Hello, fellow netrunners.

With the Intermission 1 release (build 4.5), we are now moving into the second arc of String Zero. It’s shorter than our usual releases, but we’re taking a break for a bit and swapping away from Ravy’s point of view. This release is plot-dense and introduces the Company Chairman.

For a quick update, development has been slow for reasons discussed previously in the new year’s post. Chapter 5’s script is complete and assets are presently in development.

As usual, please report any breaks or bugs either here or in our discord bug thread.

Complete Changelog

Intermission 1 content implemented.

• New backgrounds from Ruckusleaf.
• Updated some character sprites from KensukeTheCat and Lision (new clothes; more compositing; more poses).
• New illustration from Lision.
• New and Updated music from HYENABLOOD and Slate.
• Updated script and LOOM entries.
• Updated Spanish Translation from Dray.
• Updated Chapter Summaries page which now includes summaries of previous chapters.

Added global content and fixes.

• Various minor UI fixes due to UI size and placement adjustments.
  • LOOM updates disabled during memory UI (to prevent the updates from popping up in weird locations).
• Various misc dialogue system changes.
• Fixed various typos and minor consistency issues
• Restructured character definitions and sprite pose definitions (to work better with compositing).
• All of the non-dynamic music refined for the OST release has now been moved into the game.
• Restructured LOOM code and added additional features
  • Switching between entries should no longer cause the side navigation to jump
  • Added a button to mark all entries as read
  • Added a button to reset the LOOM and clear progress (available when accessed from main menu)
• Sprite compositing project continues and should be complete with Chapter 5. (Which is a major milestone as it will cut down future development time considerably.)
  • Started the process of updating all sprites to higher-resolution versions.

Known Issues

• Call UI textbox is missing text. (We’ll resolve this in Build 5.)
• Crashes during FMOD/dynamic music sequences when the back button is pressed too many times.
  • Pressing back sometimes causes FMOD flags to override each other in incompatible ways, causing a crash. Usually, you can simply ignore the script warning; the music just won’t play for that sequence.
• Crashes on Skip.
  • Skipping is known to cause occasional crashes when Ren’py is not allowed to fully render portions of the script. This is especially true on slower machines.
  • Report these issues, but typically, moving through these sequences at normal speed will resolve the problem.

Thanks for your support, everyone!