Patch #020716 Released news - After Reset™ RPG

Hi, guys!

Today’s news is devoted to the development of the AR RPG over the last month, and some info about the upcoming TFoG app release. Since many of you found my hard sci-fi lore materials quite interesting (according to Reddit and statistics), I’d like to share some more of that as well.



PATCH NOTES #020716

FIXES:

Interface:
• GUI and fonts are non-scalable now (like in Fallout Tactics).

Mechanics:
• Character movement speed fixed.
• Bonuses from STATs now affect character’s parameters correctly.

FEATURES & CHANGES:

Interface:
• Main Menu and Character Creation designs and fonts are revised to be non-scalable (like in Fallout Tactics).
• All icons for Character Creation GUI added.

Mechanics:
• Encumbrance Mechanics added.
• Ability to throw away items from the Inventory added.

Other:
• Vixin drug added.



IMPORTANT NOTES

1. One of the most important features/changes we did for the patch was the unification/standardization of the game fonts and an interface revision for the non-scalable variant. Now GUI (main menu, char creation, in-game GUI, etc.) looks the same way on any resolution. Fonts and GUI styles and sizes are the same and are a bit larger than Fallout Tactics HD now. I also filled the gap in GUI design by creating and embedding missing icons for all paces of character creation.

Feel free to check character creation process in the current build and share your feedback. What you can see now there matches 90% of the prologue’s final release.

2. As you can see now we also fixed the amount of skills activation so that it matches the SACPIC mechanics The basic number of manual activation per day for skills is equal to 3 at 1st level and it raises +1 each 4 levels (4, 8, 12, 16, 20). So despite almost any of your successful in-game actions brings your character some XP, you should be prudent about using your skills. Some areas (like the Gyes bunker) do not allow you to rest and replenish your skills the classic way. However, there are drugs (Vixin) and other consumables (such as coffee) that can replenish this resource.

3. Carrying Capacity and Encumbrance mechanics we added determines how many weight and space character has for armor, weapons, equipment and other stuff to carry. Encumbrance indicates the effect that the weight of gear that a character is carrying has on his movement rate.

There are 4 levels of encumbrance:
- None - The character can run and walk at full speed.
- Light - The character cannot run, but can walk at full speed.
- Heavy - The character cannot run, the character walks at 50% normal speed.
- Overloaded - The character cannot move.

The amount of weight corresponding to threshold between levels of encumbrance is dependent on strength. The table is repeated on our Advanced Player’s Guide relevant page.

4. We’ve also made some important strides in container mechanics. That mechanics should include lootable containers system, dropping system and quantity selection system. Though, as it happens, we encountered a bunch of decent bugs today (right after the update release). Thus I had to edit the news and exclude “container mechanics added” from today’s report as well as to switch off ability to loot containers for tests. With that, you can still check dropping loot from your inventory and creation of loot piles under your character’s feet. As far as I can see quantity UI works as well.

You can check these parts of related mechanics embedded by throwing items from your inventory. When you conduct throwing items, it should check if there is a “trash pile” container around you. If there is no such PC drop container, than it should create one. If the container already exists near to you, that it should work with it. All items you drop should move into a “trash pile” container.

Based on that the rodmap for the next update is updated:
- it will take about a week to revise all containers-inventory mechanics (just from coding/architecture point of view) to mark everything related with inventory/apparel/loot/containers as “completed”;
- than it will take 3 days for the Quest system;
- and the rest time we’ll devote to Dialogues mechanics embedding.

THE FALL OF GYES APPLICATION



If you follow our monthly progress you probably already know about our side project, The Fall of Gyes graphic novel, which is a prequel to the game’s events at Gyes bunker. You might also know that the successful completion and delivery of all physical and digital rewards (though with some inevitable delays, I should admit), and has had its content reworked and used for the testing of programming candidates for the game.

On January 8th the most effective candidate finally completed and published it free to play (with ability to back us on AppStore if people like it): Itunes.apple.com. Feel free to check it on your iPhone/iPad. According to our tradition of transparency I’ll share the results, statistics and experience with you in the next news post.

You might remember from our backers report about our development strategy that I talked about expanding the knowledge of the hard sci-fi After Reset setting through other related channels. Some might love it, some might not – but the more people that know about it the better. Thus during the January I also managed to rework TFoG as a kinetic novel for PC/MAC/LIN (supporting all this 3 platforms equally is our credo) and successfully put it through Greenlight. Thanks for your support, votes, and social forwarding in this new endeavor.

The Fall of Gyes kinetic novel will appear on Steam by the next news update. Keep in mind that it is not a PDF, but a kinetic novel with sounds, music, and dialogue (though it is linear). It will be available as a separate application. If you already have the AR RPG DLC “The Fall of Gyes” (as PDF graphic novel), this new application will appear in you DLC folder FOR FREE and will automatically update once it goes live. I’m trying to combine everything about After Reset in the one big main bundle and provide most benefits to our early backers.

THE HARD SCI-FI SETTING FOR GROWN UPS

At the end of this update I want to share some hard sci-fi lore and pure science thoughts about the After Reset setting and its “for grownups” approach.

When we see or hear “21+ only” or “M only” warnings we usually expect that the product includes violence, sex, addictions—basically story and animations that can negatively affect children and warrant censorship.

When I put “21+ yo” for the audience of After Reset RPG and talk about it as “for grownups” I imply something different. Something that lies deeper in the core perception of reality. Something that only hard sci-fi can appease...

To get what I mean I’d like to show you some small illustration of how our brain works. The brain is an inch of cork of which contains everything you perceive and know as “I am.”

When we are born, when we grown, when we go to college, our brain, parts of its cork, parts of our personality and perception are not the same as a 22-35 year old. The case is that the parts of our personality and our perception are brought into service step by step, over a period of years. It can be imagined by some as a “computer,” which consists of many off-line modules, and activates them one by one over time: BIOS module, visual reception module, emotional module, global positioning module, navigation module, image identification module, associations module, audio reception module, etc...

The global idea is that the modules responsible for emotions (“Wow!”-modules) and for visual ripples (“Cool Action!”-modules), as well as behavior adaptation (“I’d like to be like hommies”-modules) are activated much earlier than the front lobe cork modules (“I am... and I am conscious of myself, I am conscious of what I am doing)”-modules):



In science terms it actually more complicated. Initially, all modules consist of an incredible net of neurons. That web grows exponentially and reaches it peak by 4-6 years old. But there is chaos between those webs and many confront each other. A lot of time the brain just does not know which one to follow. There’s almost no personality yet but the huge “rock of marble.” Being babies we perceive the world differently... literary differently. We all have synesthesia at that time.

Anyway, after 4-6 years old our neuron web gets stronger with every passing year. Billions of connections that are not used often enough become abandoned and ruined like a rural rods devoted to nature. And like a sculptor gets rid of pieces of raw marble our ontogenesis gets rids of unused neuron webs in each module. By this neural Darwinism a final “sculpture” of our personality is formed.

The irony is that “violence, sex, addictions etc.” are most interesting and finds the strongest response in a very young audience, when the lobe cork (consciousness, judgment, sobriety, cognition of the universe) is dominant and not all of these “modules” are active.

That is why large entertainment companies target youth under the age of eighteen, because their minds are more malleable and their products easier to push. This results in more money for the company, and more mental real estate to work with. This leaves the Indie developers to provide adults with games designed for them. I regard Peter Watts’ (one of my fav sci-fi writers) Starfish – written for grownups, but the following Maelstrom and Behemoth – for “all audiences.”

So when I wrote about “grownup auditory of After Reset RPG” I mean not so much “violence, sex, addictions etc.” (though, Fallout 1&2 are in our hearts) but the stories, personalities, thoughts and deeds are geared for adults 25+, 30+, 40+ years old. That is one of the pillars After Reset stands on.

* * *

Well, that is all for todays news. We’re heading back to work.
The prologue’s completion is already starting to take shape, and we can’t wait to finish it!

Feel free to leave a comment, and don’t miss the XCOM2 this month! :)

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