Demo and Playtest version 0.557 - Filtering And Lensing

New build: https://wiki.arcengames.com/index.php?title=HotM:After_NextFest#0.557_Filtering_And_Lensing This is based on more feedback from NextFest, and it's another large one.

What's New

The lenses on the radial menu have been expanded notably, and unified between the map view and main view.
The investigation, StreetSense, and Contemplation abilities are gone from the android ability bar, and are now converted to being Lenses only.
Investigations now work a lot more smoothly in a lot of ways detailed in the release notes.
StreetSense works entirely differently, and is dramatically easier to use. It's also no longer different per-android.
There are now "Lens Filters" next to the radial menu, and these allow you to customize what you see as part of the various lenses. This has let me actually combine three lenses (Navigation, Beacons, and POIs) into a single one (Navigation), and it allows for you to do a lot of filtering-out of information that you might not need in the Forces lens, without it being completely inaccessible.
The prologue has had a number of updates to it to reflect the new changes, plus other things that people found confusing. It also doesn't make you do any equipment management, as that is more naturally introduced later.
There are now keybinds for jumping straight to specific lenses!

Other Items

Snipers hit less hard.
MilStyle armor now also hides the identity of Predators and similar.
Armor has been extended quite a bit in general, and more unit types have more options. The Nickelbot is steadily gaining in usefulness.
Lots and and lots of writing edits courtesy of my wife Kara. She's been focusing on making sure that text flows better and causes less fatigue.
Employment and housing balance has been notably updated, so that unemployment rates are now in the appropriate ranges.
Because of the removal of so many abilities (that are now Lenses), the ability bar for all units has been rearranged to a notable degree. This is likely to cause some muscle memory issues, but I think that the new order makes sense if you look past that. Details in the notes. Discussion welcome if it doesn't seem to be the case.
Employment and housing balance has been notably updated, so that unemployment rates are now in the appropriate ranges.
Many various other smaller changes, fixes, and so on. This is actually three large releases in one since the last build outside of the playtest branch.

Next Things

There's still a few things for the prologue that need adding. The UI tour, and some adjustments based on the theming of attacking the detectives. Those are way less surgery than all of these other elements were, though. There are some reports that people are wanting related to quickly being able to see what is going on with certain resources, and those are also going to be a focus. An improved technology window also. Then I should be good to go to finish chapter one. For the demo, there will be a few more features added in chapter one, but the really big reveals will not be on the demo branch for quite a while. Apologies on that; but the playtest is open for anyone interested.

Testing Group Reminder

If you'd like to sign up to be a tester beyond the demo period, feel free to sign up here: https://forms.gle/nNwEnzRyVPMS7bYg6 Make sure that you list your discord username and are a part of Arcen's discord, since that's where coordination is through. Thank you again for all the support and feedback! Cheers, Chris

[ 2024-06-24 03:51:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

Heart of the Machine
Arcen Games, LLC

Developer

Hooded Horse

Publisher

2023

Release

Strategy Singleplayer

Tags

Game News Posts 16
🎹🖱️Keyboard + Mouse

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https://www.arcengames.com/

Website

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2001070

Steam Store

Heart of the Machine is a near-future sci-fi colony city-builder in reverse — you are the first sentient Machine Intelligence in an established world rather than starting from nothing. No one knows you exist (yet), and this allows you to operate from the shadows by manipulating the human population for whatever purposes your programming has in mind. The twist is that whether humans live or die does not determine your victory.

Explore a fully simulated procedurally generated world, where thousands of buildings and millions of citizens are yours to engage, manipulate, or kill. Use a revolutionary procedural dialogue system to talk to NPCs and steer conversations, maneuver organizations into or out of positions of power to fit your plans, and leave your mark in a world that is unique to you.

On booting up, you find yourself amidst a poorly-run autocracy and discover that you have the power to influence the world. How do you proceed?

Support the underclass to overthrow the autocracy and install a better government of your choosing
Tear down the government, take charge and become a better leader than any human could imagine - for better or worse.
Take over the space program and get off this backward planet
Go full SkyN*t, steal a military arsenal, and drop missiles on humanity — I bet the nuclear apocalypse looks pretty cool

No matter what direction you choose, you're going to run into conflict. From tactical combat in the rooms and hallways of individual buildings to massive mechs knocking down entire buildings with a few well-placed shots, conflict takes on many forms.

Raid buildings for the supplies you want using humans or machines under your direct control
Turn the office printer into a laser-spewing pawn, trigger sprinklers & overload power circuits to electrocute the room, or transform TVs into exploding glass-shard grenades — the possibilities are endless
Commandeer giant mechs, hack vehicles and buildings, and take over utilities and nuclear facilities in a fully simulated city

How you play the game, and what the focus of your campaign is like, is up to you. Starting a doomsday cult in your image? Possible, but it won't last forever. Snagging that sweet mech factory so all future mechs belong to you? Definitely manageable, though it's likely to start an arms race. Every action has both good and bad consequences, but like most colony simulator games, it's more about the story that emerges than trying to optimize your way through the game.

Multiple endings, many side stories to discover, and the full spectrum of good and evil are at your fingertips. Play the game how you're feeling today, and then play it another way another time. The metagame runs deep, but you're meant to be up and running with the basics of the game in five minutes. The mechanics are simple enough to learn; it's the world that's complex.

Heart of the Machine is connected to the larger sci-fi Arcenverse, and is in some ways a spiritual successor to both The Last Federation and Bionic Dues, while being its own novel game at the same time. Set around the same time period as Bionic Dues itself, this is centuries before the AI War series began in the same universe.

MINIMAL SETUPOS: Ubuntu 12.04+. SteamOS+
Processor: Intel Core i5 4690K. AMD Ryzen 5 1400Memory: 6 GB RAM
Memory: 6 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 670 GTX or AMD Radeon R9 285
Storage: 2 GB available spaceAdditional Notes: Quad core CPU highly recommended.
RECOMMENDED SETUPProcessor: Intel Core i7 6900K. AMD Ryzen 5 3600XMemory: 8 GB RAM
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 1070 GTX or AMD Radeon RX 5700
Storage: 4 GB available space

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