Version 1.2 - Ton of improvements

Monsters

Some monsters now have an ability to spawn. This ability is fully moddable, like all others, and to see how it’s done, check the [mods] subfolder. What this means is that their victims usually won’t become zombies or phantoms, but some new kind of menace. For instance, the Thing, of course, steals their bodies to create its copies, and a vampire on the other hand will create vampire fledgelings.

When modding, you can now also create new zombie & zombifier monsters, haunters, aetherical monsters and more.

On higher difficulty levels, the reporter may now chose to follow a monster that they wounded. This will reveal a piece of their story, and offer another opportunity to engage & banish the adversary. If you decide to engage (you may equip, however going to office to rest or recuperate will cause the trail to go cold), the combat will be on equal grounds (no stealth round, no + advantage) and the monster will not have had the opportunity to grow more powerful. If you successfully wound the monster again, you may continue the pursuit.

When engaging a monster, you now only gain any samples if the creature was wounded or banished and the reporter (or ally) had any sampling kits (tube, forensic kit…) equipped. When wounded, the maximum number of samples gathered will be 1. When banished, 3. This means that collecting samples is a lot easier when investigating phenomena however those samples are generally weaker.

Magic Vortex

Especially on higher difficulty levels, two or more phantoms face up in the city may now create a Magic Vortex. To destroy the vortex, destroy all phantoms that have created it. Or, alternatively, you may attempt to destroy the vortex itself. You can use any spells, items or allies against it. Just engage it the same way you would a monster.

While in place, the Vortex raises magical resistance of all creatures in the game. For instance, a level 1 Vortex reduces all +++ spells in combat to ++, and renders all spells with no + entirely useless. However this also drops the casting requirement for the spell.

Distractions & Obstacles

While following a person, the reporter may now walk into some interesting distraction, like a magic barrier or a locked door etc. You have to decide whether to continue following or investigate the distraction. Overcoming the obstacles is similar to destroying a vortex, simply use any items, spells or allies you think might help. Usually there is some kind of reward behind it, so it could be worth it…

If you skip the distraction and keep following, the opportunity is lost. However when following someone again on the same location, it could present itself again, or sometimes the story might simply lead you there later on.

Storyteller improvement

The cases are more detailed and more varied now. Monsters have more background information and their motivations are somewhat better explained. Characters can now frame each other for murders and connections between evends and motives are more clearly expressed.

But, this really is just a start. We all want future VR games to have a simulated reality and npcs that behave like people, so that games become more responsive and less scripted. So far, the progress towards this goal (as much as I can see) is more or less 0%. Don’t we want more than that? I am not saying my way will get me to 100% but at least I have the one :)

….

Anyway, that is all for now, have fun and cheers! :)

P.S.

I haven’t had as much fun as I have making this game in years.

But.

My “indie game development” business was never eee, to put it mildly, very succesful. I really, really, really could use an occasional donation. :)

If you love this game, and would like to see it furtherly improved (or even better, made into a ‘real’ game, eventually), here are some available options to help out:

sinister systems site

itch.io

Or, if you’re even more daring ^.^

indie game stand

And for the exceptionally, not to say chthonically brave XD

patreon

Alternatively, if you have a facebook account, you can check out sinister systems facebook and maybe drop us a like :D

I’m also considering an indiegogo campaign, but I have little experience with that so any advice regarding that will be equally welcome.

Thanks & cheers,
Matija Kostevc aka Charon@ss