State of Development
Hi all, before dropping the details of this update I just wanted to let everyone know that the past few weeks has been pretty rough for me. I hit a really bad burn out from working on Sketchy's tirelessly over the past 13 months to the point where it was tough to really do anything at all. I've started to pace my development and not overdue work hours to help prevent burn out from happening again and that seems to be going well as of now. Anyway, I just wanted to share a bit of behind the scenes with you all as you patiently wait for the New Map to drop.
NEW
- Added directional signals when sending elevators back and forth (pressing the button multiple times can easily get you into a position where the elevator never arrives because you simply have no way of knowing where it is).
- Player Tips – this is a new feature that I will be implementing in small bits with hotfixes and/or updates between now and Full Release that will help new players grasp important mechanics and QOL portions of the game. These tips are enabled by default and can be turned off in the HUD settings.
- Added a Night Shift Tip that starts at 9PM and disappears at Midnight displaying the following message: “TIP - At 12AM, new loot and monsters will spawn. Don't worry, you can skip the Night Shift in the Med Bay if it gets too dangerous.”
- Added a Skip the Night Shift Tip between 1 AM and 7 AM that displays the following message: “TIP - You can skip the Night Shift at the Med Bay via the Remote Access Terminal.”
- Added a Tip to display at 9PM on the last Day that informs players that they cannot stay overnight: "TIP - This is your LAST DAY. Make sure you head to orbit before Midnight to prevent loss of loot."
- Added a Tip whenever the player exits the ship on a planet with no weapon is on their action bar: "TIP - Going out unarmed? Take a flamingo from your ship. It's FREE!".
UPDATES
- Swimming Update – player’s can now swim properly at the surface of the water. NO more being pushed back into the water when hitting the surface! Diving is simple. Just look down and swim back under. I am so glad to finally have fixed this because let’s be honest it was annoying and immersion breaking.
- The World Time Clock at the top of the player’s screen now also displays the current day next to it. The text players will see are: "Day 1, Day, 2, Final Day, and Pay Day?" based on how many days they have left. This is helpful when trying to remember if the ship is scheduled to autopilot due to it being the last day and players not able to stay overnight.
- Updated backend for moving platforms to consider players that are jumping/free falling above the platform. The intended result is that players should not be thrown off the platform.
- Changed how reaching the requirement to sign a contract works. For example: You only need to reach 1600 Quota to sign a T2 contract rather than 1950. Once signed, your new started Quota will bump up to 1950. This was a necessary change to create a clear distinguishment between contracts which was causing issues in the backend where both contract T1 and T2 could technically be at the same quota value 1950.
- Contract manager description for Starting Quota Requirement has been renamed to "Eligibility Quota Requirement".
NightShift
- Night Shift Voting has been removed meaning that staying overnight is now the DEFAULTED gameplay mechanic. YOU CAN STILL LEAVE BEFORE MIDNIGHT, and you can still end the night at the med bay. This change simply makes it so that people don’t get screwed with being forced to leave because you forgot to vote, stepped away for a second, was mid-fight when the vote prompt appeared, etc. By now, voting yes has become the default thing to do because you can always leave whenever you want (literally, why ever vote no?), however if players miss the vote and the ship decides to leave before midnight, players have no way of reversing that verdict and will lose all security level progress, etc. Removing the vote by defaulting staying overnight simplifies the gameplay and removes unnecessary/stressful situations. Simply leave before midnight if you don’t want to stay just as you have always done. Simple.
- The Message at 8 PM has changed to be more informative and story driven. Rather than saying “Warning - 8 Hours til Midnight”. It now says “Warning - Quiet hours commenced. Releasing Subject 6...”. I find this to be much more ominous, provides a hint as to what you should do around Subject 6 as a new player, an also gives a subtle lore behind Subject 6’s creation (for those of you interested in the story bits).
- There is now a 3 second delay at 8PM before nighttime creatures are spawned in given players a longer window to find safety/prepare to hunt.
- The In-Game Menu now displays important keys at the top left corner of the screen to help serve as a reminder to guide new players on basic controls.
- The Night Shift can now be ended between 1 and 7AM rather than 2 and 6AM.
Items
- Small Storage Carry Limit increased from 250 to 350.
- Medium Storage Carry Limit increased from 500 to 850 and the price changed from 50 to 60 credits.
- Large Storage Carry Limit increased from 750 to 1500 and the price changed from 75 to 90 credits.
- Renamed Storage items to “Portable” Storage (small, medium, large) as it seemed lots of people were not buying storage as they thought it was something that stayed at Sketchy’s/on the ship rather than something they can bring with them on planets which is a game changer.
- Renamed Medical Generator to Basic Med Gen and made the description shorter and more intuitive.
- Renamed Better Medical Generator to Advanced Med Gen and made the description shorter and more intuitive.
AI
- Elizabeth no longer 1 shots. I have reworked her mechanics (you need to reach Sketchy’s Data as I don’t want to spoil that here). I will say however, that she can be attacked now. Elizabeth is also nerfed on Tier 1, which should help new players a lot.
- Boombot no longer 1 shots. The damage mechanic has changed with respect to how much damage is dealt at each Tier (big nerf for T1). I won’t discuss those details through sense it’s a spoiler for those who haven’t unlocked all Boombot evolutions so just visit Sketchy’s Data to see the changes.
- Pew Pew can now be damaged during its missile firing phase. So for brave players that want to run around shooting Pew Pew while Pew Pew is shooting them, you can now do that. This will also remove the YOU SHOOT THEN I SHOOT downtime gameplay with PEW PEW which can be really tedious especially for higher end players.
- With PEW PEW being able to take damage while shooting, it makes PEW PEW more vulnerable and much easier to kill so I’ve increased the base health a bit.
- The Snow Beast should now spawn consistently on Port Glacial.
- The Angler Fish should now spawn consistently at Night on Port Coral and Treasure Island.
General
FIXES
- Fixed an issue where bugged items floating above or below the ship when logging in, would not save to the ship when moved back into the ship and logging out/closing the game.
- Fixed an issue where Elizabeth could not be picked up when she spawned.
- Fixed an issue where the Angler Fish was not spawning during the Night Shift.
- Fixed an issue where if a player died while holding a 2-handed dead body, the body became uninteractable.
- Fixed an issue with the Wood Witch not behaving properly.
- Fixed an issue where Jelloti was not vibing correctly when using a T3 Boombox.
- Fixed an issue where the Echo Lens was showing all doors at Sector Zero rather than only Level 3 doors.
- Fixed an issue where entering the ship would cause the player to uncrouch if they were crouched.
- Fixed a spelling issue in the Ban Menu.
- Fixed an issue where a lurk root spawn area was floating far above the ground in Port Coral.
- Fixed an issue where fall damage could occur while at Sketchy’s
- Fixed an issue where Contract Tier preview on the save file could sometimes show incorrectly.
New Map still in progress!
This gif shows doors leading to security levels. This map is going to be a bit different than most and will probably contain the most unique enemies in a single map. Can you guess what the means of transportation will be?
This shot depicts in the interior of a raptor containment facility. Probably not a good place to be around during late hours.
