This has been requested before, and I was hesitant to add a New Game+ mode because it was never part of my original end-game plan.
It turns out my assumption that players would finish Sector 3 and simply wait for more content was… optimistic. Instead, many of you kept repeating Sector 3, grinding slowly until you got bored.
New Game+
So, credit goes to LegoMaster on Discord for finally convincing me.
When you reach the end of Sector 3, you can now start New Game+. This resets the story back to the beginning while keeping your ship, items and upgrades. Enemy levels increase, and you can repeat New Game+ as many times as you like, all the way to level 100.
I’m not sure whether New Game+ will be part of the final end-game, but for now it should give those of you who want to keep playing something meaningful to do.
Graphical Improvements
I’ve also taken another pass at improving the graphics, as detailed in the patch notes. Bloom has been adjusted, contrast and saturation have been increased, and subtle lens flares have been added to enhance the lighting. If lens flares aren’t your thing, they can be disabled in the settings. All sprites now also use normal maps, which should give the lighting a bit more depth and polish.
There’s no Sector 4 progress report, as New Game+ took the bulk of my time. I’m back on Sector 4 work now though, and writing new story dialog tonight.
Patch Notes
New Features / Content
• New Game+ is now available at the end of the current content.
Balance Changes
• Adjusted XP from missions and encounters so they decrease at higher levels.
Quality of Life / Accessibility
• Added normal maps to sprites so they react better to lighting.
• Added lens flares to brighter lights and a graphics setting to disable them.
• Adjusted bloom, saturation and contrast settings for a darker, more vibrant display.
• Added a darker cloud layer to improve contrast and movement.
• Sped up text animations on menus to double their old speed.
• Missile launcher DPS is now calculated from recharge instead of reload time.
• Auto untarget out of range is now auto untarget off-screen.
• Auto target closest will now target the nearest on-screen enemy to your old target.
• Auto target closest now takes priority over auto target aggressor.
• Auto target closest now only targets enemies on-screen.
• Auto target aggressor is now disabled by default.
• Auto un-target off-screen is now enabled by default.
Bug Fixes
• Further fix for null references in GameShip.CountItem().
• Fixed view frustum error when a ship hyperdrive jumps out during combat.
• Fixed color of corrosive bubbles in explosions to match debris.
• Fixed auto target closest being able to select invisible enemies.
• Bastion is now correctly marked as a Pantheon encounter.