itch.io

Medium-sized patch:

• Asking Billy for seed bench will no longer give you alchemy bench
• Replaced all overworld combat music
• Added keyboard shortcuts, that work from the main screen and menu screen. Red letters in the menu are the keys corresponding to individual screens
• Main character font now changes depending on the faction you joined
• Made weapon text in combat smaller to fit longer weapon names

Thanks for reporting these.

Alchemy bench instead of a ordinary bench was a bug. Fixed it.

Basic rock bench allows you to make potato seeds, but nothing else. Once you upgrade it, you can't make any seeds on it. This is intentional, but not ideal. I wanted to add a way to switch between different workbench levels while crafting, but never got to it.

Friends ending requires you to get 2+ friends. The game doesn't make this clear, since the endings are placeholders right now. This will change in the future. Friends in construction menu will lower the time required for constructing something. The more friends you have, the faster will you finish building.

Having your own surname is relatively new feature and it is quite possible i forgot about some instance where the old surname is still used. If you could tell me more about it, like the NPC, location or cutscene, I would apreciate it.

Again, thanks for reporting these. I will probably release new version in a week.

First of all, I want to thank all who participated in the poll. If you still didn't vote, you can do so here:

https://forms.gle/iLGyzUmmtQP9As1X9

It is completely anonymous and it will help me progress with updates the way you want.

Voting will end 1st of February, so keep that in mind.

As for the sneak peek, I decided to make life for keyboard users (most likely the 99% of you) slightly easier by speeding up menu navigation. Can you guess how?

There are countless different models, loras, settings and whatnot. It's just a matter of trying some of them out and finding a combination that works the best. There will always be people that are againts AI no matter what. Personaly, I don't mind it as long as the person using it bothers to do atleast some basic cleaning up. Seeing pictures with mangled fingers, text and other details makes me genuinely upset, because the person using the AI just generated three pictures, picked the best one and called it a day. People that do this can't be called artists or developers, since they did pretty much nothing and left all the work in the hands of the computer.

My workflow will be something like this: Make basic 3D model of the character and outfit, pose it. Run it through AI. Fix the issues like fingers and some clothing details and paint in some missing details. Adjust contrast, color balance, add subtle outline. That's already more work than what I did on the character sprites in the past.

As for clothing, mutations, weapons and so on, I did some testing and it shouldn't be a problem. Weapons are separate images displayed behind the character, so no issues there. Clothing will require some editing, but nothing major. Mutations will cause some minor issues, but nothing I couldn't handle.

Yeah. My tries are quite comparable to the left hat. I tried substance painter in tha past, but that was almost a decade ago I might give it another go in the future.

That's one of the problems I have. The model is quite old and also quite bad. The topology, proportions and rigging has to remain a secret, because it could actualy kill the person who might see it.

The biggest problem is my ability to make textures, or the lack of it. While objects like furniture are fine, clothing and skin ended up in a failure all the times, so all the detail you see on the model is actually sculpted and I have a pretty insane setup to make it all work.

I don't mind it that much though. I find enjoyment in navigating all those keyframes, shape keys and mask layers to get it all to work. You can only get so far without learning to make your own textures, which is something I struggle with and will probably never trully get. 

I actualy found an old image where I was testing different shading, and I like some of them. The naked body looks fine, but clothing ends up looking like plastic. and that is not going to change without me actualy putting some textures on it. That's what the AI would actually help me with the most. I have no problem with modeling even the slightest of details, but texturing it is completely different matter for me.

My goal is to get something that looks simple, but slightly more detailed than the default sprite. I don't the look most AI images have. Way to sophisticated shading is my problem I guess. The images I posed are close to what I want, but still not quite there.

What I really like is the fact that thanks to the 3D model I made, I have 100% control over poses, clothes, expressions and, with enough tinkering, even the shading.

Funnily enough, using AI for those sprites will actualy make my work harder. I will still have to touch up every image I generate and I will have to generate multiples to pick the best one.

However, the shading and detailing is something I'm not capable of doing in pure 3D and 2D is something I really struggle with. I still want the sprites to look relatively simple and "amateurish", but not as amateurish as they are now.

Small patch:

• Fixed crash when you trained with Suong after certain amount of time.

Found the issue. You can bypass this error by NOT doing any scheduled activities with Suong. I will release a patch later today.

I did some quick testing on multiple enemies with your latest save.

Killing enemy with single hit always regenerated you. Hitting enemies also regenerated you, no matter how little damage you did.

Only time when you didn't regenerate any health were when I changed your STR to negative value, which is understandable, since this is not supposed to happen under any circumstance and you would notice something else being wrong, since enemies would stop dying if that happened in your playthrough.

The other instance when you stopped regenerating were glancing hits.

These hits don't count as normal damage, so they don't trigger any regeneration and I don't think they even count towards your XP limit.

It is also possible that there is some enemy with broken elemental resistances and you keep "healing" him with ordinary attacks, in which case you will not regenerate anything. 

If you notice a specific enemy that doesn't let you regenerate, please tell me.

Go to the location with the bridge guard. There should be a new cave just north of him. There you can find all features you unlocked.

This is where I put some of the frequently asked questions. I will be adding to this thread over time.

I finished the game, I don't see any of those things I unlocked.

Go to the location with the bridge guard. There should be a new cave just north of him where you can find all features you unlocked.

How can I update my older game version? Will my save files work?

You can overwrite old files with new ones and your game will work. Some versions will break compatibility with older saves, but you will be warned beforehand. Your unlocks will never stop being compatible with new versions though.

Why are there so many spelling mistakes?

English is not my first language, so these things will keep happening. I manage to catch most of these and the community reports most of them, so there is going to be less and less of these in the future. You can expect new content to be rough though.

Why are controls so inconsistent? Why is there almost no control explanation?

One of the problems with a game with such a long development cycle. Some systems are very old and at the time, I had no idea what I was doing. Newer systems are better at explaining controls this will also improve for the older systems as I get to them.

The endings are really bad. What's up with that?

Endings currently in the game are placeholders, non canon and very overdue for overhaul. They pretty much serve only one purpose right now and that is to unlock new cheats and outfits. However, the game is not finished yet so any work done on endings would be pointless, since I will have to redo all of them again at some point.

I found a bug that crashes my game. What should I do?

Report it on the forum as soon as you can. I try to fix serious bugs that crash the game as soon as possible, usualy right after reading the bug report. Less severe bugs will get fixed when I have more free time.

Can you add some sort of transmog system into the game?

There already is one. Once you beat the game, you unlock the ability to change the graphics of your current outfit or change your age. You unlock more options every time you beat the game with new ending.

The game is really unbalanced. Some items or jobs are really useless.

That is an issue I'm aware of. I do minor balance passes from time to time, but don't expect the game to be fully balanced untill it is close to release.

The map is too small and the game is too short.

The game is about 1/5 finished, with only one map area out of five. The finished game will end after 8 years, but I lowered this number to one year, since there is simply not enough stuff to do for all those years. I will raise this limit incrementaly as the game gets bigger and the story develops.

How do I run?

Press "W" on your keyboard. Your starting sprint speed is barely faster than your default walk speed, but it will increase as you level your AGI stat, or use certain potions.

Can I support you? Do you have a patreon?

I want this game to be 100% free, so I accept no monetary donations whatsoever. The best ways to support me, or the game are:

1. Play the game, report bugs, suggest changes and features
2. Recommend the game to other people that you think might enjoy it.

I will be updating this thread over time. You can always check this thread if your question was already asked and answered. Or you can ask it your self. https://itch.io/t/3449222/questions-gameplay

Quick update on the regeneration bug. I couldn't replicate it. I attacked a scavenger with a knife, dealt 2 damage (non-glancing hit) and regenerated 1 HP. I hit him with dragunov rifle, killing him in one hit and regenerating some HP. I raised his HP to 3000 and kept hitting him with different weapons for different values and I always regenerated. I put some NPCs into my party, tried again and everything worked as it should. 

Only time I didn't regenerate any HP was when I did a glancing hit. This counts as a miss so it doesn't regenerate any HP. 

If you have any more information I could use, please post them . You ichor levels, perk screen, stats and weapons. Or you can just send me the save file that did this.

If you encounter any issues, you can report them here. I will try to fix them and publish them in the new version I plant to release tomorrow.

Walter went on Sinathir for a vacation. He will leave in a few days and Tadeas will be happy.

Thanks for reporting these. I won't fix most of these for the next update, since I will be releasing it tomorrow (If everything goes well), but I will get to these after christmass. 

The final dungeon is unfinished and very rough. That's why it uses random encounters and switches artstyle half way through, together with all the other issues.

Putting new version files over the old ones should work fine. There might be some slight issues, but nothing major. I'd still recommend starting new game as soon as possible. I take extra care to make sure all unlocks from previous playthroughs stay compatible with new versions.

We will see. I plan to release this new version about a week before christmass.

Fixed all those issues. I will relase a patch sometime later, since these are not really game breaking bugs. 

By the way, keep up the good work reporting these. Without people like you, this game would be even bigger mess.

i'd like every NPC to have some kind of utility out of combat. It's just a matter of thinking of something and adding it. What I will proabably do first will be NPCs in your party raising your crafting limit depending on their trade. Then I will most likely do what you said. Tadeas plant knowledge, Olaf minerals and so on.

Ofcourse, I can tweak the numbers on the recipes and items. Getting more cheese from single milk sounds like the easiest option that also makes more sence.

Equiping characters is to a degree already in the game, but not in a traditional sence.

You can get a quest from Billy to get him a new shotgun.  Finish the quest and he will start using it instead of the blunderbuss. 

I plan to do this for the rest of the cast too. I want you to be able to specialise them even further. For example, Helena:

You will be able to make her focus on supporting magic or damaging magic. You will have a choice between high armor, low damaging weapons and low armor and high damaging weapons.

I don't want NPCs to equipable in a same way as you can equip your main character, but I want to add some NPCs that will be easier to equip and improve, like the golem companion I'm working on.

Couln't find a way to make this change into small patch, so I released new version with some additional changes instead. Your old save files should work now. Tell me if something else breaks.

By the way, don't know if this is a bug or if it is real but damn. I think that's a record.

Small patch:

• Changed construction projects to require 0 friends. Number of friends instead halve the time necessary to finish construction (Friends gained after you started construction project will not count)
• Added exception handling for time related save file corruption
• Added a way for me to release smaller patches in the future

It's some kind of time related error. The game couldn't get your current windows time and date and just gave up.

I have no idea what could have caused it. Could be the game hitching crashing when you saved it, maybe you changed your timezone from previous save time,.. No idea.

That said, this is just an exception that should have no bearing on the integrity of your save file. I made a workaround that will show and "ERROR" text instead of the save date. Saving and and loading should work. Right now, I'm trying to think of a way to release this fix as a patch and not as a entirely new game upload.

You are right that the combat feels off and "old school" in a sence where enemies just chase you and they initiate combat sequence when they touch you. 

Being able to press a button and shoot to initiate combat from affar would look nice, but would pose a lot of chalenges to get it right. 

• Enemies on the map that are in groups would need to be adjusted so the game damages the correct one once the battle starts.
• Maps would have to be edited to make projectiles pass through low and high obstacles properly
• Hit and run tactics or cheesing enemies with obstacles would have to be acounted for
• New scripts for handling enemies dying when you kill them with single shot on the map screen. Loot, experience and other stuff
• Behavior for shooting friendly NPCs would also have to be acounted for, since NPCs ignoring you shooting them is not something I want to have.
• Shooting in friendly crowded locations would have to be acounted for.

And these are just things I came up with on the spot. Sure, solution to most of these can be quite simple if you compromise, but I want to come up with creative solutions to simple problems like these if possible.

I'm experimenting with top down grid combat system that I found somewhere on the internet, which would solve this entire problem, but I have no idea when that's going to get implemented, if at all..

That's deffinitely going to happen. There will be more hideout stations and cheese making stations will be some of them. Just like there will be ways to make your own beer, vodka or cigaretes. 

As for the oven, that is going to happen too. First, you will get a wood stove which you will later upgrade to electrical one.

The game asks you to join a faction later on, but you don't even know what these factions are about. 

I will be adding several cutscenes showing you some interaction with these two main factions, and some dialogue options so you can ask other NPCs about them.

Noticeboard quests give you 2 renown each. NPC skill events give you 1 renown each. Normal quests should also give you some renown. I think there are other ways too, but renown is pretty hard to get in general.

I did a quick check and you need high science skill (Which you have), and more than 150 renown.

If I remember correctly, you need  certain skill level AND you need that skill to be higher than other skills to get that ending.. 50 should be enough, but you will also need it be your highest skill.

Pretty much. Every major faction choice, except for Suong, will result in you turning into killing machine to some degree. Russians and Germans will make you part of their expeditionary forces and white will train you and give you chemicals and artifacts to make you stronger. Only Suong wants you to stay normal.

My memory is a bit hazy on that one, but the only way to fix that is getting the scientist or assassin endings.

If I remember correctly, it should give you 50 food when you use it. It should be usable repeatedly, or once every week.

That is still partialy intentional. I still want the player to be able to get way too strong at way too young age even after I fully balance the game. I just want it to be much harder to do and I want it require a lot of game knowledge. Getting so strong so quickly without even really trying is ofcourse not intentional.

True, but I like to think that's one of the things that make this game unique.

You start as an absolute looser and you can't kill anything. Not even the basic scavenger (Unless you pick some combat related traits). And with hard work and training, you can become one of the strongest beings on the island. Most RPGs usualy start you at already somewhat decent power level, or they have level scaling and you stay pretty much at the same strength level through out the entire game. That's why I like gothic so much and why I want this game to have similiar feel in progression.

I don't think there is. Larger ammo is supposed to be rare, but you can find it in some dungeons and Mr. White should sell you pretty much unlimited amount every week.

The game isn't finished yet, so there are not that many consequences for being a mutant. Right now, some NPCs will refuse to talk to you and mutant hunters will come after you. 

In future versions, playing as a mutant will be quite harder. Not only will more people attack you or refuse to talk with you, but there will be some health related issues you will have to deal with.

Right now though, you can enjoy those traits as free points, if you know what you are doing and get the church robes early.

Definitely. The game is rougly balanced around your character getting 2 HP/SP a week and one stat point per week. Having as much as you have should be enough to solo almost anything, as long as you have good enough equipment. (Mr. White sells the best stuff in the game right now.)

That's pretty much the end of the game for now and the end of the first chapter. The rest of the game is just not finished yet. I will most likely do some content for the Russian and German side of the story first and then focus on Suong and White.

Partialy. Both Helena and George are not balanced properly yet, but Helene is supposed to be damage dealer and George is supposed to be a tank. I will be adding seperate classes and class advancements to them in the future, so you can customize them to some degree, but their current stats are definitely not final.