Early Access Update Tjugofyra (24)
build id: 56C5FAD0 56C6331A
EDIT: A problem was discovered in the map / tracker with elements appearing outside of discovered areas. A new build has been deployed to fix this.
Hello all! I am happy to announce a new update to Space Beast Terror Fright.
Security Fences
A pretty significant feature which I think was originally suggested by the community has been implemented, namely Security Fences.
These Fences are semi-transparent laser grids that will kill all Beasts and Creeps that come into contact with them, and as such act as indestructible barriers behind which the player is perfectly safe. EVERYTHING except players is completely stopped by Fences, including bullets and Beast gibs. As a result of this Sentries can no longer see potential targets beyond fences, in order to avoid them wasting ammo on things that they cannot hit.
The downside to Fences is that the player will suffer Electronics damage when in contact with the laser grid of a Fence. If this happens, the player is always kicked out the other side of the Fence at a safe distance after suffering a single point of Electronics damage. This is to ensure that you don't get caught in the Fence and die very quickly as a result, and to allow the player to pass through the Fence. Damage can as usual be repaired using a Repair station.
Fences have the same kind of frames and control boxes that Doors do, and are interacted with in the same way. However Fences, unlike Doors, are toggled instantly. The text in the Fence frame will display SAFE to indicate that the Fence is off (of course you will not see the fence in this state) and !CAUTION! to indicate that you should be careful around the live laser barrier.
All of this leads to interesting trade-offs. For example it is possible to be too close to a Fence when activating it, causing immediate damage and a kick to the player. It takes some practice when fleeing through Fences to get the timing of activation just right. Another interesting strategy is to activate all Fences behind you, and if you are forced to flee through an active Fence you can simply choose to take the Electronics damage hit. The same rules as for Sentry damage and Creep damage apply, so as long as all your systems haven't been knocked out you will survive passing through the Fence.
The map generation algorithms have been updated to do two passes of "barriers". With default options Doors will be placed first according to special rules that make sure they are at the ends of all straight corridor segments (as before). Next all other elements will be placed, and finally Fences will be placed last after all all Cores and Sentries are laid down by the generation algorithm. This second barrier pass is always an addition and cannot replace anything else except for empty floor cells, so if a potential Fence location is occupied by something else the Fence will not be placed.
The algorithm for the second barrier pass is different from the first in that it tries to put in as many Fences as possible in a diagonal raster with a spacing of a single tile, but as the map can be pretty filled up with other things this doesn't result in too many Fences being placed. Fences are similar to Doors and as such can only be placed in single-width corridors, so you won't see them in big rooms. The number of Fences depends highly on the specific map geometry that you happen to roll, with some corridors having several in a row while others have none at all.
With the above rules for Doors and Fences in mind, it is now possible to select "Invert Barriers" to have the Fences in place of Doors and vice versa. You can also explicitly disable both Doors and Fences individually. This leads to many interesting permutations of map styles, especially since disabling the first barrier pass (Doors by default, but Fences if Invert Barriers is selected) will skew the output of the random number generator and often result in completely different placements of other map elements.
The game definitely feels deeper now that I have had the chance to play a while with Fences, and also a little bit easier / less stressful as it is now possible to create safe havens for the player at multiple points in the level. It is of course best when making for such a safe zone between two fences to switch them off before passing through, but being able to choose to just run through the Fence and suffer the one point of Electronics damage adds a nice last resort fallback / retreat strategy for those times when Beasts are hot on your heels.
Miscellaneous
- Plan preview legend updated to include Fences.
- Fence control boxes now explicitly say FENCE.
- Fences are now displayed in the tracker / map
- The map upgrade for Doors is now called Barriers to take both Doors and Fences into account.
- Player stats have been somewhat reordered in the Party screens.
- Cause of death for players is now more explicit; Beasts, Creeps, Fences, Reactor Meltdown, Friendly Fire
As always, thank you for your support and patience,
/nornware AB c/o johno
nornware Dev Feed
nornware on Facebook
nornware on Twitter
nornware on YouTube