Hey Everyone,
Shape Shifter: Formations version 1.0 is out now! After 1.5 years in Early Access, we're thrilled to announce that the full release of the game is now live! Thank you to everyone who played during EA, your feedback has really helped shape the game into what it is today.
The 1.0 update is our biggest update yet, here's just some of the key features, the full patch notes will be posted below;
- New Final Boss/Arena
- Unique skill trees for every single ship/weapon, totalling a huge 800! new skills.
- New BGM music for every stage.
- Visual Improvements - Added new VFX for tons of effects/upgrades. UI Improvements. New Backgrounds for every stage etc.
- Tons of smaller additions/changes such as new spawn patterns, save profiles, new infused prime enemies etc.
- Plus tons more bug fixes/balance changes/optimizations across the game.
As always, we're still keen to hear your feedback as we want to make this game the best it can be.
Thanks again,
Castec
NOTICE - You have the option to import your EA save while on the profile menu, with the "R" Key or with "Triangle/Y" on gamepad. Saves are not wiped with this update.
Patch Notes
Additions/Changes
- Ship & Weapon Skill Trees - Every ship and weapon now has a unique skill tree that allows you to alter and improve the way they play via changing abilities/passives and gaining new ones. Skill points for these trees can be unlocked by defeating bosses while playing with that ship/weapon. These are too long to list here with 800 skills added combined across all 40 ships/weapons, so we'll leave it up to you to take a look. New players will have to complete their first run before ship/weapon skill trees are unlocked, to help ease into things.
- New Final Arena/Bosses/Enemy - Added a new 5th level with the true final boss. This can be unlocked after defeating all 8 bosses at least once. This is intended to be a challenging level that you choose when you want to end the run, as it does not continue into endless mode. Runs are still considered complete/wins after beating the 4th arena.
- New Upgrade - Particle Accelerator - Legendary - Increases fire rate, extra shot chance, pierce chance, move speed, projectile speed and ability cooldown rate.
- New Upgrade - Prismatic Rounds - Legendary - Chance on hit to apply all 4 statuses to the enemy.
- Sharpshooter Mode - This is an optional gameplay toggle, that completely disables auto-aim while playing, but grants an xp buff and shop price reduction for the run. This can be enabled/disabled any time out of run via the gameplay settings menu, but it will not apply to the current run you have saved.
- Save Profile System - You can now have up to 3 profiles saved at once, and can be toggled from the main menu. By default there are no saves carried over as we recommend starting a new save to experience the new progression systems all together, but you have the option to import your EA save if you'd rather continue with your current progress.
- New Music - Each pair of stages now has unique BGM. (I.e. Square/Rectangle, Triangle/Pentagon etc.)
- Added new unique backgrounds to each pair of arenas (Square/Rectangle etc). Also added new background VFX.
- Added a new arena spawn effect when changing arenas.
- UI Improvements - Reworked some UI elements and menus. Added new animations to some UI elements that lacked them to help improve the feel, and adjusted some existing ones.
- Dark/Light Prime Enemies - Added both dark and light infusions to the infused primes threat modifier. Dark primes have a chance to fire projectiles at you when taking On Hit damage, and light primes regenerate health over time.
- Added multiple new spawn patterns.
- New VFX for the following; Infused Primes, Lightning Bolts, Explosions, Helios Meteors, Elemental Pools/Healing Pools, Enemy Portals, Octagonopus & Heptahydra Slows, Volt Hammer.
- New SFX for Explosive Rounds.
- Added a slight spawn effect to the shops.
- You can now reset threat level options per selection by pressing the button, and reset all by holding it.
- Burn Tick Rate inteval is now shown more accurately.
- Improved the visibility of dark/light orbs.
- Added smoother movement on dark orbs, and on the Bouncing Blade upgrade. They will now also retarget a new enemy if their current target dies before they hit them.
- Some controller inputs are now only shown if the required setting is enabled.
- Added an option to remove zoom when firing in manual mode to accessibility settings.
- Added an option to toggle player/enemy damage numbers individually in the gameplay settings.
- Reworked the settings menu to now explain each option.
- Adjusted some menu animations.
- New level up and item card UI/Animations.
- Updated some HUD elements.
- Adjusted underfloor lighting.
- Improved the visibility when using the Octagonopus’ Core upgrade.
- Adjusted the movement of the Pyramind’s controlled projectiles and added some camera shake on impact.
- Adjusted the colour of some enemies VFX to match their prime infusion.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed an issue that would cause an unintended amount of enemies to spawn in endless mode.
- Fixed a bug that could cause scaling issues when saving/continuing a run without resetting the game in between.
- Fixed a visual issue where current dark orb damaged was not correctly displayed on the stats tab.
- Fixed a bug where the burn tick rate from the Backdraft upgrade was not applying correctly.
- Fixed a bug where some homing projectiles could have jittery movement.
- Fixed a bug where very rarely homing projectiles could despawn before hitting a target.
- Fixed an unintended interaction where the Cryo Beam & Chain Lightning weapons were not correctly lowering their damage when piercing/bouncing.
- Fixed an issue where the artifact unlock progress bar in the centre didn't correctly reflect progress.
- Fixed a bug where dark orb/weapon damage was not being calculated properly after using binary’s ability
- Fixed a bug where the Electric Boogaloo achievement could be unlocked while playing without the electrified walls modifier.
- Fixed the burn applied by the Caustic Burn upgrade.
- Fixed an issue where some Tri-Angel sounds were not taking audio settings into account.
- Fixed a bug where the Top Gun achievements progress could be boosted after killing bosses.
- Fixed a bug where some walls were not moving during the boss spawn.
- Fixed a bug where you couldn't move up on your upgrade list to loop to the bottom of the list.
- Fixed the burn applied by the Caustic Burn upgrade.
- Fixed a visual issue where you could 'Ban' multiple tags if you didn't have the skill unlocked.
- Fixed a bug where the Chain Lightning weapon and some passives could target the Heptahydra's heads while dead.
- Fixed a bug where Heptahydra projectile effects could persist after the boss.
- Fixed a visual issue where you could purchase a skill before the unlock animation had finished.
- Fixed a potential crash that could occur when using the Tesla Coil upgrade.
- Fixed a bug where Blaze's ability could hit enemies with segments multiple times.
- Fixed an issue where Swarm's ability was not scaling with the general damage stat. Slightly lowered base damage to compensate.
- Fixed a visual issue where Swarm's ability damage would not show the correct value in the stats panel.
- Fixed a bug where the Buffer enemies aura could stop beam weapons/abilities.
- Fixed an issue where the Void Rebound upgrade was not applying its bounce count correctly.
- Fixed a bug where the Cryo Beam weapon could pierce bosses.
- Fixed an issue where pickups could remain when changing arenas.
- Fixed an unintended interact where healing shards from the Salvager upgrade would increase your score/multiplier.
- Fixed a bug where you could reset video settings after returning from the settings menu.
- Fixed an issue where the Order artifact could give you banished items.
- Fixed a bug that was causing the Welding Beam to gain much more beams than intended with bounces/pierces.
- Fixed a bug where some weapons would not fire correctly if changing directions in manual aim.
- Fixed a bug that could cause the new skills notification to be shown at the end of a run incorrectly.
- Fixed a bug where the Malleable artifact would keep triggering when saving/loading a run.
- Fixed a bug that could cause some input icons to be blank when playing with KBM.
- Fixed a bug where the Execution artifact would not function correctly when saving/continuing a run.
- Adjusted wall meshes to avoid stretched edge glow.
- Fixed a bug where the Fabricator could take 2 commons in exchange for an artifact.
- Fixed a bug where if the Fabricator's Enhanced Fabrication skill triggered on an artifact, it would revert the rarity back to legendary.
- Fixed an issue where the Fortune artifact could stack multiple times when saving/loading a run, without resetting the game inbetween.
- Fixed an issue where killing the Heptahydra would not reward you with bonus prime cores.
- Lowered the brightness of the Healing Pools & Carpet Bomb VFX.
- Fixed an issue where the Volthammer could not hit the Serpentagons tail.
- Fixed the collisions against walls when projectile speed gets too high.
- Fixed the tier descriptions on the artifact menu to reflect the correct unlocks.
- Potentially fixed a rare bug where sometimes you could get stuck with the pause menu on screen. (Think we've found a fix but this has seemed to be so rare we've never been able to recreate it so let us know if it crops up again.)
- Fixed an issue where enemy spawns could sometimes be lowered if your framerate gets low enough. (Seems to be working correctly, but let us know if you see any issues with enemy spawn counts.)
- Fixed an issue where Snakers slowed by Mobius’ ability would not have their tail speed slowed as well.
- Fixed an issue where some Blaze's ability would not work correctly if fired whilst standing too close to the wall.
- Fixed an issue where you could get stuck passing through enemies when using Flash's ability just after dodging.
Balance Changes
- Specialization (Skill) - No longer provides a starting bonus to stats based on tag. Now the skill provides an increase to stats based on your tag with every level up in run.
- Slightly increased the enemy health contributed per threat/mastery level to accommodate the increased power from ship skill trees.
- Slightly lowered the damage increase of enemies per mastery level.
- Reduced the amount that orb strength contributes to the healing provided by light orbs.
- The artifact shop is now the last unlock on the artifact tree, and also no longer spawns if you don't have enough prime cores to purchase an item.
- Increased the base spawn rate of artifacts.
- Killing the Hexagunner's turrets now also deals damage to the boss.
- Chain Lighting (Weapon) - Now stops chaining after hitting a boss.
- Fortified Havoc (Legendary) - Increased armor required per stack from 2%-3%
- Convergence (Common) - now has a max number of stacks per level.
- Blight's ability now prioritises closer targets.
- Reworked/Buffed most construct uprades to make them provide more consistent damage.
- Counter Mines (Uncommon) - Now Counter Drone - Each stack provides a permanent drone that tracks enemies and detonates every time you dodge.
- Flame/Frost Drone (Epic) - Now tracks enemies instead of moving randomly.
- Gunner/Missile Drone (Rare/Legendary) - Now fires at a constant rate rather than in bursts.
- Drone Amp (Legendary) - Now provides a huge boost to construct speed.
- Splinter Drone (Epic) - Now targets enemies and fires in a 3 shot arc for its duration.
- Shadow Drone (Epic) - Now Twilight Drone - Now fires both light and dark orbs at twice the speed.
- Banishing an upgrade now also rerolls it, and you can use multiple banishes in a single level-up.
- The Wrecktangle's Core upgrade now prioritises closer targets.
- Increased the health of the Tri-Angel Boss by 10%.
- Disruptor Field (Legendary) - Now also gains damage with each stack of the upgrade.
- Lethality (Artifact) - Increased the chance increase when glitched from 10%->25% to match the original strength.
- Sands of Time (Legendary) - Lowered effectiveness per stack from 2%->1%.
- Fusion Reactor (Legendary) - Increased effectiveness per stack from 1%->2%.
Optimizations
- Fixed a bug causing general performance slowdown later into the game on builds with a high amount of homing projectiles.
- Fixed a gradual performance decrease that could occur over time when using explosion based upgrades/skills.
- Fixed a performance issue where fps could slowly degrade over time when using the Cascading Assault upgrade, or when using the Flamethrower weapon.