Found and fixed an extremely old bug that could interfere with a number of boss behaviors. This should prevent bosses from getting stuck in certain states, though it was already extremely rare.
Significantly optimized and rebalanced the Sting King fights post-15-minutes in Endless Mode. Fighting a Sting King at 20+ minutes should no longer grind the game to a halt.
Altered Fates (patch version 1.02)
The major focus of this patch was giving players more control over upgrade choices, but still leaving things somewhat open so you aren't stuck playing the exact same build every game on each pilot. It's a tightrope walk, and not everyone will be perfectly happy (if you had complaints before, that is), but it's never been easier to make a powerful build.
At this point in development, after 7 months of Early Access, most systems are firmly entrenched, and making major changes just isn't possible. I'm happy with where things have ended up, and I'm looking toward to the future now.
Enjoy! And please leave a review if you do!
Adjustments to Rerolls, Loot Generation, and the augments "High Roller", "Prize Box", and "Sure Thing"
You now get 2 rerolls per level-up as a base, and in easy mode get 4. Up from 1 and 2, respectively.
Max rerolls have been increased to 6
The augment High Roller still saves unused rerolls, but now also grants 2 bonus rerolls to start the game.
The augment "Prize Box" now also grants +2 rerolls for the prize box choice at the start of the game (these will carry over if you also have High Roller)
The augment "Sure Thing" now also grants +2 rerolls the first time you level-up (these will carry over if you also have High Roller)
Updated the upgrade selection weighting to better favor already equipped upgrades in addition to upgrades that work well with them
Fixed some minor bugs with the weighting system that should make its results more consistently favor what you want
You no longer gain bonus rerolls from killing a boss
Note: Upgrade choices are their most fluid at the very start of the game for the first few levels. With each choice and level up, the systems favor what you're trying to do more and more.
Additional Balance
The aftermod "Afterstrike" now deals 5 piercing damage (ignoring enemy armor)
The utility "Abzorber" no longer recharges while the Abzorber powerup effect is active
The final form of the Monarch boss will no longer pause for 3 seconds before beginning to attack at the start of the fight
Quality of Life
Ship skins are now unlocked simply by beating each of the first 3 zones
Updated the gem counter so it no longer caps out at 10 million
Electri-Fire will now show up in Lucky Duck synergies
Shock Bomb text in the upgrade, inventory, and mission menu has been updated to be more concise and prevent overlap with other UI elements.
When playing the tutorial, easy mode, or endless mode, the initial countdown before the pop-up menu will now be skipped
Bugs
Fixed an issue where boss health was increasing at double the rate it was supposed to in Endless mode (after 15 minutes), and their health bars were not matching up to their actual health.
The remaining Hive Queen boss in its 3rd form will now always move to the center of the screen
Fixed an issue that prevented the left Hive Queen in its 3rd form from scaling up its health/shields in endless mode
Hotfix v.1.01c
Fixed an issue that would prevent Blitz Bomb and Heatseeker from leveling up above level 2.
Added Heatsink to synergies list for Blitz Bomb in the upgrade menu
Hotfix v.1.01b
Fixed an issue with the achievement "Drone Collector" not treating Crystal Drone or Dronerang as drones when equipped.
Hotfix 1.01a
Fixed a bug that prevented the "Stunning" achievement from unlocking if Electroline was 1 of your 2 electric weapons.
Patch 1.01 (and Asset Pack)
Launch has been going quite smoothly, and I'm really happy with how things have turned out so far. Thanks again to everyone that has supported the game along the way. Your feedback continues to be invaluable. For this small update, I'm just fixing a few loose ends, and making a commonly requested change to upgrade choice generation.
I've also uploaded an asset pack with all of the icons for every upgrade in the game at original size and scaled 300%. Pilot images are also included. There is both a photoshop file containing everything, and named/sorted individual .png files. If you want to make a guide for synergies/builds, tier lists, or unlocking symbionics, I hope this makes it easier: Dropbox Link for Gunlocked Asset Pack
If you've been enjoying the game so far, please leave a review and help spread the word. It would mean the world!
Patch Notes:
Quality of Life
When all 4 weapons have been equipped, you'll be 99.9% less likely to be offered upgrades for upgrade types you don't have.
Fixed Heal Mary icon in symbionic menu (it was missing the scanline effect the other large icons have)
Bugs
Fixed an issue that would allow Scouting Drone to target enemies in a way that wouldn't allow them to take the bonus damage
Static Surge will no longer cancel auto-repair when ending
If you collect an Auto-Repair immediately after being EMP'd the repair will still work while you are disabled
Buzz Beacons and a handful of other weapons were not unlocking in the codex, or unlocking the wrong entries, but should be fixed now.
SSJ3 and SSJ4 achievements no longer trigger incorrectly
Fixed an issue in the mission menu where pressing "tab" could disable controls
We Have Liftoff (Full Release v. 1.00)
Well, we've done it! It's release day, and it's time to say goodbye to Early Access. I honestly can't believe how quickly the time flew by, but I've loved every minute (that I can remember) of working with this community to build the best possible version of this game (for now).
As a solo developer/artist, the success of Gunlocked has already been life-changing. Early sales allowed me to commit to game development full time, and leave behind my life as a freelance illustrator. This has always been my passion, since I first used graph paper and colored pencils to invent new bosses for Mega-Man 2, so thank you all for making it a reality!
Please leave a review if you've been enjoying your time with the game, and if you want to do a little extra, IndieDB is holding voting for indie game of the year. You can vote for multiple entries, so why not little ol' Gunlocked? https://www.indiedb.com/games/gunlocked
How well Gunlocked does now, in the vast, open space of full release, will determine how much more I can do to expand this experience, but I do have plans for more content in the future. For now, please enjoy all of the new stuff listed below. And since I put in all the effort to add the much requested Codex, I'll leave you to discover what everything does by playing. Oh, and one more thing:Because soooo much has changed in this massive patch, there are likely to be some bugs. Even last minute changes can ripple back through the game in unexpected ways. Just let me know in the forums or on Discord, and I'll get right on it.
Features
The Codex
6 new music tracks
17 new upgrades
1 new enemy
7 new achievements
Balance changes
Requested quality of life features
Bug fixes
The Codex: A record of every enemy defeated, collectible collected, and upgrade equipped. View a library of knowledge from the Mission Menu before jumping into just one more game.
New Music: At long last, the soundtrack has been expanded! Each of the first 3 zones now has 3 track variations, 1 for each segment leading up to a boss.
New Weapon: The Electroline
New Utilities: 2 aftermods have become fully fleshed out utilities with multiple levels, and are joined by 4 more brand new upgrades. These should really open up build paths, and make hybrid styles more viable for longer/harder playthroughs.
Heatseeker
Electri-Fire
Abzorber
Power Surge
Spy Satellite
Blitz Bomb
New Symbionics: 2 new super upgrades have been added, bringing the total Symbionics to 12. Hopefully players feel less restricted in their build choices now that most weapons can trigger these special super upgrades.
Crycon
Fireline
New Augments for Ace: Ace now has a chance to get a number of unique augments only he can choose, all themed after his primary "Utility Knife" augment.
Magnifying Glass
Corkscrew
Pliers
New Aftermods in Endless Mode
Dirty Bomb
Scrap Ship
Heavy Metal
Tripwire
After Lock
New Enemy Type
Locust: A new late-game enemy appears only in The Annelus Void
Achievements
Survivor
Space Invader
After Party
Tech Wiz
High Voltage
1, 2, 3, Lore
SSJ4
Balance
You now gain 1 bonus reroll from boss kills without needing the High Roller augment. The High Roller augment now allows unused rerolls to carry over.
Static Surge will no longer disable powerups when it ends, but your weapons will still become disabled and movement speed reduced
Discharger will no longer trigger on enemies that are not on screen. Modified its stats per level to trigger ever so slightly less.
Conduit now fires fewer pulses, and has a slightly longer recharge time across all levels, but gains more damage per pulse
Heatsink now reduces recharge time by 9% per level, down from 10%
Hail Mary now deals +1 damage at level 1. A small change that means when combined with the burn damage, it will destroy basic enemies like the round pods after just 1 hit. A bug was fixed with burn damage that will also increase damage output (see below).
Quality of Life
Trials now add score multipliers upon victory. +1% total score upon victory for each trial level.
You can now see which pilots have achieved victory in the pilot select menu. A trophy will appear on their icon.
Added Smol Ship versions for all of the alternate ship skins
Aftermods will now favor upgrades that match your equipment types when possible
An updated tutorial offers information on synergies and symbionic beacons
Corrected the synergies for Buzz Beacons to not show Heatsink
Fixed a typo on the Replicator inventory entry
Bug Fixes
Gems no longer freeze in place immediately after defeating the final boss in a zone
When an upgrade beacon upgrades a utility, it will no longer list it as a weapon in the menu
Fixed a bug that prevented your shields (on the UI) from reaching 0 when you died. This lead a lot of people to think they shouldn't be dead yet.
Fixed an issue with electric effects created by Lightning Bug class ships. Should no longer move to a new location after the first frame.
Fixed an issue with aftermod recharge timers not filling up properly (only visually)
Fixed a bug that could cause Ace to be offered duplicate augments at the start
Fixed a bug that was reducing damage instances of burn effects by 1.
Fixed a bug when fighting the Sting King multiple times in Endless Mode that would cause increasingly broken behavior and reduced framerates. There may yet be work to do here.
Fixed an issue that would prevent certain sounds and visuals from playing when some symbionics were activated.
Hotfix 0.95b
Fixed a bug that would allow duplicate choices to be offered for the Prize Box augment on rare occasions
Created a temporary fix for a bug that would not create a ship if you had the Smol Ship augment active with one of the alternate ship skins. This will be updated in 1.0 with the smol versions of the alt skins, but for now, will stay the same color, but default to the smol frog skin.
Hotfix 0.95a
Fixed an issue with Mega Asteroids not stopping after force effects trigger, and continuously, slowly, moving upward (this could have long term impacts on performance in endless mode)
Fixed an issue that allowed physics/force effects to trigger on enemies not yet in the playing field
Symbionics Part II (Early Access v.0.95)
It's the last patch before the launch update! Here's 4 more Symbionics to discover, and some significant balance changes to a couple of upgrades and force physics to tide you over until then. I'll be going (mostly) dark until release day (december 6th!) unless any game breaking bugs are discovered.
Going to keep this short and sweet because I've got a lot of work left to do! Hope you all have been enjoying yourselves these past 7 months! Please leave a review if you have :)
New Symbionics(if you're new, Symbionics are made by maxing the level of a weapon and also having the correct utility equipped...it's mentioned vaguely in the tutorial)
Zaplicator
Lightray
Sideloop
Sniper Drone
Note: This brings the total Symbionics to discover to 10...but more are coming ;)
Balance
Static Surge has been reworked - Kinetic charge needed to activate no longer reduces as you level - Damage per pulse now increases at levels 3 and 4 - Damage pulse speed now increases at levels 4 and 5 - EMP duration reduction at level 4 was slightly reduced - When static surge is running out, its blinking effect will appear in front of all other sprites - Overall Static Surge is much more lethal at max level when active, but active slightly less often. This should make it much stronger in the regular game, and a ever so slightly weaker in Endless Mode.
Scouting Drone has been reworked - Now has 1/2/2/3/4 max targets up from 1/1/2/2/2 - Now grants 20/20/25/30/35 bonus damage down from 25/25/30/50/50 bonus damage - Now grants 15/20/20/25/35 bonus loot drop chance up from 10/15/15/25/35 - Now grants 0/5/10/15/20 chance for rare loot up from 0/5/5/10/15 - The bonus rare gem values now scale to 5/10/25/50 up from 10/10/10/40
Magnetosphere now generates higher value gems
Physics for knockback effects have been overhauled. Force builds were way too hard to balance at the previous knockback strength, and should open up more possible synergies in the future.
Mega Asteroids can now be knocked back/away by force upgrades again, but at significantly reduced force.
Quality of Life
Electric upgrades now have the correct text in the inventory descriptions
Static Surge text no longer overlaps synergy/type icons
Bugs
Fixed an issue that would cause small blue squares to (very briefly) appear from some electric effects
Fixed an issue that could cause asteroids knocked back by force effects to travel forever upward, stuck in memory, causing slowdown over time
Fixed an issue introduced by the gem update that broke the Scouting Drone's secondary effect that generated bonus gems.