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[sparkbolt]

Stat colours:

And yes those damn bars are in the reverse order... need to finagle them proper at some point.

Costs

All sorts of costs! there are resources you can earn/collect/develop/find/win that can unlock certain plots that you can then spend them on (e.g. blackmail documents, exotic gifts, kidnapped families...), plus just abstract Power for some plots (bribes, etc). Most of the operating costs of a mission are assumed as part of the budget, but you'll need to dip into the slush fund for above-and-beyond normal circumstances.

sweet sweet cash

I do want to have an office, I almost prematurely got one last month, but ironically hiring Morgan meant I couldn't afford the office. I already have two other programmers, designers, and writers working on other projects, so stepping up to a real office would be lovely, but the main point would be in getting enough manpower to really step things up, develop more side projects that can cross-pollinate (like Net Gain: Stories), so on.

Save

It's a pain in the ass for a game like this, specifically. And the best solution is hopelessly bugged at the moment and the developer for it disappeared. It does need to happen, sooner rather than later, but the rest of the game has so many holes it's not a priority.

[hemmingjay]

Just wanted to say thanks Sparkbolt. Yours was one of the riskier KS campaigns I backed and more than the game, I enjoy seeing you happy developing this. Two reasons to back KS are funding someone's dream or trying to get something for yourself cheap. You gave me both and I thank you!

[nenjin]

Hey SB, how's the mission rewrite coming? From the sounds of it, you're struggling a little bit. Got anything you want to get off your chest?

[sparkbolt]

Heyo! I wouldn't say struggling, just... it's a lot more than I was hoping/planning. the refactoring kinda had - well let's call it collateral damage. Catch with making a simulation is all the damn things being hooked up makes it harder to gauge refactoring.

So missions are now asynchronous, teams are now "meta" with *squads* being collections of agents in physical locations... basically enabling ocean's 11 style things where you send your most sneaky spy "deep" into security, remote hackers, having synchronized takedowns of a rival operation across the globe in the same night... fun stuff! Stuff that will still take time to fully implement, but at least the base will be there. so having multiple teams running around... AND still being able to predetermine their path... even though that path may change... and have them smart enough to adapt the plan without jsut discarding all of it.... lot's of moving parts. keeping the plan "mostly in tact" is what's taking the most time right now.

probably not going to have it done before tuesday, which means the next release window might not be till september 1st.

[nenjin]

Wow, sounds like it's pretty involved. Sounds sweet though. The spacial/locational relationships of things and stuff sounds like it will feel a lot more tangible now. So am I correct in thinking that you'd have a hacker squad back at main base remotely hacking systems while another team is on the ground bypassing physical security, interrogating people, stealing ect.....? Will hackers ever still have to be on site to do things? Will a failed job at the physical location ever jeopardize a remote hacker in some way? (I imagine failing to remotely hack security will screw your ops on the ground as normal.)

This is really getting to the meat of some of my way early statements about how I wanted to see the Mission and Operative simulation play out. There was a necessary level of abstraction to all of it that I was worried was going to eventually be woven into the final game product. But it feels be broadening out and getting more granular, which is a relief.

So that said, take as much time as you need. Toady has the luxury of half-finishing really complex systems and coming back a year later to find they need to be gutted and rebuilt. Most don't.

[sparkbolt]

yes and yes. that's the idea, it gives you the diffent kinds of hackers. the ones that work from base, or remotely, and the ones that have to be on the ground to access secured networks, set up relays, build servers in safehouses... and still know how to defend themselves when the shit hits the fan!

failing remotely will be handled differently, though remember thats still a feature that needs additional stuff on top of this to get running. but yes, remote failure would most often expose their location, which might mean aa hasty escape to a closer safehouse, hoping they dont intercept you before then or worse, already have a strike team in the area.

And to clarify, this isn't quite the same thing as toady's process, since we're still building up to that point. so most of these systems mentioned above are part of what's getting made, though in limited form (i.e. starting with text before art exists, etc)

[sparkbolt]

Since a few people have been asking, I put up a forum post explaining the logo files and a link to a PSD I use to make em!

[ScriptWolf]

How are things going in general spark ? Any ideas on the next update and it's release and what your going to do next

[Unusedname]

Yes when can I give you my money and stop berating myself for not kickstarting this game.

[nenjin]

Sweet. Any chance you'll have the update out in a week or two? Got some traveling coming up and I'd love to take newest build with me.

[sparkbolt]

Things are going well! I got through the valley of darkness that was the mission refactor, and I'm on to adding some low hanging fruit features, fixing up the UI, getting the corp AI handling the new stuff, and doing a thorough bugtest of the mission changes.

Right now my plate is full with all the intel features, now that missions are behaving. This new "associations" feature means you can finally collect intel on a WIDE range of things! As in, almost anything in the game. Not all of it can be acted on, but it can all be used to uncover new associations you can act on.

For example, I can investigate a city and use that intel to dig up associations tied to it like people who are moving through there, or companies there, or squads hiding out, etc. if i uncover a person, I can either target them for a mission, or use that intel to dig up intel on their connections: who they work for, where they moved to since, what they're carrying, etc. You can use this system to basically ride along a massive connected web of information with ever-changing nodes.

Right now the only real interactions besides investigating is to steal/destroy assets, or destroy operatives/squads. it'll probably stay that way for a bit since those are the main 'chess pieces' at the moment.

I'd like to get Operations in so you can jsut set up a thing to keep puling intel, then burn that intel to uncover new things, but i don't think those'll be ready for the next build as I'd rather get it out sooner than later.

Next update definitely in a week or two, depending on how bugtesting goes and if I find some other low hanging features i'd like to implement to pad out this release, since a lot of the time was spent on backend stuff that isn't very exciting.

I got an interview with a pretty huge website, so I was hoping to get the game "release ready" and time it with that interview, but since it's gonna be a big press push I want to wait until more of the core features are in.

Actually, here's a rough of my goals if you can read my chicken scratch.(Oh god huge picture)
Boxes are things that are gonna be a bitch to implement, stars are things I want in before the game goes on sale/the interview.

ADD'L EDIT:
Speaking of progress, here's the new active mission menu, and an operative living in some cramped Corp Box Housing!

[nenjin]

For example, I can investigate a city and use that intel to dig up associations tied to it like people who are moving through there, or companies there, or squads hiding out, etc. if i uncover a person, I can either target them for a mission, or use that intel to dig up intel on their connections: who they work for, where they moved to since, what they're carrying, etc. You can use this system to basically ride along a massive connected web of information with ever-changing nodes.

So what is the current basic unit of Intel? I mean, can we just launch ourselves straight at corps to collect intel to start with? Or do we have to start with cities, reveal Ops and Companies before we can get mission targets? Having absolutely nothing, where does the intel trail start?

Very pleased to hear you're getting to the press out there, the battle for public awareness arguably did not end after the Kickstarter. Was unhappy to see Net Gain didn't make the last batch of Greenlight approvals, but given how big the Q is, I guess it's not a surprise.

[sparkbolt]

some items are "public" and can always be investigated: these are cities, regions, and corporations.

actually they found me! I'm committing to working on the game until the next press push which is the public launch, they just found me before I started that round of PR. Netgain is nowhere near greenlight approved, we have barely any attention compared to just about every other thing. Not expecting much more until we get public on Desura, really.

[nenjin]

New build, hooray!

[gimlet]

Darn it, starting it through Desura still gets me 0.4.1 even if I re-verify files.  Is there some option I'm not seeing to get it to update?