Chaos Chain

Salutations, dwellers...

Hey everyone, here is the next update for the game! I decided to release what I have ready to go and all properly tested today so that people can begin to use and enjoy it.

I HAVE TEMPORARILY DISABLED SOME OF THE NEW MAIN QUEST PARTS UNTIL I COMPLETE THE WORK ON IT AND HAVE TIME TO TEST IT.

The main new additions are the heat system, a new companion, further polish and improvements, QOL upgrades, and more which you can read about below:

https://steamcommunity.com/games/1536730/announcements/detail/3650767759914157914
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https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1536730/view/3682293591441448382

Check out the change log below for more info!

*Please note that these changes are not in any particular order.*

Update 1.6.8 Change Log:

Bug Fixes:

• Attacks that cause mettle damage will no longer play the same critical sound effect as attacks that cause health damage (They have been given their own unique sound for criticals)
  
• Fixed some typos
  
• Fixed some incorrect enemy stats
  
• Fixed some item price calculations
  
• Fixed Smoke Cover state ending sometimes after only 1 or 2 turns
  
• Fixed some title tracks being extremely loud
  
• Fixed some interior areas having camera scroll issues (The maps were too small, so I expanded them a bit to fix the issue, I simply added more black space around the actual map itself)
  
• Fixed item selling prices adding the current price adjustment instead of subtracting when the player is selling items
  
• Fixed Data Dealer achievement triggering even when the data you attempt to sell is completely worthless
  
• Fixed a bug where if you had acquisition popups toggled off, if you turned it back on, it would show the most recent changes to the stats all at once (They no longer queue, they just get ignored)
  
• Fixed Say My Name achievement not triggering if popups were disabled
  
• Fixed some item prices/stats that didn't match
  
• Fixed an old line of code that was outdated at this point, but caused the player character to be able to suffer from the Glitched status and even take interference damage, despite having no cyware
  

Changes & Additions:

• System hacking percentages can now be reduced to a minimum of 5% and raised a maximum of 95%
  
• Updated system hacking info screens
  
• Base amount of world modifiers based on difficulty increased by 1
  
• Added Heat to the game - new mechanic (Min: 0, Max: 10)
  
• Prices are now adjusted 2% higher per level of heat
  
• Added Heat level to the HUD
  
• Updated reputation record screen in the PDA to show Heat
  
• Updated reputation record screen in the PDA to show total and true rep (True rep is fame - infamy, total rep is fame + infamy)
  
• Updated the new day function to have a chance to remove 1 heat per game day (66% Base Chance - 1% / Heat Level - Extra 33% Chance if Heat Level = 10)
  
• Added Heat Penalty I (Protagonist: Target Rate +15%, +1% Action Point Regen) [Heat >= 3]
  
• Added Heat Penalty II (Protagonist: Stress Dmg Intake +30%, +10% Experience) [Heat >= 6]
  
• Added Heat Penalty III (Fixer Heat Reduction Cost +60%, Protagonist: +15 Initiative) [Heat >= 9]
  
• Added Inconspicuous talent (Lowers heat by 2 points max per game day instead of only 1)
  
• Updated tutorial with Heat explanation
  
• Renamed info brokers to fixers (More fitting for who/what they represent)
  
• Added possibility to pay to lower heat at a fixer (25 default cost, 40 is the higher cost if you have a very high heat level)
  
• Using violence against human enemies/characters will now raise heat by 1 point during combat (Except for hopeless souls, they are basically more like wild animals at this point anyway)
  
• The absolute value of your reputation score (+/-) will now be added to the price of sold items and deducted from the price to buy items as a percentage of 1 to 1 (You sell items for 1% more for each reputation point and buy items for 1% less for each reputation point - Neutral characters will not receive as large of a bonus directly from this - This IS intended, they can get larger rewards from quests given that their alignment is more flexible)
  
• Added "Backburner" world modifier (Start with 3 Heat, but also start with an extra 30 cred and 30 experience)
  
• Added "Fading Rep" world modifier (Start with 3 randomly distributed points of fame and infamy, but each game day there is a 10% chance to lose a point of either fame or infamy)
  
• Added "Desperate Times" world modifier (At the end of each round of combat, both the enemy team and your own squad will lose 1 Mettle)
  
• Added handling to prevent fame/infamy from dropping below 0
  
• Updated fixer dialogues
  
• Added some new Steam achievements
  
• Updated "Head in the Clouds" part 5 objective text and finished the work on this story section
  
• Added "Slow Descent" main story section
  
• Added "Slow Descent P2" main story section
  
• Added "Slow Descent P3" main story section (Temporarily where the main quest concludes at this time)
  
• Added some new plot related areas
  
• Added new dialogue for main plot related characters
  
• Added numerous new skill/stat checks and roleplay dialogue options
  
• Attacks that cause health damage now get an additional 0-3 points of mettle damage as well (Originally, the attack would deal 0.67% of the health damage as mettle damage to simulate morale, but I found that most of the time, it was minimal, this should help - Enemies have significantly less health and mettle values than the player, so it should translate to enemies retreating more often and so on)
  
• Updated some areas
  
• Added some new icon art
  
• Updated some current icon art
  
• Full auto attacks now have -20% chance to hit
  
• Spray full auto attacks now can hit 5 random targets instead of only 3, but have a -30% chance to hit, they also no longer lose damage
  
• Crowd shot attacks now have -30% to hit but do not lose damage
  
• Sidefire attacks now have -30% to hit but do not lose damage
  
• Burst fire attacks now have -15% to hit
  
• Double tap/Double shot attacks now have -15% to hit
  
• Snipe attacks now give +10% to hit, but lost an additional 20 initiative
  
• Suppressive fire attacks with machine guns now have -30% to hit but do not lose damage
  
• Default ordinance explosive attacks that attack all enemies now have -20% to hit (They can hit all enemies still)
  
• Added CQB status (Works similarly to damp status when it's raining outside, but this is added automatically when inside: all characters gain +40% guard rate so hunker down is more effective, but also take 20% increased explosive damage)
  
• Added Intrusion Chip cyware (Aux implant, allows system breaching without needing a hackpad)
  
• Added Opticams cyware [Inv: 1, Optics Imp., \C[26]CyWare\C[0], -10% Interference Res] (+5% Blinded Res, +10% Experience Rate, -1% Mettle Regen)
  
• Added Glitter Bomb [Inv: 2, Special] Single Use. (1-3 Mettle Damage, 43% Shock, -3% Evasion, -3% Critical Evasion, -3% Ranged Evasion - All Enemies, 5 Turns, +3 Initiative On Use)
  
• Added Glitter Bomb use animation
  
• Added Glittered status effect (Weaker but longer lasting form of painted target)
  
• Added Glittered status effect animation
  
• Added Throw Glitter Bomb enemy skill
  
• Shock Baton default attack skill now costs 0 ammo to use, but still needs the ammo equipped (Battery pack)
  
• "Real" food item consumables now heal 5% health with each use as they are "clean" sources of nutrition (Water, canned food, MREs, etc - Pretty much anything that is actually meant to be consumed for nourishment - This change does NOT affect prices)
  
• Balanced a few weapon stats (Very minor adjustments)
  
• Updated enemy skill lists
  
• Updated some enemy stats
  
• Updated some shops
  
• Updated container loot drop lists
  
• Updated enemy loot drop lists
  
• Drako now starts with a Brunetta Sentry pistol and 20 rounds of ammo instead of a switchblade
  
• Added new companion: Chronic (Contract Killer - He can be found in The Eclipse: Basement)
  
• Added Chronic's sprite and face graphics
  
• Added Edge: Cold Blooded (Chronic: "Whatever it takes, I get the job done." (+5% Trauma Resistance, +5% Bleeding Chance, +5% Stunned Chance, +5% Trauma Chance) [Edge])
  
• Added Flaw: Blind Rage (Chronic: "Everything goes black and something else takes over." (-5% Shock Res, -5% Confused Res, +10% Stress Dmg Intake) [Flaw])
  
• Added Background: Contract Killer (Chronic: (+1% Instant Kill Chance, +5% Critical Chance, +1% AP Regen, +5% Shock Chance) [Background])
  
• Recruiting companions will now potentially affect reputation (Very slightly) depending on their overall disposition and alignment (Not indicated directly in game, but you can get a good idea by talking to them)
  
• Reduced the font glow size slightly to make text appear sharper (Especially on larger monitors)
  
• Slightly changed the hue of the font glow to make it easier to see and to help with blur
  
• Updated some grenade stats
  
• Added some extra title music tracks to the list
  
• Replaced the old message when loading a save "Gained a Memory Chip" with the popup text method instead
  
• Increased vignette effect around the edges and the corners of the screen
  
• Slightly reduced overall fog intensity and increased vision range
  
• Mouse position is now set to the middle of the screen and just above the first menu option upon opening the main menu
  
• Reduced the line visibility in the fog of war slightly (When you passed by a light source, it was quite visible before and annoyed me constantly)
  
• Reduced the image size of the fog of war system so that the processor is not having to render as large of an image (Should help keep performance up)
  
• Fast traveling via the metro will now autosave once you reach your destination
  
• Updated some tooltips in the menus to reflect some of the changes, especially related to heat
  
• Updated reputation variable handling (Behind the scenes, writing this so I remember)
  
• Added a total reputation variable (Behind the scenes)
  
• Cleaned up some old code that was no longer required/found several better and more efficient ways of implementation
  
• Lots of other minor changes and tweaks to improve the overall quality of the game
  

Please let me know of any bugs or issues you may encounter so I can fix them. This update will be available shortly.

For more info on the game, visit the store page below!


A gentle reminder: if you're enjoying the game so far or have critiques you'd like to share, please consider leaving a review for me. This not only helps with much needed visibility, but also gives me important feedback for the game to help it become a better final product. Also, if you have questions, concerns, or requests, please visit the official Chaos Chain Steam Forums or join the official Discord Channel!

That's all for now, enjoy!

-Corrosion ːCStudiosː