The focus of this update is on a long overdue writing for the improvement texts. I think the placeholder improvement names are from... 2019? 2018? I don't remember. Anyway, the improvements were also in need of rebalancing, since there were clear winners and a lot of very clear losers. In general, not a single one was nerfed, but some were buffed to improve their usability. Any attacks now have a consistent energy spend between them. Firearms still have a clear advantage once you get the relevant skill up for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the ammo isn't there yet (it will be at some point). And secondly, the basic improvements set is not designed to be combat-competitive, all of these are to improve your survival chance while you're running away. The combat set of improvements and aggressive playstyle support is incoming in the future but I've no date to give you.
There are a few interesting additions to the improvements section. Neurotoxin projectiles (previously paralysis spit) now has a small instakill chance to differentiate it from the slime spit (which is now called mucilaginous fluid, cheers if you can say it fast three times in a row). But the most interesting addition is for the decay accelerant improvement. I recall how I painfully researched some biology to come up with a good description, spent some time working on the body despawn implementation and raising the alertness/group interest from it, and in the end it was all made obsolete by the fact that the player can go drop a body in the sewers. First I wanted to remove it altogether but I came up with an idea that it could give you a healing item. At this point in the development, it's the only way you can stock up on heals (and the only way to heal a host) so the improvement now has good value IMO since the body feature is also pretty cheap to grow and made even cheaper.
While iterating on the improvements I've realized that it was a good time to implement some needed restrictions. The amount of body features on a single host is now limited by the constitution. The amount of inventory items by the strength stat and you get bonuses from assimilation. I've also noticed another glaring hole in the design and now each attack will require a small amount of energy. The firearms are still deadly (and they should be) but this is a limitation for the future.
Now the final change that I want to address separately is called early invasion. I've received a suggestion that there is an unwinnable state in the game and on how to give the player a chance in that case. Since the parasite requires at least 30 energy to harden the grip and invade the host, if it has less than that number, it's a dead, erm, creature, uh, slithering. So upon thinking I've implemented a new action, called "early invasion". If the parasite is attached to the host and its energy is low, this action appears in the list. It allows you to invade the host "early" while its not fully subdued. There are two caveats: first, it has a chance to succeed which is dependent on the grip amount (basically grip is a percentage chance) with modifications according to the survival difficulty setting. And secondly, every attempt costs life for the parasite. A failed attempt costs more. This way if the player manages to find a host while dying, they now have a few final desperate attempts before dying. Hope you like it :)
Well, that's all I've got to say, now I can work on adding some new content to the game. Have fun!
Improvements changes:
- ??Host energy bonus -> Adipose tissue layer
- ??Acid spit -> Gastric hypersecretion - damage increased, energy lowered
- ??Slime spit -> Mucilaginous fluid - energy lowered
- ??Paralysis spit -> Neurotoxin projectiles - small instakill chance added (depends on the amount of armor on the target)
- ??Panic gas -> Hallucinogen gas
- ??Paralysis gas -> Ballistospores
- ??Attach efficiency -> Sudden leap
- ??Hold efficiency -> Constriction
- ??Control efficiency -> Regulated neurotransmission
- Decay acceleration will now spawn
a cookiedelicious nutrients item that can restore host health and energy, cysts body feature grow cost reduced - Assimilation/Watcher molds growth cost reduced
- Antibody generators health bonus increased
- Mucus from the mucilaginous fluid improvement now has AI status icon
- Microvascular networks now give more strength
Changes:
- Early invasion mechanic
- Maximum amount of body features is now limited by host constitution. Assimilated hosts can have 2 more body features
- Maximum amount of inventory items is now limited by host strength. Same, +2 items for assimilated hosts
- Each attack will now require a small amount of energy to spend. Since assimilated hosts do not have a passive energy decrease, this amount will be smaller due to that
- Raised initial team distance to give the player a few more turns of relative calm
- Tutorial can now be skipped via the options. Note that you also have to set the overall difficulty to some value. The game treats the skip as if 200 turns have passed from the start
- Player info in the HUD will now be additionally animated when the parasite is without a host and has low energy
- Game window now has a minimal size
Fixes:
- Savegame loading fix