You Might Be Missing the Best Part of DR4X!
Hey there folks!
Did you know there's a 99.6% chance you haven't seen either a good or bad ending of the DR4X campaign? That's crazy, right?
What's more, a whopping 89.9% of you haven't even won a campaign mission yet.
How Can This Be?
You're probably wondering how this happened. Well. I lied by omission. These statistics are based only on players getting achievements since I implemented them a few months ago, not over the course of the last year or anything. And guess what? Only 18% of DR4X owners have even launched the game in that timeframe. So it can't be accurate right?
Well...
While these figures might not paint the whole picture, they're likely not that far off the mark actually.
The Real Reason I Added Achievements
No, I didn't add achievements just for fun like I claimed when i added them. They were actually a tool to track everyones progress on mastering DR4X mechanics and how deeply you all delved into my story/unfiction subgame.
DR4X: More Than Just a 4X Game
DR4X isn't just your run-of-the-mill 4X game. It's also a terminal emulator, a digital cosmic horror story, and a narrative about redemption, and a giant box of lore and puzzles. Sadly most of you have only seen the non-narrative bits.
Why the Skirmish Mode Dominates
The skirmish mode, as a standalone early access thing, is quite engaging and was initially meant to be a quick, COE-style roguelikeish 4X experience (And it still is!). But as development progressed, the focus of the game itself shifted.
Changing Expectations
In the 4X genre, most games prioritize the skirmish mode (Well actually most of them call that the campaign) gameplay, sidelining any actual story and characters to allow the player to play as whatever empire they want and focus entirely on the mechnics and have that conquer the world power/strategy game fantasy where they have no real connection to the world aside from maybe some roleplay. That's the current market standard. But with DR4X, while you can play as whatever faction you want (Kingdoms, Bandits, Wildlife, Mushrooms etc) In whatever custom setting you want (based on dropdowns anyway). Iactually had aimed to explicitly not focus on that part of the game in isolation. And that is fine, as I don't do this for a living or anything, just mainly for the fun of adding weird off the wall stuff to a 4x game. (Like making my own version of the backrooms and adding that as a setting you can play in, in a skirmish (its called Noderooms btw and it even has ENTITIES).
Instead, DR4X has both a campaign (In the style of Majesty The Fantasy Kingdom Sim mixed with DDLC) and a roguelike-esque skirmish mode (Like COE), and while gameplay and UI improvements benefit both, story enhancements impact only the campaign and lately, my focus has shifted more and more towards developing the story, inspired by the blend of unfiction and critique of common 4X mechanics.
The narrative of DR4X, drawing from the lore of my roguelike game RLDR and weaving in a DDLC-style meta-narrative, is currently my main focus. My enthusiasm for the story aspect is the reason for the recent slowdown in major mechanical updates. However, I'm actively working on introducing new elements like the powers I've mentioned before, along with enhancements to base building. I've even begun implementing the UI for these features, though they might remain in experimental mode (WHich i added a couple updates ago and can be toggled on in the options menu) for now.
Grimwit (My artist buddy) once said that DR4X itself is akin to a devlog because whatever i'm thinking at the moment, I add it.
So, Why This Devlog? Haven't You Mentioned This Before?
The purpose of this devlog is to highlight an important aspect of the campaign missions in DR4X. Each mission offers both conventional and unconventional paths to victory. Players can uncover clues for these through the codex and by paying close attention to the signs and notes within the missions. These paths are the keys to unlocking the Good, Bad, and Good/Bad/Neutral Neutral endings, and they're integral to interacting with DR4X's story, much like the exploration in Outer Wilds.
And it is worth it too, I think ive done a decent job (despite my inexperiance at making story based games) at actually making you care about some of these characters if you only put in the effort to see them.
Encouraging players to take these elements seriously in a game like DR4X is challenging, but I'm committed to it. I'm happy to share that at least one player has achieved the unconventional bad ending, which is quite an accomplishment. (Before abandoning getting the good ending due to a now fixed bug)
There is also some awesome music to accompany the more dramatic moments, composed by my friend Robert Matheson
Aswell as awesome art by Grimwit for some of these sequences.
Those ciphers you've seen? They're not just fluff.
Rant below: We tried so hard to clarify this during the Mireifield mission, but it seems it might not have been sufficiently evident despite our best efforts. Honestly, we practically guide you through it, so it probably takes a conscious effort to overlook them. Short of just giving you the answer directly. *eye roll* its so so hard to break the conditioning of other games that try to make you ignore these things unless you are the lore hunter type. Its not your fault Im not angry im just dissapointed in society.
What's Next?
I've recently introduced a new campaign mission, marking the beginning of chapter 2's mission additions. However, before proceeding with more missions, I need to implement significant updates to the codex and terminal emulators. Additionally, I'm integrating some intricate subgames that are crucial for laying the groundwork for the upcoming chapter. I imagine most of you didn't even know the terminal emulator existed. This oversight is my fault; the hint for how to access the terminal is at the good and bad endings for chapter 1, in one of the Nordic incursion messages from the campaign, and in a ciphered form in the codex. However, the codex wasn't sufficiently clear, and the actual command for accessing the list of applications in the terminal either relies on you having previous retro computer knowledge or being able to get to the FNAF-style subgame on the main menu. Clearly, I haven't hinted at this well enough (and I'm honestly not sure how to hint at it without 'giving away the game,' so to speak, but i'll try to figure it out, heh).
To guide you towards these game aspects, I've been making subtle additions here and there. You might have noticed recent updates to the DR4X codex. These additions are preliminary attempts to offer clues and nudge you in certain directions. They'll undergo some revisions in the upcoming update. While this update will be substantial, I might not release a detailed changelog to maintain development momentum. Expect these elements to evolve as I fine-tune what works and what doesn't.
Also, i am going to visit my parents in Arkansas for christmas starting on the 22nd and wont be back til January and i don't do computers on my vacations. So there will be a two week hiatus there.
PS:
I just now I updated the DR4X store/library art to be better. Let me know what you think!
I already have some feedback and its looking like we might have to make a whole new batch of art but im leaving the new art up for now.
Also, I fixed a hardlock if you got the neutral ending after getting fyegrayed killed. That has been in for awhile apparently and that is currently deployed as of this post.
Now that that is out of my system here is a paired down simplified changelog (This will serve as this weeks changelog)
Changelog
-Fyegrayed got so angry that he hardlocked the game if you upset him off enough under certain specific circumstances (Bad neutral end), I have now forced him to not hardlock the game.
-Made it easier to access restricted section in Nelrissa Library
-Made it more clear what you need to do to unlock things via a reworded codex puzzle
-Made tycoon ui slightly more readable
-Reworked mirefield intro
-Tweaks to chances in pop up code
-Reworked many more of the ciphers on the codex
-Made it so that you have to click okay before losing the mission on mirefield
-Reworked repeated bad end dialogue. To fit the character better and reveal less.
-Fixed the doggo in the tutorial so that the hourglass dissappears when you gain control of him
-As stated in the last changelog i added UI to make traveliong through deep entrances better
-Fixed key command for sentry to not match swap
-Actually fix lore signs in dungeon level
-Fixed typos in dungeon level
-Fleshed out tutorington dilogue on dungeon better.