The new update is out, so Steam should download it for you shortly. Here's a rundown of the shiny newness:
----- COMBAT LOCK-ON CHANGES -----
The default lock-on key has been changed to Left Shift. Sorry if you've spent the last week getting used to C, but, after further testing and feedback from you guys, Left Shift was clearly a better choice! Sorry about that!
If you've already customised your controls, I don't think this change will affect you and your customised controls will remain the same. However, if you were still using the default controls, I do think lock-on will have automatically been updated to Left Shift for you now (feel free to confirm or deny whether that actually is the case... it certainly was for me in testing!). Either way, you can always change it to whatever you want in the Settings > Controls menu if you prefer.
Escape still cancels the lock, but you can now also hold Left Shift for a while as well and that will also cancel it.
----- DAMAGE -----
Basic fist damage has been upped from 5 to 10. The staff still does 10, but it does allow you to hit multiple targets as always, so it's still rather nice! All tools now do 10 (previously, the shovel did 5), and they still have bonus damage against relevant enemies. To compensate for the increased fist damage, Brass Knuckles now do 15, which is the same as the Multipurpose Claws, but of course the Claws have another rather handy use, so they're still desirable.
The general consensus was that beasts took too much of a beating early on. I always imagined that people would be quick to craft the staff considering that it only takes 10 wood, but, after getting lots of feedback and watching lots of videos, turns out I was very wrong! So now, my hope is that new players won't be confused or frustrated because it was taking half an in-game day to beat up a stupid Pig Beast :)
----- NEW CRAFTABLE THINGS -----
I've added a few new craftable things:
- PLANT POTS - Create one of these and it'll occasionally reward you with a random flower. Plant a specific flower in one, and it'll only spawn that type of flower in future. To increase the chance of it spawning a flower, keep it watered, and preferably in a Greenhouse.
- SIGNPOSTS - Keep getting lost? You can now build Signposts and put them wherever you want, and even interact with them to add whatever text you want... "This way back to base!"
- FLAGPOLES - Signposts are a handy navigational aid, but they don't help you when you're far away. That's where Flagpoles come in. They're tall and flaggy and hard to miss, so should be a good way to mark your base or other points of interest so you don't lose track of them. Hopefully :)
- COAL - It seemed like Coal was one of the potential crafting bottlenecks in the game, especially if you were in a world with relatively few rocky biomes, so you can now use the Smelter to turn 10 Wood into 1 Coal. Leather also seems like it might be a bottleneck, so I'm considering allowing you to dry out meat and turn it into Leather in a future update. Feel free to let me know your thoughts.
----- CANNON CONTROLS -----
Controlling cannons was always a little fiddly, so I've given it a complete overhaul. Also, due to some wonky maths on my part, the cannon was previously firing you up more than it should. It now fires you in a straight line out of the cannon based on the actual aim, as you'd expect!
----- FACE-PLANT AVOIDANCE ----
Avoid face-planting the ground by tapping Jump just before impact.
----- HAND OF GOD -----
If you happen to get stuck in an infinite "fall" on the slopes of some randomly arranged scenery and can't move or jump, simply wait for around 60 seconds and a magical hand should come to the rescue and flick you to safety. Due to the randomised nature of the world, it may still be possible to trap yourself, but this should help get around most of those nasty occurances.
----- RANDOM UPDATES/FIXES -----
- Lots of SPOILER updates first, so I strongly recommend you skip this section unless you're already very familiar with the entire game:
- After first repairing the satellite dish, the event that can randomly trigger from that point on now does always trigger once within a day or two of the repair. It may still continue to trigger the event as normal after that. Previously, this was just too random, so you could go to the effort of fixing the dish but may have never actually seen the result.
- Updated the Robot so it is no longer ever fatal. If it causes fatal damage, it instead kicks you out of its lair with virtually no health remaining and re-seals the entrance. Better luck next time! The reason behind this change is because this boss isn't just a straight forward fight; it requires some trial and error to figure out how its mechanics work, so I didn't want people to die and lose their epic saves purely because they didn't quite understand how it worked. Oh, also, the Robot has a bunch of new sound effects as well :)
- All of the beast rituals now scale slightly with the current day, to help level out the overall difficulty curve. This mainly affects the number of beasts spawned (2, 3 or 4), which in turn can affect how long it takes before they summon their large friend, if it's that kind of ritual. And if they do end up successfully summoning their friend, those big guys are a touch slower with their attack rate now, giving you a little more chance to get hits in before they attack. Oh, and I fixed an exploit/mistake with the big Snow Yeti (I previously shrunk it's damage collider which resulted in a safe spot right next to it. The collider is now a completely different shape, so it better fits with its attacks, fixes the exploit, and makes it a little fairer overall.)
- The Slug Ambush event also scales a little bit with the current day, although it's still probably best to run away and hide! :)
- The Rage of the Pig Beasts has been toned down a little. Rather than running from 6pm to 6am, it now runs from around 8pm to around 5am, and the pigs themselves are a little less insane, giving you more of a fighting chance to actually hit them should you choose to stand your ground. And I've also tweaked their knockback force, so they're less likely to juggle you for hours on end!
- Trees now grow a little faster and at a slightly randomised rate, rather than all at the same speed.
- Harvested Trees and Rocks can no longer spawn Acorn or Rock Beasts on Day 1. Business as usual from Day 2 onward.
- Additional collision updates (projectiles and various points of interest).
- Fixed an issue with the Item Notification Text when using a chest.
- Last week's shovel attack update was ignoring Slug Beasts. That's been fixed.
- Equipment is now temporarily hidden when placing structures.
- Fixed an issue with the Jet Pack SFX.
- Fixed an issue that could cause you to slide around like a lunatic while watering (auto-collect wasn't being disabled).
- Fixed an issue with the Shark/Squid/Sea Monster thing making noise when it shouldn't.
- Fixed the issue that was stopping controllers from working properly for the last week. Sorry about that... 100% my fault!
And just in case you're wondering why this update is called v0.2.1 and not v0.1.4... I have no idea! I just felt like a change!
As always, if you have any feedback or encounter any problems, please just let me know!
Oh, also, I'd be interested to know if your Graphics Settings have reset again. I tested this update on a separate branch before pushing it out, and none of my test machines had their settings reset this time, so I'm hopeful!