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.
Friday, August 26, 2016
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/
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