Set Discrepancy

At the time of this blog, the main download link points to a short alpha demo of Set Discrepancy, demonstrating the custom interface and giving you a taste of gameplay. I'm calling it an alpha release because, while it's mostly functional, there are still gaping holes in the gameplay balancing. Please note the following:

Critical notes:

- KNOWN BUG: About 25% of the time, the random world generator will get stuck in an infinite loop on the "Generating World" screen. I must still find out why it does this. If it happens, just press F12 to return to the title screen and try again.

Not Critical But Still Important Notes:

- There is a shortcut key (not mentioned in the in-game help) that can make combat easier, if you're using the same weapon over and over again. While on the root menu in the Action Phase, press 'A' to automatically select the last weapon you used, including the Psi-Amp.

- Nanites (the "currency" in this game) are presently carried like an item, meaning they take up an inventory space and must be "passed" between characters depending on who has to use them. For a future release they will be stored outside of characters' inventories and be accessible to all characters. (Like money in traditional RPGs.)

- Only the Engineering, Psionics and Medical specializations are currently supported in the game. You can choose to be any of the others, but they have no actual benefit. Also, the 'Operate' attribute is underused so far, only needed for the 1 Medkit you find.

For future releases:

- At the moment you can only choose between 2 face graphics for your character. There will be 24 for the next release.

- Security computers don't do anything yet, since there aren't any security cameras to catch you (a la System Shock 2) and hacking talents aren't yet implemented. Hacking talents mainly serve to give you information, such as revealing the locations of monsters or items. Higher-level talents will allow you to damage monsters from elsewhere on the map, i.e. generating EMP bursts in other rooms.

- You will be able to "research" items (a la System Shock 2) for various benefits. Research possibilities will be based entirely on your specialization; i.e., only Biologists can research organic artifacts, only Engineers can research devices, etc.