Minicology
[0.8.8.5] Darkness re-loaded, sounds and game feel
-Players no longer have a light radius. Nano-tools glow slightly, so you should still be able to see with them equipped! Working on some mid-late game weapons that glow, too - so this will be another factor in deciding equipment loadout in the future!
-New hit-sparks and hit-sounds for lots of weapons. Missed projectiles and melee swings will now give a small white hit-spark, while hits give a nice big orange one. Swords and spears have new, crunchy sounds for successful hits. Enemy's hurt sound radius is increased for player-inflicted damage, hopefully giving you some feedback on successful hits even when enemies are off-screen.
-Background graphics tweaked
-Equipment menu slots with equipment in them will now prompt item stats rather than slot name (no more need to un-equip your helmet to see its stats! yay!)
-Shotgun spread slightly modified
-Gun sounds improved
-Increased Warsword spin-attack radius
-Machine Gun reload cooldown increased
-Changed Jellyfish shock sound to differentiate from hand-crank and player-inflicted damage shock sounds
-Melee weapons no longer play 'hit terrain' sound if they have hit an enemy in the current swing (once again, the aim is to give distinct audio feedback for successful vs. unsuccessful hits)
[Streamer copy hotfix 0.8.8.1] Enemy bugfixes
- Fixed math error which caused enemies to sometimes spawn on top of player
- Fixed issue which improperly set Jellyfish spawn location during Fuel extractor event
- Fixed issue where killing one head of a cerberus-style invasive plant would cause other head's necks to disappear
[STREAMER COPY 0.8.8] Ambient enemies and Irrigation fixes
Heads up, I'm also looking into doing a waitlist-style closed beta at some point soon! Follow the steam page or hop on the Discord to keep up to date with the latest news and get alerted when this goes live.
Ambient Enemies
- Added three types of ambient enemies. You'll now encounter predatory "Invasive Plants" disguised as grasses, "Peblins" in the caves, and "Baby Jellyfish" just hangin' out!
- Added doors. They're not perfect yet! You can't place blocks on top of them as easily as I want you to, and enemies don't acknowledge them for pathfinding, but for now they serve their purpose: keeping those nasty jellyfish out of your house.
- Added the "peaceful transmitter" item. This item prevents ambient enemies from spawning in a 50-block radius, and is crafted with Rainbow Fragments.
Water and Irrigation fixes & changes:
There were TONS of issues with these in the last build! Sorry about that! I made some tweaks to these and forgot to put them on my test-list - so I didn't actually end up QA-ing anything, and boy, did it show. Your fixes are now live:
- Water pump now shows valid range for nearby water, and gives an invalid prompt when no water is present in range
- Raindrops have a more generous range for bucket catch
- Fixed issue with Rain Barrel not registering raindrop collisions
- Fixed issue with sprinkler displaying ' no power' signal when, in fact, no water was connected
- Fixed issue where sprinklers wouldn't save
- Fixed issue where sink pipes would display incorrectly
- Tweaked the 'Nimbus' ability for better handling
Visual changes:
- Added bloom for several types of projectiles & particles. Toggle-able in settings.
- New attack-blur animation
- Tiltshift is now 'On' by default.
Weapon rebalances:
- Buffed Nano-tool speed
- Buffed 'Starfall' abilitity
- Buffed E-corp pistol and Shrimplock pistol damage and speed
- Buffed shotgun pellet speed
- Significantly increased Nautilus fire resistance. Nautilus is no longer killable in 30 seconds with a flame drill or firebolt :(
- Meteors can now be broken with the nano-hammer and nano-pickaxe, not just weapons
Misc changes:
- Fixed issue where Coconuts could not be planted
- Fixed issue where closely stacked platforms would create an elevator effect
- Fixed issue where King Crab would continue to trigger damage even after his ground pound animation was completed
- Fixed issue where auto-turret component wouldn't init in starting planet chests
- Fixed issue where various clicking sounds would play on spaceship landing
- Tweaked several prompts for increased clarity
- Optimized blocky lighting slightly
- Fixed issue where toggling GPU mode while in caves left blocky lighting active
- Fixed a physics bug where standing inside of a raincloud as it spawned would rocket you into the upper atmosphere.
- Fixed issue where placement woperator abilities imroperly centered preview
- Fixed issue where players could trap themselves inside of blocks while towering
[Alpha 0.8.7.3] Rainbow hotfixes
-Fixed typo in rainbow event description
[Alpha 0.8.7.2] Hotfix & tweaks
-Tweaked event descriptions
-Event tags now 'queue' if there are no slots left for events to show - this prevents an issue where unlucky players would miss tutorial tags because too many other events were occurring when the tutorial triggered
-Added tutorial for gear structures
Bugfixes:
-Fixed issue where the 'Swing tools 25% faster' perk would actually make tools swing 25% slower
[PUBLIC ALPHA 0.8.7.1] Woperator Abilities, Crates, Turrets & more
One last update to the demo! Heads up that I'm going to pull the public alpha on December 1st while I get ready for the next Steam festival Minicology is eligible to participate in - the Steam Base Builder Fest on January 23rd. If you want to check out the demo before then, make sure to play it this week!
Major updates:
-Minicology now has an XP and perk system! Complete events, unlock chests, and defeat enemies in order to level up and select buffs to stats like fall resistance, max health, and hunger. Every 4 levels you'll also encounter a choice between two mutually exclusive Rare Perks - choose carefully!
-Added a new accessory type - different Woperator Modules can be found across the starter world and unlock abilities that can be used to interact with Minicology's environmental mechanics.
These abilities are free to use, but require XP to unlock and time to cooldown on use - some of them have features that allow you to speed up terraforming, while others will allow you to mine longer, see in the dark, or inflict damage to enemies!
Players with existing Minicology saves won't find the Woperators on the starting planet, but rather in Crates that show up on newly-generated planets. Start up your ship and find a yet-undiscovered planet to get your hands on these tools!
-Tools can now be upgraded using the unique minerals found on each planet! Should give some more utility to aquamarine/sunstone/celestite :)
-Added Auto-turrets. On new worlds you'll find an auto-turret component in the Power Chest, which might help you out with the Fuel Extractor's Jellyfish Invasion!
-Added crates. Crates spawn anywhere! Up in the sky, down in the caves, in ponds or on mountains. Open them up for free loot... but be careful, some might be trapped!
Minor changes:
-Added lots more sounds to UI and small interactions with the world. Different materials have new footstep sounds, and lots of sounds have been tweaked to be less repetitive!
-Some minor changes to the art for stone/dirt textures to make them a little more subtle and less noisy. Looks nice, I think!
-Tweaked irrigation. Sprinklers no longer require power. Pipes are now 30x for 3 ferrite ingots. Lowered Rain Barrel max water - the max used to be huge, and people would see empty water bars and assume they had no water - when in fact they had tons!
-Empty buckets can now be used to catch raindrops
-Pressing the "Force Item" key (defaults to ALT) now lets you place equipment and blocks in item frames
-Pestquitos now drop... something
-Removed Unobtanium from Chest loot pools. Modified recipes for endgame weapons to no longer require it. Should make some later-game gear a little bit easier to craft (it was a huge hassle before!)
-Updated tutorial prompts and event prompts. Tweaked when Event Tags shine
-Some crafting recipes that were 'organized' - required specific placement - are now freely placed
-Re-organized Research Menu to highlight important items
-Stunned enemies have a new animation
-Updated icons for many status effects
Bugfixes:
-Fixed softlock when a player would die with spaceship destroyed
-Fixed a bug where raindrops would fail to water the right plants
-Fixed a bug that would require ladder constructions
-Fixed a bug that would cause Jellyfish to teleport
-Fixed a bug with non-item tools (harvest, omnivore pickup, etc etc) that would cause the cursor to improperly display
[Alpha 0.8.6.2]
-Changed Thermal Shielding recipe to use Sunstone instead of Ruby
-Fixed issue with Nano-Hammer failing to destroy pipes
[Minicology alpha 0.8.6] Jellyfish invasions, Event Tag & Tutorial improvements
-Triggering the fuel extractor now starts an invasion event! Defend the fuel extractor while it runs to repair your ship!
-Added sound and animations to Event Tags
Minor changes:
-Star Shower event now triggers automatically. I'm trying to figure out exactly which events should be Woperator-triggered and which shouldn't - my generally feeling right now is that any event that can be dangerous should be woperator-controlled, while others (like rain or star showers) should trigger automatically. Let me know what you think!
-[C] is now a remappable key that can toggle the Power View on/off
-Shortened text & added progress indicators to several tutorial events
-Added additional crafting instructions for the Power Chest tutorial
-Added additional feedback to Terraforming chest tutorial
-Added additional instructions for assembling the fuel extractor
-Pipes are significantly cheaper
-Pipes can now properly be destroyed by hammers
-Fixed bug where exiting without saving would cause issues on load with minecarts, fuel extractors, and verticle gardens
-Fixed several issues where instances of Helper-bot hung around longer than necessary... Shoo!
-Fixed issue where nano-tool smart-selection would go crazy when moused over "finish planting" UI
-Fixed issue where cursor would fail to properly reset after harvesting tree seeds
Alpha Demo release - Nanotech & Woperator reveal
Nano-tools
If you've been watching Minicology, you've seen the Laser Drill - our old tool for destroying structures and blocks. The laser drill - while cool in concept - lacked a lot of the juice I really wanted for destroying and constructing things. It's now been replaced by the Nano-Tool, a high-tech tool that can morph into hammers, axes, pickaxes, trowels, and wrenches - all at the push of a button. Structures now require assembly, with larger structures taking a few extra seconds to wrench up and construct - while plants have to be manually planted for a little longer. This adds some meat to the everyday gameplay of Minicology and helps make the whole experience a TON more tactile - I'm pretty excited about it!
If you've been playing an old build, you'll keep your laser drill as an item, but your [Q] slot will be replaced by the Nano-tool. Use whichever you prefer!
Introducing the Woperator
The E-Corp Weather Operator (Woperator™) Device has been in the works for a little while now! It's a really fun new mechanic that gives players control of the weather of their current planet! You'll receive a prompt when a weather event or invasion becomes possible, and you'll be able to select whether or not to trigger it with the Woperator. In future updates, expect to be able to upgrade your Woperator to perform tasks like evaporating water, summoning meteors, and controlling storms! Lots of potential with this mechanic and I'm pretty excited for it :)
Fuel Extractor Mission
Minicology's tutorial covered the basics, but it lacked a little adventure! In the new tutorial, you'll not only be collecting fuel cells, but also assembling & operating the Fuel Extractor, a heavy-duty tool for fueling them up! This should provide a little more challenge and interest to the tutorial, and introduce the player to some key mechanics regarding powering & combining structures. I really wanted to add a climactic invasion while the Fuel Extractor charges, but I didn't get around to it - but maybe in a few days I'll have that figured out!
Changelog:
-Nano-tech tools can be used with [q] or [ctrl]. Added remappable key support for CTRL+hover
-Pests now despawn after a few minutes of existence. Should help prevent areas from becoming overrun.
-Starting chests now have the chance to spawn with flares
-Starting Power chest can now spawn with the Big Drill Item
-Starting Terraform chest can now spawn with the Craftsmen's Notebook
-Starting Terraform chest can now spawn with the Medium Backpack
-Chests now spawn with fuel extractor parts
-Ship no longer requires fuel once initially powered. This'll be changed in the future, but for now it's one less balance headache for me :)
-Structures now must be assembled before being used
-Plants must finish planting before they can grow
-New animations for damage & planting
-Woperator now triggers events
-Invasions now end if the player dies
-Comet event has been totally re-done, and now provides Ice Stones in addition to Bottled Ether
-Meteor event has been tweaked, and now provides Magma Stones in addition to Fire Essence
-Rainbow event has been tweaked, and now should probably place player on a safe platform on completion
-Crabs properly select farmland as invasion location
-Fixed issue where Helperbot would stay on screen for longer than he was welcome
-Added Helperbot dialogue on fuel extractor
[Closed Beta 0.8.3.2] Bugfixes 2: electric bugaloo
-Fixed issue where "recent recipes" would show up even when craftsman's notebook was not equipped