Welcome to another update of The Operator, rolling in all of the work I have done over the last few months on the PATREON branch, now it is safe and ready for the public! Many things have been added in the interim, with the major standouts being the camera navigation controls and abilities bar!

Plus new levels, 1-10 and A1-1 are now public levels…

The notes below are a combination of release notes for PATREON releases v0.1.10.0, v0.2.0.0 and v0.2.0.1 (With the PATREON release currently at v0.2.1.0).

GENERAL IMPROVEMENTS

• The ability to combine items together to make new items is officially in the game, with a new pop-up UI to allow for merging two items into new things to play with!
• Ready for the above UI, I resized EVERY usable item so they had no transparent space on - I did not enjoy this job
• Added checks to ensure items cannot be duplicated - items from previous levels all had to have this check added, they basically need to know whether or not they’re in the combo UI in order to stop them from duplicating themselves. I believe I have found every instance this needed to be done with, but I cannot be 100% certain so if you do encounter any weird duplication bugs please let me know
• We officially have a second floppy disk! It took quite some work to make sure everything was looking at the new world set, e.g. the level buttons, display screen etc, but now it should all be working without bugs! This will auto-unlock for anyone who has completed 1-10
• Added the CRT transitions to level 1 - this originally didn’t happen as it went from the C64-esc screen straight to the level, but on more complex levels the CRT style static masks the loading of objects which can seem a bit skippy otherwise (technically not a bug, as this was originally the intended way, just a natural evolution thanks to more complex future levels)
• Added a new messaging system, the traditional letter inbox so that you can get sent new disks & letters that way too!
• I changed the logic on how buttons/bulbs are displayed, necessary with the addition of the second set of levels otherwise you might end up on a level that doesn’t actually exist yet… If you ever find yourself locked out of levels unexpectedly or with buttons that don’t work let me know (For reference: currently 1-1 to 1-10, and A1-1 is all that should be available)
• Added a history for the seen messages, so you can go back and re-read any past message
• I added a message box to pass small hints to the user. Think for little “that won’t work here” type messages…
• Added a new poster (set) for you to hunt down - enjoy!

HINT SYSTEM IMPROVEMENTS

• The hint system now officially supports multiple hints per stage! I’ve gone back through each of the levels and made sure each stage has at least 2 clues per step
• The hint button is now no longer disabled while a clue is being displayed, instead, it will just update with whatever the next clue is
• Gave the letter inbox an animation to make it more obvious you’ve got new mail to open

BUGFIX

• Fixed the letter opener being invisible, but still usable, on 1-5 during the final scene
• Fixed certain non-interactive objects that should start invisible, not being invisible
• The level indicator sometimes failed to work correctly on 01-01
• 1-5 and 1-6 had an audio bug where the final scene’s audio would basically be constantly playing
• The water bottle in 1-7 was invisible during the final scene, but would magically re-appear if you picked up the lighter
• Fixed the item tooltip and the hint bar getting in the way of one another
• Reworded a few clues to make them a little clearer, some of them read like I had been hit in the head while writing them - I do not deny that there are probably more improvements I could make in clues too, but it’s a start!
• Fixed audio queues not resetting correctly on subsequent playthroughs
• Fixed not being able to reset level 1-5’s final scene
• Didn’t clean up test items in v0.1.10.0 - these shouldn’t have caused any issues that I am aware of in the previous release but they are cleaned up now
• Fixed some debug messages left in the logs that were spamming away on 01-10, shouldn’t have had any real-world impact, but at least it’s not pointlessly spamming every tick!
• Fixed the UI click check counting clicks on the combo box, even when the combo box was shut (so you couldn’t click on anything that would be under that box) - I also extended this to the new abilities and nav boxes
• Fixed a lighting bug which stopped the room lighting overlays from loading properly on early levels (although, I’m not 100% sure if this bug was in the last release or if I both introduced and fixed it in the interim, but it is annoying to test)
• Fixed the alcohol bottle on 1-7 being accessible before opening the tent
• Fixed the door exit audio for the janitor/maintenance worker playing twice
• Fixed the all hints completed placeholder hint not working on A1-1, it still just displayed the final hint
• Swapped the stack of floppy disks around, so the red disk (level set 1) was on top, as it was pointed out to me that it felt more natural to insert the top disk first - these are essential improvements, literally unplayable without this change!
• Stopped the audio playing for the floppy disk insert playing if you inserted a second disk while it was still playing. While not necessarily a problem, it did cause a hell of a racket if you spam-clicked the disk pile…
• Fixed the floppy disks and room decorations not being disabled when clicking on the UI, so you could change level sets while the game was paused
• Improved some click areas in 1-2 that were bigger than they should be
• Fixed a bug with lighting overlay not appearing in 1-4
• Stopped audio playing when a disk was inserted, otherwise, you could have level audio playing even when you’ve navigated away
• Fixed a bug where if you hit the hint button and then immediately navigated away, the button would just cycle forever
• Revert the cursor when changing disks, didn’t have any implications as level swaps would clear it anyway, just looked odd when you were on the pink/blue screen with an item in your hand