▶
Patch #100816 Released
FIXES: Audio: • Not ceasing music during loading new areas scenes bug fixed. Gameplay: • The door scripts and mechanics reworked. • Navemesh at Ground Level fixed. • Quanton now opens all fields and doors at the emergency exit hall on Special Facility level when the relevant dialog line is reached. • Quanton cut-scene variables saving bug fixed. Interface: • Character highlighting when mouseover in awakening scene before the area is loaded is fixed. • Ivy model displaying, her appearance and dispersion SFX enhanced. Mechanics: • Dropped item vanishing bug amended. • Drones waypoint mechanics amended to prevent jams. • Navigation AI reworked to prevent creatures freezing and teleports. FEATURES & CHANGES: Audio: • Suspense/danger music theme for the relevant cut-scenes added. Gameplay: • Quests added on Science Facility level. • Ivy model with animations added. • Special Facility full gameplay walkthrough added. • Science Facility full gameplay walkthrough added. • Broken neon lamp flickering at Ground Level added. • Decontamination Hall cut-scene added. • Dialog Mechanics tutorial added. • Running and burning in plasma death animations and SFX added. Graphics: • Broken lightning mechanics (lights/flickering vfx/sound) for the Mess Hall added. • Bleeding and blood trails VFX and mechanics added for the alive creatures (including the character) when they are below 10% HP. Interface: • Saving/Loading UI added. • Added text scrolling by mouse wheel in dialogs. • Mouse icon changing when mouseover icons of new unread/updated Quest and Records added. • Container UI mechanics enhanced so that players could take items separately (now while the Container Contents Panel is opened BUT the Inventory panel is closed, LMB click on an item will move that item stack into the Inventory instantly). Mechanics: • Saving/Loading mechanics added. Other: • Kitchen props created and added at the Mess Hall. • Destroyed and functional drones added at the proper places on Ground Level. IMPORTANT NOTES: #1 Guys, during your walkthrough tests please pay attention to drones’ behavior. It took about 4 weeks to rework it so that they don’t freeze and don’t make a jam. Though, I have a suspicion that they might do that again despite our efforts, but we ourselves did not see that bug after the patch. #2 Previous saved games may not be compatible with this patch (and future ones). This is inevitable for EA and will proceed till the full game release. Nevertheless, the ability to save/load games within every update should save a lot of time for testing and polishing the game. We’ve been testing save/load mechanics for one week only, so, please, if you have time test it more and report about the possible bugs.
• Well, what’s the skinny? • What about the money? • Plans for the Fall-Winter 2016. • The Daedalus. • After Reset fans’ community. • After Reset RPG further development. • Steam Reviews. • (preview) Developing AR RPG, the Prologue: Debriefing. • (preview) Developing After Reset: Tips, Insights for Indie Devs. Read the full update available on Kickstarter... They are NDA as well yet because they are meant to be published at the day of the prologue release. Though, I would like to share them with you asap as the earlier reviewers. Please, feel free to post your relevant comments, questions and thought on their pages. Sincerely, Richard.
[ 2016-10-08 19:52:01 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hi, guys! This monthly news and update should be the last one before the Prologue release. If you're our backer or Co-Founder, please, read the full version of it on Kickstarter which comprises the usual patch notes and most of the NDA-stuff I’ve shared with Co-Founders on the forum after the previous update. This NDA material includes: • Our current state of affairs. • Money and issues results report. • Our plan for the prologue release. • The future of the After Reset development. • Preview of the article "Developing AR RPG, the Prologue: Debriefing" I’d like to post it after the Prologue release in October. • Preview of the article "Developing After Reset: Tips, Insights for Indie Devs" another article specified for indie developers. It consists of concise data on the common issues we and our colleagues faced during the development, our conclusion and solutions we applied. Those issues are something that all indie devs must meet and have to deal with at one time or another. Right after the Co-Founders, I’d like to share all that data with you before it is made open public to receive your feedback, impressions, thoughts and advice (in case you have one) before making another solid step.
PATCH #100816 RELEASED
FIXES: Audio: • Not ceasing music during loading new areas scenes bug fixed. Gameplay: • The door scripts and mechanics reworked. • Navemesh at Ground Level fixed. • Quanton now opens all fields and doors at the emergency exit hall on Special Facility level when the relevant dialog line is reached. • Quanton cut-scene variables saving bug fixed. Interface: • Character highlighting when mouseover in awakening scene before the area is loaded is fixed. • Ivy model displaying, her appearance and dispersion SFX enhanced. Mechanics: • Dropped item vanishing bug amended. • Drones waypoint mechanics amended to prevent jams. • Navigation AI reworked to prevent creatures freezing and teleports. FEATURES & CHANGES: Audio: • Suspense/danger music theme for the relevant cut-scenes added. Gameplay: • Quests added on Science Facility level. • Ivy model with animations added. • Special Facility full gameplay walkthrough added. • Science Facility full gameplay walkthrough added. • Broken neon lamp flickering at Ground Level added. • Decontamination Hall cut-scene added. • Dialog Mechanics tutorial added. • Running and burning in plasma death animations and SFX added. Graphics: • Broken lightning mechanics (lights/flickering vfx/sound) for the Mess Hall added. • Bleeding and blood trails VFX and mechanics added for the alive creatures (including the character) when they are below 10% HP. Interface: • Saving/Loading UI added. • Added text scrolling by mouse wheel in dialogs. • Mouse icon changing when mouseover icons of new unread/updated Quest and Records added. • Container UI mechanics enhanced so that players could take items separately (now while the Container Contents Panel is opened BUT the Inventory panel is closed, LMB click on an item will move that item stack into the Inventory instantly). Mechanics: • Saving/Loading mechanics added. Other: • Kitchen props created and added at the Mess Hall. • Destroyed and functional drones added at the proper places on Ground Level. IMPORTANT NOTES: #1 Guys, during your walkthrough tests please pay attention to drones’ behavior. It took about 4 weeks to rework it so that they don’t freeze and don’t make a jam. Though, I have a suspicion that they might do that again despite our efforts, but we ourselves did not see that bug after the patch. #2 Previous saved games may not be compatible with this patch (and future ones). This is inevitable for EA and will proceed till the full game release. Nevertheless, the ability to save/load games within every update should save a lot of time for testing and polishing the game. We’ve been testing save/load mechanics for one week only, so, please, if you have time test it more and report about the possible bugs.
SUMMER REPORT: CURRENT WORKS, MONEY, PLANS
• Well, what’s the skinny? • What about the money? • Plans for the Fall-Winter 2016. • The Daedalus. • After Reset fans’ community. • After Reset RPG further development. • Steam Reviews. • (preview) Developing AR RPG, the Prologue: Debriefing. • (preview) Developing After Reset: Tips, Insights for Indie Devs. Read the full update available on Kickstarter... They are NDA as well yet because they are meant to be published at the day of the prologue release. Though, I would like to share them with you asap as the earlier reviewers. Please, feel free to post your relevant comments, questions and thought on their pages. Sincerely, Richard.
[ 2016-10-08 19:52:01 CET ] [ Original post ]
Patch #100816 Released
FIXES: Audio: Not ceasing music during loading new areas scenes bug fixed. Gameplay: The door scripts and mechanics reworked. Navemesh at Ground Level fixed. Quanton now opens all fields and doors at the emergency exit hall on Special Facility level when the relevant dialog line is reached. Quanton cut-scene variables saving bug fixed. Interface: Character highlighting when mouseover in awakening scene before the area is loaded is fixed. Ivy model displaying, her appearance and dispersion SFX enhanced. Mechanics: Dropped item vanishing bug amended. Drones waypoint mechanics amended to prevent jams. Navigation AI reworked to prevent creatures freezing and teleports. FEATURES & CHANGES: Audio: Suspense/danger music theme for the relevant cut-scenes added. Gameplay: Quests added on Science Facility level. Ivy model with animations added. Special Facility full gameplay walkthrough added. Science Facility full gameplay walkthrough added. Broken neon lamp flickering at Ground Level added. Decontamination Hall cut-scene added. Dialog Mechanics tutorial added. Running and burning in plasma death animations and SFX added. Graphics: Broken lightning mechanics (lights/flickering vfx/sound) for the Mess Hall added. Bleeding and blood trails VFX and mechanics added for the alive creatures (including the character) when they are below 10% HP. Interface: Saving/Loading UI added. Added text scrolling by mouse wheel in dialogs. Mouse icon changing when mouseover icons of new unread/updated Quest and Records added. Container UI mechanics enhanced so that players could take items separately (now while the Container Contents Panel is opened BUT the Inventory panel is closed, LMB click on an item will move that item stack into the Inventory instantly). Mechanics: Saving/Loading mechanics added. Other: Kitchen props created and added at the Mess Hall. Destroyed and functional drones added at the proper places on Ground Level. IMPORTANT NOTES: #1 Guys, during your walkthrough tests please pay attention to drones behavior. It took about 4 weeks to rework it so that they dont freeze and dont make a jam. Though, I have a suspicion that they might do that again despite our efforts, but we ourselves did not see that bug after the patch. #2 Previous saved games may not be compatible with this patch (and future ones). This is inevitable for EA and will proceed till the full game release. Nevertheless, the ability to save/load games within every update should save a lot of time for testing and polishing the game. Weve been testing save/load mechanics for one week only, so, please, if you have time test it more and report about the possible bugs.
Well, whats the skinny? What about the money? Plans for the Fall-Winter 2016. The Daedalus. After Reset fans community. After Reset RPG further development. Steam Reviews. (preview) Developing AR RPG, the Prologue: Debriefing. (preview) Developing After Reset: Tips, Insights for Indie Devs. Read the full update available on Kickstarter... They are NDA as well yet because they are meant to be published at the day of the prologue release. Though, I would like to share them with you asap as the earlier reviewers. Please, feel free to post your relevant comments, questions and thought on their pages. Sincerely, Richard.
[ 2016-10-08 19:52:01 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hi, guys! This monthly news and update should be the last one before the Prologue release. If you're our backer or Co-Founder, please, read the full version of it on Kickstarter which comprises the usual patch notes and most of the NDA-stuff Ive shared with Co-Founders on the forum after the previous update. This NDA material includes: Our current state of affairs. Money and issues results report. Our plan for the prologue release. The future of the After Reset development. Preview of the article "Developing AR RPG, the Prologue: Debriefing" Id like to post it after the Prologue release in October. Preview of the article "Developing After Reset: Tips, Insights for Indie Devs" another article specified for indie developers. It consists of concise data on the common issues we and our colleagues faced during the development, our conclusion and solutions we applied. Those issues are something that all indie devs must meet and have to deal with at one time or another. Right after the Co-Founders, Id like to share all that data with you before it is made open public to receive your feedback, impressions, thoughts and advice (in case you have one) before making another solid step.
PATCH #100816 RELEASED
FIXES: Audio: Not ceasing music during loading new areas scenes bug fixed. Gameplay: The door scripts and mechanics reworked. Navemesh at Ground Level fixed. Quanton now opens all fields and doors at the emergency exit hall on Special Facility level when the relevant dialog line is reached. Quanton cut-scene variables saving bug fixed. Interface: Character highlighting when mouseover in awakening scene before the area is loaded is fixed. Ivy model displaying, her appearance and dispersion SFX enhanced. Mechanics: Dropped item vanishing bug amended. Drones waypoint mechanics amended to prevent jams. Navigation AI reworked to prevent creatures freezing and teleports. FEATURES & CHANGES: Audio: Suspense/danger music theme for the relevant cut-scenes added. Gameplay: Quests added on Science Facility level. Ivy model with animations added. Special Facility full gameplay walkthrough added. Science Facility full gameplay walkthrough added. Broken neon lamp flickering at Ground Level added. Decontamination Hall cut-scene added. Dialog Mechanics tutorial added. Running and burning in plasma death animations and SFX added. Graphics: Broken lightning mechanics (lights/flickering vfx/sound) for the Mess Hall added. Bleeding and blood trails VFX and mechanics added for the alive creatures (including the character) when they are below 10% HP. Interface: Saving/Loading UI added. Added text scrolling by mouse wheel in dialogs. Mouse icon changing when mouseover icons of new unread/updated Quest and Records added. Container UI mechanics enhanced so that players could take items separately (now while the Container Contents Panel is opened BUT the Inventory panel is closed, LMB click on an item will move that item stack into the Inventory instantly). Mechanics: Saving/Loading mechanics added. Other: Kitchen props created and added at the Mess Hall. Destroyed and functional drones added at the proper places on Ground Level. IMPORTANT NOTES: #1 Guys, during your walkthrough tests please pay attention to drones behavior. It took about 4 weeks to rework it so that they dont freeze and dont make a jam. Though, I have a suspicion that they might do that again despite our efforts, but we ourselves did not see that bug after the patch. #2 Previous saved games may not be compatible with this patch (and future ones). This is inevitable for EA and will proceed till the full game release. Nevertheless, the ability to save/load games within every update should save a lot of time for testing and polishing the game. Weve been testing save/load mechanics for one week only, so, please, if you have time test it more and report about the possible bugs.
SUMMER REPORT: CURRENT WORKS, MONEY, PLANS
Well, whats the skinny? What about the money? Plans for the Fall-Winter 2016. The Daedalus. After Reset fans community. After Reset RPG further development. Steam Reviews. (preview) Developing AR RPG, the Prologue: Debriefing. (preview) Developing After Reset: Tips, Insights for Indie Devs. Read the full update available on Kickstarter... They are NDA as well yet because they are meant to be published at the day of the prologue release. Though, I would like to share them with you asap as the earlier reviewers. Please, feel free to post your relevant comments, questions and thought on their pages. Sincerely, Richard.
[ 2016-10-08 19:52:01 CET ] [ Original post ]
Patch #073116 Released
FIXES: Audio: • Missed Narrator voice sounds added. • Volumes for 3d sounds and speech amended. • Not ceasing voiceover in dialogs while the dialog is closed or another line is played, or when quieting to main menu - fixed. Gameplay: • ASWD bug fixed. • Typos in Records fixed. • Skills and stats checks in dialogs fixed. • Awakening cut-scene reworked and enhanced. Graphics: • All female clothes (neck bug) reskinned and reboned. • Low quality character and NPC camera with pixel border in dialogs to fixed the cinematic smoothness. Interface: • Text blinking in dialogs fixed. • Red coloring of the character model in Character menu fixed. • Main Menu button corruption after traveling between levels amended. • Tag panel fixed. • Mouse absence during the first dialog fixed. • Overlay picture for PAUSE deleted. • Ivy's icon blur after interaction fixed. Mechanics: • Saving/loading bug of dropped loot and trash fixed. • Bug with several items multiplying on floor when traveling between levels fixed. • Drone position bias after level reloading fixed. • Death mechanics and its visual and audio assets fixed. • Area transaction script and visuals amended. FEATURES & CHANGES: Audio: • Final recordings and post-processing for Keren Goston dialogs are done. • VFX sounds for drones created and embedded. • Looped heart beat sound added for the character when he's in dying state. Gameplay: • Drone’s animations added. • Drone’s activation quest added. • Drone’s dialog (activation) added. • Drone’s dialog (deactivation) added. • Ivy’s dialog (drone) added. • Quanton dialog (repaired) added. • Quanton repairing cut scenes added. • Quanton repairing challenging puzzle added. • Lab drone hive/cloud mind added. • In-game access to all 22 Records for the prologue added. Graphics: • Gameplay camera settings polished to the ideal 3d pseudo-isometric view. • Special Facility graphics optimized and freed resources used for graphic quality boost. • Science Facility graphics optimized and freed resources headed for graphic quality boost. Interface: • Dialog's answers display enhanced (numbers and "/* styles added). • Now any GUI (highlighting, tagging, etc) do properly disable VFX during cut scenes and dialogues. • New Quest and new Records notification icons added as clickable to let them open relevant panels respectively. Mechanics: • Drones AI added. • Followers mechanics added so that PC’s followers can travel with him/her through the levels and areas. Other: • Sparkles added to Quanton's servers. • Colors for repaired Quanton changed. • More environmental assets set at Ground Level. IMPORTANT NOTES: #1 Thanks for your bug reports, guys! We really appreciate them, but it’s become quite time consuming to slog through them all in our e-mail. We’ve come up with a better method to make this process more organized, and you can now upload your reports to a new sub-form we’ve created on STEAM, which you can access here: LINK. #2 Along with the Quanton’s servers, quests, dialogs, models, VFX, cut scenes, and other gameplay, we have finally completed the Science Facility level as it was meant to be. Through the prologue players should become comfortable with the specific (and quite frankly old school-ish) methods of storytelling and gameplay we plan to use in the rest of After Reset RPG. One of these core features is very non-linear gameplay, and in regard to the Quanton Hub, it is completely up to players to decide what to do with it. Doing nothing is, of course, an option. I’d like all of you guys (while playing AR RPG) to really immerse yourself into its world and roleplay your character. Relying on the statistics of human behavior, game theory, and my D&D DM experience, I encourage you to behave like your character would in the real world—or even roleplay yourself. There’s consequences (positive and negative) for just about everything in the game. So aside from testing, please, don’t rush into decisions just because the option is there. #3 There is one cut-scene left to be programmed into the Special Facility level in order to complete it. Except for that, nothing else should change as far as the level goes, right up to the release of the prologue. #4 Our third level (the huge one – Ground Level) does not need to be tested yet, but feel free to explore it so you can see how things change with each update. #5 One of the most important things in today’s update is the final representation of the dialog mechanics and its GUI. Please, feel free to share your impression and thoughts about it.
There are many reasons why it took so long to properly implement her into the game, and I’ll show you a few of them. Below you can see her concept:
An example of the terrible model we initially got from freelancers:
I just could not to put That creature in the game. Rebuilding her took two months, and here you can see the highpoly version of her we did 3 weeks ago:
Unfortunately, the low poly count of the head as well as the textures turned out to be bad:
And we had to rework the head completely to get the final highpoly variant you can see below (texturing is in progress). Now I can empathize this girl and would be be pleased to see that face through the whole game:
Albeit, I hesitate what haircut for the prologue status of Ivy to choose. We need your help to made our minds about it. Please, let us know which haircut style for her you'd prefer:
In addition to this update, I’ve posted a closed early report for our Co-Founders: LINK. It contains screens from our project boards as well as several personal boards of the team members; financial report; plans for the future development (the game is not limited to the prologue, After Reset’s development is about more than one game). If you’re a Co-Founder, please, feel free to check that early report and share your thoughts. For our other Kickstarter backers I’m going to share that report a couple weeks before the prologue release in a closed update. Everyone else will be able to see this report after the release.
I posted in previous updates our thanks and my personal kudos to those several hundred gamers who purchased our game on Steam Early Access and rooted us regardless of its very early stage of development. I promised to find some way to show our gratitude. So, I’d like to provide you with Co-Founder statuses, guys, so that you will have access to all the extra content on our forum and to be the first to view our reports. This isn’t just a marketing ploy; it’s our way of saying thanks. If you purchased SEA by the fourth of July or earlier, feel free to write me on Steam to claim your Co-Founder status for your website account on our forum. Once again, thanks. Your contributions have become immortalized in our game, part of its models, textures, sounds, setting, quests, animations, etc.
In previous updates I also wrote about my willingness to include the TFoG game for free as a DLC graphic novel for those of you who already purchased or backed After Reset RPG. Even though we still can’t solve that issue just by putting whole TFoG game (1Gb+) into our Steam DLC folder, I’ve got another option: If you have TFoG as a reward for your tier on our Kickstarter AR RPG campaign, or if you purchased that TFoG DLC on Steam, please write me by e-mail (in case of KS reward) or buzz me through Steam and I’ll just send you a FREE key to the Fall of Gyes game on Steam.
Development of the game is not ceasing after the Prologue completion. I’ve already created the script, primary characters, gameplan, maps and quests drafts for Chapter 1. As the location of the chapter will take place on territories belonging to the Indian Alliance and Nomads, in this update I am proud to announce a marvelous new music track that has been added to our official OST called: “Raider’s Camp.” If you got and activated our OST DLC preorder it has been automatically updated with this news released. Please, check your ...SteamAppscommonAfter Reset RPGadd-ons folder. If you didn’t get our OST DLC preordered through the Kickstarter campaign or by early direct pledges, you need to wait till we release it officially or some other special event. Still, you can enjoy the following lore from After Reset game and setting right now.
*The photo above provided by Dimitri Zaitsev, a talented costume designer from nuclear-snail.com. “Raider’s Camp” – that is the name for the new music track we’ve added to our OST, but I hesitated a lot in the naming of it because of our hard sci-fi concept. The setting forced me to use a “Nomad” world. Indeed, have you ever thought why in post-apoc movies and games “raiders” call themselves “raiders?” I imply that it is quite normal for other peaceful people call someone who gangs them – “Raider!” But it turns to comedy when I try to imagine such brutal persons calling each other – “Sup, raidies!” or “Dear, comrade raiders!” If you feel the same way, this After Reset lore is for you: Nomads: Nomads, sometimes called Raiders by the native population, are any group of Survivors (descendants of the people who were lucky enough to survive the Reset but unlucky enough to survive it above the surface) who constantly stay on the move. During the first decades after the Reset, the time called both by the Survivors and Natives as the Hurricane Days, the last human cities above the surface vanished and the evidence of human civilization perished. Following Dunbar’s Rule that is soldered into human nature, the descendants of people (above surface) survived by gathering into small groups of less than eighty people. As the Yellow zones (relatively well accommodated for life) were too rare that time, these people adopted a migratory lifestyle. Due to all culture, material knowledge of the Past Age was lost and most of the flora and fauna were critically damaged. So, the new civilization had to start over from the beginning: hunting, gathering, raiding and pasture (this way of life spread after 80s A.R.). Lack of human impact on nature allowed it to evolve and take revenge on virtually every biosphere from plankton to mammals. One way or another, by 100 A.R. a new civilization of Survivors emerged though they were still separated into groups of Nomads, usually consisted of several dozens of people, constantly moving within Yellow zones, practicing Social Darwinism within trading with other groups or fighting over scarce resources. For these people, their way of life is dominated by aggressive raiding, plundering, murder, or even cannibalism in some extreme cases. To other Survivors they are simply known as “Raiders.” It is important to mention, that raiding and marauding were more or less practiced by all Nomads; thus such classification is highly nominal: e.g. for an average group of Nomads, who were attacked or ransomed by larger group, these attackers would be called Raiders (by the Nomads). Second, a conditional sub-group might be distinguished as Pastors, for which hunting on massive clouds of animals (primary, cloven-hoofed types but that depends on the region) makes up their primary occupation. Later, after 80s A.R, pasturing became the dominant means of survival for most Nomad cultures. Their migratory patterns tend to mirror those of the animals they hunt. For those who remain focused on raiding and plundering, they still actively hunt and gather but their strategies adapt very quickly to changing circumstances. Generally, they just follow their instincts. Finally, there are the Craftsmen. These nomadic people survive through manufacturing and trade, focusing more on re-engineering past tech and trial-and-error methods to procure basic technology. Such groups of Craftsmen frequently cart their goods in wagons and are a prime target for other Nomads with whom they are not at peace. This category of Nomads was formed much later than the first two, but also had the fastest social development of any Nomad culture after 100 A.R., and it quickly became the dominant foundation for establishing sedentary settlements. This usually happened whenever the Nomad population (of a particular group) reached Dunbar’s Threshold or when larger groups absorbed smaller ones too frequently. These excess forces quickly became militias that guarded the agricultural and livestock base of the settlement.
Well, guys, thanks for your support, patience and rooting for us over our long journey. Your support is the wind in our development sails. Now, let’s focus on the last leg of development! Sincerely, Richard.
[ 2016-08-01 18:59:11 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hi, guys!
I’m glad to announce another monthly report for you with a bunch of good news as always. From this update you can familiarize with the patch notes, Ivy retrospective development, fresh money & issues report for our Co-Founders, an offer for you to get your own Co-Founder status from SEA, receive a free copy of the TFoG game on Steam, listen to a new OST music track “Raider’s Camp,” and check out some new lore representing the new faction.
Just open up a cold bear or a Coke and enjoy the update!
PATCH #073116 RELEASED
FIXES: Audio: • Missed Narrator voice sounds added. • Volumes for 3d sounds and speech amended. • Not ceasing voiceover in dialogs while the dialog is closed or another line is played, or when quieting to main menu - fixed. Gameplay: • ASWD bug fixed. • Typos in Records fixed. • Skills and stats checks in dialogs fixed. • Awakening cut-scene reworked and enhanced. Graphics: • All female clothes (neck bug) reskinned and reboned. • Low quality character and NPC camera with pixel border in dialogs to fixed the cinematic smoothness. Interface: • Text blinking in dialogs fixed. • Red coloring of the character model in Character menu fixed. • Main Menu button corruption after traveling between levels amended. • Tag panel fixed. • Mouse absence during the first dialog fixed. • Overlay picture for PAUSE deleted. • Ivy's icon blur after interaction fixed. Mechanics: • Saving/loading bug of dropped loot and trash fixed. • Bug with several items multiplying on floor when traveling between levels fixed. • Drone position bias after level reloading fixed. • Death mechanics and its visual and audio assets fixed. • Area transaction script and visuals amended. FEATURES & CHANGES: Audio: • Final recordings and post-processing for Keren Goston dialogs are done. • VFX sounds for drones created and embedded. • Looped heart beat sound added for the character when he's in dying state. Gameplay: • Drone’s animations added. • Drone’s activation quest added. • Drone’s dialog (activation) added. • Drone’s dialog (deactivation) added. • Ivy’s dialog (drone) added. • Quanton dialog (repaired) added. • Quanton repairing cut scenes added. • Quanton repairing challenging puzzle added. • Lab drone hive/cloud mind added. • In-game access to all 22 Records for the prologue added. Graphics: • Gameplay camera settings polished to the ideal 3d pseudo-isometric view. • Special Facility graphics optimized and freed resources used for graphic quality boost. • Science Facility graphics optimized and freed resources headed for graphic quality boost. Interface: • Dialog's answers display enhanced (numbers and "/* styles added). • Now any GUI (highlighting, tagging, etc) do properly disable VFX during cut scenes and dialogues. • New Quest and new Records notification icons added as clickable to let them open relevant panels respectively. Mechanics: • Drones AI added. • Followers mechanics added so that PC’s followers can travel with him/her through the levels and areas. Other: • Sparkles added to Quanton's servers. • Colors for repaired Quanton changed. • More environmental assets set at Ground Level. IMPORTANT NOTES: #1 Thanks for your bug reports, guys! We really appreciate them, but it’s become quite time consuming to slog through them all in our e-mail. We’ve come up with a better method to make this process more organized, and you can now upload your reports to a new sub-form we’ve created on STEAM, which you can access here: LINK. #2 Along with the Quanton’s servers, quests, dialogs, models, VFX, cut scenes, and other gameplay, we have finally completed the Science Facility level as it was meant to be. Through the prologue players should become comfortable with the specific (and quite frankly old school-ish) methods of storytelling and gameplay we plan to use in the rest of After Reset RPG. One of these core features is very non-linear gameplay, and in regard to the Quanton Hub, it is completely up to players to decide what to do with it. Doing nothing is, of course, an option. I’d like all of you guys (while playing AR RPG) to really immerse yourself into its world and roleplay your character. Relying on the statistics of human behavior, game theory, and my D&D DM experience, I encourage you to behave like your character would in the real world—or even roleplay yourself. There’s consequences (positive and negative) for just about everything in the game. So aside from testing, please, don’t rush into decisions just because the option is there. #3 There is one cut-scene left to be programmed into the Special Facility level in order to complete it. Except for that, nothing else should change as far as the level goes, right up to the release of the prologue. #4 Our third level (the huge one – Ground Level) does not need to be tested yet, but feel free to explore it so you can see how things change with each update. #5 One of the most important things in today’s update is the final representation of the dialog mechanics and its GUI. Please, feel free to share your impression and thoughts about it.
IVY REPRESENTATION
There are many reasons why it took so long to properly implement her into the game, and I’ll show you a few of them. Below you can see her concept:
An example of the terrible model we initially got from freelancers:
I just could not to put That creature in the game. Rebuilding her took two months, and here you can see the highpoly version of her we did 3 weeks ago:
Unfortunately, the low poly count of the head as well as the textures turned out to be bad:
And we had to rework the head completely to get the final highpoly variant you can see below (texturing is in progress). Now I can empathize this girl and would be be pleased to see that face through the whole game:
Albeit, I hesitate what haircut for the prologue status of Ivy to choose. We need your help to made our minds about it. Please, let us know which haircut style for her you'd prefer:
EARLY REPORT FOR CO-FOUNDERS: MONEY, WORKS, PLANS
In addition to this update, I’ve posted a closed early report for our Co-Founders: LINK. It contains screens from our project boards as well as several personal boards of the team members; financial report; plans for the future development (the game is not limited to the prologue, After Reset’s development is about more than one game). If you’re a Co-Founder, please, feel free to check that early report and share your thoughts. For our other Kickstarter backers I’m going to share that report a couple weeks before the prologue release in a closed update. Everyone else will be able to see this report after the release.
CO-FOUNDER STATUSES FOR SEA PURCHASERS
I posted in previous updates our thanks and my personal kudos to those several hundred gamers who purchased our game on Steam Early Access and rooted us regardless of its very early stage of development. I promised to find some way to show our gratitude. So, I’d like to provide you with Co-Founder statuses, guys, so that you will have access to all the extra content on our forum and to be the first to view our reports. This isn’t just a marketing ploy; it’s our way of saying thanks. If you purchased SEA by the fourth of July or earlier, feel free to write me on Steam to claim your Co-Founder status for your website account on our forum. Once again, thanks. Your contributions have become immortalized in our game, part of its models, textures, sounds, setting, quests, animations, etc.
TFOG GAME GIVEAWAYS FOR BACKERS
In previous updates I also wrote about my willingness to include the TFoG game for free as a DLC graphic novel for those of you who already purchased or backed After Reset RPG. Even though we still can’t solve that issue just by putting whole TFoG game (1Gb+) into our Steam DLC folder, I’ve got another option: If you have TFoG as a reward for your tier on our Kickstarter AR RPG campaign, or if you purchased that TFoG DLC on Steam, please write me by e-mail (in case of KS reward) or buzz me through Steam and I’ll just send you a FREE key to the Fall of Gyes game on Steam.
ADDING TO THE OST
Development of the game is not ceasing after the Prologue completion. I’ve already created the script, primary characters, gameplan, maps and quests drafts for Chapter 1. As the location of the chapter will take place on territories belonging to the Indian Alliance and Nomads, in this update I am proud to announce a marvelous new music track that has been added to our official OST called: “Raider’s Camp.” If you got and activated our OST DLC preorder it has been automatically updated with this news released. Please, check your ...SteamAppscommonAfter Reset RPGadd-ons folder. If you didn’t get our OST DLC preordered through the Kickstarter campaign or by early direct pledges, you need to wait till we release it officially or some other special event. Still, you can enjoy the following lore from After Reset game and setting right now.
LORE: NOMADS
*The photo above provided by Dimitri Zaitsev, a talented costume designer from nuclear-snail.com. “Raider’s Camp” – that is the name for the new music track we’ve added to our OST, but I hesitated a lot in the naming of it because of our hard sci-fi concept. The setting forced me to use a “Nomad” world. Indeed, have you ever thought why in post-apoc movies and games “raiders” call themselves “raiders?” I imply that it is quite normal for other peaceful people call someone who gangs them – “Raider!” But it turns to comedy when I try to imagine such brutal persons calling each other – “Sup, raidies!” or “Dear, comrade raiders!” If you feel the same way, this After Reset lore is for you: Nomads: Nomads, sometimes called Raiders by the native population, are any group of Survivors (descendants of the people who were lucky enough to survive the Reset but unlucky enough to survive it above the surface) who constantly stay on the move. During the first decades after the Reset, the time called both by the Survivors and Natives as the Hurricane Days, the last human cities above the surface vanished and the evidence of human civilization perished. Following Dunbar’s Rule that is soldered into human nature, the descendants of people (above surface) survived by gathering into small groups of less than eighty people. As the Yellow zones (relatively well accommodated for life) were too rare that time, these people adopted a migratory lifestyle. Due to all culture, material knowledge of the Past Age was lost and most of the flora and fauna were critically damaged. So, the new civilization had to start over from the beginning: hunting, gathering, raiding and pasture (this way of life spread after 80s A.R.). Lack of human impact on nature allowed it to evolve and take revenge on virtually every biosphere from plankton to mammals. One way or another, by 100 A.R. a new civilization of Survivors emerged though they were still separated into groups of Nomads, usually consisted of several dozens of people, constantly moving within Yellow zones, practicing Social Darwinism within trading with other groups or fighting over scarce resources. For these people, their way of life is dominated by aggressive raiding, plundering, murder, or even cannibalism in some extreme cases. To other Survivors they are simply known as “Raiders.” It is important to mention, that raiding and marauding were more or less practiced by all Nomads; thus such classification is highly nominal: e.g. for an average group of Nomads, who were attacked or ransomed by larger group, these attackers would be called Raiders (by the Nomads). Second, a conditional sub-group might be distinguished as Pastors, for which hunting on massive clouds of animals (primary, cloven-hoofed types but that depends on the region) makes up their primary occupation. Later, after 80s A.R, pasturing became the dominant means of survival for most Nomad cultures. Their migratory patterns tend to mirror those of the animals they hunt. For those who remain focused on raiding and plundering, they still actively hunt and gather but their strategies adapt very quickly to changing circumstances. Generally, they just follow their instincts. Finally, there are the Craftsmen. These nomadic people survive through manufacturing and trade, focusing more on re-engineering past tech and trial-and-error methods to procure basic technology. Such groups of Craftsmen frequently cart their goods in wagons and are a prime target for other Nomads with whom they are not at peace. This category of Nomads was formed much later than the first two, but also had the fastest social development of any Nomad culture after 100 A.R., and it quickly became the dominant foundation for establishing sedentary settlements. This usually happened whenever the Nomad population (of a particular group) reached Dunbar’s Threshold or when larger groups absorbed smaller ones too frequently. These excess forces quickly became militias that guarded the agricultural and livestock base of the settlement.
* * *
Well, guys, thanks for your support, patience and rooting for us over our long journey. Your support is the wind in our development sails. Now, let’s focus on the last leg of development! Sincerely, Richard.
[ 2016-08-01 18:59:11 CET ] [ Original post ]
Patch #073116 Released
FIXES: Audio: Missed Narrator voice sounds added. Volumes for 3d sounds and speech amended. Not ceasing voiceover in dialogs while the dialog is closed or another line is played, or when quieting to main menu - fixed. Gameplay: ASWD bug fixed. Typos in Records fixed. Skills and stats checks in dialogs fixed. Awakening cut-scene reworked and enhanced. Graphics: All female clothes (neck bug) reskinned and reboned. Low quality character and NPC camera with pixel border in dialogs to fixed the cinematic smoothness. Interface: Text blinking in dialogs fixed. Red coloring of the character model in Character menu fixed. Main Menu button corruption after traveling between levels amended. Tag panel fixed. Mouse absence during the first dialog fixed. Overlay picture for PAUSE deleted. Ivy's icon blur after interaction fixed. Mechanics: Saving/loading bug of dropped loot and trash fixed. Bug with several items multiplying on floor when traveling between levels fixed. Drone position bias after level reloading fixed. Death mechanics and its visual and audio assets fixed. Area transaction script and visuals amended. FEATURES & CHANGES: Audio: Final recordings and post-processing for Keren Goston dialogs are done. VFX sounds for drones created and embedded. Looped heart beat sound added for the character when he's in dying state. Gameplay: Drones animations added. Drones activation quest added. Drones dialog (activation) added. Drones dialog (deactivation) added. Ivys dialog (drone) added. Quanton dialog (repaired) added. Quanton repairing cut scenes added. Quanton repairing challenging puzzle added. Lab drone hive/cloud mind added. In-game access to all 22 Records for the prologue added. Graphics: Gameplay camera settings polished to the ideal 3d pseudo-isometric view. Special Facility graphics optimized and freed resources used for graphic quality boost. Science Facility graphics optimized and freed resources headed for graphic quality boost. Interface: Dialog's answers display enhanced (numbers and "/* styles added). Now any GUI (highlighting, tagging, etc) do properly disable VFX during cut scenes and dialogues. New Quest and new Records notification icons added as clickable to let them open relevant panels respectively. Mechanics: Drones AI added. Followers mechanics added so that PCs followers can travel with him/her through the levels and areas. Other: Sparkles added to Quanton's servers. Colors for repaired Quanton changed. More environmental assets set at Ground Level. IMPORTANT NOTES: #1 Thanks for your bug reports, guys! We really appreciate them, but its become quite time consuming to slog through them all in our e-mail. Weve come up with a better method to make this process more organized, and you can now upload your reports to a new sub-form weve created on STEAM, which you can access here: LINK. #2 Along with the Quantons servers, quests, dialogs, models, VFX, cut scenes, and other gameplay, we have finally completed the Science Facility level as it was meant to be. Through the prologue players should become comfortable with the specific (and quite frankly old school-ish) methods of storytelling and gameplay we plan to use in the rest of After Reset RPG. One of these core features is very non-linear gameplay, and in regard to the Quanton Hub, it is completely up to players to decide what to do with it. Doing nothing is, of course, an option. Id like all of you guys (while playing AR RPG) to really immerse yourself into its world and roleplay your character. Relying on the statistics of human behavior, game theory, and my D&D DM experience, I encourage you to behave like your character would in the real worldor even roleplay yourself. Theres consequences (positive and negative) for just about everything in the game. So aside from testing, please, dont rush into decisions just because the option is there. #3 There is one cut-scene left to be programmed into the Special Facility level in order to complete it. Except for that, nothing else should change as far as the level goes, right up to the release of the prologue. #4 Our third level (the huge one Ground Level) does not need to be tested yet, but feel free to explore it so you can see how things change with each update. #5 One of the most important things in todays update is the final representation of the dialog mechanics and its GUI. Please, feel free to share your impression and thoughts about it.
There are many reasons why it took so long to properly implement her into the game, and Ill show you a few of them. Below you can see her concept:
An example of the terrible model we initially got from freelancers:
I just could not to put That creature in the game. Rebuilding her took two months, and here you can see the highpoly version of her we did 3 weeks ago:
Unfortunately, the low poly count of the head as well as the textures turned out to be bad:
And we had to rework the head completely to get the final highpoly variant you can see below (texturing is in progress). Now I can empathize this girl and would be be pleased to see that face through the whole game:
Albeit, I hesitate what haircut for the prologue status of Ivy to choose. We need your help to made our minds about it. Please, let us know which haircut style for her you'd prefer:
In addition to this update, Ive posted a closed early report for our Co-Founders: LINK. It contains screens from our project boards as well as several personal boards of the team members; financial report; plans for the future development (the game is not limited to the prologue, After Resets development is about more than one game). If youre a Co-Founder, please, feel free to check that early report and share your thoughts. For our other Kickstarter backers Im going to share that report a couple weeks before the prologue release in a closed update. Everyone else will be able to see this report after the release.
I posted in previous updates our thanks and my personal kudos to those several hundred gamers who purchased our game on Steam Early Access and rooted us regardless of its very early stage of development. I promised to find some way to show our gratitude. So, Id like to provide you with Co-Founder statuses, guys, so that you will have access to all the extra content on our forum and to be the first to view our reports. This isnt just a marketing ploy; its our way of saying thanks. If you purchased SEA by the fourth of July or earlier, feel free to write me on Steam to claim your Co-Founder status for your website account on our forum. Once again, thanks. Your contributions have become immortalized in our game, part of its models, textures, sounds, setting, quests, animations, etc.
In previous updates I also wrote about my willingness to include the TFoG game for free as a DLC graphic novel for those of you who already purchased or backed After Reset RPG. Even though we still cant solve that issue just by putting whole TFoG game (1Gb+) into our Steam DLC folder, Ive got another option: If you have TFoG as a reward for your tier on our Kickstarter AR RPG campaign, or if you purchased that TFoG DLC on Steam, please write me by e-mail (in case of KS reward) or buzz me through Steam and Ill just send you a FREE key to the Fall of Gyes game on Steam.
Development of the game is not ceasing after the Prologue completion. Ive already created the script, primary characters, gameplan, maps and quests drafts for Chapter 1. As the location of the chapter will take place on territories belonging to the Indian Alliance and Nomads, in this update I am proud to announce a marvelous new music track that has been added to our official OST called: Raiders Camp. If you got and activated our OST DLC preorder it has been automatically updated with this news released. Please, check your ...SteamApps\common\After Reset RPG\add-ons folder. If you didnt get our OST DLC preordered through the Kickstarter campaign or by early direct pledges, you need to wait till we release it officially or some other special event. Still, you can enjoy the following lore from After Reset game and setting right now.
*The photo above provided by Dimitri Zaitsev, a talented costume designer from nuclear-snail.com. Raiders Camp that is the name for the new music track weve added to our OST, but I hesitated a lot in the naming of it because of our hard sci-fi concept. The setting forced me to use a Nomad world. Indeed, have you ever thought why in post-apoc movies and games raiders call themselves raiders? I imply that it is quite normal for other peaceful people call someone who gangs them Raider! But it turns to comedy when I try to imagine such brutal persons calling each other Sup, raidies! or Dear, comrade raiders! If you feel the same way, this After Reset lore is for you: Nomads: Nomads, sometimes called Raiders by the native population, are any group of Survivors (descendants of the people who were lucky enough to survive the Reset but unlucky enough to survive it above the surface) who constantly stay on the move. During the first decades after the Reset, the time called both by the Survivors and Natives as the Hurricane Days, the last human cities above the surface vanished and the evidence of human civilization perished. Following Dunbars Rule that is soldered into human nature, the descendants of people (above surface) survived by gathering into small groups of less than eighty people. As the Yellow zones (relatively well accommodated for life) were too rare that time, these people adopted a migratory lifestyle. Due to all culture, material knowledge of the Past Age was lost and most of the flora and fauna were critically damaged. So, the new civilization had to start over from the beginning: hunting, gathering, raiding and pasture (this way of life spread after 80s A.R.). Lack of human impact on nature allowed it to evolve and take revenge on virtually every biosphere from plankton to mammals. One way or another, by 100 A.R. a new civilization of Survivors emerged though they were still separated into groups of Nomads, usually consisted of several dozens of people, constantly moving within Yellow zones, practicing Social Darwinism within trading with other groups or fighting over scarce resources. For these people, their way of life is dominated by aggressive raiding, plundering, murder, or even cannibalism in some extreme cases. To other Survivors they are simply known as Raiders. It is important to mention, that raiding and marauding were more or less practiced by all Nomads; thus such classification is highly nominal: e.g. for an average group of Nomads, who were attacked or ransomed by larger group, these attackers would be called Raiders (by the Nomads). Second, a conditional sub-group might be distinguished as Pastors, for which hunting on massive clouds of animals (primary, cloven-hoofed types but that depends on the region) makes up their primary occupation. Later, after 80s A.R, pasturing became the dominant means of survival for most Nomad cultures. Their migratory patterns tend to mirror those of the animals they hunt. For those who remain focused on raiding and plundering, they still actively hunt and gather but their strategies adapt very quickly to changing circumstances. Generally, they just follow their instincts. Finally, there are the Craftsmen. These nomadic people survive through manufacturing and trade, focusing more on re-engineering past tech and trial-and-error methods to procure basic technology. Such groups of Craftsmen frequently cart their goods in wagons and are a prime target for other Nomads with whom they are not at peace. This category of Nomads was formed much later than the first two, but also had the fastest social development of any Nomad culture after 100 A.R., and it quickly became the dominant foundation for establishing sedentary settlements. This usually happened whenever the Nomad population (of a particular group) reached Dunbars Threshold or when larger groups absorbed smaller ones too frequently. These excess forces quickly became militias that guarded the agricultural and livestock base of the settlement.
Well, guys, thanks for your support, patience and rooting for us over our long journey. Your support is the wind in our development sails. Now, lets focus on the last leg of development! Sincerely, Richard.
[ 2016-08-01 18:58:31 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hi, guys!
Im glad to announce another monthly report for you with a bunch of good news as always. From this update you can familiarize with the patch notes, Ivy retrospective development, fresh money & issues report for our Co-Founders, an offer for you to get your own Co-Founder status from SEA, receive a free copy of the TFoG game on Steam, listen to a new OST music track Raiders Camp, and check out some new lore representing the new faction.
Just open up a cold bear or a Coke and enjoy the update!
PATCH #073116 RELEASED
FIXES: Audio: Missed Narrator voice sounds added. Volumes for 3d sounds and speech amended. Not ceasing voiceover in dialogs while the dialog is closed or another line is played, or when quieting to main menu - fixed. Gameplay: ASWD bug fixed. Typos in Records fixed. Skills and stats checks in dialogs fixed. Awakening cut-scene reworked and enhanced. Graphics: All female clothes (neck bug) reskinned and reboned. Low quality character and NPC camera with pixel border in dialogs to fixed the cinematic smoothness. Interface: Text blinking in dialogs fixed. Red coloring of the character model in Character menu fixed. Main Menu button corruption after traveling between levels amended. Tag panel fixed. Mouse absence during the first dialog fixed. Overlay picture for PAUSE deleted. Ivy's icon blur after interaction fixed. Mechanics: Saving/loading bug of dropped loot and trash fixed. Bug with several items multiplying on floor when traveling between levels fixed. Drone position bias after level reloading fixed. Death mechanics and its visual and audio assets fixed. Area transaction script and visuals amended. FEATURES & CHANGES: Audio: Final recordings and post-processing for Keren Goston dialogs are done. VFX sounds for drones created and embedded. Looped heart beat sound added for the character when he's in dying state. Gameplay: Drones animations added. Drones activation quest added. Drones dialog (activation) added. Drones dialog (deactivation) added. Ivys dialog (drone) added. Quanton dialog (repaired) added. Quanton repairing cut scenes added. Quanton repairing challenging puzzle added. Lab drone hive/cloud mind added. In-game access to all 22 Records for the prologue added. Graphics: Gameplay camera settings polished to the ideal 3d pseudo-isometric view. Special Facility graphics optimized and freed resources used for graphic quality boost. Science Facility graphics optimized and freed resources headed for graphic quality boost. Interface: Dialog's answers display enhanced (numbers and "/* styles added). Now any GUI (highlighting, tagging, etc) do properly disable VFX during cut scenes and dialogues. New Quest and new Records notification icons added as clickable to let them open relevant panels respectively. Mechanics: Drones AI added. Followers mechanics added so that PCs followers can travel with him/her through the levels and areas. Other: Sparkles added to Quanton's servers. Colors for repaired Quanton changed. More environmental assets set at Ground Level. IMPORTANT NOTES: #1 Thanks for your bug reports, guys! We really appreciate them, but its become quite time consuming to slog through them all in our e-mail. Weve come up with a better method to make this process more organized, and you can now upload your reports to a new sub-form weve created on STEAM, which you can access here: LINK. #2 Along with the Quantons servers, quests, dialogs, models, VFX, cut scenes, and other gameplay, we have finally completed the Science Facility level as it was meant to be. Through the prologue players should become comfortable with the specific (and quite frankly old school-ish) methods of storytelling and gameplay we plan to use in the rest of After Reset RPG. One of these core features is very non-linear gameplay, and in regard to the Quanton Hub, it is completely up to players to decide what to do with it. Doing nothing is, of course, an option. Id like all of you guys (while playing AR RPG) to really immerse yourself into its world and roleplay your character. Relying on the statistics of human behavior, game theory, and my D&D DM experience, I encourage you to behave like your character would in the real worldor even roleplay yourself. Theres consequences (positive and negative) for just about everything in the game. So aside from testing, please, dont rush into decisions just because the option is there. #3 There is one cut-scene left to be programmed into the Special Facility level in order to complete it. Except for that, nothing else should change as far as the level goes, right up to the release of the prologue. #4 Our third level (the huge one Ground Level) does not need to be tested yet, but feel free to explore it so you can see how things change with each update. #5 One of the most important things in todays update is the final representation of the dialog mechanics and its GUI. Please, feel free to share your impression and thoughts about it.
IVY REPRESENTATION
There are many reasons why it took so long to properly implement her into the game, and Ill show you a few of them. Below you can see her concept:
An example of the terrible model we initially got from freelancers:
I just could not to put That creature in the game. Rebuilding her took two months, and here you can see the highpoly version of her we did 3 weeks ago:
Unfortunately, the low poly count of the head as well as the textures turned out to be bad:
And we had to rework the head completely to get the final highpoly variant you can see below (texturing is in progress). Now I can empathize this girl and would be be pleased to see that face through the whole game:
Albeit, I hesitate what haircut for the prologue status of Ivy to choose. We need your help to made our minds about it. Please, let us know which haircut style for her you'd prefer:
EARLY REPORT FOR CO-FOUNDERS: MONEY, WORKS, PLANS
In addition to this update, Ive posted a closed early report for our Co-Founders: LINK. It contains screens from our project boards as well as several personal boards of the team members; financial report; plans for the future development (the game is not limited to the prologue, After Resets development is about more than one game). If youre a Co-Founder, please, feel free to check that early report and share your thoughts. For our other Kickstarter backers Im going to share that report a couple weeks before the prologue release in a closed update. Everyone else will be able to see this report after the release.
CO-FOUNDER STATUSES FOR SEA PURCHASERS
I posted in previous updates our thanks and my personal kudos to those several hundred gamers who purchased our game on Steam Early Access and rooted us regardless of its very early stage of development. I promised to find some way to show our gratitude. So, Id like to provide you with Co-Founder statuses, guys, so that you will have access to all the extra content on our forum and to be the first to view our reports. This isnt just a marketing ploy; its our way of saying thanks. If you purchased SEA by the fourth of July or earlier, feel free to write me on Steam to claim your Co-Founder status for your website account on our forum. Once again, thanks. Your contributions have become immortalized in our game, part of its models, textures, sounds, setting, quests, animations, etc.
TFOG GAME GIVEAWAYS FOR BACKERS
In previous updates I also wrote about my willingness to include the TFoG game for free as a DLC graphic novel for those of you who already purchased or backed After Reset RPG. Even though we still cant solve that issue just by putting whole TFoG game (1Gb+) into our Steam DLC folder, Ive got another option: If you have TFoG as a reward for your tier on our Kickstarter AR RPG campaign, or if you purchased that TFoG DLC on Steam, please write me by e-mail (in case of KS reward) or buzz me through Steam and Ill just send you a FREE key to the Fall of Gyes game on Steam.
ADDING TO THE OST
Development of the game is not ceasing after the Prologue completion. Ive already created the script, primary characters, gameplan, maps and quests drafts for Chapter 1. As the location of the chapter will take place on territories belonging to the Indian Alliance and Nomads, in this update I am proud to announce a marvelous new music track that has been added to our official OST called: Raiders Camp. If you got and activated our OST DLC preorder it has been automatically updated with this news released. Please, check your ...SteamApps\common\After Reset RPG\add-ons folder. If you didnt get our OST DLC preordered through the Kickstarter campaign or by early direct pledges, you need to wait till we release it officially or some other special event. Still, you can enjoy the following lore from After Reset game and setting right now.
LORE: NOMADS
*The photo above provided by Dimitri Zaitsev, a talented costume designer from nuclear-snail.com. Raiders Camp that is the name for the new music track weve added to our OST, but I hesitated a lot in the naming of it because of our hard sci-fi concept. The setting forced me to use a Nomad world. Indeed, have you ever thought why in post-apoc movies and games raiders call themselves raiders? I imply that it is quite normal for other peaceful people call someone who gangs them Raider! But it turns to comedy when I try to imagine such brutal persons calling each other Sup, raidies! or Dear, comrade raiders! If you feel the same way, this After Reset lore is for you: Nomads: Nomads, sometimes called Raiders by the native population, are any group of Survivors (descendants of the people who were lucky enough to survive the Reset but unlucky enough to survive it above the surface) who constantly stay on the move. During the first decades after the Reset, the time called both by the Survivors and Natives as the Hurricane Days, the last human cities above the surface vanished and the evidence of human civilization perished. Following Dunbars Rule that is soldered into human nature, the descendants of people (above surface) survived by gathering into small groups of less than eighty people. As the Yellow zones (relatively well accommodated for life) were too rare that time, these people adopted a migratory lifestyle. Due to all culture, material knowledge of the Past Age was lost and most of the flora and fauna were critically damaged. So, the new civilization had to start over from the beginning: hunting, gathering, raiding and pasture (this way of life spread after 80s A.R.). Lack of human impact on nature allowed it to evolve and take revenge on virtually every biosphere from plankton to mammals. One way or another, by 100 A.R. a new civilization of Survivors emerged though they were still separated into groups of Nomads, usually consisted of several dozens of people, constantly moving within Yellow zones, practicing Social Darwinism within trading with other groups or fighting over scarce resources. For these people, their way of life is dominated by aggressive raiding, plundering, murder, or even cannibalism in some extreme cases. To other Survivors they are simply known as Raiders. It is important to mention, that raiding and marauding were more or less practiced by all Nomads; thus such classification is highly nominal: e.g. for an average group of Nomads, who were attacked or ransomed by larger group, these attackers would be called Raiders (by the Nomads). Second, a conditional sub-group might be distinguished as Pastors, for which hunting on massive clouds of animals (primary, cloven-hoofed types but that depends on the region) makes up their primary occupation. Later, after 80s A.R, pasturing became the dominant means of survival for most Nomad cultures. Their migratory patterns tend to mirror those of the animals they hunt. For those who remain focused on raiding and plundering, they still actively hunt and gather but their strategies adapt very quickly to changing circumstances. Generally, they just follow their instincts. Finally, there are the Craftsmen. These nomadic people survive through manufacturing and trade, focusing more on re-engineering past tech and trial-and-error methods to procure basic technology. Such groups of Craftsmen frequently cart their goods in wagons and are a prime target for other Nomads with whom they are not at peace. This category of Nomads was formed much later than the first two, but also had the fastest social development of any Nomad culture after 100 A.R., and it quickly became the dominant foundation for establishing sedentary settlements. This usually happened whenever the Nomad population (of a particular group) reached Dunbars Threshold or when larger groups absorbed smaller ones too frequently. These excess forces quickly became militias that guarded the agricultural and livestock base of the settlement.
* * *
Well, guys, thanks for your support, patience and rooting for us over our long journey. Your support is the wind in our development sails. Now, lets focus on the last leg of development! Sincerely, Richard.
[ 2016-08-01 18:58:31 CET ] [ Original post ]
Patch #051716 Released
FIXES: Mechanics: The bug with inventory listing when you put the object from active slot to inventory is fixed. Bug when you're unable to drop object on the floor fixed. Stacking system amended. Items identification bugs fixed. Tutorial pages now can be slid correctly. Items activation while switching items fixed. Saving/Loading date while travelling between levels reworked. FEATURES & CHANGES: Gameplay: Ivy monodialog [first aid] added. Ivy monodialog [recover] added. Ivy dialog [warning] added. Quanton monodialog [NBC] added. Quanton monodialog [firealarm] added. Quanton dialog [broken] added. Free talk dialog with Ivy as a companion added. Tutorial "Character Skills" added. Tutorial "Hacking Electronic Devices" added. Tutorial "Lockpicking Mechanical Locks" added. Tutorial "Item Identification" added. Tutorial "Identifying Creatures" added. Tutorial "Journal Records" added. "What Makes a Terrorist?" Journal Record added to gameplay. "Gigantic Red Zones Amoebas" Journal Record added to gameplay. "R/K Selection Theory When Applied to the Status of "Survivors" Journal Record added to gameplay. "Quanton Hubs" Journal Record added to gameplay. "O'Shea's Cooperation Speech" Journal Record added to gameplay. "Artificial Intelligence" Journal Record added to gameplay. Graphics: Screen Resolution selection launch screen for MAC version added. New Quanton NPC model (broken and fixed) and its VFX added. Interface: Augmentation panel added to Character Menu. Need to lock other interactions while in game Main Menu is open. Mechanics: Quantity dialog window when move only one object now does not appear. Pop-up text mechanics (Fallout 1/2/T style) for monodialogues and NPC taunts added. Other: Dozens of new items. Trash containers authentically added to Special Facility and Science Facility levels. Final containers (contents/types/states/descriptions/sounds) for Special Facility level added. Final containers (contents/types/states/descriptions/sounds) for Science Facility level added. IMPORTANT NOTES: 1. Sorry for delay with the update: it was ready around a week ago but we found the critical bug in the final build - Kaspersky deleted (!) the whole build relying to "suspicious behaviors" when the character travel between levels. We were not able to find out origin of the bug in our scripts for a week; hence, we had to rewrite all save/load system from scratch symbol by symbol. Now it works smoothly. 2. I know, with this huge update, it might look like we "finally" got to development just a couple months ago. Frankly, we joke a lot about within our team ourselves. But the case is the major work was done for that year before the major work for creating content and engine/constructor fitted to our SACPIC game mechanics. We go right step by step like Bioware did for Neverwinter Nights 1: it took around 3 years of 75 programmers and 45 testers (10 internal, 35 external) as well as 10 million dollars just to create an engine/constructor fitted to DnD 3.5 mechanics, and only after that they get to sewing campaign on it. That was actual in good old 2002. Modern technologies, social support and crowd founding gave us a boost but we still follow the same passage and still face the same issues :) 3. Mac users, now you can select screen resolutions when launching the game as well as running it in windowed mode. It looks beautiful, but I recommend to use resolution not wider than 1920 for now because current Macs might be lagging running the game on 4k resolution. E.g. I prefer to play in on Mac with 1200 resolution windowed. I know, Mac suffer some visual bugs in Main Menu but well fix that on further updates. 4. You might encounter many dialogues with Ivy in this build, albeit she is represented by painted avatar still. We got her model but I decided it is not as cool as other content of ours. Shes too important (as the companion for the decent part of the game) to be neglected. Freelancer did her model, so now our lead 3d modeler redoes it himself. Ill present you her "old" version with comparison to "new" one in the next update.
One of the most inspiring part of today's news is that, based on our current stage and pace of development, as well as on our current human and financial resources, I recon to complete and delivery the prologue by the end of this summer. I know this is just an estimation, but it is a realistic one. The game core become more and more sophisticated with every monthly update. It happens very often when amending one bug that we reveal a couple of new ones. The major threat to this plan of release is the human factor (frankly, as it's been the case during the whole development). I'm doing my best to attach a new spare programmer to the development (at least for bug fixing) but if we lose our current programmers that might slow us down again. I'm praying with you that won't happen and we'll go through this coming three months smoothly and release a great product. Beyond that, if it goes according the plan, we need to look in the future. In the next update, I feel like to share the plans with Co-Founders, coordinate it with them, then (in August) share updated plan with Kisckstarter backers to ask their thought on it. If it run fine again, we'll share the plan with everybody else after release of the prologue by this Fall.
In previous update I posted Steam statistics about 7,000 wish lists collected and how that milestone has inspired us. It looks like my news found some traction within the hearts of our fans that follow the development process. For this month amount of wish lists has increased to 8,200! Thanks for adding us, guys. This growing number of wish list adds will definitely help us by the release date. The art above is painted and cordially shared as the illustration by one of our favorite contributor-artists Antony Fedotov who worked on the cover art of Fall of Gyes. This art you see is inspired by New Reno capital of the New Confederacy from After Reset setting :)
At this current stage were working hard on Ivy and Quanton characters. Both of these NPCs are virtual intelligences. For several weeks we received a lot of questions from our fan, littleONE, about Artificial & Virtual Intelligence science and its place in the hard sci-fi setting of After Reset. I decided to prepare some extra lore about that issue and include it into the prologue. You might read about it here or discover it in current build by yourself. But Id like to show you how the hard sci-fi approach is different from casual "fast-food" approach (e.g. for many, the subject of AI typically resolves into "AI is a threat" or "Kill all humans"). Here you can read a part of an article from a public official from the Human Rights Watch. By 132 A.R. the HRW is one of the Social Corps Departments that monitor and enforce compliance for a ban on AI research and development within the United Governments. I hope, you'll enjoy it: "Specify the way in which you believe that a man is superior to a computer and I shall build a computer which refutes your belief. Turings challenge should not be taken up; for any sufficiently precise specification could be used in principle to program a computer." Karl Popper, The Self and its Brain When thinking about Artificial Intelligence and artificial consciousness, our forbearers often began from the premise that there are only two types of data processing: artificial and natural. But, we can now be certain that this premise was mistaken. The conceptual difference between artificial and natural systems was never definitive nor exhaustive. For a long time before the dawn of modern synthetic biology, long before the Reset, we already had intelligent and conscious systems, that could not have been said to belong to either of these two categories. As for the other outmoded division between hardware and software, once again, in the Past Age, we had biological systems that could be controlled by artificial (anthropogenic) software, while at the same time, there also existed artificial devices controlled by programs that arose all on their own (via evolution). But, having touched on issues of integrated biological neuron networks and non-biological machines as a type of "accelerated evolution," we are already reaching the problem of the Ethics of Consciousness. Here it is worth noting that we still do not have a functional theory to explain consciousness but, if we did, there would be no guarantee that it would apply equally to Artificial Intelligence in non-biological carrier. Before research in the field of Artificial Intelligence was made illegal, and Evolutionary Robotechnology studies were limited, more than a century before the Reset, we had already begun to create the first self-modeling and self-cognizing robots. The most obvious example is the "starfish" made by Josh Bongard, Viktor Zykov, and Hod Lipson. Over the course of their existence, these robots gradually developed an internal model of themselves, a model of the surrounding world, and a model of their places in it. These four-legged robots made use of these models to perform cognitive functions and interact with the world around them. When some legs were removed from one of these "starfish," it began to adapt its model to the new conditions, working out new approaches. In concrete terms, they learned to limp. Differently from human patients with Phantom Limb Syndrome, these robots were able to restructure their concept of their own body after losing limbs. These "starfish" were not only able to synthesize a personal model of the Self, but also use it to give rise to intelligent behavior. Of course, these first models of the Self were unconscious, but as many readers remember, they were successfully used to help making the first computer models of human evolution. The breakthrough in Artificial Intelligence research that followed was also correlated with breakthroughs in human neuropsychology. Before that, neuropsychology defined three things as the basis of consciousness as we know it: an integrated model of the surrounding world with feedback, which can be accessed by all parts of the mind; living through this model in the "here and now;" and the fact that the artificiality of this model of the world and the "here and now" are hidden from the conscious mind. These very factors were applied to humans as well: we have a virtual model of the world (though it may be inaccurate, limited, and contain delays and distortions), we have virtual model of us as the organisms (remember Phantom Limb Syndrome above), we can "feel" as we live in the "present" moment where we are and, from the beginning of our lives (and for some, for their whole lives) we do not recognize the artificial nature of these structures. However, what our forbearers, the creators of the "starfish," did not consider - was the presence of a fourth, connecting factor, that allows the trespassing the border from Virtual Intelligence to Artificial Intelligence: the simultaneous detachment and backward integration of models of the Self into an already-formed virtual picture of the world leads to begins to recognizing/cognizing itself. It becomes the Ego and a naive realist regarding everything its model of the Self does claim about. Such an Artificial Intelligence would believe (!) in itself. THE ETHICS OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE One of the first questions I get from schoolchildren at the beginning of my Conceptual Robotechnics course is, "If we can make Artificial Intelligence, why dont we? And why does the government forbid all research this field?" I am reminded of our conclusions in the previous chapter: backward integration of a model of the Self in virtual form into the world "here and now" will allow these systems to see themselves in this world, and in this place and time. The system begins to recognize/cognize itself. And that change turns this artificial system into an object of moral agency: it now becomes potentially capable of suffering. Pain, fear, negative emotions and other internal conditions, which reflect part of reality as "undesirable" can serve as reasons for suffering only if they are realized. A system that is not revealed to itself (for example, our modern Virtual Intellect systems) cannot suffer, in that it is deprived of a sense of ownership. These systems are like rooms, in which a light is turned on, but no one is home. They cannot be objects of ethical consideration a priori. If such a system has a conscious model of the world (even if it is more accurate and full than a humans), but no model of the Self, then we can pull the plug at any moment with our minds at ease. But Artificial Intelligence is capable of suffering, because it integrates pain signals, the condition of emotional distress or negative thoughts in its transparent model of the Self, and they are declared not an abstraction, but someones (!) pain or negative feelings. Here let us make a thought experiment that is a brilliant illustration of the potential moral issues of experimenting with Artificial Intelligence like this. Imagine that you are a member of an SOC ethics committee considering whether to award a science grant to a medical research project. The author of the project says: "We want to use genetic technology to propagate mentally disabled children. For the study, we need children with certain intellectual defects, emotional insufficiencies and perception deficits. This is an important innovative research strategy, which requires controlled and reproducible research on the mental development of mentally disabled children after birth. This is important not only to further our understanding how our own brain works, but also has a huge potential for curing several mental illnesses. That is why we need the funding immediately. Do the right thing!" Beyond a shadow of a doubt, you find this idea not only absurd, but also dangerous. One could confidently suppose that such a proposal would not be approved by any ethics committee in this world. Albeit, the first generation of Artificial Intelligence, or artificial consciousness, unlikely will find defenders in ethics committees just like the one described above. The first generation of machines that satisfy the minimum sufficient set of conditions for present living and self-consciousness would find themselves in a situation similar to that of the genetically engineered mentally handicapped human children. And just like those babies, the first Artificial Intelligences will unavoidably have all types of functional, cognitive and presentational dysfunctions, regardless of the fact that they may have been conditioned to have them by errors in the experimental design. It is completely possible that their perception systems: artificial eyes, ears, etc., wont work very well at first. They will be half-deaf, half-blind and will have to struggle with potential difficulties in perception of the world and their own places in it. Together with that, having a self-consciousness, they will be capable of suffering. If their model of the Self is rooted in low-level self-regulation mechanisms in its hardware (i.e., just like our own emotional model of the Self is rooted in the upper brainstem and hypothalamus), then they will consciously live all the pain and emotions. It will be painful for them to go through losing homeostatic control because they have a built-in perception of their own existence. They would have personal interests and, as such, would subjectively live that fact. They would be able to suffer emotionally in a way that is qualitatively different from us in form and intensity, that we, its creators, would be powerless to even imagine. All the same, the fact is that the first generation of such Artificial Intelligences, will probably have a great many negative emotions, brought about by self-regulation failures due to hardware and software defects. These negative emotions will be recognized and intensely felt by the Artificial Intelligences themselves but, most likely, we will not be able to understand or even discern that they are present. Lets try to continue our thought experiment Imagine that the next generation of Artificial Intelligences, which would be more developed, begin to attach more complex cognitive characteristics to their model of the Self. In this case, they can already conceptually understand not only the quaintness of their existence as simply objects of scientific interest, but they will also be able to suffer intellectually from recognizing their own "inferiority." Further generations of such Artificial Intelligences will be able to fully recognize themselves as second-rate, though also intelligent beings, used as disposable experimental subjects. Just think what it must be like to wake up a developed artificial being, which, despite having a firm sense of identity and a personality that experiences itself, is nothing more than a mass-produced product. This story of Artificial Intelligence, of a being artificially endowed with self-consciousness, but without human or civil rights, or any kind of societal lobby, is an excellent demonstration of how connected the ability to suffer is with consciousness itself. It also is a principled argument for the unacceptability of creating Artificial Intelligence for the purpose of academic research. We should not increase the total amount of suffering in the universe without necessity. And creating Artificial Intelligence systems would be doing just that from the very outset... Roger Simmons, Social Corps Department of Human Rights Watch.
That is all for today. Getting back to the development. Thanks, guys, for rooting for us and for your outstanding patience! See you in a month ,or daily on our forum and Steam. Sincerely, Richard.
[ 2016-05-18 01:14:28 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hi guys,
Glad to know you're reading today's monthly report and even happier to bring you the following news: patch, estimated release date, fresh hard sci-fi lore.
PATCH #051716 RELEASED
FIXES: Mechanics: The bug with inventory listing when you put the object from active slot to inventory is fixed. Bug when you're unable to drop object on the floor fixed. Stacking system amended. Items identification bugs fixed. Tutorial pages now can be slid correctly. Items activation while switching items fixed. Saving/Loading date while travelling between levels reworked. FEATURES & CHANGES: Gameplay: Ivy monodialog [first aid] added. Ivy monodialog [recover] added. Ivy dialog [warning] added. Quanton monodialog [NBC] added. Quanton monodialog [firealarm] added. Quanton dialog [broken] added. Free talk dialog with Ivy as a companion added. Tutorial "Character Skills" added. Tutorial "Hacking Electronic Devices" added. Tutorial "Lockpicking Mechanical Locks" added. Tutorial "Item Identification" added. Tutorial "Identifying Creatures" added. Tutorial "Journal Records" added. "What Makes a Terrorist?" Journal Record added to gameplay. "Gigantic Red Zones Amoebas" Journal Record added to gameplay. "R/K Selection Theory When Applied to the Status of "Survivors" Journal Record added to gameplay. "Quanton Hubs" Journal Record added to gameplay. "O'Shea's Cooperation Speech" Journal Record added to gameplay. "Artificial Intelligence" Journal Record added to gameplay. Graphics: Screen Resolution selection launch screen for MAC version added. New Quanton NPC model (broken and fixed) and its VFX added. Interface: Augmentation panel added to Character Menu. Need to lock other interactions while in game Main Menu is open. Mechanics: Quantity dialog window when move only one object now does not appear. Pop-up text mechanics (Fallout 1/2/T style) for monodialogues and NPC taunts added. Other: Dozens of new items. Trash containers authentically added to Special Facility and Science Facility levels. Final containers (contents/types/states/descriptions/sounds) for Special Facility level added. Final containers (contents/types/states/descriptions/sounds) for Science Facility level added. IMPORTANT NOTES: 1. Sorry for delay with the update: it was ready around a week ago but we found the critical bug in the final build - Kaspersky deleted (!) the whole build relying to "suspicious behaviors" when the character travel between levels. We were not able to find out origin of the bug in our scripts for a week; hence, we had to rewrite all save/load system from scratch symbol by symbol. Now it works smoothly. 2. I know, with this huge update, it might look like we "finally" got to development just a couple months ago. Frankly, we joke a lot about within our team ourselves. But the case is the major work was done for that year before the major work for creating content and engine/constructor fitted to our SACPIC game mechanics. We go right step by step like Bioware did for Neverwinter Nights 1: it took around 3 years of 75 programmers and 45 testers (10 internal, 35 external) as well as 10 million dollars just to create an engine/constructor fitted to DnD 3.5 mechanics, and only after that they get to sewing campaign on it. That was actual in good old 2002. Modern technologies, social support and crowd founding gave us a boost but we still follow the same passage and still face the same issues :) 3. Mac users, now you can select screen resolutions when launching the game as well as running it in windowed mode. It looks beautiful, but I recommend to use resolution not wider than 1920 for now because current Macs might be lagging running the game on 4k resolution. E.g. I prefer to play in on Mac with 1200 resolution windowed. I know, Mac suffer some visual bugs in Main Menu but well fix that on further updates. 4. You might encounter many dialogues with Ivy in this build, albeit she is represented by painted avatar still. We got her model but I decided it is not as cool as other content of ours. Shes too important (as the companion for the decent part of the game) to be neglected. Freelancer did her model, so now our lead 3d modeler redoes it himself. Ill present you her "old" version with comparison to "new" one in the next update.
PROLOGUE RELEASE ESTIMATED DATE
One of the most inspiring part of today's news is that, based on our current stage and pace of development, as well as on our current human and financial resources, I recon to complete and delivery the prologue by the end of this summer. I know this is just an estimation, but it is a realistic one. The game core become more and more sophisticated with every monthly update. It happens very often when amending one bug that we reveal a couple of new ones. The major threat to this plan of release is the human factor (frankly, as it's been the case during the whole development). I'm doing my best to attach a new spare programmer to the development (at least for bug fixing) but if we lose our current programmers that might slow us down again. I'm praying with you that won't happen and we'll go through this coming three months smoothly and release a great product. Beyond that, if it goes according the plan, we need to look in the future. In the next update, I feel like to share the plans with Co-Founders, coordinate it with them, then (in August) share updated plan with Kisckstarter backers to ask their thought on it. If it run fine again, we'll share the plan with everybody else after release of the prologue by this Fall.
8,000 WISHLIST FANS REACHED ON STEAM
In previous update I posted Steam statistics about 7,000 wish lists collected and how that milestone has inspired us. It looks like my news found some traction within the hearts of our fans that follow the development process. For this month amount of wish lists has increased to 8,200! Thanks for adding us, guys. This growing number of wish list adds will definitely help us by the release date. The art above is painted and cordially shared as the illustration by one of our favorite contributor-artists Antony Fedotov who worked on the cover art of Fall of Gyes. This art you see is inspired by New Reno capital of the New Confederacy from After Reset setting :)
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE LORE
At this current stage were working hard on Ivy and Quanton characters. Both of these NPCs are virtual intelligences. For several weeks we received a lot of questions from our fan, littleONE, about Artificial & Virtual Intelligence science and its place in the hard sci-fi setting of After Reset. I decided to prepare some extra lore about that issue and include it into the prologue. You might read about it here or discover it in current build by yourself. But Id like to show you how the hard sci-fi approach is different from casual "fast-food" approach (e.g. for many, the subject of AI typically resolves into "AI is a threat" or "Kill all humans"). Here you can read a part of an article from a public official from the Human Rights Watch. By 132 A.R. the HRW is one of the Social Corps Departments that monitor and enforce compliance for a ban on AI research and development within the United Governments. I hope, you'll enjoy it: "Specify the way in which you believe that a man is superior to a computer and I shall build a computer which refutes your belief. Turings challenge should not be taken up; for any sufficiently precise specification could be used in principle to program a computer." Karl Popper, The Self and its Brain When thinking about Artificial Intelligence and artificial consciousness, our forbearers often began from the premise that there are only two types of data processing: artificial and natural. But, we can now be certain that this premise was mistaken. The conceptual difference between artificial and natural systems was never definitive nor exhaustive. For a long time before the dawn of modern synthetic biology, long before the Reset, we already had intelligent and conscious systems, that could not have been said to belong to either of these two categories. As for the other outmoded division between hardware and software, once again, in the Past Age, we had biological systems that could be controlled by artificial (anthropogenic) software, while at the same time, there also existed artificial devices controlled by programs that arose all on their own (via evolution). But, having touched on issues of integrated biological neuron networks and non-biological machines as a type of "accelerated evolution," we are already reaching the problem of the Ethics of Consciousness. Here it is worth noting that we still do not have a functional theory to explain consciousness but, if we did, there would be no guarantee that it would apply equally to Artificial Intelligence in non-biological carrier. Before research in the field of Artificial Intelligence was made illegal, and Evolutionary Robotechnology studies were limited, more than a century before the Reset, we had already begun to create the first self-modeling and self-cognizing robots. The most obvious example is the "starfish" made by Josh Bongard, Viktor Zykov, and Hod Lipson. Over the course of their existence, these robots gradually developed an internal model of themselves, a model of the surrounding world, and a model of their places in it. These four-legged robots made use of these models to perform cognitive functions and interact with the world around them. When some legs were removed from one of these "starfish," it began to adapt its model to the new conditions, working out new approaches. In concrete terms, they learned to limp. Differently from human patients with Phantom Limb Syndrome, these robots were able to restructure their concept of their own body after losing limbs. These "starfish" were not only able to synthesize a personal model of the Self, but also use it to give rise to intelligent behavior. Of course, these first models of the Self were unconscious, but as many readers remember, they were successfully used to help making the first computer models of human evolution. The breakthrough in Artificial Intelligence research that followed was also correlated with breakthroughs in human neuropsychology. Before that, neuropsychology defined three things as the basis of consciousness as we know it: an integrated model of the surrounding world with feedback, which can be accessed by all parts of the mind; living through this model in the "here and now;" and the fact that the artificiality of this model of the world and the "here and now" are hidden from the conscious mind. These very factors were applied to humans as well: we have a virtual model of the world (though it may be inaccurate, limited, and contain delays and distortions), we have virtual model of us as the organisms (remember Phantom Limb Syndrome above), we can "feel" as we live in the "present" moment where we are and, from the beginning of our lives (and for some, for their whole lives) we do not recognize the artificial nature of these structures. However, what our forbearers, the creators of the "starfish," did not consider - was the presence of a fourth, connecting factor, that allows the trespassing the border from Virtual Intelligence to Artificial Intelligence: the simultaneous detachment and backward integration of models of the Self into an already-formed virtual picture of the world leads to begins to recognizing/cognizing itself. It becomes the Ego and a naive realist regarding everything its model of the Self does claim about. Such an Artificial Intelligence would believe (!) in itself. THE ETHICS OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE One of the first questions I get from schoolchildren at the beginning of my Conceptual Robotechnics course is, "If we can make Artificial Intelligence, why dont we? And why does the government forbid all research this field?" I am reminded of our conclusions in the previous chapter: backward integration of a model of the Self in virtual form into the world "here and now" will allow these systems to see themselves in this world, and in this place and time. The system begins to recognize/cognize itself. And that change turns this artificial system into an object of moral agency: it now becomes potentially capable of suffering. Pain, fear, negative emotions and other internal conditions, which reflect part of reality as "undesirable" can serve as reasons for suffering only if they are realized. A system that is not revealed to itself (for example, our modern Virtual Intellect systems) cannot suffer, in that it is deprived of a sense of ownership. These systems are like rooms, in which a light is turned on, but no one is home. They cannot be objects of ethical consideration a priori. If such a system has a conscious model of the world (even if it is more accurate and full than a humans), but no model of the Self, then we can pull the plug at any moment with our minds at ease. But Artificial Intelligence is capable of suffering, because it integrates pain signals, the condition of emotional distress or negative thoughts in its transparent model of the Self, and they are declared not an abstraction, but someones (!) pain or negative feelings. Here let us make a thought experiment that is a brilliant illustration of the potential moral issues of experimenting with Artificial Intelligence like this. Imagine that you are a member of an SOC ethics committee considering whether to award a science grant to a medical research project. The author of the project says: "We want to use genetic technology to propagate mentally disabled children. For the study, we need children with certain intellectual defects, emotional insufficiencies and perception deficits. This is an important innovative research strategy, which requires controlled and reproducible research on the mental development of mentally disabled children after birth. This is important not only to further our understanding how our own brain works, but also has a huge potential for curing several mental illnesses. That is why we need the funding immediately. Do the right thing!" Beyond a shadow of a doubt, you find this idea not only absurd, but also dangerous. One could confidently suppose that such a proposal would not be approved by any ethics committee in this world. Albeit, the first generation of Artificial Intelligence, or artificial consciousness, unlikely will find defenders in ethics committees just like the one described above. The first generation of machines that satisfy the minimum sufficient set of conditions for present living and self-consciousness would find themselves in a situation similar to that of the genetically engineered mentally handicapped human children. And just like those babies, the first Artificial Intelligences will unavoidably have all types of functional, cognitive and presentational dysfunctions, regardless of the fact that they may have been conditioned to have them by errors in the experimental design. It is completely possible that their perception systems: artificial eyes, ears, etc., wont work very well at first. They will be half-deaf, half-blind and will have to struggle with potential difficulties in perception of the world and their own places in it. Together with that, having a self-consciousness, they will be capable of suffering. If their model of the Self is rooted in low-level self-regulation mechanisms in its hardware (i.e., just like our own emotional model of the Self is rooted in the upper brainstem and hypothalamus), then they will consciously live all the pain and emotions. It will be painful for them to go through losing homeostatic control because they have a built-in perception of their own existence. They would have personal interests and, as such, would subjectively live that fact. They would be able to suffer emotionally in a way that is qualitatively different from us in form and intensity, that we, its creators, would be powerless to even imagine. All the same, the fact is that the first generation of such Artificial Intelligences, will probably have a great many negative emotions, brought about by self-regulation failures due to hardware and software defects. These negative emotions will be recognized and intensely felt by the Artificial Intelligences themselves but, most likely, we will not be able to understand or even discern that they are present. Lets try to continue our thought experiment Imagine that the next generation of Artificial Intelligences, which would be more developed, begin to attach more complex cognitive characteristics to their model of the Self. In this case, they can already conceptually understand not only the quaintness of their existence as simply objects of scientific interest, but they will also be able to suffer intellectually from recognizing their own "inferiority." Further generations of such Artificial Intelligences will be able to fully recognize themselves as second-rate, though also intelligent beings, used as disposable experimental subjects. Just think what it must be like to wake up a developed artificial being, which, despite having a firm sense of identity and a personality that experiences itself, is nothing more than a mass-produced product. This story of Artificial Intelligence, of a being artificially endowed with self-consciousness, but without human or civil rights, or any kind of societal lobby, is an excellent demonstration of how connected the ability to suffer is with consciousness itself. It also is a principled argument for the unacceptability of creating Artificial Intelligence for the purpose of academic research. We should not increase the total amount of suffering in the universe without necessity. And creating Artificial Intelligence systems would be doing just that from the very outset... Roger Simmons, Social Corps Department of Human Rights Watch.
* * *
That is all for today. Getting back to the development. Thanks, guys, for rooting for us and for your outstanding patience! See you in a month ,or daily on our forum and Steam. Sincerely, Richard.
[ 2016-05-18 01:14:28 CET ] [ Original post ]
Patch #051716 Released
FIXES: Mechanics: • The bug with inventory listing when you put the object from active slot to inventory is fixed. • Bug when you're unable to drop object on the floor fixed. • Stacking system amended. • Items identification bugs fixed. • Tutorial pages now can be slid correctly. • Items activation while switching items fixed. • Saving/Loading date while travelling between levels reworked. FEATURES & CHANGES: Gameplay: • Ivy monodialog [first aid] added. • Ivy monodialog [recover] added. • Ivy dialog [warning] added. • Quanton monodialog [NBC] added. • Quanton monodialog [firealarm] added. • Quanton dialog [broken] added. • Free talk dialog with Ivy as a companion added. • Tutorial "Character Skills" added. • Tutorial "Hacking Electronic Devices" added. • Tutorial "Lockpicking Mechanical Locks" added. • Tutorial "Item Identification" added. • Tutorial "Identifying Creatures" added. • Tutorial "Journal Records" added. • "What Makes a Terrorist?" Journal Record added to gameplay. • "Gigantic Red Zones Amoebas" Journal Record added to gameplay. • "R/K Selection Theory When Applied to the Status of "Survivors" Journal Record added to gameplay. • "Quanton Hubs" Journal Record added to gameplay. • "O'Shea's Cooperation Speech" Journal Record added to gameplay. • "Artificial Intelligence" Journal Record added to gameplay. Graphics: • Screen Resolution selection launch screen for MAC version added. • New Quanton NPC model (broken and fixed) and its VFX added. Interface: • Augmentation panel added to Character Menu. • Need to lock other interactions while in game Main Menu is open. Mechanics: • Quantity dialog window when move only one object now does not appear. • Pop-up text mechanics (Fallout 1/2/T style) for monodialogues and NPC taunts added. Other: • Dozens of new items. • Trash containers authentically added to Special Facility and Science Facility levels. • Final containers (contents/types/states/descriptions/sounds) for Special Facility level added. • Final containers (contents/types/states/descriptions/sounds) for Science Facility level added. IMPORTANT NOTES: 1. Sorry for delay with the update: it was ready around a week ago but we found the critical bug in the final build - Kaspersky deleted (!) the whole build relying to "suspicious behaviors" when the character travel between levels. We were not able to find out origin of the bug in our scripts for a week; hence, we had to rewrite all save/load system from scratch symbol by symbol. Now it works smoothly. 2. I know, with this huge update, it might look like we "finally" got to development just a couple months ago. Frankly, we joke a lot about within our team ourselves. But the case is the major work was done for that year before – the major work for creating content and engine/constructor fitted to our SACPIC game mechanics. We go right step by step like Bioware did for Neverwinter Nights 1: it took around 3 years of 75 programmers and 45 testers (10 internal, 35 external) as well as 10 million dollars just to create an engine/constructor fitted to DnD 3.5 mechanics, and only after that they get to sewing campaign on it. That was actual in good old 2002. Modern technologies, social support and crowd founding gave us a boost but we still follow the same passage and still face the same issues :) 3. Mac users, now you can select screen resolutions when launching the game as well as running it in windowed mode. It looks beautiful, but I recommend to use resolution not wider than 1920 for now because current Macs might be lagging running the game on 4k resolution. E.g. I prefer to play in on Mac with 1200 resolution windowed. I know, Mac suffer some visual bugs in Main Menu but we’ll fix that on further updates. 4. You might encounter many dialogues with Ivy in this build, albeit she is represented by painted avatar still. We got her model but I decided it is not as cool as other content of ours. She’s too important (as the companion for the decent part of the game) to be neglected. Freelancer did her model, so now our lead 3d modeler redoes it himself. I’ll present you her "old" version with comparison to "new" one in the next update.
One of the most inspiring part of today's news is that, based on our current stage and pace of development, as well as on our current human and financial resources, I recon to complete and delivery the prologue by the end of this summer. I know this is just an estimation, but it is a realistic one. The game core become more and more sophisticated with every monthly update. It happens very often when amending one bug that we reveal a couple of new ones. The major threat to this plan of release is the human factor (frankly, as it's been the case during the whole development). I'm doing my best to attach a new spare programmer to the development (at least for bug fixing) but if we lose our current programmers that might slow us down again. I'm praying with you that won't happen and we'll go through this coming three months smoothly and release a great product. Beyond that, if it goes according the plan, we need to look in the future. In the next update, I feel like to share the plans with Co-Founders, coordinate it with them, then (in August) share updated plan with Kisckstarter backers to ask their thought on it. If it run fine again, we'll share the plan with everybody else after release of the prologue by this Fall.
In previous update I posted Steam statistics about 7,000 wish lists collected and how that milestone has inspired us. It looks like my news found some traction within the hearts of our fans that follow the development process. For this month amount of wish lists has increased to 8,200! Thanks for adding us, guys. This growing number of wish list adds will definitely help us by the release date. The art above is painted and cordially shared as the illustration by one of our favorite contributor-artists Antony Fedotov who worked on the cover art of Fall of Gyes. This art you see is inspired by New Reno capital of the New Confederacy from After Reset setting :)
At this current stage we’re working hard on Ivy and Quanton characters. Both of these NPCs are virtual intelligences. For several weeks we received a lot of questions from our fan, littleONE, about Artificial & Virtual Intelligence science and its place in the hard sci-fi setting of After Reset. I decided to prepare some extra lore about that issue and include it into the prologue. You might read about it here or discover it in current build by yourself. But I’d like to show you how the hard sci-fi approach is different from casual "fast-food" approach (e.g. for many, the subject of AI typically resolves into "AI is a threat" or "Kill all humans"). Here you can read a part of an article from a public official from the Human Rights Watch. By 132 A.R. the HRW is one of the Social Corps Departments that monitor and enforce compliance for a ban on AI research and development within the United Governments. I hope, you'll enjoy it: "Specify the way in which you believe that a man is superior to a computer and I shall build a computer which refutes your belief. Turing’s challenge should not be taken up; for any sufficiently precise specification could be used in principle to program a computer." Karl Popper, The Self and its Brain When thinking about Artificial Intelligence and artificial consciousness, our forbearers often began from the premise that there are only two types of data processing: artificial and natural. But, we can now be certain that this premise was mistaken. The conceptual difference between artificial and natural systems was never definitive nor exhaustive. For a long time before the dawn of modern synthetic biology, long before the Reset, we already had intelligent and conscious systems, that could not have been said to belong to either of these two categories. As for the other outmoded division between hardware and software, once again, in the Past Age, we had biological systems that could be controlled by artificial (anthropogenic) software, while at the same time, there also existed artificial devices controlled by programs that arose all on their own (via evolution). But, having touched on issues of integrated biological neuron networks and non-biological machines as a type of "accelerated evolution," we are already reaching the problem of the Ethics of Consciousness. Here it is worth noting that we still do not have a functional theory to explain consciousness but, if we did, there would be no guarantee that it would apply equally to Artificial Intelligence in non-biological carrier. Before research in the field of Artificial Intelligence was made illegal, and Evolutionary Robotechnology studies were limited, more than a century before the Reset, we had already begun to create the first self-modeling and self-cognizing robots. The most obvious example is the "starfish" made by Josh Bongard, Viktor Zykov, and Hod Lipson. Over the course of their existence, these robots gradually developed an internal model of themselves, a model of the surrounding world, and a model of their places in it. These four-legged robots made use of these models to perform cognitive functions and interact with the world around them. When some legs were removed from one of these "starfish," it began to adapt its model to the new conditions, working out new approaches. In concrete terms, they learned to limp. Differently from human patients with Phantom Limb Syndrome, these robots were able to restructure their concept of their own body after losing limbs. These "starfish" were not only able to synthesize a personal model of the Self, but also use it to give rise to intelligent behavior. Of course, these first models of the Self were unconscious, but as many readers remember, they were successfully used to help making the first computer models of human evolution. The breakthrough in Artificial Intelligence research that followed was also correlated with breakthroughs in human neuropsychology. Before that, neuropsychology defined three things as the basis of consciousness as we know it: an integrated model of the surrounding world with feedback, which can be accessed by all parts of the mind; living through this model in the "here and now;" and the fact that the artificiality of this model of the world and the "here and now" are hidden from the conscious mind. These very factors were applied to humans as well: we have a virtual model of the world (though it may be inaccurate, limited, and contain delays and distortions), we have virtual model of us as the organisms (remember Phantom Limb Syndrome above), we can "feel" as we live in the "present" moment where we are and, from the beginning of our lives (and for some, for their whole lives) we do not recognize the artificial nature of these structures. However, what our forbearers, the creators of the "starfish," did not consider - was the presence of a fourth, connecting factor, that allows the trespassing the border from Virtual Intelligence to Artificial Intelligence: the simultaneous detachment and backward integration of models of the Self into an already-formed virtual picture of the world leads to begins to recognizing/cognizing itself. It becomes the Ego and a naive realist regarding everything its model of the Self does claim about. Such an Artificial Intelligence would believe (!) in itself. THE ETHICS OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE One of the first questions I get from schoolchildren at the beginning of my Conceptual Robotechnics course is, "If we can make Artificial Intelligence, why don’t we? And why does the government forbid all research this field?" I am reminded of our conclusions in the previous chapter: backward integration of a model of the Self in virtual form into the world "here and now" will allow these systems to see themselves in this world, and in this place and time. The system begins to recognize/cognize itself. And that change turns this artificial system into an object of moral agency: it now becomes potentially capable of suffering. Pain, fear, negative emotions and other internal conditions, which reflect part of reality as "undesirable" can serve as reasons for suffering only if they are realized. A system that is not revealed to itself (for example, our modern Virtual Intellect systems) cannot suffer, in that it is deprived of a sense of ownership. These systems are like rooms, in which a light is turned on, but no one is home. They cannot be objects of ethical consideration a priori. If such a system has a conscious model of the world (even if it is more accurate and full than a human’s), but no model of the Self, then we can pull the plug at any moment with our minds at ease. But Artificial Intelligence is capable of suffering, because it integrates pain signals, the condition of emotional distress or negative thoughts in its transparent model of the Self, and they are declared not an abstraction, but someone’s (!) pain or negative feelings. Here let us make a thought experiment that is a brilliant illustration of the potential moral issues of experimenting with Artificial Intelligence like this. Imagine that you are a member of an SOC ethics committee considering whether to award a science grant to a medical research project. The author of the project says: "We want to use genetic technology to propagate mentally disabled children. For the study, we need children with certain intellectual defects, emotional insufficiencies and perception deficits. This is an important innovative research strategy, which requires controlled and reproducible research on the mental development of mentally disabled children after birth. This is important not only to further our understanding how our own brain works, but also has a huge potential for curing several mental illnesses. That is why we need the funding immediately. Do the right thing!" Beyond a shadow of a doubt, you find this idea not only absurd, but also dangerous. One could confidently suppose that such a proposal would not be approved by any ethics committee in this world. Albeit, the first generation of Artificial Intelligence, or artificial consciousness, unlikely will find defenders in ethics committees just like the one described above. The first generation of machines that satisfy the minimum sufficient set of conditions for present living and self-consciousness would find themselves in a situation similar to that of the genetically engineered mentally handicapped human children. And just like those babies, the first Artificial Intelligences will unavoidably have all types of functional, cognitive and presentational dysfunctions, regardless of the fact that they may have been conditioned to have them by errors in the experimental design. It is completely possible that their perception systems: artificial eyes, ears, etc., won’t work very well at first. They will be half-deaf, half-blind and will have to struggle with potential difficulties in perception of the world and their own places in it. Together with that, having a self-consciousness, they will be capable of suffering. If their model of the Self is rooted in low-level self-regulation mechanisms in its hardware (i.e., just like our own emotional model of the Self is rooted in the upper brainstem and hypothalamus), then they will consciously live all the pain and emotions. It will be painful for them to go through losing homeostatic control because they have a built-in perception of their own existence. They would have personal interests and, as such, would subjectively live that fact. They would be able to suffer emotionally in a way that is qualitatively different from us in form and intensity, that we, its creators, would be powerless to even imagine. All the same, the fact is that the first generation of such Artificial Intelligences, will probably have a great many negative emotions, brought about by self-regulation failures due to hardware and software defects. These negative emotions will be recognized and intensely felt by the Artificial Intelligences themselves but, most likely, we will not be able to understand or even discern that they are present. Let’s try to continue our thought experiment… Imagine that the next generation of Artificial Intelligences, which would be more developed, begin to attach more complex cognitive characteristics to their model of the Self. In this case, they can already conceptually understand not only the quaintness of their existence as simply objects of scientific interest, but they will also be able to suffer intellectually from recognizing their own "inferiority." Further generations of such Artificial Intelligences will be able to fully recognize themselves as second-rate, though also intelligent beings, used as disposable experimental subjects. Just think what it must be like to “wake up” a developed artificial being, which, despite having a firm sense of identity and a personality that experiences itself, is nothing more than a mass-produced product. This story of Artificial Intelligence, of a being artificially endowed with self-consciousness, but without human or civil rights, or any kind of societal lobby, is an excellent demonstration of how connected the ability to suffer is with consciousness itself. It also is a principled argument for the unacceptability of creating Artificial Intelligence for the purpose of academic research. We should not increase the total amount of suffering in the universe without necessity. And creating Artificial Intelligence systems would be doing just that from the very outset... Roger Simmons, Social Corps Department of Human Rights Watch.
That is all for today. Getting back to the development. Thanks, guys, for rooting for us and for your outstanding patience! See you in a month ,or daily on our forum and Steam. Sincerely, Richard.
[ 2016-05-18 01:14:28 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hi guys,
Glad to know you're reading today's monthly report and even happier to bring you the following news: patch, estimated release date, fresh hard sci-fi lore.
PATCH #051716 RELEASED
FIXES: Mechanics: • The bug with inventory listing when you put the object from active slot to inventory is fixed. • Bug when you're unable to drop object on the floor fixed. • Stacking system amended. • Items identification bugs fixed. • Tutorial pages now can be slid correctly. • Items activation while switching items fixed. • Saving/Loading date while travelling between levels reworked. FEATURES & CHANGES: Gameplay: • Ivy monodialog [first aid] added. • Ivy monodialog [recover] added. • Ivy dialog [warning] added. • Quanton monodialog [NBC] added. • Quanton monodialog [firealarm] added. • Quanton dialog [broken] added. • Free talk dialog with Ivy as a companion added. • Tutorial "Character Skills" added. • Tutorial "Hacking Electronic Devices" added. • Tutorial "Lockpicking Mechanical Locks" added. • Tutorial "Item Identification" added. • Tutorial "Identifying Creatures" added. • Tutorial "Journal Records" added. • "What Makes a Terrorist?" Journal Record added to gameplay. • "Gigantic Red Zones Amoebas" Journal Record added to gameplay. • "R/K Selection Theory When Applied to the Status of "Survivors" Journal Record added to gameplay. • "Quanton Hubs" Journal Record added to gameplay. • "O'Shea's Cooperation Speech" Journal Record added to gameplay. • "Artificial Intelligence" Journal Record added to gameplay. Graphics: • Screen Resolution selection launch screen for MAC version added. • New Quanton NPC model (broken and fixed) and its VFX added. Interface: • Augmentation panel added to Character Menu. • Need to lock other interactions while in game Main Menu is open. Mechanics: • Quantity dialog window when move only one object now does not appear. • Pop-up text mechanics (Fallout 1/2/T style) for monodialogues and NPC taunts added. Other: • Dozens of new items. • Trash containers authentically added to Special Facility and Science Facility levels. • Final containers (contents/types/states/descriptions/sounds) for Special Facility level added. • Final containers (contents/types/states/descriptions/sounds) for Science Facility level added. IMPORTANT NOTES: 1. Sorry for delay with the update: it was ready around a week ago but we found the critical bug in the final build - Kaspersky deleted (!) the whole build relying to "suspicious behaviors" when the character travel between levels. We were not able to find out origin of the bug in our scripts for a week; hence, we had to rewrite all save/load system from scratch symbol by symbol. Now it works smoothly. 2. I know, with this huge update, it might look like we "finally" got to development just a couple months ago. Frankly, we joke a lot about within our team ourselves. But the case is the major work was done for that year before – the major work for creating content and engine/constructor fitted to our SACPIC game mechanics. We go right step by step like Bioware did for Neverwinter Nights 1: it took around 3 years of 75 programmers and 45 testers (10 internal, 35 external) as well as 10 million dollars just to create an engine/constructor fitted to DnD 3.5 mechanics, and only after that they get to sewing campaign on it. That was actual in good old 2002. Modern technologies, social support and crowd founding gave us a boost but we still follow the same passage and still face the same issues :) 3. Mac users, now you can select screen resolutions when launching the game as well as running it in windowed mode. It looks beautiful, but I recommend to use resolution not wider than 1920 for now because current Macs might be lagging running the game on 4k resolution. E.g. I prefer to play in on Mac with 1200 resolution windowed. I know, Mac suffer some visual bugs in Main Menu but we’ll fix that on further updates. 4. You might encounter many dialogues with Ivy in this build, albeit she is represented by painted avatar still. We got her model but I decided it is not as cool as other content of ours. She’s too important (as the companion for the decent part of the game) to be neglected. Freelancer did her model, so now our lead 3d modeler redoes it himself. I’ll present you her "old" version with comparison to "new" one in the next update.
PROLOGUE RELEASE ESTIMATED DATE
One of the most inspiring part of today's news is that, based on our current stage and pace of development, as well as on our current human and financial resources, I recon to complete and delivery the prologue by the end of this summer. I know this is just an estimation, but it is a realistic one. The game core become more and more sophisticated with every monthly update. It happens very often when amending one bug that we reveal a couple of new ones. The major threat to this plan of release is the human factor (frankly, as it's been the case during the whole development). I'm doing my best to attach a new spare programmer to the development (at least for bug fixing) but if we lose our current programmers that might slow us down again. I'm praying with you that won't happen and we'll go through this coming three months smoothly and release a great product. Beyond that, if it goes according the plan, we need to look in the future. In the next update, I feel like to share the plans with Co-Founders, coordinate it with them, then (in August) share updated plan with Kisckstarter backers to ask their thought on it. If it run fine again, we'll share the plan with everybody else after release of the prologue by this Fall.
8,000 WISHLIST FANS REACHED ON STEAM
In previous update I posted Steam statistics about 7,000 wish lists collected and how that milestone has inspired us. It looks like my news found some traction within the hearts of our fans that follow the development process. For this month amount of wish lists has increased to 8,200! Thanks for adding us, guys. This growing number of wish list adds will definitely help us by the release date. The art above is painted and cordially shared as the illustration by one of our favorite contributor-artists Antony Fedotov who worked on the cover art of Fall of Gyes. This art you see is inspired by New Reno capital of the New Confederacy from After Reset setting :)
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE LORE
At this current stage we’re working hard on Ivy and Quanton characters. Both of these NPCs are virtual intelligences. For several weeks we received a lot of questions from our fan, littleONE, about Artificial & Virtual Intelligence science and its place in the hard sci-fi setting of After Reset. I decided to prepare some extra lore about that issue and include it into the prologue. You might read about it here or discover it in current build by yourself. But I’d like to show you how the hard sci-fi approach is different from casual "fast-food" approach (e.g. for many, the subject of AI typically resolves into "AI is a threat" or "Kill all humans"). Here you can read a part of an article from a public official from the Human Rights Watch. By 132 A.R. the HRW is one of the Social Corps Departments that monitor and enforce compliance for a ban on AI research and development within the United Governments. I hope, you'll enjoy it: "Specify the way in which you believe that a man is superior to a computer and I shall build a computer which refutes your belief. Turing’s challenge should not be taken up; for any sufficiently precise specification could be used in principle to program a computer." Karl Popper, The Self and its Brain When thinking about Artificial Intelligence and artificial consciousness, our forbearers often began from the premise that there are only two types of data processing: artificial and natural. But, we can now be certain that this premise was mistaken. The conceptual difference between artificial and natural systems was never definitive nor exhaustive. For a long time before the dawn of modern synthetic biology, long before the Reset, we already had intelligent and conscious systems, that could not have been said to belong to either of these two categories. As for the other outmoded division between hardware and software, once again, in the Past Age, we had biological systems that could be controlled by artificial (anthropogenic) software, while at the same time, there also existed artificial devices controlled by programs that arose all on their own (via evolution). But, having touched on issues of integrated biological neuron networks and non-biological machines as a type of "accelerated evolution," we are already reaching the problem of the Ethics of Consciousness. Here it is worth noting that we still do not have a functional theory to explain consciousness but, if we did, there would be no guarantee that it would apply equally to Artificial Intelligence in non-biological carrier. Before research in the field of Artificial Intelligence was made illegal, and Evolutionary Robotechnology studies were limited, more than a century before the Reset, we had already begun to create the first self-modeling and self-cognizing robots. The most obvious example is the "starfish" made by Josh Bongard, Viktor Zykov, and Hod Lipson. Over the course of their existence, these robots gradually developed an internal model of themselves, a model of the surrounding world, and a model of their places in it. These four-legged robots made use of these models to perform cognitive functions and interact with the world around them. When some legs were removed from one of these "starfish," it began to adapt its model to the new conditions, working out new approaches. In concrete terms, they learned to limp. Differently from human patients with Phantom Limb Syndrome, these robots were able to restructure their concept of their own body after losing limbs. These "starfish" were not only able to synthesize a personal model of the Self, but also use it to give rise to intelligent behavior. Of course, these first models of the Self were unconscious, but as many readers remember, they were successfully used to help making the first computer models of human evolution. The breakthrough in Artificial Intelligence research that followed was also correlated with breakthroughs in human neuropsychology. Before that, neuropsychology defined three things as the basis of consciousness as we know it: an integrated model of the surrounding world with feedback, which can be accessed by all parts of the mind; living through this model in the "here and now;" and the fact that the artificiality of this model of the world and the "here and now" are hidden from the conscious mind. These very factors were applied to humans as well: we have a virtual model of the world (though it may be inaccurate, limited, and contain delays and distortions), we have virtual model of us as the organisms (remember Phantom Limb Syndrome above), we can "feel" as we live in the "present" moment where we are and, from the beginning of our lives (and for some, for their whole lives) we do not recognize the artificial nature of these structures. However, what our forbearers, the creators of the "starfish," did not consider - was the presence of a fourth, connecting factor, that allows the trespassing the border from Virtual Intelligence to Artificial Intelligence: the simultaneous detachment and backward integration of models of the Self into an already-formed virtual picture of the world leads to begins to recognizing/cognizing itself. It becomes the Ego and a naive realist regarding everything its model of the Self does claim about. Such an Artificial Intelligence would believe (!) in itself. THE ETHICS OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE One of the first questions I get from schoolchildren at the beginning of my Conceptual Robotechnics course is, "If we can make Artificial Intelligence, why don’t we? And why does the government forbid all research this field?" I am reminded of our conclusions in the previous chapter: backward integration of a model of the Self in virtual form into the world "here and now" will allow these systems to see themselves in this world, and in this place and time. The system begins to recognize/cognize itself. And that change turns this artificial system into an object of moral agency: it now becomes potentially capable of suffering. Pain, fear, negative emotions and other internal conditions, which reflect part of reality as "undesirable" can serve as reasons for suffering only if they are realized. A system that is not revealed to itself (for example, our modern Virtual Intellect systems) cannot suffer, in that it is deprived of a sense of ownership. These systems are like rooms, in which a light is turned on, but no one is home. They cannot be objects of ethical consideration a priori. If such a system has a conscious model of the world (even if it is more accurate and full than a human’s), but no model of the Self, then we can pull the plug at any moment with our minds at ease. But Artificial Intelligence is capable of suffering, because it integrates pain signals, the condition of emotional distress or negative thoughts in its transparent model of the Self, and they are declared not an abstraction, but someone’s (!) pain or negative feelings. Here let us make a thought experiment that is a brilliant illustration of the potential moral issues of experimenting with Artificial Intelligence like this. Imagine that you are a member of an SOC ethics committee considering whether to award a science grant to a medical research project. The author of the project says: "We want to use genetic technology to propagate mentally disabled children. For the study, we need children with certain intellectual defects, emotional insufficiencies and perception deficits. This is an important innovative research strategy, which requires controlled and reproducible research on the mental development of mentally disabled children after birth. This is important not only to further our understanding how our own brain works, but also has a huge potential for curing several mental illnesses. That is why we need the funding immediately. Do the right thing!" Beyond a shadow of a doubt, you find this idea not only absurd, but also dangerous. One could confidently suppose that such a proposal would not be approved by any ethics committee in this world. Albeit, the first generation of Artificial Intelligence, or artificial consciousness, unlikely will find defenders in ethics committees just like the one described above. The first generation of machines that satisfy the minimum sufficient set of conditions for present living and self-consciousness would find themselves in a situation similar to that of the genetically engineered mentally handicapped human children. And just like those babies, the first Artificial Intelligences will unavoidably have all types of functional, cognitive and presentational dysfunctions, regardless of the fact that they may have been conditioned to have them by errors in the experimental design. It is completely possible that their perception systems: artificial eyes, ears, etc., won’t work very well at first. They will be half-deaf, half-blind and will have to struggle with potential difficulties in perception of the world and their own places in it. Together with that, having a self-consciousness, they will be capable of suffering. If their model of the Self is rooted in low-level self-regulation mechanisms in its hardware (i.e., just like our own emotional model of the Self is rooted in the upper brainstem and hypothalamus), then they will consciously live all the pain and emotions. It will be painful for them to go through losing homeostatic control because they have a built-in perception of their own existence. They would have personal interests and, as such, would subjectively live that fact. They would be able to suffer emotionally in a way that is qualitatively different from us in form and intensity, that we, its creators, would be powerless to even imagine. All the same, the fact is that the first generation of such Artificial Intelligences, will probably have a great many negative emotions, brought about by self-regulation failures due to hardware and software defects. These negative emotions will be recognized and intensely felt by the Artificial Intelligences themselves but, most likely, we will not be able to understand or even discern that they are present. Let’s try to continue our thought experiment… Imagine that the next generation of Artificial Intelligences, which would be more developed, begin to attach more complex cognitive characteristics to their model of the Self. In this case, they can already conceptually understand not only the quaintness of their existence as simply objects of scientific interest, but they will also be able to suffer intellectually from recognizing their own "inferiority." Further generations of such Artificial Intelligences will be able to fully recognize themselves as second-rate, though also intelligent beings, used as disposable experimental subjects. Just think what it must be like to “wake up” a developed artificial being, which, despite having a firm sense of identity and a personality that experiences itself, is nothing more than a mass-produced product. This story of Artificial Intelligence, of a being artificially endowed with self-consciousness, but without human or civil rights, or any kind of societal lobby, is an excellent demonstration of how connected the ability to suffer is with consciousness itself. It also is a principled argument for the unacceptability of creating Artificial Intelligence for the purpose of academic research. We should not increase the total amount of suffering in the universe without necessity. And creating Artificial Intelligence systems would be doing just that from the very outset... Roger Simmons, Social Corps Department of Human Rights Watch.
* * *
That is all for today. Getting back to the development. Thanks, guys, for rooting for us and for your outstanding patience! See you in a month ,or daily on our forum and Steam. Sincerely, Richard.
[ 2016-05-18 01:14:28 CET ] [ Original post ]
Patch #032616 Released
FIXES: Audio: Music loop in Main Menu fixed. Graphics: Female clothes skins fixed. Interface: Container panel reworked. Quantity panel reworked. Character Panel icons changed. Mechanics: Inventory mechanics revised. Apparel mechanics revised. Containers mechanics revised. Drop mechanics revised. Character speed after encumbrance level is off now, returns to the normal state. FEATURES & CHANGES: Gameplay: Quests at Special Facility level added. Containers at Special Facility level filled with random items. Containers at Science Facility level filled with random items. Ivy awakening dialog added. Graphics: Light armor for UG Military Police forces created and added. Interface: Quests UI added. Dialogues UI added. Mechanics: Quest Mechanics added. Dialogs Mechanics added. Random loot mechanics added. Random containers content mechanics added. Random DC (Science, Lockpick, Repair) for Electronic and Mechanical locks added. Data saving (character, containers, loot, locks, doors) while travelling between areas added.
IMPORTANT NOTES: 1. As it was planned, weve embedded another part of cool randomness of PnP RPG to our games mechanics. First, all containers and locks (electronic and mechanical) you meet in the updated build and onward will have random Difficulty Class for Repairing, Lockpicking, Hacking actions set in range relevant to the area type those containers and locks located. Second feature represents the sandbox randomness of the loot and containers content. Enhancing our engine with game designer module for work with items and containers, Ive been able to add more than 100 items from the database on our forum to the proper random lists for each container of the Special Facility and Science facility levels. Feel free to test how it works. Finally, the third is a shard of randomness in NPC behavior, dialogues and quests. The idea is to set random behavior and dialogues to various NPCs. All that implies nobody knows for sure if an NPC would be in a mood to talk with you, trade with you or give you a quest. Nobody even knows if the NPC would be in right place and time to meet you. That mechanics should work before any classic checks like: your alignment, your reputation, your achievements, your STATS, etc. A half part of the game should be defined by your destiny only. 2. I double-checked the graphic settings in our build and figured our that our visual capabilities is used less than at 25% (like maximum textures content and resolution, filtration, details, 3d postprocessing, lightning, materials, etc). Analyzing PC/MAC data of our fans who activated the game on Steam now Ive just slightly move the visual quality indicator 5% up. Your machines should cope with that. Im still sure that the decision to create all assets of AAA quality (4k resolution full set of textures with high details geometry) was the right decision. Thus, we wont have to redo all stuff with every chapter till the final game release, but just switch the level of quality allowed higher and higher. So that even by the final release our quality will be dignified.
Here Id like to share some fresh and inspiring stats about our forces gathering [strike]to take back Nassau[/strike] to come to release looms on the horizon. First off, we finally reached 7,000 wishlist adds on Steam. Frankly, for the time I prepared this news for our Editor to the todays release of the news, this amount rose by 63 more fellow fans. That quite decent and inspiring amount fuels our passion and dedication as we see how many people want to play the game were working on. Thank you all who added us, guys!
I also cant ignore the 200+ people who purchased (and keeps purchasing weekly) our EA version in this very EARLY stage. I encourage everyone who wants to support us to add After Reset to their wishlist, and for those of you who have made purchases, please do give us feedback. Frankly, I privately and publically asked all media/reviewers not to post any reviews until the prologue is complete. I also didnt use the Steam Promotion weve been granted for our marketing arsenal. Till the release, we dont need the publicity. But as I said, I cant skip thanking those 200+ people who backed us on Steam despite all the negative comments such as: [strike]Flint is dead[/strike], this game will never be completed, $50 for nothing. In these circumstances I think you all are some of the most loyal supporters AR has and should be rewarded somehow. Ill revisit this topic at a later date.
Regarding our current fan base from Kickstarter and from Direct Pledges, Ive collected and united all the data to prepare one database that will give us a better view of the people aboard our AR RPG capital ship. There are around 3,700 fans on KS/DP/Forum from the following countries: United States: 37% United Kingdom: 8% Russian Federation: 7% Germany: 6% Canada: 5% Australia: 5% France: 4% Sweden: 3% Others: 25% This data correlates with the viewers/customers data on Steam (I finally set GA properly).
Beyond that, the mystery of this large amount of backers from KS who didnt receive our letters with the key in time dispelled. When I applied e-mail server data validation check on e-mail entered on Kickstarter around 62% of the e-mails turned out to be invalid. Its hard to see when you browse through 3000 e-mails but easily indicated after such automated validation. Anyway, we manually fixed all errors, sent all keys missed by the system, and well be sure to use e-mail validation in the future.
Im not going to talk about this any further as you already know about this, our small assault frigate constructed by our other Kickstarter project related to After Reset universe. I just wanted to mention it in this briefing for those few who may have missed the previous announcements. For more info, check the update history. As of previous Friday, we successfully launched the Fall of Gyes on Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/440100/. Despite our small team, Id like to add full voice acting for the FoG app and by purchasing it and up-voting it people can help to make that upgrade a reality. The product also helps to familiarize people with the After Reset setting and I think it turned out to be really decent. Beyond that, extra funds we receive from the FoG app will be used to make more of the same visual stories with more choices (leading it to be like Telltale's games) and to invest further into our primary capital ship, the big RPG of our dreams - After Reset RPG. The other benefit from the reworking the FoG graphic novel as a kinetic novel/app and launching it through various platforms is the experience and data collected. As our indie studios credo of transparency indicates, Im publishing all costs and market insights about the FoG app on its Steam Discussion page (if you develop your first indie visual novel, quest or some game for iOS, youll be really interested in it): http://steamcommunity.com/app/440100/discussions/0/392183857625845909/. Important Note A: Please keep in mind that this FoG creation was just a test for our new programmer that Ive now hired, as he has shown a great deal of competence and work ethic. The production of this app was not paid for with funds from the After Reset or Fall of Gyes Kickstarter campaigns. As you might remember, we passed through six months of coding issues in the previous year when programmers vanished (with or without prepayment) or ruined the code several times. Making a mistake is only human, repeated mistakes is another matter entirely. Im now very cautious about crew selection and introductory tasks, and dont do any prepayments with people who havent proven themselves. Important Note B: Those of you who have and activated The Fall of Gyes as DLC for the AR RPG, thank you for you early bird support of it on Kickstarter and by Direct Pledge. You dont need to purchase the kinetic novel version we are releasing today. You will find the kinetic version (for WIN) inside your DLC folder within a month or so at no charge. Though, as it will be there as a separate DRM-free file, sadly you wont be able to vote for us on app's Store page . Thats okay, though. Youve done a lot for After Reset already, so thanks!
Thanks for rooting for us, fellas! Getting back to the sails, the release of the prologue looming on the horizon! Sincerely, Richard.
[ 2016-03-26 00:22:34 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hi, guys. In todays monthly news update weve got a juicy patch for the AR RPG, some fresh and inspiring statistics, and a bit of info about The Fall of Gyes app release on Steam. I know there are several dozen indie devs among our backers, as well as even more guys pondering about how to get into the industry with a personal project, and thats why Im so transparent about our stats, experiences, and insights that I hope will be useful to all of you.
PATCH #032616 RELEASED
FIXES: Audio: Music loop in Main Menu fixed. Graphics: Female clothes skins fixed. Interface: Container panel reworked. Quantity panel reworked. Character Panel icons changed. Mechanics: Inventory mechanics revised. Apparel mechanics revised. Containers mechanics revised. Drop mechanics revised. Character speed after encumbrance level is off now, returns to the normal state. FEATURES & CHANGES: Gameplay: Quests at Special Facility level added. Containers at Special Facility level filled with random items. Containers at Science Facility level filled with random items. Ivy awakening dialog added. Graphics: Light armor for UG Military Police forces created and added. Interface: Quests UI added. Dialogues UI added. Mechanics: Quest Mechanics added. Dialogs Mechanics added. Random loot mechanics added. Random containers content mechanics added. Random DC (Science, Lockpick, Repair) for Electronic and Mechanical locks added. Data saving (character, containers, loot, locks, doors) while travelling between areas added.
IMPORTANT NOTES: 1. As it was planned, weve embedded another part of cool randomness of PnP RPG to our games mechanics. First, all containers and locks (electronic and mechanical) you meet in the updated build and onward will have random Difficulty Class for Repairing, Lockpicking, Hacking actions set in range relevant to the area type those containers and locks located. Second feature represents the sandbox randomness of the loot and containers content. Enhancing our engine with game designer module for work with items and containers, Ive been able to add more than 100 items from the database on our forum to the proper random lists for each container of the Special Facility and Science facility levels. Feel free to test how it works. Finally, the third is a shard of randomness in NPC behavior, dialogues and quests. The idea is to set random behavior and dialogues to various NPCs. All that implies nobody knows for sure if an NPC would be in a mood to talk with you, trade with you or give you a quest. Nobody even knows if the NPC would be in right place and time to meet you. That mechanics should work before any classic checks like: your alignment, your reputation, your achievements, your STATS, etc. A half part of the game should be defined by your destiny only. 2. I double-checked the graphic settings in our build and figured our that our visual capabilities is used less than at 25% (like maximum textures content and resolution, filtration, details, 3d postprocessing, lightning, materials, etc). Analyzing PC/MAC data of our fans who activated the game on Steam now Ive just slightly move the visual quality indicator 5% up. Your machines should cope with that. Im still sure that the decision to create all assets of AAA quality (4k resolution full set of textures with high details geometry) was the right decision. Thus, we wont have to redo all stuff with every chapter till the final game release, but just switch the level of quality allowed higher and higher. So that even by the final release our quality will be dignified.
7,000 WISHLIST FANS REACHED ON STEAM
Here Id like to share some fresh and inspiring stats about our forces gathering [strike]to take back Nassau[/strike] to come to release looms on the horizon. First off, we finally reached 7,000 wishlist adds on Steam. Frankly, for the time I prepared this news for our Editor to the todays release of the news, this amount rose by 63 more fellow fans. That quite decent and inspiring amount fuels our passion and dedication as we see how many people want to play the game were working on. Thank you all who added us, guys!
I also cant ignore the 200+ people who purchased (and keeps purchasing weekly) our EA version in this very EARLY stage. I encourage everyone who wants to support us to add After Reset to their wishlist, and for those of you who have made purchases, please do give us feedback. Frankly, I privately and publically asked all media/reviewers not to post any reviews until the prologue is complete. I also didnt use the Steam Promotion weve been granted for our marketing arsenal. Till the release, we dont need the publicity. But as I said, I cant skip thanking those 200+ people who backed us on Steam despite all the negative comments such as: [strike]Flint is dead[/strike], this game will never be completed, $50 for nothing. In these circumstances I think you all are some of the most loyal supporters AR has and should be rewarded somehow. Ill revisit this topic at a later date.
Regarding our current fan base from Kickstarter and from Direct Pledges, Ive collected and united all the data to prepare one database that will give us a better view of the people aboard our AR RPG capital ship. There are around 3,700 fans on KS/DP/Forum from the following countries: United States: 37% United Kingdom: 8% Russian Federation: 7% Germany: 6% Canada: 5% Australia: 5% France: 4% Sweden: 3% Others: 25% This data correlates with the viewers/customers data on Steam (I finally set GA properly).
Beyond that, the mystery of this large amount of backers from KS who didnt receive our letters with the key in time dispelled. When I applied e-mail server data validation check on e-mail entered on Kickstarter around 62% of the e-mails turned out to be invalid. Its hard to see when you browse through 3000 e-mails but easily indicated after such automated validation. Anyway, we manually fixed all errors, sent all keys missed by the system, and well be sure to use e-mail validation in the future.
THE FALL OF GYES APP NOW ON STEAM
Im not going to talk about this any further as you already know about this, our small assault frigate constructed by our other Kickstarter project related to After Reset universe. I just wanted to mention it in this briefing for those few who may have missed the previous announcements. For more info, check the update history. As of previous Friday, we successfully launched the Fall of Gyes on Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/440100/. Despite our small team, Id like to add full voice acting for the FoG app and by purchasing it and up-voting it people can help to make that upgrade a reality. The product also helps to familiarize people with the After Reset setting and I think it turned out to be really decent. Beyond that, extra funds we receive from the FoG app will be used to make more of the same visual stories with more choices (leading it to be like Telltale's games) and to invest further into our primary capital ship, the big RPG of our dreams - After Reset RPG. The other benefit from the reworking the FoG graphic novel as a kinetic novel/app and launching it through various platforms is the experience and data collected. As our indie studios credo of transparency indicates, Im publishing all costs and market insights about the FoG app on its Steam Discussion page (if you develop your first indie visual novel, quest or some game for iOS, youll be really interested in it): http://steamcommunity.com/app/440100/discussions/0/392183857625845909/. Important Note A: Please keep in mind that this FoG creation was just a test for our new programmer that Ive now hired, as he has shown a great deal of competence and work ethic. The production of this app was not paid for with funds from the After Reset or Fall of Gyes Kickstarter campaigns. As you might remember, we passed through six months of coding issues in the previous year when programmers vanished (with or without prepayment) or ruined the code several times. Making a mistake is only human, repeated mistakes is another matter entirely. Im now very cautious about crew selection and introductory tasks, and dont do any prepayments with people who havent proven themselves. Important Note B: Those of you who have and activated The Fall of Gyes as DLC for the AR RPG, thank you for you early bird support of it on Kickstarter and by Direct Pledge. You dont need to purchase the kinetic novel version we are releasing today. You will find the kinetic version (for WIN) inside your DLC folder within a month or so at no charge. Though, as it will be there as a separate DRM-free file, sadly you wont be able to vote for us on app's Store page . Thats okay, though. Youve done a lot for After Reset already, so thanks!
* * *
Thanks for rooting for us, fellas! Getting back to the sails, the release of the prologue looming on the horizon! Sincerely, Richard.
[ 2016-03-26 00:22:34 CET ] [ Original post ]
Patch #032616 Released
FIXES: Audio: • Music loop in Main Menu fixed. Graphics: • Female clothes skins fixed. Interface: • Container panel reworked. • Quantity panel reworked. • Character Panel icons changed. Mechanics: • Inventory mechanics revised. • Apparel mechanics revised. • Containers mechanics revised. • Drop mechanics revised. • Character speed after encumbrance level is off now, returns to the normal state. FEATURES & CHANGES: Gameplay: • Quests at Special Facility level added. • Containers at Special Facility level filled with random items. • Containers at Science Facility level filled with random items. • Ivy awakening dialog added. Graphics: • Light armor for UG Military Police forces created and added. Interface: • Quests UI added. • Dialogues UI added. Mechanics: • Quest Mechanics added. • Dialogs Mechanics added. • Random loot mechanics added. • Random container’s content mechanics added. • Random DC (Science, Lockpick, Repair) for Electronic and Mechanical locks added. • Data saving (character, containers, loot, locks, doors) while travelling between areas added.
IMPORTANT NOTES: 1. As it was planned, we’ve embedded another part of cool randomness of PnP RPG to our game’s mechanics. First, all containers and locks (electronic and mechanical) you meet in the updated build and onward will have random Difficulty Class for Repairing, Lockpicking, Hacking actions set in range relevant to the area type those containers and locks located. Second feature represents the sandbox randomness of the loot and containers’ content. Enhancing our engine with game designer module for work with items and containers, I’ve been able to add more than 100 items from the database on our forum to the proper random lists for each container of the Special Facility and Science facility levels. Feel free to test how it works. Finally, the third is a shard of randomness in NPC behavior, dialogues and quests. The idea is to set random behavior and dialogues to various NPCs. All that implies nobody knows for sure if an NPC would be in a mood to talk with you, trade with you or give you a quest. Nobody even knows if the NPC would be in right place and time to meet you. That mechanics should work before any classic checks like: your alignment, your reputation, your achievements, your STATS, etc. A half part of the game should be defined by your destiny only. 2. I double-checked the graphic settings in our build and figured our that our visual capabilities is used less than at 25% (like maximum textures content and resolution, filtration, details, 3d postprocessing, lightning, materials, etc). Analyzing PC/MAC data of our fans who activated the game on Steam now I’ve just slightly move the visual quality indicator 5% up. Your machines should cope with that. I’m still sure that the decision to create all assets of AAA quality (4k resolution full set of textures with high details geometry) was the right decision. Thus, we won’t have to redo all stuff with every chapter till the final game release, but just switch the level of quality allowed higher and higher. So that even by the final release our quality will be dignified.
Here I’d like to share some fresh and inspiring stats about our forces gathering [strike]to take back Nassau[/strike] to come to release looms on the horizon. First off, we finally reached 7,000 wishlist adds on Steam. Frankly, for the time I prepared this news for our Editor to the today’s release of the news, this amount rose by 63 more fellow fans. That quite decent and inspiring amount fuels our passion and dedication as we see how many people want to play the game we’re working on. Thank you all who added us, guys!
I also can’t ignore the 200+ people who purchased (and keeps purchasing weekly) our EA version in this very EARLY stage. I encourage everyone who wants to support us to add After Reset to their wishlist, and for those of you who have made purchases, please do give us feedback. Frankly, I privately and publically asked all media/reviewers not to post any reviews until the prologue is complete. I also didn’t use the Steam Promotion we’ve been granted for our marketing arsenal. Till the release, we don’t need the publicity. But as I said, I can’t skip thanking those 200+ people who backed us on Steam despite all the negative comments such as: [strike]‘Flint is dead’[/strike], ‘this game will never be completed’, ‘$50 for nothing’. In these circumstances I think you all are some of the most loyal supporters AR has and should be rewarded somehow. I’ll revisit this topic at a later date.
Regarding our current fan base from Kickstarter and from Direct Pledges, I’ve collected and united all the data to prepare one database that will give us a better view of the people aboard our AR RPG ‘capital ship.’ There are around 3,700 fans on KS/DP/Forum from the following countries: United States: 37% United Kingdom: 8% Russian Federation: 7% Germany: 6% Canada: 5% Australia: 5% France: 4% Sweden: 3% Others: 25% This data correlates with the viewers/customers data on Steam (I finally set GA properly).
Beyond that, the mystery of this large amount of backers from KS who didn’t receive our letters with the key in time dispelled. When I applied e-mail server data validation check on e-mail entered on Kickstarter – around 62% of the e-mails turned out to be invalid. It’s hard to see when you browse through 3000 e-mails but easily indicated after such automated validation. Anyway, we manually fixed all errors, sent all keys missed by the system, and we’ll be sure to use e-mail validation in the future.
I’m not going to talk about this any further as you already know about this, our small ‘assault frigate’ constructed by our other Kickstarter project related to After Reset universe. I just wanted to mention it in this briefing for those few who may have missed the previous announcements. For more info, check the update history. As of previous Friday, we successfully launched the Fall of Gyes on Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/440100/. Despite our small team, I’d like to add full voice acting for the FoG app and by purchasing it and up-voting it people can help to make that upgrade a reality. The product also helps to familiarize people with the After Reset setting and I think it turned out to be really decent. Beyond that, extra funds we receive from the FoG app will be used to make more of the same visual stories with more choices (leading it to be like Telltale's games) and to invest further into our primary ‘capital ship,’ ‘the big RPG of our dreams’ - After Reset RPG. The other benefit from the reworking the FoG graphic novel as a kinetic novel/app and launching it through various platforms is the experience and data collected. As our indie studio’s credo of transparency indicates, I’m publishing all costs and market insights about the FoG app on its Steam Discussion page (if you develop your first indie visual novel, quest or some game for iOS, you’ll be really interested in it): http://steamcommunity.com/app/440100/discussions/0/392183857625845909/. Important Note A: Please keep in mind that this FoG creation was just a test for our new programmer that I’ve now hired, as he has shown a great deal of competence and work ethic. The production of this app was not paid for with funds from the After Reset or Fall of Gyes Kickstarter campaigns. As you might remember, we passed through six months of coding issues in the previous year when programmers vanished (with or without prepayment) or ruined the code several times. Making a mistake is only human, repeated mistakes is another matter entirely. I’m now very cautious about crew selection and introductory tasks, and don’t do any prepayments with people who haven’t proven themselves. Important Note B: Those of you who have and activated The Fall of Gyes as DLC for the AR RPG, thank you for you early bird support of it on Kickstarter and by Direct Pledge. You don’t need to purchase the kinetic novel version we are releasing today. You will find the kinetic version (for WIN) inside your DLC folder within a month or so at no charge. Though, as it will be there as a separate DRM-free file, sadly you won’t be able to vote for us on app's Store page . That’s okay, though. You’ve done a lot for After Reset already, so thanks!
Thanks for rooting for us, fellas! Getting back to the sails, the release of the prologue looming on the horizon! Sincerely, Richard.
[ 2016-03-26 00:22:34 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hi, guys. In today’s monthly news update we’ve got a juicy patch for the AR RPG, some fresh and inspiring statistics, and a bit of info about The Fall of Gyes app release on Steam. I know there are several dozen indie devs among our backers, as well as even more guys pondering about how to get into the industry with a personal project, and that’s why I’m so transparent about our stats, experiences, and insights that I hope will be useful to all of you.
PATCH #032616 RELEASED
FIXES: Audio: • Music loop in Main Menu fixed. Graphics: • Female clothes skins fixed. Interface: • Container panel reworked. • Quantity panel reworked. • Character Panel icons changed. Mechanics: • Inventory mechanics revised. • Apparel mechanics revised. • Containers mechanics revised. • Drop mechanics revised. • Character speed after encumbrance level is off now, returns to the normal state. FEATURES & CHANGES: Gameplay: • Quests at Special Facility level added. • Containers at Special Facility level filled with random items. • Containers at Science Facility level filled with random items. • Ivy awakening dialog added. Graphics: • Light armor for UG Military Police forces created and added. Interface: • Quests UI added. • Dialogues UI added. Mechanics: • Quest Mechanics added. • Dialogs Mechanics added. • Random loot mechanics added. • Random container’s content mechanics added. • Random DC (Science, Lockpick, Repair) for Electronic and Mechanical locks added. • Data saving (character, containers, loot, locks, doors) while travelling between areas added.
IMPORTANT NOTES: 1. As it was planned, we’ve embedded another part of cool randomness of PnP RPG to our game’s mechanics. First, all containers and locks (electronic and mechanical) you meet in the updated build and onward will have random Difficulty Class for Repairing, Lockpicking, Hacking actions set in range relevant to the area type those containers and locks located. Second feature represents the sandbox randomness of the loot and containers’ content. Enhancing our engine with game designer module for work with items and containers, I’ve been able to add more than 100 items from the database on our forum to the proper random lists for each container of the Special Facility and Science facility levels. Feel free to test how it works. Finally, the third is a shard of randomness in NPC behavior, dialogues and quests. The idea is to set random behavior and dialogues to various NPCs. All that implies nobody knows for sure if an NPC would be in a mood to talk with you, trade with you or give you a quest. Nobody even knows if the NPC would be in right place and time to meet you. That mechanics should work before any classic checks like: your alignment, your reputation, your achievements, your STATS, etc. A half part of the game should be defined by your destiny only. 2. I double-checked the graphic settings in our build and figured our that our visual capabilities is used less than at 25% (like maximum textures content and resolution, filtration, details, 3d postprocessing, lightning, materials, etc). Analyzing PC/MAC data of our fans who activated the game on Steam now I’ve just slightly move the visual quality indicator 5% up. Your machines should cope with that. I’m still sure that the decision to create all assets of AAA quality (4k resolution full set of textures with high details geometry) was the right decision. Thus, we won’t have to redo all stuff with every chapter till the final game release, but just switch the level of quality allowed higher and higher. So that even by the final release our quality will be dignified.
7,000 WISHLIST FANS REACHED ON STEAM
Here I’d like to share some fresh and inspiring stats about our forces gathering [strike]to take back Nassau[/strike] to come to release looms on the horizon. First off, we finally reached 7,000 wishlist adds on Steam. Frankly, for the time I prepared this news for our Editor to the today’s release of the news, this amount rose by 63 more fellow fans. That quite decent and inspiring amount fuels our passion and dedication as we see how many people want to play the game we’re working on. Thank you all who added us, guys!
I also can’t ignore the 200+ people who purchased (and keeps purchasing weekly) our EA version in this very EARLY stage. I encourage everyone who wants to support us to add After Reset to their wishlist, and for those of you who have made purchases, please do give us feedback. Frankly, I privately and publically asked all media/reviewers not to post any reviews until the prologue is complete. I also didn’t use the Steam Promotion we’ve been granted for our marketing arsenal. Till the release, we don’t need the publicity. But as I said, I can’t skip thanking those 200+ people who backed us on Steam despite all the negative comments such as: [strike]‘Flint is dead’[/strike], ‘this game will never be completed’, ‘$50 for nothing’. In these circumstances I think you all are some of the most loyal supporters AR has and should be rewarded somehow. I’ll revisit this topic at a later date.
Regarding our current fan base from Kickstarter and from Direct Pledges, I’ve collected and united all the data to prepare one database that will give us a better view of the people aboard our AR RPG ‘capital ship.’ There are around 3,700 fans on KS/DP/Forum from the following countries: United States: 37% United Kingdom: 8% Russian Federation: 7% Germany: 6% Canada: 5% Australia: 5% France: 4% Sweden: 3% Others: 25% This data correlates with the viewers/customers data on Steam (I finally set GA properly).
Beyond that, the mystery of this large amount of backers from KS who didn’t receive our letters with the key in time dispelled. When I applied e-mail server data validation check on e-mail entered on Kickstarter – around 62% of the e-mails turned out to be invalid. It’s hard to see when you browse through 3000 e-mails but easily indicated after such automated validation. Anyway, we manually fixed all errors, sent all keys missed by the system, and we’ll be sure to use e-mail validation in the future.
THE FALL OF GYES APP NOW ON STEAM
I’m not going to talk about this any further as you already know about this, our small ‘assault frigate’ constructed by our other Kickstarter project related to After Reset universe. I just wanted to mention it in this briefing for those few who may have missed the previous announcements. For more info, check the update history. As of previous Friday, we successfully launched the Fall of Gyes on Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/440100/. Despite our small team, I’d like to add full voice acting for the FoG app and by purchasing it and up-voting it people can help to make that upgrade a reality. The product also helps to familiarize people with the After Reset setting and I think it turned out to be really decent. Beyond that, extra funds we receive from the FoG app will be used to make more of the same visual stories with more choices (leading it to be like Telltale's games) and to invest further into our primary ‘capital ship,’ ‘the big RPG of our dreams’ - After Reset RPG. The other benefit from the reworking the FoG graphic novel as a kinetic novel/app and launching it through various platforms is the experience and data collected. As our indie studio’s credo of transparency indicates, I’m publishing all costs and market insights about the FoG app on its Steam Discussion page (if you develop your first indie visual novel, quest or some game for iOS, you’ll be really interested in it): http://steamcommunity.com/app/440100/discussions/0/392183857625845909/. Important Note A: Please keep in mind that this FoG creation was just a test for our new programmer that I’ve now hired, as he has shown a great deal of competence and work ethic. The production of this app was not paid for with funds from the After Reset or Fall of Gyes Kickstarter campaigns. As you might remember, we passed through six months of coding issues in the previous year when programmers vanished (with or without prepayment) or ruined the code several times. Making a mistake is only human, repeated mistakes is another matter entirely. I’m now very cautious about crew selection and introductory tasks, and don’t do any prepayments with people who haven’t proven themselves. Important Note B: Those of you who have and activated The Fall of Gyes as DLC for the AR RPG, thank you for you early bird support of it on Kickstarter and by Direct Pledge. You don’t need to purchase the kinetic novel version we are releasing today. You will find the kinetic version (for WIN) inside your DLC folder within a month or so at no charge. Though, as it will be there as a separate DRM-free file, sadly you won’t be able to vote for us on app's Store page . That’s okay, though. You’ve done a lot for After Reset already, so thanks!
* * *
Thanks for rooting for us, fellas! Getting back to the sails, the release of the prologue looming on the horizon! Sincerely, Richard.
[ 2016-03-26 00:22:34 CET ] [ Original post ]
Patch #020716 Released
FIXES: Interface: GUI and fonts are non-scalable now (like in Fallout Tactics). Mechanics: Character movement speed fixed. Bonuses from STATs now affect characters 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 prologues 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 Players Guide relevant page. 4. Weve 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 todays 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 characters 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 well devote to Dialogues mechanics embedding.
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 games 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): http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id1057013775. Feel free to check it on your iPhone/iPad. According to our tradition of transparency Ill 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: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=564347828. 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. Im trying to combine everything about After Reset in the one big main bundle and provide most benefits to our early backers.
Well, that is all for todays news. Were heading back to work. The prologues completion is already starting to take shape, and we cant wait to finish it! Feel free to leave a comment, and dont miss the XCOM2 this month! :) Sincerely, Richard. Add us on Steam Early Access. Visit After Reset RPG official Store. Join After Reset RPG official website.
[ 2016-02-08 08:39:54 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hi, guys!
Todays 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), Id 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 characters 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 prologues 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 Players Guide relevant page. 4. Weve 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 todays 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 characters 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 well 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 games 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): http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id1057013775. Feel free to check it on your iPhone/iPad. According to our tradition of transparency Ill 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: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=564347828. 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. Im trying to combine everything about After Reset in the one big main bundle and provide most benefits to our early backers.
* * *
Well, that is all for todays news. Were heading back to work. The prologues completion is already starting to take shape, and we cant wait to finish it! Feel free to leave a comment, and dont miss the XCOM2 this month! :) Sincerely, Richard. Add us on Steam Early Access. Visit After Reset RPG official Store. Join After Reset RPG official website.
[ 2016-02-08 08:39:54 CET ] [ Original post ]
Patch #020716 Released
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.
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): http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id1057013775. 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: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=564347828. 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.
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! :) Sincerely, Richard. Add us on Steam Early Access. Visit After Reset RPG official Store. Join After Reset RPG official website.
[ 2016-02-08 08:39:54 CET ] [ Original post ]
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): http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id1057013775. 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: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=564347828. 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.
* * *
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! :) Sincerely, Richard. Add us on Steam Early Access. Visit After Reset RPG official Store. Join After Reset RPG official website.
[ 2016-02-08 08:39:54 CET ] [ Original post ]
Patch #123115 Released
FIXES: Graphics: Character's emotions/alignment amended for showing on the custom-made characters. Interface: Background scene for Charlist/Inventory changed. Stealth Mode effect now doesnt apply on character model in Charlist. Mechanics: Current weight rounding in Charlist/Inventory amended. Stacked usable items activation from hands fixed. FEATURES & CHANGES: Audio: Unique sounds for putting on each type of apparel added. Unique sounds for eating/drinking/inhaling added to relevant usable items. Gameplay: Journal Records to PCs at Special Facility level added. Journal Records to PCs at Science Facility level added. Interface: Status bar for indication of using items added. Character Stats List revised. Fonts styles for in-game UI revised and unified. UI for Journal Records section of the Charlist added. Mechanics: Stack system for items in the Inventory added. Stacked items used through the hand slots embedded. Ability to use relevant items in Inventory added. Journal mechanics added. Other: Various usable items added into the char's Inventory. Various equipable apparel items added into the char's Inventory.
IMPORTANT NOTES: If you regularly test our monthly patches please check out the Journal Records and Apparel that we've presented in this patch. Feel free to share your impressions and report any bugs we missed. During the font styles revision I've encountered the major issue why the GUI and fonts in it might looks small for the screen resolution different from 1920x1080 I use (and 56% of you, guys, use as well). The case was that despite I designed the scheme of the GUI for 1024-resolution and higher it was meant to be no scaleable with the twisting of resolution. Though our programmers made it so that it scales with the resolution different from 1080i. We'll fix that in the next update. So that the font and GUI elements will look on any resolution 30% bigger than GUI for Fallout Tactics (HD edition).
As you might see we've recently changed the logo of the studio. The fresh variant was born during the work on Fall of Gyes game app for App Store (as you might know one of our extra candidate for programmer vacancy has been working on it as a test). It turned out the new logo matched for publishing, designing and conceptual purposes. Here I should give my personal thanks to Kyndra from Apple support for attentive attitude and swift help in identification and resolving various issues on the fly. As well as I feel like to give my thanks to Maria for identifying several important issues on out Steam page (thanks to her we've also find out that our free tech demo on Steam can't be downloaded for some time... we work on the issue with Steam support).
I'm also quite glad to announce that The Fall of Gyes graphic novel is now available on ComiXology as of Wednesday, December 23, 2015. Just in time for Christmas! We've been working on it since the beginning of this year but we're very pleased to see it on the website. We're proud to have the experience under our collective belts, including everything from creation to physical production and worldwide distribution. We look forward to producing another one I would also like to ask that everyone please share these links with your social cloud and help us raise awareness for the TFoG: http://bit.ly/1k4Nugq As always I'll post financial information and other relevant details in the upcoming months (ComiXology does not provides any stats till the quarter reports).
As you might already know, After Reset RPG is on the way to be the first hard sci-fi video game as opposed to most fast-food video game approaches designed for mainstream appeal. This imposes certain obligations and leads to realism in every part of our development. Finding ways to get these puzzle pieces to work together is often a difficult and time-consuming struggle. I'd like to show you some examples from popular games and myth-bust their flaws while sharing some information about our approach to hard sci-fi armor designs. First of all, I'd like to warn you that after reading the lore below you likely won't be able to play most of the modern games or watch most of the TV-shows without non-stop facepalms. Perhaps there is something to be said for stylization in these works, but just as classic movies show heroes unloading thousands of rounds from their Ak-47 without ever reloading, we cant help but chuckle at the absurdity of such oversights. N.B. Here I'll show our hard sci-fi approach to armor design with U.G. Pacifier Body Armor (PBA). The screen above is the work in progress. It has recently past from engineering phase to product design phase (in our R&D process). READ MORE...
Christmas is a season of joy and love, but it's also a time for reflection. We think of those who are closest to our hearts, even though they may be far away in miles. We pause to give special thought to those in need, and to the universal bonds that link all gamers in brotherhood if not in blood. In doing so, we touch on something basic and good in the human spirit, a special grace that makes this a time of giving, and of forgiving - in short, good will toward men. As we give to one another, let us give of ourselves. For one of the lessons of Christmas is this: among greatest gifts to man is the gift of giving itself, and the more we give of ourselves the more of ourselves we have to give. Once again I'd like to thank everyone who contributed, posted, reviewed, and purchased After Reset as we could never have got this far without your support. Merry Christmas, and may the Force be with you! Sincerely, Richard.
[ 2015-12-30 23:46:05 CET ] [ Original post ]
Morning, guys! This Christmas update is devoted to our new patch that includes numerous tweaks and bug fixes. As well as the news about our TFoG graphic novel release, several personal thanks and cool article about armors design in video games.
PATCH NOTES #123115
FIXES: Graphics: Character's emotions/alignment amended for showing on the custom-made characters. Interface: Background scene for Charlist/Inventory changed. Stealth Mode effect now doesnt apply on character model in Charlist. Mechanics: Current weight rounding in Charlist/Inventory amended. Stacked usable items activation from hands fixed. FEATURES & CHANGES: Audio: Unique sounds for putting on each type of apparel added. Unique sounds for eating/drinking/inhaling added to relevant usable items. Gameplay: Journal Records to PCs at Special Facility level added. Journal Records to PCs at Science Facility level added. Interface: Status bar for indication of using items added. Character Stats List revised. Fonts styles for in-game UI revised and unified. UI for Journal Records section of the Charlist added. Mechanics: Stack system for items in the Inventory added. Stacked items used through the hand slots embedded. Ability to use relevant items in Inventory added. Journal mechanics added. Other: Various usable items added into the char's Inventory. Various equipable apparel items added into the char's Inventory.
IMPORTANT NOTES: If you regularly test our monthly patches please check out the Journal Records and Apparel that we've presented in this patch. Feel free to share your impressions and report any bugs we missed. During the font styles revision I've encountered the major issue why the GUI and fonts in it might looks small for the screen resolution different from 1920x1080 I use (and 56% of you, guys, use as well). The case was that despite I designed the scheme of the GUI for 1024-resolution and higher it was meant to be no scaleable with the twisting of resolution. Though our programmers made it so that it scales with the resolution different from 1080i. We'll fix that in the next update. So that the font and GUI elements will look on any resolution 30% bigger than GUI for Fallout Tactics (HD edition).
BCS THANKS
As you might see we've recently changed the logo of the studio. The fresh variant was born during the work on Fall of Gyes game app for App Store (as you might know one of our extra candidate for programmer vacancy has been working on it as a test). It turned out the new logo matched for publishing, designing and conceptual purposes. Here I should give my personal thanks to Kyndra from Apple support for attentive attitude and swift help in identification and resolving various issues on the fly. As well as I feel like to give my thanks to Maria for identifying several important issues on out Steam page (thanks to her we've also find out that our free tech demo on Steam can't be downloaded for some time... we work on the issue with Steam support).
THE FALL OF GYES GRAPHIC NOVEL IS NOW AVAILABLE ON COMIXOLOGY
I'm also quite glad to announce that The Fall of Gyes graphic novel is now available on ComiXology as of Wednesday, December 23, 2015. Just in time for Christmas! We've been working on it since the beginning of this year but we're very pleased to see it on the website. We're proud to have the experience under our collective belts, including everything from creation to physical production and worldwide distribution. We look forward to producing another one I would also like to ask that everyone please share these links with your social cloud and help us raise awareness for the TFoG: http://bit.ly/1k4Nugq As always I'll post financial information and other relevant details in the upcoming months (ComiXology does not provides any stats till the quarter reports).
IN-GAME ARMOR DESIGN MYTHS BUSTED
As you might already know, After Reset RPG is on the way to be the first hard sci-fi video game as opposed to most fast-food video game approaches designed for mainstream appeal. This imposes certain obligations and leads to realism in every part of our development. Finding ways to get these puzzle pieces to work together is often a difficult and time-consuming struggle. I'd like to show you some examples from popular games and myth-bust their flaws while sharing some information about our approach to hard sci-fi armor designs. First of all, I'd like to warn you that after reading the lore below you likely won't be able to play most of the modern games or watch most of the TV-shows without non-stop facepalms. Perhaps there is something to be said for stylization in these works, but just as classic movies show heroes unloading thousands of rounds from their Ak-47 without ever reloading, we cant help but chuckle at the absurdity of such oversights. N.B. Here I'll show our hard sci-fi approach to armor design with U.G. Pacifier Body Armor (PBA). The screen above is the work in progress. It has recently past from engineering phase to product design phase (in our R&D process). READ MORE...
* * *
Christmas is a season of joy and love, but it's also a time for reflection. We think of those who are closest to our hearts, even though they may be far away in miles. We pause to give special thought to those in need, and to the universal bonds that link all gamers in brotherhood if not in blood. In doing so, we touch on something basic and good in the human spirit, a special grace that makes this a time of giving, and of forgiving - in short, good will toward men. As we give to one another, let us give of ourselves. For one of the lessons of Christmas is this: among greatest gifts to man is the gift of giving itself, and the more we give of ourselves the more of ourselves we have to give. Once again I'd like to thank everyone who contributed, posted, reviewed, and purchased After Reset as we could never have got this far without your support. Merry Christmas, and may the Force be with you! Sincerely, Richard.
[ 2015-12-30 23:46:05 CET ] [ Original post ]
Patch #123115 Released
FIXES: Graphics: • Character's emotions/alignment amended for showing on the custom-made characters. Interface: • Background scene for Charlist/Inventory changed. • Stealth Mode effect now doesn’t apply on character model in Charlist. Mechanics: • Current weight rounding in Charlist/Inventory amended. • Stacked usable items activation from hands fixed. FEATURES & CHANGES: Audio: • Unique sounds for putting on each type of apparel added. • Unique sounds for eating/drinking/inhaling added to relevant usable items. Gameplay: • Journal Records to PCs at Special Facility level added. • Journal Records to PCs at Science Facility level added. Interface: • Status bar for indication of using items added. • Character Stats List revised. • Fonts styles for in-game UI revised and unified. • UI for Journal Records section of the Charlist added. Mechanics: • Stack system for items in the Inventory added. • Stacked items used through the hand slots embedded. • Ability to use relevant items in Inventory added. • Journal mechanics added. Other: • Various usable items added into the char's Inventory. • Various equipable apparel items added into the char's Inventory.
IMPORTANT NOTES: If you regularly test our monthly patches please check out the Journal Records and Apparel that we've presented in this patch. Feel free to share your impressions and report any bugs we missed. During the font styles revision I've encountered the major issue why the GUI and fonts in it might looks small for the screen resolution different from 1920x1080 I use (and 56% of you, guys, use as well). The case was that despite I designed the scheme of the GUI for 1024-resolution and higher – it was meant to be no scaleable with the twisting of resolution. Though our programmers made it so that it scales with the resolution different from 1080i. We'll fix that in the next update. So that the font and GUI elements will look on any resolution 30% bigger than GUI for Fallout Tactics (HD edition).
As you might see we've recently changed the logo of the studio. The fresh variant was born during the work on Fall of Gyes game app for App Store (as you might know one of our extra candidate for programmer vacancy has been working on it as a test). It turned out the new logo matched for publishing, designing and conceptual purposes. Here I should give my personal thanks to Kyndra from Apple support for attentive attitude and swift help in identification and resolving various issues on the fly. As well as I feel like to give my thanks to Maria for identifying several important issues on out Steam page (thanks to her we've also find out that our free tech demo on Steam can't be downloaded for some time... we work on the issue with Steam support).
I'm also quite glad to announce that The Fall of Gyes graphic novel is now available on ComiXology as of Wednesday, December 23, 2015. Just in time for Christmas! We've been working on it since the beginning of this year but we're very pleased to see it on the website. We're proud to have the experience under our collective belts, including everything from creation to physical production and worldwide distribution. We look forward to producing another one… I would also like to ask that everyone please share these links with your social cloud and help us raise awareness for the TFoG: http://bit.ly/1k4Nugq As always I'll post financial information and other relevant details in the upcoming months (ComiXology does not provides any stats till the quarter reports).
As you might already know, After Reset RPG is on the way to be the first hard sci-fi video game as opposed to most fast-food video game approaches designed for mainstream appeal. This imposes certain obligations and leads to realism in every part of our development. Finding ways to get these puzzle pieces to work together is often a difficult and time-consuming struggle. I'd like to show you some examples from popular games and myth-bust their flaws while sharing some information about our approach to hard sci-fi armor designs. First of all, I'd like to warn you that after reading the lore below you likely won't be able to play most of the modern games or watch most of the TV-shows without non-stop facepalms. Perhaps there is something to be said for stylization in these works, but just as classic movies show heroes unloading thousands of rounds from their Ak-47 without ever reloading, we can’t help but chuckle at the absurdity of such oversights. N.B. Here I'll show our hard sci-fi approach to armor design with U.G. Pacifier Body Armor (PBA). The screen above is the work in progress. It has recently past from engineering phase to product design phase (in our R&D process). READ MORE...
Christmas is a season of joy and love, but it's also a time for reflection. We think of those who are closest to our hearts, even though they may be far away in miles. We pause to give special thought to those in need, and to the universal bonds that link all gamers in brotherhood if not in blood. In doing so, we touch on something basic and good in the human spirit, a special grace that makes this a time of giving, and of forgiving - in short, good will toward men. As we give to one another, let us give of ourselves. For one of the lessons of Christmas is this: among greatest gifts to man is the gift of giving itself, and the more we give of ourselves the more of ourselves we have to give. Once again I'd like to thank everyone who contributed, posted, reviewed, and purchased After Reset as we could never have got this far without your support. Merry Christmas, and may the Force be with you! Sincerely, Richard.
[ 2015-12-30 23:46:05 CET ] [ Original post ]
Morning, guys! This Christmas update is devoted to our new patch that includes numerous tweaks and bug fixes. As well as the news about our TFoG graphic novel release, several personal thanks and cool article about armors design in video games.
PATCH NOTES #123115
FIXES: Graphics: • Character's emotions/alignment amended for showing on the custom-made characters. Interface: • Background scene for Charlist/Inventory changed. • Stealth Mode effect now doesn’t apply on character model in Charlist. Mechanics: • Current weight rounding in Charlist/Inventory amended. • Stacked usable items activation from hands fixed. FEATURES & CHANGES: Audio: • Unique sounds for putting on each type of apparel added. • Unique sounds for eating/drinking/inhaling added to relevant usable items. Gameplay: • Journal Records to PCs at Special Facility level added. • Journal Records to PCs at Science Facility level added. Interface: • Status bar for indication of using items added. • Character Stats List revised. • Fonts styles for in-game UI revised and unified. • UI for Journal Records section of the Charlist added. Mechanics: • Stack system for items in the Inventory added. • Stacked items used through the hand slots embedded. • Ability to use relevant items in Inventory added. • Journal mechanics added. Other: • Various usable items added into the char's Inventory. • Various equipable apparel items added into the char's Inventory.
IMPORTANT NOTES: If you regularly test our monthly patches please check out the Journal Records and Apparel that we've presented in this patch. Feel free to share your impressions and report any bugs we missed. During the font styles revision I've encountered the major issue why the GUI and fonts in it might looks small for the screen resolution different from 1920x1080 I use (and 56% of you, guys, use as well). The case was that despite I designed the scheme of the GUI for 1024-resolution and higher – it was meant to be no scaleable with the twisting of resolution. Though our programmers made it so that it scales with the resolution different from 1080i. We'll fix that in the next update. So that the font and GUI elements will look on any resolution 30% bigger than GUI for Fallout Tactics (HD edition).
BCS THANKS
As you might see we've recently changed the logo of the studio. The fresh variant was born during the work on Fall of Gyes game app for App Store (as you might know one of our extra candidate for programmer vacancy has been working on it as a test). It turned out the new logo matched for publishing, designing and conceptual purposes. Here I should give my personal thanks to Kyndra from Apple support for attentive attitude and swift help in identification and resolving various issues on the fly. As well as I feel like to give my thanks to Maria for identifying several important issues on out Steam page (thanks to her we've also find out that our free tech demo on Steam can't be downloaded for some time... we work on the issue with Steam support).
THE FALL OF GYES GRAPHIC NOVEL IS NOW AVAILABLE ON COMIXOLOGY
I'm also quite glad to announce that The Fall of Gyes graphic novel is now available on ComiXology as of Wednesday, December 23, 2015. Just in time for Christmas! We've been working on it since the beginning of this year but we're very pleased to see it on the website. We're proud to have the experience under our collective belts, including everything from creation to physical production and worldwide distribution. We look forward to producing another one… I would also like to ask that everyone please share these links with your social cloud and help us raise awareness for the TFoG: http://bit.ly/1k4Nugq As always I'll post financial information and other relevant details in the upcoming months (ComiXology does not provides any stats till the quarter reports).
IN-GAME ARMOR DESIGN MYTHS BUSTED
As you might already know, After Reset RPG is on the way to be the first hard sci-fi video game as opposed to most fast-food video game approaches designed for mainstream appeal. This imposes certain obligations and leads to realism in every part of our development. Finding ways to get these puzzle pieces to work together is often a difficult and time-consuming struggle. I'd like to show you some examples from popular games and myth-bust their flaws while sharing some information about our approach to hard sci-fi armor designs. First of all, I'd like to warn you that after reading the lore below you likely won't be able to play most of the modern games or watch most of the TV-shows without non-stop facepalms. Perhaps there is something to be said for stylization in these works, but just as classic movies show heroes unloading thousands of rounds from their Ak-47 without ever reloading, we can’t help but chuckle at the absurdity of such oversights. N.B. Here I'll show our hard sci-fi approach to armor design with U.G. Pacifier Body Armor (PBA). The screen above is the work in progress. It has recently past from engineering phase to product design phase (in our R&D process). READ MORE...
* * *
Christmas is a season of joy and love, but it's also a time for reflection. We think of those who are closest to our hearts, even though they may be far away in miles. We pause to give special thought to those in need, and to the universal bonds that link all gamers in brotherhood if not in blood. In doing so, we touch on something basic and good in the human spirit, a special grace that makes this a time of giving, and of forgiving - in short, good will toward men. As we give to one another, let us give of ourselves. For one of the lessons of Christmas is this: among greatest gifts to man is the gift of giving itself, and the more we give of ourselves the more of ourselves we have to give. Once again I'd like to thank everyone who contributed, posted, reviewed, and purchased After Reset as we could never have got this far without your support. Merry Christmas, and may the Force be with you! Sincerely, Richard.
[ 2015-12-30 23:46:05 CET ] [ Original post ]
Patch #112615 Released
FEATURES & CHANGES: Audio: Added sounds to pick/drop/equip inventory actions. Gameplay: Added descriptions for all highlighted items/objects/creatures/containers on Special Facility & Science Facility level(s). Graphics: Created a laser pistol for the UG MP. Mechanics: Added description system for highlighted items/objects/creatures/containers. Added item & creature identification mechanics. Added an XP gain for the successful use any character skill. Added mechanics for broken items. IMPORTANT NOTES: The most important part of the new game mechanics is the description and identification of creatures and items. We revealed this earlier in Tutorials preview on our forum: link. The main idea behind all of these mechanics is to be able to check and use your skills to get information about anything in the game world, and to get an advantage from doing so. For now, the interface mechanics use the Right Mouse Button to open the Description panel and initiate the identification process. The results of the checks are displayed in the log panel at the bottom left part of the screen. When you successfully pass any skill check (Expertise, First Aid, Science, Repair, etc.) your character receives XP based on the check roll. So, any item in the inventory or in containers (later), or on the floor/ground/tables etc., can be checked by clicking on them RMB. As well as everything in the game world youre travelling that might be highlighted when you mouse over everything has its own descriptions.
If youre regularly testing our patches, please take note of the following and report any bugs you find: - check repairing terminals (e.g. the broken one which controls IMPASS field close to the Security Room); - hacking terminals (e.g. the one which controls WC door at the room you character awakes); - using First Aid (with the FA Kit and without it); - study (by clicking RMB) every highlighted object/creature at Special Facility and Science Facility levels. Also, please comment below this news if youd like to be able to study any object on those Special Facility and Science Facility levels (if those objects are not highlighted yet). With screenshots and a clear description of what youre referring to. So far, Ive written all dialogues and descriptions while the programmers work on coding. I might be able to create extra lore/descriptions that youre interested in if they fit the game plan and situation your character is in.
Im proud to present you a couple of hard sci-fi laser pistols from After Reset world, 132 A.R:
PHELP-14 stats and lore description can be found here: link. And for PHELP-14 MK2: link. For full-HD screenshots on these (and other items) check our DeviantArt page. The second and more advanced version (the PHELP-14 MK2) youll be able to find during the Prologue (as it is used by the Military Police of UGs Army).
In addition, it looks like finally everyone activated their keys on Steam, so Id like to share some general stats that might help other Indie devs that are among our backers :) There are 2,178 people who activated the game and launched it at least once. Within them there are only 18 people on Mac and only 5 people on Linux (that doesnt mean we are going to stop supporting those platforms!). The map of activations shows the groups of our fans by countries:
And some specs of their PCs:
Finally, one of the most promising stats is the amount of Steam users (not backers or customers yet) that added our game into their wishlists (thus are waiting for the game completion) a total of 6,662 people.
At the end of this update Id like to remind everyone that right before this post Ive published the closed update (for backers only) with the financial report as well as about all major issues we faced and solved, issues that slowed us down. So, if youre a backer, please check it out! Thanks, everyone! Well get back to work on the root Records->Quests->Dialogs for the next update. See you, and have a happy Thanksgiving! Add us on Steam Early Access. Visit After Reset RPG official Store. Join After Reset RPG official website.
[ 2015-11-25 17:47:33 CET ] [ Original post ]
Good morning, guys!
Today we are posting a fresh monthly patch/update with some curious stats from our Steam page.
PATCH NOTES #112515]
FEATURES & CHANGES: Audio: Added sounds to pick/drop/equip inventory actions. Gameplay: Added descriptions for all highlighted items/objects/creatures/containers on Special Facility & Science Facility level(s). Graphics: Created a laser pistol for the UG MP. Mechanics: Added description system for highlighted items/objects/creatures/containers. Added item & creature identification mechanics. Added an XP gain for the successful use any character skill. Added mechanics for broken items. IMPORTANT NOTES: The most important part of the new game mechanics is the description and identification of creatures and items. We revealed this earlier in Tutorials preview on our forum: link. The main idea behind all of these mechanics is to be able to check and use your skills to get information about anything in the game world, and to get an advantage from doing so. For now, the interface mechanics use the Right Mouse Button to open the Description panel and initiate the identification process. The results of the checks are displayed in the log panel at the bottom left part of the screen. When you successfully pass any skill check (Expertise, First Aid, Science, Repair, etc.) your character receives XP based on the check roll. So, any item in the inventory or in containers (later), or on the floor/ground/tables etc., can be checked by clicking on them RMB. As well as everything in the game world youre travelling that might be highlighted when you mouse over everything has its own descriptions.
If youre regularly testing our patches, please take note of the following and report any bugs you find: - check repairing terminals (e.g. the broken one which controls IMPASS field close to the Security Room); - hacking terminals (e.g. the one which controls WC door at the room you character awakes); - using First Aid (with the FA Kit and without it); - study (by clicking RMB) every highlighted object/creature at Special Facility and Science Facility levels. Also, please comment below this news if youd like to be able to study any object on those Special Facility and Science Facility levels (if those objects are not highlighted yet). With screenshots and a clear description of what youre referring to. So far, Ive written all dialogues and descriptions while the programmers work on coding. I might be able to create extra lore/descriptions that youre interested in if they fit the game plan and situation your character is in.
PHELP-14MK1/MK2 LASER PISTOLS
Im proud to present you a couple of hard sci-fi laser pistols from After Reset world, 132 A.R:
PHELP-14 stats and lore description can be found here: link. And for PHELP-14 MK2: link. For full-HD screenshots on these (and other items) check our DeviantArt page. The second and more advanced version (the PHELP-14 MK2) youll be able to find during the Prologue (as it is used by the Military Police of UGs Army).
STEAM STATS
In addition, it looks like finally everyone activated their keys on Steam, so Id like to share some general stats that might help other Indie devs that are among our backers :) There are 2,178 people who activated the game and launched it at least once. Within them there are only 18 people on Mac and only 5 people on Linux (that doesnt mean we are going to stop supporting those platforms!). The map of activations shows the groups of our fans by countries:
And some specs of their PCs:
Finally, one of the most promising stats is the amount of Steam users (not backers or customers yet) that added our game into their wishlists (thus are waiting for the game completion) a total of 6,662 people.
* * *
At the end of this update Id like to remind everyone that right before this post Ive published the closed update (for backers only) with the financial report as well as about all major issues we faced and solved, issues that slowed us down. So, if youre a backer, please check it out! Thanks, everyone! Well get back to work on the root Records->Quests->Dialogs for the next update. See you, and have a happy Thanksgiving! Add us on Steam Early Access. Visit After Reset RPG official Store. Join After Reset RPG official website.
[ 2015-11-25 17:47:33 CET ] [ Original post ]
Patch #112615 Released
FEATURES & CHANGES: Audio: • Added sounds to pick/drop/equip inventory actions. Gameplay: • Added descriptions for all highlighted items/objects/creatures/containers on Special Facility & Science Facility level(s). Graphics: • Created a laser pistol for the UG MP. Mechanics: • Added description system for highlighted items/objects/creatures/containers. • Added item & creature identification mechanics. • Added an XP gain for the successful use any character skill. • Added mechanics for broken items. IMPORTANT NOTES: The most important part of the new game mechanics is the description and identification of creatures and items. We revealed this earlier in Tutorial’s preview on our forum: link. The main idea behind all of these mechanics is to be able to check and use your skills to get information about anything in the game world, and to get an advantage from doing so. For now, the interface mechanics use the Right Mouse Button to open the Description panel and initiate the identification process. The results of the checks are displayed in the log panel at the bottom left part of the screen. When you successfully pass any skill check (Expertise, First Aid, Science, Repair, etc.) your character receives XP based on the check roll. So, any item in the inventory or in containers (later), or on the floor/ground/tables etc., can be checked by clicking on them RMB. As well as everything in the game world you’re travelling that might be highlighted when you mouse over – everything has its own descriptions.
If you’re regularly testing our patches, please take note of the following and report any bugs you find: - check repairing terminals (e.g. the broken one which controls IMPASS field close to the Security Room); - hacking terminals (e.g. the one which controls WC door at the room you character awakes); - using First Aid (with the FA Kit and without it); - study (by clicking RMB) every highlighted object/creature at Special Facility and Science Facility levels. Also, please comment below this news if you’d like to be able to study any object on those Special Facility and Science Facility levels (if those objects are not highlighted yet). With screenshots and a clear description of what you’re referring to. So far, I’ve written all dialogues and descriptions while the programmers work on coding. I might be able to create extra lore/descriptions that you’re interested in if they fit the game plan and situation your character is in.
I’m proud to present you a couple of hard sci-fi laser pistols from After Reset world, 132 A.R:
PHELP-14 stats and lore description can be found here: link. And for PHELP-14 MK2: link. For full-HD screenshots on these (and other items) check our DeviantArt page. The second and more advanced version (the PHELP-14 MK2) you’ll be able to find during the Prologue (as it is used by the Military Police of UG’s Army).
In addition, it looks like finally everyone activated their keys on Steam, so I’d like to share some general stats that might help other Indie devs that are among our backers :) There are 2,178 people who activated the game and launched it at least once. Within them there are only 18 people on Mac and only 5 people on Linux (that doesn’t mean we are going to stop supporting those platforms!). The map of activations shows the groups of our fans by countries:
And some specs of their PCs:
Finally, one of the most promising stats is the amount of Steam users (not backers or customers yet) that added our game into their wishlists (thus are waiting for the game completion) – a total of 6,662 people.
At the end of this update I’d like to remind everyone that right before this post I’ve published the closed update (for backers only) with the financial report as well as about all major issues we faced and solved, issues that slowed us down. So, if you’re a backer, please check it out! Thanks, everyone! We’ll get back to work on the root Records->Quests->Dialogs for the next update. See you, and have a happy Thanksgiving! Add us on Steam Early Access. Visit After Reset RPG official Store. Join After Reset RPG official website.
[ 2015-11-25 17:47:33 CET ] [ Original post ]
Good morning, guys!
Today we are posting a fresh monthly patch/update with some curious stats from our Steam page.
PATCH NOTES #112515]
FEATURES & CHANGES: Audio: • Added sounds to pick/drop/equip inventory actions. Gameplay: • Added descriptions for all highlighted items/objects/creatures/containers on Special Facility & Science Facility level(s). Graphics: • Created a laser pistol for the UG MP. Mechanics: • Added description system for highlighted items/objects/creatures/containers. • Added item & creature identification mechanics. • Added an XP gain for the successful use any character skill. • Added mechanics for broken items. IMPORTANT NOTES: The most important part of the new game mechanics is the description and identification of creatures and items. We revealed this earlier in Tutorial’s preview on our forum: link. The main idea behind all of these mechanics is to be able to check and use your skills to get information about anything in the game world, and to get an advantage from doing so. For now, the interface mechanics use the Right Mouse Button to open the Description panel and initiate the identification process. The results of the checks are displayed in the log panel at the bottom left part of the screen. When you successfully pass any skill check (Expertise, First Aid, Science, Repair, etc.) your character receives XP based on the check roll. So, any item in the inventory or in containers (later), or on the floor/ground/tables etc., can be checked by clicking on them RMB. As well as everything in the game world you’re travelling that might be highlighted when you mouse over – everything has its own descriptions.
If you’re regularly testing our patches, please take note of the following and report any bugs you find: - check repairing terminals (e.g. the broken one which controls IMPASS field close to the Security Room); - hacking terminals (e.g. the one which controls WC door at the room you character awakes); - using First Aid (with the FA Kit and without it); - study (by clicking RMB) every highlighted object/creature at Special Facility and Science Facility levels. Also, please comment below this news if you’d like to be able to study any object on those Special Facility and Science Facility levels (if those objects are not highlighted yet). With screenshots and a clear description of what you’re referring to. So far, I’ve written all dialogues and descriptions while the programmers work on coding. I might be able to create extra lore/descriptions that you’re interested in if they fit the game plan and situation your character is in.
PHELP-14MK1/MK2 LASER PISTOLS
I’m proud to present you a couple of hard sci-fi laser pistols from After Reset world, 132 A.R:
PHELP-14 stats and lore description can be found here: link. And for PHELP-14 MK2: link. For full-HD screenshots on these (and other items) check our DeviantArt page. The second and more advanced version (the PHELP-14 MK2) you’ll be able to find during the Prologue (as it is used by the Military Police of UG’s Army).
STEAM STATS
In addition, it looks like finally everyone activated their keys on Steam, so I’d like to share some general stats that might help other Indie devs that are among our backers :) There are 2,178 people who activated the game and launched it at least once. Within them there are only 18 people on Mac and only 5 people on Linux (that doesn’t mean we are going to stop supporting those platforms!). The map of activations shows the groups of our fans by countries:
And some specs of their PCs:
Finally, one of the most promising stats is the amount of Steam users (not backers or customers yet) that added our game into their wishlists (thus are waiting for the game completion) – a total of 6,662 people.
* * *
At the end of this update I’d like to remind everyone that right before this post I’ve published the closed update (for backers only) with the financial report as well as about all major issues we faced and solved, issues that slowed us down. So, if you’re a backer, please check it out! Thanks, everyone! We’ll get back to work on the root Records->Quests->Dialogs for the next update. See you, and have a happy Thanksgiving! Add us on Steam Early Access. Visit After Reset RPG official Store. Join After Reset RPG official website.
[ 2015-11-25 17:47:33 CET ] [ Original post ]
Patch #102115 Released
FIXES: Gameplay: Preset skills and feats added to default male and female characters. Graphics: Full screen resolution bug for Mac fixed. Mechanics: Ability to put non-usable items in the hands slots blocked. Camera distance now saves and keeps when loading new areas. FEATURES & CHANGES: Gameplay: Tags added for all highlighted items/objects/creatures/containers on Special Facility level. Tags added for all highlighted items/objects/creatures/containers on Science Facility level. Graphics: 3D pile model for loot created. Scrap item for broken parts (if your character wears out armor or weapon) added. Mechanics: Tag system for highlighted items/objects/creatures/containers embedded. ... IMPORTANT NOTES 1. Guys, I know that using default male/female characters to unlock containers, hack devices, and use the First Aid skill was a real pain in the previous update. Now, weve preset skills for those default characters. Therefore, you have decent chances for using First Aid, Science, and Lockpick skills. 2. If youre a regular tester Id appreciate it if you checked out our Tag Panels for properly highlighted objects/creatures/containers/items over the next few weeks.
Last Wednesday I got an interesting message from one of our backers. He indicated that recommendations on Steam don't count if there is no text included in the review box. I mean, I always thought that it didnt require you to put any text there, just to click on "YES" under "Do you recommend this game?" Right now we have more than 2,000 people who activated the game on steam and checked it. We thought that Steam didnt count votes from "retail activations," or that many were waiting for the prologue to be completed before making up your mind, which is totally fair. Since weve discovered this, Id like to ask everyone who would recommend the game to take a few minutes out of your day to write a short review. A few sentences or a paragraph is more than enough to make your voice count. Even if you dont recommend the game, wed still like to hear your honest thoughts.
Read SOME FRESH LORE and various development builds in HOW THE AFTER RESET WOULD LOOK WITHOUT YOUR SUPPORT there: http://www.afterreset.com/news Once again, thanks for your support and cheering! Back to work on the next update. Sincerely, Richard.
[ 2015-10-21 22:10:11 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hi, guys! As I promised previously, were going back to monthly updates (SCRUM with 4 weeks sprint). You may have noticed that most tasks ("issues") left all concern programming. So, I'm hiring a couple extra programmers to speed up the development. I found them about 3 weeks ago, our lead programmer interviewed them, and each was given an assignment so we could test their skills. Well, one of them impressed us and has now joined our team. His task was one of the major GUI tasks involving Tag Panel programming (something you will see under any highlighted objects/creature/items). You can see his work in the new patch. There is another associate programmer still working on another task that well talk about again in the November patch.
PATCH NOTES #102115
FIXES: Gameplay: Preset skills and feats added to default male and female characters. Graphics: Full screen resolution bug for Mac fixed. Mechanics: Ability to put non-usable items in the hands slots blocked. Camera distance now saves and keeps when loading new areas. FEATURES & CHANGES: Gameplay: Tags added for all highlighted items/objects/creatures/containers on Special Facility level. Tags added for all highlighted items/objects/creatures/containers on Science Facility level. Graphics: 3D pile model for loot created. Scrap item for broken parts (if your character wears out armor or weapon) added. Mechanics: Tag system for highlighted items/objects/creatures/containers embedded. ... IMPORTANT NOTES 1. Guys, I know that using default male/female characters to unlock containers, hack devices, and use the First Aid skill was a real pain in the previous update. Now, weve preset skills for those default characters. Therefore, you have decent chances for using First Aid, Science, and Lockpick skills. 2. If youre a regular tester Id appreciate it if you checked out our Tag Panels for properly highlighted objects/creatures/containers/items over the next few weeks.
ABOUT STEAM "USER REVIEWS"
Last Wednesday I got an interesting message from one of our backers. He indicated that recommendations on Steam don't count if there is no text included in the review box. I mean, I always thought that it didnt require you to put any text there, just to click on "YES" under "Do you recommend this game?" Right now we have more than 2,000 people who activated the game on steam and checked it. We thought that Steam didnt count votes from "retail activations," or that many were waiting for the prologue to be completed before making up your mind, which is totally fair. Since weve discovered this, Id like to ask everyone who would recommend the game to take a few minutes out of your day to write a short review. A few sentences or a paragraph is more than enough to make your voice count. Even if you dont recommend the game, wed still like to hear your honest thoughts.
READ FULL NEWS:
Read SOME FRESH LORE and various development builds in HOW THE AFTER RESET WOULD LOOK WITHOUT YOUR SUPPORT there: http://www.afterreset.com/news Once again, thanks for your support and cheering! Back to work on the next update. Sincerely, Richard.
[ 2015-10-21 22:10:11 CET ] [ Original post ]
Patch #102115 Released
FIXES: Gameplay: • Preset skills and feats added to default male and female characters. Graphics: • Full screen resolution bug for Mac fixed. Mechanics: • Ability to put non-usable items in the hands slots blocked. • Camera distance now saves and keeps when loading new areas. FEATURES & CHANGES: Gameplay: • Tags added for all highlighted items/objects/creatures/containers on Special Facility level. • Tags added for all highlighted items/objects/creatures/containers on Science Facility level. Graphics: • 3D pile model for loot created. • Scrap item for broken parts (if your character wears out armor or weapon) added. Mechanics: • Tag system for highlighted items/objects/creatures/containers embedded. ... IMPORTANT NOTES 1. Guys, I know that using default male/female characters to unlock containers, hack devices, and use the First Aid skill was a real pain in the previous update. Now, we’ve preset skills for those default characters. Therefore, you have decent chances for using First Aid, Science, and Lockpick skills. 2. If you’re a regular tester I’d appreciate it if you checked out our Tag Panels for properly highlighted objects/creatures/containers/items over the next few weeks.
Last Wednesday I got an interesting message from one of our backers. He indicated that recommendations on Steam don't count if there is no text included in the review box. I mean, I always thought that it didn’t require you to put any text there, just to click on "YES" under "Do you recommend this game?" Right now we have more than 2,000 people who activated the game on steam and checked it. We thought that Steam didn’t count votes from "retail activations," or that many were waiting for the prologue to be completed before making up your mind, which is totally fair. Since we’ve discovered this, I’d like to ask everyone who would recommend the game to take a few minutes out of your day to write a short review. A few sentences or a paragraph is more than enough to make your voice count. Even if you don’t recommend the game, we’d still like to hear your honest thoughts.
Read SOME FRESH LORE and various development builds in HOW THE AFTER RESET WOULD LOOK WITHOUT YOUR SUPPORT there: http://www.afterreset.com/news Once again, thanks for your support and cheering! Back to work on the next update. Sincerely, Richard.
[ 2015-10-21 22:10:11 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hi, guys! As I promised previously, we’re going back to monthly updates (SCRUM with 4 weeks sprint). You may have noticed that most tasks ("issues") left all concern programming. So, I'm hiring a couple extra programmers to speed up the development. I found them about 3 weeks ago, our lead programmer interviewed them, and each was given an assignment so we could test their skills. Well, one of them impressed us and has now joined our team. His task was one of the major GUI tasks involving Tag Panel programming (something you will see under any highlighted objects/creature/items). You can see his work in the new patch. There is another associate programmer still working on another task that we’ll talk about again in the November patch.
PATCH NOTES #102115
FIXES: Gameplay: • Preset skills and feats added to default male and female characters. Graphics: • Full screen resolution bug for Mac fixed. Mechanics: • Ability to put non-usable items in the hands slots blocked. • Camera distance now saves and keeps when loading new areas. FEATURES & CHANGES: Gameplay: • Tags added for all highlighted items/objects/creatures/containers on Special Facility level. • Tags added for all highlighted items/objects/creatures/containers on Science Facility level. Graphics: • 3D pile model for loot created. • Scrap item for broken parts (if your character wears out armor or weapon) added. Mechanics: • Tag system for highlighted items/objects/creatures/containers embedded. ... IMPORTANT NOTES 1. Guys, I know that using default male/female characters to unlock containers, hack devices, and use the First Aid skill was a real pain in the previous update. Now, we’ve preset skills for those default characters. Therefore, you have decent chances for using First Aid, Science, and Lockpick skills. 2. If you’re a regular tester I’d appreciate it if you checked out our Tag Panels for properly highlighted objects/creatures/containers/items over the next few weeks.
ABOUT STEAM "USER REVIEWS"
Last Wednesday I got an interesting message from one of our backers. He indicated that recommendations on Steam don't count if there is no text included in the review box. I mean, I always thought that it didn’t require you to put any text there, just to click on "YES" under "Do you recommend this game?" Right now we have more than 2,000 people who activated the game on steam and checked it. We thought that Steam didn’t count votes from "retail activations," or that many were waiting for the prologue to be completed before making up your mind, which is totally fair. Since we’ve discovered this, I’d like to ask everyone who would recommend the game to take a few minutes out of your day to write a short review. A few sentences or a paragraph is more than enough to make your voice count. Even if you don’t recommend the game, we’d still like to hear your honest thoughts.
READ FULL NEWS:
Read SOME FRESH LORE and various development builds in HOW THE AFTER RESET WOULD LOOK WITHOUT YOUR SUPPORT there: http://www.afterreset.com/news Once again, thanks for your support and cheering! Back to work on the next update. Sincerely, Richard.
[ 2015-10-21 22:10:11 CET ] [ Original post ]
Patch #091215 Released
The Patch Notes is too huge for the announcement so you can read and post about any issues you'll meet on that page: http://steamcommunity.com/app/335850/discussions/0/517141882709798176/
In a previous update we announced a small, hard-sci-fi contest about "Force Field" technology: http://www.afterreset.com/forum/showthread.php?t=328 The results and winners announcement you can read in the full news on our web site: http://www.afterreset.com/forum/showthread.php?t=400
In your adventures through the After Reset world you will constantly be coming across different creatures. Each of them has a description that will be very familiar to all fans of old school RPGs. Read more about this feature we're presenting in the full news on our web site: http://www.afterreset.com/forum/showthread.php?t=400
Speaking of the creatures, Id like to present one of the hostiles youll meet playing with in the prologue. While programmers work their magic on the GUI, we don't just wander around the office. We continue to populate the Gyes Bunker with its new dwellers. This little one is 15-20 inches in length, and it is the most harmless thing on the base. Find more about them on our web site as well: http://www.afterreset.com/forum/showthread.php?t=400
In previous updates I introduced our first "Personal Appearance Feature" to backer Jake Ganor. I'm glad to present his model embedded in this playable game build. Much obliged for your support and trust, man.
Naturally, its not an accident that Im presenting his appearance in this update. The reason is that the new Alignment system affects character appearance, which you choose at character creation. Your character will now have more personality and unique, emotional facial appearances based on the alignment, achievements, and mood at the time. This required a hell of a lot of work, and were super excited to unveil it.
The reason we decided to embed this complex but cool feature is so that you can establish a deep bond with your character, and give them (and the NPCs we create) a lot of character personality. Beyond that, there will be quite many dialogues (100+ pages are done for the prologue only) and staring at the static face of the character and NPCs would get old fast. Thats not the AAA standard were going for, and we think the time was well spent.
The reason we decided to embed this complex but cool feature is so that you can establish a deep bond with your character, and give them (and the NPCs we create) a lot of character personality. Beyond that, there will be quite many dialogues (100+ pages are done for the prologue only) and staring at the static face of the character and NPCs would get old fast. Thats not the AAA standard were going for, and we think the time was well spent.
Ive completed the dialogue writing for the full prologue. It is about 100+ pages of A4. I must say that although I worked out variants for the language filter, were embedding only realistic, rough language by default in the current build, and the filtered version will be available at a later date. Why so many texts? Well, its not only because I frequently DM in role-play. :) Its also because of one cool feature were been secretly working on: NPC AI personality. We dont know what personal features will be chosen by a NPC in a given play through. Thus, the dialogues are not lined by sequences, but by personality types taken by the NPC at random. This is to say that their response to a prompt might differ in a specific play through based on factors outside your control. Anyway, well talk about this more during our campaign to complete Chapter 1. For now Id just like to say that we wrote, recorded, and post-processed all dialogues for Ivy. You can check a couple of her lines made by Trina here: http://www.afterreset.com/ARMEDIA/NEWS/091215/Ivy.wav And right before the release I got all records from Chris who is the official voice of the Quanton Hub at Gyes bunker: http://www.afterreset.com/ARMEDIA/NEWS/091215/Quanton.wav Well, if you like to read more about the features above, read new lore, see new items, etc., - just follow the white rabbit... oh, I mean - follow the link on the news thread on our web site: http://www.afterreset.com/news * * * Once again, thank you for your support and participation! Your support is the ground that After Reset is built on! I mean it! Back to work, and see you soon! Sincerely, Richard.
[ 2015-09-12 22:55:56 CET ] [ Original post ]
Morning, guys! It's been rat-racing for months and we haven't a day off since our last update. There are dozens of challenges and emergencies that we faced, and theyve all been sorted out. Ill share them with you as I did in our closed (backers only) report for our successfully completed project "The Fall of Gyes." Yet, even now I can say that we faced the themes core challenges: the human factor, and of course money (in keeping the quality of our indie development on AAA level). Similarly to our TFoG project, I more than doubled our collected funds from personal investments so we can keep the RPG dream alive and at the high level of quality we want. Likewise, as it was for the first project, its the fans who encouraged me to make such a dedicated decision. The support youve shown us on Steam Early Access even in our current stage of development made this an easy choice. We cant believe in the project less than our fans, right? Right before the release of this patch I found our archives of various builds of the game showing how the game would look like without your support. We'll share them in the next update. AiCola asked the relevant question on our Steam forum: "How much % of the prologue work is done?" I bet, everybody is concerned about it too. Well, about 87% of the prologue is done. Were at 95% completion for the programming side of things, and we have all models, dialogues, most of the voicing, audio, items, full gameplay, and full mechanics completed. We're back to assembling all that through programming right after posting this update. For now, heres a detailed list of what weve accomplished.
PATCH #091215 RELEASED!
The Patch Notes is too huge for the announcement so you can read and post about any issues you'll meet on that page: http://steamcommunity.com/app/335850/discussions/0/517141882709798176/
HARD SCI-FI CONTEST FOOTING
In a previous update we announced a small, hard-sci-fi contest about "Force Field" technology: http://www.afterreset.com/forum/showthread.php?t=328 The results and winners announcement you can read in the full news on our web site: http://www.afterreset.com/forum/showthread.php?t=400
IN-GAME CREATURES IDENTIFICATION
In your adventures through the After Reset world you will constantly be coming across different creatures. Each of them has a description that will be very familiar to all fans of old school RPGs. Read more about this feature we're presenting in the full news on our web site: http://www.afterreset.com/forum/showthread.php?t=400
CREATURE, FLESH WORMS
Speaking of the creatures, Id like to present one of the hostiles youll meet playing with in the prologue. While programmers work their magic on the GUI, we don't just wander around the office. We continue to populate the Gyes Bunker with its new dwellers. This little one is 15-20 inches in length, and it is the most harmless thing on the base. Find more about them on our web site as well: http://www.afterreset.com/forum/showthread.php?t=400
PERSONAL APPEARANCE AND ALIGNMENT FEATURE
In previous updates I introduced our first "Personal Appearance Feature" to backer Jake Ganor. I'm glad to present his model embedded in this playable game build. Much obliged for your support and trust, man.
Naturally, its not an accident that Im presenting his appearance in this update. The reason is that the new Alignment system affects character appearance, which you choose at character creation. Your character will now have more personality and unique, emotional facial appearances based on the alignment, achievements, and mood at the time. This required a hell of a lot of work, and were super excited to unveil it.
The reason we decided to embed this complex but cool feature is so that you can establish a deep bond with your character, and give them (and the NPCs we create) a lot of character personality. Beyond that, there will be quite many dialogues (100+ pages are done for the prologue only) and staring at the static face of the character and NPCs would get old fast. Thats not the AAA standard were going for, and we think the time was well spent.
The reason we decided to embed this complex but cool feature is so that you can establish a deep bond with your character, and give them (and the NPCs we create) a lot of character personality. Beyond that, there will be quite many dialogues (100+ pages are done for the prologue only) and staring at the static face of the character and NPCs would get old fast. Thats not the AAA standard were going for, and we think the time was well spent.
PROLOGUE'S DIALOGS ARE WRITTEN
Ive completed the dialogue writing for the full prologue. It is about 100+ pages of A4. I must say that although I worked out variants for the language filter, were embedding only realistic, rough language by default in the current build, and the filtered version will be available at a later date. Why so many texts? Well, its not only because I frequently DM in role-play. :) Its also because of one cool feature were been secretly working on: NPC AI personality. We dont know what personal features will be chosen by a NPC in a given play through. Thus, the dialogues are not lined by sequences, but by personality types taken by the NPC at random. This is to say that their response to a prompt might differ in a specific play through based on factors outside your control. Anyway, well talk about this more during our campaign to complete Chapter 1. For now Id just like to say that we wrote, recorded, and post-processed all dialogues for Ivy. You can check a couple of her lines made by Trina here: http://www.afterreset.com/ARMEDIA/NEWS/091215/Ivy.wav And right before the release I got all records from Chris who is the official voice of the Quanton Hub at Gyes bunker: http://www.afterreset.com/ARMEDIA/NEWS/091215/Quanton.wav Well, if you like to read more about the features above, read new lore, see new items, etc., - just follow the white rabbit... oh, I mean - follow the link on the news thread on our web site: http://www.afterreset.com/news * * * Once again, thank you for your support and participation! Your support is the ground that After Reset is built on! I mean it! Back to work, and see you soon! Sincerely, Richard.
[ 2015-09-12 22:55:56 CET ] [ Original post ]
Patch #091215 Released
The Patch Notes is too huge for the announcement so you can read and post about any issues you'll meet on that page: http://steamcommunity.com/app/335850/discussions/0/517141882709798176/
In a previous update we announced a small, hard-sci-fi contest about "Force Field" technology: http://www.afterreset.com/forum/showthread.php?t=328 The results and winners announcement you can read in the full news on our web site: http://www.afterreset.com/forum/showthread.php?t=400
In your adventures through the After Reset world you will constantly be coming across different creatures. Each of them has a description that will be very familiar to all fans of old school RPGs. Read more about this feature we're presenting in the full news on our web site: http://www.afterreset.com/forum/showthread.php?t=400
Speaking of the creatures, I’d like to present one of the hostiles you’ll meet playing with in the prologue. While programmers work their magic on the GUI, we don't just wander around the office. We continue to populate the Gyes Bunker with its new dwellers. This little one is 15-20 inches in length, and it is the most harmless thing on the base. Find more about them on our web site as well: http://www.afterreset.com/forum/showthread.php?t=400
In previous updates I introduced our first "Personal Appearance Feature" to backer Jake Ganor. I'm glad to present his model embedded in this playable game build. Much obliged for your support and trust, man.
Naturally, it’s not an accident that I’m presenting his appearance in this update. The reason is that the new Alignment system affects character appearance, which you choose at character creation. Your character will now have more personality and unique, emotional facial appearances based on the alignment, achievements, and mood at the time. This required a hell of a lot of work, and we’re super excited to unveil it.
The reason we decided to embed this complex but cool feature is so that you can establish a deep bond with your character, and give them (and the NPCs we create) a lot of character personality. Beyond that, there will be quite many dialogues (100+ pages are done for the prologue only) and staring at the static face of the character and NPCs would get old fast. That’s not the AAA standard we’re going for, and we think the time was well spent.
The reason we decided to embed this complex but cool feature is so that you can establish a deep bond with your character, and give them (and the NPCs we create) a lot of character personality. Beyond that, there will be quite many dialogues (100+ pages are done for the prologue only) and staring at the static face of the character and NPCs would get old fast. That’s not the AAA standard we’re going for, and we think the time was well spent.
I’ve completed the dialogue writing for the full prologue. It is about 100+ pages of A4. I must say that although I worked out variants for the language filter, we’re embedding only realistic, rough language by default in the current build, and the filtered version will be available at a later date. Why so many texts? Well, it’s not only because I frequently DM in role-play. :) It’s also because of one cool feature we’re been secretly working on: NPC AI personality. We don’t know what personal features will be chosen by a NPC in a given play through. Thus, the dialogues are not lined by sequences, but by personality types taken by the NPC at random. This is to say that their response to a prompt might differ in a specific play through based on factors outside your control. Anyway, we’ll talk about this more during our campaign to complete Chapter 1. For now I’d just like to say that we wrote, recorded, and post-processed all dialogues for Ivy. You can check a couple of her lines made by Trina here: http://www.afterreset.com/ARMEDIA/NEWS/091215/Ivy.wav And right before the release I got all records from Chris who is the official voice of the Quanton Hub at Gyes bunker: http://www.afterreset.com/ARMEDIA/NEWS/091215/Quanton.wav Well, if you like to read more about the features above, read new lore, see new items, etc., - just follow the white rabbit... oh, I mean - follow the link on the news thread on our web site: http://www.afterreset.com/news * * * Once again, thank you for your support and participation! Your support is the ground that After Reset is built on! I mean it! Back to work, and see you soon! Sincerely, Richard.
[ 2015-09-12 22:55:56 CET ] [ Original post ]
Morning, guys! It's been rat-racing for months and we haven't a day off since our last update. There are dozens of challenges and emergencies that we faced, and they’ve all been sorted out. I’ll share them with you as I did in our closed (backers only) report for our successfully completed project "The Fall of Gyes." Yet, even now I can say that we faced the theme’s core challenges: the human factor, and of course money (in keeping the quality of our indie development on AAA level). Similarly to our TFoG project, I more than doubled our collected funds from personal investments so we can keep the RPG dream alive and at the high level of quality we want. Likewise, as it was for the first project, it‘s the fans who encouraged me to make such a dedicated decision. The support you’ve shown us on Steam Early Access even in our current stage of development made this an easy choice. We can’t believe in the project less than our fans, right? Right before the release of this patch I found our archives of various builds of the game showing how the game would look like without your support. We'll share them in the next update. AiCola asked the relevant question on our Steam forum: "How much % of the prologue work is done?" I bet, everybody is concerned about it too. Well, about 87% of the prologue is done. We’re at 95% completion for the programming side of things, and we have all models, dialogues, most of the voicing, audio, items, full gameplay, and full mechanics completed. We're back to assembling all that through programming right after posting this update. For now, here’s a detailed list of what we’ve accomplished.
PATCH #091215 RELEASED!
The Patch Notes is too huge for the announcement so you can read and post about any issues you'll meet on that page: http://steamcommunity.com/app/335850/discussions/0/517141882709798176/
HARD SCI-FI CONTEST FOOTING
In a previous update we announced a small, hard-sci-fi contest about "Force Field" technology: http://www.afterreset.com/forum/showthread.php?t=328 The results and winners announcement you can read in the full news on our web site: http://www.afterreset.com/forum/showthread.php?t=400
IN-GAME CREATURES IDENTIFICATION
In your adventures through the After Reset world you will constantly be coming across different creatures. Each of them has a description that will be very familiar to all fans of old school RPGs. Read more about this feature we're presenting in the full news on our web site: http://www.afterreset.com/forum/showthread.php?t=400
CREATURE, FLESH WORMS
Speaking of the creatures, I’d like to present one of the hostiles you’ll meet playing with in the prologue. While programmers work their magic on the GUI, we don't just wander around the office. We continue to populate the Gyes Bunker with its new dwellers. This little one is 15-20 inches in length, and it is the most harmless thing on the base. Find more about them on our web site as well: http://www.afterreset.com/forum/showthread.php?t=400
PERSONAL APPEARANCE AND ALIGNMENT FEATURE
In previous updates I introduced our first "Personal Appearance Feature" to backer Jake Ganor. I'm glad to present his model embedded in this playable game build. Much obliged for your support and trust, man.
Naturally, it’s not an accident that I’m presenting his appearance in this update. The reason is that the new Alignment system affects character appearance, which you choose at character creation. Your character will now have more personality and unique, emotional facial appearances based on the alignment, achievements, and mood at the time. This required a hell of a lot of work, and we’re super excited to unveil it.
The reason we decided to embed this complex but cool feature is so that you can establish a deep bond with your character, and give them (and the NPCs we create) a lot of character personality. Beyond that, there will be quite many dialogues (100+ pages are done for the prologue only) and staring at the static face of the character and NPCs would get old fast. That’s not the AAA standard we’re going for, and we think the time was well spent.
The reason we decided to embed this complex but cool feature is so that you can establish a deep bond with your character, and give them (and the NPCs we create) a lot of character personality. Beyond that, there will be quite many dialogues (100+ pages are done for the prologue only) and staring at the static face of the character and NPCs would get old fast. That’s not the AAA standard we’re going for, and we think the time was well spent.
PROLOGUE'S DIALOGS ARE WRITTEN
I’ve completed the dialogue writing for the full prologue. It is about 100+ pages of A4. I must say that although I worked out variants for the language filter, we’re embedding only realistic, rough language by default in the current build, and the filtered version will be available at a later date. Why so many texts? Well, it’s not only because I frequently DM in role-play. :) It’s also because of one cool feature we’re been secretly working on: NPC AI personality. We don’t know what personal features will be chosen by a NPC in a given play through. Thus, the dialogues are not lined by sequences, but by personality types taken by the NPC at random. This is to say that their response to a prompt might differ in a specific play through based on factors outside your control. Anyway, we’ll talk about this more during our campaign to complete Chapter 1. For now I’d just like to say that we wrote, recorded, and post-processed all dialogues for Ivy. You can check a couple of her lines made by Trina here: http://www.afterreset.com/ARMEDIA/NEWS/091215/Ivy.wav And right before the release I got all records from Chris who is the official voice of the Quanton Hub at Gyes bunker: http://www.afterreset.com/ARMEDIA/NEWS/091215/Quanton.wav Well, if you like to read more about the features above, read new lore, see new items, etc., - just follow the white rabbit... oh, I mean - follow the link on the news thread on our web site: http://www.afterreset.com/news * * * Once again, thank you for your support and participation! Your support is the ground that After Reset is built on! I mean it! Back to work, and see you soon! Sincerely, Richard.
[ 2015-09-12 22:55:56 CET ] [ Original post ]
Patch #033115 Released
Some of our backers may have noticed that your Steam application After Reset RPG was updated on Tuesday, March 31. Although you can read all the patch notes in PatchNotes.txt (which is in your game folder), I'd like to publish the full list of changes in this update so that any future backers can follow our chronological process from start to finish. After Reset RPG, Patch Notes #033115 Released on Tuesday, March 31, 2015 FIXES: Technical: Fixed an error in the application launcher for the WIN 32 version. User Interface: Highlighting system fixed to produce exponentially transparent aura. ESC hotkey now returns back to previous menu in the main menu. Audio: Fixed an issue with the voice of the Prologue narration. Miscellaneous: Fixed the text of narration. General description for skills amended. Strength STAT description edited (now it says the Strength affects chances to force opening mechanical locks). FEATURES & CHANGES: Gameplay: Door scripts added (with 4 possible stages open/close/locked/sealed). However, you can't hack/lockpick/brake doors yet. Use ALT+Z to change the stages of the doors for tests. Tutorial pop-ups added. Mechanics: Character speed (walk/run) adjusted to SACPIC mechanics (30/15ft per round for Humans). User Interface: "Game Paused" message is added when you pause the game by pressing spacebar. "Game Over" screen for Gyes added. Use ALT+P for suicide and test. In-game date/time panel added. In-game skill panel added. In-game log panel added. Graphics: New Loading Screen arts for the Special Facility level added (they depends on characters gender selected). Animations for normal walk/run (for Humans) added. If your character, your human allies, human NPCs have less than 10% of their HP, they will use that shambling animation. Audio: Footsteps system added with majority of footsteps sounds. Gyes doors sounds added (open/close/locked/sealed). All in game sounds are bonded to SFX volume control. Various game-over narrations added. ECLCC and Plasma Reactor sounds added. When the game is paused music and all sounds except UI is muted at 50%. Game Over music added. Miscellaneous: Laboratory CCP-5 room completed (capsules, engines, infrastructure added).
COMMENTS: About shambling animation. During the game you be able to identify HP of enemies only if you got and set relevant augmentation for your CORE-7 implant. Without it you will be able to see the general state of the enemy (Uninjured/Barely Injured/Injured/Badly Injured/Near Death/Dead). That shambling animation will help you to identify the most injured human enemies. As well as it should attract your attention to your wounded allies and help them in time. Beyond that, it should bring more realism and fun, I believe. About doors. Every door in the game might have one of the 4 states: 1. Unlocked. You can open/close it without obstacles. You can also break the lock of the door to make it Broken or Sealed. 2. Locked. You can't open/close locked door. You need to use your skill Lockpick to unlock it first if the lock is mechanical); or to use Science skill to hack the lock if is electronic. You can also try to open mechanical locks/doors by force (your Strength STAT affects the results). You can't open electronic locks by rough force. Beyond that, you can break the lock of the door to make it Broken or Sealed. 3. Broken. You need to repair the broken lock before opening it (if the lock was unlocked before you broke it) or before picking/hacking it (if the lock was locked before you broke it). 4. Sealed. There is nothing you can do with this lock. If it is the door sealed - proper explosives are your only chances to cope with this door. You can ask: why should break any unlocked door? why should I seal it? The answers are in the game-play context. E.g. you can break the door control panel to seal something (or someone) inside. Considering something (or someone) killed almost all personnel at the advanced military base, the brain and smarts of the gamer are the only chance to survive for your character. Guys, please, keep in mind: despite the skills are displayed correctly you cant use them yet in this build. We are adding their activation in the future builds step by step with relevance to our in game tutorial pop ups.
Almost 4,000 people added us to their wish lists the first week that the game was on Steam. Fifty of them supported us financially by purchasing the SEA. Of course, some of them have probably been following the game and waiting for us to start accepting payments. But most of them are new members of our community and we would like to say: "Thank you, guys! And welcome aboard!" This is the first news for you. If you are just now joining us you may not know that we try hard to make our dedicated fans happy. We don't do this for marketing or PR reasons; we simply want to show our gratitude. I didn't announce this part in the news on purpose, but if you have purchased After Reset RPG on SEA before this news came out, you can receive a Co-Founder status for free! To tell you the truth, this feature is not for sale and is only given out on very special occasions. It gives you access to avatars and the closed parts of our forum with additional content. You can read more about the Co-Founder status here: http://www.afterreset.com/forum/showthread.php?t=274 In order to receive the Co-Founder status: - Make sure that you purchased After Reset RPG on SEA BEFORE the release of this article. - Send us a screenshot or any other document proving the date of purchase of After Reset RPG on SEA. - Send us the name of your forum account (not your Steam account) that you want us to set to Co-Founder status. Guys, thank you again for believing in us, supporting us, and writing all of your honest reviews on Steam.
So, it has happened! The first week of being on Steam was as emotional as going up Mt. Calvary, but we are here! Honestly, guys, we couldn't have gotten to this point without your support. Right now, many are asking why we released the game on Steam without having finished the Prologue. The reasons behind this decision lay in the fact that we have already started using SEA for distribution management. No more '5 days to prepare, upload, update, fix' for each separate platform (Windows, Linux and Mac). Build synchronization in the folders of my computer happens practically automatically now. By the way, this factor allowed us to fix the problem with loading the game on 32-bit Windows in one day. This means that if you guys run into a serious bug, we will be able to fix it right away and you won't have to wait for half a month for the next patch to come in.READ MORE...
[ 2015-04-01 18:09:39 CET ] [ Original post ]
Good morning, fellow backers! As many of you know, a couple of weeks ago we released the current version of After Reset RPG on Steam Early Access (SEA). As I promised, from this moment on each of our updates will coincide with the release of a new patch. These patches need to show serious additions or corrections that were completed (by the team) between updates. Today's update is dedicated to addressing the game's first week on SEA, other game development news, and a small contest that was created for our Kickstarter backers and Co-Founders only, which we'll talk about towards the end.
PATCH #033115 RELEASED!
Some of our backers may have noticed that your Steam application After Reset RPG was updated on Tuesday, March 31. Although you can read all the patch notes in PatchNotes.txt (which is in your game folder), I'd like to publish the full list of changes in this update so that any future backers can follow our chronological process from start to finish. After Reset RPG, Patch Notes #033115 Released on Tuesday, March 31, 2015 FIXES: Technical: Fixed an error in the application launcher for the WIN 32 version. User Interface: Highlighting system fixed to produce exponentially transparent aura. ESC hotkey now returns back to previous menu in the main menu. Audio: Fixed an issue with the voice of the Prologue narration. Miscellaneous: Fixed the text of narration. General description for skills amended. Strength STAT description edited (now it says the Strength affects chances to force opening mechanical locks). FEATURES & CHANGES: Gameplay: Door scripts added (with 4 possible stages open/close/locked/sealed). However, you can't hack/lockpick/brake doors yet. Use ALT+Z to change the stages of the doors for tests. Tutorial pop-ups added. Mechanics: Character speed (walk/run) adjusted to SACPIC mechanics (30/15ft per round for Humans). User Interface: "Game Paused" message is added when you pause the game by pressing spacebar. "Game Over" screen for Gyes added. Use ALT+P for suicide and test. In-game date/time panel added. In-game skill panel added. In-game log panel added. Graphics: New Loading Screen arts for the Special Facility level added (they depends on characters gender selected). Animations for normal walk/run (for Humans) added. If your character, your human allies, human NPCs have less than 10% of their HP, they will use that shambling animation. Audio: Footsteps system added with majority of footsteps sounds. Gyes doors sounds added (open/close/locked/sealed). All in game sounds are bonded to SFX volume control. Various game-over narrations added. ECLCC and Plasma Reactor sounds added. When the game is paused music and all sounds except UI is muted at 50%. Game Over music added. Miscellaneous: Laboratory CCP-5 room completed (capsules, engines, infrastructure added).
COMMENTS: About shambling animation. During the game you be able to identify HP of enemies only if you got and set relevant augmentation for your CORE-7 implant. Without it you will be able to see the general state of the enemy (Uninjured/Barely Injured/Injured/Badly Injured/Near Death/Dead). That shambling animation will help you to identify the most injured human enemies. As well as it should attract your attention to your wounded allies and help them in time. Beyond that, it should bring more realism and fun, I believe. About doors. Every door in the game might have one of the 4 states: 1. Unlocked. You can open/close it without obstacles. You can also break the lock of the door to make it Broken or Sealed. 2. Locked. You can't open/close locked door. You need to use your skill Lockpick to unlock it first if the lock is mechanical); or to use Science skill to hack the lock if is electronic. You can also try to open mechanical locks/doors by force (your Strength STAT affects the results). You can't open electronic locks by rough force. Beyond that, you can break the lock of the door to make it Broken or Sealed. 3. Broken. You need to repair the broken lock before opening it (if the lock was unlocked before you broke it) or before picking/hacking it (if the lock was locked before you broke it). 4. Sealed. There is nothing you can do with this lock. If it is the door sealed - proper explosives are your only chances to cope with this door. You can ask: why should break any unlocked door? why should I seal it? The answers are in the game-play context. E.g. you can break the door control panel to seal something (or someone) inside. Considering something (or someone) killed almost all personnel at the advanced military base, the brain and smarts of the gamer are the only chance to survive for your character. Guys, please, keep in mind: despite the skills are displayed correctly you cant use them yet in this build. We are adding their activation in the future builds step by step with relevance to our in game tutorial pop ups.
CO-FOUNDER STATUSES FOR STEAM EARLY ACCESS BACKERS
Almost 4,000 people added us to their wish lists the first week that the game was on Steam. Fifty of them supported us financially by purchasing the SEA. Of course, some of them have probably been following the game and waiting for us to start accepting payments. But most of them are new members of our community and we would like to say: "Thank you, guys! And welcome aboard!" This is the first news for you. If you are just now joining us you may not know that we try hard to make our dedicated fans happy. We don't do this for marketing or PR reasons; we simply want to show our gratitude. I didn't announce this part in the news on purpose, but if you have purchased After Reset RPG on SEA before this news came out, you can receive a Co-Founder status for free! To tell you the truth, this feature is not for sale and is only given out on very special occasions. It gives you access to avatars and the closed parts of our forum with additional content. You can read more about the Co-Founder status here: http://www.afterreset.com/forum/showthread.php?t=274 In order to receive the Co-Founder status: - Make sure that you purchased After Reset RPG on SEA BEFORE the release of this article. - Send us a screenshot or any other document proving the date of purchase of After Reset RPG on SEA. - Send us the name of your forum account (not your Steam account) that you want us to set to Co-Founder status. Guys, thank you again for believing in us, supporting us, and writing all of your honest reviews on Steam.
A BIT ABOUT STEAM EA:
So, it has happened! The first week of being on Steam was as emotional as going up Mt. Calvary, but we are here! Honestly, guys, we couldn't have gotten to this point without your support. Right now, many are asking why we released the game on Steam without having finished the Prologue. The reasons behind this decision lay in the fact that we have already started using SEA for distribution management. No more '5 days to prepare, upload, update, fix' for each separate platform (Windows, Linux and Mac). Build synchronization in the folders of my computer happens practically automatically now. By the way, this factor allowed us to fix the problem with loading the game on 32-bit Windows in one day. This means that if you guys run into a serious bug, we will be able to fix it right away and you won't have to wait for half a month for the next patch to come in.READ MORE...
[ 2015-04-01 18:09:39 CET ] [ Original post ]
Patch #033115 Released
Some of our backers may have noticed that your Steam application After Reset RPG was updated on Tuesday, March 31. Although you can read all the patch notes in PatchNotes.txt (which is in your game folder), I'd like to publish the full list of changes in this update so that any future backers can follow our chronological process from start to finish. After Reset RPG, Patch Notes #033115 Released on Tuesday, March 31, 2015 FIXES: Technical: • Fixed an error in the application launcher for the WIN 32 version. User Interface: • Highlighting system fixed to produce exponentially transparent aura. • ESC hotkey now returns back to previous menu in the main menu. Audio: • Fixed an issue with the voice of the Prologue narration. Miscellaneous: • Fixed the text of narration. • General description for skills amended. • Strength STAT description edited (now it says the Strength affects chances to force opening mechanical locks). FEATURES & CHANGES: Gameplay: • Door scripts added (with 4 possible stages open/close/locked/sealed). However, you can't hack/lockpick/brake doors yet. Use ALT+Z to change the stages of the doors for tests. • Tutorial pop-ups added. Mechanics: • Character speed (walk/run) adjusted to SACPIC mechanics (30/15ft per round for Humans). User Interface: • "Game Paused" message is added when you pause the game by pressing spacebar. • "Game Over" screen for Gyes added. Use ALT+P for suicide and test. • In-game date/time panel added. • In-game skill panel added. • In-game log panel added. Graphics: • New Loading Screen arts for the Special Facility level added (they depends on character’s gender selected). • Animations for normal walk/run (for Humans) added. If your character, your human allies, human NPCs have less than 10% of their HP, they will use that shambling animation. Audio: • Footsteps system added with majority of footsteps sounds. • Gyes doors sounds added (open/close/locked/sealed). • All in game sounds are bonded to SFX volume control. • Various game-over narrations added. • ECLCC and Plasma Reactor sounds added. • When the game is paused music and all sounds except UI is muted at 50%. • Game Over music added. Miscellaneous: • Laboratory CCP-5 room completed (capsules, engines, infrastructure added).
COMMENTS: About shambling animation. During the game you be able to identify HP of enemies only if you got and set relevant augmentation for your CORE-7 implant. Without it you will be able to see the general state of the enemy (Uninjured/Barely Injured/Injured/Badly Injured/Near Death/Dead). That shambling animation will help you to identify the most injured human enemies. As well as it should attract your attention to your wounded allies and help them in time. Beyond that, it should bring more realism and fun, I believe. About doors. Every door in the game might have one of the 4 states: 1. Unlocked. You can open/close it without obstacles. You can also break the lock of the door to make it Broken or Sealed. 2. Locked. You can't open/close locked door. You need to use your skill Lockpick to unlock it first if the lock is mechanical); or to use Science skill to hack the lock if is electronic. You can also try to open mechanical locks/doors by force (your Strength STAT affects the results). You can't open electronic locks by rough force. Beyond that, you can break the lock of the door to make it Broken or Sealed. 3. Broken. You need to repair the broken lock before opening it (if the lock was unlocked before you broke it) or before picking/hacking it (if the lock was locked before you broke it). 4. Sealed. There is nothing you can do with this lock. If it is the door sealed - proper explosives are your only chances to cope with this door. You can ask: why should break any unlocked door? why should I seal it? The answers are in the game-play context. E.g. you can break the door control panel to seal something (or someone) inside. Considering something (or someone) killed almost all personnel at the advanced military base, the brain and smarts of the gamer are the only chance to survive for your character. Guys, please, keep in mind: despite the skills are displayed correctly you can’t use them yet in this build. We are adding their activation in the future builds step by step with relevance to our in game tutorial pop ups.
Almost 4,000 people added us to their wish lists the first week that the game was on Steam. Fifty of them supported us financially by purchasing the SEA. Of course, some of them have probably been following the game and waiting for us to start accepting payments. But most of them are new members of our community and we would like to say: "Thank you, guys! And welcome aboard!" This is the first news for you. If you are just now joining us you may not know that we try hard to make our dedicated fans happy. We don't do this for marketing or PR reasons; we simply want to show our gratitude. I didn't announce this part in the news on purpose, but if you have purchased After Reset RPG on SEA before this news came out, you can receive a Co-Founder status for free! To tell you the truth, this feature is not for sale and is only given out on very special occasions. It gives you access to avatars and the closed parts of our forum with additional content. You can read more about the Co-Founder status here: http://www.afterreset.com/forum/showthread.php?t=274 In order to receive the Co-Founder status: - Make sure that you purchased After Reset RPG on SEA BEFORE the release of this article. - Send us a screenshot or any other document proving the date of purchase of After Reset RPG on SEA. - Send us the name of your forum account (not your Steam account) that you want us to set to Co-Founder status. Guys, thank you again for believing in us, supporting us, and writing all of your honest reviews on Steam.
So, it has happened! The first week of being on Steam was as emotional as going up Mt. Calvary, but we are here! Honestly, guys, we couldn't have gotten to this point without your support. Right now, many are asking why we released the game on Steam without having finished the Prologue. The reasons behind this decision lay in the fact that we have already started using SEA for distribution management. No more '5 days to prepare, upload, update, fix' for each separate platform (Windows, Linux and Mac). Build synchronization in the folders of my computer happens practically automatically now. By the way, this factor allowed us to fix the problem with loading the game on 32-bit Windows in one day. This means that if you guys run into a serious bug, we will be able to fix it right away and you won't have to wait for half a month for the next patch to come in.READ MORE...
[ 2015-04-01 18:09:39 CET ] [ Original post ]
Good morning, fellow backers! As many of you know, a couple of weeks ago we released the current version of After Reset RPG on Steam Early Access (SEA). As I promised, from this moment on each of our updates will coincide with the release of a new patch. These patches need to show serious additions or corrections that were completed (by the team) between updates. Today's update is dedicated to addressing the game's first week on SEA, other game development news, and a small contest that was created for our Kickstarter backers and Co-Founders only, which we'll talk about towards the end.
PATCH #033115 RELEASED!
Some of our backers may have noticed that your Steam application After Reset RPG was updated on Tuesday, March 31. Although you can read all the patch notes in PatchNotes.txt (which is in your game folder), I'd like to publish the full list of changes in this update so that any future backers can follow our chronological process from start to finish. After Reset RPG, Patch Notes #033115 Released on Tuesday, March 31, 2015 FIXES: Technical: • Fixed an error in the application launcher for the WIN 32 version. User Interface: • Highlighting system fixed to produce exponentially transparent aura. • ESC hotkey now returns back to previous menu in the main menu. Audio: • Fixed an issue with the voice of the Prologue narration. Miscellaneous: • Fixed the text of narration. • General description for skills amended. • Strength STAT description edited (now it says the Strength affects chances to force opening mechanical locks). FEATURES & CHANGES: Gameplay: • Door scripts added (with 4 possible stages open/close/locked/sealed). However, you can't hack/lockpick/brake doors yet. Use ALT+Z to change the stages of the doors for tests. • Tutorial pop-ups added. Mechanics: • Character speed (walk/run) adjusted to SACPIC mechanics (30/15ft per round for Humans). User Interface: • "Game Paused" message is added when you pause the game by pressing spacebar. • "Game Over" screen for Gyes added. Use ALT+P for suicide and test. • In-game date/time panel added. • In-game skill panel added. • In-game log panel added. Graphics: • New Loading Screen arts for the Special Facility level added (they depends on character’s gender selected). • Animations for normal walk/run (for Humans) added. If your character, your human allies, human NPCs have less than 10% of their HP, they will use that shambling animation. Audio: • Footsteps system added with majority of footsteps sounds. • Gyes doors sounds added (open/close/locked/sealed). • All in game sounds are bonded to SFX volume control. • Various game-over narrations added. • ECLCC and Plasma Reactor sounds added. • When the game is paused music and all sounds except UI is muted at 50%. • Game Over music added. Miscellaneous: • Laboratory CCP-5 room completed (capsules, engines, infrastructure added).
COMMENTS: About shambling animation. During the game you be able to identify HP of enemies only if you got and set relevant augmentation for your CORE-7 implant. Without it you will be able to see the general state of the enemy (Uninjured/Barely Injured/Injured/Badly Injured/Near Death/Dead). That shambling animation will help you to identify the most injured human enemies. As well as it should attract your attention to your wounded allies and help them in time. Beyond that, it should bring more realism and fun, I believe. About doors. Every door in the game might have one of the 4 states: 1. Unlocked. You can open/close it without obstacles. You can also break the lock of the door to make it Broken or Sealed. 2. Locked. You can't open/close locked door. You need to use your skill Lockpick to unlock it first if the lock is mechanical); or to use Science skill to hack the lock if is electronic. You can also try to open mechanical locks/doors by force (your Strength STAT affects the results). You can't open electronic locks by rough force. Beyond that, you can break the lock of the door to make it Broken or Sealed. 3. Broken. You need to repair the broken lock before opening it (if the lock was unlocked before you broke it) or before picking/hacking it (if the lock was locked before you broke it). 4. Sealed. There is nothing you can do with this lock. If it is the door sealed - proper explosives are your only chances to cope with this door. You can ask: why should break any unlocked door? why should I seal it? The answers are in the game-play context. E.g. you can break the door control panel to seal something (or someone) inside. Considering something (or someone) killed almost all personnel at the advanced military base, the brain and smarts of the gamer are the only chance to survive for your character. Guys, please, keep in mind: despite the skills are displayed correctly you can’t use them yet in this build. We are adding their activation in the future builds step by step with relevance to our in game tutorial pop ups.
CO-FOUNDER STATUSES FOR STEAM EARLY ACCESS BACKERS
Almost 4,000 people added us to their wish lists the first week that the game was on Steam. Fifty of them supported us financially by purchasing the SEA. Of course, some of them have probably been following the game and waiting for us to start accepting payments. But most of them are new members of our community and we would like to say: "Thank you, guys! And welcome aboard!" This is the first news for you. If you are just now joining us you may not know that we try hard to make our dedicated fans happy. We don't do this for marketing or PR reasons; we simply want to show our gratitude. I didn't announce this part in the news on purpose, but if you have purchased After Reset RPG on SEA before this news came out, you can receive a Co-Founder status for free! To tell you the truth, this feature is not for sale and is only given out on very special occasions. It gives you access to avatars and the closed parts of our forum with additional content. You can read more about the Co-Founder status here: http://www.afterreset.com/forum/showthread.php?t=274 In order to receive the Co-Founder status: - Make sure that you purchased After Reset RPG on SEA BEFORE the release of this article. - Send us a screenshot or any other document proving the date of purchase of After Reset RPG on SEA. - Send us the name of your forum account (not your Steam account) that you want us to set to Co-Founder status. Guys, thank you again for believing in us, supporting us, and writing all of your honest reviews on Steam.
A BIT ABOUT STEAM EA:
So, it has happened! The first week of being on Steam was as emotional as going up Mt. Calvary, but we are here! Honestly, guys, we couldn't have gotten to this point without your support. Right now, many are asking why we released the game on Steam without having finished the Prologue. The reasons behind this decision lay in the fact that we have already started using SEA for distribution management. No more '5 days to prepare, upload, update, fix' for each separate platform (Windows, Linux and Mac). Build synchronization in the folders of my computer happens practically automatically now. By the way, this factor allowed us to fix the problem with loading the game on 32-bit Windows in one day. This means that if you guys run into a serious bug, we will be able to fix it right away and you won't have to wait for half a month for the next patch to come in.READ MORE...
[ 2015-04-01 18:09:39 CET ] [ Original post ]
After Reset RPG
Black Cloud Studios
Developer
Black Cloud Studios
Publisher
2015-03-09
Release
Game News Posts:
20
🎹🖱️Keyboard + Mouse
Very Negative
(153 reviews)
The Game includes VR Support
Public Linux Depots:
- After Reset RPG LIN [2.15 G]
Available DLCs:
- After Reset RPG: graphic novel 'The Fall Of Gyes'
After Reset RPG is an old-school hardcore sci-fi post-apocalyptic roleplaying game. You can expect: a post-apocalyptic open world developed with scientific realism, a nonlinear story with the freedom of choice and a ton of branches and endings, and hardcore game mechanics in the best traditions of classic CRPGs. Explore the devastated ruins of the dead planet and forge your story, Commander!
'THE FALL OF GYES' GRAPHIC NOVEL
A free preview of our graphic novel "The Fall of Gyes", prequeling the game, can be found in your Steam installation location for After Reset RPG (e.g. C:/Program Files/Steam/SteamApps/common/After Reset RPG).
KEEP IN MIND:
The current version of the Prologue is not finished yet. By purchasing our Early Access you are formally buying the game in current stage of development and any further updates till the final version. Although, the most important - you are actually supporting the development of our game and its quality.
Beyond that, feel free to check our first tech build which we made back in 2014 for Win/Mac/Lin: for free on Steam.
THE BUILD YOU ARE RUNNING INCLUDES THE CHARACTER CREATION, RELEVANT MECHANICS, INTRO AND STORY MOVIES, SPECIAL FACILITY LEVEL, SCIENCE FACILITY LEVEL, GROUND LEVEL, CAVE, CHARACTER INTEGRATION, SKILLS USING, CHARACTER LIST, INVENTORY, APPAREL, CHARACTER MOVEMENT, THE FOG OF WAR AND RELEVANT SACPIC MECHANICS, HIGHLIGHTING SYSTEM, TAG SYSTEM, VARIOUS WORLD INTERACTION, ETC.
WE EXPAND AND GROW THIS BUILD WITH EVERY COMING PATCH. TO TRACK OUR PROGRESS, PLEASE, CHECK OUR WEBSITE WWW.AFTERRESET.COM AND YOUR PATCHNOTES.TXT.
BY PURCHASING EARLY ACCESS YOU ARE REALLY SUPPORTING THE DEVELOPMENT OF OUR GAME AND ITS QUALITY.
THANK YOU, THIS GAME WOULD NEVER BECOME A REALITY WITHOUT SUCH GAMERS/BACKERS LIKE YOU.
NOTE ON EARLY ACCESS ALPHA:
After Reset RPG is currently in Early Access on Steam. With a fully transparent approach to game design and development we showed through the whole time of development and being the same gamers like the most of you, we work on RPG of our dream. After Reset RPG: Early Access is your chance to bring our mutual game to reality.
As you can see on our official we site, since the beginning we've toiled and released transparent updates every 2-3 weeks almost. Those who choose to purchase Early Access should anticipate an evolving feature set, bugs, incomplete content, missing features, and potentially game breaking issues. Early Access is designed for those wishing to support the ongoing development of After Reset RPG and be a part of shaping its future.
* * *
Thanks for your support and thanks for rooting for us, guys!
We've never reached the stage we're in without your support, trust, patience and faith.
Sincerely,
Richard.
'THE FALL OF GYES' GRAPHIC NOVEL
A free preview of our graphic novel "The Fall of Gyes", prequeling the game, can be found in your Steam installation location for After Reset RPG (e.g. C:/Program Files/Steam/SteamApps/common/After Reset RPG).
KEEP IN MIND:
The current version of the Prologue is not finished yet. By purchasing our Early Access you are formally buying the game in current stage of development and any further updates till the final version. Although, the most important - you are actually supporting the development of our game and its quality.
Beyond that, feel free to check our first tech build which we made back in 2014 for Win/Mac/Lin: for free on Steam.
THE BUILD YOU ARE RUNNING INCLUDES THE CHARACTER CREATION, RELEVANT MECHANICS, INTRO AND STORY MOVIES, SPECIAL FACILITY LEVEL, SCIENCE FACILITY LEVEL, GROUND LEVEL, CAVE, CHARACTER INTEGRATION, SKILLS USING, CHARACTER LIST, INVENTORY, APPAREL, CHARACTER MOVEMENT, THE FOG OF WAR AND RELEVANT SACPIC MECHANICS, HIGHLIGHTING SYSTEM, TAG SYSTEM, VARIOUS WORLD INTERACTION, ETC.
WE EXPAND AND GROW THIS BUILD WITH EVERY COMING PATCH. TO TRACK OUR PROGRESS, PLEASE, CHECK OUR WEBSITE WWW.AFTERRESET.COM AND YOUR PATCHNOTES.TXT.
BY PURCHASING EARLY ACCESS YOU ARE REALLY SUPPORTING THE DEVELOPMENT OF OUR GAME AND ITS QUALITY.
THANK YOU, THIS GAME WOULD NEVER BECOME A REALITY WITHOUT SUCH GAMERS/BACKERS LIKE YOU.
NOTE ON EARLY ACCESS ALPHA:
After Reset RPG is currently in Early Access on Steam. With a fully transparent approach to game design and development we showed through the whole time of development and being the same gamers like the most of you, we work on RPG of our dream. After Reset RPG: Early Access is your chance to bring our mutual game to reality.
As you can see on our official we site, since the beginning we've toiled and released transparent updates every 2-3 weeks almost. Those who choose to purchase Early Access should anticipate an evolving feature set, bugs, incomplete content, missing features, and potentially game breaking issues. Early Access is designed for those wishing to support the ongoing development of After Reset RPG and be a part of shaping its future.
* * *
Thanks for your support and thanks for rooting for us, guys!
We've never reached the stage we're in without your support, trust, patience and faith.
Sincerely,
Richard.
MINIMAL SETUP
- OS: Ubuntu 12.04 or later (32 or 64 bit)
- Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz or equivalentMemory: 4 GB RAM
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTS 260 or Radeon HD 4850 (512 MB VRAM)
- Storage: 20 GB available space
- OS: Ubuntu 12.04 or later (64 bit)
- Processor: Intel Core i5 series or equivalentMemory: 4 GB RAM
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: GeForce GTX 980 Series or Radeon equivalent (4096 MB VRAM)Network: Broadband Internet connection
- Storage: 20 GB available space
GAMEBILLET
[ 6133 ]
GAMERSGATE
[ 2120 ]
FANATICAL BUNDLES
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3 days, 16 hours, 49 minutes
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0 days, 16 hours, 49 minutes
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0 days, 16 hours, 49 minutes
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25 days, 16 hours, 49 minutes
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HUMBLE BUNDLES
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6 days, 10 hours, 49 minutes
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13 days, 10 hours, 49 minutes
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