100th echo!
I was thinking about what to do for the first triple-digit echo and I asked myself: What do my players want from me?
And I think my players want me to make good games.
So, instead of spending a day making a fancy article, I spend an hour and used the rest of the day to work on Sector Six =]
It's still going to be a special echo because I'm going to use it to write about very important things.
First, about monetization of Sector Six and future games.
I've been following gaming news and they have been pretty depressing lately.
Lootboxes, malevolent patents, multiple billion dollar companies whining about how they don't make enough money, and so on.
This is the first time I officially state that my games will never have microtransactions, DLC's, and pre-order bonuses.
What they will have is a single price tag. Pay the price and get the game.
All of the game, including updates.
My plan is to learn to make really good games and create a reputation of a really good developer.
I hope I will manage to do at least some of that and it will pay off.
Right now I don't make enough money from selling Sector Six.
And by that, I mean that I'm not safe, if something goes wrong in my life I won't be able to continue making games.
Good news is that this is the worst it can get and it's not that bad.
A year or two and I'll be making enough to ensure that I can make games for as long as I want.
And I don't plan to ever stop making games.
In conclusion, support me and I'll make some cool stuff =]
Speaking of cool stuff, it's time for second part of 100th echo:
Endgame!
After weeks of thinking, I think I got a solid plan for Sector Six endgame.
The center of endgame is Broken Infinity, a region that you will create during the story.
Broken Infinity will be a procedurally generated region, with varying amount of areas, randomly chosen enemies, background, secured region cities and so on.
Once you secure all areas in Broken Infinity, it will generate a new, different region to clear.
Well, just clearing all areas won't be enough! You will also need to defeat a boss!
But I can't write about bosses because it's a minor story spoiler.
Another possible feature of Broken Infinity is mission chains.
Let's say current Broken Infinity instance has 3 areas.
Area A, area B, and area C.
Area C has a boss you need to kill to close this Broken Infinity instance and generate a new one.
But you can't get to area C immediately because it's locked!
How to unlock it? Beat mission in area B.
Which is also locked and you have to complete the mission in area A to unlock it.
In conclusion, A -> B -> C and you can generate new Broken Infinity instance, a new mission chain to complete.
Oh, and you cannot generate new missions in Broken Infinity.
You have to deal with what you get.
Let's back up a little bit. Why would you want to close Broken Infinity instance?
That's the best part: Rewards!
When you close instance, you get to reward screen.
On the screen, you see 10 open cases. There's a fractal part in each.
Then you see your instance statistics.
How many areas you secured, average mission difficulty level, optional objectives completed, etc.
Then system calculates reward upgrade chance based on these statistics.
+20% upgrade chance for average 20 difficulty level.
+50% upgrade chance for 5 areas secured.
+10% upgrade chance for 2 optional objectives completed.
Total: 80% upgrade chance.
THEN system attempts to upgrade part in each case.
If you have 80% upgrade chance, you will probably get 8 out of 10 part cases upgraded.
Upgraded to what? Relic!
Unless you've been avoiding my weekly text walls, you already know about relics - parts that have unique and incredibly powerful effects.
So, let's say that now you have 8 cases with relics and 2 cases with fractal parts.
Then cases get closed - you can't see what inside them anymore - and are shuffled.
All you need to do now is pick one of the cases.
If you're lucky, you'll get a case with the relic in it.
If not, you will get a fractal part and will have to close another instance for another chance to get a relic.
Obviously, fractal part is a weak reward for clearing 5 areas and defeating a gigantic boss, so in reality, non-relic rewards will be better.
So, the main part of endgame is clearing ever-changing Broken Infinity instances and fighting brutal bosses for OP relics.
Relics will make you even more powerful which means higher difficulty levels, faster instance clears and even more relics!
But wait, there's more!
You're not meant to secure all areas in all regions, just those that you really need.
These leftover occupied, besieged, and destroyed regions are the focus of second part of endgame!
After the story is completed, the Restoration War begins!
The goal of the Restoration War is to restore Sector Six to what it was before the Machine invasion.
During the Restoration War, every time you complete a mission, one of the regions becomes highlighted.
That region is now your level region, no matter what region it is or what level you are!
E.g.: Highlighted Deep Path region is level 35 and contains level 35 minions/items/secured regions because you are level 35.
If you will secure all - currently 154 - areas in Sector Six, you will get an unbelievably powerful relic that cannot be obtained any other way!
The Restoration War and Broken Infinity will hopefully create that so-called satisfying endgame grind =]
There's third endgame activity - Infinity Invasions, but I'll keep it for another time.
There are only two things left to say.
1) Mission XI is about 50% complete.
2) A little gift from me: Go to settings, mute sounds, and type ETALON to get etalon part.
So, that's the end of 100th echo!
There won't be many echoes after this one because the game will be finished soon.
In a month. Or two. Or three.
Soon!
...
Like always, if you have any questions, I'm ready to answer them.
Until next time!
