to ranged weapon with right mouse button
- fixed some rare occasions when point and click commands would be used despite right mouse targeting or shift key attack mode
- fixed player character not switching to melee weapon when hovering with mouse cursor over enemy (regression)
- fixed point and click attack commands on destructible doors (regression)
- fixed player character flickering between ranged and melee weapon in some circumstances when hovering enemy
- fixed being able to unequip locked items through rightclick in loot and storage container
- fixed issues with area map tutorial hint
- added max display duration for throwing item tutorial

[h3]General Bug Fixes[/h3]

- fixed dead Fleshworms getting revived on reloading area
- fixed rare case of not being able to spawn in a generated area if reloading savegame
- fixed cancelling skill usage not stopping audio
- fixed knowledge groups shown as hidden when loading from save game
- fixed unarmed NPCs not fleeing in combat (regression)
- fixed turrets etc. reacting to raising attention events
- fixed a few cases of characters getting pushed back through combat actions when they should not
- fixed machines uttering warnings on entering combat even if they have no enemy
- fixed some visual glitches with throwing grenades
- fixed rare occurance of some scene text placed at wrong vertical offset
- updated checking location handling on world map (e.g. fixes when spawning on world map from location traveled to via debug console)
- co-op: don't flip health and stamina bars for second player UI
- fixed some typos
- additional small bug fixes

[h2]Thoughts[/h2]

The lockpicking update is intended to make the lockpicking process a bit more involved than a simple stat check. It's intentionally low on complexity and not a full mini-game, as we still want to maintain a full view of the scene. We would love to hear any feedback about it.
Same goes for the ranged weapon mods, of which we placed a few throughout the game. They should allow a bit more variation and experimentation, and we would like to hear if we're going in the right direction with them, if they're interesting, useful, transparent in their usefulness, or even overpowered.

Internally we have also been improving our tools. It's mostly an invisible part of the game development process, but over here it feels really good and efficient if all those dialogue editor nuisances get patched away, for example. Or when we're getting a better overview of the data in our game.

There are a few bug fixes included for issues that were caused by changes in the last months. The game keeps growing and getting more complex under the hood, so I think this is a natural part of going forward, that existing systems break now and then. These are annoying though and we will try our best to keep the technical and gameplay quality at a high level.

[h2]Teaser[/h2]

Something we're working on: An overview screenshot from one of the areas of the Perished City, a location from the upcoming parts of the game.



[h2]Feedback[/h2]

As always, we appreciate any feedback on the changes we made to the game. Best way to give feedback is through the F1 in-game tool as it adds a bit of game context to every feedback item sent.
We recently added a convenient shortcut if you just want to take a quick look at different things: Open the in-game console with Shift+F10 and enter Playtest to get a list of jump points to the existing content. This won't interfere with your existing save games.

Thank you for your continued interest in Death Trash.

Have a nice week!

- Stephan

Just a small update for fixing a few issues related to the last monthly update.

0.8.4.1
- fixed a camera scale issue in recently added area
- fixed input buffering for shooting being too long
- fixed stealth tutorial not recognizing Body inventory tab
- fixed a few UI issues
- additional bug fixes for issues introduced with 0.8.4

Hey, everyone.

Welcome to our fifth regular monthly update.

For this update we worked on new content (tower location, second Oracle encounter), made gameplay and usability improvements and also fixed a number of bugs again.

[h2]Update Notes[/h2]

[h3]Content[/h3]

- updated second encounter with Oracle (work in progress)
- added more content to tower area (work in progress)
- added Flashbang grenade
- updated world map for future content
- new sounds: some doors, lockpicking, using high tech skill

[h3]Combat[/h3]

- changed default weapon triggering to differ between automatic and non-automatic weapons; added user setting for old behaviour
- updated salvo shots of enemies so some of them have mini pauses inbetween each shot to give the player a chance of avoiding the damage
- make neutral NPCs use same combat behaviours as enemies

[h3]General Improvements[/h3]

- generated areas: made anomaly zones a bit smaller
- generated areas: made path broader to prevent impassable situations
- generated areas: small visual adjustments
- updated throwable items trajectory to include drag
- added min skill value for rocket launcher and made rockets stackable
- list unknown lore items as ???
- list unlearned crafting recipes as ???
- updated some art assets

[h3]Usability Improvements[/h3]

- allow equipping Block through action selection screens and action bar, updated key binding
- added NPC character name to first speech item they have in any dialogue
- added specific keyboard and controller shortcut for using the puke ability
- added input buffer for shooting and reloading (e.g. to immediately perform after rolling)
- added user option to disable reload getting triggered when trying to shoot and magazine is empty
- make action wheel, action selection screen and inventories use same item sorting order
- updated weapon descriptions
- fixed user feedback issues on some equipment actions
- fixed not being able to move character with keyboard while map is open when last input before was point and click command
- fixed a few issues when assigning custom button assigments for controller
- fixed "leave combat" input action unintentionally being assigned on left stick press on controller

[h3]Performance[/h3]

- fixed a few memory leaks

[h3]General Bug Fixes[/h3]

- fixed sound from energy balls persisting
- fixed not being able to deconstruct some energy weapons
- fixed shootable buttons not working with energy weapons
- fixed scene fade in affected by action wheel slowdown etc.
- fixed throwable items using wrong target offset in some cases
- fixed health bar drawn behind action wheel and other screens
- fixed some equipment UI not getting updated when using 'Next Ability' and 'Previous Ability' actions
- fixed animation issue with Deconstructor
- fixed tutorial about switching back to melee lingering longer than needed
- fixed visual UI glitch when entering the world map
- fixed lockable container not saving their hasBeenSearched state
- fixed minor issues with NPC behaviours
- additional UI bug fixes
- Mac OS: fixed debug console commands not opening a directory in Finder when they should
- fixed small issues with feedback form
- additional small bug fixes and framework improvements

[h2]Thoughts[/h2]

It would be a vast overestimation if I said that content creation is in full swing, but, as was foretold, the Death Trash foundation (framework, tools, workflow etc.) is becoming more solid with every passing week and we have more time to take care of the game itself. Meaning both the game world itself with its locations and characters but also the gameplay, the interaction with this world.
I remain hopeful that we well transform our work into a steady stream of growth in size and quality for Death Trash.

[h2]Feedback Tools[/h2]

As always, we appreciate any feedback on the changes we made to the game. Best way to give feedback is through the F1 in-game tool as it adds a bit of game context to every feedback item sent.
We recently added a convenient shortcut if you just want to take a quick look at different things: Open the in-game console with Shift+F10 and enter Playtest to get a list of jump points to the existing content. This won't interfere with your existing save games.

Thank you for your continued interest in Death Trash.

Have a nice week!

- Stephan

Hey, everyone.

Welcome to our fourth regular monthly update.

This update mostly improves existing elements. We spent a substantial amount of time on updating our internal tools (benefitting us as well as hopefully other people in the future), and the remaining time was spent on solving a few long-standing issues with NPC behaviours and pathfinding, for example.

[h2]Update Notes[/h2]

[h3]Content[/h3]

- improvements to mountain path and tower location
- updated a few sound events
- updated visuals for locked doors
- updated some other scene assets
- fixed some dialogue

[h3]Combat[/h3]

- updated combat behaviors for standard human and mutant enemies, trying to fix them attacking all at the same time when fighting groups and them straight line walking towards enemy
- updated melee targeting so targets immediately in front of the character to the left and right are included, too
- added different melee hit visuals when hitting a target vs hitting none or multiple
- changed how command driven characters try to melee attack big static characters like the Fleshkraken
- prevent NPCs standing on spot and hitting with melee without pausing after a few hits
- fixed potential issue with the order of Flesh Vermin actions
- updated dog combat behavior

[h3]General Improvements[/h3]

- refactored character commands and actions to fix any frame delay between NPC commands
- allow stealth attacking animals
- make idle NPCs not leave their current room when walking around a bit (fixes a few NPC issues)
- added another move state inbetween walk and run for NPCs
- added "kneel and use" animation for standard NPCs
- changed getting damage while reloading etc.: rewind up to max 2 times, but after that follow through

[h3]Usability Improvements[/h3]

- reordered inventory tabs
- adjusted tutorial display to make it more obvious
- show stealth attack not being possible on machines, e.g. turrets
- fixed guards in Puke Bar not triggering weapon mode notification when warning player; and made weapon mode notification more obvious
- fixed character look direction potentially influenced by getting pushed around
- pathfinding: fixed failing on mini distances
- pathfinding: fixed occasional fail directly after actions like dialogue
- pathfinding: fixed struggling with using a moving object behind obstacles (e.g. Fleshworm with Animalism)
- pathfinding: fixed a few player character commands not immediately triggering pathfinding
- fixed some point and click melee attacks with movement failing around obstacles or room corners
- made number 7 in default font more distinguishable from number 1
- non-standard mouse input setting for combat: make camera offset in melee targeting behave similar to the ranged camera
- non-standard mouse input setting for combat: fixed occasional wrong player character weapon display
- fixed some scenarios of point and click hovered scene object visuals remaining when switching to state without point and click
- made action bar more obvious visually

[h3]Performance[/h3]

- fixed some memory leaks
- general performance improvements
- additional performance improvements on world map
- fixed some cursor hover mess-ups, possibly resulting in UI lag in inventory etc.
- reduced memory usage on character commands

[h3]Framework Update[/h3]

- large internal data changes to levels, dialogue, quests and behavior trees to support future features

[h3]General Bug Fixes[/h3]

- fixed robots potentially cursing like humans
- fixed a few rare crashes
- fixed a few moments where it was possible to save but should not
- fixed some issues with neutral NPCs reacting to player targeting them
- fixed NPCs glitching out at locked doors when wanting to talk to other NPC
- fixed spawned minions of Titans dropping loot
- fixed item drop issues with boss character in tower location
- fixed potential errors with faction assignment on dynamically spawned characters
- fixed sound issue with new energy weapons
- fixed some potential sound glitches on NPCs using weapons
- fixed some sound events not getting interrupted when character gets interrupted
- fixed some UI issues in inventory
- fixed UI scaling issues at high resolution (regression in 0.8.2)
- fixed a few other UI issues, mostly related to changes in the last months
- co-op: fixed a few issues with camera and UI effects on shared screen
- co-op: fixed issue that could make invulnerability be stuck on player character
- fixed some visual glitches with the flamethrower
- reduced or removed ground blood splashing for some weapons
- fixed some possible input issues depending on mouse combat mode and input bindings
- fixed a few issues related to being spawned as another character in another world
- fixed mines getting triggered by slow flowing energy balls
- fixed Deconstructor not having correct death animation depending on having claw or not
- fixed a pixelart gap issue in the brown indoor tileset
- fixed other small issues with some scene assets
- fixed error handler not being interactable when error occurs during loading phase
- additional small bug fixes and framework improvements

[h2]Thoughts[/h2]

Indie game development is not a straight forward process. The plan for this month (work on content, get a smaller update out fast) was different to what actually happened. The reasons for short-term plan changes like that are manifold, but here it came down to: It's more productive to continue in the current workflow, e.g. programming, when similar tasks get added to the list. And the general goals for the game remain the same, but invidual tasks on how to reach these goals are still very dynamic. Thus the list of tasks changes sometimes. Partly due to incoming feedback, but mostly I think because it's the very nature of design work: The final design of the game is not fully known to us. We know parts of it, but the other parts we have to discover and work towards discovering them. This is not only true for the gameplay and story design but also, in parts, for the technical side of the game, as it's the carrier and interconnected with the whole experience of the game.
It will be interesting to see how much this process will differ on future games we develop. If the process is more planned if building on an existing template instead of creating a new one.

Regarding the NPC combat behaviours: We need to put in more work on making enemies more interesting. Specifically in enemy variety. But I hope that these latest changes already make fighting against groups of enemies more feasible and make individual encounters more interesting by not making melee enemies walk towards the player character in a frontal path.

[h2]Feedback Tools[/h2]

As always, we appreciate any feedback on the changes we made to the game. Best way to give feedback is through the F1 in-game tool as it adds a bit of game context to every feedback item sent.
We recently added a convenient shortcut if you just want to take a quick look at different things: Open the in-game console with Shift+F10 and enter Playtest to get a list of jump points to the existing content. This won't interfere with your existing save games.

Thank you for your continued interest in Death Trash.

Have a nice week!

- Stephan