The Last Stand: Union City – Beta v0.5 is now live for my closed beta group. Yes, the game is still in closed beta, but I can say now that an open beta is not far away. Sometime in June, there’ll be a short open beta, most likely run over at Armor Games.
The current version of the game is probably the most stable build yet. I spent quite a bit of time knocking out some of the more persistent and frustrating bugs. The Newtown and Uptown areas are mostly done now, with just a few NPCs and side quests to go in. For the moment though, I’m concentrating on the main storyline path and getting that done.
Additions to this version include:
- Achievements
- Store system
- New skill “Smarts”
And much much more, I went through around 150 items on my to-do list for this current version. There’s a more detailed change list after the jump.
Read the rest of this entry »
Implemented into The Last Stand: Union City in the last few days is something that a lot of you have been asking about / for over the development. What’s all this cash? What’s the point of it? Well, here it is.
King-o-Pawn is a pawn shop franchise run by the King himself. After the city started failing apart, King being the generous fellow that he is decided to continue to operate his chain of stores as a service to anyone left alive in the city. Costs are at an all time high though as supply is zero and demand is huge. Thing is, he doesn’t accept trades and he isn’t buying, something about anything outside the store being “infected”.
Design wise, given the randomness of the world and to ensure that players have alternative methods of getting the items they need, the game really needed a store. It was a simple build, taking just over half a day. Here’s how it’ll work in-game.
- There’ll be multiple shops, with 9 different items available in each store.
- Ammo, weapons, health items and armor will be the most common items.
- Books, clothing may be available in some stores.
- Stock won’t change in any given store.
- Stock doesn’t run out, so you can buy as much as you can afford.
- You can’t sell items (too much work putting prices on 400 items)
- Cash drops / finds will be higher to increase player cash.
- Prices in the screenshot aren’t final.
- It’ll be in the next beta.
“In these uncertain times, friend. Cash is King” – King
As promised, achievements will be part of The Last Stand: Union City. Who doesn’t love that little ding sound and some text appearing? I’ve added 41 achievements so far, with at least another 13 or so to come. The remaining few will mostly be to do with reaching different areas on the map and some late game stuff.
Instead of these achievements being meaningless, there’s an XP bonus attached to every single one. On top of that, there’ll be a reward for completing them all. The other thing is that the achievements are character dependent, so if you share a PC, your little brother / sister won’t be stealing all your XP goodness!
You’ll also get on screen updates as you’re playing, to let you know where you’re up to with certain achievements. It’s always good to know how many more zombies you need to kill to hit that Annihilation achievement. There’s also a handful of secret achievements. You won’t get updates for those, or any clue how to get it, you’ll have to stumble across that for yourself.
If you don’t want some stuff spoiled, don’t read the list I’ve posted after the jump. Otherwise, go forth!
Read the rest of this entry »
Here they are, my picks as winners. Ended up with around 40 in total. If you used a fake email address to sign in, I’m sorry, I can’t help you.
You can view the winner names and entries here. The invitation emails have been sent and should arrive over the next few hours, be sure to check your junk email folder for messages from Google Groups.
Thanks to everyone who entered. So many entries and yes I did read them all. The ones chosen were chosen because of fit in my game as well as my personal taste. I’m sure there’ll be a few in there you guys don’t agree with so begin the bitching below!
