Hello! Today's 20XX patch adds the Level Choice system (pick your next level from 3 choices!) and vastly improves our controller detection/keybinding system. (Choose which input device to use! Have separate keybind sets per player!) It also tweaks a whole lot of numbers and reverts an old Ace nerf.
Disclaimer: 20XX is in alpha. As we develop the game, we may make changes that require us to invalidate or wipe your 20XX save files, Steam Leaderboard info/achievements, and other save-y stuff like that. Be aware! Note: in this patch, we're removing any saved keybind info you have, since we rewrote some control setup code. Feel free to delete your eridu.key file.
TL;DR for today's patch: Keybind/controller selection scheme rewrite. Level selection system.
For the next patch or two: Netplay, boss work, power work/finalization, more level variability.
On the horizon (extremely subject to change): Safehouse rework, UI rework.
As always, let us know if anything's busted or if we missed some changes.
BIG CHANGES:
- Added the level choice system. At the end of every level, the player will be presented with three portals instead of one, each with a specific boss and level theme. This gives the player some power to select his path through the game's levels according to what powers he already has and which bosses he wants to take out early or save for later. As the player closes in on level 8, the choices will narrow down (levels 1-5 allow 3 choices, level 6 allows 2, and level 7 has one portal "choice" at the end.)
- Much of the control and keybind system has been rewritten. Each player may now choose his own control scheme. 20XX will now detect up to 4 DirectInput devices (up from 2). Players can also now choose which input device to use from the Change Controls menu (which now has a separate menu for P1 and P2). (We've also swapped keybind filenames -- we're now saving "20xxv70alpha.key" to your My Documents folder. You can safely delete eridu.key.)
- If your controller doesn't immediately work, you're probably set to the keyboard. Change it in the Change Controls menu!
SMALL CHANGES:
- Reverted Ace's 20% damage nerf from a few patches ago. (Relative to last patch, Ace now deals 25% more damage.)
- Ace now begins the game with 10 HP (up from 8).
- Turret Boss's whirl attack now spins less quickly.
- Shield Drones (Alpha version only) will now drop their shield after counterattacking twice.
- Reduced the Twins' health by 20%.
- Rebalanced Power Boost, and the items that grant it, as follows:
- Each point of Power Boost is back to granting 20% damage per point.
- If the player has negative Power Boost (for example, if your first pickup is XCALBER), the penalty per point is 10% (instead of 20% -- last patch, the penalty was a full 30%).
- A-Matic now grants 2 Power Boost (up from 1).
- In addition to its other effect, Blood Magic now grants 1 Power Boost.
- In addition to its other effect, Enerscoop Alpha now grants 1 Power Boost.
- In addition to its other effect, Healthfinder 8000 now grants 1 Max HP.
- Panther enemies no longer have a weird semi-invulnerability before revealing themselves.
- Shield Drone (Frostor) HP reduced by 30%.
- Penguin (Frostor) HP reduced by 20%.
- Creeper (Frostor) HP reduced by 40%.
- Cannon (Skytemple) HP reduced by 15%.
- Maceguy (Skytemple) HP reduced by 30%.
- Boltfly (Skytemple) HP reduced by 25%.
- These are not the big Skytemple/Frostor changes we're working on-- just temporary fixes, since the work on these levels is a little further down our pipeline.
BUG FIXES:
- The Twins' Flameshield projectiles had larger hitboxes than their graphic. This has been fixed.
- Fixed an issue where Svalinn Gamma (Frostor shield boss) would spawn enemies inside walls/inside portals.
- Fixed an issue where Ace's attacks were getting blocked by things that really shouldn't block them.
- Fixed an exceedingly rare bug where the game would go through one frame with a negative timestep, causing crazy screen shake, an erroneous level clear message, a minute or so of being totally frozen, and just generally screwing everything up.
Thanks for reading!