Beta 12 X1 Prelease - Encrypted Comms

Aw yeah, smooth sailing this week while working on the new Garrison events--no unpleasant surprises, so I've finished the first Beta 12 prerelease a little earlier than predicted in my previous announcement. Sure took longer than expected overall (sheesh a little side project I let you all vote in ended up being not so little at all xD), but I think the results are pretty good so far and will add a lot to the game.

As you probably know by know, the vast majority of this particular release is of course centered around Garrisons.

So not only are they a good bit more varied than they used to be, behaving more like branch maps, I also took the opportunity to do some other related work including a new RIF ability, new bothacks, and various coupler adjustments, with the final results no doubt impacting both RIF builds and even non-RIF builds, who may now have one or more reasons to try out Garrisons (even more than one in the same run???). Maybe, anyway. We'll have to see how everything balances out, because the balance is certainly different from before, and not playtested yet, really using this opportunity to throw a lot of new stuff together and see if and where it might need tweaked. So feel free to explore some Garrisons and fool around!

One of the big things I wanted to adjust with Garrisons was the clock, which could be completely negated via RIF and I didn't really want that anymore given how the game and mechanics have expanded over the years. In the end I stuck with the original approach of ambient alert increases (even with RIF, although RIF builds of course may have some alert mitigation available to them), but the gain is much more lenient at the start then gradually increases in intensity over the long term. A lot of wilder new alternatives were considered, including some discussed on Discord, but I decided to go with simple and straightforward in this case.

As usual there are also some big things I'm not talking about here. You'll figure it out ;)

Get in there and do your worst...

Changelog

• NEW: 4 new items (including new mechanics)
• NEW: 3 new derelict combat bot variants (new class)
• NEW: 3 new Terminal hacks
• NEW: 1 new unauthorized Terminal hack
• NEW: 1 new RIF ability
• NEW: 1 new Relay Coupler type
• NEW: 2 new robot hacks: emergency_deploy, formatsys_deep
• NEW: 1 new ambient machine track
• NEW: Multiple lore entries related to new content
• NEW: Garrisons redesigned with new map generation algorithm including encounters and events
• NEW: Major new way to use Garrisons to interact with a particular faction (new mechanics and effects across multiple maps)
• NEW: Derelict Wizard class includes terminal hacking AI behavior under certain circumstances
• NEW: Tearclaw descriptions indicate they ignore armor
• NEW: 0b10 Mechanics assigned to Repair Stations eventually resupply with backup parts from a station if available
• MOD: RIF Installers placed randomly instead of always near Garrison exit/entrance
• MOD: Having RIF installed no longer immune to "Garrison interior compromised" alert
• MOD: Alert increases from Garrison interior compromised effect slower to kick in, but rate increases over long term
• MOD: purge_threat cost decreased (15->10), has diminishing effect with each successive use on a single map
• MOD: Removed Relay Coupler [ARC]
• MOD: Relay Coupler [Specialist] more common
• MOD: Relay Coupler and Authchip descriptions listing multiple robot classes now order them alphabetically
• MOD: Removed one potential Shearcannon source
• MOD: Non-Cogmind-controlled Mechanics capable of carrying out full range of repairs, including allied robot cores and part integrity
• MOD: Non-Cogmind-controlled Mechanics can no longer engage in repairs if self or target in combat, as with Cogmind-controlled Mechanics
• MOD: Mass info no longer listed for unidentified items
• MOD: All VSS Leg coverage reduced (60->50)
• MOD: GOLEM parts and installation of backup parts do not trigger Lightpack effect
• MOD: [Player 2 mode] Player 2 ignores Fusion Compressors
• FIX: Prefabs might create door into adjacent room, which could later be blocked by a different prefab-placed machine [gammafunk]
• FIX: Typos [Eltons Kuns]
• FIX: New Control(Release) special hack missing from scoresheet records affected recording of some other extended-game spoiler hacks
• FIX: Relay Coupler [NC] description missing Minesweepers from list of applicable targets
• FIX: DSF deliveries could stack a cache on top of existing items

Oh yeah that removal of mass value from unidentified items might be a big one for some people. That or some similar approach has been discussed as a possibility for literal years now, so it's finally time to do an experiment and just outright remove it to see how that plays. I think it could be overall better since it doesn't rely on so much meta knowledge (or outright looking things up) to help distinguish what unknown items might be amidst the hundreds of possibilities :P

Non-Cogmind-controlled Mechanics repairing parts is another big one. Turns out I intentionally had derelict Surgeons only capable of fitting backup parts, but I now think it's okay for them to get access to full repair capabilities, which can be really nice considering where they might appear. Now that they're more useful, I've also increased the number of situations where they'll show up.

Get Beta 12 X1

On Steam, Beta 12 X1 is located on the new beta branch "beta_12_x1" accessible with the code "GarrisonThis", or if you don't have Steam and bought through FastSpring and would like to try the DRM-free version, send me an email at gridsagegames@gmail.com to be added to the Beta 12 cycle notification list. (This is a new list being created from scratch since Beta 11 development ended.)

Saves are not compatible with previous releases.

There's always the chance of another one or two small updates in the near term (for example if something goes wrong), which will be otherwise unannounced except to append a notice to this announcement on Patreon, and via an announcement on the #patron Discord channel. It's not uncommon due to the experimental nature of these releases, and if saves are compatible then the same branch is simply updated, otherwise a new branch is created and announced here.

Quick Update (220630a): Yup, already got our first update later in the same day, with compatible saves and a particularly important balance improvement...

• NEW: RIF enables pinging of nearby RIF Installer locations
• NEW: Pinging a new special machine location via RIF or other capabilities automatically blocks movement for a moment

In order to keep saves compatible, with this particular version if you load a game that was saved inside a garrison and haven't discovered any RIF Installers even though you have RIF, they won't actually ping on that visit. Also there's no message in the log when you ping an installer, but there will be in the next save-breaking version.

220701a!

Also save compatible, this one adds another useful new feature to help balance out Garrisons:

• NEW: Most Garrisons include an openly available Terminal with a listed Access(Emergency) hack
• NEW: Access(Emergency) hack has expanded effect inside Garrisons

220703a:

Last couple of patches were aimed at some balance improvements, and now that a few people have had a chance to actually play, time for a few fixes!

• FIX: New Access(Emergency) Terminal inside Garrisons may only have an inaccessible hack
• FIX: Taking one of the new special looping exits from a Garrison resulted in visiting an identical earlier map
• FIX: Some Infiltrator issues

220705a:

Super important fix in this one! Turns out after all that testing I did on one of the new parts ("ECA"), it all worked as intended but then I went back at the end to update a piece of code and left an errant '!' in there which broke the entire effect xD. So while it was possible to acquire this new tech, it didn't actually do anything. (Saves are once again compatible with this patch, although even if you happen to already have ECA in your save game, due to the bug effect it won't start to do anything immediately, and may not for the rest of that run depending on what you're up to.)

Directly confronting Heavies has also been adjusted to be a tiny bit easier, since while they still call for reinforcements when under attack, they won't also still sometimes call extra reinforcements due to their sensor coverage!

• MOD: Heavies no longer call sensor-based reinforcements while aware of Cogmind's precise position
• FIX: Map generation changes to accommodate Garrison encounter room placement caused rooms in other branches to have blocked doors under some circumstances
• FIX: ECA effect was not working :(

220706a:

Definitely breaking patch count records here! Once again save compatible, this time addressing a couple of somewhat important issues and adding a request from earlier today on Discord...

• NEW: ECA acquisition dialogue also gives base depth
• FIX: Potential crash on being traced at a Garrison terminal under certain circumstances
• FIX: Surgeon members of a particular new squad type were not capable of repairing anything

220708a:

Extending that record... and saves are still compatible all the way back to original X1! In order to keep it that way, new ECA dialogue added for this particular patch was just tacked onto existing dialogue, rather than giving it it's own place in the sequence, which it'll have later once I break compatibility. Probably the best reason to release this one in a timely manner is to resolve a potential crash in the map generator due to adjustments I made to enable improved Garrison layouts. Not super common, but can happen in any map where there are encounters at the edge, especially Storage. Thanks to those providing quick feedback and especially the data required to quickly address bugs!

• NEW: Compromising garrison interiors can eventually cause 1~2 extra patrols in later garrisons
• NEW: Extra dialogue line related to ECA mechanics
• FIX: Map generation crash related to changes supporting new Garrison content, more likely to occur in Storage
• FIX: Particular broken NPC might be given a line of dialogue in a certain extended game scenario (spoilers) [aoemica]

220716a:

Just about finished up with my big article on Garrisons 2.0, but have been sitting on this X1 patch for some days thinking it wasn't really urgent, yet just now a player already hit this crash for the second time, so yeah let's get it out there :P (saves still compatible)

• FIX: Crash during certain Garrison scenario under specific circumstances at a depth of -8 or -1
• FIX: Attached broken multislot parts fixed by a Recalibrator did not update their "Broken" prefix for additional slots automatically
• FIX: One new part with new mechanics was completely unavailable
• FIX: Refactored code issue in Beta 12 could cause unintended behavior during extended game encounter under certain conditions
• FIX: ECA was using Processor tile instead of Device

(Bonus from getting it out there:  It's now actually possible to obtain the new part that was missing!)