Story mode now has a lot more spare lives per run, but you get a score penalty each time you lose a life. You can therefore maximize your score by not dying.
Improvements
There is now a Graphics setting, "Minimize when focus lost", that can be disabled to keep the game window visible when you alt-tab away from the game.
The XP multiplier based on difficulty level has been removed, mainly to make Casual difficulty feel less like a punishment, and more like a valid choice.
Max co-op player count has been increased to 4.
Fixes
Fixed an issue where the Gun for Hire perk would apply and give you credits each time you respawn, instead of only at the end of each combat encounter.
Fixed the energy bridge in the main base in story chapter 1 so that it uses the updated visuals just like the other energy bridges.
*TLDR Story mode update
Background:
All the game modes in Rogue Shift have the same gameplay structure at their core: battle enemy waves of increasing intensity, while you rapidly unlock Psionic abilities, find weapons and apply upgrades during a single run. When the run is over (you are dead, or some victory condition has been reached), you get to post your high score, and repeat. Spanning multiple runs, you can level up your character over time and unlock permanent Perks for that character, regardless of which game mode you choose to play. Between waves of enemies, do some exploring and looting. Etc.
The point is, there is a core consistency between game modes, right down to the fact that you start "fresh", at the beginning, with each new run. This applies to playing (or re-playing) a Story Chapter or a chosen map in Final Stand or Escape modes.
Typically, playing a Story Chapter takes about the same time as playing a round of Final Stand, although the latter can actually take much, much longer if you are having a very good run :)
The issue:
Regardless of this consistent run-based system, a pattern started to emerge in feedback, discussions and some reviews: there was a sense of unfairness and frustration at starting a story chapter at the beginning when your run fails (death).
There are several reasons for this. One reason is that Story chapters offer much larger areas to explore, including discovering secrets and gaining access to optional areas locked behind security systems. When you play a chapter for the first or second time, there is a sense of discovery and exploration. But after dying 10 times without completing the chapter, "finding" the same areas and secrets can get a little old when combined with starting at the beginning of the chapter. Similarly, since there is an actual story and objectives to do, and these a linear, it's not the kind of thing you want to play 10 times in a row, especially if those attempts are all based on failing and just trying to finish a chapter.
This frustration caused players to quit.
The solution (experiment):
This is a bit tricky. Since story chapters follow the same run-based approach with a high score posting at the end of a run, one can't simply turn it into a classic story mode with persistent saves along the way (let alone the fact that it would be a crazy amount of effort to change the systems now).
After discussing many different options for solving this, I decided to experiment with a fairly simple change - depending on difficulty level, you get a lot more spare lives for each story chapter run - but, you get a penalty of -5000 score each time you die and respawn.
This means that there is a fair probability that a new player and a low-level character will reach the end of a story chapter after 1 to 2 attempts, but that a new player is likely to get a much layer score than someone who can get through a chapter without dying.
Healing now works the same way across all game modes.
You can buy or find Nano-Meds and keep them in your inventory in all modes.
You can see how many you have in the HUD, and use the indicated Heal button to use one to heal yourself.
The auto-heal feature still works before: a Nano-Med will automatically be used from you inventory to prevent a death-blow, but the healing amount will be reduced (penalty).
Inventory consistency
Your inventory and the inventory UI now works the same way across all game modes.
Your inventory now has limited space in Final Stand and Escape modes, just like Story mode. You can extend the capacity by buying Nano-storage items from the shop and via the Optimized Storage Perk.
Due the the changes in the healing system, the inventory across all modes is purely informational now. You cannot do anything there.
Balance
There were some discrepancies between the loot distribution settings for single-zone vs. multi-zone Final Stand maps. The settings have been tweaked up/down slightly so that they match for all maps.
Weapon "recoil" aim deviation over time is now more exaggerated so that there is a more noticeable difference between low accuracy weapons and high accuracy weapons.
Character aiming accuracy has been reduced overall, but the Combat stat boosts the accuracy more than before. This gives more of a noticeable distinction between a high-combat character and low-combat character's ability to aim accurately.
Changes
The "Auto" mods for Blast, Dome and Daze, will now activate even if your shield has taken the hit entirely without your health taking a hit.
The between-wave timer has been increased from 30 seconds to 45 seconds. You can of course still skip the countdown when you're ready for the next wave.
Fixes
Power Cells can now be bought in the shop in Final Stand mode to refill your shield, just like the other game modes.
Correctly reset the tutorial messages when you do a Reset Tutorial from the story mode menu.
Release Notes - v1.0.8 [Perks + balance + fixes]
New Perks
Sensible Saver - At the start of each wave, earn 5% interest on your Credits if your balance is below 3000 (Final Stand and Escape modes).
Gun For Hire - Earn 50 Credits at the end of each enemy wave.
Shop Hacker - Get a 5% discount at shops and a 5% chance to pay nothing at all.
Fixes
Fixed an issue with the traversable pipe in Story Chapter 3, which cause your character to get stuck if you attempted to interact with the far end of the pipe.
Fixed exploit - after initiating a reload, you could quickly swap to another weapon and back to avoid the reload delay.
Fixed a spelling error in the hint about co-op spare lives ("slive" -> "alive").
Balance
Weapon buff: Hammer (spread fire). It now fires 5 projectiles instead of 4. This gives it a DPS that is significantly higher than the Vengeance, and you get the same total damage out of one energy clip (400). Also, with the spread shot including 5 projectiles, there is now a central projectile that goes where you aim.
Improvements
Improved animated visual effect for energy bridges so that it doesn't look like terrible placeholder art.
Release Notes - v1.0.7 [small hotfix]
Fixed an issue where if you "stored" several Level-ups before finalizing (choosing Perks), the Perk selection would not properly randomize between each pick.
Release Notes - v1.0.6 [small hotfix]
Fixed an issue where some barrels would go underground (Final Stand mode, Research Facility map). This caused aiming to go crazy, with the character trying to aim straight down into the ground at certain locations.
Release Notes - v1.0.5 [QoL + fixes]
Improvements
Shift ability (a.k.a. blink) - you can no longer Shift into insta-kill destinations such as into lava, through a laser gate or off a cliff. It might still be possible to fall off a cliff if you Shift extremely close to the edge onto a steep slope.
XP progress toward your character's next level is now shown in the level bar - this applies to the HUD, the in-game character screen and the pre-game character select screen.
Ammo items (Ballistic Cartridge, Heavy Ballistic Cartridge, Energy Cartridge, Rockets, Fuel) now include a list of weapons to which they apply, shown in the first line of the description.
Sand Bugs (small enemies) will no longer avoid the Scorcher flames when they are close to you and you are spraying flames over their heads.
Weapon upgrades can now be done by clicking the upgrade tile (type/level), instead of first clicking the tile and then clicking a separate upgrade button.
Moved the shop terminal in the first zone of Edge of Doom (Final Stand and Escape modes) so that you don't accidentally run into the exit teleporter on your way to buy stuff at the end of the wave.
Balance
Pyro Perk - now renamed to Napalm - fire damage bonus is now 25% instead of 10%.
Fixes
In the weapon upgrades area (UI), now correctly changing the color of the upgrade status text, instead of the description text, based on the upgrade availability at each level/type.
RELEASE NOTES - v1.0.4
Improvements
Select from 4 random Perks when you level up, instead of 3.
Fixes
Fixed Perk randomization. It got stuck on the same set, so that after selecting your perk, the unchosen ones would appear again at the next level-up.
RELEASE NOTES - v1.0.3
Balance
For each run, Story mode now gives +2 spare lives for Hard, and +4 spare lives for Casual. Other modes are as before.
The Psionic Cell cost of Overdrive has been increased from 1,2,3 to 2,4,6 (Lv1, Lv2 and Lv3).
Improvements
Perk - "Daze Mod - Targeting". Now targets large enemies instead of small enemies, with a +3s time bonus.
Added a main menu hint (right-hand panel) explaining that you have infinite respawns in co-op, so long as someone is still alive.
Proxy Mine improvement It was tricky to avoid taking hits from your own mines in the heat of battle, so the following adjustments have been made:
Activation time (before trigger is possible) increased from 0.5s to 0.8s.
Trigger time (explosion delay after triggered) increased from 0.25s to 0.4s.
Fixes
Spelling mistake of Perk - "Orb Magent" -> "Orb Magnet".
RELEASE NOTES - v1.0.2
Improvements
Click once to unlock Psionics without having to first click the checkbox, then click the Unlock button.
Info description on the Psionics unlock screen to explain that Psionics are reset with each run.
Click once to purchase something in the shop, instead of selecting the item and then clicking the Purchase button.
Added Australia to the manually selectable co-op regions.
