The final patch for Worry of Newport is upon us, marking the end of this mod's already protracted life cycle. We here at Dark Craft Studios are very happy with this final effort into the mod, and are anxious to hear feedback for our hard work in making the mod the best it absolutely can be. Reserving the need for hot fixes down the road for various weirdness or crysis glitches, our door is entirely closed to patching Worry of Newport ever again, or doing any kind of expansion or "cut". This, friends, is it. The mod's vault has been sealed, and we couldn't be happier with the final patch we're offering you.
With Newport behind us, Dark Craft will continue to work on the projects we already have set for release this year, including Sapience and Triptych - Chapter II. We hope you all enjoy this final patch to you guys, as you requested it, and we would appreciate--but do not directly ask for--new reviews and scores to count for the (sometimes significant) changes this patch brings.
There will be a significant re-release of the "Story Package" in the coming week, with thousands of pieces of content added to it and extensively rewritten documents, scripts, and screenplays for better formatting, as well as new Easter eggs and facts and Q&A's. On top of this, next weekend will also see the release of our first story trailer ever for this mod, clocking in at 3 minutes, to generate interest in this new patch.
Worry of Newport means a lot to us. It is our maiden voyage mod into becoming a dedicated team, and it deserved this sendoff and swan song. And you all, the fans, have sat around with so much patience for us in creating this patch, so I sincerely say--as the creator of this mod--to enjoy yourselves, you guys deserve it. And if by chance you are not a fan, I respect that too. It's nice to see the book closed on this mod, closure is a significant thing when so much time and effort goes into a project. We'll see you guys in our future projects, of course, not withstanding if or if not this patch will need some hot fixes down the road.
Technical:
- Every non-narrated book has been rewritten, with extensive characterization and detail added.
- Custom loading screens and flash rendered loading bars introduced, credit to Hanger34.
- Installation process is now two steps, down from seven.
- All artwork removed from Part 2, due to negative opinions.
- Loading times and RAM usage lowered by 40% due to optimization.
- In-game Mod Menu support.
- Expanded Readme
Graphical:
- SSAO and shading added to all vegetation, which was previously 2D sprites.
- Almost every (vegetated) natural terrain level redesigned from the group up with new standards set in Triptych. Repainted textures, re-placed vegetation, all with a focus on photorealism, while retaining the same atmosphere.
- Distant scenery added, like burning ships, crashing ships, harbors in flames and distant skyboxes/forests.
- Depth of Field put to great use in making dreamlike flashbacks a reality.
- Scene depth has been added, with "faked" miles of terrain looking authentic, doubly so in the South American and Bressen segments.
Audio:
- Dynamic Music Generation will randomly shuffle the entire Worry of Newport soundtrack as you play, as well as the music from the Worry of Newport Alpha in November of 2010 (Credit to Yonaton Habte)
- Over 120 choice pieces of ambient sound added in. Howls, growls, whispers, cries and more.
Gameplay:
- Storyboard has been redone in Part 2. The order of scenes has changed dramatically, pushing flashbacks back into the experience and rewriting all books to tell the (same) story better. There is much less ping-ponging and time line skipping now, if even any at all. Testers have called it seamless, compared to the clunky designs of the original release for Part 2.
- Book Reading 2.0 has been added, with in-game tooltips and mouse oriented controls.
- Cut content added, such as "The Dream Cave" in Part 1 and Gray Soliloquy in Part 2. ~10 minutes of content
- Hamlet has been made a complete questline, including tooltips, comments, and objectives, with a final proper ending.
- Randomly generated scares or scenes will happen as you play organically.
