November Game Updates - Milestone 1

Two months ago, in early September, Chatsubo was a vision and an empty codebase. Today, it’s a living cyberpunk world where players create characters, fight through the streets of Night City, level up through 50 levels of progression, and explore a growing dystopian metropolis. Milestone 1 - our foundation release - is complete.

This isn’t a finished game, at best it may be an Alpha. What it most certainly is, is something more important: a solid foundation that proves the concept works, that the core systems integrate cleanly, and that the vision of an immersive cyberpunk MUD is achievable. This post chronicles what we’ve built, what it means for players, and where we’re headed next.

The Core: Combat and Progression

At the heart of any MUD is combat. We knew from day one that Chatsubo needed a combat system that felt tactical without requiring constant input, rewarding without becoming grindy, and balanced across 50 levels of progression.

Turn-Based Combat That Flows

We implemented a turn-based combat system that automates the tedious parts while preserving tactical choices. Once you initiate combat with attack <target>, the system handles round-by-round attacks automatically. You’re free to queue special actions, flee when outmatched, or simply watch the battle unfold with clear feedback about every hit, miss, and damage dealt.

The system calculates damage based on your attributes and skills, factors in enemy defenses, and provides transparent combat feedback. You always know what’s happening and why. No hidden dice rolls, no mysterious failures - just clean, understandable combat mechanics.

Three Tiers of Challenge

Not all enemies are created equal. We implemented a three-tier difficulty system that provides appropriate challenges throughout your progression:

Tier 1: Tutorial Enemies - Street trash, burnt-out junkies, and minor threats. Perfect for learning combat mechanics and quick encounters. These enemies go down fast but teach you the fundamentals.

Tier 2: Standard Enemies - Gangers, thugs, and enforcers. This is your bread-and-butter combat experience. Fair fights that reward tactical thinking and proper character builds.

Tier 3: Boss Enemies - Cyber-psychos, security bots, and gang leaders. Epic encounters that test your limits. These fights are meant to be challenging, with rewards to match.

The beauty of the three-tier system is that it scales mathematically across all 50 levels. A Tier 3 boss at level 1 takes roughly the same number of attacks to defeat as a Tier 3 boss at level 50 - the numbers get bigger, but the tactical pacing stays consistent.

Leveling That Accelerates, Not Grinds

Here’s where we did something different from traditional MMOs. Instead of making leveling progressively slower at higher levels, we made it faster.

Through power law scaling (combat power grows at level^1.5, XP requirements grow at level^1.3), high-level players actually level faster relative to their power. At level 1, you might need 10 standard enemy kills to level up. At level 25, you need 5-6 kills. At higher levels, progression feels rewarding, not punishing.

We also fixed an early bug where the XP progress bar showed inflated percentages. Now when your character sheet shows 76% progress to next level, it actually means 76% - not some confusing calculation that made players question the math.

Read more: Three-Tier Scaling Foundation

Characters That Matter

Five Cyberpunk Roles

Character creation in Chatsubo starts with a choice that shapes your entire playstyle. Five distinct roles offer different approaches to the cyberpunk world:

Console Cowboy - Hackers and netrunners who navigate cyberspace and manipulate systems. High intelligence, technical skills, and cyber-enhanced processing power.

Street Samurai - Combat specialists augmented with military-grade cyberware. Reflexes and strength focused, built for direct confrontation.

Fixer - Social operators who know everyone and can get anything. Charisma-based characters who excel at negotiation and reputation management.

Tech - Engineers and mechanics who understand the hardware that keeps Night City running. Intelligence and technical skills let them modify and repair equipment.

Street Medic - Trauma specialists who keep people alive in the sprawl. Medical knowledge and steady hands make them invaluable in any crew.

Each role comes with unique starting cyberware and skill bonuses. Your choice isn’t just cosmetic - it fundamentally affects how you approach challenges.

Six Attributes, 24 Skills

Your character is defined by six core attributes: Strength, Agility, Intelligence, Endurance, Reflexes, and Charisma. These attributes feed into 24 skills across four categories, creating depth without overwhelming complexity.

Skills improve through use-based learning. Fight with melee weapons, and your melee combat skill increases. Negotiate with vendors, and your persuasion improves. This organic progression rewards playing your character consistently.

50 Levels of Growth

From street-level hustler to legendary cyber-warrior, 50 levels of progression provide clear advancement goals. Each level brings stat increases, skill improvements, and access to better equipment and cyberware.

The progression curve is designed to keep players engaged throughout. Early levels (1-10) provide rapid advancement - you can reach level 10 in a few hours of play. Mid levels (11-30) slow slightly but remain satisfying. High levels (31-50) return to faster pacing as your power grows exponentially.

A World to Explore

Night City Locations

The sprawl is growing. Chatsubo v0.2.0 includes several iconic locations:

The Chatsubo Bar - Your starting point and social hub. Neon lights, cheap sake, and Ratz behind the bar. This is where deals are made and stories begin.

Night City Street - The main thoroughfare connecting locations. Atmospheric descriptions capture the neon-soaked dystopia of Gibson’s vision.

Black Clinic - Underground medical facility for those who can’t afford corporate healthcare. Cyberware installation and trauma care, no questions asked.

Electronics Shop - Hardware vendors selling everything from replacement parts to illegal modifications.

Battle Ground - Dedicated combat training area where you can test builds and learn tactics against various enemy types.

Each location has rich descriptions, atmospheric details, and room for future expansion. The world feels lived-in, not procedurally generated.

HoverTaxi Fast Travel

Once you’ve explored Night City on foot, the HoverTaxi fast travel system unlocks convenience without removing the exploration experience.

Discovery-based unlocking means you must visit a location before you can taxi there. This preserves the first-time exploration experience while eliminating tedious backtracking. Fast travel costs credits (50¥ base + 10¥ per distance unit), creating meaningful economic decisions.

The system includes varied AI driver personalities and atmospheric descriptions that change based on the districts you’re flying through. Even fast travel feels immersive.

Read more: HoverTaxi Fast Travel System

Living NPCs

The world isn’t static. NPCs roam dynamically through areas, creating a sense of life and unpredictability. You might encounter a ganger in one room, only to find they’ve moved to a different location when you return.

Behind the scenes, area-based AI management keeps server performance smooth while maintaining immersive NPC behaviors. NPCs enter sleep states when not needed, creating 90%+ CPU usage reductions while preserving the illusion of a living world.

Read more: Breathing Life into NPCs NPC Performance Revolution

Player Experience Systems

Tutorial for New Players

First-time players get comprehensive onboarding through the interactive tutorial system. Linear progression through themed rooms teaches movement, interaction, combat basics, and character creation.

The progressive hint system provides context-aware help based on what you’re doing. Stuck? Type hint and get relevant guidance without overwhelming detail. The tutorial respects your intelligence while ensuring you understand the fundamentals.

Social and Communication

Chatsubo is a multiplayer experience. We built robust social systems to support player interaction:

Local Communication - say speaks in your current room. whisper sends private messages to specific players. pose and emotes let you roleplay actions and reactions.

Channel System - Subscribe to Gossip (general chat) and Newbie (help channel) for game-wide communication. More channels will be added as the community grows.

Friends System - Track online status of friends, receive notifications when they log in, and replay missed messages. Building social connections makes the world feel less lonely.

Who’s Online - See who’s playing, where they are, and what roles they’re playing. Color-coded admin groups show who can provide technical assistance.

Quests and Reputation

The quest system provides structured goals beyond grinding combat. Quest-giving NPCs like Ratz at the Chatsubo Bar offer missions with cooldown periods, ensuring a steady stream of objectives.

Rewards include credits and reputation gains across four factions: Street, Corporate, Criminal, and Medical. Your reputation affects NPC interactions and unlocks faction-specific content. Build standing from Hostile to Allied through consistent actions and quest completion.

Cyberware and Equipment

30 cyberware items across 5 tiers let you augment your character with cybernetic enhancements. Install neural processors, reflex boosters, dermal armor, and more. Each piece of cyberware has active effects and contributes to your system load.

Role-specific starting cyberware gives each class a distinct feel from the beginning. Console Cowboys start with neural interfaces, Street Samurai get combat enhancements, and each role’s cyberware complements their playstyle.

The inventory system handles loot from defeated enemies, including stackable consumables that auto-combine. Drop unwanted items or destroy them entirely. Simple commands (inventory, loot, drop, destroy) keep management straightforward.

NuYen Economy

Credits matter in Chatsubo. The NuYen (¥) currency system creates meaningful economic decisions. Earn credits through combat and quests. Spend them on fast travel, equipment, and services. Your credit balance is always visible in the status bar.

Currency drops scale with enemy tier. Tier 1 enemies drop modest amounts, Tier 3 bosses provide substantial rewards. The economy is designed to feel fair without trivializing costs or making players grind for basic services.

Community and Support

Help Ticket System

Player feedback shapes Chatsubo’s development. We built a comprehensive help ticket system that makes reporting bugs, requesting features, and getting support trivially easy.

bug <description> creates tracked GitHub issues with automatic staff notifications. feature <description> adds your ideas to the development backlog. helpdesk <description> routes support requests to staff who can help immediately.

Every ticket gets a unique number. Check status anytime with mytickets. When tickets get closed, you receive automatic notifications. Your feedback doesn’t disappear into the void - it’s tracked, considered, and acted upon.

Read more: Help Ticket System

Web Portal Improvements

The web portal at https://chatsubo.io received significant improvements:

Character List now shows ALL your characters, not just those currently online. Admins can see unowned/orphaned characters for cleanup. Visit https://chatsubo.io/characters/ to view your full roster.

Role Display now shows readable names like “Console Cowboy” instead of internal keys like “console_cowboy”. Characters without roles show “Not Selected” instead of confusing errors.

These quality-of-life improvements make character management clearer and more intuitive.

Discord Integration

The community extends beyond the game. Discord integration provides cross-platform features:

  • Game events post to Discord channels
  • Staff receive immediate notifications for tickets and errors
  • Community discussions happen in real-time
  • Server log monitoring keeps staff informed

Join our Discord at https://discord.gg/aD3eRKpb6h to connect with other players and developers.

Technical Foundation

Behind the scenes, Chatsubo runs on infrastructure designed for growth:

YAML Content System

All game content - enemies, loot tables, spawn configurations, area definitions - lives in YAML files separate from code. This means:

  • Writers create content without touching code
  • Hot-reload capabilities update content instantly
  • No server restarts required for content changes
  • Writer-friendly workflow encourages rapid iteration

Read more: YAML Content System & Hot-Reload

Performance Optimization

  • 94% reduction in database writes
  • Area-based NPC management with automatic sleep states
  • Efficient tag-based queries instead of full database scans
  • Module-level caching for frequently accessed data

These optimizations mean smooth gameplay even during peak times, with room for substantial growth before scaling becomes a concern.

What You Can Do Right Now

Chatsubo is playable today. Here’s a glimpse of a typical session:

  1. Create Your Character - Use createchar to choose your role, customize your appearance, and enter Night City.

  2. Learn the Basics - Type tutorial to go through interactive onboarding. Learn movement, combat, and social systems at your own pace.

  3. Explore the World - Use cardinal directions (n/s/e/w) to navigate. look examines your surroundings. Discover new locations and unlock fast travel destinations.

  4. Engage in Combat - Find enemies in the Battle Ground or while exploring. attack <target> initiates combat. Watch your character fight automatically or queue tactical actions. flee if overmatched.

  5. Complete Quests - Visit the Chatsubo Bar and talk to Ratz. say quest to receive missions. say complete to turn them in. Earn credits and reputation.

  6. Level Up - Gain XP through combat. Watch your progress in the status command. Level up to grow stronger, unlock new abilities, and face tougher challenges.

  7. Manage Equipment - Loot defeated enemies. Install cyberware. Manage your inventory. Drop or destroy items you don’t need.

  8. Socialize - Use gossip <message> to chat with all online players. Join the Newbie channel for help. Make friends with the friends command.

  9. Report and Request - Found a bug? bug <description>. Want a feature? feature <description>. Need help? helpdesk <description>. Your feedback matters.

  10. Fast Travel - Once you’ve explored, use taxi to call a HoverTaxi. taxi list shows destinations. taxi go <destination> travels instantly.

This is the core gameplay loop. From here, it’s about progression, exploration, and social interaction. Some players focus on reaching level 50. Others roleplay in the Chatsubo Bar. Others hunt for rare loot. The systems support multiple playstyles.

What We Learned

Building Milestone 1 taught us several crucial lessons:

Start With Core Systems

We prioritized combat, progression, and character creation before adding secondary features. This foundation-first approach meant every subsequent system could integrate cleanly with what came before.

Respect Player Time

From accelerating progression to fast travel to automatic combat, every design decision considered whether we were respecting player time. Convenience doesn’t mean trivializing content - it means removing friction from the experience.

Community Drives Quality

The help ticket system wasn’t planned for Milestone 1. Player feedback made it clear we needed better communication tools. Building what players need beats building what we think they want.

Performance From Day One

Optimizing early prevented technical debt. The NPC performance work, efficient database queries, and caching strategies set us up for growth rather than requiring painful refactoring later.

Iterate Based on Reality

We launched with XP rates that made leveling too slow. Player feedback showed the problem. We adjusted the curves, and suddenly the early game felt rewarding. Data and feedback beat theory every time.

What’s Next: Beyond the Foundation

Milestone 1 is complete, but it’s just the beginning. Here’s what’s coming:

Immediate Priorities (v0.2.x releases)

  • Bug fixes and balance adjustments based on player feedback
  • Content expansion - More locations, enemies, and quests
  • Quality-of-life improvements - Better UI feedback, command aliases, status indicators
  • Performance monitoring - Ensure smooth gameplay as the player base grows

Milestone 2 Planning (v0.3.0 - December 2025)

  • Enhanced equipment systems - Weapons, armor, modifications, and upgrades
  • Crafting mechanics - Create items from components dropped by enemies
  • Expanded cyberware - More augmentations across all tiers
  • New districts - Industrial zones, corporate sectors, slums, and waterfront areas
  • Advanced AI interactions - More sophisticated NPC behaviors and quest complexity

Long-Term Vision

  • Cyberspace and Matrix implementation - True hacking gameplay
  • Player housing - Personal spaces for storage and customization
  • Guild/syndicate mechanics - Player organizations with territory control
  • Advanced reputation systems - Faction consequences and storyline impacts
  • Custom client interfaces - Mudlet GUI with cyberpunk theming
  • AI-powered NPCs - Dynamic conversations and emergent behaviors

These represent directions we’re exploring, not firm commitments. Player feedback will help prioritize what gets built next.

Join the Sprawl

Chatsubo is live, growing, and ready for new players. Here’s how to get started:

Register and Play

  1. Get an Invite Code - Chatsubo uses invite-only registration to maintain community quality. Join our Discord and request an invite code.

  2. Register Your Account - Visit https://chatsubo.io/auth/register and create your account.

  3. Connect to the Game - Use the web client at https://chatsubo.io or telnet to chatsubo.io:4000.

  4. Start the Tutorial - Type tutorial to begin your journey. The game will guide you through character creation and core mechanics.

  5. Explore Night City - Once you’ve completed the tutorial, the sprawl is yours to explore.

Connect With the Community

  • Discord: https://discord.gg/aD3eRKpb6h - Active community discussions, development updates, and direct access to the dev team
  • Blog: https://blog.chatsubo.io - Regular posts about features, technical deep-dives, and development philosophy
  • In-Game: Use gossip to chat with all online players and newbie for help from experienced players

We Need Testers

We’re actively looking for player testers to help refine systems and provide feedback.

Testers get:

  • Early access to new features
  • Direct communication with developers
  • Special in-game recognition
  • The satisfaction of shaping the game’s direction

Interested? Use the in-game helpdesk command or join our Discord.

Thank You

Milestone 1 wouldn’t exist without the players who’ve tested features, reported bugs, requested improvements, and provided encouragement. Your feedback shaped these systems. Your patience with early bugs helped us find and fix issues. Your enthusiasm kept us motivated through long development sessions.

To The Chatsubo, Ninsei St. Discord community who inspired this entire project: I hope you enjoy this!

To the testers who’ve spent hours in the Battle Ground finding edge cases in the combat system: thank you.

To the community members who’ve reported dozens of bugs through the ticket system: thank you.

To the players who’ve roleplayed in the Chatsubo Bar, bringing life to the world beyond the code: thank you.

To everyone who believed in the vision of a cyberpunk MUD that respects player time while honoring the genre’s roots: thank you.

This is just the foundation. The real story starts now, written collaboratively by developers and players together.

Quick Start Command Reference

Essential Commands

  • look - Examine your surroundings
  • n, s, e, w - Move in cardinal directions
  • inventory (or i) - Check your items
  • status - View your character stats
  • help - Get help on any topic
  • who - See who’s online
  • quit - Leave the game safely

Character Progression

  • createchar - Create a new character
  • status - View stats and XP progress
  • cyberware - Manage cybernetic implants

Combat

  • attack <target> - Initiate combat
  • flee - Escape from combat
  • stop - Disengage from combat
  • loot - Pick up items from defeated enemies

Social

  • say <message> - Speak in your current room
  • whisper <player> = <message> - Private message
  • gossip <message> - Game-wide chat
  • newbie <message> - Help channel
  • friends - Manage your friends list

Travel

  • taxi - Call a HoverTaxi
  • taxi list - View unlocked destinations
  • taxi go <destination> - Fast travel
  • home - Return to the Chatsubo Bar

Support

  • tutorial - Start or continue the tutorial
  • hint - Get context-aware help
  • bug <description> - Report a bug
  • feature <description> - Request a feature
  • helpdesk <description> - Get staff support
  • mytickets - View your submitted tickets

Welcome to the shadows, choomba. Night City is waiting. The sprawl never sleeps. The foundation is built. Now let’s see what we can create together.

Milestone 1 complete. Milestone 2 begins now.