It's basically a new game...
So not ALL goals were met this week. I have not put in new code to prevent redundant assets that cause slowdown when the player gets god-tier powerful.
HowEVER! Literally everything in the game changed. I put aside two days this week for making the game more FUN!
Massive Rebalancing
In order to appeal to first timers better, I made the game easier to pick up and play. I realized that I was hitting new players over the head too hard and - yeah - why would they keep coming back? The game needs a learning curve, and I'm starting to put that in.
You'll notice immediately some of the changes.
Better initial stats - The Machine Gunner
- Shoot further
- Shoot faster
- Shoot more often (2x)
- Shots do less damage (2x)
- Better turn speed
This could be the start of different initial stats, like- choose your ship before you enter the battlefield.
Yes these are massive changes in the gameplay, and it's my intention to keep doing this throughout development. So please let me know what you think! These updates are coming at the requests of players, so make your voice heard!
What else was rebalanced?
- More bugs, but they're all easier to kill
- Enemies scale up slower for HP and damage
- Reduced most enemy HPs
- Your healing scales up slower as well
- Boss waves come sooner
- Bosses scale separately from regular bugs, and harder
- Every enemy that shoots multiple shots at once had their damage halved
- Players should be blindsided by death less often now and have more time to GTFO of whatever is killing them rapidly
- Poison hits three times as often at three times less power
- Common flies easier
- Bees, since they are so much harder than flies, are a higher level bug now
- Chasing beetles have much less health
- Giant mosquitos are easier to kill
- Screw half as strong
- Spikes hit more removed as it's OP
What else changed that wasn't a rebalance?
- [art] New background!
- [art] Swaps between backgrounds are smooth as silk and different each run
- [art] Doors opened appear on Open Door and Upgrade Screens
- [info] Upgrade screen shows how many times you've got each upgrade and which one is the mutation (an upgrade outside of your evolutionary path)
- [info] Tips show what level your current upgrade is
- [story] Story now plays in order!
- [story] Story plays every three minutes, instead of every 7 waves.
- [rework] Better collisions code- less likely to get spammed and spam enemies with physical hits
- [fix] Collisions went soft and lifeless in the last update. That's fixed. Sorry about that.
- [rework] Attraction reworked so it constantly pulls enemies in. Try it! It's fun!
- [upgrade] New Upgrade! Screw attracts!
- [upgrade] New Upgrade! Spikes attract!
- [upgrade] New Upgrade! Mines last longer!
- [fix] No more crash when a wrecking ball creates a spike with vampire effect that hits an enemy of the opposite polarity that's supposed to give HP back to the player
- [fix] Massive god-tier mine explosions don't kill off-screen enemies waiting to spawn in
- [art] Faster blast animations
- [art] Screen wrap of pain veins is less intense and distracting
- [art] Hit flashes are less intense
- [stats and challenges] Game has announcements when you complete challenges
- [info] Registered the game with IGDB, so now hopefully it appears in Twitch and Discord
- [info] Upgrade screen shows
So what should we focus on?
Try Attraction!
Upgrade screen has more info!
Get level 9 upgrades!
Try the new rebalance!
What's coming but we can't see yet
- Titan Beetle BOSS - He's been designed. He needs art and implementation now.
- Massively reworked UPGRADE SCREEN. Needs art and implementation now.
Please let me know what you think of the changes!