Radio Free Europa
Update 0.9.8: Intro re-introduced
There are now 5 additional achievements for high scores, as it wasn't very common to reach the later stages of the game without getting at least 250,000,000 points. Additionally, the game should now check for each score threshold and not just the highest one reached at the end of a stage so it won't skip achievements.
The achievement for beating the first boss now works properly.
The projectile trails for the tachyon seekers for both the player and enemy ships have been re-implemented as GPU particles to prevent them from sometimes glitching and teleporting across the screen.
Update 0.9.7
It also enables the achievement for destroying the Deimos boss.
There are also a few balance changes, notably the Picard's maneuverability has been increased to make up for how fragile it is, and the damage on force grenades has been reduced to match force mines.
Fixed an issue where consumables would sometimes not fabricate but still use resources.
Fixed an issue where ship safety mechanisms could sometimes use a consumable that didn't exist.
Fixed behavior of heath pickups to be consistent with other pickups.
Update 0.9.6
Projectile collision was moved entirely to code from a mix of code and blueprint for performance.
Finally, it adds a new boss for the Deimos stage.
Only one more boss remaining!
Update 0.9.5
The most exciting upgrade, however, is that the game no longer uses auto-exposure (aka eye-adaptation) and instead I have tuned the exposure settings to be consistent throughout levels. This brings two major benefits: The first is that the background brightness setting now works as intended, as the auto exposure doesn't try to compensate for it anymore. The second and possibly most important benefit however is the performance one. Every ~200ms the auto exposure caused a ~24ms spike on the render thread which now that it has been eliminated allows for a MUCH smoother framerate. Averages will be similar, but the lows will be much higher than before and movement should feel much smoother. There are still some small frame time spikes occasionally that I'm going to try to eliminate but this was a big source of slowdown.
Much thanks to anyone reading this! The path to 1.0 is getting shorter daily. See you again soon in space!
Update 0.9.4
The first thing most pilots will notice, however, is the new mix of Iapetus Rising, the first boss music. It now feels much more at home after the first stage song.
There are also achievements now for beating each of the 7th stage bosses.
Some parts of the ending(s) have now been implemented for people who are able to complete the game.
Additionally there are some smaller updates:
- The achievement for unlocking the Ophiuchus now properly triggers when prerequisites are met.
- The way AoE damage is applied has been updated to be more consistent.
- Several levels have had slight visual tweaks to improve performance.
- Projectile collision issues on 7th MMC boss fixed.
- AI ships now collide with bosses on the main menu, same as a player would
- Fixed an issue where the level end music could start multiple times
Update 0.9.3
Now, when a boss spawns, you will automatically target it.
There have also been some small fixes to the minimap icons for the seventh stage bosses.
Update 0.9.2
Additionally, there is now controller vibration! I've tried to tune it to be useful and immersive but not overwhelming. I'd love to hear people's feedback as to how it feels.
There have also been some balance tweaks, and a bug was fixed where the hangar music could sometimes stop.
0.9.1
There is a small fix to ship textures to the Singularity Turret.
Fixed an issue that could cause performance loss or even a crash when a ship with beam weapons was destroyed.
Update 0.9
The path to 0.9 has been far more complicated than I would have ever expected and as such it has taken far longer than intended. The main cause of this was a huge amount of collision issues that arose once I started making more complex boss enemies with more connected parts. It took literal weeks of troubleshooting to figure everything out but in the process I managed to make the game run considerably more smoothly on the hardware I've been able to test it on.
The Demo has been updated as well to the new version of the game and it allows you to try the first half of the game in its current form. Three stages wasn't really enough to start to feel really powerful; stage 4 is where a build usually starts to come together.
Ok, on to the update!
Performance and collision updates: There have been numerous settings changes to ease the load on the rendering thread, including enabling a separate RHI thread, disabling occlusion culling (It was costing FAR more time than it saved in rendering time,) putting physics on an async thread, and creating simplified collision for any meshes that didn't have it. The way damage over time is applied was also changed to be more efficient, and many of the collision checks were streamlined to be more efficient as well.
Redone lighting:
Almost every level has had tweaks to the lighting to make things easier to see while also making the backgrounds more interesting and dynamic. Performance tweaks were also made to some of the heavier levels.
New Bosses: There are two new bosses for the L1 and Lunar sectors. I won't spoil them here, but they are massive and include mechanics unique to the specific encounter.
New Primary Weapon: Autocannon.
The Autocannon is essentially a rapid-firing tank cannon in space. It uses ammo instead of energy, and it fires with such force that the recoil can affect the momentum of the ship firing it!
New Countermeasures: Point Defense Beam
The Point Defense Beam automatically shoots down incoming explosives. It has a limited firing rate and range, so it can be overwhelmed by a large number of missiles at a time, but it is an extremely useful survival tool nonetheless.
New Secret Weapon:
It's a secret!
Weapon Mod Icons:
Weapon mods have unique icons so that it's easier to see what a modded weapon can do at a glance. Additionally, the mods are now browsable in the compendium.
Updated Boss Explosions:
The particles for larger ships that explode have been updated to include chunks of metal and a massive black cloud of soot that more properly reflects the amount of spaceship being blown up.
Chromatic Aberration at Low Energy:
In tandem with the bit-crusher effect on the music, there is now a chromatic aberration effect that intensifies as the ship gets low on energy. The video feed the player sees is from a camera drone that is launched from the ship at the beginning of a stage, so this represents the video feed losing coherence as the ship struggles to power itself.
Missile Sounds:
Missile weapons now make thruster noise while in flight. There may be no sound in space, but this helps spatial awareness of where missiles are in relation to your ship. Think of it like those EVs that make fake engine noises so people can get not run over. The ship makes them up as if you could hear sound in space.
Countermeasures update:
Ships can now have multiple countermeasures equipped at once, and there are separate indicators for the firing status of each installed system.
Rebalanced upgrades and weapon mods:
The biggest change with weapon mods is that the first instance of either the volley fire or burst fire property that is added to a weapon that didn't already have that property is less effective than it would be if the weapon already had that property. For example the volley enhancer adds +2 projectiles per volley to weapons that already fire in a volley, but only +1 projectile to a weapon that would normally only shoot a single projectile.
All of the upgrades and mods have had a balance pass though, with the goal of making decisions between them more interesting and making every upgrade useful in at least a few scenarios.
Enemy ship rebalance:
Many of the enemy ships have had weapons changed to change up the flow of combat encounters, especially MMC and Vanguard ships.
New UI sounds:
All of the menu navigation sounds have been tweaked to make a more satisfying menu experience
Map on End Game Screen:
There's now a map on the end game screen so you can see the route you took.
There are more small tweaks and updates than I could mention here. The last bits of the game are starting to come together, so expect more updates soon. Onwards to 1.0!
Update 0.8.4
There are a few notable balance updates as well, such as the fact that only one status effect can be applied per weapon. Upgrades can no longer add properties to a weapon that doesn't have them (e.g. volley enhancers can only apply to weapons that already fire a volley of projectiles) This is part of the upcoming 0.9 changes where weapons will be able to be customized even further in the fabrication menu. There are a few issues I am aware of that will be fixed in the very near future, but this update should hopefully fix any current issues that could potentially result in a crash.