Take on the role of an operative in the Hex Gen network, a decentralized movement of hacktivists resisting the economic pillaging conducted by the unholy alliances of Big Tech, Big Military, and Big Finance. Think "The Windup Girl" meets "Neuromancer". Features: -Facial, vocal biometric capture devices -"Nohface" electronic face projector for thwarting surveillance/drones which cover almost every inch of city -Wireless internet -Darknets - all web activity is fully surveilled, you need stealth not only in meatspace but in cyberspace -More types of hacking - cryptography, DDoS, spoofing -Hunger: experience real economic destitution as you slowly die of starvation and are forced to beg, steal, or even kill for a piece of bread. -DIY: Upgrade your hemp trenchcoat with solar trim, syphon electricity from the private power grid, take apart old phones and radios to hack together an EMP gun, set up a hydroponic garden in your squatted flat so you don't have to kill for every meal.
A preview of the cornucopia of contraband, shrapnel, biodisasters, junk, and other fistfuls of tetanus and rust ripe for upcycling into weapons of mass insurgency. All in all there are about 60 new items including craftable weapons, augmentations, and mods, with more in the works. Most recent additions are crafting methods for crossbows, hand-cast bullets, scrapmetal shotgun shells, nine-inch-nail bolts, and custom weapon mods.
Highlighted in the above image is a broken telescope which can be hacked together with some other objects to create a new type of weapon modification which you can let your imagination run with. Since you really are essentially a homeless vagrant resistance fighter, not only the weapons but even the weapon modifications (range, accuracy, clip, recoil, etc) will have to be made out of trash and ingenuity. Call it the new "starving artisan economy". But from the mountainous consumerist landfills burying the streets and poisonous industrial waste seeping into the water supply the *really* elite hackers might be able to make even more powerful devices than the mass-manufactured, Big Box store products.
Also RE:Playable Demo - It's taken a bit longer than expected to finish up the final areas, but I'm just now adding in the game items, enemies, and making sure there are no showstoppers (or not too many glaring ones :D ) and then I'll be sending them out. Sorry for the cliffhanger to the testers! Just want to make sure you can get an experience worth your time trying the game out.
This looks nice! I really like the idea of crafting items, also oh boy, is that silver as a currency in that corner there? I might of just missed that earlier, but anyways, I hope this turns out as good as it looks!
Thanks! And yep, silver is the new medium of exchange for the average Joe after the US dollar, the Euro, and the rest of the fiat currency megabubbles have popped. I'm working on getting silver bullion coins in in place of the credit chits. Viva la Silver Liberation Army! Global Insurrection Against Banker Occupation!
Will Silver be more rare than credits were in Deus Ex? As I'm pretty sure in real life getting silver would be fairly difficult, even silver coins don't just show up. Although I support the silver idea, and I don't think you should change it.
The future world of Terminus Machina assumes a complete and utter breakdown of trust in paper currencies, which governments continue to print ad infinitum Weimer Germany style in order to play extend-and-pretend as long as possible, preserving the broken system in which they are in positions of power, the system which pays their yacht payments until the world burns down. In the slumsprawl areas where basic amenities like reliable running water and power are down, silver and other precious metals have become the de-facto means of exchange where barter does not suffice, as there is no counter-party risk (there is no government, supranational "financial entity" whose "full faith and credit" must be relied on to ensure the continued value, or more specifically non-devaluation of said currency). This hybridization and two-tier system already exists to an extent in certain areas of Indonesia and Southeast Asia where the wealth-siphoning by the superrich via inflation is many times more drastic than in most of the US and Europe (although we're getting there). It's quite normal to grab a chicken for a dirham (Indonesian silver coin) at the market, then pay a few more to get your roof repaired, etc.. The silver exists out there right now as we speak, it's just not used as common money at the moment because we have not yet reached that level of dire necessity. Terminus Machina assumes we will as part of the premise. Which, given the historical record, the human species has time and time again resorted to the precious metals as a means of exchange, especially when all confidence in the financial system has broken down, which, incidentally, occurs when paper fiat currency begins to take precedence and become the norm. The French switchover from the Franc to the assignat is perhaps the most famous example. Economic catastrophe, societal upheaval, and a bunch of head-rolling away from the guillotine occurred around that time, as I recall.
Ah, to further answer your question though: yes the silver will be slightly less plentiful than credits were in Deus Ex. In general, it will be much harder to survive, with less ammunition lying around in boxes, less medkits behind every locked door, in order to emphasize the extreme poverty and living in the gutter-end of the dystopia.
This was one thing which I thought could've been done different in Deus Ex: by the time I got about a third or half way through it, I had more guns, bombs, crazy super-power technology than I knew what to do with, and it was becoming almost too easy. In Terminus Machina I'd like to make it more of a challenge to stay afloat, with just enough items to survive, and you the player really having to be careful and think creatively to get out alive. Which is why I'm trying to limit the access or at least the usability of items depending on the skillset and augset that you choose on any given playthrough.
Thanks! I think that it won't feel like you're surviving if you have some sort of SUMMONER OF CTHULHU WHO DESTROYS ALL! Or just fifty rocket launchers, anyways, I like the idea here.
Best, description, ever.
I agree! I like the witty descriptions of items!
I sense nergasms aplenty.
You know what currency you should use?
NUKA COLA BOTTLE CAPS
Those were awesome. :)