Another two weeks have passed, so it's update time again!
Highlights:
We're still very busy with the multiplayer, but here are the most important changes in this version.
Mod Support
It is possible now to save every map in the game. Those saved maps can be edited (if you like to change paths), loaded and be played again. The editing has to be done in the map file with some text editor for now, but I think we'll add a small path editor in the next updates. You can switch between the official maps and the mods in the level selection menu and each mod also has support for a complete leaderboard as the official maps have. In the next update(s) we're going to add a map sharing feature, so you can just upload your map and everybody else can play it as well. The best maps might even make it into the official map pool.
Tower Overlays
Sometimes it was annoying in the higher waves to find the tower that contained a specific item you wanted to give to another tower or to see which towers you haven't upgraded yet. These informations now are displayed above each tower. Also the full utilization of status towers is displayed there. Additionally when hovering a tower or pressing left alt key, you'll see the level of the tower.
Multiplayer
The multiplayer again made some really great progress. It's now possible to synchronize upgrades, selecting target and (little spoiler for the game mode we're working on) send monsters to the other team. It needs to be tested more and there are a lot of small things left to do, but I think we can start testing and improving the gameplay with 0.9.9.
Full changelog:
Enhancements:
- it is possible now to save maps
- added sound for Mole Tunnel event
- unofficial maps now can be played again
- unofficial maps now have a leaderboard
- added tower overlay showing some important infos to make finding relevant towers easier
- added hint why login/register button is greyed out
- added icons for monster element resistances
- added hint when auto save was performed
- added new quest
Balancing:
- Sacrificer now can no longer Sacrifice monsters with higher tier
- optimized status limits
- Healer ability now uses the maximum HP of the Healer instead of the target for the healing effect, to decrease effect on elementals
- reduced damage of Spike tower
Fixes:
- reduced size of savegame when Sphere of Sphere tower are on the map
- interval between two sacrifices now really increases
- if Leviathan is on the map in Hero Mode while player restarts the game, rain effect is properly removed now
- hut of Money tower now is part of the preview image
- fixed bug that caused an exception when loading invalid savegame
- fixed bug that caused player to be able to try to summon a fourth element when third one of a kind was still on the map
- small improvements on CPU performance
- game configuration now is stored in correct section in the ini file
- when loading a savegame score now is always saved for the correct map
- towers built in benchmark don't count for tower statistics and achievement Collector anymore
- fixed bug that caused input settings not to open from running game
- region button on highscore box now has hover effect
- reduced UI updates when an active item is in cooldown
- hopefully fixed error that caused tooltips sometimes not to be removed
- camera movement now is disabled while hovering Quest button
- fixed pink monsters when they get killed while being fossilized
What's next?
For multiplayer the next steps are to synchronize some last stuff like some abilities (Hiker, Rainbow, rotation of Money tower...), lives (currently both teams share the same lives) and others.
Besides that we'll start working on the prorgess system. Each multiplayer match will give you some experience points that will increase your level at some point and for each level you can buy a skill to improve your offense or defense and individualize your tactics.
For singleplayer we'll improve the mod support by adding a map sharing functionality. This will work via our server and via Steam Workshop. I'm not used to the Workshop yet, so I can't estimate if it will work until 0.9.9, but at least it's planned to get it into that update.
And for those of you that are alliance leaders we will introduce alliance flags that are somehow customizable. So you can select some patterns and colors. The flag will be shown in the leaderboards and maybe also ingame, at least in challenges. But the ingame part is a future step and won't make it into 0.9.9.
We hope you enjoy the new update and are looking forward to get your feedback, either here in the discussions or in our Discord at https://discord.gg/bwnuXq9.