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Post by mase on Feb 24, 2020 10:44:26 GMT
Just wanted to mention that I've started working on the tutorial and on early missions.
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Post by three3pryme on Feb 27, 2020 17:50:29 GMT
Cool! I Hate to sound like I'm impatient, but when can we expect the next beta to come out? Were you thinking untill thug wars was finished, or the missions, or both??
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Post by mase on Feb 27, 2020 20:57:43 GMT
Trust me I'm working as hard as I can, it's just that the increasing complexity of the game and the massive changes we made so far took quite a lot of time to implement. It's a very good sign though that I've started working on missions, since this is usually something that's done at a later stage (when the underlying game engine is mostly complete). Thug Wars and missions initially go hand in hand (i.e. part of early missions is to introduce the player to Thug Wars controls). I will try my best to get a beta out ASAP, but that will probably not be before the end of next month. From time to time I'm facing issues that I didn't anticipate, which force me re-implement certain parts of the game engine. But I think the worst part is almost over.
Some good news: you can take your gang members with you everywhere (in any vehicle, including airplanes), which should open up many new possibilities in mission design and even in the Open World aspect of the game.
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Post by three3pryme on Feb 28, 2020 21:10:18 GMT
I'll very gladly wait as long as we need to for another beta to come out. I wasnt trying to say it in a demanding tone or anything negative like that. I was just wondering if there were plans for the next beta, but yeah take all the time you need untill you feel like it's ready, even if it will take a while. I'm glad you are taking the time to implement new ideas to expand the gameplay a lot more, and I understand it can be very time consuming and stressful.
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Post by mase on Feb 29, 2020 8:33:23 GMT
I'll very gladly wait as long as we need to for another beta to come out. I wasnt trying to say it in a demanding tone or anything negative like that. I was just wondering if there were plans for the next beta, but yeah take all the time you need untill you feel like it's ready, even if it will take a while. I'm glad you are taking the time to implement new ideas to expand the gameplay a lot more, and I understand it can be very time consuming and stressful. Thanks for understanding and don't worry, I never felt like you used a demanding tone or anything like that, just wanted to let you know that I'm doing everything I can and hopefully we'll have a beta to test soon.
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Post by mase on Mar 5, 2020 21:39:16 GMT
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Post by mase on Mar 5, 2020 22:50:57 GMT
Also wanted to mention that I've been making lots of good progress in general and it looks like I might just be able to release a beta by the end of this month (fingers crossed). It will not be the complete game of course, only a few missions that tie into Thug Wars and gangs. Once that's tested and working we can finally focus on the remaining missions and side quests. Thug Wars alone is HUGE! There are 19 cities and in total 4700+ houses that can be captured.
Like I mentioned, the difficulty of a faction increases (i.e. starts using more advanced weapons, cars and armor) as it loses more and more territories. You can weaken an enemy city before conquest by capturing enemy controlled houses first.
You can also add up to 20 gang members per city that will assist you during combat. They will follow you to another city if you want and if you have a vehicle capable of carrying that many passengers. Gang members from different cities can be combined, however you only get to command 20 gang members at any given time, so you can't combine 200 members from 10 different cities. Every additional gang member per city is more expensive to unlock ($10000, $20000, $30000, ... , $200000) and you need to upgrade your charisma skill as well to increase the max number of followers. You can assign weapons to each member individually, but only if you have reached the required offensive level for the desired weapon. When a member dies or you leave them behind and distance yourself, you can retrieve them from their home base at no extra cost. They can also be healed at any hospital.
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Post by three3pryme on Mar 6, 2020 23:20:04 GMT
Great to hear! One question though. Could you potentially add a sub menu with a description of what each skill exactly does, and/or what increasing it does? (Kinda like clicking an enemy ship on the space borders map how it has a description).
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Post by mase on Mar 7, 2020 8:46:15 GMT
Already there (that's why they appear yellow in color).
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Post by mase on Mar 30, 2020 14:59:53 GMT
Time for an update! Sorry it's been so long, but at least there's some good news. Progress has been very good, in fact, I was able to accomplish more than I had anticipated. In theory I could roll out a new beta, but would rather do a little more testing and tweaking first. Here is a brief overview of recent progress: - Thug Wars Engine: Complete and includes City Attack & Defense, Faction management AI (attack decisions, faction strength etc.) - Missions: 6 missions so far and small sub-tasks between missions (some improved versions of old missions, others completely new) - General AI: Smarter target selection, improved unit grouping, improved combat maneuvers - Simplified Jobs: Some jobs like Taxi Driving are now no longer "Jobs". With Taxi Driving for example, you now simply enter the taxi and enable taxi mode, do as many rides as you like and stop when you've had enough. - Graphics: Cleaner graphics, new animations and effects, some reductions for better performance - Save Games: Less restrictions on saving a game, save games now include nearby vehicles and also save gang members that are currently following your character - Under the Hood: Massive improvements to game engine to accommodate recent changes in complexity, Game Center used for saving games. What's still missing: - 4 more missions - Faction specific quests - A couple more Open World Jobs like Taxi Driving - Conversion of a few old jobs to work with the new engine - Some unfinished weapons - Purchasable Power Ups - Minor tweaks and improvements How much longer? Depends on whether I'll release a beta before completing everything listed above or not. I would say anywhere between a few days and a month. Sorry I can't be very specific, but sometimes totally unexpected issues can arise (with the development or of personal nature).
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Post by three3pryme on Apr 3, 2020 21:32:04 GMT
Great! It sounds like you have made significant progress with the game! I am excited for the next beta! Do you have any cool unique screenshots/videos to accompany this progress?
Quick question though. It looks like there will be 10 missions, and excluding Jobs, 'small subtasks between missions' and thug wars, are there any other side-missions available that may or may not tie into the 10 main story missions?
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Post by mase on Apr 4, 2020 17:35:16 GMT
Great! It sounds like you have made significant progress with the game! I am excited for the next beta! Do you have any cool unique screenshots/videos to accompany this progress? Quick question though. It looks like there will be 10 missions, and excluding Jobs, 'small subtasks between missions' and thug wars, are there any other side-missions available that may or may not tie into the 10 main story missions? 1 - I've uploaded a few videos highlighting a few features, nothing special though. Just check out the video folder. 2 - Well there's going to be several Open World features that are going to be unlocked as you progress. One of them is "Zombie Cemetery" and "Zombie Infestation". Zombie Cemetery is a way to farm some extra cash, skill points and improve your reputation with the police. Zombie Infestation takes place when you do too much damage to zombies and they retaliate by occupying one of your cities, which disables many of its facilities and prevents the generation of additional protection money from houses (aka taxes). It also creates a lot of public chaos. You will have to kill all zombies in that city to revert it to its normal state.
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Post by mase on Apr 4, 2020 17:36:40 GMT
A few zombies attacking police cars during "Zombie Infestation".
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