Moving the build to the stable main branch, no known issues currently
Phase 1 changes:
-There is now an "Easy" difficulty. This can be tweaked further, but currently it reduces enemy spawn banks by roughly 30% across the board. It will still ramp up near the final boss, but should slow down the first few levels. It also reduces most enemy damage and fire rates by 40%, as well as collision damage from crashing into other ships.
-Added a L and R indicator (that can be switched off) under the graphical options. This should help with people's orientation when using broadside weapons.
Major addition:
-There are now ending scenes that reflect the players chosen captain. These will now happen when you warp away from the final boss, instead of just cutting to the stats screen. The stats screen will now also reflect if you die after defeating the final boss, but without warping home.
Crash fixs:
-Fixed a rare crash when reverting to default keybinds and then attempting to switch controller modes.
As always, post any bugs in the Steam forum, that's the fastest way to get a hold of me.
Small tweaks/balance:
-Greatly increased acceleration/deceleration of the Vow of Poverty, making it control a lot more responsively. Changing directions will no longer feel sluggish. A similar ship would be a prime candidate for a 3rd starter ship, as this would be an option for players that don't like boat controls, not locked behind game progress (and give two non-boat style options for variety).
-Fixed an issue with the Art of Destruction ship, which caused it's "goal speed" to remain at the boost level, causing hiccups if you attempted to decelerate after a boost for rapid turning.
-Buffed Energy Lance damage across the board by a small amount. Should make it more useful on/against faster ships, as contact time with enemies was lower than anticipated.
-Changed "Standard" to "Launch" in the menu for clarity against difficulty selection (as standard sounds like "medium", not "begin a run" in this context.
Next up, for phase 2 of onboarding plans, the focus will be on improving the tutorial to better explain concepts not immediately apparent. Then I'll be updating the demo with the collected QoL suggestions and feedback incorporated since launch.