Welcome to a new Death Trash update!
Quality improvements, bug fixes and an updated roadmap. And we continue to work on new content behind the scenes.
Update Notes
General Improvements
- leaving dialogue anytime inbetween needs a double press now instead of single press (to prevent accidental leaving); added a user setting to enable previous simple click handling
- updated InControl Controller Manager to not switch to devices with minimal movement on sticks (should fix devices with constant minor noise on sticks, e.g. joysticks, causing issues)
- co-op: share crafting knowledge
- reorganized settings menu
- reorganized some knowledge entries
- modding: enabled simple stats modding
- uncovering map: use look position instead of player position and therefore make free look mode uncover map, too
Content Fixes
- fixed Aksa using wrong dialogue when having quest item already when first meeting her
- The Tower: reworked some events and behaviors, fixing potential issues
- The Tower: fixed issue with logical puzzle
- The Tower: fixed a potential crash on using the terminal on last floor
- Mine 19: slight improvements to blind man quest scenario
- fixed a few potential crashes in tutorial area due to event handling
- small level design fixes in a few areas
General Bug Fixes And Changes
- fixed a crash from explosions near doors
- fixed dialogue actions opening wrong inventory tab
- fixed a few input situations that hindered scrolling through weapon lists
- fixed some weapon selection shortcuts overriding visuals of current player attack
- fixed some issues with the 'loot all' command on containers
- make player character look towards cursor when holding melee override key pressed
- fixed player character death potentially yielding experience points (and be shown as scene text)
- fixed NPC health getting reset even on game over
- fixed exporting game data for modding exporting modified values
- fixed portrait sprite in character creation wandering off on some input combination
- fixed a few UI issues in settings menu
- co-op: fixed no tooltips being shown when on character creation screen
- co-op: fixed second player not getting armor item in tutorial hub
- minor text fixes
- updated Early Access disclaimer text
- updated some debug console commands
- additional internal framework improvements
Bonus: Experimental modding tools
With this version we've enabled simple stats modding. As in: changing values on enemies or items, for example.
We don't encourage using it for public mods yet as it's still early and might undergo changes. At this point we would also like to avoid getting feedback on the base game from players that have altered their game experience with mods.
At this early stage however it might be useful already to get some feedback: Is it working like intended? Is the documentation helpful? If you're an experienced modder: Regarding the setup and file structure, does this make sense? Or should we rather push in a different direction?
More infos over here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/941460/discussions/0/3378284761888538301/
Thoughts
After this update we'll change from our monthly update schedule to a new update rhythm: Frequent minor improvement updates followed by a bigger content update, but no fixed dates.
The idea of the monthly updates had been to push content creation forward and to better communicate the progress on the game. Turned out though that a two-person team facing this complex game meant that there was still a lot of quality work and bug fixing needed, to the detriment of content creation, which made some monthly updates probably feel lighter than they should. (Especially when unforeseen away-from-keyboard time came on top like this month: https://twitter.com/talecrafter/status/1571777085248520193 )
And regarding communication: impersonal month names weren't a much better tool than numbers.
So, here's the new rhythm: We'll mostly continue with development as is. (We might increase the team size.) We'll update the game more often again on the public branch. And eventually we'll follow with a bigger, named update that's really about new content.
I hope this makes sense.
Roadmap
This is our work in progress roadmap. No fixed dates.
0.8.8 - The Perished City
- new locations and quests
0.8.9 - Northern Wasteland
- new locations and quests
0.8.10 - The Machine
- new locations and quests
0.8.11 - The Watcher
- final locations and quests
0.??? - Inbetween those updates
- updated skills and stats usage
- improving combat
- adding more NPCs and quests to existing locations
- improving existing dialogue
- updated active abilities
- adding Steam Input
0.9 - Last Quality Check
- bug fixing and polishing
1.0 - Official Release
1.1 etc. - Post-release support
- bug-fixes and other improvements
Optional goals, not sure when, or even if:
??? - Modding: Level Editor
??? - Improved gameplay for mind items
Feedback
As always, we appreciate any feedback on the ongoing changes we make to the game. Best way to give feedback is through the F1 in-game tool as it adds a bit of game context to every feedback item sent.
There's a convenient shortcut if you just want to take a quick look at different things without affecting any existing savegames: Open the in-game console with Shift+F10 and enter Playtest to get a list of jump points to the existing content.
We have a beta branch where we update the game a few times before we push that update to the main branch. More infos over here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/941460/discussions/0/3427823001996731965/
Thank you for your continued interest in Death Trash.
Have a nice week!
- Stephan