Hotseat and twitter
January 27th, 2012 by Ian
UK1 is down right now for an upgrade for the upcoming patch. It should be back up within an hour. When we post the patch you’ll immediately have access to the new Open Challenge system.
Do follow me on twitter for server and other game updates: @IanHardingham
We’re putting offline hotseat in the game for both PC/OSX/Linux and iPad versions. That is what I’m working on today!
Frozen Synapse Postmortem
January 25th, 2012 by Paul
I wrote about the entire dev process on Frozen Synapse for Gamasutra here. Thanks to everyone at Gama for letting us write on there – it’s always very cool.
Mutators
January 25th, 2012 by Ian
James is finishing up the auto-updater and the first update. We’ve fixed quite a few problems and we’re also launching the new Open Challenge system – I hope you guys will be pleased.
This week I’ve been working on the new unit (which I’ll talk about soon), but what I’ve started on today is Mutators – a medium-sized part of the DLC.
One of the things I really want to do with FS now is to subvert some of the rules and see how it impacts the play of the game as a whole. Today I’m implementing “Double Kill”, which when activated will remove the only vaguely luck-based element of the game. When two units engage eath other with *exactly* the same situation, currently a slightly arcane process chooses who dies. With the Double Kill mutator enabled both units will die.
Here are the other mutators I have planned for the DLC:
- Focus Aim – when move-aiming, if you round a corner and engage someone very close to where you set the target, you are said to be “focus aiming”, and would have a big advantage over that enemy. This would lead to less camping, as camping units would be killable by moving units if you can predict exactly where they are.
- Move-and-shoot: You continue moving on your plan while targetting and firing at the enemy.
Mutators are enabled from within the Advanced Creation editor, and if you load a game with mutators enabled you will be informed in a very clear way. They are not allowed in standard match-making. The new Open Challenge system should work really well with this functionality. Mutators will be available for AI skirmish games (no guarantees the AI will use them effectively though.)
Let me know what you think.
Friday
January 20th, 2012 by Ian
Jimmeh has just, as I started typing this, fixed the OSX full-screen crash bug. That fix will be in the update coming next week. He’s working on the Mac updater now.
I’m still chasing the mid-turn outcome change bug. By the end of today I hope to have a bulletproof fix for it.
Esports!
January 19th, 2012 by Paul
We can officially say that Frozen Synapse is hurting esports thanks to these awesome casted FS games from the Rock Paper Synapse show!
If you’re doing an FS tournament / casting matches and you would like us to mention / feature you on the blog etc. then please drop me a line on Twitter @mode7games
Thursday
January 19th, 2012 by Ian
Today I’m tackling the big one – the rare but still existant desync/past-change. I’ve got a replicateable case which I can bang my head against.
These have kept popping up, and I’ve kept fixing individual problems. I thought we had them all but obviously we don’t. I’m hoping this is the last one.
SOPA and PIPA
January 18th, 2012 by Paul
Mode 7 would like to express our support for all of those protesting against SOPA and PIPA today.
We believe that this legislation could threaten the forms of communication which allow us to act effectively, both as a company and as individuals.
Further information:
Wired UK’s guide: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-01/17/sopa-101
Wikipedia’s FAQ: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Learn_more
Electronic Frontier Foundation: https://blacklist.eff.org/
RockPaperShotgun – http://www.rockpapershotgun.com
Wednesday: AI Levels and SOPA
January 18th, 2012 by Ian
I’ve just fixed the “AI Level 3″ crash, and I’ve also added AI Level 4, for the truly insane and people running quantum computers. These will be in the patch.
I’ve also added a couple of new Extermination map generator settings.
We haven’t actually blacked out for anti-SOPA, but we support it whole-heartedly. Here’s a message from my esteemed colleague:
Mode 7 would like to express our support for all of those protesting against SOPA and PIPA today.
We believe that this legislation could threaten the forms of communication which allow us to act effectively, both as a company and as individuals.
Further information:
Wired UK’s guide: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-01/17/sopa-101
Wikipedia’s FAQ: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Learn_more
Electronic Frontier Foundation: https://blacklist.eff.org/
RockPaperShotgun – http://www.rockpapershotgun.com
As a final note from me: freedom of speech is the freedom which leads to all other freedoms. Do we really want to risk giving all that up to stop teenagers pirating films? No thanks. And this is coming from someone whose product is pirated a lot.
Musical Endeavours and DLC
January 17th, 2012 by Paul
I thought I would clarify / announce what is going to be happening with Frozen Synapse music in the near future.
Many, many people have asked for new music, so part of the first DLC will be musical!
There will be six pieces of music with the first DLC.
Two of these (Complexity and The Fix) were previously available in the Humble Indie Bundle build as a special extra, and four are completely new. I have one finished (but not mixed) and one that is in progress currently.
I was really excited to see the soundtrack featured in Gamespot’s Best of 2011 recently, and the ongoing reaction to the music is one of the most encouraging things that has ever happened to me – seriously!
If you want to hear more about the music and also watch me making some of it on my incredibly infrequent live stream, it’s best to follow @mode7games on twitter.
Tuesday
January 17th, 2012 by Ian
Working hard on the Open Challenge system today – should be finished code-wise this evening.
James is continuing to get the updater ready – we are REALLY hoping to get it out this week. If you are happy to be a guinui pig then give the test update a go: http://forums.mode7games.com/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=4193 (there are no very exciting new features as of this minute we just need to test the functionality).
I’m actually hopeful of getting the Open Challenge stuff out this week along with some bug fixes.
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