Hello there! This one started as a small one. I wanted to make the ending FINALLY be an elevator instead of the anticlimactic dark room fade to black but I got... tangled up.
EXIT ZONE NO LONGER PLACEHOLDER CITY
Until now the exit area was pretty barren and was kinda boring for both the Robot and the Mandrillians. Usually, you'd know who had won that match before the final gate-opening-minigame started. With this rework I tried to fix that (and also added a lot of well deserved flair to that section).
The entire zone has been enlarged, with multiple cover spots and new rooms, but the thing that will catch the eye faster is the elevator.
THE ELEVATOR
Instead of opening a gate just like all the others with 3 "hacking" phases, you will only need to do the hacking minigame once, then wait until the elevator arrives (a bit over a minute). Once it does, get inside and press the button to slam the gate behind you and start your ascent to victory. Be careful: Mandrillians are too thicc and the elevator is on emergency power, so clear it up before celebrating.
The monkey exit vent no longer has a direct line of sight with the final console, which has been relocated way closer to the elevator gate. The VR player will need to be more aware of the surrounding area, but now you can get away from there while the elevator goes down, allowing for way more strat flexibility.
EXTRA ROOMS AND FEATURES
The exit rework includes four extra rooms, with their own loot and keycard spawns. The restroom is still a work in progress, as some of the gimmicks I want to add there need a bit more testing before I'm comfortable adding them.
The two rooms on the north-east and north-west corners serve as a permanent entrance for Mandrillians, but are also the only gates that have a direct line of sight with the final console now.
THE CANTEEN AND THE RESTROOM
In an effort trying to make the facilities more "lived in", I added these two places which might or might not be a reference to a certain obscure FPS from 1998. I've also used the canteen as a testing ground for a bunch of systems that will also appear on the restroom in future updates.
(work in progress)
VENDING MACHINES AND POWERFLASH ENERGY DRINK
The canteen includes two functional vending machines, finally giving the Trickshot Coin a lore-friendly use.
In exchange of 1 coin (and if available), you'll be able to buy either a Repair Kit or a can of Powerflash Energy Drink (which will act as an impact flash grenade)
Sometimes they'll have a coin or two already inside, so feel free to smash that return button if you just wanna trickshot around with them coins!
FOLDING CHAIRS
The canteen felt very weird with no sitting contraptions, so I made a little steel folding chair. Of course, I had to make it into a melee weapon. And I liked it so much I added a couple of them all over the map.
DESTROYABLE TABLES
Destroyable static elements are a thing that I wanted to add for a while (so far the closest we got were the explosive barrels). There are plans for breakable crates in Warehouse and breakable safety rails in Waste Disposal, but the Canteen was a great place to start testing this feature with the tables. Also added a couple to the CEO office for good measure. If nothing goes wrong with those, I'll go ahead and also fill the restrooms with breakable stuff.
THE MINIMAP REWORK
This was one of the reasons the update stopped being a "small update". The exit rework enlarged the map size (which is something that was bound to happen with the new map zones), and forced me to finally ditch the static minimap system for the Mandrillians.
While it used to be an on/off thing, now the minimap has a zoomed in and zoomed out state. The zoomed out state shows a good chunk of the map, but still follows your Mandrillian's general position. The zoomed in state is fully locked on your Mandrillian, and also roughly matches Mandrillian's "hearing range". It is also round, making it take slightly less screen real state.
One big advantage this has over the old system is that now it's way more difficult to mistake your monkey from your coop partner's, which is something that happened more than I'd like to.
THE START OF MONKEY QUALITY OF LIFE
Not gonna sugarcoat it, a big weak point of Escape from Mandrillia right now is that the VR player side is way more engaging to play than the PC player side, especially for newcomers.
For this reason, I'm starting a full QoL pass on the Mandrillians. This ranges from visual stuff to core systems, so all feedback will be appreciated.
For this update, I added a couple small changes that should improve the gamefeel for PC players:
Improved turning animations: instead of just turning in place like a wooden monkey statue, Mandrillians now lean and twist their bodies to the direction you're turning into. Seems like a small change, but in combination with some reworked turning speeds and control weight it should both look and feel better.
Electric stunlock prevention: one of the most frustrating things as a Mandrillian player was to get chain-stunned by a VR player with a full Multitool battery. With the new system, doing so will result in diminishing returns.
Stabilized monkey crosshairs: the way the aiming crosshairs worked until now was a bit iffy resulting in a bit of a bounce when you turned your monkey around without turning the camera; this has now been fixed. I've also widened the attack angle relative to the forward direction, so beware a Mandrillian giving you the side eye.
The next upcoming updates are gonna be very Mandrillian mechanic-centered, so expect a lot of changes. This is a thing I really wanna hear feedback about, so feel free to leave it on the comments, or on the Steam discussions, or on the official discord.
ARCADE HUB ON HOLD
Now this is the bad news for this update: the Arcade Hub and Halloween Challenge have been put on hold for a while as it felt too unfocused and laughably outdated. The good news is that I have something quite juicy planned out for the next Halloween event...
That's all for now. Oh, and Escape from Mandrillia is off 25% for Steam Summer Sale, but if you're here you probably already bought the game, so idk. I guess it's a good opportunity to buy it again? Maybe even twice! C'mon!!
Have a nice day!