Titan City: New Update 11-4-2014

[Nestalious]

Another update is being released for the Titan City Demo.  A large set of changes were made to address game balance issues with character improvement.  Here is what's new:

- Doubled the IP received from main quest lines
- Increased IP gains from random quests a little

- Increased IP drops from random encounters
- Reduced costs of Skill training by half (The speech craft trainer is the only person not affected by this change)
- Reduced IP training costs by about 66%. (The speech craft trainer is the only person not affected by this change)
- Fixed a bug that was allowing players who made new characters to have infinite stats.
- Fixed the crate in the Prison Break quest to stay where it is once it has been moved.
- Streamlined dialogue with all but one skill trainer.
- Fixed a bug with the kid standing in front of Max Textiles that would freeze the game.
- Fixed a few graphic bugs
- Standardized Treasure Chests. There is one graphic for footlockers, one graphic for chests that can be lock picked, and one for chests that can always be opened.
 

 

[Matseb2611]

Yeah, that makes sense. If the web battles are supposed to be challenging, then I suppose it's not a big issue if the guard command is disabled.

I've played some more today and am liking the storyline. It's starting to get even more interesting now. I've done the Joker gang hideout part and headed to the park. I did notice I couldn't go there straight from the slums; I had to take a ride to the city centre before going to the park. Although I didn't mind that as I wanted to get back to city centre anyway to purchase some more upgrades, but I think it'd be nicer to have the option to visit the park from the slums, because the taxi does ask for a fair bit of money on both journeys ($50 to the city and then $100 to the park). But the money seems to be more in abundance now after the last couple of missions, and the lieutenant has been overly kind to give us lots of IP, so I could finally get some upgrades.

Spoiler

I liked the flashback in the park, after Johnny meets his ex and then thinks back on that day when he had to go off the grid. Though I wonder, if the assassin happens to kill the player during the flashback, wouldn't that create a time paradox? Hehe. But don't worry about it, that's just getting too technical. I am liking where this is going, especially that surprise scene where the corporate thugs suddenly arrived in the park before I could leave it. I haven't fought these ones yet, but there was one standing in the upper part of the map before these ones arrived and he kept calling for backup, so I got killed. I think the fact they can use triple shot attack makes them kinda overpowered, but maybe I wasn't supposed to go there yet (then maybe a bit of a warning would've been nice as at first I thought it was just a random npc).

 

 

[Nestalious]

The way I have the Taxi service set up right now is rather taxing, but that is because I plan on having more than one mode of transportation later in the game that can take you to further locations rather than adjecent ones (which is how I visualize this right now).  Part of the cost for transportation is deliberate. It might seem like a lot now, but it will be a pitence later in the game.  When you add in the fact that you can randomly hack any mainframe to gain cash and files to sell, money is in overabundance for hackers.  Once Johnny Li hits level 5 he can also start using Identity Theft during random and boss encounters.  This steals money from bank accounts and transfers cash directly into your bank account.  People who choose to take Pick Pocket can also use that skill in random battles although it isn't always successful and you don't get as big an amount that you would from Identity Theft, it can be used multiple times. 

In the long run money is something that I want to have a real impact on the game for as long as I can. I've played too many games where it essentially becomes just a number that I don't pay attention to due to large quantities or there is simply nothing worth buying with it.  It's a mechanic that is always there, but no one really seems to use it properly anymore.

You make a good point in your spoiler alert.    I think I will double check that event to make sure if such a thing were to happen it would still make sense.  I'll check into the park NPC you mentioned. I think it was spawning earlier than it was supposed to.

Spoiler

For the record those guys are meant to be not only tough, but unbeatable due to the back they bring in.  I will place some events around the area to warn the players of their true nature since it was not clear enough.

Thanks again for the feedback Matseb!

 

[Matseb2611]

Yeah, Identity Theft has been a very useful skill. I have gotten to the point now that the money is in healthy abundance, so there's no problem with that really. I just thought it would be neater if the player had an option to visit any relevant location from anywhere (unless they can't for story-related reasons). 

But in other news, I've gotten to the end of the demo.

Spoiler

I liked the chase scene inside the building when that kid helps you and then you fall off the fire escape ladder into a trash container. I also like what you did with the lore in regard to the gangs, how there are 4 of them and they all have a distinctive look about them, and that there is a neutral zone where they don't fight. Getting a chance to rent a room is a pretty neat feature too. It mentioned that it's possible to refurbish them, so does that mean there'll be options to buy stuff to place in the room? Because that would be cool.

So at the end of the demo it said there's more content but that it's still unpolished. I might look into it as well and see what it's like. Keep up the good work.

 

 

[Nestalious]

I agree with your argument regarding transportation.  I would like to unleash a greater amount of freedom for the players, but only after I am sure they have some familiarity with most of game mechanics and direction for the story.  Too much freedom early on could cause problems that I'm not capable of considering.  Personal transportation is something I want to give the players, like purchasing a car, boat and airplane for example.  Currently there are some troubles I am having in that area due to the base mechanics of RPG Maker, but I'm pretty sure I can find a way to make things happen with some ghetto eventing.  I get to that when I get to it.

As for your question in the spoiler alert:

Spoiler

Renting a room is still something I am toying with.  I've done some more work with it to get a few kinks out which I know you will notice if you play past the end of the demo.  Yes. My plan is to let the players customize their living space by refurbishing and upgrading (you probably noticed it doesn't work yet).  I want living space to have more of a purpose than just a place to crash.  I am thinking about giving players a rested bonus for sleeping in a bed they own.  I liked this mechanic in other games as well.  I am still trying to come up with other useful ideas for this and ways to execute some of them.  Buying a house is something that I want to have as an option.  I am also planning on allowing players to own a business as well, but that is something I wont be working on for a while. All in good time.

 

[Nestalious]

Update 1-28-14

It's been a while since my last update.  Work became quite the reality here over the last week.  While I have been absent I have not been Idle.  When last I left there were a lot of great comments and advice flowing in from all directions.  This is not a complaint.  I feel it's a good problem to have with so many people showing support in their own way.  However, as I mentioned work has become a big time sink and I haven't had the opportunity to address as much as I wanted to.

The good news is there is an update which I am applying as I type.  I wasn't able to address all the comments and advice I received last week, so if you don't see something you were looking for this time please don't be too bummed.  I have a huge list of notes that I keep regarding public thoughts.  This update does make some extensive changes so if you were hoping to continue from the point you left off, odds are that won't work.  I am deeply sorry for that.  A large number of changes needed to be made to make this update possible. Updates to the game are listed in the spoiler alert.

Spoiler

- created a new enemy for web battles: Bloodhound - bloodhound uses a trace program to find the players origin of connection and closes it which forces the player out of the web. Leaving a run allows a system to reboot itself which means defeated programs will reappear. Accessed nodes are not always affected by this sudden dump. (I have yet to get this guy in the game, but it works, which is cool by the way)

- new program skill: Mask - Masks the users internet connections making it harder to trace. Adds time to trace clock.

- new enemy skills: I am working on a large list of enemy skills and tactics to add diversity to real world combat. These skills have not been added to enemy AI yet, but will be added soon to create more diverse real world combat.

- New skill costs: Further work on skill development. Skills now cost a number of IP equal the level you wish to attain. (I.E. Level 2 handguns will cost 2 IP)

- Reduced the amount of IP gained from quests, main quests, and random drops. This backpedaling is to offset the reduction in IP needed to continue training skills.

- Specific weapon skills no longer increase damage output. Instead each time a specific weapon skill is trained the player gains a new skill to use in combat that is tied specifically to that weapon type (some of the more powerfull skill tree abilities can be used no matter what weapon the player has equipped)

- Each specific weapon skill tree now has 10 trainable skills. Up from 5.

- Removed bows, crossbows, and melee skill trees

- New weapon skill trees: Added 5 new weapon skills. See below...

- Added new skill trees: Light Weapons, Medium Weapons, Heavy Weapons, hand to hand, Edged Weapons
    Light weapons: will grant +3 damage to hand guns and machine guns for each level
    Medium Weapons: will grant +3 damage to Rifles and Shotguns/level
    Heavy Weapons: will grant +3 damage to Sniper Rifles, Chain Guns, and Energy Weapons
    Hand to Hand: Grants +3 damage with brawling and Kung Fu skills
    Edged Weapons: grants +3 damage with Swords, throwing knives and throwing stars

- Added Trainers to Neutral territory, Hammer turf, and Joker Turf.

- Made Hammer Turf and Prophet Turf accessible. These areas are still under development and only open to allow the player to continue training skills.

- Reduced the number of encounters in some System Mainframes.

- improvements made with sleeping in the bed and automatic payments made for rent. You're keycard will now properly deactivate if you can't pay for rent and you will not be charged. If you so choose you can return to the Safe House and reactivate your keycard by renting a room again once you have the money.

- Changed the icon for the Format Skill

- Removed the 'Reflect' ability from CPU AI in Web combat.

- CPU AI can now always uses 'Power Surge' in combat at any time.

Edit: It would seem the web site I use to share files is down for the time being.  I will post a new message when the problem is resolved and the update is officially uploaded.

 

[Caladus]

Work takes precedence. Them's the rules.

Great to hear you're working on this project when you can.

 

[Nestalious]

A much needed and long awaited update to the demo has finally been made.  The last few months have been very unproductive, but I have managed to fix quite a few bugs that were released with the last patch.  Here is a listing of some of the work I have managed to do...

Update 6-6-2014

-new web enemies: Bloodhound - bloodhound uses a trace program to find the players origin of connection and closes it which forces the player out of the web. Leaving a run allows a system to reboot itself which means defeated program will reappear. Accessed nodes are not always affected by this sudden dump. (not yet appearing in demo)
-new program skill: Mask - Masks the users internet connections making it harder to trace. adds time to trace clock.
-new program skill: Malware Away 1.0 - Returns the player to normal walking speed in the web.
-new enemy skills: working on a large list of enemy skills and tactics to add diversity to real world combat
-New skill costs: Further work on skill development. Skills now cost a number of IP equal the level you wish to attain. (I.E. Level 2 handguns
will cost 2 IP)
-Removed bows, crossbows, and melee skill tree
-Heavy Weapons are now called Chain Guns
-weapon skills have been remodeled. Each individual weapon skill type now has 10 trainable skills. Up from 5 each and no longer increase damage output. Instead each time a specific weapon skill is trained the player gains a new skill to
use in combat that is tied specifically to that weapon type (some of the more powerfull skill tree abilities can be used no matter what weapon the player has equipped)
-Added new skill trees: Light Weapons, Medium Weapons, Heavy Weapons, hand to hand, Edged Weapons
    Light weapons: will grant +3 damage to hand guns and machine guns for each level
    Medium Weapons: will grant +3 damage to Rifles and Shotguns/level
    Heavy Weapons: will grant +3 damage to Sniper Rifles, Chain Guns, and Energy Weapons
    Hand to Hand: Grants +3 damage with brawling and Kung fu skills
    Edged WEapons: grants +3 damage with Swords, throwing knives and throwing stars
-Made Hammer Turf accessible. This area is still under development.
-reduced the number of encounters in some System Mainframes.
-improvements made with sleeping in the bed and automatic payments made for rent. You're keycard will now properly deactivate if you can't pay for rent. If you so choose you can return to the Safe House and reactivate your keycard by renting a room again once you have the money.
-changed the icon for the Format Skill
-removed 'Reflect' ability from CPU AI in Web Combat
-system message from using format displays correctly
-fixed bugs with weapon skill trees not properly linked to their weapon types.
-player is sent to the proper opening sequence when creating their own character
-fixed bug that was not properly displaying the level of skill training with light, medium, heavy weapon skills during character creation
-fixed a possible bug that could allow the player to leave an area after they reset their character points without distributing the points
-more houses/map are accessible in Neutral territory, but not entirely fleshed out.
-programs have specific abilities/functions
    -hound/pitbull     - Attack program    (Random/engages Player)        -Staight forward attack programs.
    -ICE            - Defense program     (Fixed)                -ICE programs put debuffs on the player to lessen their effectiveness.
    -Demon          - Defense program     (Fixed)                -They are capable of uploading additional programs to help in fights.
    -AI             - Core                (Fixed)                -A.I.'s are the core behind a system mainframe. Taking it down results in severe breakdown in system defenses.
    -Bloodhound     - Utility program    (Patrol/engages player)     -Can trace the hackers origin of call and disconnect them from the mainframe.
    -Phantom        - Assassin Program       (Random/engages player)     -Hard to see with high initial attack strength programs
    -Reaper         - Attack program     (Random/engages Player)        -Can summon either Attack or Defense programs
    -Worm         - Defense program     (Fixed)                -Will delete information from players hard drive the have acquired during their hacking run. easy = cheapest items.  medium = random. hard = most expensive items
    -Shaman     - Defense program     (Summoned)            -Reconstructs other programs. removes debuffs. weak with high healing effects
    -Patron     - Defense program     (Summoned)            -Creates barriers to protect other programs
    -Warlock     - Attack program     (Patrol/engages Player)        -Centers on putting debuffs on the player to weaken/kill them in combat.
    -Watchdog     - Attack Program    (Patrol/engages Player)        -Watchdogs are programs used to defend more sensitive data and are mainly attack programs that replicate themselves to overwhelm hackers.
    -Operators    - Coming Soon!                        -Equivilant of police for the Web
    -Hackers    - Coming Soon!                        -Pit your skills against other hackers from Titan City.
-Due to an increase in difficulty to hacking more escape options have been given to all fights that occur in the web. This was not always
 available.
-Revised the options given to the player for certain hacking programs to automatically call on the best software available instead of listing
 all options.
-Revised CodeGate function when hacking. Codegates no longer have power levels. Instead the Codebreaker software used to take down Codegates
 have power levels. The higher the level of your codebreaker software the more codegates you can remove within a system at a time.
-The -Interface- Skill set is now always accessible. The skills will only work in the Web, but now players can see what software they have
 to help with their purchasing decisions.

 

[Nestalious]

So... I'm pretty excited about a new feature that I am trying to polish up and thought I would take a little time to talk about it.  Unfortunately if I were to update the demo anyone with previous saves would have to start the game fresh again in order for everything to work properly. So for now I'm just going to talk about the latest work I've accomplished.

At the start of making Titan City I had always wanted people to be able to customize their gear.  While this has proven to be a much harder task than I had anticipated (at least for how I had envisioned it) I have managed to find a way to allow players to customize/upgrade their cyberdecks.  Here is a run down of how it will work.

1. First players will now have to become 'Attuned' to the cyberdeck that they want to use.  The story for this in the game will be to ensure that players don't suffer feedback and negative effects for hacking with a new cyberdeck system that isn't ready to work with their biometrics and brainwave patterns. It's fancy lingo stuff that basically says your gonna hurt yourself if you don't do this.  Here is a breakdown of 'Attunement'.

  A. Attunement is free and available at chop docs and hospitals all over Titan City.

  B. You can only be attuned to one cyberdeck at a time.

  C. There is no limit to the number of times you can be attuned.

  D. To attune yourself to a cyberdeck you must first un-equip it and have it in your inventory.

  E. You don't have to be attuned to a cyberdeck to upgrade it, but you will not receive the upgrade effects to that cyberdeck unless you are attuned to it.

  F. You do not have to have a cyberdeck equipped to hack with it.

  G. A player can hack without being attuned but will suffer massive penalties.

2. You will be able to upgrade 3 different components to a cyberdeck.

  A. CPU Cores: each core will add +3 to damage output in web combat

  B. FireWalls: Each FireWall will add +1 to defense in web combat

  C. HardDrive: Each improvement to a HardDrive will increase the number of files you can download during a run by +1.

With the final note on HardDrives I have also completed work on how many files a player can download during a blitz.  For example:  The NextTech Modem 1-101 has a starting HardDrive value of 5.  Its max HardDrive value can be 7.  This means that at its top performance I will only be able to download 7 files during the course of a blitz (files include: Data File Nodes, Blue Data File Nodes, Encrypted Data File Nodes, and RAM Nodes at this time.).  During some blitzes a player will be able to download all the files in the mainframe in one run, for others the player will be required to log out of the mainframe (the files will automatically be converted and the HardDrive wiped clean) and return to retrieve the rest of the information. So get out there and upgrade that cyberdeck chum.

It will only be a matter of time, but I also hope to add other options to cyberdeck upgrades.  I'm very pleased with the results so far.

Last but not least...

With the next patch I am planning on releasing I will also open up a new random blitz (Number 11) which will highlight a vast majority of the enemy programs a player will face in the web.  There is still some tweaking that needs to be done, but the results have been very challenging and promising.

 

[Nestalious]

A new update is available for the Titan City Demo.  Today's update makes a few major changes that can potentially ruin old save games (potentially = it will).

To keep this post short please refer to my last post for some of the changes included.

Here is a summary of changes made:



-Added a new blitz: The 11th random blitz highlights a majority of the programs a hacker can come across in the web. (The Demom is the only program not in any blitz's at this moment)

-Here is a breakdown of new/improved programs and skills that shows how they act in the web:

-Made Hammer Turf accessible. This area is still under development but highly functioning.
-Made Prophet Turf accessible.  This area is still under heavy development.
-Made a number of changes to quest lines and dialogues to improve the main story line.
-Added some random quests in Joker territory that will become available after a certain portion of the main quest line has been completed.
-Fixed a bug at the start of the game that prevented players from using web based attacks while hacking into the security door.
-Fixed a bug that turned the screen black if you left the prison facility before completing the quest inside.
-minor map improvements
-a number of tweaks to player skills. I should have kept better track of what I did. Sorry, there were a lot of changes. Most were a reduction to skill costs with an increase to skill functionality in some form. In some cases it was to fix bugs and/or make skills work as intended.
-Added a vendor that will sell a variety of programs. He becomes available as you progress through the main story and remains available after your first meeting with him in Neutral Territory.
-Safety Protocals are now active! - A new player program is available called SledgeHammer. SledgHammer offers the player a chance to retrieve data from nodes without a fight. Be warned, if the attempt fails safety protocals will be activated and the Worm program will seek out the player. During these fights the worm randomly attempts to delete files that you have downloaded from the current mainframe.
-Ronin program is now active! - Ronin is a program that helps the player during web combat. It acts as a player and has its own set of skills and stats. Ronin lasts until the end of combat or it is derezzed. (other versions of this program are in the works)

-Players can now track their reputation with factions in the menu via - Repuation
-Special thanks to KeanesPark for his contribution in making animated sprites for the web nodes.

 

[Caladus]

Awesome! I'm still here even though I haven't posted in 9 months or so. I'll download the latest and give it a whirl! Thanks again!

 

[Nestalious]

Good news,

I got some feed back and bug reports from some new players.  Squashed some bugs and made some quick improvements.

Also, I'm pretty sure I got the interest rate system in working order. 

The bad news is that RPG Maker doesn't like to work with decimals very much, so I will have to make some adjustments to the skills and the amount of interest gained from them (which technically won't take very long).  Also, I don't know how to post a patch that will fix any current issues a player may have if they have delved into the investment and stock market skills which will mean that when an update is posted you will have to start from the beginning to see how awesome it is to earn interest on your bank account.

Will make a few more adjustments and tweeks and patch the game again soon.

Nestalious