Patch notes for the Demo version 0.6
Important
This is still a work in progress and does not represent the final state of the full release of the game.
Although an extensive effort was made to remove all detected bugs, some may still occur. We are still working on the best balance in terms of damage and enemy health; there will be builds that might not be viable in all cases or are still too weak or not fun to use.
We are still working in the best balance in terms of damage and enemy health, there will be builds that might not be viable in all cases or still too weak or not fun to use.
No saves will break in this update, but some customized ships might still need some readjusting.
We have worked hard to make sure we could deliver a proper upgrade to the gameplay of our game, making it a more dynamic and enjoyable experience from the start. Please consider this a sneak peek of things to come as we keep working and improving our game. We are open to any and all feedback you can give us.
Detailed Patch Notes
New Combat System With a full rework, we have removed collisions against asteroids and enemies to prevent staggering and slowdowns. Debris now mostly works as a barrier, providing cover from enemy attacks.
Other changes include reworking the dash to function as an attack with invulnerability frames. You can now dash head-first through enemy bullets or directly into enemies to deliver the finishing blow.
New Keybindings The new key bindings let you take direct control of the action. The current controls are:
Hold Left Mouse Button: Fire main guns
Press Q: Launch missiles
Hold E: Charge and fire beam weapons
Press F: Deploy mines
Press R: Reload
Press Space: Dash in the direction the ship is facing
Combo System and Buffs Our new system keeps track of your kills, rewarding your efforts. Higher kill-combo counts unlock special temporary buffs such as Health Regeneration, Damage Increase, Speed Bonus, Extra Armor, and much more. Be quick, or you will miss the chance to level up and increase those buffs even further!
Level Up Skip Bonus Previously, if you didn't like any of the chips offered during a level-up, skipping would cause you to lose the experience gained. Now, the bottom-right corner will always offer extra rewards you can consider before taking a new chip, from health increases to extra credits and ammo.
Reworked Weapons with New Behaviors The new combat system also brought new functions to all weapons. Offensive weapons now behave more like machine guns of different calibers, with better fire rates, damage, and speed. New, more impactful scatterguns will tear through enemies, and you are now able to fire multiple rockets at once. However, these come at a price. All weapon systems now have associated ammo, which falls into three types.
Energy Ammo: This is used mainly by the dash and energy beam weapons. It depletes as you use it (dashing consumes 50% of its charge), but it regenerates on its own over time when not in use.
Ordnance Ammo: This is used by rockets, torpedoes, and mines. The amount spent depends on the payload. Similar to energy ammo, this also regenerates on its own when not in use.
Regular Ammo: This is consumed by all main weapons at a rate of one per bullet. It may feel like it never runs out, but as higher-tier cannons fire faster or you use more than one cannon at a time, your ammo will deplete quickly. But fear not, as you can reload to replenish your supply.
Reloading System Reloading is a small, non-intrusive minigame that lets you regain your regular ammo faster during combat. If timed correctly, it will grant a small bonus with every reload. If you fail, you will only be awarded a third of your maximum ammo.
the new reloading system, depending on your timing you will get 30%, 100% or 120% of your current maximum ammo.
Note: Although we made other weapon systems fire manually, defensive systems like tail gunners and back-firing cannons (except for rockets) will consume no ammo and fire automatically.
QoL Improvements All chips now display their current level in the bottom-right corner, making it easier to track what you have equipped. This is especially useful when leveling up during gameplay.
The new and improved controls provide better handling in combat, not only with a better rotation and physics rebalance but also with a well-tested system that, combined with dashing, lets you perform impossible maneuvers to take down the largest and toughest enemies.
More tooltips! We were missing a bunch, which left players unsure how things worked. They now show up in sensible areas and even appear as a reminder of the control scheme at the start of every level. This feature will be improved upon in future patches.
Full Rebalance and Rework of Enemies With our new combat changes, we made several updates to enemy weapon systems and rebalanced their health and speed. They will now take more damage to compensate for the lack of collision with your ship and your massively increased fire rate. Fear not—although they might feel more challenging at the start, with a couple of level-ups, the tables turn quickly.
Other Bug Fixes:
Ship parts now align perfectly. The unsatisfying and annoying off-center positioning of wings, bodies, and engines is gone.
Level selection is now working correctly.
Currently Known Bugs:
These are bugs we have detected after uploading. They will be solved as soon as possible in a hotfix later this week.
Mining Beam: The mining beam is stopping the recharge of power ammo. For some reason, although it does not use power ammo, it stops the recharge completely.
Game Over/Retry: Retrying after a "Game Over" does not reset your loadout to your initial one. Instead, it lets you keep your loadout while resetting your level to 0. This will be addressed and integrated more robustly in an upcoming update.