Major Update from First Class Trouble

Over the last 6 months we have been very quiet. As many of you might already know, we have refactored large parts of the game, which essentially means, we’ve built the game from scratch all over again. This took more time than expected. Things are about to change - a lot - as we are getting close to releasing the game to the public in Early Access. So below are a few major announcements and a lot of info. It’s a bit long - but hopefully it covers everything.

First of all, we want to say thank you. Most of you here has helped us test the game when it was only in it’s early stages. Some joined already in the very beginning in February - others a bit later. We want to thank each and everyone for helping us test the game and stay with us till now. It’s been invaluable help and support, which means we are here today. As a developer you are always extremely worried about putting an unfinished and many times broken product into the hands of anyone; but everyone has been extremely supportive and we want to make sure we say a proper thank you for this. We are committed to keeping and growing a community that is as dedicated as you have been up until now. Thank you!

We are happy to announce that First Class Trouble has found a fantastic home with Versus Evil, who will be publishing the game in 2021. They have previously published games like The Banner Saga and Faeria. What it means for you is that First Class Trouble now has a definite plan for launch and you can expect to get a release date soon. To learn more about the plan for First Class Trouble, stay tuned as we will release our newly tuned Road Map in the coming days.

As part of this announcement we have made a special Christmas edition, that will be gradually open over the holidays - and run until the 31st of December. This will likely be the very last free alpha playtest we have (besides releasing a small demo in February). It’s still not a complete game, but we need to do the last few fixes before we close down and run the last stretch of this crazy space marathon before launch. We hope you will help us out a bit more and stay forgiving of possible flaws. Below is some information on how you can get to play - because for very practical reasons we need to change how we run our playtests.

To play the game over the holidays using the new Steam playtest function, request access through our Steam Store page. It is a brand new Steam feature so we hope that it will work as intended. We will try to give as many people access as we possibly can in consideration to server load etc. We of course encourage you to wishlist the game on Steam - and get your friends to wishlist it as well. It’s just about the very very best help you can give us.

Thank you again for supporting us and this interstellar journey! If you have any questions don’t hesitate to reach out. Either at our Discord or throw us an email at [email protected]

Bringing you new content to get you through lock downs, cold days and cheer you up in the spirit of Christmas. In this build we have dressed up a new area The Restaurant for Christmas and filled it to the brim with murderous items, treacherous intrigue and overall funny moments to share with your friends.

There are still a few issues listed at the bottom of this list - fret not we are working hard to solve any issues and push updates frequently ːsteamhappyː.

Merry Christmas all Residents and Personoids!
Decorated select areas up for the holidays - celebrate responsibly.
Completely refactored most of the codebase.
Completely reworked the interaction system.
Added a pre-game lobby.
Secret Agendas - Get extra score for completing covert missions
Environmental hazards:
Fire - burn to a crisp, just like the good old days in 1955.
Electrocution - fry like a shrimp.
Freeze - chill out like an icicle.
New Item: Fire Extinguisher - Used to extinguish fire hazards that have arisen around the ship.
New Item: Paper Plane - Throwable paper planes that you can toss in other peoples faces, it truly is a new world!
New Item: Hat Loot - Find some swag lying around during your match and make your character truly stand out.
New Item: Oxygen Kit - Save some oxygen for the road and refill when you want to.
Added a bunch of new items that you can pick up in the common room before mall. Please share them well in the spirit of Christmas.
New Item: Electric Ratchet/Wrench - Bypass doors, but becareful people might think you are a
Personoid for easily getting into that closed off room.
New Item: Corpse Scanner - Killed a person, but are feeling a little guilty? Scan the corpse and redeem yourself!
New Item: Squash Racket - When knocking a player out with a bottle just isn’t enough. Fling them across the room!
New Item: Velocity Pills - Chased by Personoid? Use your boost to quickly make your escape!
Keycard Scanner: Having a hard time finding that pesky green keycard? Whip out your keycard scanner and listen your way to victory!
New World Interaction: Jukebox - Get out on the dance floor and show them your moves.
New Ability: Push - Push other players around and save those bottles for later.
Added the possibility to light up alcohol pools so you can block off areas again - or burn people to a nice human lumb of coal - fly a paper plane through for an added bonus!
New Personoid Ability: Personoid Transport - Rapidly move around the map at specific doors, by going through the personoid transport system
New Personoid Ability: Force open doors.
Inventory wheel system where you can equip two different items with Mouse button 1 and Mouse button 2.
New Map: The Restaurant - enjoy a nice meal at L'Étoile Du Nord, a cigar in the lounge or listen to some music in the concert hall. Don’t get stuck in the freezer. It's mighty cold - not good for weak human flesh.
Added a completely new skillcheck system
Added a new amazing vending machine for cocktails. Put a coin in and get yourself a nice cold Piña Colada in a box.
Added an authentic kitchen experience - Mess about in the kitchen and press all of the buttons.
Added an authentic concert experience - now you can jam away on instruments and enjoy the sweet sound of space.
Added an authentic toilet experience - this is the update you are looking for. Flip up the toilet lids, seats and pull the lever to flush a toilet. You can even turn on water faucets - hot AND cold.
Added a lighter dispenser so you never need to ask someone when you need a light!
Added work-in-progress customization menu. Does not take into effect in-game yet.
Added work-in-progress experience- and level system to your player profile.
Added a new post process effect to assets.
Added new ‘First Class’ graphics preset, for those with high end computer hardware
Added work-in-progress achievements system.
Redid the entire escape pod area.

Made it easier to see the server shutdown status in the Server Room.
Reworked the buttons for various interactions such as door buttons, escape pods and so forth.
Overhauled the existing levels with some of the newer assets and mechanics.
Complete overhaul of the ingame UI. Still more to be done!
Tweaked the ingame score point system, but it still needs more bug fixing as not everything gives points.
Volumetric Lightmaps for higher quality global lighting.
Adjusted the Personoid chat to be a push-to-talk ability and reworked the UI.
Upgraded some beer textures - get drunk in style.
Upgraded the trash can textures - don’t litter - recycle and help save the environment.
Added a stand-in sign to easier find the escape pod in the mall.
Overhauled the Airlock UI and voting stages.
Updated voting menu with ability to remove vote
Changed the angle character portraits are taken at.
First Class Trouble now running on Unreal Engine 4.25.
Reimplemented the voice chat plugin - might be a bit buggy.
Upgraded many of our textures, materials and so forth.
Tweaked the post process effect ingame.
Updated a bunch of sounds in the game.

Too many to list - it’s a new world!
No seriously it’s many pages long.
You would not like to read the amount of fixes especially with more to come.

We unfortunately have a few pesky bugs that plague us, but we are presently working on ironing them out as soon as we can.

You occasionally crash when pressing “Find Game”.
Temporary fix: Open the game up again and press “Find Game” Again.

[h3]We hope that despite a hiccup or two you will enjoy the game and remember to add us to your steam wish list so you will be ready to go for new information regarding First Class Trouble!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE[/h3]
- Invisible Walls