Hello! Today's 30XX 0.20.0 patch contains changes to Echobeast's fight, a few tweaks to Prototypes & their associated supporting Augs, and a bunch of fixes and tweaks.
As a note: outward-facing progress (the stuff that shows up in patch notes!) on 30XX may be a bit slow for the next patch or two. My dad's very sick, and for the next few weeks I'm going to be working out of his home (3000 miles from my home!) so I'm able to take care of him while he gets better. The rest of the team's still full speed on 30XX tasks, but since I'm the last link in the chain that gets their hard work into the game, that'll be a bit slow as I focus on my dad. Thanks for your understanding and patience - this will in no way affect the amount of love, design, and iteration that 30XX gets over the course of Early Access, but it may mean it'll take a bit longer to get it all in your hands.
Full notes below. Thanks for playing!
GAME CHANGES & FIXES:
- Iterated on Echobeast's fight:
- Replaced the second phase (the "dive phase") with a "whack-a-mole" phase where Echobeast will continue attacking without moving until taking damage. We weren't happy about how the dive phase played in practice - it gave players the option of keeping damage up to end the fight faster or waiting it out, but neither option felt very fun.
- Echobeast's new second phase doesn't happen on game level 1. On level 6, attacks during this phase are much faster.
- Added a half-second touch damage grace period when Echobeast emerges (so the player now has half a second to get out of the way when Echobeast pops in).
- Fixed up the Sound Bouncer (Echobeast fight mechanic) hitboxes and made them a bit more forgiving.
- Ace's Zen Ascent now grants a touch damage grace period when it damages an enemy. The grace period lasts for half a second after Zen Ascent ends. This should make the move a bit safer to use in general, instead of having to position very carefully for modest damage.
- You'll still take damage if you bump into an enemy before the attack connects.
- This also means that Ace doesn't gain invuln frames against enemies he doesn't damage (enemies with shields, invulnerable enemies, etc).
- Reduced negative Prototype Balances by 50%. (If a Prototype would have given you -6 core points, it'll now give you -3 instead.)
- Protobalancer now also amplifies positive Prototype Balances by 50% (rounding down). (If a Prototype would have given you +4 CP, it'll now give you +6 with Protobalancer.) The tooltip here will likely be out of date until we decide whether or not to change Protobalancer further.
- Fixed and verified that System Restore actually drops now, provided you've already seen at least one Prototype in a run. (For real this time.)
- The Hysteria blessing now affects post-Miniboss Aug Choices.
- The Hysteria blessing now affects Mega Mode shop purchases.
- Rising Tide no longer affects Boss and Miniboss HP. It will still affect boss behaviors versus bosses who have different movesets and phases based on game level.
- Corrected an issue where Penumbra's Miniboss Twins HP wasn't scaling with game level.
- Reduced Penumbra's Miniboss Twins HP at level 1. (Their HP will now be 20% lower at level 1, equal at level 2, and higher otherwise after this change.)
- Fixed an issue where Penumbra's Orb Blocks (Switch-strike platforms) could appear to be non-collidable, but still have a collision surface. (This happened after warping away from a room containing these blocks, then coming back.)
- Very Safe Lab teleporters can again now spawn in the pre-boss hallway (increasing the effectiveness of The Volunteer).
- Fixed an issue where Zen Ascent's hitbox could remain after the move ends. (Usually happened while Ace was against a wall as the move ended.)
- Fixed an error with Osafune where it could hit enemies an incorrect number of times. Osafune's slashes now also all connect as one combo for bosses. (This may be too powerful - we'll keep an eye on it, and adjust if needed.)
- Fixed an error where the Stoic curse still allowed future Speed/Jump boosts to function normally. (You'll still receive credit for picking up the item if you come across a System Restore later, though.)
- Fixed an issue causing the Tutorial phase to always spawn in the first level of a run (instead of being ignored once the player's seen the level's mechanics).
- Burning Temple's Rolly Giant (miniboss) no longer drops Memoria when fought while testing a chunk with the Editor.
- Fixed a visual error where Autocharge could make Ace's Grandmaster appear charged when it isn't.
- Hopefully fixed a rare error with Deconstructor's Might that could cause Real Bad Physics (tm). We've never been able to reproduce this one, so we're not 100% sure we've got it.
- Fixed an error that could cause Deconstructor's Might to be less reliable than it should be, and increased its hitbox size. (We'll make a new visual for it once we're comfortable with how it plays.)
- Fixed an issue that could still cause conflicting Prototypes to spawn under rare conditions. (There may still be cases/combinations we haven't covered - please keep reporting them!)
- Fixed a bad Ace animation frame that could display after Zen Ascent.
- Fixed Ace's animation positioning while dashing with Grandmaster.