Hi all!
This update is a pretty big one for Patch 25, completely revamping progression across Excavation. Instead of purchasing a one-time upgrade to halve mining times across all asteroids, you can now progress through a linear mastery path to unlock reduced times gradually, as well as a little bonus.
New Progression System: Mastery Paths (Excavation)
All asteroids now have independent levelling systems from each other, with XP earned from mining that specific asteroid! This is an entirely passive mechanic, with no requirements to purchase anything or earn skill points. You can view all progress by watching the right corner, with no clutter or hassle added.
You can also press TAB to view the Mastery Path, which shows overall progress as well as rewards associated with each milestone.
The maximum level cap is currently 10 for each asteroid. To reach level 10 for all asteroids, it takes ~13 hours, If this new system attracts any players, I plan to increase the cap to level 20 in a future update, as well as expand the mastery paths to Rescue Operations and Evasion.
What's Next
If this attracts even just a couple people back to the game, I plan to revamp Rescue Operations next. This will entail a mastery system to level up gear, movement speed, and other goodies. This update does include a point-based spawn system for the drillship for level 2, and if this works well, I plan to add more spawn point locations for all 3 levels. I hope to potentially revamp Evasion and Classic with mastery systems and quests, but of course it depends on player interest.
If adding mastery challenges to Rescue Operations or Evasion does go ahead, 2 old achievements are due to be replaced with achievements related to these ones. Unlike this update, neither achievement will be deleted.
Patch Notes
New
Excavation: Added 'Mastery Skills'
Excavation: Added new quest 'Mastery Prestige'
Excavation: Added a time-stamped log on the bottom left for rewards
[EXPERIMENTAL] Rescue Operations: Level 2 now uses a random spawner for the drillship
Achievements: Added 2 new achievements for Mastery Excavation
Achievements: Removed 2 old achievements
Dev Note: As stated previously, old achievements are being phased out with new updates, mainly the achievements that you earn for doing nothing. The two achievements removed were unchallenging and something you could gain in a matter of 2 minutes. I try not to delete any that I am changing, but this was something I decided was better than giving 2 grinding achievements for free.
Changes
Excavation: 'Bank' now flashes when money is earnt
Excavation: Cleaned up 'Crystals' placement and names
Excavation: Optimised random number generating
Excavation: Removed 'Drillship' upgrade
Optimised textures, lowering disk space by 15mb
Fixes
Excavation: Fixed incorrect text scaling on Excavation (Notifications + Asteroid Names)
Excavation: Fixed neither crystals working when clicking the button