Phantom-OS news & patch notes

Hey everyone, It’s been a long time since our last update—May 2023, to be exact—and we wanted to finally break the silence. The truth is, the past year has been a rollercoaster for our team, but we’ve been stabilizing and are able again to work on our passion project. We’re still figuring things out as we go for the long run, but now we have a clearer short-to-mid-term direction. This game is a mammoth-sized challenge, and for some reason, we thought it would be a great idea to make it with such a small team. As the great Gattuso once said: "Sometimes maybe good, sometimes maybe shit."

We’re Growing

This year, we’re also focused on expanding our team, bringing in a new writer and hopefully another developer. Making it a trio at the moment, and hopefully bigger by the end of the year. With the new writer on board, we decided to completely remake the story—and the quest lines along with it—which has helped give the game a much stronger foundation.

What’s New in the Game

We’ve also improved both the OS: further polishing it and adding a few Q.O.L. features for a more intuitive out-of-the-box user experience, as well as reworking the game loop—every in-game day now has more meaning, contributing to the story and making progression feel more natural.

Challenges Ahead

Of course, technical challenges are still a daily occurrence. The complexity of the project makes sure of that. But slowly, piece by piece, we’re pushing through. We’re not here to make big promises or set expectations we can’t meet. But if there’s one thing we can promise, it’s this: we’re not abandoning this project. We’re going to keep working on it and turn it into something we’re proud of. Something you’ll enjoy. Thanks for Sticking With Us More updates are on the way soon. Stay tuned!

Greetings hackers! This update wraps up the first day of the tutorial together with a few more bug fixes and quality of life features. We added a currency and banking system, e-wallets to decipher and the apartment building hallway, which is also explorable in-game. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43875683/fb052ed5bba02cd761cc17295e51125297409d8d.png We also exposed a few debug features to the users who would like to be more involved with the game, for more details join our discord server. Furthermore, we started working on the second day with more activities for the player to do, so stay tuned for updates. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43875683/8d1946f56462d583a7f30000b3558bf293474159.png On a side note, we also tested the newly released/freshly out of beta version of Unreal Engine 5.2, which resulted in disappointing visual and performance results. For now, we will stick with 5.1 for the time being until performance improves.

Full changelogs below:

Version: 0.1.1734 Date: 21.05.2023

Features:

• apartment building is now explorable:
  • procedural floors for buildings
  • apartment building entrance(s) with functional intercom to unlock (currently locked since the exterior is WIP)
  • motion-triggered hallway lights and intractable (openable) hallway windows (no, you cannot jump from them)
  • procedural mailboxes
• new demo missions: deciphering
  • introduction continues with player leaving for work and the outcome of the hacking mission
  • (internal) quest scripting timeframes have been implemented so quests can impose or limit the flow of time to better suit the narrative.
• attachments can now be downloaded as files on the player computer and deleted from player-made (composed) mails KNOWN ISSUE: you can attempt to delete attachments from received emails as well, but it will do nothing
• banking and money system added:
  • banking server
  • popups on both pc and in-world for money amounts
• e-wallets added:
  • linked to a bank server
  • player has an account as well
• all files and programs can now be opened from the terminal

  Graphics:

• highlight outline now properly scales with higher (lower) resolution scaling settings and is a bit more subtle

  Optimizations:

• all lights throughout the level have been tweaked in both distance and resolution to help alleviate the performance impact

  Changes:

• minigame 2 now used for deciphering wallets (formerly unused but accessible for training via the start menu)
• notification and wifi pop-up menus now change focus order similar to other windows instead of being always on top
• the laptop can now fulfill the same quest objectives as the desktop
• rewritten descriptions from the terminal "help" command to make them more useful and include a few examples as well

  Bugfixes:

• fixed video options not saving consistently between pressing escape and clicking the "back to menu" button
• "Hack all ports" quest doesn't complete if the ports are already hacked
• fix computers still booting up if crashed (BSOD) mid-bootup sequence
• fixed displays in multi-monitor setups not updating their backlight texture when shutting down via the start menu compared to pressing the power button on the case
• fixed player hair groom doesn't cast shadows
• changed the hacking target user name for the mission to not have the same surname as the landlord (oops)

Greetings hackers! First of all, thank you for all your feedback and reviews! We took it to heart and fixed user-reported issues regarding graphic options and keybind settings.

• The apartment building hallway is also now accessible if you leave the apartment.
• The terminal also got an upgrade, now supporting network locations

As our players, your feedback and support are crucial to making Phantom OS the best game it can be. If you would like to get in touch with us, join our Discord community!

Full changelogs below:

Version: 0.1.1707 Date: 30.04.2023

Features:

• extended terminal:
  • added move (cut) command
  • added delete command
  • added rename command
  • commands to copy/move/delete/rename folders and files now work for network locations
• made dev flags and console commands for debugging accessible via the chat window (more about this on our Discord server)
• apartment windows cannot be opened if blocked by a curtain and displayed text reflects this

  Graphics:

• added missing potted plant texture

  Optimizations:

• game starts with some light switches turned off to help improve performance
• added neck mesh to cover character model hole when looking down
• fixed collision volumes for a few meshes, including the ones missing from the hallway stairs, and the muffin in the microwave

  Balancing:

• adjusted camera positions in first person with and without headbob to better fit the character model
• adjusted third person focus points (accessible in the Gameplay tab under Camera Focus)

  Changes:

• made crouch-jump and jump-crouch work reliably (still disabled in release builds)
• bumped version number within packaged .exe file
• made door peephole glass darker
• centered bathroom mirror
• updated terminal help command to include the new commands and examples for each
• increased player detection speed of hallway lights and made them brighter
• changed anchor for the interact prompt on the hud to not overlap crosshair

  Bugfixes:

• fixed issue where stepping on small physics objects would send the character flying
• fixed text displaying "Tilted" on apartment windows regardless of their actual state ("Open", "Closed")
• fixed "probe" window not being brought into focus
• fixed game crash when quitting to main menu while a "ping", "probe", or other ongoing commands were running
• fixed interact text on building entrance door
• fixed door opening animation
• fixed computer input not working at first boot if you enter the monitor during bootup sequence

  Gui:

• added disclaimer and game version to the menu screen