There is some new content in this update, but first, this patch continues where the last one left off, with more stability and bug fixes. Thanks to the added debug tools and a few dedicated fans of the game, some tricky bugs were finally tracked down and eradicated.
Breaking News Storylines
More exciting than bug fixes is new content! This update comes with 2 new storylines (10 events total) that may trigger based on your reputation in the "Breaking News" category, depending on whether you're scoring high or low. As always, each story line has 3 possible endings and outcomes depending on your choices and the type of paper you're running.
Fixes and Tweaks
An area that needed a little love was surges. Any topic can surge in interest among Goodburians, and when that happens these type of stories will score higher and attract more subscribers. Previously, only specific events in the game would trigger a new surge. Those triggers are all still there, with the addition of a new, monthly surge of a random topic. A few other parameters around surges were tweaked for better balance, as well.
It would seem that the introduction of friends/rivals left a string of rather nasty bugs in its wake, specifically tied to not properly removing all references to said friends and rivals, should one of them leave your newspaper.
I want to give a special shout out to two players of the game, who went above and beyond in their help tracking down bugs for this update. Richie Whiteman and Stephanie "Gohst Prncss" Krueger - Thank you both for your patience and for helping to make the game better for everyone!
Changes, bullet point style
- Added: 2 new 5-event plot lines that may trigger if your credibility gets either high or low enough in "Breaking News" (10 events)
- Added: A random topic will surge in interest every month
- Fixed: Certain desk customization options could cause the game to crash when loading the editor screen
- Fixed: When starting a new game, you could get negative subscribers and have a very short game
- Fixed: Sometimes reporters would have multiple quotes instead of just one
- Fixed: Two new occurrances of a previously discovered crash, where the game tries to trigger an event involving a reporter that no longer works at the newspaper
- Fixed: When one reporter is away, the AFK icon would sometimes not despawn when cycling through other reporters
- Fixed: Surging topics would reset themselves after 0-1 days, which is a tad short
- Changed: After fixing the above, Surges would last way too long, so that got nerfed
- Changed: Too many stories of the surging type would spawn during a surge, so that's been reduced