v0.7.3.5 - August Update

The Zone: Stalker Stories

Tactical card battles and narrative RPG exploration in a world of monsters and anomalies. As one of the last remnants of humanity, trapped in the Zone, it's your turn to become a Stalker and walk where others fear to tread.

Plenty of progress this month, particularly in the realm of bugfixing. [i]Many[/i] issues were uncovered and solved with this patch. Of course I haven't been slacking on new content either! For existing saves already in Chapter 2, you'll soon find your way into a new side quest involving Rufus the trader -- with permanent consequences based on your performance and your decisions. New quests, new art, new enemies, new polish. Lastly, a fair bit of work has gone into better tutorials, as well as extending controller support. The Jobs board now has custom controls, and the cursor is much more accurate on screens which still use it. Custom controls will be forthcoming on the rest of the side job UI too. Next update I'm hoping to show off a new and improved Train Yard without the constant level transitions imposed by the old system. Tweaked art is taking a while and I'm struggling with the camera, but soon... There are a few other non-critical issues left on my TODO list, but once they're sorted, I'll be able to get cracking on more weird and wonderful things for you to experience out in the Zone... Please remember to report any issues you encounter on the discussions board! I will fix them if you do. Changelog: [list] [*] Power Plant boss final art & animation completed [*] New enemies and enemy distribution in Power Plant [*] New controller interface for Jobs board [*] Finished Hunter's Bequest side quest and alternate path [*] Finished Rufus's Lifeline side quest and alternate path [*] Much more accurate controller cursor [*] Fixed story crashes in Chapter 2-3 & side quests [*] Fixed dialogue options appearing at inappropriate times [*] Improved story stability all round [*] Fixed crash during radiation sickness alert [*] Fixed crash during battle repositioning [*] Fixed crash when finishing certain quests [*] Fixed crash in quest log when viewing certain quests [*] Fixed many potential memory leaks [*] Fixed radiation sickness ailments being applied improperly [*] Fixed some problems with animations looping [*] Enemy HP bars & other UI are no longer recoloured on certain battle backgrounds [*] Improved Esper event behaviour [*] Added sounds for card dragging & targeting [*] Renamed Points of Interest to Opportunities [*] Refactored Opportunity item pickup behaviour [*] Fixed item stash sprite not appearing [*] Made item stashes more visible [*] Updated & clarified Side Jobs tutorial [*] Better colours on Jobs board [*] Refactored enemy battler code [*] Fixed some Hospital anomalies [/list]