Caverns Reloaded.
Hello Everyone!
Today we are happy to announce that our players will never have to wait through an application restart again! In previous versions of Caverns: Lost Sky, getting a game over or reloading your save meant waiting for the game to restart. Now, game over brings you instantly back to the title menu. Additionally, loading any saved game for a second time is twice as fast!
Improving the gameplay experience by eliminating application restarts was the main focus of this update. However, this isn't the only change to look forward to - we have also tweaked the combat systems, added block and dodge, implemented more bug-fixes and improved performance!
Combat Improvements
Block
Equipping a shield now allows Strato to dodge enemy attacks! This action happens automatically. All you need to do is have a shield equipped and a weapon currently out. The shield's "Block Chance" stat determines how likely it is to block an attack. Every time your shield takes a hit its durability will deplete, but it blocks all of the damage. Better shields have higher durability and block chance.
Dodge
Have no shield? Don't worry, not all enemy blows are destined to hit. Based on your Dexterity and Luck, Strato may automatically evade attacks without any special equipment!
Control Improvements
We've tweaked the combat system to be more intuitive and user-friendly. Previously, attacking an enemy meant you were a sitting duck while you wait for the attack to finish. In this update, you can now move the camera, switch weapons, and target at all times. The only actions which are prevented during an attack are walking and jumping.
Bug fixes and Performance Tweaks
Performance Tweaks
We are always aiming to improve the performance of Caverns: Lost Sky in every update we push. As Caverns runs on our own self-built custom engine, we have ample room for optimization and tweaks. During this update, we modified several aspects of the core game loop to reduce stuttering and increase FPS during chunk generation. While the game is not lag-free, Update 0.1.4 presents a large improvement over the previous build, especially while chunks are still loading (indicated by the green "loading fields" seen over unfinished chunks). Additionally, a large amount of refactoring was performed during this update. This should make further speed improvements should be much easier to come by.
Bug Fixes
A large number of bugs found by our players and by internal testing were fixed during this update.
Some of the highlights include:
- When a weapon breaks, your next weapon is automatically selected, if you have one. It can be taken out by pressing 'E'.
- You can no longer save while falling to your death... Only saves on solid ground are possible. This is to prevent players from saving in a situation they cannot escape.
- Poneroids, Cavern Weed and anything picked up from the ground no longer re-appears when you reload a saved game.
- Items placed on the ground, such as torches and beacons, are now saved properly.
For the full list of changes, see 0.1.4 Patch Notes.
Both of us at Tetravoxel Limited would like to thank the community for all their suggestions, bug reports, and support. Together we hope to make Caverns: Lost Sky as fun, satisfying and rewarding as possible!
- Team Tetravoxel ( :