Vapourware End State - turn-based tactics by Finnish lunatic - now available on Early Access(!)

[geno]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/580640/view/3880476709090540176?l=english

Exetending the Early Access
Greetings and thank you to everyone following and supporting the development of our
scam
project!

I am writing this to talk to you about our plans with the project going forward. So, contrary to our original plan,
the early access will continue in 2024
. The reason for this is that we have not been able to reach our goals and the game is just not where it would need to be in order to be labeled as a "full release".

Why?

I feel that I need to be brutally honest here and that if you have bought the game you deserve to know. The truth is that at times continuing to work on this project has been a struggle for me. As those who have followed the project longer know, there is quite a bit of history even before the early access.

I could summarize it as follows: At first it was a fun passion project, then it started to get serious, then perhaps a little too serious. Finally I ended up in a position where I found myself unable or unwilling to either release it or quit. It was a very hard time for me both psychologically and financially. After ending up in such a place it has taken time to accept that this is how things are.

Then I was offered a chance where the project would be acquired and the work would continue under a larger organization. I jumped at this because it was by Toni who was an investor at an earlier stage and with his help we launched the early access. Unfortunately it wasn't smooth sailing from there on either. Basically we struggled to form a team and reverted to mostly me working on the game. And I take the responsibility for not being able to keep up with the plan stated along with the early access release.

Fortunately things have started to look better after Teemu (the Botanist) joined the company just before summer 2023. Together we have been making progress during the fall and I think we have a good chance to bring the project to completion in 2024.

So this is where we stand now.
There will an update released before christmas and a revised plan for the remaining early access
.

Thanks again for your support!

 

[Latelistener]

I think we have a good chance to bring the project to completion in 2024.

 

[ArchAngel]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/580640/view/3880476709090540176?l=english

Exetending the Early Access
Greetings and thank you to everyone following and supporting the development of our
scam
project!

I am writing this to talk to you about our plans with the project going forward. So, contrary to our original plan,
the early access will continue in 2024
. The reason for this is that we have not been able to reach our goals and the game is just not where it would need to be in order to be labeled as a "full release".

Why?

I feel that I need to be brutally honest here and that if you have bought the game you deserve to know. The truth is that at times continuing to work on this project has been a struggle for me. As those who have followed the project longer know, there is quite a bit of history even before the early access.

I could summarize it as follows: At first it was a fun passion project, then it started to get serious, then perhaps a little too serious. Finally I ended up in a position where I found myself unable or unwilling to either release it or quit. It was a very hard time for me both psychologically and financially. After ending up in such a place it has taken time to accept that this is how things are.

Then I was offered a chance where the project would be acquired and the work would continue under a larger organization. I jumped at this because it was by Toni who was an investor at an earlier stage and with his help we launched the early access. Unfortunately it wasn't smooth sailing from there on either. Basically we struggled to form a team and reverted to mostly me working on the game. And I take the responsibility for not being able to keep up with the plan stated along with the early access release.

Fortunately things have started to look better after Teemu (the Botanist) joined the company just before summer 2023. Together we have been making progress during the fall and I think we have a good chance to bring the project to completion in 2024.

So this is where we stand now.
There will an update released before christmas and a revised plan for the remaining early access
.

Thanks again for your support!

I was sure this is a joke post and then I clicked your link...

 

[Cyberarmy]

End State, like Final Fantasy, LMAO

 

[Alienman]

 

[Parsimonious cook]

Nah, its the same situation that the game has been in for ages, Phosphorous merely decided to come clean about it, but I dont think it changes anything. Its good to know that at least one dude is actually working on the game - at some point it might get finished.

 

[Latelistener]

That's all fine and good, but saying that you finish your game in 2024 after 8 years or something, just because you finally have one other guy on board is not realistic to say the least.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

From discord:

We're currently focusing our efforts towards next patch. Our aim is to get it out before Christmas. There are currently quite many changes, some of them are bigger ones under the hood, but they will be more fruitful in the long run . There are changes coming to the strategic gameplay, legibility/UI overhaul, a lot of bug fixes, improvements on tactical gameplay (such as being able to walk on second, third etc. floors), first steps on story and dialogue features. I do admit that it is easy to lose track of the communication when you're focusing so much on the features. Will try to keep the communication up more

 

[Abu Antar]

From discord:

We're currently focusing our efforts towards next patch. Our aim is to get it out before Christmas. There are currently quite many changes, some of them are bigger ones under the hood, but they will be more fruitful in the long run . There are changes coming to the strategic gameplay, legibility/UI overhaul, a lot of bug fixes, improvements on tactical gameplay (such as being able to walk on second, third etc. floors), first steps on story and dialogue features. I do admit that it is easy to lose track of the communication when you're focusing so much on the features. Will try to keep the communication up more

Yes, please. If they reach this stage, I'll play test for a few hours.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Patch incoming.

Changelist from discord:

Early Access 0.3.0: End of year 2023 update
NOTICE: This patch includes various changes for End State and some bigger system overhauls that cause incompatibility with older save games.

General:
• Major refactoring for game structure, events and UI
• New campaign structure
• Dialogue systems added
• Placeholder cinematics & and new story elements have been added
• Weapon changes
• Audio changes such as adjusted gun sounds
• Contacts and new characters added
• Various bug fixes and totally new bugs to experience

Content:
• Major adjustments to Region 1 missions, locations and biome
• New missions added
• New mission objectives with mandatory and optional objectives

Tactical changes and balancing:
• Realtime mode added
• Allies can be present in missions and be interacted with
• Camera adjustments
• Ability to walk to other floors of the buildings
• Operatives can climb onto some of the objects
• Shoot AP costs reduced
• Reaction times shortened
• Interruption reaction only when strafing
• Interruption attack starts immediately if target can’t react
• Interact action and corpse looting adjustments

UI overhaul & fixes:
• Look and usability updates for both strategic and tactical view
• New UI views added such as Database and Deployment
• Trading UI Improvements for nicer trading experience

Graphics & rendering:
• Fog of war changes and adjustments
• Lighting adjustments, optimizations and improvements
• Post processing adjustments
• Underwear for operators
• Improved character portrait rendering
• Dynamic Water rendering features added
• Terrain rendering improvements
• Transparency fixes
• VFX adjustments and improvements such as new muzzle effects and blood decals
• Cloud fixes
• Decal drawing improvements

 

[Abu Antar]

Continuing from the above post, here's an official end of year update.
https://steamcommunity.com/games/580640/announcements/detail/3895115310536063959

 

[motherfucker]

This shit worth getting yet?

 

[geno]

To bussy with the backlog to give it a try but I like how agile it seems in the video. It worries me how they can keep things interesting for an entire campaign considering you fight thugs and nothing else but I feel like this will be The TBT for me.
Edit: Maybe I made a typo.

 

[ArchAngel]

JA3 killer still chugging along

End State Update 0.4.0

Development news
So two months have passed and we are now ready to release the next update. The original plan was to release a smaller patch by the end of January and then a bigger update by the end of February, but those then merged into just one. I realize we should better communicate our timelines (and the subsequent failure to stay in those timelines). So here we go: the next update will be released at the end of March, and the focus will be content.

The game is still rough in many places, but I am happy with our current pace and progress. I feel confident that if we can keep up this momentum the next updates can bring the game closer to completion. That said there are still important features missing, not enough content and lots of polishing to do.

Thanks for your support and feel free to comment!

-phosphorous

So what’s in the update?
The biggest change in this update is the overall increase in ranges.

• Vision range is more than doubled (now 64 tiles, time-of-day also affects the range).
• Levels are generally twice as big (from 64 to 128 tiles), however some smaller levels still remain.
• Shooting mechanics have been overhauled (hit chances over distance have been increased, fire-modes and sight attachments added).
• New peripheral vision that allows enemies to notice movement and investigate.
• New weapon models (tiered generic items have been replaced).
• Basic melee attacks have been introduced (knife and unarmed).
• Items such as vests provide item slots (carrying too many affects movement speed).
• Enemy reinforcements can now be prevented by disabling a radio in the level.
• New objective: Eliminate target (find and kill specific enemy).
• New missions (3) and improvements to old missions.

Enemy peripheral vision area at night.

Inventory changes including new weapons and sight attachments.

New warehouse map (wall transparency also showcased).

Unalerted enemy vision range.

Mission briefing screen improvements with squad selection.

Enemy reinforcements can be prevented by disabling the radio.

New missions on the strategic map.

Other changes

Gameplay

• Stances have effect on accuracy and defense.
• Running out of stamina decreases movement speed.
• Medical items can be consumed after use.
• Suppressors are no longer always present in weapons.
• Real-time improvements (AI movement, stamina regeneration).
• Peek improvements.
• Doors are now locked in Prisoner-level.
• Dimitri's character is transferred to the player squad in the Prisoner-mission.

General

• Wall transparency for walls and buildings.
• Improved tile selection between floors.
• Improved unit highlighting.
• Improvements to tile overlays.
• Campaign save versioning (to prevent errors due to outdated save files).
• Autosave improvements (continue-option added to main menu).
• Armor & magazine items show capacity in inventory.
• Time of day: morning & evening now shorter, night & day longer.
• Camping in strategic map now allows player to set duration.
• Character animation, ragdoll & IK improvements.

Graphics

• Minimum supported resolution changed to 1280x720.
• Disabled resizable window for windowed mode.
• Lighting adjustments and ACES tonemapping
• Temporal anti-aliasing added
• Volumetric lighting quality setting added
• Ambient occlusion optimizations and new ultra quality option added
• Directional shadow quality improvements
• Increased quality of few assets
• Inventory lighting optimizations and fixes
• Bloom adjustments
• Adjusted muzzle flashes
• Optimizations for UI translucency, post-processing, terrain and clouds

We do not need JA3 killer, we need JA2 killer.

 

[Abu Antar]

I'llgive this a proper try in the summer. It should have gotten a couple of more updates by then.

 

[spectre]

We do not need JA3 killer, we need JA2 killer.

umm I don't remember JA2 ever winning an RPGCodex GOTY award

In our defense, we didn't know that tactics is the new rpg way back when.

Same as Abu, I'm waiting for it to get more fleshed out. Hopefully together with Urban Strife

 

[Serus]

We do not need JA3 killer, we need JA2 killer.

umm I don't remember JA2 ever winning an RPGCodex GOTY award

In our defense, we didn't know that tactics is the new rpg way back when.

Same as Abu, I'm waiting for it to get more fleshed out. Hopefully together with Urban Strife

Jagged Alliance 2 is from 1999, few years before Codex even existed, duh.
Also, JA2 is a full blown crpg, possibly unlike other games of the series. CRPG is the new CRPG in its case.

 

[Child of Malkav]

So this game is finally back on track for release?

 

[Hydro]

Gonna be keeping my eye on it. JA3 albeit being ok-ish, is a bit meh as a sum of its parts imo

 

[Beowulf]

I mean I have no doubts that it will be released in some form, but will it be an eternal EA state, or just jump to 1.0 without any of the touted features remains to be seen.

 

[Parsimonious cook]

TBH fam, I want to believe.

It will probably take a very long time before this gets to 1.0 though.

 

[Alienman]

That hover hand on weapons.

 

[Cyberarmy]

That hover hand on weapons.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/580640/view/4272308897305251031

End State update 0.7.0
Skills, Single missions & Prison
End State update 0.7.0 is now ready and here is an overview of the main features:

Skills
Operators now receive skill points along with stat points when gaining a level. Skill points can be used to purchase special abilities. Currently available skills are:

• Revive
  - revive a fallen teammate.
• Distraction
  - throw a rock to make unalerted enemy investigate.
• Knockout
  - incapacitate unalerted enemy.
• Lockpicking
  - unlock a door without the key.

Skills can be selected from the inventory.

Incapacitated team members can be revived.

Unalerted enemies can be knocked out.

Single missions
There is now an option to play single randomized missions directly from the main menu. The selection includes random generators, few of the first story missions and couple of test levels.

Single mission selection screen.

Tactical changes
There are few improvements and new features that offer tactical options and challenges:

• Strafe shooting
  - (experimental) units will now automatically shoot when strafing.
• Enemy AI
  - has been tweaked to be more aggressive and to use less opportunity fire.
• Hearing
  - noises are now range based only for clarity.
• Locked doors
  - doors may be locked and keys can be looted from some enemies.
• Ladders
  - ladders provide a route to upper floors.
• Vault over fences
  - operators can now climb over some fences up to 2 meters.
• Camera events
  - there should be less chance of any action happening off-camera.
• Roof & wall transparency
  - floor selection logic has been changed and automatic transparency improved.

New level: Prison
New large and challenging Prison-level has been added that showcases many of the new features. This level replaces the previous level used in story mission 3. "The Prisoner".

Other changes

• Fixed crowbar & wirecutter requirements.
• Fixed "mission complete" in some cases even when story objective failed.
• Major performance gains from UI optimization.
• Unit highlighting more visible.
• Damage reaction animations.
• More blood decals on unit death.
• Hit effects improvements.
• Projectile trail improvements.
• Aiming UI now shows more information.
• Actions show noise preview.
• Day lighting setting adjustment.
• Increased default ammo counts.

Have fun and please leave feedback in the comments!

 

[udm]

Distraction
- throw a rock to make unalerted enemy investigate.

Throwing a rock requires experience and training the same way that lockpicking does? And knocking out someone only renders them unconscious for 3 turns (which I'm assuming to be roughly 18 seconds)? Lol what even is this Tom and Jerry shit