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2024

  • in ANARCHY
  • 5 min read

ONE

Howdy-ho, friends!

Remember when I promised a major update two months ago? We followed it up by a progress report on July 28th, where we covered what should've been ANARCHY 0.3 (ExtrapolAtion).

The truth is: I've barely had time to spin the things I've worked on into a releasable build. We'll thus have to delay the update by a couple of weeks. Rest assured, though: there's a lot more months to the year!

The last couple of weeks have given me a good hold of the narrative pieces ANARCHY needs. Story remains our strongest point – so let's have a look at the arcs of the individual acts!

– ParAdise –

The first act puts Pandora (aka Lorna) in the driving seat. Following the intro (ImmigrAtion), our protagonist wakes up in a strange new place. There's a bunch of familiar faces, but the world has radically changed. Either that – or Pandora's memory is terribly wrong.

To answer that question, we revisit snapshots of Pandora's life between 1913 and 1919. Key factors are her relationship to Atlas (Aron), Selene (Cleo) and Eurydice (Viktoria). Pandora's aristocratic background, her new identity and life in the military make up her primary arcs.

All in all, the beginning and end of Pararadise proper is mostly sorted out. The current challenge is to pave the road in between. Some of the steps are already there: There's the Checkpoint, the Orchard and the Tree. We'll use the former two to kill the latter – revealing a way to the Castle and confront Eurydice.

– Prometheus –

Once all is well in Paradise, we spot a post-game door. We could live happily ever after, but Pandora knows that there's answers out there. There's a familiar balcony, an old friend – and for the first time in almost year – it RAINs.

That's the cue for ANARCHY's antagonist to reveal itself. A new kind of character – neither bound by history nor a script – has his own plans for the game. TRACHI's people are transformed into training subjects, forced to relive their memories over and over again.

– ParAdox –

Daphne's (Dorothy) intro kicks off in 1915. She's kidnapped, orphaned and becomes Hyperion's (Teron) newest protegee. Her first stop is EnKAD academy – a boarding school to shape adolescents into servants of the state.

It's easier said than done if you're the daughter of a former public enemy, Daphne has a hard time making friends, her grades fall off and she's increasingly late. Hyperion intervenes and presents her with an opportunity. She becomes a Disciplinarian to bring other students in line.

ParAdox is a story about embracing and bending the rules. Daphne's evolution runs largely parallel to her historical development, which we'll follow from Kenovice through Aion until the big finale in Hermingrad 1922.

– ParAgon –

Our earliest snapshot of Atlas goes back to 1913. His interrogation by Crius (Danil) sees him being nonchalantly shot in the leg. Our protagonist holds firm, impressing his captor and landing him a job in the nation's secret police (EnKAD).

Two years later, Atlas is dispatched to Kenovice with orders to kill the man that recruited him. It's a turbulent time, given that he also meets the love of his life. For a couple of years, Atlas is content with life – until a tragic event makes him end up on his own again.

Fast forward to 1921. Eurydice disappears during a mission to Trachi. Atlas is sent to investigate. The current plan for ParAgon is to revisit his trip to the city we know and love.

– ParAsite –

Last but not least: Ganymede. Various characters pointed out that his past is a giant question mark. We saw a couple of flashbacks centering around a boy named Timothy – though we can't say for sure if these are 100% accurate.

Here's what we undoubtedly know: Ganymede delivered a letter for his brother Orpheus (Gregor) sometime before 1919. Two years later, he and Icarus (Nikolas) were in charge of the Forten Assassination. Ganymede met Orpheus again in 1923 and single-handedly dismantled Amryn's entire network in Dusa.

The last part will likely be the main stage of Ganymede's act. We'll get to see a younger brother who's been separated from the person he can't live without. If you've been wondering where the name 'Trojan Boy' comes from, you're in for a treat!

TRACHI, THEM, US

Towards the end of Act 4, the experiment concludes. I can't tell you too much about the results, but here's the pieces that form the conclusion: A fictional story is a script detailing the struggle between characters and their world. In the scope of a video game, we add a player who acts unpredictably.

ANARCHY is the characters learning how to break the script. This could lead to several outcomes. Either order is restored (AUTHORITY), the characters reconstruct Paradise (AUTARKY) or the game breaks into reality (ATOPY).

We don't need to make that call anytime soon. However, it's an important question for the future direction of TRACHI. Think of it as a balance between macro-history, individuality and meta ideology. If you have any thoughts on that – I'll gladly listen to them all.

ANNIVERSARY

TRACHI's first iteration was released exactly five years ago. 2021 saw AUTONOMY, followed by InvAsion in 2022. Last year, we pushed ExcommunicAtion (aka ANARCHY 0.1).

This year is the first one without a major release. I'm super sorry that I have so little to show. For what it's worth: I won't let go until I'm gone. Updates will likely be far and inbetween, but I firmly expect to pick up the pace towards the end of the year.

I want to thank you – and everybody else who has interacted with the games. From the many friends that embraced a nory trying to create, to all the strangers out there. Here's to you and the hope that TRACHI fills you with joy!

Talk to you again soon, friendos!

much love
nory

  • in ANARCHY
  • 6 min read

ExtrapolAtion (Preview I)

Heya, friends! 👋

Evidently, I'm a bit late. So let's kick it off with an apology!

I've had a couple of extra day-job commitments at work, which meant less time for development. We'll thus have to push ANARCHY 0.2.3 into the 0.3 basket. In effect, August 28th will see both the second and third part of ExtrapolAtion released as one big package.

The preview right here is centred around ExtrapolAtion B – aka Trachi 1923. This segment brings us closer to AUTONOMY than ever before – a perfect opportunity to revisit the political and personal situation at hand. We'll also take a look at a new major battle and – last but not least – introduce a long promised Status Value rework.

Trachi 1923

You've seen the preview – and perhaps the teasers at the end of ExtrapolAtion A. For the first time since 2021, we're going back to the city where it all began. Trachi's (outdoor) debut in Unity brings us back to AUTONOMY's finale. Moments after the (former) Mayor's speech, the Ionian Intelligence Serve (IIS) has achieved operation arteria's primary objective.

However, Atlas and Daphne aren't in Trachi just to stage a coup. The Secretary for State Security personally ordered them to clean the city while they're there. In less euphemistic terms: snatch two rogue agents (Orpheus and Eurydice) for a comprehensive 'debrief', while making sure that everybody affiliated with them is permanently taken off the board.

This backdrop is the immediate result of a convoluted political tug-of-war over an otherwise unimportant city. If your thirst for detail is already satisfied: feel free to skip the next section of this post. For everybody else, I'll try to sum it up in a couple of paragraphs.

Politics

In 1923, there's three major factions vying for dominance over Trachi. AUTONOMY mostly follows the events from the perspective of the IIS. Players who paid special attention might point out that this institution consists of two major subfactions: Ionia's secret police (EnKAD) and the Commissariat for External Affairs (CoExA).

On the Trachian side, there's the Faber administration. This de-jure government was replaced following an insurgency by political outcasts situated in a nearby village called Nestville. The coup itself was supported by Ionia as a means to reintegrate Trachi into their sphere of influence. Unbeknownst to them, a breakaway faction of CoExA – led by Orpheus – meanwhile encouraged Trachi's new government to go for full independence instead.

To sum up, there is one major frontline defining AUTONOMY's most important confrontation: On one side, there's the city – supported by the former CoExA office in Trachi. Opposite of that are two EnkAD agents with a mission to subdue the city – including their own rogue agents.

Melee

So much for the story. Next up, let's take a look into how that translates into gameplay. We – the player – are in control of Atlas and Daphne. As we enter CoExA's central station, we're confronted by Ariadne. Her appearance is a collective surprise for several reasons. You could say her being here hits differently for everyone.

It doesn't take long until a fight breaks out. Two on one might sound like a walk in the park, if it wasn't for the fact that Ariadne maintained her ExcommunicAtion strength. In concrete terms, she's Level 15 – we're Level 1. We strike, slash and shoot without putting a dent into her.

When it rains it pours. And when the city is under attack – the city strikes back. Wave after wave of armed militia storm the room to defend their home. Although these people are our enemies, we can appreciate their dedication. More so given the fact that their Level is much closer to our own.

Upgrade

Maybe you can already extract the formula for this particular fight. If not, let me introduce you to the broad strokes: Killing enemies nets you EXP and Loot. Because a chain is only as strong as it's weakest link, we just need to identify the softest target of them all.

Unfortunately, Ariadne won't sit still as we're picking off Trachian citizens one by one. ExcommunicAtion enjoyers might remember her signature ability: Indulgence. It's a global AOE with a one-turn buildup that reduces the HP of every enemy to 1.

To sum up: The primary challenge of this encounter will be to farm Levels and Equipment by killing 'adds'. At the same time, we're applying constant pressure to Ariadne in order to interrupt her casts. Failing to do that could spell death for Atlas or Daph. You being the player means they're reconstructed instantly, but the HP of every enemy combatant on the field is also fully restored.

Fundamentals

Remember when I promised to rework the three primary status values (HP, ATK and DEF) earlier this year? If you've done your rounds in ParAdise, you probably noticed the problem. There was a massive increase of max HP between Levels. For example, Lorna went from around 12 HP at Level 1 to 40-something at Level 2.

To counteract this problem, I boosted ATK-growth across the board, while keeping DEF-values comparably low. This band-aid solution is now obsolete, as we've cut HP-growth per Level by an average of 90%. A character that used to go from 10 to 3000 HP at Level 99 will henceforth have around 300 native max HP at the same level.

In addition, the relationship between ATK and DEF has also been reworked. The old formula [DMG * ATK / (100 * DEF / 100)] has been retired to make place for a much simpler one: DMG + ATK - DEF. It'll take a bit of fine-tuning to get it right, but I'm already a big fan of how straight-forward it is.

Outlook

So, what's next? First and foremost, we'll wrap up the battle against Ariadne. Then it's up the stairs, converging into Trachi's most important room. There'll be a big reunion, an opportunity for revenge and – last but not least – RAIN.

We'll talk more about that in the second preview sometime mid-August. If all goes well, we'll also look at new content for ParAdise, more Variations and a couple of extra QoL features.

A big (preliminary) shoutout to Hibari for helping me stay on course over the last couple of weeks. Major thanks to globabee, who's enlightened me to the aesthetics of Steam Inventories.

And finally, thank YOU very much – as always for your attention! 😊

much love
nory

  • in ANARCHY
  • 9 min read

Renaissance

Greetings, friends of the sun! 👋

After two months of work, here's ANARCHY 0.2.2 (Renaissance)! I'd normally give you an abstract about the highlights of this patch. This time, there's simply too many of them.

We're facing – without a shadow of a doubt – the biggest update since the game came out. Almost every segment has received new content, wide-ranging optimisation and other equally important bits of love.

Let's check it out! 👓

Narrative

ExtrapolAtion A is the centrepiece of Renaissance. We covered the broad strokes in the preview. In technical terms, Daphne is visiting Ganymede on August 28th 1926. On one hand, we're witnessing a love-letter to AUTONOMY's first couple of scenes.

There's a bunch of adjustments, both on the gameplay and narrative side. The dialogue is in many ways optimised and everything is far more interactive. Similar to ImmigrAtion, we're playing a lot with the thought of whether the scene in front of us is genuine history.

This exact dynamic comes to fruition during the conversation between Ganymede and Daph. We kick it off with familiar words – including a bit of extra AUTONOMY lore. When Daphne is about to leave, Ganymede casually drops a narrative nuke.

He's about to spill even more, then the encounter gets physical. I'll leave that and everything beyond to your own exploration, barring for one heartfelt promise: We're not only exposing story elements. 😏

Trilogy

ExtrapolAtion neatly fits the gap between ExcommunicAtion and ParAdise. Future-us will have to decide whether we leave it like that – or sprinkle the former two across ParAdise and ANARCHY's other acts.

For now, I'm happy to give the players (that's you!! 😊) the freedom to engage with the content as a buffet. If you start with ExcommunicAtion, ExtrapolAtion A will trigger right after the epilogue. Come July 28th, we'll extend it with ExtrApolation B and finally work in ExtrApolation C on the day of days.

After that's all done and settled, our narrative foundation is just about ready to support ParAdise. Which is the perfect segue to the next topic in this very post.

PreParAdise

Let's be real for a second: ParAdise – for its many qualities – has 'prototype' written all over it. We're booted into a green landscape without any context at all. For the better part of a year, we've kept it that way to make debugging and testing less of a pain.

At the same time, we've diligently worked on ParAdise's own introduction. ImmigrAtion was engineered for that purpose specifically, although it humbly remained a Fragment ever since. The first course of action is thus to put ImmigrAtion at the forefront of ParAdise.

Even so, there's still a big leap from fake-Aion 1913 to waking up in front of a Monolith. Ergo we took the backdrop of Paradise (that is 'green', Monsters and LiberAtion) as ingredients for a new map and made it a tutorial zone.

Renovation

The Glade is first and foremost a gameplay and narrative bridge. At the same time, it also serves two additional goals. I like to think of it as a field test for smaller, tighter outdoor maps. One aspect of that is performance – the other one is a more abstract 'vibe'.

Both factors have direct consequences for the existing parts of ParAdise. You'll probably notice that our main map – 'Paradise' – is now known as 'Paradise North'. It's an open-ended project, so I can't give out too many details yet. However, I'm leaning toward splitting the map.

I'll talk more about it when things are more concrete, but we can look at it in the following way: The new map is, for all intents and purposes, a good orientation of the aesthetic detail we're going for.

Chaperone

The other, much more immediate side-goal of the 'Glade' is to introduce Companions. Since we're placing ourselves in the tradition to exploration-based Tactical RPGs (i.e. Baldur's Gate, Pillars of Eternity and the like), combat and field-movement are deeply intertwined.

The new area tries to experiment with that. We've got a major character (Selene / Cleo) as our persistent side-kick on our way north. She follows, places herself on the grid and is even interactable for a chat or two.

If all goes well, we'll extend this system to Paradise proper. Lime would be an obvious candidate for a persistent companion down the Lime line.

Persistency

A wise man once said: People die when they're killed. In ANARCHY, deaders stay dead until the player triggers a Monolith. This means we have to be deliberate about what's respawned whenever we reenter a scene.

One likely scenario is saving and loading a game. The core challenge is to reinstate the scene as close as possible to the way we left it in. This is the primary reason why ANARCHY only supported AUTO-Saves. That restriction – in turn – was a major motivation for me to take a deeper look.

Starting today, we're supporting Manual Saves. It's currently limited to Field-Mode (i.e. no Battles and Conversations) but I'm committed to make it work everywhere. The second addition is that we've reworked the save and load menus to show the location and the portrait of the Field Leader.

Identity

We've more or less covered Variations in the preview and the technical overview. Thanks to our diligence, we can focus on what's new for you. First of all, you can equip Variations at any point in the game. Since individual pieces are still tied to Steam Items, some Fragments allow you to unequip an item without being able to reequip it.

Temporary Variations are thus marked as 'TEMP' – although I'll eventually slap an extra confirmation dialogue on top of that. Except for these fringe cases, you'll only see the Variations you own. This is mostly to prevent someone buying the Variation under the assumption it can't be unlocked through playing the game.

All in all, I'm (almost) completely satisfied with our current infrastructure. Implementing a new Variation takes about 10-15 minutes, all in all. The only aggravating part is making the Variations itself, so I'll keep that to a minimum until the updated Character Generator comes out. Here's hoping we'll get to see it released sometime this year.

Abilities

Obviously there's a bunch of changes and additions to the battles as well. I went into the visualisation of Actions a bit deeper here. From the player's perspective, combat generally works the same, just a lot more stable and smooth.

Our big new feature is a Counter mechanic. Given a certain Status Effect, a target of an Action retaliates with their own attack. It's not only borderline broken, but also breaks new ground. Chaining Actions without dropping the Side-View Overlay is something I've had my eyes on for a long time.

We'll get to see more of that in August at the latest. For now, I've also implemented a couple of extra abilities like Selene's Decrescent, a weakness inflicting AOE – and several weapon-based skills such as Terminology's Legshot [MOV DBUFF] and Fast [MOV BUFF].

Adversity

To be blunt, I've procrastinated a long time around setting up proper decision trees. AI-controlled combatants operated on very bare-bone instructions. As of Renaissance, every Field enemy now has a multi-tiered set of nodes that checks both enemies and allies for specific conditions.

Say, for example, you apply an ATK boost to yourself. If there's a Slime nearby, it could spoil your plan by purging that immediately. Another scenario would be an enemy unable to reach a target running Provoking, so it goes after someone else. These, in conjunction with every enemy's unique set of abilities, should make the fights in ParAdise way more engaging.

Bottom Line

Over the last two days, I've spent every waking minute testing ANARCHY. It's a bit like moving places, when everything you own becomes a burden. As annoying as it may be, I'm incredibly proud of what we've achieved. The 'we', in this case, is literal. I want to once again express a heartfelt thanks to (-_-!) for posting so many helpful reports.

All of these are issues I didn't have to find myself. They are – hopefully – issues you won't run into anymore. That, coupled with the community support and the (very encouraging) player statistics are the reasons why I keep coming back to ANARCHY.

On that note, let's talk again in just about two weeks. We'll take a look at ANARCHY 0.2.3 (Souvenir), where we'll formally introduce our fourth and final protagonist.

Hugs and kissies from your biggest fan

much love
nory

Release Notes

ANARCHY 0.2.2

Chapters
  • Added 📈 "ExtrapolAtion". Three years since Trachi.
  • Reworked "PostExcommunicAtion". Leads to ExtrapolAtion.
  • Reworked "Paradise". ImmigrAtion -> Glade -> Paradise North.#### Quests
  • Added 📅 "ExplanAtion". ExcommunicAtion + ExtrapolAtion.
  • Added Task "ExhalAtion" Is it me, or was I here before?
  • Added Task "ExternalisAtion" Either way, August 28th.
  • Added Task "ExpirAtion" Another world about to be rewritten.
  • Adjusted "Argonautica" Major rewrites and restructuring.#### Areas
  • Added 🚞 "Wenger Sanatorium" These people are inSANE.
  • Added 🌲 "Paradise Glade" Was that here before?
  • Renamed "Paradise -> Paradise North" RenovAtion.#### Combatants
  • Added 👨‍⚕️👩‍⚕️"Wenger Staff" Do I look like a receptionist?
  • Added 💖 "Field Companions" The more the merrier.
  • Adjusted "Helios" New Portraits & Sprites.#### Abilities
  • Added 🤺 "Counteract" Counter (if attacker(s) in range) [1 TURN]
  • Added 🌒 "Decrescent" 20% AOE DMG | adds WEAK [2 TURNs]
  • Added 🚿 "Cleanse" REMOVE 1 DBUFF
  • Added 💦 "Purge" REMOVE 1 BUFF
  • Added "Ambrosia" 100% DMG | PARALYZE [1 TURN]
  • Added Passive "Broken Wings" My life for yours.
  • Fixed "Rage" 20% Lifesteal | No CNTRL#### Items
  • Added 🛂 "Visitor's Pass" He's in the Western Wing.#### Enemies
  • Added "Battle Ogre" Level 15???
  • Reworked "Ogre" Come here! 🏃‍♂️#### AI
  • Reworked 🤖 "Base Behaviour" Cleanse -> Provoked -> Purge -> Attack.
  • Reworked "Icarus" Doesn't attack targets < 30% HP.#### Variation
  • Added 👕 "Nostalgia" Tick-Tock.
  • Added "Tartarus" Third time, isn't it?
  • Added "Liberty" Ser yourself free.
  • Streamlined "Item Slots" Character-specific 'Item Types'
  • Streamlined "Fragments" TEMPorary Variations#### Achievements
  • Added "Renaissance" We go again.
  • Adjusted "Paratrooper" Rewarded after ImmigrAtion.#### User Interface
  • Adjusted "Combatant" Available in Battles & Conversations.
  • Ergo "Equipment" & "Inventory" Adjustable everywhere.
  • Reworked Slot "Variation" Restricted to owned Variations.
  • Adjusted Battle Menu "Deploy" Only shown if deployable combatants >= 1.#### Action Overlay
  • Adjusted "Combatant Placement" Top-Down -> Side-View coherence.
  • Adjusted "Timings" Faster, better, smoother.#### Savegames
  • Added "NPCs" Stores positions & rotations.
  • Added "Manual Saves" We'll always be here.
  • Added "Save File Portraits" Putting a face to a name.
  • Added "Save File Area Info" Places to be.#### Miscellaneous
  • Adjusted "Camera Boundaries" Staying in our lanes.
  • Adjusted "Scene Transitions" Now waiting on the Camera to be set up.