Hello there! The running joke of me doing literally anything I can come up with before actually working on the Firing Range is over. It's here.
To be honest I can't really explain why it took me so long to put this out -maybe I was a bit unsatisfied with the previous iterations (like the old "virtual training" tutorial scene), maybe I thought there were other more pressing issues to attend before starting this. One thing is for sure, I would never release something rushed and half-baked.
But before we start with the Firing Range:
COOP DRONE FINAL TOUCHES: SKINS, LOADOUTS, QoL
As you might now the Coop Drone mode was a bit rushed and half-baked, so I took some time and polished it up.
The first thing you'll notice is Coop Drones no longer instantly materialize once you spawn them. The starting area now has two mechanical "drone cages", that will rise up when Coop Mode is active, revealing the Drones once the PC players select their skin and loadout.
Wait, did I just say "skin and loadout"? Yes!
Coop Drones now have a varied selection of paintjobs to choose from. These are useful if you want to differentiate yourself from your teammate, or if you just want to style on your enemies. The two camo patterns are unlockable by beating a new Coop Challenge (more on that later). There's also an optional floppy antenna if you want to have your Drone be even more unique.
There's also a new "loadout" selection. The default loadout is the ol' reliable, with your unsilenced main gun and the standard mix of HEAT rocket pods and poison rockets. But if you're feeling stealthy, you can choose a sneakier loadout, with a silenced main gun that sacrifices damage in exchange of not alerting every enemy in the map, and a full rocket loadout of poison gas to cover your tracks.
On top of this, there's a couple QoL features added to the drones. You'll notice a new small reticle that will give you instant feedback on where you're aiming before the Drone's turret turns to it. The crosshair will also glow brighter if you're placing it over Mandrillians, Insectoids, or other Drones.
I've also added a little vocalization feature (used by pressing the "jump" key) to grab the attention or the Robot or your enemies.
And finally, I've added a "marker" feature (activated by pressing "T" or clicking the left stick) that will show a marker to your teammates placed wherever you're aiming at. This feature can also be used when you play as a Mandrillian!
CHALLENGE TWEAKS
I've streamlined the "normie" Solo Challenges (the ones meant to sort-of recreate a regular match: Beginner, Intermediate, Hard and Expert), as they felt too similar to each other. I've combined the two easiest ones into a new "Beginner" one, and "Hard" is now called "Advanced". "Expert" is left unchanged (you still get the achievement and the medal for beating it).
The Coop Challenges also got a facelift. There's a new one called "Starting Up", meant to be your first contact with the mode: Mandrillians are capped to 2 at a time, and everything is easier, including loot and Mandrillian wave intensity (using a new "slow" wave setting for it). Beating it will unlock two camo paintjobs for the Drones. The two challenges I had until now, which I creatively called "Coop Challenge 1" and "Coop Challenge 2", are now "Low Profile" and "Combat Protocol", and are respectively more focused in stealth and action, as a sort of demonstration of the different gameplay styles you can get in Coop Mode. Beating "Low Profile" will reward you with the newly included Bandana, and "Combat Protocol" will unlock the Light Machine Gun.
GENERAL FIXES AND UNDER-THE-HOOD UPDATING
This is the boring part, but there's been multiple fixes: silencers will no longer block bullets in certain configurations, and Drones will take full damage from the Mandrillian Bots' upgrades. If you're a DualSense enjoyer, you'll be happy to know that I've also updated the ReWired Input System version I use on the project, vastly improving DualSense compatibility (until now it was going through a wrapper, while now it's technically natively supported)
And now, for the star of the show.
FINALLY, THE FIRING RANGE
The Firing Range is now accessible by selecting FIRING RANGE on the Main Menu and pressing START. Once there, you can mess around on Freestyle mode or select one of the new Firing Range Challenges.
FREESTYLE MODE
By default, the Firing Range is in Freestyle (or Sandbox) mode. The shooting gallery has an endless rotation of Training Dummies for you to practice your aim.
The unrestricted Item Spawner makes its glorious return from the old post-game room, and you can use it to spawn any of the weapons and gadgets the game has to offer, all of them accompanied by little snippets offering you a glimpse into the deranged lore of Escape from Mandrillia.
CHALLENGES AND LEADERBOARDS
By using the console next to the Firing Range entrance, you can go to specific Firing Range Challenges. These are short, timed (the longest ones are 1 minute and a half), and focused in one specific weapon each. Some will have fun little gimmicks, like the Trickshot Challenge.
Completing a Firing Range Challenge before the timer runs out will reward you with a cosmetic unlock, no matter your score. This includes the new Safety Glasses, Beret, and Hunter Hat, as well as some old cosmetics that have been reshuffled to be unlocked there (Soldier Helmet, Cowboy Hat, and Outlaw Mask)
For those of you with competitive tendencies, the game now has Steam Leaderboards. Maximize your speed and accuracy to climb the ranks and brag to your friends that you're one of the Top 10 Escape from Mandrillia players.
COMING UP NEXT: THE FINAL STRETCH
This update has a lot of stuff that puts the game in a very solid position and closer than ever to the 1.0 out-of-early-access release. After this, most of the work is going to be focused into adding the fabled 3 extra areas (warehouse, waste disposal, research labs) and also a potential "killhouse" little section for the firing range, to add some challenges that involve walking rather than staying stationary.
It's been almost 3 years since Early Access started, and it's a strange sensation to finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. In any case, thank you for playing and stay tuned!
FULL CHANGELOG
- ADDED FIRING RANGE SCENE
- Added Firing Range challenges (with leaderboards!): GUN CHALLENGE, AUTO SHOTGUN CHALLENGE, CARBINE CHALLENGE, CROSSBOW CHALLENGE, SIX SHOOTER, TRICK SHOOTER
- Added new unlockable cosmetics: SAFETY GLASSES, BANDANA, BERET, HUNTER HAT
- All cosmetics in the game are now unlockable either with Solo, Coop, or Firing Range Challenges; some have been shuffled
- The iconic non-portable Item Spawner is back, now located at the Firing Range, with all its lore entries for each item
- Added new achievement: SAFETY FIRST
- New "marker" mechanic for both Mandrillians and Coop Drones: pressing T on keyboard or Left Stick Click on a controller will set up a marker for your teammates, both in the scene itself and on the minimap. When done with a Coop Drone, it will also set up a marker on the Robot's Multitool
- Added new "wave style" level for Mandrillian Bots: SLOW -meant to be an easier version of the STANDARD and INTENSE wave settings
- Adjusted the "run of the mill" Solo Challenges, going from 4 (BEGINNER, MEDIUM, HARD, EXPERT) to 3 (BEGINNER, ADVANCED, EXPERT)
- Added LMG and LMG magazine to the item spawner
- Added Coop Drone items to the item spawner
- Upgraded ReWired input system to the last version, improving compatibility with DualSense controllers
- Fixed bug regression that sometimes caused bullets to hit the silencer attachment
- Infinite-mode magazines and ammo (which despawn after a while when discarding them) no longer interact with buttons, as the despawning feature could cause game-breaking issues when dropped on consoles
- Reworked Infinite Coin "ready" texture to be a glow on the texture itself rather than a 2D graphic, fixing some visual glitches
- ADDED COOP DRONE SELECTION SCREEN
- You can now select different paintjobs, loadouts, and an optional floppy antenna when spawning as a Coop Drone
- Added a new Coop Challenge "STARTING UP", intended to be an introduction to Coop mode.
- Reworked Coop Challenge 1 and Coop Challenge 2 (now called LOW PROFILE, a stealth-oriented challenge with a silenced gun as the starting sidearm, and COMBAT PROTOCOL, an action-oriented challenged recommended to be done with 2 teammates)
- Coop Challenges now unlock camouflage paintjobs for the drones, the Robot's Bandana and the LMG
- 1-Drone limit no longer used in any of the Coop Challenges
- Fixed Coop Drones being invincible to Mandrillian Bots upgraded weaponry
- Added a little extra crosshair for the Coop Drones: a small circle appears at your current camera aiming point, while the "actual" crosshair lags a bit behind. This helps with faster and more reliable target acquisition
- Made Coop Drone crosshair(s) get a bit brighter when aiming at non-environment stuff like Mandrillians, Insectoids, or other Coop Drones
- Added Coop Drone spawn platforms and spawn FX
- Added "vocalization" mechanic: pressing the "jump" key will make a noise, useful to grab the attention of enemies (or the Robot)