Hello there!
I managed to close all of the hardest tasks for the new version release. This includes things like:
Detailed info panels - Player now has access to information about upgrades, skills and ship core influence on the run. Currently covering Clicking Power, Beam Strike and Auto Upgrader
Complete Beam Strike redesign - Beam Strike, being way too cheap and powerful during the late game, was the only valid strategy for grinding big scores so I changed it significantly. It is no longer charged up, instead there's a lot of upgrades available to make it stronger after each run. Now it is also on cooldown, forcing players to use it wisely! It's also worth noting that Beam Strike is first of "Special Actions" now available on the right side of the screen.
Asynchronous Map Load - Load Scene no longer freezes the whole game! With that I was able to insert a simple (square) loading bar along with some random tips at the bottom to read during the wait :]
Better synchronization with Steam - including gamestate load / save and more sane approach to connecting with Steam and retrying that in case of issues. Sadly no gif for this one!
More QoL - Things like notifications for Skills and Technology after first run (and not only for Ship Core Modules which was a bug), some tweaks towards more readable ui, adding missing translations and so on.
What's left for me is making sure I add couple more hints to the game for first time experience and then spend couple hours just playing the game, making sure nothing breaks and that the balance is still there with all new stuff I added recently :)
There's going to be a new leaderboard for v0.5.0 so beware! I will leave TOP10 of previous scores visible somewhere in the game's "Hall of Fame"!
Hit me on DISCORD if you want to share your thoughts, say hi or simply be up to date with the project!
As always, have a great day!