Happy Tuesday! Lone Outskirts p1 is RELEASED!

The first part of the lone Outskirts expansion will be released today! Most stuff is finished, but some more stuff needs to be added to the map, ePhone, and some of the new buildings.

It's been a long time since a lone update was released, so it's about time this came out.  Check this post later on today for the installer link! Be sure to uninstall your old Nightlife version. Expect patch notes, too.


UPDATE: Download via my Dropbox HERE!

PATCH NOTES

THE OUTSKIRTS EXPANSION: PART 1 UPDATE NOTES:

• INTRODUCING TWO NEW AREAS: East Bay and Bay Street!
• The Outskirts (East Bay) is a massive extension across the beautiful new Bay Bridge, currently it has 1 subway station, a forest with a dirt track, a beach with water you can swim in, a gas station, and a boardwalk.
• Bay Street introduces a waterside pier into the City. In Part 2 this will have a ferry you can take across to East Bay, as well as a new hub for citizens in the city to hang out. In Part 1 the outside is mostly done, but not completely populated or put into peoples schedules.
• The ePhone, with a press of the Tab key your character takes out the ePhone which displays the current time. It also has apps for Current Events in the city Day or Night, and a Speedometer so you can check your current speed while moving in a car/on foot.
• New buildings in the city! Featuring the CineCorp workplace, and a new appartment (meant for the not publicy released, Co-op mode.)
• Tons of new sound effects.

 BUG FIXES / CHANGES

• A few movement fixes and tweaks, slower walking speed, improved collisions.
• New characters and sprite changes.
• Headlights have been removed for now, due to glitches in the East Bay area.
• Changes to subway stations to make them bigger, in Part 2 they will have small businesses/stalls.
• Day and Night now exists in the cinematic intro.

By the way... I'm still working on Lone!

I just added Night to the main menus, sometimes it's the subtle little things. :D

Introducing... the Rifle! (Also: The state of combat)

Just added a new weapon to Prologue! It's also usable in Legacy and Survival Modes.

This is completely different from the SMG or Pistol. It's not aimed with direction, it's aimed with your mouse and this crosshair!

There are now 3 weapons in the game, with different Ammo consumption and utility.

Pistol (E): Uses 1 Ammo unit per bullet

SMG (Q): Uses 3 Ammo units per bullet.

Rifle: (2): Uses 7 Ammo units per bullet.

Stealth Kills also use Ammo Units, 3 of them.

The Pistol is of course your main go-to weapon, since it's so efficient.

The SMG is at first just used for when there is a row of enemies behind each other, but for more experienced players with a fast "R"eload finger, It could be used instead of the Pistol.

The Rifle is great for when you know where an enemy's position is and can shoot from cover.

Some stuff I got done - also, Nations... (Long post!)

So, I'm still working on the first scene of the story mode, but I've gotten a few notable things done.
Remember the Vignette you see around pretty much all taeHD games? (Lone and Revelations)
Now it looks a lot better, giving off a blurring effect. The main reason it's still implemented is to limit your line of sight a little bit more than just being top-down.

"Legacy" and "Survival" modes are available. You can go to Wave 13 in Survival, it might not be a big number but it can be hard.


"Story" mode levels ("Scenes") will work like this:

• Objective 1 
• Exploration opportunities (bonus content)
• Objective 2
• Objective 3
• Scene Complete

It seems very "Main Goal, Main Goal, Secondary Goal", but the Exploration Opportunities are more optional then that. When you are in a part of the level Exploration could lead to something, it'll just say "Explore", rather than "Kill optional guy XYZ". These Opportunities are mainly for Tutorials or chances to boost your score in that level. Depending on how the rest of development goes, it might lead to alternate endings or variations in dialogue.

Imagine having the main goal of catching a crook. You can head straight and do what the main objective says, but it'd end in losing your target. But you had a chance to Explore the area, if you did that you could find a second route to him, and end up catching him. The story would change according to how you performed.

Here's the current rendition of the Main Menu (If you click "PLAY.")

It's very simple, meant to throw you into doing something rather than messing with something else, or going through a sheet of controls.

The Story Mode is the best way to start. The opening teaches you what you need to know by actually doing it. Movement, Weapon Switching, Turret Controls, and how active reloading works.

Of course it leaves some stuff for you to discover on your own, such as maximizing your score through Combo Kills (Having both "Nice Kill" and "Stealth Kill" up at once gives you tons of points per second)

Now to talk a little about Nations.
Nations will be a even bigger project than Prologue, so I want to save it for even later, Revelations and Lone are great practice but this should really get me prepared. I know how to manage a big open world (from Lone) and handle weapons in a way I can be proud of (Revelations and Prologue) and now how to make a good, full game with Prologue.

CSI:P - New Feature: Perspective

Here's a neat little thing that'll be in CSI: Prologue, Prespective zoom. If there is dialogue, most of the time you'll see a shift like this. The game doesn't actually play (mostly) in this view, it stays top-down like Lone or Revelations. It looks a little bit weird with the 2D graphics, but I still like it!

Moving on...

Here's the first status update for CSI: Prologue!

1. The current Revelations levels will survive, and live on in the "Legacy" mode.
2. New menu interface is pretty much complete, it's very simple and works well, screenshots coming.
3. We have progress on the save system! Currently it's just saving and reading a score, not positions and levels yet. More on this after this section.

So this is how saving will hopefully work... In all of the game's modes.

• STORY MODE

You'll be able to save from the menu, you will have to restart whatever scene you are in though if you load. 

• SURVIVAL MODE

Either your top score or most recent score will be saved depending on what I can pull off here, you'll be able to see it before you start Survival.

• LEGACY MODE

There's a chance of saving in this mode not being implemented, since Revelations in it's last update was only around 15 minutes long. We might get score saving per level, so if you're a score fiend, Legacy and Survival modes are for you.

The Return

Back with more news on the restructuring of this series.
So we know CSI: Revelations is getting a big revamp. It's going to be larger than I first thought. Completely redesigned to have my cousins (that created the series) enjoy it more, it'll just be called CSI: Prologue.

Here's the stuff that will survive the restructuring:

• Survival Mode (Hordes)
• Pistol/SMG base weapons, the whole ammo system
• The engine, it won't be updated to the awesome taeHD you see in Lone sadly, but it will play and look the same as Revelations did.
• Scores, although they'll be more balanced than before (no combo running with sprint!)
• Character sprites and interface, expect more detail and cinematic stuff though.

What won't survive:

• taeConnect integration, it'll be focused at being appropriate and enjoyable for my younger cousins.
• The map, gone are the winding corridors.
• The current main story mode. This is completely wiped.

New Stuff:

• A completely new story.
• Completely new map.
• Probably some more weapons.
• A new mode...?
• New menu interface.