Dystopia: November Update - Dystopia gets Steam'd! news

It was the sensation that pulled me in, that sensation which bore deep into our consciousness and took refuge within our minds. The sensation brokered a deal with our imaginations to understand a vastly dissimilar world from our own. It was a world that was contrary from the comfort of our chairs and our conditioned air, with ions glazing our faces with a coat of lethargy. Sent away from this comfort, we engaged in the usage of skill and tactics to combat our attacker. Skirmish after skirmish, it had sucked us in.

This sensation pulled me in, I felt the atmosphere of the world around me and the camaraderie of my team. We fought countless hours to see our goal's end, and always repeating the fight until it brooded our own stories and memories.

It's been too long since we have spoke, you and I -- or at least that eerie silence between us has made it seem that way. I looked to you for the depth of my experience, and the longevity of my enjoyment. They lust for you and there is no denying that they want you back.

You're the chilling sensation that made me sense the inside of Corporate Battle Armor as my own, which made me grip tight against the stock of the cold hardened steel separating me from death. I have been waiting until you can bring that back to me again. And now, my wait has finally come to an end.

Since being given the opportunity to utilize the SteamWorks utility, we have made it very clear to ourselves that we would keep it a secret, even to our best of friends, play testers and supporters, until we knew for a fact that we could harness this powerful application.

I have the pleasure of announcing that our next version, 1.2, complete with new maps, many new changes and fixes, will be available direct to download from Steam, utilizing the SteamWorks framework! I have said it numerous times in the past, but I will re-iterate. It does not matter the quality of the modification or game brought to SteamWorks, as it does that the modding community has been given this great opportunity to use such a distinguished application. We are very proud to be alongside some of the greatest modifications the Source community has to offer like Eternal Silence, Insurgency, D.I.P.R.I.P., Pirates, Vikings & Knights II, and more!

Along with this announcement, we'd like to formally announce the long-awaited and much anticipated Dystopia Statistics & Information System 2.0. We call it 2.0, because it is a complete rewrite, from the network protocol to the master server to the database to the web frontend.  The whole thing is new and incorporates much of what we have learned from the original system. We've also implemented rolling stats, as was discussed heavily on the suggestions forums. It is flawlessly integrated into our next version to deliver a fast and easy to interpret informational view of all of Dystopia's players, matches, servers and more. 

I am going to take advantage of our newly updated media section, by showing a video of the stats system in action. The media section now not only has many screenshots and past development activity for Dystopia, but now contains video trailers and interviews, magazine articles and press images, but also a mix of new and previous music for Dystopia by our very own bioxeed! You can check out some of the new tracks for Dystopia 1.2, such as Conflict Aria and Placid Reprisal in the music section!

And now, for a video run down of the new stats system:

As mentioned in the video, here are just a few of the achievements we plan to bring to the Dystopia community in 1.2. 52 planned achievements affected by things like damage, kills, energy and usage. We have also planned an additional number of achievements that are unique to Dystopia, that we will talk about in the future.

Critical Mass - Kill 5 enemies with EMP Grenades
Pineapple Punch - Kill 10 enemies with Frag Grenades
One Fist, Two Fist, Red Fist, Blue Fist - Kill 25 enemies with the Fatman Fist
Street Samurai - Kill 40 enemies with the Medium Katana
Thinktank - Deal 3,000 damage with the Cortex Bomb
Vapourware - Deal 33,000 damage with the Ion Canon

Also, please take the time to welcome three new members to the Dystopia team, rabidpenguin a modeller and animator, Sverek, an Audio Effects developer and The-Donkey-Headed-Adversary, a tryout 2D Interface artist. We look forward to their contributions to the success of Dystopia!