The Beast Is Back / Early Access Update 38 coming May 23, 2018
nornware AB is happy to announce the return to full time development on Space Beast Terror Fright.
As many of you have noticed, almost 10 months have passed since Space Beast Terror Fright was last updated. The real world intervened, and for almost 2 years I (johno) haven't been able to work on the game for more than a few hours a week, but I am now back to working full time with nornware and Space Beast Terror Fright development. My immediate goal is to get back to pushing updates roughly once every 2 weeks, aiming to get the game to a final release state as soon as possible.
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank my small but faithful community for all your support since SBTF was launched in Early Access in April of 2015. The game has come a long way from humble origins, with many features a direct result of user feedback. I couldn't have done this without you, and I'm happy to be able to get back to making this game as good as it can be in a full time capacity.
Early Access Update 38 is complete and in final testing, so I am going to include my first draft of the coming announcement below (which should be complete barring any serious bugs). I hope to see you all soon online!
/nornware AB c/o johno
Early Access Update 38 - Feature Preview
Consolidation of Game Modes
As has been hinted in the forums, I have completely removed / consolidated all concepts of "game modes" from Space Beast Terror Fright. The reasons for this are many, but the bottom line is that this makes it possible to optimize all aspects of the game for a single core experience and to finally move towards finishing the project. I am confident that the game is better as a whole due to these changes.
First of all, Deathmatch mode was always an experiment, and I felt that it would need a lot of work to approach anything resembling a finished state. Therefore I decided to cut it and save development resources in the interest of moving towards a final release.
Secondly, the introduction of Rescue mode saw quite a few changes to the feel of the game, and my take has been that most players agree that Rescue mode as it stands isn't as fun as Salvage mode. I also felt a very clear sense of "experience dilution" once Rescue mode was implemented, and this felt quite contrary to the brutal simplicity that I have always regarded as a core strength of SBTF.
Therefore my reasoning since Early Access Update 37 (July of 2017) has been to see if I could merge Rescue with Salvage somehow or otherwise drop the features of Rescue entirely. Happily I feel I have arrived at something that I view as the "pure" SBTF experience, which is a merge of Salvage and Rescue gameplay. As a result of all of this there is no longer the concept of a "rules" selection; you simply play SBTF in a single mode, with options remaining for things like difficulty, Astro-Creeps, Power Failure chance, etc.
Also following from this is the consolidation of all Plan algorithms; the new consolidated "game mode" has quite specific requirements to how maps / Plans must be laid out. The evolved algorithm is roughly based on the legacy "Corridors" with certain additions. Options remain for things like Doors, Sentries, Infestation, etc. This is also partly because I have always felt that the way the A.I. for Beasts works has been quite sensitive to the general layout of the map / Plan, and therefore I have chosen to optimize for a solid experience in all cases.
Pure SBTF / Science / Ammo Changes
The new "pure" experience is in essence still "Salvage mode" but with a few twists. You still search for Datacores which give Upgrades, and once all have been downloaded you can access the Reactor Shields and overload the Coolants before making your escape back to the Airlock. What is new is the existence and function of Civilian Scientists in the space. Research labs are spawned as in legacy Rescue mode, but this time the Civilian Scientists have been smart enough to hide in "Panic Rooms" so that Beasts and Astro-Creeps can't get at them.
The player can now search for these Panic Rooms (which are incidently slightly camoflauged) in order to find and rescue Civilian Scientists. Once a Panic Room is found the player can open it by touching the door, which will open and thereafter stay open, releasing the Civilian Scientists into the map proper (of course Panic Rooms will not open if there is a power failure). Once the Civilian Scientist has been released the player must attempt to guide them back to the airlock, just as in legacy Rescue mode. The difference for doing this successfully is however the nature of the reward; rescued Civilian Scientists now count towards a team-wide "Science" score (+1 per rescue) which like Upgrades will carry over between missions if any team member survives.
Note that rescuing Civilian Scientists is completely optional (as it in effect was in legacy Rescue mode), but increasing your team Science score has profound (and immediate) effects on gameplay, namely relating to ammo:
- Each Science level will increase Armory reload rate by 5 rounds per load interval. This will continue to increase up to a maximum rate of 500 (effectively reloading an entire Armory at once).
- At Science level 4, all ammo will be magenta (medium).
- At Science level 8, all ammo will be blue (heavy).
- At Science level 12, all ammo will be green (javlar). No I don't know what to call the green ammo... :P
Obviously this is a relatively radical change to the controversial ammo design that has plagued SBTF for some time. The intent is both to remove the tendency of players to dump low-tier ammo to make room for better as well as find a practical (game-)mechanical use for keeping Civilian Scientists / Rescue gameplay in the game.
In balancing and tweaking these changes the following changes been made to ammo type damage (which have always been of the formula base + random extra):
- orange / light: was 1 -> 3, now 2 -> 3
- magenta / medium: was 2 -> 4, now 2 -> 4
- blue / heavy: was 3 -> 6, now 3 -> 5
- green / javlar: was 5 -> 9, now 4 -> 7
Through extensive testing it has seemed best to compress the total range a bit; orange is stronger than before, while blue and green are weaker than before. A big practical change is that the player effectively starts with a stronger weapon than before, as orange / light ammo is base damage 2 instead of 1.
Ammo capacities have also changed:
- level 0: was 500, now 500
- level 1: was 750, now 600
- level 2: was 1000, now 700
- level 3: was 1250, now 800
- level 4: was 1500, now 900
The player will now also start with full ammo; 500 instead of 400.
Changes have been made to Motion Tracker upgrades:
- level 0: Distance (to 10 meters)
- level 1: Short range visual blips on tracker (to 10 meters). Threats are white, Civilians (when moving) are HUD color.
- level 2: Long range blips on tracker (entire map). Threats are white, Civilians (when moving) are HUD color.
- level 3: Civilians show up at all times, both when static and moving.
Note also that Panic Rooms are never visible on Plan previews, so Civilian Scientists are truly secrets / bonuses until you have attained Motion Tracker level 3. Panic Room doors cannot be broken by Beasts.
In support of Science the following has also changed:
- DNA screens have been removed.
- All doors, including lab doors, are now breakable by Beasts (except for the Airlock door).
- Lab doors are now randomly open or closed at mission start, just like normal doors.
- Team Science score is displayed in Mission Config screens.
- The on-weapon ammo display has been updated to show reload rate, ammo type, current ammo, and ammo capacity all at once.
- Low ammo warning (when the beeping starts) lowered from 250 to 200.
Weapon Loadouts
Another problem that has been discussed at length in the forums is the usefulness of the various weapons in the game. After much thought it is my theory that the major deciding factor was the fact that the player only had access to a single weapon for the duration of a mission. As a result of this, every weapon basically needs to be the same (as the Rifle) in every respect in order to be as efficient (as the Rifle).
In the interest of having the already implemented alternate weapons see more use I have decided to implement a kind of "loadout" design; the player may choose any 2 of the 5 existing weapons for a given mission and can switch between them at any time (TAB on keyboard, X on gamepad). It is my hope that many new interesting strategies will arise from this change. Personally I am very happy with the ability to carry both a Rifle and Shotgun at the same time, but combos like Rifle + Hammer4x are also quite interesting. Available permutations are:
- Rifle + Shotgun
- Rifle + Razor
- Rifle + Hammer2x
- Rifle + Hammer4x
- Shotgun + Razor
- Shotgun + Hammer2x
- Shotgun + Hammer4x
- Razor + Hammer2x
- Razor + Hammer4x
- Hammer2x + Hammer4x
Miscellaneous
- See help screen for revised button bindings as a result of adding weapon switching.
- Fixed problem with Randomize All that wasn't allowing for full range of door and fence chances.
- Changed Randomize All so that there is a 25% chance of Power state starting disabled (was previously 50%).
- Cassette version has been bumped to removal of game modes; existing replays will not be playable.
- Work in Progress: I have implemented slightly more verbose status information when launching a mission (local mode only).
- Fixed crash that could happen when firing a Shotgun with low ammo (underflow).
- Motion tracker detection will now always give base Adrenaline (even when Tracker system is damaged).
- Broken electronics systems will now randomly blink / glitch in the interest of being more clearly damaged (as opposed to just being off).
- Fixed bug where view would still bob when in escape menu (local mode only).
- All leaderboards are disabled for the moment, pending full removal of single mission leaderboards in favour of some kind of campaign feature.
As always, thank you for your support and patience.
/nornware AB c/o johno
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