Finally, the long-gestating character-specific “Big Quests” are finally in the game!... in Beta form! For a full set of details on the current state of Big Quests, check out this week’s Fortnight Discussion, in which I humbly ask for your suggestions on this fledgling aspect of the game. For the next batch of bi-weekly updates, I’ll be splitting my time between the usual content/bug fixes/etc. and behind-the-scenes stuff like optimization, work on console versions, engine improvements, and other things that I’d frankly rather not be doing if I had the choice :D While this may result in a lower volume of obvious output in these updates, I’ll be making an effort to stick some meaningful additions into to each one.

Alpha 49

• Set up a whole bunch of infrastructure on which Big Quests will hang
• Added Big Quests for:
  • Gangster
  • Zombie
  • Cop
  • Doctor
  • Investment Banker
  • Shapeshifter
  • Hacker
  • Werewolf

• Fix for mission status not changing in real time if the missions screen is left up in multiplayer mode

• Fixed some code relating to Disasters in Sandbox Mode, though I’m not sure exactly what impact this was having

• Fix for NPCs that that were meant to be Neutralized for missions becoming Hostile toward each other too easily
• Cop Bots come after the player when they are being hacked
• Fix for NPCs sometimes not patrolling properly in multiplayer mode

• Altered ShapeShifter back story a bit

• Fix for Game Over screen sometimes appearing if the player teleported twice in rapid succession toward the start of a level

• Bunch of boring behind-the-scenes stuff that you won't notice or care about

Alpha 49b

• Fix for Investment Banker and Hacker’s missions screen sometimes erroneously stating that the Big Quest had been failed for the district and run.
• Fix for game hanging at the end of levels when a saved game from a previous build is loaded
• Fix for game hanging when attempting to quit when a saved game from a previous build is loaded
• Updated Unity engine from 2017.2.1f1 to 2017.2.1p4

Alpha 49c (April 21)

• Fix for Cop Bots not being Aligned with other Cop Bots
• Fix for Hacker installing malware not working properly for multiplayer client
• If Shapeshifter murders everyone on the floor, their Big Quest status for the floor will be marked as failed
• Better determination of which NPCs Shapeshifter should possess/kill on Big Quests
• Fix for Hacker not receiving extra XP at the end of levels for Big Quest completion
• NPCs no longer become Guilty for attacking War Zone Cannibals
• More Butler Bots are deployed if things get really out of hand during War Zone (there can be 4 instead of 2)
• Improvements to when the game determines it needs to deploy a Butler Bot
• Memory leak fix in War Zone when bodies were gibbed frequently instead of cleaned up by Butler Bot
• “Create A Mutator (Coming Soon)” entry no longer appears on the Mutators list (it may still get added, but mod support won’t be happening until post-1.0)
• Custom character with Zombiism can now talk to other characters. However, custom characters with Fair Game cannot, unless they are Friendly/Loyal/Aligned

Alpha 49d (April 22)

• Fix for initial menu text not loading in the correct language when the game is loaded
• Fix for Hacker losing Big Quest if the floor was generated with no computers
• For Zombie Big Quest, game is better at determining the percentage of the level that was zombified (leaves out ghosts and other NPCs that are impossible to turn)
• Fix for Shapeshifter sometimes being told to possess certain NPCs for Big Quest that could not be possessed