- New Build Patch #8 - (Test Branch) - 18 July 2023
Hello again hackers. Here's very overdue update. Today we have one sizeable feature, an update to how food is procured, and a spattering of bug fixes. Originally, this update had a new contact, new perks, and new subroutines, unfortunately, they need a bit more time in the oven. Instead of pushing the update even further down the road, I decided to stitch up what I have and release an update today. Changes Added restaurant and vending machine to purchase food an beverages, and removed the menu from the Rest screen when interacting with the bed. The tutorials have been updated to reflect the change. Added Ravencore career path and basic mechanics. While working for Ravencore, you will earn no money from completing contracts, but will earn a salary that is paid out every Friday. Ravencore specific perks and company features will roll out in a future update along with the Ravencore Operati…
- New Build Patch #7 - (Test Branch) - 18 October 2022
The patch has a bunch of fixes, tweaks, balancing and upgrades, primarily in regards to performance. The change log below also includes a few items that have been pushed out in a flurry of hot-fixes over the last few days, The biggest change of note is that the game will no longer autosave when changing levels. The game saves when resting, quitting, or when using the 'Save' button from the pause menu. Changes The HOST does not start sweeping the system until System Heat is above 0. Drastically improved performance of IC, especially when they initially spawn in. Remove 'Loops' from program commissions, as they weren't being balanced properly. Tweaked the target subroutine ratings for offensive programs, to bring the difficulty of commissions more in-line with what players should be able to do. This will be expanded in the future to factor in the different attributes of every subroutine,…
- New Build Update #4 (Test Branch) - 10 October 2022
Hello hackers! I'm back again with a slightly overdue update. I was hoping this update would be more content heavy, but after a massive list of changes, tweaks, and bug fixes took up most of my time, I decided to pull the trigger an release it as-is. I apologize for the delay, but I honestly didn't do a lot of work in August. Which isn't fair to you guys, but I need to squeeze in all the summer I can up here in Canada =). The original plan for this update was four new side quests, four new Contacts, each with perks and features, and adding a couple points of interest to the city level. Unfortunately as I played through the game (over and over again), I kept encountering things I wished were better, or clearly needed rebalancing or reworking. Not to mention the bugs. Anyway although this update doesn't have all the bells and whistles I had originally planned, I feel it takes the game to…
- New Build Patch #6 - (Test Branch) - 2 August 2022
Thanks everyone for their bug reports and feedback. This patch should address everything that was mentioned. I have been working on the next content update, but wanted to get this patch out instead of waiting for the update to address the bugs of QoL changes. The next update will focus on adding four more contacts, each with at least one unlockable perk, and some side quests. Change Log Changed up the icons used for the system map, and added greater clarity for which nodes are accessible. Nodes on the system map view will check every second to ensure they are unlocked if they are supposed to be. This should help with a bug that sometimes cause pathway 'nodes' to not unlock in a cascade. Players can now manually enter phone numbers into the PiggyBack Trace software. Changed the way the RootAccess software handles commands. This prevents some undesired behavior, such as invalid errors, or…
- New Build Patch #5 (Test Branch) - 15 July 2022
New Build Patch #5 - (Test Branch) Changes Significantly reduced the offset of window-tiling, to allow more active windows before they start being pushed offscreen. Now players should be able to have far more active windows than they should need. Fixed an exploit that allowed infinite Cryptography XP my interacting with an unlocked node. Add a debug button on journal entries to remove journal entry items. Bug Fixes Fixed a bug that caused the phone to behave strangely when answering a call by clicking the button instead of pressing E. Fixed a bug that caused your Rig Power to always be reduced to 1 after compiling a program, regardless if you alloted program power. Fixed a bug when deleting a program, where the wrong program info is displayed, and the script would pop-up and fail to be destroyed. The script no longer pops-up when the program display is for the destruction que. Fixed Rox…
- New Build Update #3 (Test Branch) - 11 July 2022
New Build Update #3 - (Test Branch) Hello again everyone. This update adds a new take on the old 'selling programs' feature, some foundational changes for future updates, a bunch of quality of life changes, balancing, and some bug fixes. Full change log below. As for the next update, I have a few options, and I thought I would get your opinion. Would you rather have: A) Additional contacts, each with their own side quest, trainable perks, and services. B) Ravencore and Company Ownership mechanics. C) More IC and Node Designs. D) The next part of the Main Story. Update #3 Change Log New Features Phone mechanic for sending and recieving messages from contacts. By default this is accessed by pressing "P" when not in cyberspace. Players can read text messages, receive phone calls, or make outgoing calls to contacts who have provided their contact info. This is a foundational mechanic for a…
- New Build Update #2 - (Test Branch) - 27 April 2022
New Build Update #2 - (Test Branch) Added intro cinematic. Added Haven level. The invite will arrive when your Street Cred will rise to 2+ Added Overwatch feature. The option to start this will appear after your Street Cred rises to 3+. This may get tweaked in the future, but I wanted the threshold low enough that players in the test branch could access it quickly. Increased the amount of Street Cred earned for completing a contract. Fixed a bug that removed too much XP when your Intelligence increases, if you possesses the Genius trait. If your Intelligence XP is currently a negative value, it will be increased to a minumum of 0 when it is next gained. Fixed an issue with two map layouts that were causing some nodes to be inaccessible.
- New Build Patch #4 (Test Branch) - 17 April 2022
New Build Patch #4 Readjusted the interaction range again, as it was making it difficult to interact with certain objects in cyberspace. Contract files are now removed from your storage when move to the send-in window, preventing a 'negative/infinite storage' exploit. Fixed a bug that would cause the character creation to lock-up if left idle too long. Sprinting speed in meat space is now based on Mobility, not Fitness, as was originally intended. Sprinting now increases Mobility XP (as well as Fitness XP for burning Stamina). Intelligence XP is now earned whenever a skill (not an attribute) increases. Can no longer open your deck storage in meat space by pressing left control. Now left control opens the main character menu to the cyberdeck tab. Killer IC now spawn properly once more. Made some small adjustments to the safehouse furniture layout to avoid interacting with the wrong objec…
- New Build Patch #3 (Test Branch) - 17 April 2022
New Build Patch #3 Change Log Time now ticks slower with six second equaling one minute in-game (10:1). Improved the IC Analyze window to show Matrix Cohesion, and better display the IC name and rank. Rebuilt the way contracts and systems are generated. Previously every contract in the workshop board had a system generated, and every employee for every system had their personal system generated. This lead to A LOT of unused systems being generated, but allowed for more detail contract descriptions. Now the contract systems and employee systems are generated when the contract is accepted, which significantly cuts down on unnecessary system bloat. However this means the contract descriptions can only be generic. Capped the number of each type of system that can be generated. During contract generation that is a chance that the contract will use an existing system. The odds of this scales…
- New Build Patch #2 - 9 April 2022
New Build Patch #2 Killer IC (such as the Samurai) will now turn aggressive and chase the player the moment they are hit with a program. Increased Samurai 'hit' distance. Player now slows significantly while executing a program. Added a material effect to IC when they take disruption damage. Added material effect to Hagan's Wall, Tattletale and Checkpoint IC when they are crashed. Contracts will now be removed from the journal as intended upon completion. Players should no longer fall through the floor when entering certain nodes. Some higher level node layouts were not generating the entrance properly, so the only thing there was the visual placeholder, but no physical mesh. When you hover over any of the software in your program library, it will now display the program script. This will help show you how to replicate some of the existing programs and will help you debug any programs y…
- New Build Patch #1 - 8 April 2022
New Build Patch #1 As the first wave of bug reports and feedback rolls in, I've got the first patch to ready to roll out to address it. Change Log Fixed bug where first person camera was too high. Fixed a bug that was causing a massive drop in FPS when looking at the cyberdeck Adjusted spawn height and added a delay between spawning the players and generating the node to help prevent players from falling through the floor. Fixed a bug causing the System Log window to show up in every node. Adjust the spawn location of IC in the Low Security Datastore node. Increased the range that players can lock onto IC, making it easier to Analyze them before combat begins. Fixed a bug that caused the mouse cursor to disappear when using escape to close the Hardware tutorial. Added simple cinematics for lying down and getting up from the diving chair. Added the 'Log' command to all starting programs…
- New Build Update - Test Branch - 5 April 2022
New Build Update – Test Branch Hello again Hackers. After what feels like forever with my nose to the grindstone, I'm back with another MAJOR update. However, this update is going to be living in the testbranch for a little while. After what I'm sure will be a flurry of bugfixes, balance changes, tweaks and adjustments, this new build will be moved to the main branch and become the default game version. I don't foresee this being much longer than a week, unless this update is a real trainwreck. However, I think the update launch will be relatively smooth. My girlfriend has been playtesting for me as I chugged along, which has helped catch a lot of bugs and oversights early on. She's had a lot of helpful feedback, saying things like “The game seems really fun, but it's too much reading for me”, “Uh oh, I broke it and I don't know how”, “I miss the old Passbreaker mini-game”, and “There I…
- Dev Log - 4 April 2021
Hey everyone, I'm back again with another update with what's happening behind the scenes here. I should have broken this up over a few Dev Logs, but instead I'm going to dump a bunch in your lap at once. I have six points to touch on. And note that this is all stuff that is currently done, not stuff I still need to do. It doesn't looks like much is happening with all this radio silence, but I'm making great strides on my side of things. I have included some screenshots throughout, but please note these are rough shots. User Interface The UI has been rebuild with a better layout, new art and design work, and better functionality. I have added a pop-up when hovering over any stat (skills, attributes, hardware parameters, mods, etc.) This briefly explains the mechanics behind the item. For example, hovering the mouse over your Response stat on your Rig says: “Response determines the cooldo…
- Dev Log: The New Programming Mechanics - 21 February 2021
Hey everyone, I'm just checking in with a progress update. First and foremost, the update is still a little bit away. I'm planning on dropping the update as soon as I get the core gameplay loop finished. The core mechanics are 'mostly' done, but need to be reassembled and smoothed out. Oracle and custom programming is now complete. This was probably the biggest step in this entire rebuild, because it also involved basically reworking how programs work completely, which is sort of the core of the game. Now that it's done, it seems like a good time to explain those fun changes. First I'll explain how the programs work. All programs are now built from multiple lines of letters and numbers, called the Script. When a program is ran, the game now reads the script line by line and behaves appropriately. This means when you create a program, you will be writing out these lines of code. But fret…
- State of The System Address - 22 December 2020
State Of the System Address “Once upon a time there was a would-be designer who created the wildly popular mod for Shadowrun Returns called “Shadowrun Unlimited”. After hundreds of hours, the would-be designer grew frustrated with the limitations of the editing tools and decided to hand the mod off to the community and strive to create his own game. The ultimate goal was to create a modern homage to Shadowrun for the Sega Genesis. However the would-be designer knew that a game of that scope was beyond his current skills and resources. Instead he decided to start with a sub-strata of that game, the hacking aspect, and flesh an entire game out around it. The plan was to use the resources drummed up from that hacking game, along with the groundwork already in place, to build the more expansive game in the future. The now indie-developer thought he had some pretty slick programming skills,…
- Making Chips and Cleaning Bunkers - 27 June 2020
This update adds two new features, more content, and improves some existing mechanics. The two big features: Stealing and printing your own chips, and upgrading your bunker. At first glance the 'stealing and printing chips' thing seemed like an easy task. Turns out it involved rebuilding half the functions and variables related to the evolving hardware mechanics and system travel. Now it's finally up and running! To steal a Blueprint you will have to wait until the company makes an announcement about an upcoming chip release. You will then have 7 days to enter the megacorp's Grid, hack the Active Research node within the R&D system, and download the data file housing the blueprint. The data file looks like any other file, except they are quite a bit larger (so make sure you slot some storage chips). With the data file on storage, use the new Decryptor app on your desktop to crack it ope…
- Evolving Hardware Patch #2 - 14 April 2020
Mostly some bug fixes, and tweaked features. Change Log Fixed a bug causing the first Email from Echo, and the email from Virtuous Trust when you quit Ravencore to show up blank. Fixed a bug with the contract completion email from Mr Johnson showing up blank with no sender. Fixed a bug with the contract completion email from Spook showing up blank with no sender. Fixed a bug causing Patrol IC to wander out of their designated zones and head to the System Access. Fixed a bug with the salary pop-up text not displaying the proper value if you possess the "Negotiator" perk. Fixed a bug causing programs to be added to the queue instead of activating if you previously disconnected while executing a program. Tweaked the hardware evolution formula to guarantee chips gain a minimum +1 Rating when their generation increases. Re-Scaled the way difficulty for Operations are calculated. Previously,…
- Evolving Hardware Patch #1 - 10 February 2020
The ability to hack into 'corp R&D facilities to steal upcoming chip blueprints has been delayed, as I'm trying to make sure it works with the future Net upgrade. Which of course means I had to lay some groundwork for that update. In the mean time this patch contains some bug fixes and quality of life improvements. Change Log Added a pop-up when hovering over chips slotted into your rig, displaying that chip's info. Added the ability to select several 16:9 resolutions in the video settings. More resolutions and ratios will be added in future updates. IC Patrol now properly check for User or Admin privileges based on where they are encountered in the system. Fixed a bug with the contract difficulty not being correct, including the Aptitude Test being much more difficult than intended. Fixed a bug preventing chips from showing up in the store on a new game, until the game was closed and r…
- Evolving Hardware - 20 January 2020
The next step in open-ended character growth, and an more immersive world is here! With the last major update, we introduced sixty chips which when combined in a motherboard, determine your RIG's attributes. With this update, the megacorps will be churning out new tech on a daily basis. Everyday, one of the corporations will announce an upcoming chip, which you can read about in the new Shadow.Net news feed on your desktop. One week later the chip will be released and become available for purchase. Older versions of the chips will stay on the market. These chips are dynamically generated, with no upper limits. Currently there are 3 chip evolutions: Generation Increase, Overclocking, or Nano. Generation Increase leaves the size and power drain of the chip the same, while increasing the base rating for that series of chips. This accumulates over time. For example : Monarch's Excalibur wou…
- New Intro and Tutorial Patch #4 - 12 January 2020
Optimizing level load times, increasing performance and killing bugs. Change Log Drastically cut down the load time of the intro scene. Cut down the bunker level load times. Fixed a bug with the level streaming that could cause the bunker level to not load, creating an endless "hang". Fixed a bug with Aptitude test preventing the checkpoint from activating after learning to spoof accounts.
