Server/Client and Services News

Hello everyone, Prisoners. This is the programming department.

It’s been quite a while since our last update, and we’d like to start by apologizing for the silence. Over the past few months, we’ve chosen to focus on development and avoid announcing progress until we had solid results to show. Fortunately, that moment has finally arrived.

In light of recent events, we’ve decided to share some of the work we’ve already completed rather than waiting to finish all the systems. We believe it’s important for you to see firsthand that the project is still moving forward and that work is progressing at a steady pace.

Combat System

It seems that the previous post led to some interpretations that differed from what we intended to convey, so we’d like to take this opportunity to better clarify the current state of the project.

Through reverse engineering based on combat videos and by cross-checking memories and details with community members, we have managed to fully recreate the original combat system on the server. In the client, it is now possible to select the weapons you want to attack with, although there is still work to be done to integrate all the calculations and mechanics currently handled by the server.

We also want to remind you that, while our initial goal was to faithfully reproduce the combat from The Prison for Imprisoned 1.0, this implementation will serve as a foundation for future improvements. The intention is to preserve the essence of the original system while addressing some of its limitations and expanding its possibilities for the future.

Quests

We now have the quest system up and running, so the content department has already begun adding some quests to the game. For now, we’re talking about the original system from The Prison, where we simply traded one set of items for another, though we’ve added a small improvement. We now have quest chains, so to undertake certain specific quests, we must complete others first.

Inventory

The inventory and container system is now working properly, allowing items to be transferred between different containers. This mechanic serves as the foundation for other important game systems, such as missions, trading, and crafting.

Map

We’ve also developed an internal tool that lets us arrange the map’s rooms much more conveniently and automatically. For now, we’re using the first map that appeared in the original game’s box as a reference, since, as it’s a smaller map, we believe it will encourage player encounters and make the experience more dynamic.

Additionally, we’ve added a tooltip that appears when you hover over a door to indicate where it leads, just as it did in the original game.

Other improvements

• Stats and Skills: Every time you level up, you’ll be able to assign one stat point and a number of skill points determined by your character to your skills, which will activate when you perform an attack.
• Groups: We now allow the creation of groups, which share the experience from NPCs they defeat (for now without a UI, only via commands).
• Moving bots: Our server now correctly handles NPC movement, allowing us to set routes from our admin panel, giving the environment a more lively feel.

Services

Another area we’ve been working on is the account and service infrastructure.

From now on, all accounts in the ecosystem will be centralized on a single authentication server. What does this mean? Very simple: you’ll only need one account to access all IMPRISONED services.

The same account you use to access the forum will be the one you use to log in on the website and, of course, within the game.

In addition, we have significantly improved the user control panel. By logging into your account on the website, you can view general account information, see your characters, and, in the future, perform new tasks that we will add as development progresses.

Our goal is to make managing your account increasingly simple, convenient, and accessible from a single location.

Smartphones

On the other hand, and focusing more on the game itself, we’ve been developing an app called Imprisoned Companion, which will be available for both Android and iOS. Its goal is to serve as a complement to the game and provide a range of features we consider important for the project’s future.

Currently, its features already include character management, though we have many more features planned that we will incorporate as development progresses.

Your inventories

And the in-game chat.

Our idea is that, when we implement trading, it won’t just return—it will do so with much greater depth and significance than it originally had, thanks to the mechanics we’re working on.

We want part of that system to be manageable from the app even when you’re not in the game. For example, if you list an item for sale, another player can contact you to make an offer, and you can accept, reject, or negotiate with that person in real time.

The app will also be used to manage the clan, interact with your cellmate to have them carry out certain tasks, prepare for future mechanics, and many other things we’ll be rolling out later.

That’s all for now. Our current goal is to launch a first version with what we’ve already developed and, with your help and feedback, start incorporating new combat mechanics, character development, territory control, dungeons, dynamic events, and much more.

Imprisoned running on mobile devices

As a fun fact, we’ve been able to run our Unreal 5 client successfully on a Samsung Galaxy S22, as you can see in this video.

This phone is pretty good but it’s a few years old, and even so, without having optimized anything, we’ve had pretty good results. While it’s true that we aren’t currently planning to release Imprisoned on mobile devices, we haven’t ruled out the idea at all. In the meantime, for those of you who spend more time on your phone than on your PC, be sure to read the services section carefully—it’s sure to interest you.

Thank you for your support, through the good times and the not-so-good times.

See you behind bars soon…

The IMPRISONED Team