Hello there! I promised some hefty reworks so here we are.
WRIST DEVICE
Having the Multitool's screen display the VR player's health made sense when I started developing the game, as it was basically attached to you. After the addition of the Akimbo setting, I awkwardly added a little heart on the left wrist to somehow track your current HP. Later, I added a menu on the right hand with some options. Then, I added the little floating timer for timed mission mode...
It was about time I streamlined all of this. Now, your wrist device will handily show your health while also holding the menu and a timer for the mission. It also displays the blocking shield level for the Warrior skin (that until now was an invisible value), and pretty soon it will also display the heat level (useful to know how long until your overclock or overheating ends). It's also a good reminder to heal while two-handing a weapon, as players sometimes get lost in the moment with catastrophic results.
MULTITOOL: MOTION SENSOR, BETTER HEAT METER
With the Multitool being free of the HP indicator, the left bar now displays the heat level. Until now, the heat level was a kinda hard to see dotted bar next to the battery level.
And here's the big rework. The Radar is no more, having become the Motion Sensor.
I noticed the Radar was not very fun for the Robot nor the Mandrillians. For the Robot, flicking the switch was awkward and annoying, and the battery drain was not worth it compared with the cloak and shock. A lot of times, the Radar was only used for a second right before exiting a checkpoint. For the Mandrillians this was also frustrating: with the flick of a switch, the Robot could immediately reveal your carefully planned hiding spot.
The Motion Sensor tries to fix all of these issues. It's always on, and does not drain battery. But as you might have guessed, it's based on motion: a Mandrillian standing still will have no motion signature. Sneaking will update your signature roughly every 5 seconds, and walking/running will be a constant display. This has proven to make matches way more engaging, tense and tactical.
TUTORIALIZATION/ONBOARDING: GAME TIPS
It's been a while since I wanted to streamline my clumsy attempt at a tutorial, but all these changes finally forced me as it made half of it obsolete.
While my original idea of a "Virtual Training" for the VR side tutorials was sort of nice on paper, the execution was a bit boring. Enter the in-game tips!
Enabled by default (can disable or reenable them at any point by using the brand new wrist menu) they will teach any new player the basics to play an Escape from Mandrillia match. They're also easy to translate for when I finally get to that...
NEXT UP: SCANNER UPGRADE REWORK, FINAL MANDRILLIAN TUTORIAL
With the VR player onboarding out of the way, it makes sense that I'll focus next on bringing back the Mandrillian tutorials (that also got scrapped along the way as they got obsolete). This will be a perfect oportunity to give the Main Menu a good polish pass and FINALLY allow the VR player to pick up the Multitool that has been sitting there like a prop since the beginning.
However, before that I'm giving the Mandrillian's Scanner upgrade a massive set of buffs. Stay tuned because that will arrive later this month!
CHANGELOG:
- Added wrist device displaying HP, shield level, match time and containing the menu
- Multitool's Radar is now a Motion Sensor: no battery drain, blips based on enemy speed
- Removed the "Basic Tutorial", replaced it with in-game tips
- Added option to toggle Insectoid shadows (off by default)
- Increased the damage Insectoids do to Mandrillians
- Insectoids are now attracted to the noise of yellow keycard checkpoint gates (I'm sorry)
- Insectoids now fit through the small opening at yellow keycard checkpoint gates (I'm really sorry)
- Small improvements in performance
- Slightly increased Robot's sprint speed, noticeably increased Robot's walk speed
- Fixed bug that allowed the Robot to move at walking speed while crouching