CASH_OUT ALPHA 25
An alpha update to cash_out has been released! The main feature of this patch is the new career mode, which has been totally revamped! Along with that, there are some new items, and AI fixes. This news post will go into detail about these changes.
CAREER MODE
Originally with career mode, I wanted something unstructured. I didn't want people to have to grind to get to the highest difficulty. As a result, everything was open and you can do whatever you wanted. This was before I added quick play, which turned career mode into something slower and more obtrusive.
It's been a while since I did anything with career mode, because I didn't know what to do with it, but with this patch, I've completely rebuilt it from the ground up.
Structure
The first thing you should notice is, career mode is now structured. When you make a character you are given 7 raids. Each raid increases in difficulty and has a random position and seed (right now, they're all the industrial except the last two, this will change when the other zones are completed). The new goal of career mode is to complete each of the 7 raids. Again, each raid increases in difficulty. When you beat the raid, you cannot go back to the last one.
NG+ and NG++
When you beat grand heist, you unlock NG+, this resets all the levels and lets you play them again BUT, the difficulty on each level is increased by 3! Difficulty ramps up very quickly, and this becomes very hard! If you manage to beat grand heist+ you unlock NG++, which simply lets you play any level but at the highest difficulty.
Store, Inventory and Bank
Something else that was added was the store and the bank (inventory was in, but very sloppily). When you complete a raid, clothing picked up will be added to your inventory where you can equip them for the next raid. The store sells items, weapons, clothing and upgrades. When you beat a raid, the store is reset and new items will be added! The bank allows you to store items, clothing, money and weapons. The bank is global, it is the same across all characters. You can store a good weapon on one character, and use it on another!
Special weapons cannot be upgraded, as the mechanics work differently.
Those are the major mechanics, everything else is practically the same.
AI CHANGES
In order to make AI more "stealth" friendly, some mechanics have changed.
- If enemies are off-screen, they can no longer wake up if they are knocked out. Playing non lethally is now easier.
- Enemies now take much longer to wake up when knocked out. At higher levels, enemies would wake almost instantly.
- Enemies can now only detect footprints that are onscreen, and don't break when following footprints. This was more of an intelligence thing, AI would get messed up when following footprints.
Along with that, two of the guard types have changed.
- Splinter Cell -> Is no longer invisible, instead has the ability to see through walls.
- Riot Cop -> No longer aims very slowly, trying to take a riot cop hostage will result in moving much slower than normal.
The Splinter Agent can now see through walls with his heat vision!
WEAPON GENERATION CHANGES
Weapon generation has gone through major changes this patch, to balance and make weapons more varied.
The first change is how stats are generated. There are 3 major factors to weapons generation, build, craft and rarity. Rarity works the same, it generates the amount of stats per weapon, but it is more forgiving now. Previously, build used to determine the amount of stats along with rarity, and craft would determine if the stats are negative.
Now, build determines the value of each stat, where craft determines if a stat is positive or negative. This results in more varied weapons. A "garbage" weapon will have mainly negative stats, with lower bonuses, where an "exceptional" weapon will have more positive stats with higher bonuses.
Two different weapons, notice the difference in stats?
Legendary weapons can no longer have 9 stats, and are rarer.Along with that, the naming procedure has been slightly changed. While previously the "Of the __" part of the name was related to the second highest stat, it is now random, and gives a 10% bonus to the relevant stat.
NEW WEAPONS AND ITEMS
Two new unique weapons, and two new items have been added!
Weapons
- Blowgun -> Fires a dart in the direction you are facing. If the enemy is not alert, it will knock them out for a small period of time. The item also poisons whoever it hits. It is very weak and is intended to be a stealth weapon.
- Icicle -> A slow, weak knife, on hit it freezes the enemy for a while.
The Blowgun and the Icicle.
If you're wondering where the "sparkler" item went, I canned it for now (it is 100% functional, you can item edit it in and it works almost perfectly, it was just broken visually and I didn't feel it was interesting enough, I may add it back in the future).
Items
- Bandage -> A bandage, heals 5% of your health on use. Instead of an uncommon object like the health kit, this is a common item, meaning guards can drop them.
- Dry Ice Bomb -> A grenade, when it explodes, nearby enemies will be frozen for a short period of time.
The Bandage and the Dry Ice Bomb.
Frozen
A new status effect was added, frozen. The only way to freeze enemies is the above way, this will change as I add more skills and items. Frozen enemies can attack, but cannot aim or move. When they break out of the effect, they take more damage based on how long they were frozen. The time they are frozen is based on their health, damaging them means they'll break out quicker.
Two frozen enemies.
That's about it for this patch, read the patch notes for the whole list of changes! I'll be doing a kickstarter soon. I originally planned for this patch to be the last patch (ending on 25 would be nice), but I couldn't get around to doing the options menu. Patch 26 will probably be the last alpha patch. I don't know what I'll do from that point on, but that's pretty far away.
