Hey everyone!
In the current demo update there were big changes to a lot of things, mainly:
- Graphic update
- Racing Map (Derby)
- Item slots and item variation
- Currency "Respect" and increased replayability
- Item upgrades
Graphic update
Mountains now cast shadows, cliffs look much nicer and the overall colors are now more contrasting and clearer.
The game also got a lot of new artworks here on Steam, I hope you like it!
Racing Map (Derby)
The demo has received a new level ( because it wasn't long enough already, right? ).
This time it is the first playable side mission, a death derby race. Kill the other cars or just race the quickest, there are no rules except there can only be ONE winner!
Item slots
Before this patch, your car had seven slots: Primary and Secondard Weapon, Engine, Booster, Armor, Ornament and Special.
Oftentimes items were a bit boring by design and you quickly found one item that is the most powerful and just stuck with it.
To change this, I reduced the amount of slots to five: Primary and Secondary Weapon, Engine, Armor, Special.
"Engine + Boosters" and "Specials + Ornaments" were combined and the items were redesigned to be much more specialized.
Like this, it should be more interesting playing around with loadouts as each item has much bigger advantages and drawbacks compared to other items on the same slot.
Respect
if you played the demo you may remember "Respect".
By finishing levels, you earned a score which was used to unlock new items and grant access to certains maps. My goal with this was to have some "skill checks" in the game and also reward good players with great items.
The items were usually better than the items that were unlocked before creating a linear upgrade path with some variations of similar weapons with increased stats and power.
If you beat a level with a higher overall highscore, this maps highscore was increased and you got the difference between the old and new highscore added on top of your overall respect.
The problem arised that if you tried to increase that score and failed - even by one point - you will be left with nothing except wasted time. And even if you did succeed to beat your old score, the difference was often very small. So the gained respect was also very small - even if it was VERY hard to beat your old score.
This system was completely removed and replaced.
Respect is now more like a "cash" currency.
Beating a level will always give you the full respect and also offers reward medals for a high overall score, beating the level fast or killing a lot of enemies. Those medals will also add respect to your overall score.
And if you die, all your earned respect to this point will go in your deathbag. After beating the level (or canceling it and going back to the world map) you will get the content of the deathbag*.
So even "failing" will increase your overall respect in the end.
* In the not so far future, your friend the grim reaper won't give you the deathbag back so easily - you gotta earn it!
Items are now unlocked by beating a level for the first time! Not by going over a certain respect threshold like in the past.
Each level rewards one unique item - This should also be a much greater reward than just working towards an unlock score.
So what can you do with all that earned respect?
Item upgrades
You can spent your respect to upgrade items!
All items have 11 upgrade stages and one stat that will be increased by the upgrade.
Upgrading weapons can increase the raw damage or rate of fire.
Upgrading armor, engine and specials will increase one special stat like ramming damage, damage reduction, healing amount, etc.
Like this, even early unlocks can be very useful later on because of unique mechanics of the weapon like the "Wasteland Spitters" huge autoaiming radius.
Also, I can make every item more unique and do not have to worry about making a cool weapon that will be useful a few levels later.
I hope these changes will increase the overall fun!
If you want to try them - Play the demo and give it a spin!
Cheers
Raffa