Heyo, it's Youko and it's time for the first public monthly update! ːashtonglareː

In case you missed it, we've updated our news schedule (under III. Patreon - Ship Captain Recruitment).

I will be updating the general progress for this month in short form. We're still working out the exact format of these posts so please be patient with us if it's a little wonky to begin with. ːtiredadmiralː

1. We've brainstormed 15 new CAST types to add into the game over the next few months. Their details have been listed in the public Trello[trello.com], so please check them out if you're curious! We would love to hear some feedback. At least one new CAST will be featured in the first public beta (but we are aiming for 3).
   
2. We've been working on a leaderboard for arcade mode and more stages. These will likely be released along with the first Beta, but no promises!
   
3. Due to some great feedback we've been given, we're updating the exoframe UI to make it possible to see the general hp of opponents along with their character bust. Since the intention isn't to make you fight massive multi-part enemies with Lapis alone, we think this is a good compromise without cluttering the screen or covering up GTDCarthage's modeling work.
   
4. Writing is coming along somewhat slowly, but it's progressing. The slow work speed is mostly due to the sheer complexity that's been building up since the beginning of the game (to give you an idea, one optional mission had literally 50+ potential variable changes alone based on the outcome and prior actions). The majority of these will massively impact events in the future and your direct relationship with certain crew members. Not all missions will be like this, of course, but it's worth it to consider what ramifications your actions will have on a grander scale.
   
5. We've started making progress on mid-to-end game battle mechanics and boss mechanics! No spoilers. ːclaineohohoː

Thank you for supporting the game! ːaiheartː

Heyo, Youko here!

🎊Happy 2022! I hope it’s going well for you so far (even though it’s a bit chaotic right now). 🎉

✨We’re starting off the year right with our new roadmap in the form of a Trello board: https://trello.com/b/xUlhjh9o/sierra-ops-roadmap and celebrating our 2nd anniversary!✨
Sierra Ops will be on sale for 33% off for three days starting from Jan 16, 10:00 AM PST, so grab the game while it's hot! ːashtonglareː

https://store.steampowered.com/app/364210/Sierra_Ops__Space_Strategy_Visual_Novel/

You can now track our progress in real-time as we work our way to the beta release which is currently scheduled for February/March. If you're not sure about the state of affairs, please check our last news update here regarding the future of the game and how we’ll be progressing from now on https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/364210/view/3129437417965113646.

We can’t express how thankful we are for those of you who’ve decided to pledge to our Patreon to help us complete Sierra Ops. 💕💕💕

Funding has been a running issue for a long time. Members of the core team have been forced to divert our attention to freelance jobs in an attempt to make the ends meet when sales don’t cover our base costs, dramatically decreasing the amount of time that could be spent actually working on the game. With your support we’ll be able to put a lot more focus on getting things completed in a timely manner.

Budget concerns aside, we're really looking forward to what sort of ship captains will be joining us in-game! Sierra Ops' side characters have always been an oddly collaborative effort between us and our original indiegogo backers. We're glad that we get to carry that spirit all the way to the end! 💖

Thank you for supporting the game! ːaiheartː

Hello everyone,

Happy New Year! We've made a lot of major decisions over the past few weeks based on the current state of the game, and all the nitty-gritty details are available here:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/patreon-game-and-60146928

But if you just want the summary, here are the key points that you need to know:

Original Plan

• Game 1: "Sierra Ops"
  - Episode 1 and 2 (prologue, chapters 1,2,3.)
  
• Game 2: "Sierra Ops 2"
  - Episode 3 and 4 (chapters 4,5,6,7,8,9,10, +many endings.)
  
• Game 3: "Sierra Ops 3"
  - New game+ Episode 1,2,3,4 (chapters 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 and finale.)

However, after much talk and discussion with both our publisher and team members,
This means the second game / Episodes 3 and 4 will be restructured to offer a meatier experience that links better into the next entry.

The third game will continue as originally planned but will become the second game instead:

New Plan

• Game 1: "Sierra Ops"
  - Episode 1,2,3,4 - (prologue, chapters 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10, + many endings.)
  
• Game 2: "Sierra Ops 2"
  - New game+ Episode 1,2,3,4 (*chapters 1,1.5,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 and ??? finale.)

(*note: the finalized chapter structure may not be exactly like this)

Here's a summary of what'll happen based on the changes above:

I. Restructuring Into Full Game

• Chapters 4 to 10 or Episodes 3 and 4 will be restructured and added to the end of the current game (we'll refer to them as "remaining episodes" for brevity). This means that Sierra Ops will have an expansion update that covers everything up to the actual ending for this installment.
  
• Access to the remaining episodes will be limited to Season Pass owners and Steam users who bought Sierra Ops.
  
• The DLC pages of both Episodes 3 and 4 will be delisted on Steam.
  
• If you're unable to access the expansion once it's released, please contact us and we can work something out.
  
• The base price of the game will increase to $24.99 USD once the expansion has been released.

II. Free Package Owners

Free package owners are Steam users who added Sierra Ops to their library for free before it transitioned into a paid app. If you're one of the Free Package Owners who played the game, just know that we're very thankful for your interest and hope you'll stick with us.

• All free package owners will get to keep the current version on Steam that has both Episodes 1 and 2, which has about 6-20 hours worth of content! We'll also keep providing stability updates for free.
  
• If you're a free package owner who's interested in playing the remaining episodes, we'll release a new DLC to grant you access to the remaining episodes. (Season Pass owners and paid package owners don't have to buy said DLC.)
  
• It's also possible to get a key to the game through lifetime Patreon pledges along with early access beta if you would prefer that instead.

III. Patreon - Ship Captain Recruitment!

• We launched the Patreon[www.patreon.com] to help fund the game, share behind-the-scenes content, early access beta builds, and other rewards. Here's a detailed breakdown of the tiers and explanations on how the early access beta(s) will work: https://www.patreon.com/posts/beta-access-and-60148479?
  
• In exchange for your help, we offer you the perks mentioned in the above link, the most notable one being having your very own character with custom alias and/or portrait in place of the usual faceless NPC battleships.
  
• Weekly updates centered on the expansion will be moved to Patreon.
  
• We will still maintain a monthly update summary on Steam and Discord for non-Patreons.

To Season Pass Owners:
You will be automatically given access to the first early access beta without needing to become a Patreon.

In the next few weeks, the roadmap will be updated to reflect our new schedule.

If you have any questions, we highly recommend checking out the main post on Patreon[www.patreon.com] first. Feel free to reply to this post, or send us an email at innomen.productions@gmail.com.

Thank you for supporting us through everything! ːaiheartː

1. Options menu - You can now change the key binding for next dialog. In case you want to swap spacebar with enter key for proceeding text and hiding textbox respectively:

2. Options menu - Fixed an issue where window/full screen mode doesn't reflect the toggle buttons properly when using alt+enter.

3. Intro - Camera movement tutorial will only be cleared if the player moves the camera to the right. We just added a 30 second time limit before automatically proceeding to the next phase of the tutorial.

4. Intro - Camera zoom tutorial will only be cleared if the player zoom out the camera. And just like the camera movement tutorial, we added a 30 second time limit.

5. Battle/Arcade - Updated assigned voices for Harbinger cannon.

6. Battle/Arcade - Changed the color for cleared objectives in the objective window, and added a slight animation so it's much noticeable for players.

7. Battle/Arcade - Added EMP Warheads for launchers, and adjusted Valorous Launcher so it's slower than Raptor Launcher.

12/22 small patch notes:
- Fixed unintentionally overly thicc hardpoints.
- Fixed issues related to saving data.
- Changed combat reminders execution for first-time players.
(We just added "click to reveal" and disabled exiting. Existing players who wish to preview just need to delete or rename system.pdata2 inside %USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\Innomen Productions\Sierra Ops , then run Venus tutorial.)
- (10:29 PM PST) Added and Updated EULA text to store page and matched it in-game.

- Logs can now be accessed freely even when there are obscured messages around. (prologue)
- Improved the user interface for opportunities.
- Removed the desaturation effect in Title Screen when starting the game since it no longer directly links to the nightmare. Also improves startup time.
- Fixed some capitalization in UIs.

Hi everyone!

It's time for another fixes and tweaks patch (build 7874779)! We've added a bunch of QoL changes and fixes that'll make your time in the Sierra-verse smoother! ːclaineohohoː

Let's start with the

1. Issue with pronouns and AU!Junius, UK spelling, and some minor typos plus punctuation. The majority of the week has been dedicated to trying to automate this process along with some punctuation issues and remaining UK spelling. All visual novel scenes, battle scenes, and overworld scenes should be problem free. We are still manually checking them during the directing process, but this is a great backup system to see if we missed anything. There are two victory lines that need to be re-recorded, but we'll slot them in as soon as we receive the lines. If you see typoes we missed after the next patch, please let us know and we'll fix it ASAP! This also applies to all other issues with Junius selection like og!Junius appearing randomly during breaks. ːjeanthinkː
   
   
2. Issue with retained settings and resolution changing. There was a bug that caused things like menu text and side quest text to overflow/display incorrectly when the resolution or fullscreen/windowed mode is changed. This should now be resolved. The game show also actively maintain your settings for both resolution and volume upon reboot without needing the menu to be accessed.
   
   
3. Background alignment bug on reload. Sometimes the background during visual novel sections would be misaligned when reloading a save twice. This should now be resolved.

• There was a small issue with routing during the Strange Ships route that's now been fixed.
  
• Fixed a minor bug that made it so you couldn't switch back to Sierra while in exoframe mode.
  
• Improved stability.
  
• There was still an instance of Sierra's barrage ability being accessible before the main battle of Chapter 3. That's been resolved now, but still keep an eye out just in case!
  
• Fixed an issue where small projectiles (like Lapis' guns and CIWS) disappear halfway to their target.

1. Combat Reminder - In an effort to give players a bit more support, combat wise, we're including a mini reminder guide to the menu under a new "help" button. In the case you're confused or have forgotten what something did, pause at any point to take a look! They will pop up automatically in some earlier missions so consider them a mini reminder tutorial.
   
2. Upgraded Textlog - The textlog has been upgraded! It will now record battle dialogue and retain lines until the max number of lines is reached or the game is rebooted. In addition, we also made it possible to access the log during battle cutscenes via the mouse scroll wheel or accessing the menu via ESC, pausing the action until the player exits the menu. This only applies when dialogue boxes are present so it shouldn't interfere during actual combat. ːallenshockː
   
   
3. Opportunities - Opportunities are now specified to give hints on how to obtain them or tell players if it's inaccessible.
   

- Expanded on the Venus tutorial that explains turning off vector shields and allotting more EN has them regenerating faster.


We're still working on some big behind the scenes stuff so stay tuned! Thanks for supporting the game! ːaiheartː

Heyo, it's Youko and time for the weekly update!

We have something big brewing in the horizon, but it'll be a while before we can talk about that so let's just focus on the upcoming fixes this week (probably the middle of the week).

1. In an effort to give players a bit more support, combat wise, we're including a mini reminder guide to the menu under a new "help" button. In the case you're confused or have forgotten what something did, pause at any point during battle to take a look!

2. We totally know about the issue with pronouns and AU!Junius. We're working on a more reliable solution to our current system. It should all be fixed by the next update (hopefully for good along with some persistent UK spelling). If you see one we missed after the next patch, please let us know and we'll fix it ASAP! This also applies to all other issues with Junius selection like og!Junius appearing randomly during breaks. ːjeanthinkː

3. We fixed a minor bug that made it so you couldn't switch back to Sierra while in exoframe mode.

4. We fixed an issue where small projectiles (like Lapis' guns and CIWS) disappear halfway to their target.

5. There was a small issue with routing during the Strange Ships route that's now been fixed.

6. There was still an instance of Sierra's barrage ability being accessible before the main battle of Chapter 3. That's been resolved now, but still keep an eye out just in case!

Thanks for supporting the game! ːaiheartː

Episode 2 aka Chapters 1-3 weren't accessible to some players.
This patch makes sure everyone's able to access it.
Please relog on Steam to obtain the patch.

The new build ID is 7786629

We also fixed a visual bug with one of the Squadron ships.