New Build Update – Test Branch

Hello again Hackers. After what feels like forever with my nose to the grindstone, I'm back with another MAJOR update. However, this update is going to be living in the testbranch for a little while. After what I'm sure will be a flurry of bugfixes, balance changes, tweaks and adjustments, this new build will be moved to the main branch and become the default game version. I don't foresee this being much longer than a week, unless this update is a real trainwreck.

However, I think the update launch will be relatively smooth. My girlfriend has been playtesting for me as I chugged along, which has helped catch a lot of bugs and oversights early on. She's had a lot of helpful feedback, saying things like “The game seems really fun, but it's too much reading for me”, “Uh oh, I broke it and I don't know how”, “I miss the old Passbreaker mini-game”, and “There I played your stupid game, now go wash the dishes.”

I have been working on game development fulltime since last summer, and I finally have the new build to a place where I'm comfortable releasing it for public consumption. I really wanted to release a larger, more substantial update, because smaller, more frequent updates tend to keep me in support-mode, and forward progress seems to stall.

I want to thank everyone for their patience, and apologize for my silence. Communication is not one of my strengths. I rarely even use social media except for cat videos and my D&D groupchat (well it's Starfinder these days). Once I hit the big time, I think the first employee I hire will have to be a someone to handle all the talking-to-people for me.

For those of you who have already tried the new build in the test branch, this update is going to have significant changes and improvement.

If you haven't joined the testbranch and would like to take this latest version for a spin, simply right-click on System.Hack in your library and left-click on Properties. Click on the BETAS heading in the pop-up window and select 'testbranch' from the dropdown window.

Change Log

• Increased number of contract types from 1 to 13. There are now several contracts that have multiple steps or require legwork to figure out contract info. The most complex types of contracts will be added in a future update.
  
• Redesigned and rebuilt the contract generator. There is still some tweaks and upgrades I wish to do, especially with Title and Description generation for added variety, but it's functional.
  
• Increased number of IC types from 1 to 4. There's now 1 Barrier IC, 1 Gate IC, 1 Sentry IC, and 1 Killer IC. More IC varieties, and Black IC will come out in a future update.
  
• Increased the number of system types from 3 to 16. These run all the way from simple Datastores, all the way up to Corporate HQ systems. There are a few more system types to be added in a future update, but this will be the bulk of them. Unfortunately, all the the systems use the same basic node styles, but a greater variation, including more complex nodes, will come out in a future update.
  
• Increased the number of Subroutines from 5 to 33. Barring special subroutines, this will be all the subroutines you will find in the final game.
  
• Added a simple character creation. You can now choose between a masculine and femanine model for the 'real world', one of three different avatars for cyberspace, your real world name, your cyberspace handle, and one of four starting perks.
  
• Added a new starting safe house; a coffin room at the local Raven Motel. It has low rent, poor bandwidth, and not benefits.
  
• Updated the large safehouse, which can now be rented for an upfront fee and a much higher daily cost. This safehouse passively generates motivation and dopamine, while hiving high bandwidth.
  
• Add the hardware vendor to the city where you will now buy all of your hardware from (no longer from the hardware UI directly).
  
• You can now acquire Mods which will increase the funtionality of your cyberdeck.
  
• Added sound effects and music to the game.
  
• Added Graphics and Audio options to the game. Key rebinding will be added in a future update.
  
• Added a small 'getting started' story arc, including a splash screen with some backstory, and a few tasks. I plan on replacing the splash screen with another intro cut scene in a future update.
  
• Wrote more tutorials and added the 'Knowledge Base' back to the pause menu, where the tutorials can be reviewed. I'm sure there are a ton of items I forgot to address in the tutorials, and look forward to some feedback so I can round them out.
  
• Added 3 Perks (other than the 4 starting perks you can choose during character creation). At least 10 more will be added in future updates.
  
• Updated the desktop Icon for System.Hack, as well as the splashscreen when the game is loading.
  
• Probably 100 other small things I forgot to make note of.
  

I don't have a fancy Road Map hammered out for you, but I can share my plans. I have four major updates planned before the Launch. If everything goes well (and I don't get mired in support-mode), we could be looking at a Launch before summer!

The following is a list of the Updates. Although my personal 'to-do list' doesn't look nearly as concise or pretty, this should give you an idea what to expect. I should mention there will, of course, be smaller updates sprinkled throughout addressing any bugs or gameplay issues.

In order to avoid more of the dreaded feature creep and pushing the Launch window back indefinetly, I plan on sticking to this as much as possible. However, I'm leaving some wiggle room to squeeze-in some changes based on your feedback, and I do plan on supporting the game post-launch with free updates. That's when I can let feature creep run rampant =).

• Content Update 1: Add more IC to the game, including Black IC. Add more Node Designs.
  
• Content Update 2: Add more 4 more NPC Contacts, 10 new Perks, and complex contracts.
  
• Feature Expansion: (Re)add Overwatch and Ravencore, and Company gameplay elements. Update Contract Generator.
  
• Story: Add the Story Missions, Cinematics, more NPCs, new story-specific systems, and Epic Challenges.
  
• Launch Update: Steam Cloud support, Achievements, Key Rebinding.
  

Chief among the post-launch updates will be the ability to strap your cyberdeck to your back and hack devices in the real-world, as well as access certain systems directly from the Local Access Ports, and even meet your Overwatch team. I really wanted to squeeze this into the core game, but it's a clear example of feature creep that could take months to implement properly.