OBEY reaches completion.

After a few post-release updates, the newest being pushed out last week, I am finally satisfied and very proud to finally report that the project of OBEY has reached completion. As I have said many times, it is the game I have always wanted to play and to make. It is amazing and so satisfying to finally reach this point.

It has been a very long road. To those of you who followed and supported the project through the years, thank you! ^ _ ^
So many of you will always have a special place in my heart.

Now, unless you find a horrible game-breaking bug (in which case, yea I’ll come back and fix it), I will be signing off.

So it is with much love and a sense of bittersweet feeling for the end of an era of my life, that I wish you all to take care of yourselves, and to enjoy some competitive backstabbing matches of OBEY!

-Dez

OBEY leaves Early Access!

I’m proud to report that OBEY has reached v1.0
Wow, we’re finally here.
OBEY was in Steam Early access from May 21, 2015 to May 12, 2020. Five years.

I took a look at the dates of the files in the build to see when the first ones were created. The first test build is dated November 12, 2013. The oldest file in the build is from April 1, 2013.

It’s been one hell of a long road!

THANK YOU to all of you who have shared it with me throughout this winding path! 

Click here for the full announcement on Steam

OBEY is back in development!

Hi All!!!
For those of you following OBEY today, thank you for sticking with me!

Up until now, I have kept a low profile that I have begun full time dev on OBEY again. But now that you all know, I will say that it is with the intention to wrap up OBEY and finally put out version 1! For me personally, this is a big deal: I have had this project going on in some form in my life since 2002!

This latest release involves fixes and improvements to the score tracking system so that it’s very easy to track scores if you want to run a tournament, or see scores of past rounds.

Also, I added a finalized screen to honor the winners of the round!

Here is the official change list:
v .45r0
* added “round has ended” screen with winners of end of round scoreboard.
* added server now saves/loads past game scores into a text file latestRoundRecords.json
* added “shutDownAfterNumHours” server setting which allows auto refreshing of servers
* added “minutesToExpireScoreRecord” server setting to allow the expiry of the above record
* improved the /list command now gives you the current map name as well
* improved Linux server launch script now restarts the server if it shuts down
* improved Linux dedicated server launch script now restarts the server if it shuts down
* improved Windows server launch script now restarts the server if it shuts down
* fixed watchtower bottom which could be seen as a hole on some maps
* fixed ProFlares spamming output log with cull logs
* updates to translations
* cut ‘tagging’ player feature

Onward! To Development!!

OBEY adds “Watchtowers”!

Something has been missing in OBEY: a viable way to win as a snitch!
Enter the watchtower! Watchtowers are a way that robo can reliably pay a snitch to stay put and watch for attackers. It simply drops the given autopay every 37 seconds. So now there is a way for a snitch to earn a reliable income, and possibly win if he plays his hand right.

NOTE to newer players:
Sometimes new players get frustrated when a a different player plays as a snitch, making it seemingly impossible to subvert. There are ways to counter a snitch:

  • Obtain a pointer before making a break for it. If the snitch sees you and starts pointing you out, make your own arrows in wrong places to throw robo off.
  • Subvert from behind or the side of robo, grabbing items on your way to climb robo and drop down in front of the door for an instant subvert
  • Trick robo into thinking that the snitch is about to win, and get him to kill or remove/reduce the snitch’s autopay.
  • Whisper to the snitch that you will give him major cash if he lets you subvert (use /w to type a whisper)

Other significant changes include:

  • Robo’s HUD now displays what buttons you can press when you hover over anything
  • A/D no longer change autopay directly. You have to LOOK at the feedbox you want to change, or the watchtower. Hence, you can also set different autopay on different feedboxes if a map has more than 1.
  • Added Polish and Dutch languages
  • Permanent “trophies” that will show by your name if you place in tournaments! (past winners let the me or the mods know so we can mark you with some 🙂 )
  • Tons of bug fixes and improvements!

Comprehensive changelist (v .44r0):

  • added ‘watchtower’ map element. It can be used to pay snitches, and draw them to a location.
  • added context menus for robo to help know at all times what keys do what
  • added autopay can no longer just be set with a/d, robo must now look at feedbox/watchtower and press a/d to set it
  • added different feedboxes (and watchtowers) can now have their autopay set individually
  • added reduced sensitivity/increased precision to robo mouse during zoom (feels more comfy now to zoom + look)
  • added reduced sensitivity/increased precision to pointer as you look down it’s reticle
  • added directional indicator to pointer arrows for robo, robo will now clearly see where a snitch indicates
  • added directional indicator to watchtowers for robo
  • added watchtower to all maps (note: all watchtower positions subject to balancing changes or removal)
  • added minerals to official maps
  • added cover in tributary near obeying areas & inreased feedbox distance to make it slightly easier to escape
  • added sound effects to main menu chat so you can hear if humans are typing or mentioning your name
  • added in-game hint “You have turned off the robot’s passive income!” if you press the powerplant button
  • added in-game hint “Autopay above 4 gives bunnies higher profit than you.” the first time you set > 100 autopay
  • added in-game hint “Your reign ended.” on subversion
  • added when dropship is crashing, the interior sound pitch of the engines now slowly rises
  • added when you are in a dropship and it crashes, your screen will flash white
  • added Polish language! Thank you Milord!!! ^_^
  • added Dutch language! Thank you Dannyiscool4! ^_^
  • added /scores command. It can be used to get the final score tally from a past match
  • added /tourney command. It can be used to get tallied score totals from past matches
  • added /playerid command. Prints your playerID (stored in playerPrefs.txt which is used to track your stats)
  • added /trophy mod command. It can be used to assign a special public rankings to players
  • added /ptt # mod command. A moderator can now force a client into push to talk mode
  • added /allmute # mod command. A moderator can now mute a player for everyone
  • added /allunmute # mod command. A moderator can now unmute a player for everyone
  • added /clear command. It clears the log text on the left of the screen
  • added better feedback to map author if they forget to add spawn points
  • feedboxes/powerplants no longer need to be associated to a robo. If association is not specified, nearest is used.
  • reduced default dropshipChanceToCrashMod to 8000, to make it a little easier to crash
  • fixed bug where it was possible to put emplacements on map elements like feedbox/powerplant etc
  • fixed bug where locked/passworded servers would not display correctly in the server list
  • fixed no ambient sound in tutorial
  • fixed rare bug where it was possible to have a recurring overtime with the money goal crazily rising
  • fixed bug in the tutorial where messages would stop popping up if you esc or tab out.
  • fixed bug where a server running a long time would spam the master server
  • fixed visual bug that if you put your camera inside robo it looks less broken now.
  • fixed visual bug where ghost placement indicators would sometimes not scroll at the correct speed
  • fixed bug where ghost placement indicators could show in the dropship
  • fixed bug where robo gun windup and winddown sounds would not play
  • fixed minor error generation on smoke and spark particle random seed
  • fixed minor visual bug in mine, light, and sensor placement indicators
  • fixed minor visual bug in dropship lights
  • fixed minor visual tweak on spark particles
  • fixed minor excessive flare update logging in game and tutorial
  • updated Unity to 5.5.1f1
  • updated NGUI ver to 3.11.2
  • lowered main menu music volume

Big Update!!

Hey everybody ^_^!!

So some big updates are just in!
Both the dropship code and the way sounds are handled in OBEY have been largely rewritten:

The main dropship change is that it no longer relies on the 30 second mark. IT CAN NOW LITERALLY BE CRASHED AT ANY TIME!
Yes, it is even possible to crash it just before it lands as it hovers over the drop area (this is very difficult to do, though). Take a look below:

The dropship monitor shows 3 things:
– The time until drop
– The chance of a normal delivery
– The “weight imbalance”

To be able to crash at any moment, the dropship ‘rolls a dice’ every 2 seconds to see if it should crash. The “weight imbalance” shows the chance to crash each tick. The ‘chance of normal delivery’ is that chance, calculated over how many ticks are left until landing.

Another big change to the dropship is that what the robot buys now spawns behind this area here:

The key to this is that anything that is behind that area counts towards the BALANCE of the ship! This area is not easy for the bunnies to reach, and therefore robo can try to counter imbalance caused by bunnies by buying more things!

Some other important changes include major optimizations in sound effects, and also that autopay can now be set up to 200¢ː

To help make clear how much a ¢ directive is worth, green ¢ː means 25-100, and cyan ¢ː means 125 – 200. Finally, their size helps distinguish their value (bigger = higher value);

Here is a comprehensive list of the changes:

The dropship can now be crashed at any time if it exists (no more 30 second time limit).
Items bought by robo are now protected behind a barrier, and serve to BALANCE the dropship.
increased weight of bunnies (was 2, now 4)
dropship monitor now displays “chance to successfully deliver” and “weight imbalance”.
robo’s dropship timer now turns red if the chance to deliver is less than 70% (used to be red for < 30 secs)
* removed text indicator for bunnies to know if dropship was purchased by robo.
* money directives can now be worth up to 200¢
* money directives now bigger if worth more, smaller if worth less.
* money directives that are green are worth between 25-100, cyan are worth 125-200
* feedbox can now be set to pay up to 200¢
 * major rework & optimization to audio. Having many sounds play should have much less fps impact
* added roboWeightBias server setting, a weight modifier for things in the balance area   (default .4)
* added bunnyWeight server setting. It is now possible to set the weight of bunnies      (default 4).
* added dropshipChanceToCrashMod server setting. Higher number = more difficult to    crash dropship (default 7000)
* slightly extended dropship time over the drop area by .5 secs
* getting subverted now plays a deactivation sfx
* fixed divide by zero bug in AI calculations
* updated loading screen tip related to crashing the ship
* numerous minor tweaks

enjoy ^_^

OBEY at Arisia + updates

Had a great show at Arisia this Sunday!
OBEY was featured on Hardcoregamer.com

On the dev side – December and January have been big months, with more big things out of the way.

The terrain setup is pretty much complete, with void integration added that makes the game feel a lot more polished and finished in my opinion:

Void integration

The addition of laser sentries:

and the addition of death cam!  (finally!)