First off - To anyone who missed my dev stream last Sunday, you can view a replay of it on youtube. It was a lot of fun, and I'd like to do more of these when I get the chance. Maybe not for 6 hours straight, that might've been a bit excessive. But it was a really useful experience, and I found a whole bunch of new bugs in the process, many of which I've fixed for Alpha 54. Also new to this build: New NPC behaviors, which I've gone over in the Artificial Intelligence section below. There was a Fortnight Discussion about this topic last July, and I FINALLY got around to implementing some of the behaviors that people suggested. There were a lot of great suggestions, and still plenty I'd like to add when I get another block of time for this. This week's Fortnight Discussion: How did you first learn about Streets of Rogue?

Alpha 54

• Unarmed NPCs are capable of picking up weapons dropped on the ground during combat
• Thief NPCs are capable of randomly pickpocketing the player and other NPCs
• Thief NPCs can be hired to lockpick doors
• Thief NPCs can be hired to break into windows
• Hacker NPCs can be hired to hack objects
• Slum Dwellers will sometimes run to pick up money that they see on the ground
• Vampire NPCs are capable of biting other people
• Cannibal NPCs are capable of Cannibalizing dead people
• Gorilla NPCs can use the Lunge ability during combat
• Jock NPCs can use the Charge ability during combat
• Drug Dealers may take drugs during combat
• Shapeshifters may pop out of an NPC that you kill
• Fix for NPCs saying lines of dialog if they are simultaneously rescued from prison and blown up at the same time
• Fix for certain cases where NPCs’ crimes were ignored
• Fix for general weirdness if more than one NPC transforms into a Werewolf at the same time

• Potential fix for NPCs sometimes appearing to walk backwards or sideways
• Fix for white weapon outline sometimes flashing across the screen
• Fix for held weapon not flashing white when a person is hit

• Name of current disaster can be found at the bottom of the Missions screen
• When prompted to leave the level, text appears in different colors (green or orange) indicating whether you’ve completed your Big Quests or not, as an extra reminder for players
• Fix for scroll bar on Stats interface being in the incorrect position if the player scrolled down and restarted the game with a different character
• Fix for items on Missions screen appearing too dark
• Fix for inventory “flashes” from client players sometimes appearing on server player
• Fix for Big Quest markers not disappearing when Thief steals from chests
• Fix for soft lock in local coop mode if players have for some insidious reason created a custom character that already has all of the available traits, and then gain a trait at the end of the level

• Elevator will not prompt the player if they want to exit unless all main missions on the floor have been cleared
• “ATM Machine” changed to just “ATM” because I’m tired of getting bug reports about this
• Well has properly sized Mouseover box
• Fix for cursor text appearing when the player mouses over mines

• Fix for player being able to use Pickpocket to steal Slave Helmet off slaves’ heads
• Potential fix for player losing control sometimes after Quick-Escape Teleporter is used
• Water Pistol can no longer have Infinite Ammo when this mutator is on, since the interface requires the gun to be empty in order to change ammo types

• Fix for NPCs retaining status effects that they are not supposed to between levels

• Fix for data not being carried over to next game properly all the time when using the leftmost elevator in Home Base
• Fix for instances where certain characters like Wrestler could automatically fail Big Quest at the start of the level if no options for quest targets were available to them

• Potential fix for saved games not always being invalidated properly in Continue mode when the player returns to Home Base

• Fix for Cops sometimes sleeping in prison cells
• Thief appears more often in levels
• Vampire appears wandering around sometimes in Park and Downtown

• Fixed some multiplayer connection and load errors

• Added better error handling for when a user’s system fails to save the game due to permissions issues

• Created new Demo version of the game for itch.io and GameJolt

Alpha 54b (June 29)

• Fix for Thief NPC attempting to mug people by reaching in the wrong direction
• Fix for Thief NPC sometimes failing to lockpick or break into windows facing certain angles
• Fix for Thief NPC not wanting to break into certain windows
• Fix for Thief NPC being capable of lockpicking things that are not doors
• Fix for Thief NPC lockpick targeting not working with gamepad
• Fix for Hacker NPC leaving the player’s party after completing task while enslaved
• Fix for weirdness when Shapeshifter falls down holes while inhabiting someone’s body
• Fix for NPC gorillas sometimes appearing to shake after death
• Fix for NPCs attempting to pick up guns with no ammo
• Fix for Ghosts being able to pick up weapons
• Fix for NPC Vampire attempting to bite Cop Bots, Ghosts, etc.
• Fix for not always being able to assign Toolbar items properly with gamepad after the first level
• Another fix for being able to steal the Slave Helmet off Slaves’ heads
• When the hacker is hired, Tech Expert choices for the object being hacked are available to the player
• Fix for Bouncer picking up Baseball Bat during tutorial
• Fix for NPCs attempting to pick up live Bear Traps
• Fix for certain objects not being internally “recycled” properly
• Fix for orange Big Quest arrows not appearing on a map when the target was part of an optional quest
• Fix for NPC images not appearing on Missions screen
• When NPC Shapeshifter pops out of people’s bodies, they will always flee instead of attacking, and will be initially hostile toward the player