Escape from Mandrillia
HOTFIX OF SHAME
PS: I'm testing experimental movement features for the monkeys on the experimental branch, starting with a small hop -don't hesitate to check it out if you wanna leave some feedback!
UPDATE 0.0.16 - THE ONE WITH THE ELEVATOR
EXIT ZONE NO LONGER PLACEHOLDER CITY
Until now the exit area was pretty barren and was kinda boring for both the Robot and the Mandrillians. Usually, you'd know who had won that match before the final gate-opening-minigame started. With this rework I tried to fix that (and also added a lot of well deserved flair to that section).
The entire zone has been enlarged, with multiple cover spots and new rooms, but the thing that will catch the eye faster is the elevator.
THE ELEVATOR
Instead of opening a gate just like all the others with 3 "hacking" phases, you will only need to do the hacking minigame once, then wait until the elevator arrives (a bit over a minute). Once it does, get inside and press the button to slam the gate behind you and start your ascent to victory. Be careful: Mandrillians are too thicc and the elevator is on emergency power, so clear it up before celebrating.
The monkey exit vent no longer has a direct line of sight with the final console, which has been relocated way closer to the elevator gate. The VR player will need to be more aware of the surrounding area, but now you can get away from there while the elevator goes down, allowing for way more strat flexibility.
EXTRA ROOMS AND FEATURES
The exit rework includes four extra rooms, with their own loot and keycard spawns. The restroom is still a work in progress, as some of the gimmicks I want to add there need a bit more testing before I'm comfortable adding them.
The two rooms on the north-east and north-west corners serve as a permanent entrance for Mandrillians, but are also the only gates that have a direct line of sight with the final console now.
THE CANTEEN AND THE RESTROOM
In an effort trying to make the facilities more "lived in", I added these two places which might or might not be a reference to a certain obscure FPS from 1998. I've also used the canteen as a testing ground for a bunch of systems that will also appear on the restroom in future updates.
(work in progress)
VENDING MACHINES AND POWERFLASH ENERGY DRINK
The canteen includes two functional vending machines, finally giving the Trickshot Coin a lore-friendly use.
In exchange of 1 coin (and if available), you'll be able to buy either a Repair Kit or a can of Powerflash Energy Drink (which will act as an impact flash grenade)
Sometimes they'll have a coin or two already inside, so feel free to smash that return button if you just wanna trickshot around with them coins!
FOLDING CHAIRS
The canteen felt very weird with no sitting contraptions, so I made a little steel folding chair. Of course, I had to make it into a melee weapon. And I liked it so much I added a couple of them all over the map.
DESTROYABLE TABLES
Destroyable static elements are a thing that I wanted to add for a while (so far the closest we got were the explosive barrels). There are plans for breakable crates in Warehouse and breakable safety rails in Waste Disposal, but the Canteen was a great place to start testing this feature with the tables. Also added a couple to the CEO office for good measure. If nothing goes wrong with those, I'll go ahead and also fill the restrooms with breakable stuff.
THE MINIMAP REWORK
This was one of the reasons the update stopped being a "small update". The exit rework enlarged the map size (which is something that was bound to happen with the new map zones), and forced me to finally ditch the static minimap system for the Mandrillians.
While it used to be an on/off thing, now the minimap has a zoomed in and zoomed out state. The zoomed out state shows a good chunk of the map, but still follows your Mandrillian's general position. The zoomed in state is fully locked on your Mandrillian, and also roughly matches Mandrillian's "hearing range". It is also round, making it take slightly less screen real state.
One big advantage this has over the old system is that now it's way more difficult to mistake your monkey from your coop partner's, which is something that happened more than I'd like to.
THE START OF MONKEY QUALITY OF LIFE
Not gonna sugarcoat it, a big weak point of Escape from Mandrillia right now is that the VR player side is way more engaging to play than the PC player side, especially for newcomers.
For this reason, I'm starting a full QoL pass on the Mandrillians. This ranges from visual stuff to core systems, so all feedback will be appreciated.
For this update, I added a couple small changes that should improve the gamefeel for PC players:
Improved turning animations: instead of just turning in place like a wooden monkey statue, Mandrillians now lean and twist their bodies to the direction you're turning into. Seems like a small change, but in combination with some reworked turning speeds and control weight it should both look and feel better.
Electric stunlock prevention: one of the most frustrating things as a Mandrillian player was to get chain-stunned by a VR player with a full Multitool battery. With the new system, doing so will result in diminishing returns.
Stabilized monkey crosshairs: the way the aiming crosshairs worked until now was a bit iffy resulting in a bit of a bounce when you turned your monkey around without turning the camera; this has now been fixed. I've also widened the attack angle relative to the forward direction, so beware a Mandrillian giving you the side eye.
The next upcoming updates are gonna be very Mandrillian mechanic-centered, so expect a lot of changes. This is a thing I really wanna hear feedback about, so feel free to leave it on the comments, or on the Steam discussions, or on the official discord.
ARCADE HUB ON HOLD
Now this is the bad news for this update: the Arcade Hub and Halloween Challenge have been put on hold for a while as it felt too unfocused and laughably outdated. The good news is that I have something quite juicy planned out for the next Halloween event...
That's all for now. Oh, and Escape from Mandrillia is off 25% for Steam Summer Sale, but if you're here you probably already bought the game, so idk. I guess it's a good opportunity to buy it again? Maybe even twice! C'mon!!
Have a nice day!
STICKY FLAMES
When hitting "regular" surfaces, the flamethrower will leave sticky flames for a few seconds; those will inflict fire damage to anything that gets in range. Use this to quickly set up traps or to gain some valuable seconds against the Mandrillians!
I've also done some experiments with AI enemies changing their pathfinding on the fly to avoid running into sticky flames. While it works nicely most of the time, there's some consistent corner cases that will need a bit more time in the oven, so this feature will be relegated to experimental builds for a while
CHANGELOG
- Updated Unity version from 2019.1.8 to 2019.1.14
- Added sticky flames mechanic for the flamethrower
- Increased initial delay for flamethrower 0.1 seconds
- Slightly reduced flamethrower flame speed after the initial fireball
- Slightly reduced flamethrower ROF (so a tank will last longer, and less fuel will be wasted on the initial delay)
- Fixed Multitool's emissive light bleed visual bug
- Smoothed a small collision bump on a particular corner in the vents
VERY HOT HOTFIX
HOT HOTFIX
- Removed the unsightly start-of-match global noise ping in the minimap
- Fixed damaged gates having floating sparks FX
QUICK HOTFIX
UPDATE 0.0.15.2
MAP WORK
First of all and after the Observation Chamber area face lift, work has started on the Exit area zone. There is a whole new corridor placed between the CEO office and the Observation Chambers; with some corpses, crates, a map station and a new access to Observation Chamber 3. This should add more options to both the Robot and the Mandrillians when navigating across the facility.
GATES, NOISES AND MULTITOOL
Second big thing for this update is a rework for both the keycard operated gates and the automatic ones, as well as some tweaks for the Multitool's radar and minimap sound notifications.
The Multitool's radar screen, instead of indicating 20 and 40 meters with its inner and outer circles, now indicates 15 and 30, making it easier to gauge how far away enemies are. To compensate the decreased range, enemies will stay on the rim of the radar up until 60 meters, instead of 50.
This also affects the way minimap noise pings work for the Mandrillians, and the new gates come into play:
Automatic doors are more or less the same as now, but they now make a much quieter noise; as such, the noise ping will only notify Mandrillians that are up to 15 meters away, instead of 19.
However, keycard operated gates are chunkier and close with a big slam, alerting Mandrillians up to 60 meters away, instead of 40. They close very fast (making it easier to kill a Mandrillian with it), but opening them is way slower, so be careful!
To adjust to these changes, a few gates have been shuffled around.
NEW MANDRILLIAN SETTING: NIGHT VISION
A new setting is available on the Main Menu for the Mandrillians. Night Vision adds a red spotlight (only visible by that specific player), to help navigation in dark places. It has 3 stages: off (by default), on zoom (the light only turns on when zooming the camera in), and always on. The Mandrillian Beginner preset now has "always on" as a default.
And that's all for today. Next step is the fully fledged final Exit zone!
CHANGELOG
- Added a new corridor north of Observation Chambers 1 and 3.
- Reworked door system: keycard doors are noisier and open slower; automatic doors are quieter
- Reworked Multitool radar ranges and noise thresholds: from 20-40 + 10 on the edge to 15-30+30 on the edge
- Added new Mandrillian setting: Night Vision
0.0.15.1 UPDATE: A BIG GUN
THE HIGH IMPACT PLASMA CANNON
As promised, the big honking gun that appeared on last update's Observation Chamber 1 overhaul is no longer a tease; now you can fire it (twice!) This marks the end for the center-area map rework; next step is making the exit zone a bit more interesting... stay tuned!
To fire the High Impact Plasma Cannon, you'll first have to wait until it fully charges, which can take a few minutes. Make sure all three safety switches are flipped, and...
You will tear a hole right into Observation Chamber 2 and 3 (which up until now were only accessible via yellow keycard). After this (and another long reload time) you'll be able to fire it again for good measure.
Opening up this hole can make for some interesting early game tactics, but of course you're here for the carnage. What happens if an unlucky Mandrillian is in the danger zone?
This. And you'll also get a shiny new achievement!
Besides this big boy, this update also turns some automatic doors into keycard-locked doors. Have fun!
0.0.15 UPDATE - OBSERVATION CHAMBER OVERHAUL
Observation Chambers 2 and 3 are now connected by a gate; Chamber 3 has a lot of hiding spots and Chamber 2 has a bunch of acid waste puddles (new mechanic!)
The acid puddles damage both the Robot and the Mandrillians. This is a taste of things to come for when the Waste Disposal area is fully done...
Observation Chamber 1 now has a hole that connects it to the middle corridor, opening a lot of new strategies for both the Robot and the Mandrillians. There's also the... thing that created said hole. I have things planned for this bad boy.
This is the first of a series of map overhauls and additions that's gonna keep going until all extra areas are implemented. Next step is overhauling the exit zone (to make the final part of a match more climactic), and then adding the Warehouse, Waste Disposal, and Research and Development optional extra zones.
Also, Escape from Mandrillia is on sale for Steam's spring sale. Have a good day!
Tiny Update - Smooth Acceleration option
The default (the one you all know if you've played the game) is Instant Acceleration, where the movement will always respond 1:1 to your joystick/thumbpad inputs (adjusted to a curve)
The new option, Smooth Acceleration, will give a bit of weight to the movement instead of being instant, which is something some people might prefer.