The 21 new achievements added in this update range from the very easy to very challenging.
Alongside these, we have another 6 new story lines to trigger, and a nice, new office background. In other words, Beta 8 adds more content and fleshes out the game.
Story lines
There are hundreds of events in the game. Some are completely random, some are based on Reporter personality traits, some historical with set dates - and then there are story lines. These are chains of typically 5 linked events with 3 different conclusions and rewards, depending on your choices. Story lines always trigger under specific circumstances, and in this update we are adding a bunch of new ones.
For the first time, we have story lines that trigger based on your Credibility scores. If your Sensationalism or Sources score high, they may trigger story lines. Likewise scoring low in these same categories, as well as Fairness, triggers different story lines.
More of these are planned - eventually all Credibility categories will have two unique series of events associated with them, depending on whether your paper is scoring high or low in that category.
Finally, Beta 8 comes with a story line that may trigger any time you publish a Fashion-themed issue. Themed issues and completed upgrades are two other ways to trigger story lines throughout the game.
Achievements
Who doesn't love unlocking achieves?! Most of the basics are covered in this round, but more achievements are planned. These initial 21 include rewards for exploring the basic features of the game, such as firing a reporter or buying an upgrade, but also a number of achievements that are harder to get.
The hardest one is winning the game, or publishing an issue scoring over 5000 points. But if these still seem too easy, don't worry, there are several tough achievements underway, including a few hidden ones. To the Completionists out there, I am sorry.
New Menu Backgrounds
This update also features new original 3D art by Jay Sanchez, namely an editor's office as background for the office menus. You can find representations of every aspect of the game, scattered around this office. It's also a taste of things to come. As we get closer to final release, more UI updates will add more polish and niceness to the game.
This is beta 8 of 10 planned, after which the game will have its final release. I hope you like the new direction and additions to Above the Fold.
All Changes in Beta 8
- Added: 21 achievements! Go forth, and achieve!
- Added: 2 new story lines that may trigger if you have good Credibility scores in Sensationalism or Sources (10 events)
- Added: 3 new story lines that may trigger if you have low Credibility scores in Sensationalism, Sources or Fairness (16 events)
- Added: New story line that may trigger if you publish a Fashion-themed issue (5 events).
- Added: Credits-button on the main menu, in case you want to see who's helped get us this far
- Removed: Wiki link button, because the wiki is somewhat outdated. May add it back later.
- Changed: The main menu has a new background and the screen elements have been re-arranged
- Changed: The Office screen got a graphical update with new background and slightly more space, art by Jay Sanchez.
- Changed: Reporters for hire during the first 3 issues now have fewer interests that have yet to be unlocked
- Changed: Upgrades, Challenges and Office Management got their own take on the new office background
- Changed: Lunches Bought renamed to Morale Events in the lifetime stats
- Changed: Slight tweaking of how Monthly Award Themes are picked in the early game
- Changed: Several story lines now also trigger surges of interest in a related topic
- Fixed: Bug in the delay between chained events, causing some events to have incorrect trigger dates
- Fixed: Some typos and other minor bugs.