Happy holidays everyone!
I present to you a small but significant update, as it has a few features that have been commonly requested. Now that I have an option menu in place it makes it much easier to surface some of these tweaks!
First, a very common request has been to eliminate the traditional "screen edge effect" that simulates the classic Asteroids wrapping from one side of the play area to the other. As Solaroids has a much larger playing field, this can be jarring (especially in the arena corners) and is unnecessary. So now the default is to use a Seamless Wrapping mode where there will be no discernable edge to the play area. The sun becomes a constant landmark to help re-orient yourself and is conveniently shown in the player reticle. While this is the new default, you can globally turn the mode on and off during gameplay from the video options.
Second, there are several options geared toward tweaking the visibility in the game. One is that the faster you are flying the more the camera will look ahead. This should give better visibility of what your heading towards, like a giant space centipede (Infiltrator). In addition, I've adjusted the default camera to be panned back just a little more, but you also can now adjust it even further (within reason) using the new Zoom video option.
Third, you may or may not have noticed that at the end of November I released a FREE DEMO, so if you can, please spread the word. The demo has a few limitations, one being you can only play for 15 minutes at a time or through level 4, whichever comes first. In addition, Free Play mode is locked, and Steam global leaderboards and achievements are unavailable. If the full game is purchased in-game, then these restrictions are lifted except for the global leaderboards and achievements. A restart is necessary to activate these Steam features.
I hope you enjoy the new additions, and I would love to hear any feedback you are willing to share via reviews or discussion threads. Thank you for your continued support, and happy blasting!!
New Features
- Add seamless wrapping video option that eliminates the edge of screen transition at the edges of the arena. This is now the default.
- Increase camera look ahead amount to allow seeing further ahead when moving.
- Adjust default zoom level. It is zoomed out about 5% more than before.
- Add Zoom Level option that allows some limited tweaking of the camera zoom level (80%-150%).
- Change Controller Vibration player option to allow a percentage from Off to 100%.
- Change Camera Shake player option to allow a percentage from Off to 200%.
- Change bloom video setting to allow a percentage from Off to 200%.
- The high scores for the steam account are highlighted.
- A set of basic tips are deployed around the sun to quickly guide the new player instead of being mixed in with the other level tips that can be found.
- Added 144fps to frame rate option.
Other
- Improved memory efficiency.
Previously Released Patches
- Limit the number of found power-ups to restrict the maximum number active to approximately 25.
- Fix timing issue for frame rate limiter that would cause the target framerate to be slightly lower than the requested rate.
- Fix Infiltrator boss (serpent) when running at greater than 60fps.
- Reduce popping of large nebula.
- Default Friendly Collisions to off.
Known issues
- Borderless is only implemented for Windows right now.
- Some options are English only.