Sword of the Stars: The Pit 2 Update – Farewell Arbuda IV

Following a couple weeks of early access, Kerberos Productions has put together this here development update for their 3D roguelike Sword of the Stars: The Pit 2. The update briefly mentions the game’s story and its connections to the earlier entries in the series, lists some recent and upcoming improvements, and shares the latest patch notes.

Check it out:

Welcome to the second Touchbase Tuesday and boy is there a lot to talk about this past week!

For starters, we’re giving you your first taste of where the story of The Pit 2 takes place… and it’s not Arbuda IV. More and more of the story of the sequel will be infused into the game, but the introduction has been added and there’s a lot there, including a menace from the earliest days of the Sword of the Stars universe of games.

Lots of chewy game options for have been added, letting you play with the movement tiling markers, framerate, brightness and contrast, plus new keys – someone requested arrow keys handle movement like WASD, so, we did it. A good example of player feedback in action!

But we’re pretty bloodthirsty about changes and additions we’ve made to implement Stealth. Characters now have a Stealth skill, which determines how much the sounds players make – like moving around and shooting – is likely to attract attention. Hand in hand with this is the enemy’s ability to sense these sounds.

Sound can alert enemies that a player is there, but it can also attract attention from enemies elsewhere in The Pit and they will now wander, looking for the source. And just to keep things interesting, hurt enemies may now make a run for it, which can be handy if you need a breather, but less handy when they jump you at a later time for some payback.

Oh, and if you fail to unlock security doors and alarmed props, make sure your gun is reloaded. Security bots will be with you shortly.

All our fixes, changes, and additions are outlined below, please check them out and as always, drop by the boards and let us know what you’re digging, anything broken, and anything you’d like to see in the game!

COMING UP!

As always we have our plate full, but in particular this week we are going to be doing some work on the floor generation algorithm and room tuning. You’ve been playing with the initial floors for awhile now, time to dial things up a bit.

All games on Steam get noticed by a number of factors, including reviews, so be sure to give the games a thumbs up when you have a moment. All Early Access reviews are marked as such, so you don’t need to be Roger Ebert, just let people know you’re enjoying the game and looking forward to where it’s going. Thanks everyone! Keep the feedback coming!

Update 1.0.2

ADDED

• Beginning of new original story line and plot for the new Pit in intro screen.
• First kill bonus for enemies.
• Options screen now has tile grid color controls.
• Video Options now have limit frames choices of 75, 100, 120 140 and custom.
• Video Options now have Added brightness / contrast sliders.
• New recipes added and initial implementation of alternate ways to procure recipes (hint: search desks).
• Player sound creation and Stealth skill affect enemy ability to be alerted to player.
• Also added are flee and wander behaviors for enemies, to keep things unpredictable.
• Alarmed props now trigger a Security Bot response with a failed skill check.
• X key to interact with prop you are facing.
• Arrow keys for moving, like WASD keys.
• Shift G toggles grid view.
• Ruined crate obstacles.

FIXED

• Bed functionality for player to rest and heal.
• Armor loading bug on start (watching).
• Repair station uses charges.
• Various prop interface / feedback issues.
• Gas trap details (blank button).
• Opening / closing screens hides feedback.
• Corrected typo for Q, E, & R keys in Options.
• Infinite Cooker right click use.
• Level lighting profiles.
• Addressed pursue behavior issues.
• Fixed adjacent-to-prop bug.
• Now able to click to move to tiles with non-obstructing props.
• Various repair and loading bugs.
• Grenade loading bug.
• Player loading outside bounds on rare occasions.
• Repairing should reduce an item’s max durability.

Changed

• Loot displays name tag all the time.
• Lock out mouse zoom when in menu mode.
• Exit / Start points invulnerable.

Note
Preliminary Controller support (basic functionality) added.
This is not feature complete, some keyboard support still required for full functionality.
Added here for curious players only.