Patch 0.80: Shiny!
Today's patch is all about smoothing down rough edges. While not the most exciting, this patch is comprehensive, covering everything from visuals to balance and bugs, and I'm pretty happy with how things have come together so far (for a tiny game on a shoestring budget).
A big part of that is because of the in-depth feedback I've gotten from players on the FromLefcourt Discord (the link can be found on the store page, if you'd like to join). So much of today's patch is a direct result of them, so I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you!
If you aren't interested in joining the Discord, I still try to look at feedback elsewhere. A couple of today's changes are the result of a recent review pointing out some typos I hadn't noticed, for instance.
Finally, this week also brings the game's price up to its full retail value of $3.49 USD (pending review). The game's price will not increase again.
Looking Forward: Those hoping for more content, the next 2 major patches (0.90, and 1.00) will add new powers, augments, difficulties, and achievements. I expect to reach 1.00 some time in January 2025. Until then, here's the patch notes for today:
Patch Notes for 0.80
Visual and Interface Updates
- Weapons now each have unique idle animations
- The Ker'Plau Boss missiles are now animated
- Ker'Plau mines are now animated
- Added credits to the main menu.
- Added the FromLefcourt logo screen to the start.
- The placement dots (when placing a weapon) now turn into red X's if the placement is invalid for any reason
- When your active power is available the cursor will change visually when using mouse controls
- Added an indicator to track the Scrap of Theseus augment progress labeled "Scrap"
- Changed the Forger synergy tracker label to "Forge" to prevent confusion
- When you're at the maximum tech tier, it will no longer show a gold cost to upgrade further
- Gold bars begin flashing much sooner, but their duration is unchanged
- Gold Bars now have a shiny animation, and some small sparkle effects when they first land
- During combat the "Main Menu" button when paused will now say "Forfeit"
- I've started implementing the Data Codex which will track unlocked content, achievements, and weapons equipped. This feature is currently disabled but a new button on the main menu is now present. Hoping to enable this in Patch 0.90.
Text Updates
- Added flavor text for the remaining 13 augments that didn't have some
- Corrected outdated text related to your bench that had lingered since a much earlier version of the game
- Fixed Scrap of Theseus Typos in both the description and flavor texts
- Fixed typo in the Starwhal descriptions
- Fixed typo in the Long Wave descriptions
Sound Updates
- Added a sound effect for shifting weapons in a column
- When your active power is available a sound will play
- Farlight's sound has been toned down to a softer, quieter effect. When multiple Farlights are active, the sound will not play as often.
Control Updates
- You can now press escape to open and close the pause menu when using Mouse controls (does not currently work when confirming/cancelling a forfeit)
- Added a power shortcut-key when using mouse/keyboard controls.
- Note: I am hoping to add rebinds for the shortcut keys in the upcoming 0.90 patch. These keys weren't originally planned, so adding rebinds requires a considerable update to the options menu.
Optimization
- Made optimizations to how enemy behaviors are handled.
- Fixed issues with the Negascope that caused slowdown when attempting to find a target, especially when multiple were on screen at once
Balance Changes
- Forfeiting a game during combat will now grant post-game experience
- Reduced experience cap to 450 from 600, making later unlocks happen faster
- Increased experience gain at higher difficulties from +10% to +20% each
- Ker'Plau will no longer place as many mines, and mines can no longer stack on the same space
- The Double Down augment will now affect the Recycle Doc power.
- The Forger synergy no longer counts weapons that are destroyed as part of the wave ending
- The Forger synergy will no longer create a gold bar after a wave has ended
- Weapons above tier 1 now give less gold when fully upgraded. They now give back only the cost of 2 of the combined weapons instead of 3 (minus 1 gold).
- Breakthroughs have been adjusted to give less value overall. The value given previously made managing your economy relatively trivial. Breakthrough can give variable amounts based on your current tech tier (1-3, 4-6, 7-9).
- Value Share: Now grants 2/2/3 gold value, down from 2/3/4
- Rebait: Now grants 1/1/2 gold bars instantly, down from 1/2/3
- Guidance: Now grants 2/2/3 free rerolls, down from 2/3/4
- Salvage: Now says "grants 4x its tech tier in gold" instead of "2x its sell value."
Bugs
- Resolved some issues when tabbing out at specific moments during the end game phase that could soft-lock the game
- If you open the pause menu during game over, clicking resume will no longer restart enemy movements
- Fixed an issue that could cause some enemies to get stuck at the end of their attack animation
- Fixed an issue that could allow some enemies to attack weapons that just shifted out of their targeting area for a single attack
- Fixed a bug preventing Value Share from triggering properly
- The Choosinator augment will now grant a free reroll immediately upon equipping it, and will no longer wait until the end of the next round
- The Bullet Buddy will no longer create an infinite amount of visual fx when trying to place a drone on a weapon that already has one. The FX will now trigger on the targeted weapon and only when possible to create the drone.
- Fixed a bug that was causing certain beam hitboxes to become visible
- Scrap Drones should now spawn with the correct frequency chance.
- Fixed an issue with the forfeit confirmation that would trigger the last highlighted menu option even if the player clicked elsewhere
- When weapons have had their base value increased by a breakthrough, and they are upgraded, their bonus value should now be properly retained
- When a weapon is optimized by a breakthrough, the icon will now properly appear on the weapon when you load a saved game