The Final Update is out now!
Hey folks! One year ago Exphelius: Arena arrived on Steam in Early Access, and throughout the year your feedback and ideas have been heard, with 3 major content updates bringing new features to the table. Today marks the end of Exphelius: Arena's development with one final big up
Hey folks!
One year ago Exphelius: Arena arrived on Steam in Early Access, and throughout the year your feedback and ideas have been heard, with 3 major content updates bringing new features to the table. Today marks the end of Exphelius: Arena's development with one final big update, adding two new maps, a tutorial mode, partial controller support, QoL changes and many bug fixes.
The Tutorial
A basic tutorial level has been added to the game, and new players will have this mode selected. It's a small arena with several powerup pads and a 'dummy' Corvus ship that does no damage for you to try out the weapons on. There are also control schemes printed on the background of the map for your reference.
Controller Support
Controller support has been added during matches. No menu navigation is supported unfortunately, but now you can at least enjoy Exphelius: Arena in a twin-stick shooter fashion with PlayStation and Xbox gamepads.
Two New Maps
Named after its golden skies and cities of casinos and games, Gambler's Nebula stands as a dangerous but prosperous star system of opportunity. This arena is littered with high-security forces, so try avoiding the edges of the map...
At the center of the galaxy lies a super-massive black hole. While regular black holes will devour everything in their wake, this one appears to also be emitting a strange energy that scientists can only insofar speculate about.
Other Changes
Many quality of life features and tweaks have been made in this update. The XP and Cash rewards have been redone to feel more rewarding and less grindy, and small changes have been made, such as rewards now 'stack' every time you retry or restart a match, so once you finally complete it and return to the menu, you'll be receiving rewards for all those matches you played.
Lots of rebalancing has happened in part spawn rates and AI difficulty, so hopefully now it's not too much of a breeze while still being friendly to new players.
And a couple of new music tracks have been added to the main menu, to get you ready for a match.
Changelog:
- Added a new Tutorial level and mode to help players learn how to play
- Also lets players practice and try out different powerups
- Added a 'dummy' ship with a unique Corvus skin to the Tutorial level
- This ship will try and attack you like regular opponents, but does no damage
- Added Partial Controller support. Only works during matches (PS4 and Xbox controllers only)
- Added control layout diagrams to the pause menu. They are also present in the background of the tutorial level
- New saves will default the selected arena and game mode to the Tutorial
- Added Display options 'Fullscreen Mode' and 'V-sync' to the options menu
- Fixed weird Options menu display scaling
- Fixed a bug where some options wouldn't save correctly
- Fixed a bug where the XP bar would be incorrectly filled upon starting the game
- Fixed a bug where the "Mechanic" achievement wouldn't be awarded when winning a new part
- Fixed AI pathfinding on The Outlander's Jewel
- Dramatically reduced cannon hazard damage
- Renamed some powerups to better reflect what they now do
- "Health" powerup renamed to "Health Kit"
- "Shield Recharged" powerup renamed to "Shield Battery"
- Disabled the scoreboard (not the top left one) until the match ends.
- Added more lore to many arena descriptions.
- Fixed the cursor lock state - cursor can now exit the window space
- New Map - "Gambler's Nebula" added
- New and final map - "World's End" added
- Fixed an issue with the options menu being too skinny during matches on certain resolutions
- Fixed broken logo splash transition
- Added two new music tracks to the main menu - 'The Underground' and 'Mayhem'
- Fixed some maps having escapable areas
- Improved AI powerup logic
- Increased XP gains per match by 300%
- Increased Cash gains per match by 25%
- Tweaked AI difficulty scaling for more balanced matches
- Reduced Missile powerup damage and ammunition
- Reduced Mines powerup damage and ammunition
- Reduced Super Shotgun powerup ammunition
- Reduced Seeker powerup ammunition
- Tweaked stars in the background of 'The Dead Zone' to reduce flickering
- Fixed an issue that caused laser turret damage to be different based on framerate
- Fixed a bug where recharge rates (such as boost, shield, etc.) could become negative on certain part and ship combinations
- Made the 'Go' button more visible on the Play screen
- Repositioned the 'Go' button on the Play screen so that Steam notifications no longer obscure it
- Retrying/Restarting a match now grants you the XP and Cash rewards you would have earned in that match
- Lowered ship prices by about 25%
- Endgame scoreboard now displays kills alongside contestant score
- Increased XP and Cash rewards in the Derby game mode to be more balanced against other game modes
- Increased Laser Beam powerup damage by 40%
- Fixed a bug where winning Team Deathmatches didn't contribute to the 'Pro' achievement
- Opponent damage scales with level
- Added a 'Lock Cursor' option. Enabling this confines your cursor to the game window
- Fixed an issue where some options wouldn't save properly
I just want to give out a big thanks to everyone who playtested and offered suggestions throughout the year. You've been a big help and Exphelius: Arena wouldn't be this good without you. I'm happy with the way this game turned out, so this will be the last major content update. Once again, report any bugs to the Discord server (https://discord.gg/YzSbR6z) and enjoy Exphelius: Arena.
Big thanks,
- Khaeops
