Hello Intergalactic Rumpshakers and Cosmic Things,
I’m pleased to announce a new expansion/update for Skybreak! Officially, this is v. 1.2
Here are just some of the exciting new features, in descending order of how exciting they are:
- 20 new locations, with unique things to see, do, sell, steal, research, and blow up
- dozens of new random recurring encounters, from waterfalls (with treasure hidden behind them) to giant murderous lamas
- an improved travel alogrithm that cuts down on repeat visits to the same destination in a short amount of time
- Time Travel!
- 13 new one-time-only CYOA encounters, which trigger upon landing on certain worlds
- dialog options for the game’s 24 recruitable heroes. Each character has 32 dialog options you can ASK them ABOUT (the topics are listed in the COMMAND command)
- numerous bugfixes and spelling corrections (sorry!)
- A “stats” command that will display a small number of statistics about your voyage through the cosmos
I’m also here to gather intelligence on what to do with v 1.3. 1.2 is very large. 1.3 will be smaller (I need to focus my attention on other games). Rather than just build out the cosmos at random,
I’d like to develop one area of the game a great deal. Because I can never decide this stuff on my own…and because I want to gin up interest, I’m going to put it to a vote here. I have four options
for what to develop in the next expansion. It is my deliberate plan to make them all tantalizing as hell, and force you all to choose. Most of these are areas frequent players have expressed some interest in seeing developed
1: More worlds. Skybreak! is, at heart, a game about pingpoinging around the cosmos and landing on strange new worlds. If this option gets picked, I will simply add 20 new worlds to the game.
2: Storylines. Skybreak! is a broad, rather than deep, experience…but many players have expressed an interest in having more RP choices, and seeing more of each world. If this option gets picked, I will add “recurring storylines” to 20 worlds in the cosmos. These will be options you can select on that world (generally at the price of a single piece of cargo, eg a tale of adventure) but rather than trigger a random encounter, they will trigger the next chapter in a choose your own
adventure story.
3: More backgrounds and talents. Players have correctly observed that there is a conspicious lack of background options with the “stealth” and “subterfuge” skills. If this option gets picked, I will add two new backgrounds to the game (the monster hunter and the villain) and 4 new talents (probably Kaddo Stealth Expert, Mountaineer, Chef, and Xenologist). Because The villian background will be intimately connected with having a low reputation among some galactic powers, I will also add a small number of encounters (some good, some bad) that trigger when your reputation among a particular faction is low
4: More stuff to do with the spy network. Currently, the spy network feature is a very small part of the game. (Did you even know there was a spy network feature? I bet you didn’t). If this option gets picked, I will dramatically expand the things you can do with your spy network, giving players a look into the bizarre nuances of inter-cosmic politics. Because the spy network feature is already connected with pissing some space-factions off, I will also add a small number of encounters (some good, some bad) that trigger when your reputation among a particular faction is low
- Option 1 (More worlds!)
- Option 2 (Storylines!)
- Option 3 (New backgrounds and talents!)
- Option 4 (New spy network stuff!)