Our Halloween event is finally live! We decided to run it starting today and for a week or two to avoid the mass of commotion of all the other events going on. The result though, we think you'll enjoy!
Our event centers around a ghost town. An actual ghost-town I mean. Scattered around this town are several pages to a cryptic book. Finding and assembling these pages into chapters, then the chapters into the full book grants the player the ability to exchange that tome for any of several new quest rewards.
Among these rewards are an Ennie costume, two new Halloween-themed crystals for discordance blades and a new hilt called the "Brimstone" hilt which generates a hellfire-infused blade.
Make sure you craft and bring ammunition that causes EM damage though as the ghosts inhabiting this region can only be damaged by electro-magnetic ammo! For those using an AK this ammo is dubbed "Spangler" 7.62 ammo in your crafting tool. Kudos to anyone old enough to get the reference ;)
Wednesday, November 2, 2016
Tuesday, October 25, 2016
The Phoenix
We knew in advance about the launches of two immensely huge games Battlefield 1 and Civilization 6 occurring more or less simultaneously, which is why we attempting to launch the game much sooner than it did. However there is a new approvals system which requires several additional review and approval steps before you're allowed to launch. Probably a good idea of Steam IMO and we support their decision to do so. However by the time it was our turn in the queue three weeks had passed since the day we originally wanted to launch and sure enough, it ended up launching late night pretty much the same day both of these huge goliath games launched.
Now I know how Weird Al must've felt finally launching UHF at the same time as Indiana Jones, Honey I Shrunk The Kids and Lethal Weapon 2; A sapling among the redwoods as it were.
But it didn't end Weird Al, and it won't end us.
In Divergence's 300 years of lore, I've had more than a few people ask me what the emblem means and where it comes from. They're curious as to why the emblem for the game appears to be the emblem of one of our three factions; VRTek. Does that imply favoritism?
In the lore (which we'd love to have the time to actually be able to freaking expose players to), it's referred to by most as the "Pasare de Foc". Translated into English, it essentially means "Bird of Fire"; The Phoenix.
In Divergence, Omicron is a civilization based on scientific advancement, federated and democratic rights for all. Darius Conrad (Conrad in Year Zero) is based on improvement through "The Bottom Line", meaning through (economic) growth. Viconye Ritek (Viconye in Year Zero) is a society based on personal reinvention through adversity in all things, which is why it takes the image of the phoenix as it's sigil. It requires no advertisement, no description, no words. It simply means, "Rise From The Ashes. Right Now. You son of a bitch".
To me. That's what it means, to me.
In the story, characters liken to all sorts of permutated variation on the same theme. "Viconye" is commonly known to be synonymous with "Perseverance" or "Endurance", etc.
You can see why we chose this emblem to represent the game. Games. Both games.
Five months ago, Divergence didn't have horses. Three months ago, it didn't have vehicles. Last month it didn't have cooking and fishing. Regardless of when sales are up and when sales are down, it has always maintained to be "better than it was the month before", and that's simply what we're going to resolve to maintain at any cost until the game(s) is/are at a state we feel comfortable "fulling launching".
Honestly, Year Zero will probably be launched first by virtue of the fact that it's less complicated. Divergence: Online, to do it the way we want to do it, requires completion and refining of systems requisite for things such as our military-synthetics (AKA Mechs) and the like that Year Zero doesn't depend on.
Over the next several weeks, you're going to notice these changes taking place. Things that look like crap will look a lot less like crap. We're adding new areas, new weapons and weapon types, and as soon as we're able (and this depends entirely on sales and our ability to pay for help) combat and mobs will be polished, polished, and polished even more.
And so without further ado; Our Roadmap:
Firing Range where players can work up them marksman skills without having to shoot animals or strangers in the face to do so.
Vehicle Depot where players can checkout some of the vehicles in the game, buy one, and even take one for a spin around the track to see if they like it's characteristics.
Thanks a ton for all your support guys and gals - Expect big things in the near future :)
Now I know how Weird Al must've felt finally launching UHF at the same time as Indiana Jones, Honey I Shrunk The Kids and Lethal Weapon 2; A sapling among the redwoods as it were.
But it didn't end Weird Al, and it won't end us.
In Divergence's 300 years of lore, I've had more than a few people ask me what the emblem means and where it comes from. They're curious as to why the emblem for the game appears to be the emblem of one of our three factions; VRTek. Does that imply favoritism?
In the lore (which we'd love to have the time to actually be able to freaking expose players to), it's referred to by most as the "Pasare de Foc". Translated into English, it essentially means "Bird of Fire"; The Phoenix.
In Divergence, Omicron is a civilization based on scientific advancement, federated and democratic rights for all. Darius Conrad (Conrad in Year Zero) is based on improvement through "The Bottom Line", meaning through (economic) growth. Viconye Ritek (Viconye in Year Zero) is a society based on personal reinvention through adversity in all things, which is why it takes the image of the phoenix as it's sigil. It requires no advertisement, no description, no words. It simply means, "Rise From The Ashes. Right Now. You son of a bitch".
To me. That's what it means, to me.
In the story, characters liken to all sorts of permutated variation on the same theme. "Viconye" is commonly known to be synonymous with "Perseverance" or "Endurance", etc.
You can see why we chose this emblem to represent the game. Games. Both games.
Five months ago, Divergence didn't have horses. Three months ago, it didn't have vehicles. Last month it didn't have cooking and fishing. Regardless of when sales are up and when sales are down, it has always maintained to be "better than it was the month before", and that's simply what we're going to resolve to maintain at any cost until the game(s) is/are at a state we feel comfortable "fulling launching".
Honestly, Year Zero will probably be launched first by virtue of the fact that it's less complicated. Divergence: Online, to do it the way we want to do it, requires completion and refining of systems requisite for things such as our military-synthetics (AKA Mechs) and the like that Year Zero doesn't depend on.
Over the next several weeks, you're going to notice these changes taking place. Things that look like crap will look a lot less like crap. We're adding new areas, new weapons and weapon types, and as soon as we're able (and this depends entirely on sales and our ability to pay for help) combat and mobs will be polished, polished, and polished even more.
And so without further ado; Our Roadmap:
City 1
Horse Stables where players can consign and checkout how much fun it is to ride a horse in our game. With fossil-fuel being such a rare commodity, all three factions (Including the lawless Wasteland Warriors) rely on horses as a cheap and reliable means of getting around. The stables are where horses are bred, fed, and cared for. If you like, you can even take one for a spin around a dirt track and see what you think!Firing Range where players can work up them marksman skills without having to shoot animals or strangers in the face to do so.
Vehicle Depot where players can checkout some of the vehicles in the game, buy one, and even take one for a spin around the track to see if they like it's characteristics.
NPCs
We're working to introduce more NPCs in City 1 like our Vendor dude. These NPCs will be both factional and nonfactional and populate several areas including gunshops, various weapon and armor stores, and colorful interactions with dialogue. They'll also represent the different professions and give players a description of what it is they specialize in to help players decide on professions.Halloween Event
Unfortunately, it doesn't look like we're going to be allowed to run a Halloween event as planned for Year Zero. It fits all the criteria, but our submission still hasn't been approved and the deadline was tomorrow. Regardless of whether we're allowed to be included in the sale or not, we'll still be running a Halloween event involving a specific Halloween-themed area (Think Darkshire) and rewards for contribution such as props, weapons, and even costumes.Thanks a ton for all your support guys and gals - Expect big things in the near future :)
Saturday, October 15, 2016
Server Maintenance Today (Saturday October 15th)
The server is down today (Saturday October 15th) while we begin our big transition to hosting both Divergence: Online and Divergence: Year Zero this coming week. We're deploying what we've already been testing feverishly on our own side and don't foresee any major surprises migrating it to the live server, so unless something unforeseen arises, the server will definitely be back online today hopefully by evening. Thanks for your patience and support!
Thursday, September 8, 2016
In-Game Tutorial Videos LIVE
You bitched about it... I mean.. You "asked for it"... We made it happen XD Divergence: Online now has it's first stages of in-game instructional videos for new players and veterans alike available in the new "Training Database" (AKA Help Menu) accessible by the new questionmark microbutton in the bottom right of your screen. Right now, the tabs that are available are Controls, Basic Harvesting, Grids, and Housing. We'll be adding the same type of instructional videos to the other tabs in the coming weeks.
Friday, August 26, 2016
New Continent + Vehicles!
Today is a special day for us; It marks the first day that our
players and friends can finally give their sore legs, appendages, and
lower-leg actuated servomotors a rest... It's the day we add.
Anduine: a land of brightly-colored flora, low and rolling hills, calm rivers and plenty of room to expand. Accessible via ATCs newly-constructed "Anduine Station", transporting to this new region is as easy as vising your favorite shuttleport and paying the super-low fee of just 1000 credits. Hey, this shit wasn't cheap to build out of salvaged starship wreckage after all. Anduine is also the land of "big game hunting", with Grontos, Vangrels, Aigathrix, and local species of our most beloved creatures that people just like running for their lives from already.
Of course with our "one large world", players can obviously "hoof if" should they wish and run the 10K through the Akkhera desert bearing due East. Whatever floats your boat!
Speaking of boats, Today's build of the game also brings into play our latest profession; "Operator". "Operator" is synonymous with "Vehicle and equipment operator" and if you want to learn how to fly that huge-ass freighter, first you'll need to pick Operator as one of your professions from the kills panel then spend a few skill points boning up on your chosen vehicle types.
How many vehicles are we adding? How about "lots", the majority of which are flight-capable as well!
Included in today's patch are;
Two light freighters, great for hauling them resources from place to place as well as any contraband that falls off the bed of a truck.
One medium freighter for more fun, more friends, and more contraband. Not to mention the added bonus that all freighters can actually accommodate and load land vehicles into their bay for transporting them as well!
Terrestrial Fighter Jet - No working weapon yet but crap is it fast!
Terrestrial Racer - Even faster, it's essentially an engine with a cockpit.
Planetary Rover - Not so fast but a lot better than running everywhere!
Hoverbike - Fast and hard as hell to control, but do you want easy or do you want fun?
As if that weren't enough, all vehicles have their own internal hoppers, so you can not only fill them with resource canisters, but even bolt them to the hull for aesthetic appeal should you choose! Turn your ship into a party... ship... or whatever for all your friends for all we care.
Craftable versions of all vehicles will be coming this week once we have a few days to tune their flight characteristics enough that we're confident binding them to crafting schematic results.
As always, special thanks go out to all our contributors, players, and supporters for making this nearly eight-months we've been able to continually develop our game! We hope you'll continue to support the effort as we drive towards full launch in several months from now. As with everything new, we're sure there are a few bugs we missed so also thanks for letting us know as soon as you find them and being patient while we crush them.
Anduine: a land of brightly-colored flora, low and rolling hills, calm rivers and plenty of room to expand. Accessible via ATCs newly-constructed "Anduine Station", transporting to this new region is as easy as vising your favorite shuttleport and paying the super-low fee of just 1000 credits. Hey, this shit wasn't cheap to build out of salvaged starship wreckage after all. Anduine is also the land of "big game hunting", with Grontos, Vangrels, Aigathrix, and local species of our most beloved creatures that people just like running for their lives from already.
Of course with our "one large world", players can obviously "hoof if" should they wish and run the 10K through the Akkhera desert bearing due East. Whatever floats your boat!
Speaking of boats, Today's build of the game also brings into play our latest profession; "Operator". "Operator" is synonymous with "Vehicle and equipment operator" and if you want to learn how to fly that huge-ass freighter, first you'll need to pick Operator as one of your professions from the kills panel then spend a few skill points boning up on your chosen vehicle types.
How many vehicles are we adding? How about "lots", the majority of which are flight-capable as well!
Included in today's patch are;
Two light freighters, great for hauling them resources from place to place as well as any contraband that falls off the bed of a truck.
One medium freighter for more fun, more friends, and more contraband. Not to mention the added bonus that all freighters can actually accommodate and load land vehicles into their bay for transporting them as well!
Terrestrial Fighter Jet - No working weapon yet but crap is it fast!
Terrestrial Racer - Even faster, it's essentially an engine with a cockpit.
Planetary Rover - Not so fast but a lot better than running everywhere!
Hoverbike - Fast and hard as hell to control, but do you want easy or do you want fun?
As if that weren't enough, all vehicles have their own internal hoppers, so you can not only fill them with resource canisters, but even bolt them to the hull for aesthetic appeal should you choose! Turn your ship into a party... ship... or whatever for all your friends for all we care.
Craftable versions of all vehicles will be coming this week once we have a few days to tune their flight characteristics enough that we're confident binding them to crafting schematic results.
As always, special thanks go out to all our contributors, players, and supporters for making this nearly eight-months we've been able to continually develop our game! We hope you'll continue to support the effort as we drive towards full launch in several months from now. As with everything new, we're sure there are a few bugs we missed so also thanks for letting us know as soon as you find them and being patient while we crush them.
Thursday, August 18, 2016
Divergence: Year Zero on Greenlight!
Well it's finally time to let the cat out of the bag on our super secret project and clue you all in to both what we've done and why we've done it.
After much careful consideration and debate, about one and a half months ago we
Divergence: Online simply does not make enough profit for even two adults to live on (while sharing a single apartment mind you) let alone be able to hire anyone new. The other complication we've had is that this game is a niche of a niche. Not only does it draw only the sci-fi audience, but only a very small sect of that audience in itself. We knew this going into it and honestly are amazed that such a few people can come so close to supporting it enough to be self sufficient. Almost, but not quite I'm afraid.
So after a lot of back and forth, weighing our options and trying to find out what we could possibly do to increase the profitability of our project so that we could continue to do what we love and improve on our game solution every day, we arrived at the answer you see today; an answer that we've named;
Divergence: Year Zero
Divergence: Year Zero was an idea we came up with to market and sell that thing which we believe is the core of our game's soul; Our MMO system. While Sci-Fi and Hardcore Sci-Fi have a very small following, modern survival draws a much larger crowd and exposing those players to "The Divergence Experience" we believe is the best chance we have of making the business more profitable.
Divergence: Year Zero ("Year Zero" for short) is a prequel to Divergence: Online and exists at a place in time I'd long planned to explore years from now but we simply do not have the time to wait. Year Zero centers around the catastrophic abduction of the San Andreas Fault shortly after the year 2020 which obliterated west-coast civilization and released the unfinished form of the virus being designed to wipe-out solitus humans. The resulting quarantine essentially rendered the shattered landscapes of California, Oregon, and parts of Washington state no-mans-land, ruled only by wild animals and even wilder human survivors... And other things.
Year Zero contains not just "everything Divergence: Online has", but all our new advancements as well, first and foremost not only rideable mounts but more than a dozen vehicle types as well. In the badlands, power belongs to those who control the harvest, refinement, and supply of fossil fuels such as coal and crude oil. Our systems completely embrace the life of a "road warrior" scouring the wastes in his junker, dodging bandits and stealing what he can.
Oh, and did we mention the best part? All vehicles are also hoppers! That's right, check the video for proof - Virtually any item you can craft and place to a hopper (AKA Claim/Property) you can bolt onto a vehicle! You can actually load up your truck with resources, oil and salvage and drive it around, or armor it up! Be forewarned though, adding stuff adds mass to the vehicle and will raise its center of gravity, causing it to tip over more easily?
Cars. Trucks. SUVs. We're even working on motorcycles and helicopters as well.
How is this possible? Didn't we just get done saying that we don't have the money and resources to develop Divergence: Online any faster?
The reason is both simple and tragic; Nobody wants to work (for free) on "someone elses sci-fi game". 100% truth. Oh, there are TONS of people out there willing ot line-up to "get involved with a survival game", because they have a much better chance of earning those people money, but getting them to work on something that isn't even made for profit (Divergence: Online) has been virtually impossible. If you can't get people to help out on principle, then you need to pay them to do the work, and if you can't pay them, well then you're fucked aren't you.
So this is that solution. Take what we've built, use it to make something additional with a much broader appeal, end up with two products putting funds into the project instead of one.
Don't approve? Tough shit, you aren't the one putting your electric bill on a creditcard are you.
The only thing (existing) Divergence players need to understand is this simple truth; If you want Divergence: Online to survive and grow, THIS is what has to happen. We feel there's a good chance you'll like it, but even if you don't, you don't have to, but you need to understand that supporting Year Zero means Supporting Divergence: Online.
Both games have the same core features.
Like the fact that we're finally spawning real creatures in the game world in Divergence: Online now? Guess what, we wouldn't have that if we hadn't been able to get some extra help in creating "zombies" for Year Zero, that we were able to immediately copy over to Divergence: Online.
Ridable mounts and vehicles? We had virtually zero chance of having those in Divergence: Online in the next six months before Year Zero, and now that's completely a reality.
Looking forward to our "can't get inside other peoples bases" fix? Guess where that's coming from also? You guessed it, Year Zero.
I could say more but i think you get the general idea. Obviously all modern content lingering around Divergence: Online is removed.
So where does this leave people who bought Divergence: Online?
Pretty fucking well off actually, because everyone who bought Divergence: Online is entitled to a free key for Year Zero. Obviously since we're doing this to make money for the game, we'd like some people to buy the damn thing please, but if you ask for a key through the regular channels, you'll get one no sales pitch and confidentially.
People who've bought larger and more expensive perks already get larger and more expensive perks in Year Zero, such as a companion island (because the shattered west coast is full of islands that used to be called "Portland" now), or (if you own either the Vindicator or Verrator perk), your own "Extendable Electrified Riot Baton" (Meaning, a theta-blade) in Year Zero. Think that's rare in the future? Imagine how rare they are in 2020 :)
That's all I have to say for now. Before we can even launch Year Zero on Early Access it still has to go through greenlight, so we hope you'll head on over to our greenlight page and show your support for both this game and our project as a whole!
After much careful consideration and debate, about one and a half months ago we
Divergence: Online simply does not make enough profit for even two adults to live on (while sharing a single apartment mind you) let alone be able to hire anyone new. The other complication we've had is that this game is a niche of a niche. Not only does it draw only the sci-fi audience, but only a very small sect of that audience in itself. We knew this going into it and honestly are amazed that such a few people can come so close to supporting it enough to be self sufficient. Almost, but not quite I'm afraid.
So after a lot of back and forth, weighing our options and trying to find out what we could possibly do to increase the profitability of our project so that we could continue to do what we love and improve on our game solution every day, we arrived at the answer you see today; an answer that we've named;
Divergence: Year Zero
Divergence: Year Zero was an idea we came up with to market and sell that thing which we believe is the core of our game's soul; Our MMO system. While Sci-Fi and Hardcore Sci-Fi have a very small following, modern survival draws a much larger crowd and exposing those players to "The Divergence Experience" we believe is the best chance we have of making the business more profitable.
Divergence: Year Zero ("Year Zero" for short) is a prequel to Divergence: Online and exists at a place in time I'd long planned to explore years from now but we simply do not have the time to wait. Year Zero centers around the catastrophic abduction of the San Andreas Fault shortly after the year 2020 which obliterated west-coast civilization and released the unfinished form of the virus being designed to wipe-out solitus humans. The resulting quarantine essentially rendered the shattered landscapes of California, Oregon, and parts of Washington state no-mans-land, ruled only by wild animals and even wilder human survivors... And other things.
Year Zero contains not just "everything Divergence: Online has", but all our new advancements as well, first and foremost not only rideable mounts but more than a dozen vehicle types as well. In the badlands, power belongs to those who control the harvest, refinement, and supply of fossil fuels such as coal and crude oil. Our systems completely embrace the life of a "road warrior" scouring the wastes in his junker, dodging bandits and stealing what he can.
Oh, and did we mention the best part? All vehicles are also hoppers! That's right, check the video for proof - Virtually any item you can craft and place to a hopper (AKA Claim/Property) you can bolt onto a vehicle! You can actually load up your truck with resources, oil and salvage and drive it around, or armor it up! Be forewarned though, adding stuff adds mass to the vehicle and will raise its center of gravity, causing it to tip over more easily?
Cars. Trucks. SUVs. We're even working on motorcycles and helicopters as well.
How is this possible? Didn't we just get done saying that we don't have the money and resources to develop Divergence: Online any faster?
The reason is both simple and tragic; Nobody wants to work (for free) on "someone elses sci-fi game". 100% truth. Oh, there are TONS of people out there willing ot line-up to "get involved with a survival game", because they have a much better chance of earning those people money, but getting them to work on something that isn't even made for profit (Divergence: Online) has been virtually impossible. If you can't get people to help out on principle, then you need to pay them to do the work, and if you can't pay them, well then you're fucked aren't you.
So this is that solution. Take what we've built, use it to make something additional with a much broader appeal, end up with two products putting funds into the project instead of one.
Don't approve? Tough shit, you aren't the one putting your electric bill on a creditcard are you.
The only thing (existing) Divergence players need to understand is this simple truth; If you want Divergence: Online to survive and grow, THIS is what has to happen. We feel there's a good chance you'll like it, but even if you don't, you don't have to, but you need to understand that supporting Year Zero means Supporting Divergence: Online.
Both games have the same core features.
Like the fact that we're finally spawning real creatures in the game world in Divergence: Online now? Guess what, we wouldn't have that if we hadn't been able to get some extra help in creating "zombies" for Year Zero, that we were able to immediately copy over to Divergence: Online.
Ridable mounts and vehicles? We had virtually zero chance of having those in Divergence: Online in the next six months before Year Zero, and now that's completely a reality.
Looking forward to our "can't get inside other peoples bases" fix? Guess where that's coming from also? You guessed it, Year Zero.
I could say more but i think you get the general idea. Obviously all modern content lingering around Divergence: Online is removed.
So where does this leave people who bought Divergence: Online?
Pretty fucking well off actually, because everyone who bought Divergence: Online is entitled to a free key for Year Zero. Obviously since we're doing this to make money for the game, we'd like some people to buy the damn thing please, but if you ask for a key through the regular channels, you'll get one no sales pitch and confidentially.
People who've bought larger and more expensive perks already get larger and more expensive perks in Year Zero, such as a companion island (because the shattered west coast is full of islands that used to be called "Portland" now), or (if you own either the Vindicator or Verrator perk), your own "Extendable Electrified Riot Baton" (Meaning, a theta-blade) in Year Zero. Think that's rare in the future? Imagine how rare they are in 2020 :)
That's all I have to say for now. Before we can even launch Year Zero on Early Access it still has to go through greenlight, so we hope you'll head on over to our greenlight page and show your support for both this game and our project as a whole!
Saturday, July 16, 2016
Akkhera Desert 2.0 LIVE
Akkhera Desert 2.0 LIVE
Tonight, in addition to generator bugfixes and a few other small fixes, we roll out our first major update to the Akkhera Desert in the form of a total re-skin.As a player, you aren't just funding our ability to keep developing Divergence: Online, but you're also contributing to our ability to continually improve at what we do as well. A part of this comes in the form of continual improvements on, not just the features of the game, but the overall quality of the production as well.
This new improvement to the Akkhera Desert, which constitutes more than 25% of our game's total landmass is the latest in roll-outs to our games terrain and subsequent systems as our game continually "sheds its skin" of it's original "super-early" placeholder content with (in this case) all-new terrain more than 400% more detailed than the original, while simultaneously providing a big boost to performance through improved shaders.
While obviously imperfect (you WILL find rough edges if you look for them) and needing a few more improvements, this puts us on-track to move onto subsequent updates for our jungle biome "Lomenia" and then circling back to finish the remaning regions of Malkav (temperate) in the same style as the first prototype re-skin we did a few weeks ago.
Tell us what you think and hope to see you around the desert!
https://gyazo.com/3250d0223dbe7f56286dca8ae1bea693
Saturday, June 11, 2016
Vindicator Tier-2 Armor + Theta-Blades NOW AVAILABLE For Testing
You heard right, checkout our full writeup for all the info kids!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/415812755276522/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/415812755276522/
Thursday, May 26, 2016
PVE Comes To Divergence!
After many months, we're finally ready to release our biggest update to date; Divergence Online "Zero Four Zero". Originally slated as version 0.5.0, we decided to go ahead and release a series of individual patches incrementally adding all of "the big new content" into the game bit-by-bit, to address any and all new bugs as they arrive.
Therefore we're beginning the process with version 0.4.0 herein referred to as "Zero Four Zero" for your viewing pleasure.
And so, without further ado; All the new sex!
PVE Arrives on Rook!
Our most-desired feature by a large margin has always been the prevalent outcry of "what could be if", coming to us in the form of, "Man, if this game only had some PVE!".
Taking place on an alien moon teeming with life, it's always been our goal to bring living, fighting creatures to the world's surface. As with anything though, when making an genuine MMORPG with just two people, things take time. Add onto that our policy of doing things the right way instead of the quick/cheap way, and yeah.
Lifeforms of Rook run a huge gambit of sizes and demeanors; From the meek scavenger creatures, to huge "Raid-Boss Encounter"-style desert dragons. PVE'ing in Divergence can be as small as hunting wild game, running for your life from predators, or even taking on legendary creatures requiring a dozen or more players to take down, such as our new world raid boss encounter.
Creature Harvesting
Players trained in Scout and (it's advanced version) Ranger can harvest raw materials from dead creatures in the form of Meat, Hide, or Bone. Each material serves different purposes, such as meat being used for pharmaceuticals and food, bone being fashioned into weapons and hide being a primary component in rustic clothing. The size and complexity of the creature Scouts and Rangers can harvest from is determined by their creature harvesting skill modifier, improved through unlocking skill boxes in both Scout and Ranger, as is the quantity of resources you get from a creature.
Cybernetics Profession
Finally, synthetic players can craft bodies for themselves more powerful than those little punk bitch android chassis! We've "almost completely" got our shit together with synthetics crafting and will be releasing the ability to craft and repair both the Markhaus Mk.4 Combat Synthetic chassis, as well as both Military-Synthetic chassis for players to craft through our new, and even more advanced than the original, crafting system.
Wood Harvesting / Choppable Trees!
You asked for it. We listened. Divergence now has both choppable trees, and the ability to craft a multitude of new items with gathered wood. Not only have we added tree chopping, but we've pushed it even further than any other survival-style game of today;
1. Virtually every single tree in the entire game world is now it's own entity and able to be chopped down.
2. Not only are trees choppable, but every species of tree additionally yields both different types of wood and in different quantities based on its size!
3. Each species of tree yields wood with unique stats and "toughness", allowing you to seek out and collect the strongest woods available for your structures. Bir wood might be good in a pinch to build a wall, but if you want a nearly-indestructible wooden fortress, build with Malkavian pine! The stronger the wood, the rarer the species.
4. Trees fall over when chopped down (and the animation looks like shit but so what? Seriously, we're two damn people, come'on!) and remain felled for anywhere between one hour and a month depending on the rarity of their species.
All New Armors + Resistances
With the introduction of the Armorsmithing profession through our staged release, we'll finally be adding the crafting of true armor into the game with resistances to common damage types based on the armor itself, the skill of the crafter and the quality of components they put into their work. The accessible armors (in addition to the existing DC armor) will be:
VRTek Spec-Ops
VRTek Reconnaisance Suit
Omicron Light Field Armor
Omicron "Infinity" Armor
New Vindicator Tier-2 "VK Mark 2" Suit for Vindicator Players
For too long have our veli players been afraid to log in out of fear of losing their ass due to being stuck with the Tier-1 Suit. Through our staged release, we'll be adding the Tier-2 Vindicator suit as a craftable schematic but come prepared, because the components are rare and (as with their ThetaBlade Weapons) will required some incredibly dangerously-acquired components. The New Tier-2 Suit increases the combat effectiveness of Vindicator players by at least 25% over the Tier-1 suit.
New Vindicator and Verrator Theta-Blade
Finally our Veli (and humanoid psychic) players will have a chance to craft their very first ThetaBlade, complete with a multidimensional omnispace microreciprocative blade called forth to the hilt the moment the weapon is activated. These weapons epitomize lethality in the hands of a Veli warrior and require sophisticated materials to assemble guarded by the deadliest creatures to inhabit Rook.
Sim-Zone "Survival" Region
We've had a lot of players pull us aside and tell us what a disservice we're doing the world not adding "survival"-style features into our game, especially considering the MMO climate of today. Seeing as SWG wasn't Survival, it wasn't something we imagined people would want, but you asked for it, so we decided that it would indeed be a part of Divergence: Online
Being a part of a community of survivors on an alien world, your character him, her, or itself need entertainment as much as regular jackoffs, so ATC Drones have begun construction of Rooks own "ongoing reality show" called "The Simzone".
"The Simzone" is a region set aside on Rook's surface where ATC drones create settings, fabricated out of ferrocrete, reminiscent of early 21st-century urban environments on Earth in a state of abandonment; A sort of "ongoing Kill-House" if you will, where both native and non-native inhabitants of Rook can enter-into and compete for scavenging swag whenever they like. Since all structures and items within the Simzone are fabricated out of ferrocrete, ATC drones can construct not just buildings and static objects, but even fully-functional weapons and devices, randomly (and occasionally non-randomly) scattered about the landscape as unique weapons and items found during that time in Earth's history, such as automobiles, assault rifles and weapons.
Keep in mind though that life doesn't like to be shut-out, especially in it's own backyard, so while you may encounter hostile entities roaming these wastelands in the form of humanoids infected with the Verrator virus, Rook's native wildlife will also find their way into the zone, lurking in the shadows and awaiting a chance to pounce on you while you reach for that can of creamed corn.
Both Hunger and Thirst will also be new features in Divergence, done in a way that rewards hunters and survivalists, yet doesn't punish crafters of those who simply do not wish to partake.
Vast Streaming and Loading Improvements
Several-minute loading screens are officially a thing of the past in Divergence thanks to a completely redesigned planetary synchonization system that now streams all data to your game client in a compressed state. What was once a minute-long wait time to get to the login screen from game-launch has been squashed to "so fast it basically doesn't even show our disclaimed screen anymore".
All this and more coming over the next couple weeks. While we're still far from ready, and in fact only just under halfway there, with your continued support we know we can take this game to launch. Stay tuned for more in-depth info about these and upcoming near-release features in the days to come.
Therefore we're beginning the process with version 0.4.0 herein referred to as "Zero Four Zero" for your viewing pleasure.
And so, without further ado; All the new sex!
PVE Arrives on Rook!
Our most-desired feature by a large margin has always been the prevalent outcry of "what could be if", coming to us in the form of, "Man, if this game only had some PVE!".
Taking place on an alien moon teeming with life, it's always been our goal to bring living, fighting creatures to the world's surface. As with anything though, when making an genuine MMORPG with just two people, things take time. Add onto that our policy of doing things the right way instead of the quick/cheap way, and yeah.
Lifeforms of Rook run a huge gambit of sizes and demeanors; From the meek scavenger creatures, to huge "Raid-Boss Encounter"-style desert dragons. PVE'ing in Divergence can be as small as hunting wild game, running for your life from predators, or even taking on legendary creatures requiring a dozen or more players to take down, such as our new world raid boss encounter.
Creature Harvesting
Players trained in Scout and (it's advanced version) Ranger can harvest raw materials from dead creatures in the form of Meat, Hide, or Bone. Each material serves different purposes, such as meat being used for pharmaceuticals and food, bone being fashioned into weapons and hide being a primary component in rustic clothing. The size and complexity of the creature Scouts and Rangers can harvest from is determined by their creature harvesting skill modifier, improved through unlocking skill boxes in both Scout and Ranger, as is the quantity of resources you get from a creature.
Cybernetics Profession
Finally, synthetic players can craft bodies for themselves more powerful than those little punk bitch android chassis! We've "almost completely" got our shit together with synthetics crafting and will be releasing the ability to craft and repair both the Markhaus Mk.4 Combat Synthetic chassis, as well as both Military-Synthetic chassis for players to craft through our new, and even more advanced than the original, crafting system.
Wood Harvesting / Choppable Trees!
You asked for it. We listened. Divergence now has both choppable trees, and the ability to craft a multitude of new items with gathered wood. Not only have we added tree chopping, but we've pushed it even further than any other survival-style game of today;
1. Virtually every single tree in the entire game world is now it's own entity and able to be chopped down.
2. Not only are trees choppable, but every species of tree additionally yields both different types of wood and in different quantities based on its size!
3. Each species of tree yields wood with unique stats and "toughness", allowing you to seek out and collect the strongest woods available for your structures. Bir wood might be good in a pinch to build a wall, but if you want a nearly-indestructible wooden fortress, build with Malkavian pine! The stronger the wood, the rarer the species.
4. Trees fall over when chopped down (and the animation looks like shit but so what? Seriously, we're two damn people, come'on!) and remain felled for anywhere between one hour and a month depending on the rarity of their species.
All New Armors + Resistances
With the introduction of the Armorsmithing profession through our staged release, we'll finally be adding the crafting of true armor into the game with resistances to common damage types based on the armor itself, the skill of the crafter and the quality of components they put into their work. The accessible armors (in addition to the existing DC armor) will be:
VRTek Spec-Ops
VRTek Reconnaisance Suit
Omicron Light Field Armor
Omicron "Infinity" Armor
New Vindicator Tier-2 "VK Mark 2" Suit for Vindicator Players
For too long have our veli players been afraid to log in out of fear of losing their ass due to being stuck with the Tier-1 Suit. Through our staged release, we'll be adding the Tier-2 Vindicator suit as a craftable schematic but come prepared, because the components are rare and (as with their ThetaBlade Weapons) will required some incredibly dangerously-acquired components. The New Tier-2 Suit increases the combat effectiveness of Vindicator players by at least 25% over the Tier-1 suit.
New Vindicator and Verrator Theta-Blade
Finally our Veli (and humanoid psychic) players will have a chance to craft their very first ThetaBlade, complete with a multidimensional omnispace microreciprocative blade called forth to the hilt the moment the weapon is activated. These weapons epitomize lethality in the hands of a Veli warrior and require sophisticated materials to assemble guarded by the deadliest creatures to inhabit Rook.
Sim-Zone "Survival" Region
We've had a lot of players pull us aside and tell us what a disservice we're doing the world not adding "survival"-style features into our game, especially considering the MMO climate of today. Seeing as SWG wasn't Survival, it wasn't something we imagined people would want, but you asked for it, so we decided that it would indeed be a part of Divergence: Online
Being a part of a community of survivors on an alien world, your character him, her, or itself need entertainment as much as regular jackoffs, so ATC Drones have begun construction of Rooks own "ongoing reality show" called "The Simzone".
"The Simzone" is a region set aside on Rook's surface where ATC drones create settings, fabricated out of ferrocrete, reminiscent of early 21st-century urban environments on Earth in a state of abandonment; A sort of "ongoing Kill-House" if you will, where both native and non-native inhabitants of Rook can enter-into and compete for scavenging swag whenever they like. Since all structures and items within the Simzone are fabricated out of ferrocrete, ATC drones can construct not just buildings and static objects, but even fully-functional weapons and devices, randomly (and occasionally non-randomly) scattered about the landscape as unique weapons and items found during that time in Earth's history, such as automobiles, assault rifles and weapons.
Keep in mind though that life doesn't like to be shut-out, especially in it's own backyard, so while you may encounter hostile entities roaming these wastelands in the form of humanoids infected with the Verrator virus, Rook's native wildlife will also find their way into the zone, lurking in the shadows and awaiting a chance to pounce on you while you reach for that can of creamed corn.
Both Hunger and Thirst will also be new features in Divergence, done in a way that rewards hunters and survivalists, yet doesn't punish crafters of those who simply do not wish to partake.
Vast Streaming and Loading Improvements
Several-minute loading screens are officially a thing of the past in Divergence thanks to a completely redesigned planetary synchonization system that now streams all data to your game client in a compressed state. What was once a minute-long wait time to get to the login screen from game-launch has been squashed to "so fast it basically doesn't even show our disclaimed screen anymore".
All this and more coming over the next couple weeks. While we're still far from ready, and in fact only just under halfway there, with your continued support we know we can take this game to launch. Stay tuned for more in-depth info about these and upcoming near-release features in the days to come.
Sunday, April 10, 2016
Major PVE and Content Patch "Zero Five Zero" Announcement
For two months we've been describing, what we think of as, "a big damn
patch" that when ready will give players a lot more than our standard
patches of bug fixes and additions.
This "big push", we've decided to designate based on it's internal version number for us, which brings Divergence: Online to v0.50 and thus will be named "Divergence: Online "Zero Five Zero".
Zero Five Zero represents a major milestone in our development which will take our game from being an MMO with tons of potential professions, unrivaled crafting, unrivaled player and guild housing and twitch-combat, to a game with "a life of it's own" as well.
The answer is that, we simply decided that, while people knowing about the game is all well and good, a good number of players simply cannot wrap their minds around the concept of "Early Access" and are reviewing as if, this game built by two people, claims to be solid, complete, and a contender to games with ten times the staff and one hundred times the money. At the time of this new post, we're sitting exactly 1% inside of "Mostly Positive", and we simply do not wish to "mass sell" the game in it's previous state "until it's further along", at which point we can feel more confident that the new players buying the game won't simply buy it, play it, then get one of those automatically-granted refunds from Steam. We just can't afford that stuff dudes, so we've been holding out since January for a chance to "sell a better, more complete version of Divergence" and finally Zero Five Zero will allow us to do just that. Again, "not finished', but far enough along that we're at least willing to, again, allow it to be exposed on Steam, resulting in (what Steam estimates we'll receive as) over one-million page hits on our steam page and lots and lots of new players.
Better get your house in order before the new neighbors see what a shit-hole your property looks like!
And so without further ado; Behold, our official list of upcoming features intended to be released in "Divergence: Online Zero Five Zero"
Build fires, camps, and basic defenses out of collected wooden logs, sticks, and natural structures.
Rangers will be given additional buildable schematics, skill bonuses and modifiers that enable them to;
1) Construct fortified defenses, huge wooden structures and even whole forts out of chopped lumber.
2) Reduce your likelyhood to "aggro" nearby wild creatures by making yourself seen less threatening to skittish creatures as well as more threatening to predators, drastically reducing your likleyhood of being attacked.
3) Track creatures by their species or other criteria, even players themselves.
4) Eventually even tame wild animals for your benefit.
Players will be greeted with lifeforms that can trample them, steal their goods, provide food and nourishment or even provide them nightmares in the dark evenings to come on Rook's surface. Players and their friends can now enjoy many more activities that simply gunning down newbies, such as hunting creatures for sport, food, materials, or simply something to run for your life from.
Creatures will come in many sizes, even including a massive boss-style raid requiring the collaboration (and firepower) of potentially dozens of players to "bring down the beast" and gain coveted resources and materials for ultra-rare crafted goods and new quest items.
Theta-Blades, the ancient weapon of the Vindicator, will finally be available to be crafted by both Vindicator, Verrator, and psychic-trained humanoids alike. Crafting these weapons requires devotion and dedication as fabricating a weapon capable of opening a dimensional rift and transporting their blade through space and time during every use is no simple undertaking.
All humanoid players will have a thirst and hunger bar in addition to their existing HAM.
Thirst and hunger will begin to deplete the moment the player enters the world.
When thirst and hunger are controlled, the player receives a "healthy" bonus to stats.
Players also however will only suffer thirst and hunger depletion at a normal rate when outside of a hopper range with a "rest" component.
What's this mean exactly?
While you're "out in the world" hunting creatures, hunting players, doing your thing, you need food and water to survive. While you're at home on your couch, in a friends apartment, dancing in a cantina, or chilling in your castle, your hunger and thirst will deplete at a drastically-reduced rate which can be as low as just 1%, virtually nonexistant.
What we hope to accomplish with this is to allow players to play the game any way they wish, even if that be as a purely non-combative role and not be required to constantly "feed" their "survival-mode" requirements, while simultaneously offering players who do wish to venture out into the wilderness a real sense of survival gameplay.
Tell us what you think on our facebook group page!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/415812755276522/
That about covers it so far! We thank each and everyone one of you who've chipped in to help us make it this far and with your continued support, we've never been more certain that Divergence: Online can be the game we all know it deserves to be.
This "big push", we've decided to designate based on it's internal version number for us, which brings Divergence: Online to v0.50 and thus will be named "Divergence: Online "Zero Five Zero".
Zero Five Zero represents a major milestone in our development which will take our game from being an MMO with tons of potential professions, unrivaled crafting, unrivaled player and guild housing and twitch-combat, to a game with "a life of it's own" as well.
Tons of New Players
You've probably been wondering why, instead of constantly advertising
the game and trying to bring in new players, we've instead used exactly
zero of our allowed exposure powers that Steam allows since our January
launch.
The answer is that, we simply decided that, while people knowing about the game is all well and good, a good number of players simply cannot wrap their minds around the concept of "Early Access" and are reviewing as if, this game built by two people, claims to be solid, complete, and a contender to games with ten times the staff and one hundred times the money. At the time of this new post, we're sitting exactly 1% inside of "Mostly Positive", and we simply do not wish to "mass sell" the game in it's previous state "until it's further along", at which point we can feel more confident that the new players buying the game won't simply buy it, play it, then get one of those automatically-granted refunds from Steam. We just can't afford that stuff dudes, so we've been holding out since January for a chance to "sell a better, more complete version of Divergence" and finally Zero Five Zero will allow us to do just that. Again, "not finished', but far enough along that we're at least willing to, again, allow it to be exposed on Steam, resulting in (what Steam estimates we'll receive as) over one-million page hits on our steam page and lots and lots of new players.
Better get your house in order before the new neighbors see what a shit-hole your property looks like!
And so without further ado; Behold, our official list of upcoming features intended to be released in "Divergence: Online Zero Five Zero"
Trees Choppable/Harvestable!
Most trees in the game world will soon be able to be chopped down by the
player, allowing their logs to be collected and turned into wooden
defenses, structures, homes, and even huge forts!
Scout Profession
The Scout basic profession we released in previous builds will finally provide the player with a ton of useful features.
Build fires, camps, and basic defenses out of collected wooden logs, sticks, and natural structures.
Armorsmith Profession
This specialized-branch of Artisan will allow the player to finally
craft body-armor for themselves and others with resistances and
characteristics completely dependent on the crafting process itself.
Create armor with high resistances to ballistic weapons, or even a
specialized set with corrosion-resistance for you and your friends right
before that big acid-spitting raptor hunt you're gearing up to go on!
Ranger Profession
Expanding beyond the basics of scouting, players will be able to then advance to scout's elite profession; Ranger.
Rangers will be given additional buildable schematics, skill bonuses and modifiers that enable them to;
1) Construct fortified defenses, huge wooden structures and even whole forts out of chopped lumber.
2) Reduce your likelyhood to "aggro" nearby wild creatures by making yourself seen less threatening to skittish creatures as well as more threatening to predators, drastically reducing your likleyhood of being attacked.
3) Track creatures by their species or other criteria, even players themselves.
4) Eventually even tame wild animals for your benefit.
PVE Comes To Divergence!
It's been a long-awaited feature since our January Early Access Launch
and we're very pleased to say that Zero Five Zero will finally see the
surface of Rook explode with dynamic life of all types both timid,
friendly, inquisitive, and deadly.
Players will be greeted with lifeforms that can trample them, steal their goods, provide food and nourishment or even provide them nightmares in the dark evenings to come on Rook's surface. Players and their friends can now enjoy many more activities that simply gunning down newbies, such as hunting creatures for sport, food, materials, or simply something to run for your life from.
Creatures will come in many sizes, even including a massive boss-style raid requiring the collaboration (and firepower) of potentially dozens of players to "bring down the beast" and gain coveted resources and materials for ultra-rare crafted goods and new quest items.
New Vindicator Tier-2 Armor
Finally Vindicator will be able to quest for Their first upgraded VK
suits in Tier-2. These new suits will allow Vindicator players a big
boost to agility, rigidity and most importantly, combat power. Forging
these suits will require exotic materials and undoubtedly cost many
lives in the process, but the rewards for Vindicator players are great.
Theta-Blade Weapons
At long last, our signature weapon the "Theta-Blade" will be making its debut in Divergence: Online.
Theta-Blades, the ancient weapon of the Vindicator, will finally be available to be crafted by both Vindicator, Verrator, and psychic-trained humanoids alike. Crafting these weapons requires devotion and dedication as fabricating a weapon capable of opening a dimensional rift and transporting their blade through space and time during every use is no simple undertaking.
Omicron Factional Armor
Since, up to this point, armor served no practical purpose until other
game features were in place, it had long drawn the short straw. However,
with Zero Five Zero, armor will finally begin to see its day come in
Divergence: Online. Our first set will be Omicron Light Field Armor,
craftable by Omicron-aligned Armorsmiths, this armor relies heavily on
laminated fibroplast and aluminium layers to provide it superior
protection in the field against most kinetic damage. Anyone of any
faction is able to equip this armor, although we hope to be able to
offer armor-options for all three factions in the near future for our
VRTek and DC friends as well!
Factory and Grid improvements
We'll finally be giving factories and grid terminals the love they
deserve, creating additional layers of bug prevention that "catch"
mishaps before they happen and jam up your sweatshop-running-business on
Rook.
Turrets Improved
We're also in the process of allowing defensive turrets to visually
track and fire upon enemies, instead of simply dealing damage. They were
"better than nothing" before, but now they'll be something you don't
have to be embarrassed of! In addition to their damage, players will now
be able to craft-into-them increased turning speed based on the quality
of materials they put in during crafting.
Additional Feature We're Trying To Fit In
Cybernetics Profession
If things go as planned, we're also planning on adding the Cyberneticist
profession, which will finally allow players to craft those combat and
military synthetic chassis we've all been so eager to see more of in
game. Through cybernetics crafting, finally these guys will be able to
create chassis for themselves that actually do have the ability to
attack back XD
Doors and Gates
We'd love to be able to offer "actual doors" to players so that people
didn't need to resort to "picking up and dropping walls" to get in and
out of their property, while keeping others out.
Survival-Style Features
Divergence was always intended to be a game that rewards "survival-style
play" without punishing those who simply wish to play it for it's
incredible crafting or social aspects, such as dancing. To accomplish
this, we've come up with our own new take on survival-style gameplay.
All humanoid players will have a thirst and hunger bar in addition to their existing HAM.
Thirst and hunger will begin to deplete the moment the player enters the world.
When thirst and hunger are controlled, the player receives a "healthy" bonus to stats.
Players also however will only suffer thirst and hunger depletion at a normal rate when outside of a hopper range with a "rest" component.
What's this mean exactly?
While you're "out in the world" hunting creatures, hunting players, doing your thing, you need food and water to survive. While you're at home on your couch, in a friends apartment, dancing in a cantina, or chilling in your castle, your hunger and thirst will deplete at a drastically-reduced rate which can be as low as just 1%, virtually nonexistant.
What we hope to accomplish with this is to allow players to play the game any way they wish, even if that be as a purely non-combative role and not be required to constantly "feed" their "survival-mode" requirements, while simultaneously offering players who do wish to venture out into the wilderness a real sense of survival gameplay.
Tell us what you think on our facebook group page!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/415812755276522/
That about covers it so far! We thank each and everyone one of you who've chipped in to help us make it this far and with your continued support, we've never been more certain that Divergence: Online can be the game we all know it deserves to be.
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
Structure Maintenance is LIVE
You heard right, no more building empires for free, people ;)
From now on, structures (Harvesters, Factories, Hoppers, Defensive Turrets) will require maintenance in order to operate. Time to start spending those hard-earned (or got them off the body of someone you killed) credits and putting them to use!
The rules are simple;
All structures which require maintenance now required maintenance based on a base amount depending on what type of structure they are, and then additionally based on the final quality determined during crafting. The more energy efficient and better quality your components and items, the lower the regular maintenance costs will be for you!
Maintenance is displayed on a per-hour basis, and maintenance "ticks" once per minute based on that amount.
Additionally, structures also have different costs based on whether they are online, or offline. When offline, structures will generally require only 10% of that which they require when online and in-use.
Once a structures maintenance pool hits zero, it can no longer be picked back up unless its maintenance pool is increased to at least 1000 credits. Additionally, when a structure's maintenance pool is zero, it will begin to take damage every minute at the rate of 2% of it's maximum health per hour. This gives you just over two days to bring it back into the positive before you lose it for good.
Friends and clanmates can also pay maintenance on your structures so long as you have them added to a structure's admin list.
There are extra rules to take into consideration regarding hoppers and their maintenance;
Hoppers require maintenance based on their online and offline states, but they also increase in maintenance costs based on both the number of it's they are responsible for containing, and also the amount of ferrocrete contained within. All-in-all, it is vastly more cost-effective to build walls and floors with ferrocrete because the rate most hoppers operate at is around 1 (one) credit per item per hour.
For instructional imagery, please see our facebook page!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/415812755276522/
From now on, structures (Harvesters, Factories, Hoppers, Defensive Turrets) will require maintenance in order to operate. Time to start spending those hard-earned (or got them off the body of someone you killed) credits and putting them to use!
The rules are simple;
All structures which require maintenance now required maintenance based on a base amount depending on what type of structure they are, and then additionally based on the final quality determined during crafting. The more energy efficient and better quality your components and items, the lower the regular maintenance costs will be for you!
Maintenance is displayed on a per-hour basis, and maintenance "ticks" once per minute based on that amount.
Additionally, structures also have different costs based on whether they are online, or offline. When offline, structures will generally require only 10% of that which they require when online and in-use.
Once a structures maintenance pool hits zero, it can no longer be picked back up unless its maintenance pool is increased to at least 1000 credits. Additionally, when a structure's maintenance pool is zero, it will begin to take damage every minute at the rate of 2% of it's maximum health per hour. This gives you just over two days to bring it back into the positive before you lose it for good.
Friends and clanmates can also pay maintenance on your structures so long as you have them added to a structure's admin list.
There are extra rules to take into consideration regarding hoppers and their maintenance;
Hoppers require maintenance based on their online and offline states, but they also increase in maintenance costs based on both the number of it's they are responsible for containing, and also the amount of ferrocrete contained within. All-in-all, it is vastly more cost-effective to build walls and floors with ferrocrete because the rate most hoppers operate at is around 1 (one) credit per item per hour.
For instructional imagery, please see our facebook page!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/415812755276522/
Saturday, January 23, 2016
Currency and Vendors LIVE
Vendors and currecny are LIVE.
First two vendors are in Malkav and Lomenia at approximate coordinates -1430, 3660 for Malkav and 1430, 3660 for Lomenia both inside a cantina (Android NPC).
Tomorrow we'll squash any new bugs and work on the "buy" function and window as well so players can choose to browse and buy the things other players have sold to the vendors.
Right now the value of any item is determined by it's Overall Quality. For resource containers and stackable items, it's first determined by it's Overall Quality and second by it's quantity against the maximum such as 10,000 for resource containers.
100% of this is subject to repeated and extreme modification as time and testing occur, but essentially, all your horders have more than likely 24 hours or less to start building up them cash reserves before maintenance goes live and you have to start putting money into those structures to keep them alive. ;)
Bodies should also be lootable of their monies by clicking the "take all" button near the credits section.
Additional new trees and flowers have been added to the game world in Malkav, with new additions planned for the Akkhera border and also Lomenia tomorrow.
Additionally color toning and depth have also been tweaked, so give us some feedback, how do you like the look of the game now?
Wednesday, January 20, 2016
January 18th Patch Notes
01/18/2016
Items dropped in the world or those disconnected from a destroyed hopper (i.e. without an owner) will get auto-decayed after 30 minutes.
Server optimizations: removed non-essential properties, making sure inventories get deleted when destroying hoppers or deleting characters; attempting to reconnect server peers automatically on non-managed disconnects etc.
Cannot start harvester, generator, factory, or power grid without an owner (must be placed, can't be dropped).
01/17/2016
Ferrocrete Containers now require 100 units of any Inorganic resource, but also now contain 1000 units of ferrocrete per container!
All Resource Containers now carry up to 10,000 units!
All resources are now able to be combined into stacks! Be forewarned though; when stacked, all resource stats will be averaged between them.
DMHDG “Healing Gun” now requires only Novice Medic so that synthetic players can accrue medical experience to advance their Medic career.
Novice Scouts now gain general crafting and surveying tools.
Novice Scouts can now craft large log platforms and walls for creating huge wooden forts and fortifications!
Green “healing effects” from the DMHDG now ♥♥♥♥ off like they should and no longer persist infinitely in the world.
Derelict and abandoned structures will likely be obliterated by GMs in an attempt to lessen the server strain during this week’s upgrade process.
01/15/2016
Added options for volumetric light, film grain, bloom, and color correction (these can now be enabled or disabled).
Minor optimizations to speed entering the game world.
01/14/2016
Added campfires.
Structures start degrading when their condition drops below 50% (and eventually get destroyed).
Added the ability to equip the medic gun and heal others with it (only humans and Ennies).
01/13/2016
[SERVER]
Retroactively setting the max health for already created characters according to species.
Made sure people won't be able to heal themselves for more than their max health (and if they already did, it will be fixed by the above mentioned addition).
Hack prevention: people cannot loot items from more than 12 meters away (beyond that there is not radial menu on the body).
Displaying chat message when there are no generators or powerable structures in the radius of a power grid (none that are compatible).
Displaying the owner of a structure in the permissions panel.
Fixed an issue with power grids loading their data wrong.
When transferring persona, the player’s inventory stays with the discarded chassis and he gets the inventory of the chassis he has transferred to (note: anybody can loot chassis’ dropped in the world).
When a synthetic dies, his current chassis gets discarded and the default Android chassis will be granted to him (he will respawn in the Android chassis).
[CLIENT]
Synthetics should be fully-able to transfer between all available synthetic bodies.
Inventory items should stay on the exited chassis as they were intended to do.
New grid terminal should now be able to be used by anyone on their admin list even if they aren't the owner.
Over 20 new items added to the game world for crafting including our first Omicron items!
See post history
Items dropped in the world or those disconnected from a destroyed hopper (i.e. without an owner) will get auto-decayed after 30 minutes.
Server optimizations: removed non-essential properties, making sure inventories get deleted when destroying hoppers or deleting characters; attempting to reconnect server peers automatically on non-managed disconnects etc.
Cannot start harvester, generator, factory, or power grid without an owner (must be placed, can't be dropped).
01/17/2016
Ferrocrete Containers now require 100 units of any Inorganic resource, but also now contain 1000 units of ferrocrete per container!
All Resource Containers now carry up to 10,000 units!
All resources are now able to be combined into stacks! Be forewarned though; when stacked, all resource stats will be averaged between them.
DMHDG “Healing Gun” now requires only Novice Medic so that synthetic players can accrue medical experience to advance their Medic career.
Novice Scouts now gain general crafting and surveying tools.
Novice Scouts can now craft large log platforms and walls for creating huge wooden forts and fortifications!
Green “healing effects” from the DMHDG now ♥♥♥♥ off like they should and no longer persist infinitely in the world.
Derelict and abandoned structures will likely be obliterated by GMs in an attempt to lessen the server strain during this week’s upgrade process.
01/15/2016
Added options for volumetric light, film grain, bloom, and color correction (these can now be enabled or disabled).
Minor optimizations to speed entering the game world.
01/14/2016
Added campfires.
Structures start degrading when their condition drops below 50% (and eventually get destroyed).
Added the ability to equip the medic gun and heal others with it (only humans and Ennies).
01/13/2016
[SERVER]
Retroactively setting the max health for already created characters according to species.
Made sure people won't be able to heal themselves for more than their max health (and if they already did, it will be fixed by the above mentioned addition).
Hack prevention: people cannot loot items from more than 12 meters away (beyond that there is not radial menu on the body).
Displaying chat message when there are no generators or powerable structures in the radius of a power grid (none that are compatible).
Displaying the owner of a structure in the permissions panel.
Fixed an issue with power grids loading their data wrong.
When transferring persona, the player’s inventory stays with the discarded chassis and he gets the inventory of the chassis he has transferred to (note: anybody can loot chassis’ dropped in the world).
When a synthetic dies, his current chassis gets discarded and the default Android chassis will be granted to him (he will respawn in the Android chassis).
[CLIENT]
Synthetics should be fully-able to transfer between all available synthetic bodies.
Inventory items should stay on the exited chassis as they were intended to do.
New grid terminal should now be able to be used by anyone on their admin list even if they aren't the owner.
Over 20 new items added to the game world for crafting including our first Omicron items!
See post history
Monday, January 4, 2016
The Fall of Gaming Yelp Reviewers and The Rise of Synthetics
Officially waiting on Valve to press their magic button and make us live. Many thanks to everyone who helped us get to this point! Which brings me to our first point of the day:
The "gaming yelp reviewer bullshit" has got to stop. We get way too many requests every single day from people offering to give us a good review on steam in exchange for free game keys. What's worse, is that a lot of these all follow the same format of, "Hey, I'm a person who reviews games on youtube", or "I'm a guy who streams and i have a shitload of followers". The more mild of these are simply "If you give me something for free, I'll say your product is good", whereas I've woken up more than a handful of times to "You ignored my request, prepare for a bad review!" And these are people with thousands of followers who are looked at as if they are the source of some "real" review going on somewhere.
Therefore, and furthermore, any requests made to Stained Glass Llama for the intention of getting free keys will be summarily ignored. Any "repeat" requests, threats, or offers from so-called "reputable" reviewers, streamers, whoemever, offering a favorable review in exchange for free stuff will go on a nice little list that I'm building up of "sources you trust for reviews which offered to give me a blanket good one in exchange for free stuff," to be dispensed to your own community if and when I feel like it, assholes.
If everyone who has asked for a free key in the last two weeks had contributed to our IndieGoGo, not only would it have not failed but the game would be substantially more complete right now, so our loyalty and willingness to "do favors" extends entirely to those who actually helped us get where we are, both in the past, present, and future. You buy the game = We give substantial shits about your well being and will aspire to do everything in our power to reward your generosity. Those are our people; Not the legions of wannabe PewDiePies who feel 1,100 subscribers makes you an authority in anything.
There. Now that we've gotten that ugliness out of the way, some good news!
Yes, the game is completely submitted to Steam and waiting on some form of final approval. Honestly, we were simply unaware that despite already being approved, there was a second review process before you choose to launch, primarily because we all know how many Unit-Z copies somehow got rubber stamped through the process, but we're confident it's merely a matter of waiting on someone to look at their screen and click the mouse. Bummed as we are that this prevented us from actually launching January 1st like we'd planned, it did give us an extra couple days to get more work done, which results in some pretty cool advancements.
The game world is so new it still has that new car smell. The entire terrain was reconfigured to reflect a whole new topology; Notably, Malkav and Lomenia now border on one another, allowing us to transition from jungle to temperate biomes in the 3200m border between.
In the southwest, Malkav borders on Akkhera, allowing us to transition from temperate (Pacific Norwest) to a midway state (Colorado) before arriving at the desert (Pacific Southwest). The final region, Anduine (The big red area) is undeveloped and will continue to be so until I'm satisfied that the other three regions look good enough, so don't waste your time walking out there. If you spend 10 hours walking to Anduine, find nothing there, then expect us to "teleport" you back to semi-civilizations, you're going to be let down.
It's all work-in-progress so have an open mind.
Lomenia resides in the Northeast quadrant of the game world. It's intended to be a sort of jungle/rainforest style biome with large vined trees and very little truly flat ground. Like all four regions, it has a beach on two sides. It's home to the largest diveristy of life Rook has (when they're working properly) Including "raptors", "stalkers", and is home to the first of two species of Ennie and Lyra; A very small and dextrous catlike species.
Malkav resides in the Northwest quadrant and is representative of the pacific northwest USA; Temperate. Malkav, and it's borders with Akkhera and Lomenia are dense but have large enough open land to allow much larger herbivorous life forms to roam freely such as the huge Grontos (the large creatures seen briefly in the last video) and a yet unamed species we're simply calling "chargers" for now because of their method of attack. The denser parts of Malkav, such as its border with Lomenia also support Lyra and Stalkers, so watch your ass if you settle there.
Akkhera is Rooks desert, occupying the southwest quadrant of the game world, bordering on Malkav to the north. You'll find nothing there but bones, sand, the occasional giant sand worm or reptile, desolation, and the best concentrations of solid and liquid petrochemical in the game world. Some people like open space, so there you go.
Anduine resides in the southeast part of the world, and will be announced at a later date. While our other biomes are design to be "somewhat alien yet familiar", Anduine will be "almost entirely alien".
Synthetic players (I mean players playing synthetics, not artificial gamers themselves) can now create a new synthetic character and be given a shitty weak android body to house their artificial soul. IF you want a game where you start off super powerful and have nowhere to advance to, there are plenty out there, go for it. However, you're basically only as weak as a typical homo-sapien in that you can move about, survey, harvest, and craft weapons and items, even equip weapons and settle your arguements with violence like any human; You simply cannot equip clothing or armor.
As a synthetic, your "life" so to speak will be spent trying to make certain you have as many spare bodies of as many types as you can house for your soul to transverse to when you die, because if you don't have one, it's back to character creation for now.
Once you can either afford one, or you can build one yourself, you should definitely move up to a combat-synthetic chassis. In this form, you're faster, stronger, better than a human in many ways with again the same hinderance; No clothing or armor. Unlike humans however, your abilities don't simply end on the humanoid level, because you can also transfer your consciousness to any other synthetic chassis you find in the game world, such as the huge military synthetics and yes, they're working.
Almost entirely, as i said. Locomotion, implementation, that's all in place. Even attacks, but they don't do damage yet, so you'll have to be patient with that.
Onto part 2!
The "gaming yelp reviewer bullshit" has got to stop. We get way too many requests every single day from people offering to give us a good review on steam in exchange for free game keys. What's worse, is that a lot of these all follow the same format of, "Hey, I'm a person who reviews games on youtube", or "I'm a guy who streams and i have a shitload of followers". The more mild of these are simply "If you give me something for free, I'll say your product is good", whereas I've woken up more than a handful of times to "You ignored my request, prepare for a bad review!" And these are people with thousands of followers who are looked at as if they are the source of some "real" review going on somewhere.
Therefore, and furthermore, any requests made to Stained Glass Llama for the intention of getting free keys will be summarily ignored. Any "repeat" requests, threats, or offers from so-called "reputable" reviewers, streamers, whoemever, offering a favorable review in exchange for free stuff will go on a nice little list that I'm building up of "sources you trust for reviews which offered to give me a blanket good one in exchange for free stuff," to be dispensed to your own community if and when I feel like it, assholes.
If everyone who has asked for a free key in the last two weeks had contributed to our IndieGoGo, not only would it have not failed but the game would be substantially more complete right now, so our loyalty and willingness to "do favors" extends entirely to those who actually helped us get where we are, both in the past, present, and future. You buy the game = We give substantial shits about your well being and will aspire to do everything in our power to reward your generosity. Those are our people; Not the legions of wannabe PewDiePies who feel 1,100 subscribers makes you an authority in anything.
There. Now that we've gotten that ugliness out of the way, some good news!
Yes, the game is completely submitted to Steam and waiting on some form of final approval. Honestly, we were simply unaware that despite already being approved, there was a second review process before you choose to launch, primarily because we all know how many Unit-Z copies somehow got rubber stamped through the process, but we're confident it's merely a matter of waiting on someone to look at their screen and click the mouse. Bummed as we are that this prevented us from actually launching January 1st like we'd planned, it did give us an extra couple days to get more work done, which results in some pretty cool advancements.
The game world is so new it still has that new car smell. The entire terrain was reconfigured to reflect a whole new topology; Notably, Malkav and Lomenia now border on one another, allowing us to transition from jungle to temperate biomes in the 3200m border between.
In the southwest, Malkav borders on Akkhera, allowing us to transition from temperate (Pacific Norwest) to a midway state (Colorado) before arriving at the desert (Pacific Southwest). The final region, Anduine (The big red area) is undeveloped and will continue to be so until I'm satisfied that the other three regions look good enough, so don't waste your time walking out there. If you spend 10 hours walking to Anduine, find nothing there, then expect us to "teleport" you back to semi-civilizations, you're going to be let down.
It's all work-in-progress so have an open mind.
Biomes:
All regions in the game world are named after individual continents that exist but are currently inaccessible due to floating point issues inherent in all game engines that have ever existed. There are ways of getting around it, but again, we're two people and it's going to have to get tackled once we can afford it.Lomenia resides in the Northeast quadrant of the game world. It's intended to be a sort of jungle/rainforest style biome with large vined trees and very little truly flat ground. Like all four regions, it has a beach on two sides. It's home to the largest diveristy of life Rook has (when they're working properly) Including "raptors", "stalkers", and is home to the first of two species of Ennie and Lyra; A very small and dextrous catlike species.
Malkav resides in the Northwest quadrant and is representative of the pacific northwest USA; Temperate. Malkav, and it's borders with Akkhera and Lomenia are dense but have large enough open land to allow much larger herbivorous life forms to roam freely such as the huge Grontos (the large creatures seen briefly in the last video) and a yet unamed species we're simply calling "chargers" for now because of their method of attack. The denser parts of Malkav, such as its border with Lomenia also support Lyra and Stalkers, so watch your ass if you settle there.
Akkhera is Rooks desert, occupying the southwest quadrant of the game world, bordering on Malkav to the north. You'll find nothing there but bones, sand, the occasional giant sand worm or reptile, desolation, and the best concentrations of solid and liquid petrochemical in the game world. Some people like open space, so there you go.
Anduine resides in the southeast part of the world, and will be announced at a later date. While our other biomes are design to be "somewhat alien yet familiar", Anduine will be "almost entirely alien".
And onto Synthetics:
Synthetics are almost entirely working now. Before, you couldn't even try to create one without it bugging out, but as of today, here's what you can do;Synthetic players (I mean players playing synthetics, not artificial gamers themselves) can now create a new synthetic character and be given a shitty weak android body to house their artificial soul. IF you want a game where you start off super powerful and have nowhere to advance to, there are plenty out there, go for it. However, you're basically only as weak as a typical homo-sapien in that you can move about, survey, harvest, and craft weapons and items, even equip weapons and settle your arguements with violence like any human; You simply cannot equip clothing or armor.
As a synthetic, your "life" so to speak will be spent trying to make certain you have as many spare bodies of as many types as you can house for your soul to transverse to when you die, because if you don't have one, it's back to character creation for now.
Once you can either afford one, or you can build one yourself, you should definitely move up to a combat-synthetic chassis. In this form, you're faster, stronger, better than a human in many ways with again the same hinderance; No clothing or armor. Unlike humans however, your abilities don't simply end on the humanoid level, because you can also transfer your consciousness to any other synthetic chassis you find in the game world, such as the huge military synthetics and yes, they're working.
Almost entirely, as i said. Locomotion, implementation, that's all in place. Even attacks, but they don't do damage yet, so you'll have to be patient with that.
Onto part 2!
Monday, December 14, 2015
Divergence Steam Download Now Available!
For those who don't frequent the facebook page, just an announcement to let everyone know that Divergence has successfully been integrated into Steam, so you can finally ditch that klunky old patcher, plug your key into Steam and download neat and clean from there. Anyone who needs their Steam key and has contributed at the appropriate level, just write us on our facebook page or email me directly at ethan@divergence-online.com
Divergence Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/415812755276522/
Divergence Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/415812755276522/
Friday, December 11, 2015
Long-Awaited Divergence Combat Patch Goes LIVE! (pt. 1)
Wednesday, December 9th 2015 marks the day Divergence finally experienced homicide involving a firearm.
Ana Todica, a homo-Solitus female was the unfortuante recipient of repeated gunshot wounds to the chest and bled out on the scene. Negative Capability occurred immediately afterwards; Her cloning data was successfully received by the ATC cloning network and processed a new body for her 90 seconds later.
A new dev blog post will be made after this one outlining the actual specifics of weapons crafting and utilization, death and dying, and the various other changes made to the game, so to get this process started and without further ado -
Stay tuned for part two of this devblog, outlining more of what all is included in this push.
Ana Todica, a homo-Solitus female was the unfortuante recipient of repeated gunshot wounds to the chest and bled out on the scene. Negative Capability occurred immediately afterwards; Her cloning data was successfully received by the ATC cloning network and processed a new body for her 90 seconds later.
A new dev blog post will be made after this one outlining the actual specifics of weapons crafting and utilization, death and dying, and the various other changes made to the game, so to get this process started and without further ado -
Major New Features:
Armed Combat
- For the first time ever, Divergence now has fundamental structure for completely twitch-based combat.
- Weapons can be crafted with characteristics derived from the quality and features of the crafted materials input during the crafting process. A more in-depth explanation will be available in the next devblog post.
- Seventeen firearms, comprising handguns, assault rifles, shotguns and long-range rifles have been added to the game world.
- Dozens of available ammunitions.
- Water has been added to the game world at long last. You'll find the ocean at zero elevation, which means you'll need to either travel to the coast, or find an extreme lowland (such as the desert) to see it in action. Improvements to come in following patches.
- All items now have Mass, which is determined during crafting.
- All structures can now be damaged and destroyed, and will reflect that damage if below 50% condition. See the important note below.
- Player death occurs now when your health (red bar) drops to 0%. You'll be confronted with the option of respawning at the cloning facility until player cloning facilities become available as does limited permadeath.
- Gunshots and effects will now attenuate based on distance and local reverberation. It sounds totally cool.
Upgrades and Improvements.
- Fifteen new tree, grass and foliage species.
- Tonemapping improvements.
- All-new login scene.
- Crafting tool now displays relevant traits of materials requested for all schematics and also displays how those components affect the outome of your crafted items.
- Skills and Professions have been completely refactored from the ground up. The skills panel will look only slightly different to the user, however the big difference is that now the server is able to create, store, and license all future unlockable schematics and abilities in future patches.
- Inventory icons will now size to one of three sizes; "Large, Medium, and Small" based on their intended size.
- Ennie legs are now fixed so they dont look like they're squatting.
- Female characters mouths are no longer open while holding certain items.
- All items now have Mass, which is determined during crafting.
- All structures can now be damaged and destroyed, and will reflect that damage if below 50% condition. See the important note below.
IMPORTANT NOTES:
- All schematics are auto-unlocked for right now as soon as you re-learn Novice Artisan (which you must do). In the coming weeks, we will finally move these schematics to the correct location in each profession, such as artisan, architect, weaponsmith, etc, so get your fill right now.
- Additionally, material requirements for crafted items are extremely lax - Requiring only a few very raw materials in most cases - This is purely to make it easy for people to craft items that we wanted to get tested before launch, so again, have your fun while you can and you don't have to crafter individual gun barrels and so on.
- For those who haven't kept up to date, the game world now is essentially just a place where we've been dumping things for testing and that's why you'll see weird trees all over the place in odd places and very little design actually taking place. There's no point yet, because the "real" game world can't be authored until the week before launch.
- While you can throw punches in weird directions in unarmed right now, we haven't done melee combat yet, so keep that in mind. We decided to start with the most difficult type of combat; Ranged, and then do melee next.
- ALL STRUCTURES AND ITEMS CAN NOW BE DESTROYED so keep this in mind while shooting your guns in all directions.
- When you shoot someone's ferrocrete wall, the damage is transferred up to the hopper, and if the hopper id destroyed, everything contained within is destroyed along with it.
Stay tuned for part two of this devblog, outlining more of what all is included in this push.
Wednesday, December 2, 2015
December Plan of Events
It's been a rampant several weeks since our IGG ended, but not even a month since we're already nearly ready to release out first big update to the game, introducing tons of new "actual game" features.
Between now and our first patch, you will not be able to log into the game, so if you don't see the game version number change, don't waste your time.
Here's a brief intinerary of what everyone can expect to happen in the near future between today and our January first launch day:
That's why we're taking the "life is feudal" approach and releasing the game as Early Access. There is plain and simple no other method of survival, and survival is obviously essential to growth.
What we'll have is basically an experimental engine and drivetrain capable of breaking land speed records, with a lawn chair for a drivers seat and no body. Ugly, spartan, but with incredible potential. It's our hope that those who turn over the engine and give it the try it deserves will see that potential and buy-in, enabling us to continue adding more and more to it over the months post-launch.
What features exactly are we talking about? Well, that would involve me spoiling the surprise, and neither do i want to speak about upcoming features until i'm certain they'll be usable in the time we have.
We'll know more the closer we get to that date. Thanks for reading.
Between now and our first patch, you will not be able to log into the game, so if you don't see the game version number change, don't waste your time.
Here's a brief intinerary of what everyone can expect to happen in the near future between today and our January first launch day:
- A few more absolutely critical fixes.
- First patch introducing all our new content created since IGG. Brief announcement over social media meant to draw in 20-30 testers who'd like to be the first to try new stuff and willing to give us useful and open-minded feedback on it.
- Tweaks, fixes based on that feedback.
- Trying to get as many additional features working in the time we have left.
- Our super-duper bigass patch with a better explanation meant to draw in as many or more testers.
- Free for all slugfest where we initiate Ragnarok, paint the desert sand red and shoot video and still images to be used on our actual steam page.
- Erasure of all in-game content, existing terrain, basically everything.
- Replace all previous terrain and terrain content with new "for launch" landscape layout.
- Full announcement to all past contributors on all campaigns and elsewhere, letting everyone know we're going ahead with launch and what they can expect.
- "Land Grab Event" for everyone entitled.
- Obliteration of our existing game client and patcher, preparing to deploy everything to the much, much, much better steam patching service. Non-steam-key enabled game installs will no longer work, so make sure you use the steam keys that we'll be giving you based on your contribution level.
- Launch day! Beta is considered to be in effect, so anyone who contributed at that level will be getting their steam keys as well.
A note on the quality and depth of our upcoming Steam Early Access Launch
I cannot stress enough the importance of people understanding that this is absolutely not the point at which we wanted to be launching the game, nor are we in any way painting the game as "complete" in any form. We were simply relying on a successful campaign to fund the rest of the game but with just 1/3 of what we needed to do so, we are completely 100% flat broke and not even able to fly home to see our families on Xmas. The money had to be spent on what little help we could afford with the hopes that we can recoup it later.
That's why we're taking the "life is feudal" approach and releasing the game as Early Access. There is plain and simple no other method of survival, and survival is obviously essential to growth.
But what state will the game be at Early Access Launch?
Very not-shit.What we'll have is basically an experimental engine and drivetrain capable of breaking land speed records, with a lawn chair for a drivers seat and no body. Ugly, spartan, but with incredible potential. It's our hope that those who turn over the engine and give it the try it deserves will see that potential and buy-in, enabling us to continue adding more and more to it over the months post-launch.
What features exactly are we talking about? Well, that would involve me spoiling the surprise, and neither do i want to speak about upcoming features until i'm certain they'll be usable in the time we have.
We'll know more the closer we get to that date. Thanks for reading.
Sunday, November 22, 2015
Early Access Launch Date Set
Greetings all.
I'd originally written out a long dev blog post outlining our situation since IndieGoGo, but recently decided against it. Instead, i'm taking a minimum amount of time away from work purely to outline what you can expect over the next couple weeks.
Divergence: Online's Steam launch date is officially set for January 1st 2016. Meaning, a month and change. We will be considering Steam Early Access to be "beta", and those you contributed for alpha or beta access will be getting their steam keys at that time.
Why so soon?
Over the next few weeks, anyone who tries to log in is going to notice things changing between one week at the next as we rush to get in everything that we can
Profits from Steam Early Access will continue to be re-invested back into the project to build on our existing structure and add more content continuously. As we've always done, as we're going to continue to do, rain or shine.
What to expect between now and January 1st.
I'd originally written out a long dev blog post outlining our situation since IndieGoGo, but recently decided against it. Instead, i'm taking a minimum amount of time away from work purely to outline what you can expect over the next couple weeks.
Divergence: Online's Steam launch date is officially set for January 1st 2016. Meaning, a month and change. We will be considering Steam Early Access to be "beta", and those you contributed for alpha or beta access will be getting their steam keys at that time.
Why so soon?
- We work incredibly fucking fast and efficiently. Did I not sell that to the best of my abilities during the campaign?
- The IndieGoGo failed, and we're broke because -
- I wrote a lot of emails to a lot of visitors on the campaign to find out why they weren't putting in money, and the vast vast majority who responded gave more or less the exact same answer with different wording; "It seems like it's going to be released in the near future for $30, so why would I put in $100 now?"Makes sense I guess, but that doesn't help our situation right now, does it; The situation of being left with barely enough money to expand the team from two people to three. Yay.
Over the next few weeks, anyone who tries to log in is going to notice things changing between one week at the next as we rush to get in everything that we can
Profits from Steam Early Access will continue to be re-invested back into the project to build on our existing structure and add more content continuously. As we've always done, as we're going to continue to do, rain or shine.
What to expect between now and January 1st.
- Not a lot of dev blog posts. I don't have time and to be totally honest, I don't want to. My attitude sucks as you can probably imagine having devoted every ounce of strength i had to that campaign and it didn't make an ounce of difference, and so I'd rather put that resentment to use and just work.
- Weekly (or whatever) new patches with little or no explanation as to what they added. Want to know more about it? Log in and look around, or just wait for January 1st.
- Tons and tons and tons of work. We're up around noon and at it until three or four A.M. typically. It's client and server programming, concept art, 3D modeling, texturing, rigging and animating, terrain creation, trees and foliage, even A.I foundational work.
- We aren't responding to any more "my shit is buried under the ground and i can't get to it" help requests, because all this stuff is getting wiped in a month anyway. Ergo, it's pointless to care about it.
- Free-Users can still log in also, however do so at your own risk. We'll be occasionally giving out guns and ammo to contributors and filling the world full of savage carnivorous life forms. Thus, the term "free user" will henceforth be synonymous with "free meat."
- You may log in one day after noticing a patch and suddenly see people killing each other, or buildings on fire. This is just nature working itself out.
- Your existing stuff will likely degrade and self destruct once we have maintenance, vendors, and currency working, unless you upkeep it.
- If we even make any mention at all about what stuff is being added each patch, it'll most likely be on our facebook group at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/415812755276522/
- You guys will continue to be able to log in throughout the entire process, as promised.
- You get to test new content before anyone else as a result.
- You have free reign to organize into packs and victimize anyone you don't recognize without fear of repercussions from us. Hell, if we're testing stuff and in game at the time, maybe we'll bird-dog for you and join in the hunt!
- On December 31st, all your shit will explode and the world will totally change shape, so be prepared. Burn your property to the ground yourself before anyone else has a chance to is my advice.
- You can expect the aforementioned "shitty attitude" to exclude you, because you helped us when we needed it most. If you want help, or have questions, just ask and we'll be johnny-on-the-spot with that.
Friday, November 13, 2015
Crafting Down Until Later Today
Just letting everyone know that crafting is offline until later today when we can push a new patch for the client to synchronize with the server. You can still try, but you won't get have any success until the new patch for your clients goes out. New stuff coming so thanks for sticking with us.
Sunday, November 1, 2015
Version 0.155 - Massive Engine and Graphics Upgrade LIVE
Thanks for baring with us through the issues we experienced with the host we use for our game patches. As far as we can tell, it's resolved (for now, although we're anxious to begin using Steams service) and we recommend that everyone take advantage of this by patching up and experiencing the fruits of our labor; A total overhaul and upgrade to Divergence's core engine systems and graphics.
This total engine overhaul isn't something we foresaw doing in the near future; In fact we had plans to start on it around the turn of the year after our Steam launch. However fate rarely calls on us at a time of our choosing.
There are a lot of factors that led into it; The softwares we use were all migrating to "the new version" and one-by-one announcing their discontinuation of support for the "professional" version we used. All of the new candy was being developed specifically to use it, and despite the fact that our version was top-of-the-line mere months before this, it was quickly being relegated to a position regarded as "old useless shit".
All of these elements led to the necessity of an overhaul, but the single biggest factor was, to be put simply, we had outgrown the existing system. No seriously, we did; The existing software we used to compile each new version of the game was based on 32-bit, which had a maximum memory usage of just 3.5gb, meaning that to build each new version of the game for you fine people typically resulted in it crashing out before completion somewhere in the neighborhood of 15-20 times before success, and it was getting worse with each MB the game increased in size.
That bottleneck has now been eliminated as we're operating purely on 64-bit architecture from here on out. It's infinitely easier to test, build, re-test, and re-build for us and results in a lot less headache. The result is a new foundation of the game which we'll be able to built on for the rest of the game's life with some amazing advantages.
PBR allows artists to not just define a series of texture maps to be applied to a models surface, but also define the actual physical surface characteristics of that object and translate all light hitting it into realistic patters. Surfaces can now be defined as metallic, organic, matte, gloss, or any combination of patters.
Since I'm the primary artist on this project, that creates a shitload of work for me to do on my own, as any surface you wish to take advantage of this now needs to have new textures created, but the potential rewards are very worth the work involved. For now, you won't see a whole lot of surfaces using it (Rocks and Ferrocrete are two that do) because I have to re-make all that stuff, but as time progresses you'll see more and more.
Although it's sad to see that feature go, the benefits of the new systems are obvious to anyone who logs into the game.
Volumetric Lighting has has finally seen its debut in Divergence as well, being emitted from both the star at the center of our system as well as the planet we orbit at night. VL is the big-brother to the common practice of using crepuscular rays (AKA "God Rays" or "Sun Shafts) to imitate the streaking of light through atmospheric particulates. Sunshafts are what you use because you can't use volumetric light, we however, can now do it.
True volumetric light behaves totally different from sunshafts in that:
Our VL solution also has an animated dither to simulate the movement of particulates traveling through air where light is illuminating it.
Many fixes and improvements including factory crates, factories, and missing LODs causing some models to appear invisible.
It's a little comfort that over 4000 people pledged that "Yes, they would buy it if it were on Steam right now" putting us not just in the top 100, the top 50, or even the top 10, but at #1 in the world, but as far as we can tell, none of those people have put their actual money into the project yet, and that's why we're having to try and come up with some way of still finishing this.
The simple truth is that if people want this game launched on January 1st, the campaign absolutely must produce more than what it's done so far, even if it's just a couple thousand dollars, that money can and will be the difference between only one species of creatures in the game or six; The difference between basic combat, or basic combat and skills progression like psychic and all the cool stuff we want to do with synthetics.
If you have friends or family still on the fence, this is essentially the time we urge you to get them involved.
And for those who have contributed and supported us this far, we can't thank you enough, so hopefully we'll be able to continue to hash out this amazing game for you while we're all still young-ish :)
-Ethan Casner
This total engine overhaul isn't something we foresaw doing in the near future; In fact we had plans to start on it around the turn of the year after our Steam launch. However fate rarely calls on us at a time of our choosing.
There are a lot of factors that led into it; The softwares we use were all migrating to "the new version" and one-by-one announcing their discontinuation of support for the "professional" version we used. All of the new candy was being developed specifically to use it, and despite the fact that our version was top-of-the-line mere months before this, it was quickly being relegated to a position regarded as "old useless shit".
All of these elements led to the necessity of an overhaul, but the single biggest factor was, to be put simply, we had outgrown the existing system. No seriously, we did; The existing software we used to compile each new version of the game was based on 32-bit, which had a maximum memory usage of just 3.5gb, meaning that to build each new version of the game for you fine people typically resulted in it crashing out before completion somewhere in the neighborhood of 15-20 times before success, and it was getting worse with each MB the game increased in size.
That bottleneck has now been eliminated as we're operating purely on 64-bit architecture from here on out. It's infinitely easier to test, build, re-test, and re-build for us and results in a lot less headache. The result is a new foundation of the game which we'll be able to built on for the rest of the game's life with some amazing advantages.
Physically-Based Rendering (PBR)
Divergence has been completely overhauled with a brand-new graphics pipeline utilizing today's bleeding-edge graphics innovation known as physically-based lighting, AKA physically-based rendering (PBR).PBR allows artists to not just define a series of texture maps to be applied to a models surface, but also define the actual physical surface characteristics of that object and translate all light hitting it into realistic patters. Surfaces can now be defined as metallic, organic, matte, gloss, or any combination of patters.
Since I'm the primary artist on this project, that creates a shitload of work for me to do on my own, as any surface you wish to take advantage of this now needs to have new textures created, but the potential rewards are very worth the work involved. For now, you won't see a whole lot of surfaces using it (Rocks and Ferrocrete are two that do) because I have to re-make all that stuff, but as time progresses you'll see more and more.
All-New Environment and Atmosphere
As much as people liked the Aurora Borealis, for now, it was an unfortunate casualty of progress and thus won't be seen in the game again anytime soon. The simple reason for that is that feature was created by a third-party who walked away from the project, and doesn't want to help us reintegrate it into this version of the game.Although it's sad to see that feature go, the benefits of the new systems are obvious to anyone who logs into the game.
- Atmospheric scattering now correctly propagates independent of your camera view range and thus creates a completely smooth transition from near-to-far distances. It looks totally great - No more "purple edge".
- The night sky finally shows the actual planet our world, Rook, is orbiting in all its glory. No more bullshit being stuck with Earth's moon as a placeholder.
- Night time light has also been increased somewhat to help with testing.
- Volumetric Lighting!
Volumetric Lighting has has finally seen its debut in Divergence as well, being emitted from both the star at the center of our system as well as the planet we orbit at night. VL is the big-brother to the common practice of using crepuscular rays (AKA "God Rays" or "Sun Shafts) to imitate the streaking of light through atmospheric particulates. Sunshafts are what you use because you can't use volumetric light, we however, can now do it.
True volumetric light behaves totally different from sunshafts in that:
- Its origin need not be within screenscape to generate the effect
- Light collects anywhere it falls, resulting in a nearly "foggy" appearance depending on density.
Our VL solution also has an animated dither to simulate the movement of particulates traveling through air where light is illuminating it.
Totally New Tree and Foliage Systems
All foliage is being replaced by a massively-upgraded new system allowing for multiple levels of details and beautifully smoothe transitions between them. No more obvious cutout billboards. In addition, the new system correctly shades all levels of detail, so no more black billboards closing in around you. The new system also allows of species variation which gives the impression of slight variations in colorization, as well as full integration with our new fog and atmosphere systems. It just looks really, really, good, and runs exponentially more efficiently than before.
Big FPS Boosts
Framerates have increased across the board to a large degree, even on maximum settings due to the removal of even more bottlenecks and the optimization of graphics inquiries. We still have some work to do, primarily with lights and ferrocrete o our two largest FPS hogs, but in general players should enjoy excellent framerates now even with all these graphical options maximized.Many fixes and improvements including factory crates, factories, and missing LODs causing some models to appear invisible.
The IndieGoGo Situation
Our IndieGoGo campaign is drawing to a close, with less than two weeks remaining. I'd be lying if I said that we were happy about the way it went, with all indications being that it will not meet its goal.It's a little comfort that over 4000 people pledged that "Yes, they would buy it if it were on Steam right now" putting us not just in the top 100, the top 50, or even the top 10, but at #1 in the world, but as far as we can tell, none of those people have put their actual money into the project yet, and that's why we're having to try and come up with some way of still finishing this.
The simple truth is that if people want this game launched on January 1st, the campaign absolutely must produce more than what it's done so far, even if it's just a couple thousand dollars, that money can and will be the difference between only one species of creatures in the game or six; The difference between basic combat, or basic combat and skills progression like psychic and all the cool stuff we want to do with synthetics.
If you have friends or family still on the fence, this is essentially the time we urge you to get them involved.
And for those who have contributed and supported us this far, we can't thank you enough, so hopefully we'll be able to continue to hash out this amazing game for you while we're all still young-ish :)
-Ethan Casner
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