Demo Update v0.59.0 Alpha
A small one, two days after Hellsurge. It comes straight out of the exit survey and the session data: Rift 1's second and third phases were reading as brutal on the mid difficulty with a full squad, the squad was letting Hellploders get too close before opening fire, and a Boomer going off in a crowd was not taking the crowd with it. All three are addressed here, along with a round of cleanup that makes the game run smoother.
Level Phases 2 and 3 breathe easier
A full squad draws a little less pressure on the mid difficulty. Three or four squad members used to pull more enemies than the squad's real firepower could handle, so the middle setting played like the top one with a full team. That scaling is now gentler, and the spice strikes that come with a full squad are smaller. Easy and Elite are untouched, and playing solo is exactly as before.
The hottest pushes sit a touch lower. The busiest push and the climax of Phase 2, and the Stomper climax of Phase 3, now peak slightly below where they did.
The three heaviest Boomer bursts in Phase 3 are smaller. The one right before the Stomper used to send eight Boomers in a single wave; it sends five now.
Phase 1 runs on the right clock again. The level start was recently shortened from six minutes to five, but the wave script was still written for six. Every push and valley now fits the five minute grid, and two opening waves that had quietly fallen into a regroup valley, where scripted waves are blocked, are back on the field where they belong.
The squad shoots Hellploders sooner
Squad members now open fire on a Hellploder from about a quarter further out, before it is close enough to be a problem. The safety floor is unchanged: a Hellploder that is already too close to shoot without catching the blast is still left alone, so you decide what to do about that one.
Boomers blow up properly
A Boomer's death blast hit hard enough but reached only a few metres, so a Boomer detonating inside a pack rarely took the pack with it. The blast now reaches about twice as far and throws pieces harder, and its fireball is drawn to match. Boomer chains go off the way they should, which cuts both ways: a Boomer that reaches your squad still explodes on contact, so keep them at range.
Smoother runs
The end of a winning run no longer hitches. Every Hellshrine and Hellpump used to collapse on the same frame when the victory walk began; the collapse is now spread over several frames.
Cleared a long list of errors the game was logging under the hood every session, on every enemy spawn, on Hellbug deaths, on squad spawns and on a few timers. None of them changed what you saw, but each one cost a slice of a frame, and a burst of Hellbug deaths cost several. The worst frames in a full run are noticeably higher.
A leader who died and was replaced could no longer have their ability browsing time out. Fixed.
The run summary in the dev report now shows played time next to the wall clock, so a long run with many menus reads correctly.
Thanks for playing. The feedback panel (F11) and the quit-screen survey go straight to me, and this update is what came out of them.