Hey, everyone!
First of all, sorry I've been MIA for the past two weeks, but I've been hard at work on this update so I hope you'll forgive me. I don't want to waste anymore of your time than I have to, so here's the changelog for this version. Enjoy!
If you'd rather watch a video of the changes in this version:
New Level
The ICCSV Abyss is a former prison ship, originally owned by the government, the ICCOB, before selling it to the Intergalactic Party for the Galactic Lens Proposition, who began converting it into a mobile research outpost. Soon after their purchase however, they sold it to Albet Salvage.
The ICCSV Abyss is a brand new level, available to all players from the mission select screen. It is the largest map thus far, containing three generators and a shocking lack of doors. It features unlockable rewards similar to those from the other levels, including new modifiers, weapons, and special orders.
Just as well, the ICCSV Abyss is part of a new mission set, called NDA Assignments. These missions, which is currently only the ICCSV Abyss, will be a way for me to do a series of one-shot enemies. The plan is for every NDA Assignments mission to be a new, unique threat the players have to engage with. This allows for me to explore new designs and enemies freely, without having to make multiple levels for one enemy type like I did with the Targinids.
New Enemy
The ICCSV Abyss also comes with its own brand new enemy, the Andralpheans.
An odd hybrid of bird and man, you'll come to know them for their glowing eyes, versatile movement, and deadly claws. While running for your life, be wary of the many shortcuts they can take by leaping across the terrain. They also have their own boss variant, but I'll let you discover that in the mission itself.
Loadout & Equipment
This update also brings savable loadout functionality to the loadout menu, allowing for players to quickly switch between three different loadouts.
Note: This functionality does wipe your currently existing loadout, so I advise checking your loadout to make sure it's right before starting a new run for all returning players.
Alongside loadout functionality is a new mechanic, your Equipment Slot. Equipment is a new part of your loadout that acts as a rechargable active item that can provide useful gameplay benefits. There are currently four equipments in total, one unlockable on each level. The current equipments are:
A frag grenade launcher.
A quick-charging dash that allows for rapid movement in any direction.
A short burst of invulnerability.
A flashbang launcher that stuns all enemies caught in its vicinity.
Three New Weapons
Needle Cannon: A fast firing, high damage weapon that becomes more powerful the longer you charge it.
Circular Saw: A melee weapon capable of getting a lot of small hits inside of a narrow time frame.
RX-9 Rocket Launcher: A highly destructive, if expensive, weapon that's capable of killing most anything.
Five New Special Orders
Base Kit
The following special order is added to the base special orders available at the start of the game.
Equipment Special Orders
The following special orders are unlocked as part of the rewards for the ICCSV Abyss.
Other Patch Notes
Increased cost of Boom Tube from 250 to 275.
Increased cost of Deliberate Mindset from 500 to 850.
Increased base cost of Katt Cartridge from 100 to 110.
Increased Sledgehammer damage from 1.8 to 2.2.
Fixed tool models on the workshop where they had a considerably higher polygon count than any other model in the game.
Note: I found this out when developing the new level and I found that whenever looking at the workshop, polygons rendered went from about 50k to 1.5 million. This makes this update actually 40 MB smaller than the previous version. Whoops.
Fixed a bug where certain spots on the floor gave the player a slight speed boost.
Fixed a bug where Some Kick modifier didn’t actually give a 2x boost to scoring.
Note: Luckily I don’t think anyone actually experienced this bug, but it’s the thought that counts.
Fixed a visual bug in the scoring screen where the multiplier total would always round up to the nearest whole number.
Fixed a bug where hit particles (such as sparks or dust) went the wrong direction, often causing the player to be unable to see them.
Note: Almost embarrassed to say how long this bug has been in the game. I never noticed it until this update.
Touched up a few FPS animations for the player:
XYM-4 Shotgun
XYM-17 Sniper Rifle
Old World SMG
ECL-LMG-B
Fixed crosshair being able to breach the confines of its window in game options.
Mission sets with only one level no longer have the 'Next Level' or 'Prev. Level' buttons.
Three new achievements related to the new level.
Next Update
Next major update I want to do is a revamp of the special order shop to have some new QoL stuff, such as favoriting special orders or permanently removing them from the shop pool (for a small price). I also like the idea of adding in a special order glossary so players can easily see what all special orders do, and maybe even a search functionality so you can find upgrades based on terms or descriptions.
Going forward, I think I'm going to start staggering updates between doing quality of life updates and content updates, so that next update will be a quality of life update, then an update with some new content, enemies, and monsters, and then another quality of life update, and so on.
For upcoming content updates, I will probably be reducing the amount of weapons, special orders, and modifiers unlocked in each level. This will mostly be done to stop myself from becoming creatively bankrupt with game ideas, as I want all content to feel new, exciting, useful, and/or different.
As always, if you do enjoy the game, one of the biggest ways you can support me is by leaving a positive review on the steam page or just spreading the word about the project. If you have any feedback, bug reports, or other suggestions then feel free to reach out. I don't always respond, but I do try to read/watch everything I can regarding my game.
Until next time, good hunting!