Hello there! Today's update FINALLY features the long-awaited Insectoid enemies.
INSECTOIDS
As some of you may know, the concept for these lil guys has been around practically since the game's Early Access release. They predate the Mandrillian bots -back then I didn't think I had the skill to do any "intelligent" enemy. Mindless swarming insects were the only thing I thought myself capable to do for a single-player experience.
First design of the insectoids, dating back to the Early Access release
Luckily, the Mandrillian bots ended up being a thing. I still wanted to have the Insectoids, but I didn't like the idea of a simple swarm enemy. I wanted something that had the creepy factor of an actual insect, not a walking target that just beelined you. I needed to nail the movement and the behaviour, and I'm pretty happy with the results. I made them small, twitchy, and overall very different from the Mandrillians. I also wanted them to feel less like a swarm and more like a special encounter/disruption, which means that on standard modes you really won't be seeing them much.
First test of the Insectoid movement patterns
Insectoids are not out there to hunt you. They spawn on corpses and munch on them for a while, before moving on to other corpses. If you go near them, they will start their little threat display, and only if you really annoy them will they start attacking you.
They're also pretty easy to kill, being 1-shot by most weapons and even your fists. They also die from poison gas and react strongly to light sources (your flashlight will make them very angry, flash grenades will make them scatter like roaches).
Unlike Mandrillians, closing a door won't keep them away -they are small enough to fit through the little vents I added recently. While a single Insectoid is barely a threat, be careful about making loud noises (for example, unsilenced shots), or you might end up surrounded by an angry swarm.
They are also hostile to the Mandrillians (both human and computer-controlled), but any Mandrillian attack tears through them like butter, so they are little more than a distraction for them.
Like everything else in the game, Insectoids can be disabled or ramped up with Match Settings. By default, Standard matches will have the infestation level on "Minimum" and with no respawns, which means there'll be just a couple bugs scattered around the map, and once they're dead, they're gone for good. Other modes will have them fully disabled, and others will have a higher infestation level with respawns enabled.
Insectoid concept - I scrapped glowy eyes as I find it more fun for them to blend with the darkness
GENERAL IMPROVEMENTS
Besides the Insectoids, this update has some other stuff that should make the game more enjoyable.
FIXING CRAPPY CODE
While working on the Insectoids, I discovered that a piece of code I was using since the very beginning of development was absolutely atrocious, causing a ridiculous amount of garbage allocation per frame (this is what you get from using free assets from the asset store, kids). The good news is that it was easy to fix, and this also kickstarted a now ongoing search for any other code that could be having an unnecessary performance hit. Expect better performance on upcoming updates!
FIXING CRAPPY CAMERA
Until now, the camera for the Mandrillians had the same sensitivity for the X and Y axis. This meant that, when playing with a controller, a lot of times you could accidentally end up with either a screen full of monkey butt or looking straight down at the floor.
As a Mandrillian, you don't really need to look up or down that much, so by halving the camera sensitivity in the Y axis I think I've managed to make the game feel way better. It's also great for the Plasma Gun upgrade, as aiming with it should be easier!
This change doesn't affect mouse camera movement, as that is way more precise.
FIXING CRAPPY SMG
The iconic SMG just got a buff, as it felt way underwhelming compared with the rest of the sidearms. Damage per shot has been increased, as well as rate of fire. I've also slightly increased the muzzle climb (especially when firing one-handed) and made its muzzle flash three times as big for good measure. Now it should feel like the spray-and-pray bullet hose it's supposed to be. Try it while overclocked!
NEXT UP: PROPER TUTORIALIZATION AND FINAL REWORKS
After this update, Im gonna focus on finally replacing the very outdated VR player tutorial (probably with an in-game tips system).
Mandrillians used to have video tutorials on the Main Menu that got scrapped after they got outdated; this will also see a return, but with a twist. Stay tuned!
Other things that are in desperate need of a revamp are the wrist menu (I should make it look nicer and hopefully include the bulk of the VR player settings, like calibration and controller options), the Multitool's radar (which I'm considering turning into a full-on motion sensor that doesn't use battery), and the Dart Gun (which at the moment simply sucks).
FINAL NOTES: STEAM TRADING CARDS
More than a year ago, Escape from Mandrillia was cleared for trading cards and points shop stuff. I've been neglecting that as working on the game was the main priority (and I didn't want to just have screenshots as trading cards). Now, I'm happy to say Mandrillia will soon have a proper set of trading cards with full illustrations by the amazingly talented iidarts! Here's a sneak preview of one of them:
And that's all for now. Have a nice day!
CHANGELOG
- Added new enemy: Insectoids
- New bot setting: Insectoid infestation level
- New bot setting: Insectoid respawning
- Added different Insectoid settings for different Match Presets
- Halved vertical axis camera sensitivity on controller
- Fixed some bad unoptimized code
- SMG: slightly increased fire of rate
- SMG: slightly increased damage
- SMG: slightly increased muzzle climb (especially one-handed)
- SMG: made muzzleflash bigger