I'm pleased to announce the promotion of the 2.0.5 "It's Under Control" release to STABLE.
2.0.5 brings many improvements to the user experience of Prepare For Warp. The crucial ability to remap controls is the main setpiece of this release. Complementing this new feature nicely is the introduction of the new UI style, which takes the in-game bloom effects and applies them to icons and text. This enables the UII icons to take on a new stylized look resembling retro automotive dashboard indicator icons.
A complete surprise even to me, the new "Dark Recursion" upgrade creates new options and opportunities for enterprising collectors of Dark Matter drops.
One of the few 3D in-game elements that had remained graphically untouched from the original version of the game is the background starfield. This is no longer the case, as the starfield has seen substantial improvement in this release, with much higher fidelity stars that are able to take on a much wider range of sizes and colors.
Note that as new features are released to the Early Access version of this game, the price will increase shortly thereafter. In this case, the price will increase on or shortly after February 3, 2022, so this month is your last chance to pick up this great game at its current bargain price.
- New Features:
- Add ability to remap controls. Controls can be remapped per device type and will be stored as machine-specific configuration.
- Implement Rich Presence. When in-game, Steam Client will now display highest level reached with current pilot, and will also display total amount of Prestige earned if at least one pilot has been retired.
- Added new Legacy Upgrade "Dark Recursion". Dark Recursion will increase Dark Matter drops by 15% per level purchased. Fractional Dark Matter is held in reserve by the game during a mission, and will spawn an additional drop when this remainder is sufficient for a whole Dark Matter.
- Added "Recurser" pilot bonus. This operates similarly to Dark Recursion, increasing Dark Matter drops by 3% per level.
- Improvements:
- Migrate to new Unity Input System
- Re-implement in-game HUD using new bloom-enabled UI style.
- Re-implemented Options, Credits, and Title screens/windows using new bloom-enabled UI style.
- Options, Credits, and Title screens are controller-navigable.
- Moved save management features from Title screen to General Options.
- On save clear popup, added requirement that player hold submit button for 2 seconds in order to clear save data.
- Default keyboard control mappings have been improved (Thanks to my Keyboardista cybernetsurfer7 for the suggestions).
- Improved rendering of background starfield.
- Remastered label icons for indicator gauges.
- Added new tips regarding Dark Recursion and regarding synergies between upgrades.
- Balancing:
- Changed the formula for how Galactic Deflation affects costs. Galactic Deflation will now be more impactful than it was at lower Galactic Deflation levels (<~60) and less impactful than it was at higher Galactic Deflation levels (>~60).
- Removed "Hurdler" pilot bonus as its impact on the game was negligible compared to other pilot bonuses. All pilots who had the Hurdler bonus now have the new Recurser bonus in its place.
- Bugfixes:
- Fix discrepancy in apparent sizes of asteroids vs. dice (Thanks DopamineKata for the report).
- Fix error in tip regarding number of achievements needed for a prestige point.
- Corrected an issue where black hole shader effects were affecting certain UI elements.
- Corrected an issue where a missile launch by a mega or giga bomber would permanently increase the size and strength of missiles launched by later bombers.
- Corrected an issue where Debit Cards could not be collected once Warp Energy reached 100%.