We're at that point in a project where we're digging deep into the last few gnarly issues, and we are fixing stuff that MOST players won't experience. But we want Lazarus to be great for everyone, so you got's to deal with it!
That said we think we're over the hill with this stuff, or close to being, so we snuck in some new bits and bobs too.
Want to play? Hit up www.playlazarus.com and claim a steam key right now. The servers are live 24/7!
Want to chat to us? Hit up discord.gg/spiltmilk and let us know what you want to see in the game!
NEW & TWEAKED!
- We've added a Settings menu! This might not initally seem all that exciting, but check out this screenshot for how much we've done.
It's not at 100% full on PC Building Simulator levels of customisation yet, but it's definitely a step up and certainly good enough for our upcoming Early Access launch. You can individually switch off Nebulas, Stars and Planets to improve performance. You can change the screen resolution (as long as you're ok with 16:9), and of course you can toggle Fullscreen on/off. You can also choose from a bunch of preset Graphics Quality settings, but we also have options to individually tweak the level of Anti Aliasing, Anistotropic Filtering and V Sync. Happy tweaking!
- Speaking of tweaking, we've tweaked MEV despawning times, so now they hang around a few seconds longer. Handy for when you finally smash that Carrier and want all the goodies it drops.
- Oh and speaking of Carriers, they now drop 3 Loot Crates FOR SURE when they die.
- We have updated the 'Lazarene to XP Token' conversion numbers. During a Wipe, any spare Lazarene you have is automatically converted into XP Tokens, and now the numbers are: 600 Lazarene makes 1, 1200 gets 2, 1800 gets you 3 while 2400 gets you 4. The game basically attempts to award the highest value it can and when it cannot, it attempts the next lowest, and continues like this until you're out of Lazarene. This latest tweak makes the process more valuable to you and more fair.
- We have changed all repair costs for all Ships. They're now all 3000 Lazarene instead of varying values, as technically they aren't bigger or better, just different - it felt oddly punishing to vary things if your favourite happened to be more expensive than the others.
- When players are browsing the Ships they've unlocked on the Ship screen, we now show them the full 3D model.
- You can now back out of (and cancel) all of the screens between the Main Menu and actually being in the game.
- We've added a 'pre-alpha' string to all screens in the game. We need to reinforce this message to all the new players, so that you all know how far away from 1.0 we really are!
- We've done some work tidying up the Main Menu and various sub menus (alignment, button placement & behaviour etc)
FIXED!
- We fixed an issue with the Wipe that meant if a player was logged out and missed a Wipe, from then on they'd be shown the Wipe screen every time they logged in. This would continue until they actually played through a Wipe 'live' so to speak. This was probably the gnarliest bug we've had in a LONG time. We've had to rewrite some of our build process, some of our server tech works slightly differnetly too. It's been a total PITA but it's worth it!
- We've addressed an issue that meant VERY RARELY INDEED players would dock, but Banking would not secure all of the Loot Crates they had in their hold.
- We've fixed several issues on the backend that resulted in players VERY RARELY INDEED seeing a 'failed' opening of a Loot Crate (something we can't ever prevent 100% of the time) would actually still claim a Loot Crate. Obviously this is not ok, and is now not going to happen. We think. We've tested it against 200 openings, so...
It's worth pointing out that both of the above issues are related to some incredibly deep and hard work done on the spaghetti-like Dairyfarm which is part of our (fairy complex) backend. There used to be exceptions thrown under rare circumstances, and this has been a very large undertaking. But we're happy to have done it and to have solved these cheeky problems.
- We fixed a bug that meant you could repeatedly 'equip' your current Ship, and the game would take your Lazarene for the privilege. The player can no longer do this, and is presented with a handy message from the cheeky Ourobean:
- We've fixed an issue that meant if you have more than one Ship with a custom loadout, and died in any Ship, you could see all of their loadouts reset to default. Which was obviously lame and annoying.
- We've fixed an issue that meant if you died in any Ship, you'd be respawned in that same Ship. But the game's designed for you to be respawned in the SH15... seeing as your dead ship needs repairs.
- We've fixed an issue that meant that if our backend failed while you were trying to upgrade your Tech, the upgrade would fail and the game would still take your Lazarene. Now it still fails (obviously an online game can never be 100% robust with regard to this stuff) but you do keep your Lazarene and you can try again safely!
- We fixed a bug that meant your resources may not have been properly wiped if you return to the game having missed a Wipe.
- We've fixed up the Wipe so players cannot die right at the moment that it triggers (which led to all kinds of oddness). Essentially every player is made invincible for a few seconds before the Wipe hits, which gives the server enough time to send the 'Wipe Now Plz' message around the entire world, grab hold of everyone, and push them to safety in the Wipe Menus.
- We fixed a rare bug that meant on respawning the player's screen was obscured by the Eagle Wing transition graphic.
- We fixed a rarely seen issue that hit you if you disconnected from the internet during certain steps of the Tutorial. The game now caters for this and puts you back in the Tutorial at the correct step when you return.
- We've fixed an issue that meant players could spend XP Tokens and System Tokens on Systems that were maxed out (was only a problem on Systems that currently max out under Level 10).
- We've fixed a rare issue that meant the player's Basic Blaster would not behave in line with its Level or Rank.
- We've fixed an issue with the Knuckle ship (my favourite ship right now) which meant that its slot 'counter' in the Equip screen was not showing the right amount of Core slots.
- We've fixed an issue with text overlapping on the 'failed to equip' message that displays on occasion on the Equip screen.
KNOWN ISSUES:
- We now that players sometimes see multiple pickups happening in a short period of time resulting in inaccurate amounts of resources actually being picked up. This can mean players get 0 pickups, or sometimes more than they should, but we didn't fix it this round. It's literally the next one on our list though!
So fire it up, help us confirm these fixes, and of course come and join us on discord.gg/spiltmilk to tell us what else you want fixing or adding to the game! As ever, keep your eyes peeled for the next big update in about 2 weeks!
UPDATE 27 - SMASHED IT.
Wow, this is a big one. Of course we did release a quick hotfix for the Wipe last week, but this update rolls in a TON of new fixes as we step inexorably (and excitedly) towards our Early Access launch!
We've focused on getting the Wipe bulletproof again (still/again/forever) and have a backend fix implemented that has definitely taken it from 50% reliable to, like, 98% or something. So we're pretty stoked about that!
More details below of course, but we have also taken time to address problems with the FTUE/Tutorial because it's super important to us that new players (and we're seeing a lot more of you now!) are taken care of.
And then there's an absolute mountain of fixes around menus, interactions, bugs and general quality of life. We're really excited with the progress we've been making, and feel like we're on a bit of a roll. Long may it continue!
WIPE FIXES
- We've implemented a new version of the server infrastructure that addresses the big Wipe problems we've been experiencing up to now. After considerable time testing and many many Wipes completed successfully, we're pretty certain this has fixed the biggest issues around the Wipe. Well done everyone!
- The Wipe used to mark whatever Ship you were piloting at the moment of the Wipe as 'damaged' during the next world, meaning you had to save up Lazarene to repair it before you could use it. This is no longer the case! This makes it a ton easier to get back into your favourite Ship once the world has reset.
- We are now clearing the player's inventory of MEV, Loot Crates and Lazarene - anything they have not banked - on entry into a new universe. This is a key part of the flow. Ya'll need to Bank more!
- There was an issue where players who quit the game before a Wipe, and returned after it was over, were doing so with their inventory and Systems intact. This is no longer the case. Whenever a player returns to the game after a Wipe that they didn't 'complete', they will be presented with the Wipe menus and be forced through the Wipe flow to make sure they're all set up correctly for the next period.
- There used to be an issue where any equipped Systems on Ships OTHER than the one you're piloting the moment the Wipe happens were not being cleared. Now they are! Blank slates for all!
- We've fixed an issue whereby if a player had a small enough amount of Lazarene left over at the Wipe, they were given no Tokens. Now, there is a guaranteed minimum Token amount if the player has even 1 Lazarene spare.
- We fixed an issue that meant that the stock information of any Xenotaphs the player visited were 'remembered' between Wipes. Seeing as the whole world is being reset and the stock of Xenotaphs is included in that, this made no sense.
- Players in the FTUE/Tutorial process would sometimes not be able to progress through the Wipe screens due to the game not sending them the correct information about 'safe' territories to spawn in. This has now been fixed.
MISC
- We fixed an issue that meant the player could equip any Systems on offer in the Shops, regardless of if they had unlocked them. We've added a padlock icon to Systems that the player hasn't unlocked to identify them.
- The Lazarene cost of upgrading a System's Level now correctly increases if you Rank up past its Level.
- We fixed an issue that meant if the player had equipped Systems that were not in stock at a Xenotaph, that Xenotaph's Equip menu would show errors/odd graphics.
- We fixed an issue that meant if multiple Players docked in the same Xenotaph, their Ship visuals conflicted and things got hard to read/navigate. Pretty important in an MMO :D
- We've implemented a Connection Test tool with a bunch of usability stuff around it. There's an option to switch it off in Main Menu, you can send the connection report to us automatically, plus if the game detects connection problems it will ask you to run it for us.
- We've reworked the Loot Crates opening ceremony so that they don't display any 'empty' gifts, but rather only show as many 'gifts' as they actually give. Makes sense, right?
- We fixed an issue that meant we were not correctly loading all the Xenotaph models, so players would see the same few Xenotaphs over and over. Welcome back, visual variety!
- The 'out of bounds' warning message is no longer drawn over other hud info.
- We fixed an issue where the Loot Crate screen visuals could be broken by very quickly skipping between the Tech screen and the Loot Crate screen
- We fixed a labelling error where duplicate Systems were displayed as duplicate Ships on the Loot Crate screen reward info panel.
- We've addressed some issues around placement and overlap of the Territory names when the Map is fullscreened.
- The various lengths of Territory names are catered for with changing font sizes in the fullscreen Map, so there is no more overlap there.
- We've removed the 'restart tutorial' button from the Esc menu now that we're (almost) 100% confident in the robustness of the FTUE. This was mostly for testing purposes anyway.
- The Tech screen upgrade panel had a rogue divider graphic on it, and this has now been removed. This was annoying the heck out of everyone here. Weird how the small things can have such a big effect.
- Fixed an issue that meant if the player left a Xenotaph while the 'equip success' message was displayed on the Equip screen, it'd still be showing when you next returned to that screen, regardless of location.
- Fixed a small issue around some art assets not loading correctly on boot.
FTUE / TUTORIAL
- There was a chance that the crate rewarded for your first capture despawned or was otherwise removed before you had collected it. This was down to several things. One was time, another was other players being able to see/pick them up. We've made it so that only the owning player can see or interact with it, plus it stays around until the player collects it or they log out... at which point when they return the tutorial step would be repeated anyway.
- We fixed an issue that meant starting the tutorial again after upgrading the Basic Blaster kept the player's Basic Blaster at level 2, so then the restarted tutorial wouldn't give you enough Lazarene to upgrade it again, thus locking you in the store screen. If you follow me.
- Fixed an issue that meant when you exited the tutorial while in the Xenotaph screens and then came back, you'd be spawned in those screens.
- We've made sure that your banked MEV, Lazarene and Loot Crates are displayed the moment you first dock at a Xenotaph.
- There's now no chance whatsoever that the player will be sent to try to capture a Drone Faction Capital. It seemed a little unfair, plus was technically an impossible task.
So anyway, like I said, a big one! Come and join us on our Discord to tell us what else you want fixing or adding, and keep your eyes peeled for the next big update in about 2 weeks!
Update 26! Numbers are your friend!
First up, welcome to all the lovely new players we've seen coming to our wee game as a result of the Caffeine.tv stream we did this week. It was a tremendous amount of fun and we're excited to see what happens as the community grows!
If you want to catch us on there, we're at https://www.caffeine.tv/spiltmilkstudio, and we want to give a big shout out to everyone else who streamed with us, we had a great time, they were so funny & friendly! (links to them and their channels are at the bottom of this post!)
Secondly, the update was actually pushed on Wednesay due to the aforementioned stream, so these notes are just a little late :P
WIPE TROUBLES
As any regular player will know, we're battling issues with the Wipe not 'completing' and leaving players on the second Wipe screen, unable to Rebirth into the world. Well, we're actually making really good progress - it definitely went fine during the stream, so that was a relief!
Anyway, the current cause we absolutely know about (it may not be the only one, but it's the single biggest reason we can see) has a backend fix incoming - currently there are two potential fixes in test, and the results seem to be positive so far. Sadly though we'll have to manually restart the servers every now and then until we've confirmed the fix and we can push it live. Holler at us in discord and we'll do our best to get to it as soon as we can whenever it happen.
Sadly sometimes when you're using new tech you hit issues like this. It's nobody's fault, but it is frustrating because we're reliant on waiting for something outside of our control to fix. Anyway, things are looking good, maybe we'll get it out to you next week?
NEW:
- We've updated hit effects to include the damage value, displayed as a number, which now fly off of the victim in a direction derived from the attack angle. Of course it's always nice to see more ceremony around core gameplay (shooting stuffs!) but this helps us debug issues, as well as helps you all figure out upgrades, effectiveness, and generally learn about the games systems a bit more naturally. We love it! It applies to all damage incurred, both by enemies and players.
Against Asteroids!
Against Enemies!
Against Shielders so no damage is dealt!
Against yourself!
- We've reworked the Province/Territory naming system. It is now much more varied, funny, and useful for finding friends and locations on the map. All names are prefixed with the grid location (eg: A6) and then a unique name afterwards, generated from our tool. Sometimes it even gets really smart (yeah right) and makes some sense:
- We now show you the stat upgrades for all Systems on the Tech screen. We show you the current stats for the System, and then how those would change if you choose to upgrade them, handily coloured to pick out improvements. This is a really nice bit of UX polish, and while we know of a bug or two, it works 99% of the time. Fixes are incoming for the 1% of course!
- An exclusive (and limited, there's no way to get it any more!) Caffeine.tv skin was added and handed out to people who played with us during the stream on Wednesday. Thanks to everyone who played with us!
- When the Wipe is complete, and the REBIRTH button appears, it is now accompanied by a sound effect. This was added because we'd see people not notice the change, as they're too busy upgrading their tech :D
- The Wipe countdown timer is now shown to players at all times, even when in the Xenotaph menus. No more surprise Wipes!
- The rewards panels in the Loot Crate screen that pops up when you select a reward will now give accurate information about duplicates. It now lists the Token type and the amount you're being given as a result of the duplicate.
FIXED:
- Fixed a bug that meant sometimes when another player was nearby, you would not see the menu buttons etc while docked or if you were on the death screen. If the player moved away it would fix itself, but this just meant it was a bit of a dick to figure out. Anyway, the stream really helped and we fixed it!
- Fixed a bug that meant sometimes upgrading a System did not always cost the player Lazarene.
- Fixed an issue that meant you could navigate to another tab during a Loot Crate opening ceremony, which in turn meant you'd miss seeing what you'd won. Now you cannot navigate away until the opening ceremony is finished.
- Enemy HP bars no longer draw over the map when it's fullscreen.
- Ships no longer clip through the 'base' model when presenting either a new Ship or a new Skin in the Loot Crates reward screen.
- There are no longer any overlapping hotspots on the buttons for the various tabs in the Xenotaph Menus (Shop, Equip, Ship, etc).
- The player's controls are no longer activated until after they've hit the REBIRTH button.
- Chat is no longer visible on the Wipe screen, as it was confusing things and hiding information.
- The buttons on the Main Menu have been dressed like buttons in the rest of the game. Finally :D
- We've moved the build number to the top right of the screen so it's no longer obscured by the 'development build' string in the bottom right.
FIXES WE NEED YOUR HELP TO CONFIRM:
These are fixes for issues that are rare enough, or edge case enough, that we could really do with the community's help to make sure they're resolved.
- Fixed a rare issue where the game will take your Lazarene if an upgrade fails due to a connection & backend error, even though you don't actually get the upgrade.
KNOWN ISSUES:
- Sometimes when you Dock with a Xenotaph, you won't be able to see any menu at all, just your Ship and the background image. We've fixed the MAIN source of this problem (see notes above), but have had one or two people report it happening still. We'd love more info and steps to reproduce if possible!
- There is no FTUE/Tutorialisation for the Wipe itself. We are hoping to get this in before Early Access launch, but may not. There are more important things for us to address, and we think you're all smart enough to figure most of the two screens out.
- Sometimes the second Wipe Results screen can fail to show you your Systems, and therefore you cannot upgrade them there. We're working on the fix of course.
We're so close to Early Access now we can basically smell it! Keep on playing, keep on spotting new issues, and keep on telling us what they are in our Discord channel!
UPDATE 25 - WIPE OUT (not literally)
This week's work has been mostly Wipe related, with a side of FTUE/Tutorial to keep things varied.
We found more ways the Wipe could get stuck, and have fixed them! So this might seem familiar, but rest assured these are new issues that we've fixed:
- The game should no longer get stuck wiping the world
- Players should no longer get stuck on the wipe screen
Game development is often like this. Fixing one bug allows the game to progress just far enough for another one to appear, one that was previously hiding in the shadow of the previous one.
The main thrust of this week's udpate is that we've updated the FTUE/Tutorial with all the work we've been doing ahead of Early Access launch. So that work we mentioned last week, that's all in. This is a potentially long set of notes, but I'll do my best to make sure it's readable and understandable.
FIXED:
- We've added muzzleflash gfx back into the player's blasters, it's been broken for a long time! Each Blaster type has different muzzle locations and facing directions, so each one looks unique and pretty damn cool!
The Basic Blaster:
The Cross Blaster:
- The player is now always shown the icon of an equipped System in the EQUIP menu.
- The player can no longer equip a Passive System over itself, and is no longer charged for trying to do so.
- The Death tutorial has been fixed, so it always shows all relevant buttons and steps to respawn.
- The player is no longer able to equip multiple Passives in Ships that don't have enough slots. The Systems all now respect the count of the Ship the player is piloting.
- Fixed misalignment of the red 'damage flash' graphics
- Updated 'damage flash' to show as blue if the player's using the Shield and it takes the hit (ie: they've taken no damage).
- The player is no longer shown the 'upgrade' button for Systems they have not yet unlocked.
- The shop now allows players to buy the exclusive Phoenix skin, and if they have it already it prevents them from buying it again. This is hidden functionality at the moment. This skin can only be obtained through buying it, it is not part of the loot table ingame.
OTHER WIPE FIXES:
- Fixed a rare issue whereby the player would sometimes be disconnected when they reached the second Wipe Results screen.
- The Wipe Audio sting will no longer be played over the 3,2,1 countdown on joining a game.
- The backend would occasionally get stuck in a loop trying to delete an entity during the Wipe, which was one of the reasons the Wipe could sometimes not complete.
- Fixed a bug that meant only the default SH15 ship would get shown on the Wipe screens, so if you were piloting anything else, they wouldn't show up.
THE NEW TUTORIAL:
- The new tutorial is now implemented in Lazarus, and any new player will go through it on their first play.
- Please don't restart it, as you'll likely get stuck on the step where Pug gives you Lazarene!
- We've addressed every step of the existing tutorial, so that now Pug teaches the player all about Lazarene, where to get it, what to spend it on, and the like. Broadly things haven't changed a lot, but some steps are rearranged. We had to add a few new bits, like when Pug gives the player enough Lazarene to upgrade the Basic Blaster to level 2.
- We save the player's spot in the new tutorial so that when the Wipe happens, they can still progress through and then carry on in the new world.
- We force the second Xenotaph the player docks at to stock whatever System it is they unlock from their Loot Crate. Normally the stock is rolled at random when we build the world.
- We forced the first Asteroid the player kills to drop a certain amount of Lazarene, to be sure they get to understand its role.
- We fixed the Loot Crate counter. During the tutorial it often used to variously show 1 or 0, but always incorrectly.
- We fixed a bug where players coming back to the tutorial at the wrong step could be spawned miles away from friendly territory.
- We fixed a bug where the 'fade in' of the Asteroid radar marker would always play, even after the player had seen it.
- We fixed a bug where restarting the tutorial with the Map in fullscreen would lock it as such.
- We fixed a bug that let players open a second loot crate during the tutorial, which would break the flow entirely.
- We stopped the tutorial Loot Crate giving Lazarene. All Loot Crates are now Lazarene-free.
FIXES WE NEED YOUR HELP TO CONFIRM:
These are fixes for issues that are rare enough, or edge case enough, that we could really do with the community's help to make sure they're resolved.
- Fixed a rare issue where the game will take your Lazarene if an upgrade fails due to a connection & backend error.
- Restarting the Tutorial after being disconnected during the Tutorial would respawn the player in a Xenotaph, not in the Tutorial. This has been fixed.
- The player can no longer be told to capture a Drone Faction Capital (which is impossible) during the Tutorial.
KNOWN ISSUES:
- Sometimes when you Dock with a Xenotaph, you won't be able to see any menu at all, just your ship and the background image. If you see this, screenshot, let us know, and send us your logs!
- There is no FTUE/Tutorialisation for the Wipe itself. We are hoping to get this in before EA, but may not. There are more important things for us to address, and we think you're all smart enough to figure most of the two screens out.
- Sometimes the second Wipe Results screen can fail to show you your Systems, and therefore you cannot upgrade them there. We're working on the fix of course.
- Chat text is shown overlaid on Wipe screens, and we'll be making sure it isn't soon.
We've got a big stream with Caffeine.tv on Wednesday the 29th of August (only a couple of weeks away), plus another Closed Weekend on Steam soon too. We're getting close to EA launch!
Keep on playing, keep on spotting new issues, and keep on telling us what they are in our Discord channel!
Update 24 - WIPE CLEAN
This is a small one. A really small one. With good reason, and it's all good for the game.
We've addressed several deep and dastardly problems with the Wipe, which basically amount to the following fixes for you, the wonderful player:
CHANGES
- The game should no longer get stuck wiping the world
- Players should no longer get stuck on the wipe screen
We've also done an absolute ton of work on the FTUE regarding the new progression, the Wipe, and everything that touches (believe us when we say it's a LOT of stuff) but because we don't have the FTUE where we want it to be yet, we're not switching it back on... and that means that you won't see any of that work.
KNOWN ISSUE (still):
When you equip a System to an empty slot, it does not show. It will show up if you swap it into an occupied slot. The slot counter (left of the slots) does not update correctly either. The Systems do actually equip though, and you can use them as normal, it's purely a cosmetic/UI issue. We'll endeavour to fix this asap.
Suffice to say the next update will be a lot chunkier, what with basically 2 to 3 weeks of development and fixes in it.
We've also been experimenting with some features for the future of the game (no dates yet!), so I thought you'd appreciate a little sneak peek. This is one of several prototypes we've built to figure out just how to shows the Apophis Fighter ingame:
Snazzy, yes? We want to keep the silhouettes of Apophis the same (or very similar) to the Drones so that the learned language of form and function that players have is not thrown away, but at the same time we want them to look cool, creepy and dangerous. Of course in the game's Lore, Apophis somehow grow on (or perhaps mutate out of?) the Drones, but nobody's quite sure why or how. Hopefully were close to nailing their look!
In other news, we're planning a big stream with Caffeine.tv on Wednesday the 29th of August (only a few weeks away), plus another Closed Weekend on Steam perhaps as soon as next weekend.
Keep an eye out, and come yell at us to work harder in our Discord channel!
UPDATE 23 - WIPE YOURSELF DOWN
We've got tons of fixes around the Wipe, and quality of life changes around progression, shops and upgrading. Get stuck in!
SYSTEMS SHOPPING!
HUMAN CAPITAL XENOTAPHS
are guaranteed to stock one of every System type, as well as making sure that one of them is the Basic Blaster, and have at least one other Core System available. This way, even if humanity is taking a beating, you'll have a decent amount of options to push back with!
Look closely on the left hand side and you can see the stock for the Human Capital:
STOCK AT XENOTAPHS
is now consistent. Different Xenotaphs have different stock, and some might not even have any of a particular System type... and now there's no way of them going 'out of stock'. Previously, a System had a chance of being removed from the shop if a player equipped it. Not intended... but maybe we bring it back for Hard Mode :D
THE MAP
now accurately shows the Stock of any Xenotaph you've visited. There were some issues around visiting order, and empty stock slots not being shown correctly if you subsequently visited a Xenotaph with stock of that type. It used to get confused, now it doesn't.
-
THE WIPE
no longer prevents a player from seeing the stock data on the Map if they're still playing in the same session as the Wipe.
THE WIPE!
WIPE RELIABILITY!
We've fixed a whole bunch of errors and weird edge cases that prevented the Wipe from completing for various cases. Sometimes across the whole server, sometimes for individual players. Suffice to say it should be pretty bulletproof and work consistently now (famous last words). If you get stuck in the Wipe screens, let us know! At most the Wipe should take about a minute, but usually is less.
THE WIPE TIMER
is now visible at all times. We're still making the Wipe happen every 2 hours to ensure we get good data though, just in case there are more edge cases to catch. This may get removed and only displayed in the run up to a Wipe when we release the game, but for now it's super useful.
Along the bottom of the screen, just above your equipped Systems:
ENEMIES
that were spawned from Asteroids and Carriers are now cleaned up along with the rest.
WIPE RESULTS
screens are now 100% accurate. There were a few values that were not behaving, in particular the amount of Lazarene you'd spent.
Wipe Screen 1
Wipe Screen 2
UPGRADING SYSTEMS!
LAZARENE COUNTS
towards the Rank of a System. Every time you upgrade a System's Level, a small amount of it is also applied to that System's Rank. This is to make sure you don't have to rely on getting duplicates to upgrade stuff, and is still being balanced so expect changes!
SYSTEM RANK
is now shown clearly as separate to System Level. We show the latter as a 'hatched yellow' fill on the bar, while the former is 'solid green'. Note; if you increase the Rank of a System beyond its Level, the Level is increased with it.
Take a close look at the Green (and now Yellow!) pipped bar under the System:
SYSTEM RANK
bar no longer changes after you've navigated away from the System in question. This was confusing, to say the least.
SYSTEM RANK
now increases no matter how many XP Tokens (Global or System) you apply. Previously there were some bugs that made certain combos/orders break it, and not get saved properly.
XP TOKENS
have been labelled correctly in the Tech screen. Previously the numbers of tokens were being shown under the incorrect labels.
XP TOKENS
are now awarded correctly for all duplicates. Duplicate Skins give a Global XP Token that matches their rarity. Duplicate Systems give a System XP Token at random picked from Common, Rare, Epic and Legendary. Duplicate Ships always give a Legendary Global XP Token.
BUG SQUASHED
that meant sometimes, if you entered the Tech screen with a Core Blaster maxed out (Rank 10) it could freeze that menu tab for that session.
UPGRADE FAILURES
should no longer remove the Lazarene from your account. We need you to keep an eye out for this one as it's VERY hard to reproduce.
UPGRADE COSTS
now show the correct Lazarene amount. There was a time when they'd all show as 9999 Lazarene, even though the actual cost was functional/happy/accurate.
BALANCE!
- We've tweaked the value of Tokens in relation to how much XP they add to your Rank. Things were advancing far too quickly! We're still balancing this though.
OTHER!
LAZARENE
totals are displayed for the player on both the Docking screen (so you can see how much you've collected and are about to bank) as well as the Death screen (to really rub in how much you've lost, I guess?). Useful stuff.
The Dock screen:
The Death screen:
KNOWN ISSUES:
- Left over from last week, if you max out a System's Level (but not Rank), the System's Tech screen UI still shows it as Max after a Wipe. You can tell because it has a golden highlight and a golden star, but this does not prevent you from upgrading it or interacting with it properly. It's a purely cosmetic issue.
- Sometimes when equipping Systems, the Slots won't update with their visuals (on the right hand side of the relevant Xenotaph screen). They functionally attach and this is reflected in gameplay (you can see them in your slots when flying about) so it is purely a cosmetic issue, and one we'll fix soon.
NEXT WEEK!
Next week's update will be focused on making sure the FTUE/Tutorials in the game communicate all of the new progression changes (things like Lazarene dropping from kills, but not from Loot Crates) and also making sure the Wipe doesn't break any of that first time user experience. We'll also be adding a tool that tests connections for you. With any luck it'll help us and the team at Improbable figure out the root cause of most peoples' connection failures. If we get far enough, then we'll also be able to polish up a lot of the core experience, ranging widely from menus to combat and everything inbetween; we've got a long list of bits we want to see made better! Finally in the background of all of this, we are also designing (on paper) some interesting stuff around the mid-to-late game experience, adding a bit more structure in terms of challenge and varied gameplay. Keep an eye out on our Discord (https://discord.gg/spiltmilk) to get early info on that!
UPDATE 22 - WIPE AWAY THOSE TEARS
Update 22 is here and it features the single biggest change we've ever made to the game both in terms of the amount of work it has taken, and the amount of impact it has on Lazarus. We've entirely reworked progression (previous weeks have been adding smaller pieces but this is the culmination) and there is a bunch more to do, but this is a really exciting moment for us!
THE WIPE - DETAILS:
- The Wipe. This is it. We've been talking about it for weeks, and now it's here. Every 2 hrs (for now, to test! Every week-or-so in the full game) the Ourobeans reset the world, before the Apophis arrive and literally destroy reality. What does this mean for you? It means that you get a nice breather, you can tinker with upgrading your tech permanently, and then jump back into a fresh world to fight against the Drones and prepare for the inevitable arrival of the Apophis once again...
...here is what you'll experience:
- When the Wipe is near, you'll get a warning and a countdown on the HUD.
- At this point you'll have 1 minute before the Ourobeans start rebuilding the world.
- Once that minute is over, you'll be taken to a screen that shows your performance since the last Wipe, plus what is being wiped and what is being kept. Also, depending on your performance, you'll get given some bonus Loot Crates to open after the Wipe is done.
What is wiped?
Mass
Energy
Void
System Upgrades (Don't panic! See below!)
Lazarene (Don't panic! See below!)
What is kept?
New Systems
New Ships
Loot Crates
Skins
XP tokens (spend these to increase your System's Rank!)
System Ranks & XP (This is what defines the starting Level of a System in the next world!)
- You're then able to navigate to the next screen, which shows how long till the new world is ready.
- On this screen you're able to tinker. Any Lazarene you didn't spend on upgrades get turned into Tokens (also gained from duplicates, see below):
...and you can spend these Tokens on increasing the Rank of any System you own, as I am doing here with my Trident Blaster:
- For the final part of the Wipe process, once the new world has been built, the Ourobeans will enable the REBIRTH button and you can jump into the fresh world and start kicking butt once more! This new world will have a brand new layout, and every faction's territory will have been cleared so it's fair game for you or any of the Drone factions. Xenotaphs will have moved, boundaries changed, and different Systems will be in stock in different areas entirely compared to the previous world.
NOTE:
please be aware that we've switched off the tutorials for now, as they played poorly with the Wipe. We will of course reinstate them when this has been addressed.
More on System Ranks:
- A System's Rank defines what Level a System starts on in the new world. By default a new System is Rank 0 and Level 0. Should you increase it to Rank 6, then from that point on that System will have a new base of Level 6, regardless of Wipes.
- Whenever you find a Xenotaph stocking it, that System will be at the same default Level as its Rank... and of course you can increase its Level or Rank further as you choose.
A System's Rank can be seen in the Tech screen any time you Dock.
- As you can see above, the System's Rank can be lower than its Level; this is because the player has upgraded the System's Level, but not their Rank.
- A System's Rank can only be affected by Tokens, and can only ever go up.
- Tokens are won from duplicate Systems, duplicate Skins and duplicate Ships.
Here's a nice gif of me upgrading the Rank of my Lance Blaster with several XP Tokens (can be applied to any System) and one System Token (only for that specific System) in the Tech Screen:
- You can see how many of each kind of Token you have on the Tech screen, plus you can apply them so you don't need to wait for a Wipe to increase the Rank of a System.
- Lazarene is still spent on upgrading a System's Level, which is reset to the System's Rank on the event of a Wipe.
OTHER CHANGES:
- The fullscreen Map now shows you the Systems that are stocked at any Xenotaph you've visited. Just hover over the Xenotaph on the map to see! This data does not get reset on Wipes atm, so enjoy the knowledge!
- HP numbers are now shown underneath all Drone and Asteroid health bars, while both HP and Energy data is now shown on the player's HUD in number form too.
- Hit VFX have been added for when the player is damaged (collisions and shots)
, while HUD warnings have been added when you take damage too, in the form of a red flash.
- The Upgrade button no longer appears if the System in question is at Max Level.
- New icons have been introduced for Lazarene and Lootcrates on the player's HUD, Death Screen and the Xenotaph Docked screen
- Swapping Ships now has its own separate confirmation dialog with correct Lazarene costs, and your Lazarene total updates instantly on both Repair and Swap. The process now also includes Ourobean sass.
- Fixed the weird outline transparency jank on the ingame Lazarene pickup.
- Replaced MEV HUD icons with non-additive images, so they no longer glow/bloom out their detail.
- The fullscreen Map has had a range of other smaller improvements to its layout and readability.
- Lazarene will drop at a slightly lower rate (still balancing)
KNOWN ISSUES:
- The cost of every System upgrade reads as 9999, but this is purely cosmetic. The actual cost is derived from our backend, and while this does make it hard to know how much to save up, we're fixing it asap and it doesn't prevent you from upgrading if you do have the correct amount of Lazarene.
- The System Tokens count can sometimes break on the Tech screen, showing that you have e.g.'x3' but greying out the button as if you have 0. This is functionally accurate (you do have 0 in this example), but the readout shows the wrong number.
- If you max out a System's Level (but not Rank), the System's Tech screen UI still shows it as Max after a Wipe. You can tell as it has a golden highlight and a golden star, but this does not prevent you from upgrading it or interacting with it properly. It's a purely cosmetic issue.
- The data on a Xenotaph's System stock does not get reset on Wipes.
- The HUD warning "Lazarus Event Has Begun" does not get removed from some player's screen after a Wipe.
The next update will be on Friday the 20th July! We're at Develop conference next week, working on the game and showing it to as many people as possible, so we'll update the week after with tons of good stuff.
UPDATE 21 - TACTICS, CHALLENGE & DIFFICULTY
Update 21 is here and it's a BIG one. We're really excited to see what you all think of the honestly really pretty enormous changes we've made since last time. We're laying the groundwork for bringing the much-teased Wipe into the game, read on to find out more...
NEW:
DOCKING
is no longer allowed at Xenotaphs that are not owned by the player faction. Yup, that's right, the game just got a lot more interesting. No more quickly nipping in to an enemy base for a HP top up during a tough fight!
LAZARENE
is no longer awarded from Loot Crates. This is a big step towards our new progression and flow around the Wipe. A Lazarene pickup is now worth 25 Lazarene and has a good chance (30%) of spawning in multiples from any enemy or asteroid death. Loot Crates now only give you Systems and Skins (and of course duplicates of those). We're aware that this now means there are 'empty' slots in the Lazarene screen, and we'll be fixing that up to be much ncier in the near future.
DRONE SHOTS
have been made far more deadly, causing double the damage that they used to. This does not apply to Carriers, but does to every other enemy in the game. Watch out!
GLOB WALLS
now deal damage to anything that bumps into them. Less than an Asteroid does, but enough to make them something you have to consider now, rather than just window dressing.
CARRIERS
now have a chance to drop Lazarene on death.
CAMERA ZOOM
has been increased, the new maximum zoom is 350 units. It was at 200 before so you can see a lot farther away if you so choose.
The old zoom:
The new zoom:
TUTORIAL RADAR
elements are introduced with a lovely ceremony, so players can't miss all the useful pointers and HUD elements as they experience Lazarus for the first time.
SYSTEM & SHIP FIXES:
The biggest chunk of work this past fortnight has been around the Wipe. but because that's not ready, I bring you the second biggest... the player ships, systems, and all of the combinations of edge cases that we encountered. All of the following has been fixed, and it makes for a much stronger game:
- Swapping Ships would sometimes let you equip impossible combinations of Systems.
- Player's ship loadouts would be incorrectly saved between sessions under certain circumstances.
- Death would sometimes incorrectly set your ship and its loadouts for your next life.
- Dying in the default ship whilst any slots other than the Core slot were occupied meant that, until your next death, that slot would think it was occupied (preventing other systems from being equipped to it).
- The Main Menu used to get confused as a result of a lot of this, and would shows your last flown ship as the wrong one.
- Players are now given the correct error message if they try to equip a System and don't have enough MEV to do so. Previously they'd be told there was a 'failed server request'. Now it explicitly tells you to get more MEV :D
- If you undocked halfway through the process of equipping a System, the menu would potentially screw up next time you docked.
- Quitting the game grom the Esc menu whilst inside a Xenotaph would result in a player's ship being removed the next time they entered the game.
- If you died, the Systems you had equipped would be removed from the Shop you last visited, which made it really frustrating to get back to your favoured spec.
- Certain Systems (namely Rammer and Shield) would stay 'on' if you triggered them, then docked and swapped Ship. This allowed impossible combinations of Systems for players.
OTHER CHANGES & FIXES:
- Players could easily lose track of their cursor on the 'Ourobean' variant of the Welcome Screen. Now the game only ever shows the 'Ki' variant, which causes no such issues.
- Drop Rates have been tweaked again, with Loot Crates down to a 4% chance to spawn, and any Loot Crate having a 40% chance of giving a System (up from 10%). This work is still needing to be balanced as the removal of Lazarene from Loot Crates means that they are more valuable than ever (if what you care about is getting new guns). Currently the game is probably on the over-generous side of things, but we'd like to know what you think!
- The Map screen would disable all of the info toggles (players, fleets, carriers) and the Warp Jump buttons if you died. Now you can always rely on them working.
- Placing a turret in the capture zone of a territory whilst you were capturing it used to mean that you wouldn't get rewarded with a Loot Crate for your trouble.
- The Tech Menu used to freeze if you navigated to a System you hadn't unlocked, because the game wanted to display a duplicate token for it.
- Icons for both Loot Crates and Lazarene have been updated across the game in menus and the HUD, so no longer will you see a generic white Lazarus Eagle, or a placeholder asset, but rather something rather more appropriate.
- The Limpet Booster and the Repulsor now only have 1 upgrade level available on the Tech screen. We'll be adding the normal 10 levels at some point in the near future, but only when we can guarantee a high quality of implementation.
- The green 'waypoint' radar marker is now displayed closer to the player ship, which means it no longer obstructs your view of Enemy and Asteroid markers.
- The map no longer shows Fleet Routes by default. This was confusing new players a lot, and is just a bit messy anyway (until we address a bunch of stuff around fleets, that is).
- We've removed the 'manage' button in the Equip screen. It caused some headaches and we don't want it in there unless we know it's spot on. Hardly anyone used it anyway!
- We've changed the wording that warns you about swapping out a System when you're trying to equip a System to an occupied slot. Should be much clearer!
Next week's update will be (potentially) even more exciting. For reasons we will keep to ourselves right now. Why be secretive? Because Sod's Law dictates if we say anything, it'll all go horribly wrong. Till next week, enjoy!
WEEKLY UPDATE 20 - Lazarene!
Yet more updates for you to enjoy! And the headline this week is quite a big one for us, as it's a strong step towards the progression overhaul we've been working on behind the scenes for weeks and weeks. But first, more livestreams...
LIVESTREAMS
we're kicking off Season 2 of Squadron 500 tomorrow (Friday 8th June) at 4pm BST/8am PDT/11am EDT over on www.twitch.tv/spiltmilkstudios - come and join us! We're also streaming for 4 days in a row next week, all at that same time; Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday!
LAZARENE
this resource now drops from Asteroids as well as Enemies when you kill them. Pick it up, and then bank it before you die so you get to keep it! We've added a counter to your HUD too but it isn't on the Bank Summary screen yet. Worry not, it still all gets added up properly when you hit that big ol' button.
SHIP SWAPS COST LAZARENE
we've made sure choices are more important now - so swapping ships costs Lazarene. There's more Lazarene in the game now thanks to the drops detailed above, so that's something that will need balancing of course. We plan on adding a ‘confirmation’ dialog for the ship swapping, so you can check out each ship’s stats without automatically spending Lazarene, but that’s for another update.
DROP RATES
have had a balance pass. Enemies and Asteroids now have a 5% chance of spawning a Loot Crate, up from 2%. And then Loot Crates now have a 40% chance to give you a System, up from 10%. we're trying to be more generous, but also keep Loot Crates exciting when they drop, which will stop being cool if we increase things too far. It's a long process getting this stuff right!
GENERAL PERFORMANCE
we've spent a lot of time working on the game's performance on the backend over the past few weeks. What this means is that there are fewer errors, which means the servers are under less strain, and ultimately you should have a much smoother and less buggy experience playing.
THE MAP
no longer gets swamped by hundreds of Fleet Routes. We've done a lot of work to make Fleets behave, plus remove themselves under the correct circumstances... not only did it fix the map, it made the game perform better too!
THE MAP
only shows player icons for territories where players other than your are present. It did get a bit confusing :D
THE RADAR
is now able to show way more markers for Asteroid, enemies, and the like. No more surprise head-on collisions if you're paying attention! There should be 16 'roid markers on theradar in the image below :D
CARRIER SPAWNING CEREMONY
we've added the spawning line vfx, so it's much more obvious which enemies are coming from where!
CARRIERS
now spawn 3 loot crates on death, and all three count when you pick them up! Yay for rewards!
DAMAGE SPARKS
now correctly switch off when you dock and get healed up, this was a tiny visual thing that annoyed the crap out of all of us so we couldn't leave it for any longer.
LOADING ICON
is now a lot less wobbly. Another one that bugged us more than it bugged you, no doubt.
LOOT CRATE
now has a texture on its world model, so we're a lot happier with how it looks :D
5000 LOOT CRATES
used to be the message on your first login, but no longer! It no accurately reflects your total at any time, not just when you first dock.
KNOWN ISSUES:
- it is possible to equip systems in one ship, and then when you swap to a different ship, the systems can stay. So you can end up with configurations of ships and systems that shouldn't be allowed.
- all enemies spawn the same amount of Lazarene, this will be tweaked so bigger enemies give more of a reward soon.
So there we have it! We’re working on even more goodies for next week’s update - we’re not far from the Wipe being introduced fully with all of the progression rework that includes, but it won’t be arriving next week, that much I can say for sure! Tell us what you think about this week's update - and what you want to see in the next one - over on our Discord! (https://discord.gg/spiltmilk)
WEEKLY UPDATE 19 - Carriers & Livestreams!
A strong week interrupted a bit by GDPR shenanigans means we're not quite as jam packed as we'd have liked, but the improvements we've made are definitely worth your time!
LIVESTREAM
We're livestreaming the update once more tomorrow at 6pm BST/10am PDT/1pm EDT over on www.twitch.tv/spiltmilkstudios - come and join us! It's the finale of season 1 of our devstreams, stay tuned for more info on our season 2 plans!
CLOSED WEEKEND
go and get your friends to play with you - they can download Lazarus for free this weekend on Steam!
CARRIER KILL REWARDS
are now a ton more generous. We give you 3 Loot Crates and all the MEV you could ever want for killing a Carrier now! It used to be just Void... sad times.
CARRIER HP BAR
we've doubled its size to help readability. It used to be the same size as all the other ships, but this would tend to get lost in the madness.
DUPLICATE LAZARENE
is now increased! If you get a duplicate Common skin you'll get 50 Lazarene. Rare gets you 100, Epic 300, and a Legendary duplicate gets you 500 Lazarene.
UN-CAPTURABLE TERRITORIES
are a thing of the past (we think!). There was a weird error that caused the territory manager to get confused, and while it's hard to reproduce we think we fixed the root cause. Now you should never come across a territory that's uncapturable.
PLAYER MARKER ICONS
on the map now only draw when there's another player there. Turrets do not count towards this any more, but we're still fixing it so that you don't, either :D
TUTORIAL BUG
We fixed a nasty bug that meant when brand new players booted into the game it would sometimes not trigger the tutorial. You'd be left able to fly around and dock, but nothing else at all. It was no fun, so we fixed it!
FLEET ROUTES
used to draw on the screen when you exited a Xenotaph. Now they don't :D They should only ever draw while you've got them toggled 'on', and only ever on the fullscreen map.
TUTORIAL FIX
we've done some significant work to ensure that, if players die more than once during the 'territory capture' part of the tutorial, things get easier for them. Basically, we do a more detailed survey of the gameworld and then spawn them close to a territory that contains less of a threat, and ideally next to one that is not already claimed by a Drone factions.
KNOWN ISSUES:
CARRIER SPAWNING CEREMONY
we tried to add a nice line between the Carrier and what it is spawning, but we broke the small warp-in effect in the process. We'll fix that asap!
As ever we're still smashing away at the Wipe. Hang in there! Next week should be good too, but Monday is a Bank holiday here in the UK so another slightly less-than-full week lies ahead. Tell us what you think about this week's update - and what you want to see in the next one - over on our Discord! (https://discord.gg/spiltmilk)
