This update has highly requested changes, reworks, new content, bug fixes, the whole shabang. As such, the leaderboards have been reset! Also if the save file system is working properly, progress is reset as well meaning you will have to play through the maps and unlock them again. I realize this may be a bit annoying, but it will be happening with each major update. Because the game is constantly changing, in order to make sure the game is working from start to finish I need to be sure that the core game progression and gameplay loop remain intact and don't break due to a seemingly minor change or oversight.
Without further ado, here are the notes!
MAJOR NEW FEATURES
- World 5 has been added to the game, consisting of 8 new levels!
- 3 new music tracks, courtesy of @Sirius in the Discord! New Title track, and 2 new World tracks! The new World tracks have been spread out throughout the Worlds.
- Tether has been completely reworked to feel much smoother and more intuitive to swing around with.
- Immediately starts your swing in the direction you are facing as soon as it attaches.
- Is somewhat "smart" about this. Will not give you the boost if you Tether beneath you, or close to horizontal, so you can still use it to round corners at high speed.
- Projectile speed has been increased dramatically (about 3x faster than it was previously), so it will attach quicker after firing.
- Visual update to more clearly show where the tip is, so you can more easily see when it's going to attach.
- Now gives more upward momentum when swinging up, making it easier to get height.
- Tether will no longer break at low frame rates.
- BIG NOTE: Due to the limitations of my knowledge and capabilities, I had to settle for a compromise on low framerate issues. For the time being, starting below 60 fps, the physics forces that tether applies will get scaled down. This results in a "stretchier" tether that is ultimately slower. I figure that anyone who actually wants to speedrun games in a serious capacity will probably have a PC that can handle 60 FPS on this game since it's not a very huge game, even if that means lowering graphics settings. Tether will still function below 60 fps and every level requiring tether will be beatable at as low as 15 fps, although it will feel slightly different. At any frame rate at or above 60fps, Tether will always behave consistently, and there is no speed benefit to go above 60fps. However, due to the scaling nature of the fix, there should never be a situation where you will get a huge fling or basically teleport across the map due to a low frame rate. In the future, I may revisit this again, but it turns out this functionality is VERY difficult to do well, especially with my capabilities.
MINOR UPDATES
- The green hallway on Tower has been adjusted so you can make it on the first cycle if you immediately go that way.
- Activating Shear while you have a Tether in transit will no longer use Shear and immediately get stuffed by Tether (In other words, you can now shoot tether, and then spam Shear to teleport as soon as it lands).
- Colosseum's pressure plate has been replaced by a hoop (it's the only place in the game where that exists, so trying to streamline mechanics).
- One of the hoops on Estuary has been removed to make it a bit less cramped.
- Firing Conduit while Tethered no longer gives you a swing speed boost.
- The direction that Shear + Fireball moves you will now be more consistent (this should drastically help on maps like Kluge where you need to accurately fly around).
- Increased the jump buffer (time before you hit the ground that you can hit jump and still jump) from .25 seconds to .5 seconds.
BUG FIXES
- Fixed certain moving objects (Tower green hallway, most notably) from incorrectly moving before the level starts.
- Fixed spells sometimes failing to spawn properly when entering a new level for the first time.
- Fixed sometimes being dead when entering a new level for the first time.
- Fixed collision on the door in Colosseum.
- Fixed the small gap in the music between the intro and the looping part.
- Fixed some texture overlapping on the floor of Colosseum.
- Fixed a case causing some activatable objects in the world to be remain activated after restarting a run (also known as Storage).
- Switching hands with Tab while a spell is in progress (shooting conduit, tethered) will now immediately end the ability, fixing a number of issues that came along with lingering effects.
- "Archmage Time Beaten!" message will now only show the first time you beat the Archmage Time.
- Fixed the Tutorial Text in BigJump to not clip into the walls.
- Fixed a spot on BigJump where you could get stuck on the ledge while running off it.
- Aiming while looking up or down should now more closely match the on-screen reticle.
- Much of the collision for walls in the game has been simplified. This should make collision with walls smoother in most cases and minimize getting suck while falling or running against them.