Hello! So in this dev update, I'll quickly run through ASTRALODE's chain scoring system and power-up cycle. The two of these are quite closely linked, so let's get into it :)
During Arcade mode, the green clock-lookin' thing hanging in space to the right of your mining vessel is the P-Meter. Each ore harvested caused your P-Meter to tick up a point, and when your P-Meter is completely filled at 12 points, you'll earn yourself a consumable power-up. Another way to fill your P-Meter involves stringing together unbroken chains of tools, where every 10 consecutive tools that earn $core (without ruining any ore or getting shot off into space) add 1 point to your P-Meter. So, let's imagine you launch 20 tools in a row without making even one dud move in that sequence - that'll add 2 points to your P-Meter.
Once your P-Meter is completely filled to the 12-point mark, your copilot will bring the mining vessel around and park beside a random assortment of power-ups for you to pick from. Choosing from this selection will add that chosen power-up to one of your open power-up slots. In the event that your power-up slots are all occupied, you'll have the choice of either replacing one of your currently held power-ups with a new one from the random spread OR opting to skip picking a new power-up altogether, causing your P-Meter to blow and converting some of that energy directly into a semi-random amount of $core.
Also, just a heads up that there's been a bit of a scheduling change with the upcoming Steam Game Festival that has affected ASTRALODE Freeminer's release! It was announced last Friday that the Steam Game Festival has been postponed a week, which mucks up the plans for Freeminers just a smidge since I intended to have it released just as the Game Festival ended. As a result, Freeminers is now set to launch on June 23rd, just as the gamefest comes to a close. ASTRALODE will be participating in the Steam Game Festival with a playable demo, though, so on June 16th you'll be able to give it a try!
Anyhow, thanks for checking out ASTRALODE. In the next update, maybe I'll go into the specifics of what each of the 10 power-ups do. We shall see! Take care and all the best,
- Drixxel