nornware AB is happy to announce a new update to Space Beast Terror Fright.
Bugfix: Science Unfortunately the last update rolled out with a bug in mission-to-mission Science persistence, where teammates dying would erroneously reset Science so it did not carry over. This seemed only to happen in team games (not single player), but that was quite unfortunate as the meta-game effects of the new Science concept in multiplayer / co-op games needs to be assessed. This is now fixed.
Adjusting User Interface Look and Feel In agreement with some forum comments I felt quite strongly that the new loadout system really motivated switching most options in mission config screens to use drop lists instead of spinners, so I have overhauled most relevant options to use drop lists now.
In the process sort of stumbled into a bit of an overhaul of the look and feel of the user interface in general. Mainly it's about simplifying the button graphics and cleaning up the look of the font to no longer have a black outline. The use of glow has mostly been removed as well. I also dim non-interactive elements quite a bit when drop lists are open in order to focus the user's attention to the interactive elements.
I still feel like the front-end user interface has a bit too many colors (a problem that plagues Space Beast Terror Fright in general imho since the addition of Armories and Repairs), but still it's a move in the right direction. The new background image in the menus is me experimenting with digital paintovers, and this one just cracked me up too much not to use it... :)
While refactoring all the user interface code I stumbled onto a (in my opinion) nifty addition to the text scanning effect; now the text is garbled while scanning out. I feel this adds to the general glitchiness / low-tech feel that I'm shooting for.
As always, thank you for your support and patience.
/nornware AB c/o johno
nornware AB is happy to announce a new update to Space Beast Terror Fright.
Consolidation of Game Modes As has been hinted in the forums, I have completely removed / consolidated all concepts of "game modes" from Space Beast Terror Fright. The reasons for this are many, but the bottom line is that this makes it possible to optimize all aspects of the game for a single core experience and to finally move towards finishing the project. I am confident that the game is better as a whole due to these changes.
First of all, Deathmatch mode was always an experiment, and I felt that it would need a lot of work to approach anything resembling a finished state. Therefore I decided to cut it and save development resources in the interest of moving towards a final release.
Secondly, the introduction of Rescue mode saw quite a few changes to the feel of the game, and my take has been that most players agree that Rescue mode as it stands isn't as fun as Salvage mode. I also felt a very clear sense of "experience dilution" once Rescue mode was implemented, and this felt quite contrary to the brutal simplicity that I have always regarded as a core strength of SBTF.
Therefore my reasoning since Early Access Update 37 (July of 2017) has been to see if I could merge Rescue with Salvage somehow or otherwise drop the features of Rescue entirely. Happily I feel I have arrived at something that I view as the "pure" SBTF experience, which is a merge of Salvage and Rescue gameplay. As a result of all of this there is no longer the concept of a "rules" selection; you simply play SBTF in a single mode, with options remaining for things like difficulty, Astro-Creeps, Power Failure chance, etc.
Also following from this is the consolidation of all Plan algorithms; the new consolidated "game mode" has quite specific requirements to how maps / Plans must be laid out. The evolved algorithm is roughly based on the legacy "Corridors" with certain additions. Options remain for things like Doors, Sentries, Infestation, etc. This is also partly because I have always felt that the way the A.I. for Beasts works has been quite sensitive to the general layout of the map / Plan, and therefore I have chosen to optimize for a solid experience in all cases.
Pure SBTF / Science / Ammo Changes The new "pure" experience is in essence still "Salvage mode" but with a few twists. You still search for Datacores which give Upgrades, and once all have been downloaded you can access the Reactor Shields and overload the Coolants before making your escape back to the Airlock. What is new is the existence and function of Civilian Scientists in the space. Research labs are spawned as in legacy Rescue mode, but this time the Civilian Scientists have been smart enough to hide in "Panic Rooms" so that Beasts and Astro-Creeps can't get at them.
The player can now search for these Panic Rooms (which are incidently slightly camoflauged) in order to find and rescue Civilian Scientists. Once a Panic Room is found the player can open it by touching the door, which will open and thereafter stay open, releasing the Civilian Scientists into the map proper (of course Panic Rooms will not open if there is a power failure). Once the Civilian Scientist has been released the player must attempt to guide them back to the airlock, just as in legacy Rescue mode. The difference for doing this successfully is however the nature of the reward; rescued Civilian Scientists now count towards a team-wide "Science" score (+1 per rescue) which like Upgrades will carry over between missions if any team member survives.
Note that rescuing Civilian Scientists is completely optional (as it in effect was in legacy Rescue mode), but increasing your team Science score has profound (and immediate) effects on gameplay, namely relating to ammo:
Each Science level will increase Armory reload rate by 5 rounds per load interval. This will continue to increase up to a maximum rate of 500 (effectively reloading an entire Armory at once).
At Science level 4, all ammo will be magenta (medium).
At Science level 8, all ammo will be blue (heavy).
At Science level 12, all ammo will be green (javlar). No I don't know what to call the green ammo... :P
Obviously this is a relatively radical change to the controversial ammo design that has plagued SBTF for some time. The intent is both to remove the tendency of players to dump low-tier ammo to make room for better as well as find a practical (game-)mechanical use for keeping Civilian Scientists / Rescue gameplay in the game.
In balancing and tweaking these changes the following changes been made to ammo type damage (which have always been of the formula base + random extra):
orange / light: was 1 -> 3, now 2 -> 3
magenta / medium: was 2 -> 4, now 2 -> 4
blue / heavy: was 3 -> 6, now 3 -> 5
green / javlar: was 5 -> 9, now 4 -> 7
Through extensive testing it has seemed best to compress the total range a bit; orange is stronger than before, while blue and green are weaker than before. A big practical change is that the player effectively starts with a stronger weapon than before, as orange / light ammo is base damage 2 instead of 1.
Ammo capacities have also changed:
level 0: was 500, now 500
level 1: was 750, now 600
level 2: was 1000, now 700
level 3: was 1250, now 800
level 4: was 1500, now 900
The player will now also start with full ammo; 500 instead of 400.
Changes have been made to Motion Tracker upgrades:
level 0: Distance (to 10 meters)
level 1: Short range visual blips on tracker (to 10 meters). Threats are white, Civilians (when moving) are HUD color.
level 2: Long range blips on tracker (entire map). Threats are white, Civilians (when moving) are HUD color.
level 3: Civilians show up at all times, both when static and moving.
Note also that Panic Rooms are never visible on Plan previews, so Civilian Scientists are truly secrets / bonuses until you have attained Motion Tracker level 3. Panic Room doors cannot be broken by Beasts.
In support of Science the following has also changed:
DNA screens have been removed.
All doors, including lab doors, are now breakable by Beasts (except for the Airlock door).
Lab doors are now randomly open or closed at mission start, just like normal doors.
Team Science score is displayed in Mission Config screens.
The on-weapon ammo display has been updated to show reload rate, ammo type, current ammo, and ammo capacity all at once.
Low ammo warning (when the beeping starts) lowered from 250 to 200.
Weapon Loadouts Another problem that has been discussed at length in the forums is the usefulness of the various weapons in the game. After much thought it is my theory that the major deciding factor was the fact that the player only had access to a single weapon for the duration of a mission. As a result of this, every weapon basically needs to be the same (as the Rifle) in every respect in order to be as efficient (as the Rifle).
In the interest of having the already implemented alternate weapons see more use I have decided to implement a kind of "loadout" design; the player may choose any 2 of the 5 existing weapons for a given mission and can switch between them at any time (TAB on keyboard, X on gamepad). It is my hope that many new interesting strategies will arise from this change. Personally I am very happy with the ability to carry both a Rifle and Shotgun at the same time, but combos like Rifle + Hammer4x are also quite interesting. Available permutations are:
Rifle + Shotgun
Rifle + Razor
Rifle + Hammer2x
Rifle + Hammer4x
Shotgun + Razor
Shotgun + Hammer2x
Shotgun + Hammer4x
Razor + Hammer2x
Razor + Hammer4x
Hammer2x + Hammer4x
Miscellaneous
See help screen for revised button bindings as a result of adding weapon switching.
Fixed problem with Randomize All that wasn't allowing for full range of door and fence chances.
Changed Randomize All so that there is a 25% chance of Power state starting disabled (was previously 50%).
Cassette version has been bumped to removal of game modes; existing replays will not be playable.
Work in Progress: I have implemented slightly more verbose status information when launching a mission (local mode only).
Fixed crash that could happen when firing a Shotgun with low ammo (underflow).
Motion tracker detection will now always give base Adrenaline (even when Tracker system is damaged).
Broken electronics systems will now randomly blink / glitch in the interest of being more clearly damaged (as opposed to just being off).
Fixed bug where view would still bob when in escape menu (local mode only).
All leaderboards are disabled for the moment, pending full removal of single mission leaderboards in favour of some kind of campaign feature.
As always, thank you for your support and patience.
/nornware AB c/o johno
The Beast Is Back / Early Access Update 38 coming May 23, 2018
The Beast Is Back / Early Access Update 38 coming May 23, 2018
nornware AB is happy to announce the return to full time development on Space Beast Terror Fright.
As many of you have noticed, almost 10 months have passed since Space Beast Terror Fright was last updated. The real world intervened, and for almost 2 years I (johno) haven't been able to work on the game for more than a few hours a week, but I am now back to working full time with nornware and Space Beast Terror Fright development. My immediate goal is to get back to pushing updates roughly once every 2 weeks, aiming to get the game to a final release state as soon as possible.
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank my small but faithful community for all your support since SBTF was launched in Early Access in April of 2015. The game has come a long way from humble origins, with many features a direct result of user feedback. I couldn't have done this without you, and I'm happy to be able to get back to making this game as good as it can be in a full time capacity.
Early Access Update 38 is complete and in final testing, so I am going to include my first draft of the coming announcement below (which should be complete barring any serious bugs). I hope to see you all soon online!
/nornware AB c/o johno
Early Access Update 38 - Feature Preview
Consolidation of Game Modes As has been hinted in the forums, I have completely removed / consolidated all concepts of "game modes" from Space Beast Terror Fright. The reasons for this are many, but the bottom line is that this makes it possible to optimize all aspects of the game for a single core experience and to finally move towards finishing the project. I am confident that the game is better as a whole due to these changes.
First of all, Deathmatch mode was always an experiment, and I felt that it would need a lot of work to approach anything resembling a finished state. Therefore I decided to cut it and save development resources in the interest of moving towards a final release.
Secondly, the introduction of Rescue mode saw quite a few changes to the feel of the game, and my take has been that most players agree that Rescue mode as it stands isn't as fun as Salvage mode. I also felt a very clear sense of "experience dilution" once Rescue mode was implemented, and this felt quite contrary to the brutal simplicity that I have always regarded as a core strength of SBTF.
Therefore my reasoning since Early Access Update 37 (July of 2017) has been to see if I could merge Rescue with Salvage somehow or otherwise drop the features of Rescue entirely. Happily I feel I have arrived at something that I view as the "pure" SBTF experience, which is a merge of Salvage and Rescue gameplay. As a result of all of this there is no longer the concept of a "rules" selection; you simply play SBTF in a single mode, with options remaining for things like difficulty, Astro-Creeps, Power Failure chance, etc.
Also following from this is the consolidation of all Plan algorithms; the new consolidated "game mode" has quite specific requirements to how maps / Plans must be laid out. The evolved algorithm is roughly based on the legacy "Corridors" with certain additions. Options remain for things like Doors, Sentries, Infestation, etc. This is also partly because I have always felt that the way the A.I. for Beasts works has been quite sensitive to the general layout of the map / Plan, and therefore I have chosen to optimize for a solid experience in all cases.
Pure SBTF / Science / Ammo Changes The new "pure" experience is in essence still "Salvage mode" but with a few twists. You still search for Datacores which give Upgrades, and once all have been downloaded you can access the Reactor Shields and overload the Coolants before making your escape back to the Airlock. What is new is the existence and function of Civilian Scientists in the space. Research labs are spawned as in legacy Rescue mode, but this time the Civilian Scientists have been smart enough to hide in "Panic Rooms" so that Beasts and Astro-Creeps can't get at them.
The player can now search for these Panic Rooms (which are incidently slightly camoflauged) in order to find and rescue Civilian Scientists. Once a Panic Room is found the player can open it by touching the door, which will open and thereafter stay open, releasing the Civilian Scientists into the map proper (of course Panic Rooms will not open if there is a power failure). Once the Civilian Scientist has been released the player must attempt to guide them back to the airlock, just as in legacy Rescue mode. The difference for doing this successfully is however the nature of the reward; rescued Civilian Scientists now count towards a team-wide "Science" score (+1 per rescue) which like Upgrades will carry over between missions if any team member survives.
Note that rescuing Civilian Scientists is completely optional (as it in effect was in legacy Rescue mode), but increasing your team Science score has profound (and immediate) effects on gameplay, namely relating to ammo:
Each Science level will increase Armory reload rate by 5 rounds per load interval. This will continue to increase up to a maximum rate of 500 (effectively reloading an entire Armory at once).
At Science level 4, all ammo will be magenta (medium).
At Science level 8, all ammo will be blue (heavy).
At Science level 12, all ammo will be green (javlar). No I don't know what to call the green ammo... :P
Obviously this is a relatively radical change to the controversial ammo design that has plagued SBTF for some time. The intent is both to remove the tendency of players to dump low-tier ammo to make room for better as well as find a practical (game-)mechanical use for keeping Civilian Scientists / Rescue gameplay in the game.
In balancing and tweaking these changes the following changes been made to ammo type damage (which have always been of the formula base + random extra):
orange / light: was 1 -> 3, now 2 -> 3
magenta / medium: was 2 -> 4, now 2 -> 4
blue / heavy: was 3 -> 6, now 3 -> 5
green / javlar: was 5 -> 9, now 4 -> 7
Through extensive testing it has seemed best to compress the total range a bit; orange is stronger than before, while blue and green are weaker than before. A big practical change is that the player effectively starts with a stronger weapon than before, as orange / light ammo is base damage 2 instead of 1.
Ammo capacities have also changed:
level 0: was 500, now 500
level 1: was 750, now 600
level 2: was 1000, now 700
level 3: was 1250, now 800
level 4: was 1500, now 900
The player will now also start with full ammo; 500 instead of 400.
Changes have been made to Motion Tracker upgrades:
level 0: Distance (to 10 meters)
level 1: Short range visual blips on tracker (to 10 meters). Threats are white, Civilians (when moving) are HUD color.
level 2: Long range blips on tracker (entire map). Threats are white, Civilians (when moving) are HUD color.
level 3: Civilians show up at all times, both when static and moving.
Note also that Panic Rooms are never visible on Plan previews, so Civilian Scientists are truly secrets / bonuses until you have attained Motion Tracker level 3. Panic Room doors cannot be broken by Beasts.
In support of Science the following has also changed:
DNA screens have been removed.
All doors, including lab doors, are now breakable by Beasts (except for the Airlock door).
Lab doors are now randomly open or closed at mission start, just like normal doors.
Team Science score is displayed in Mission Config screens.
The on-weapon ammo display has been updated to show reload rate, ammo type, current ammo, and ammo capacity all at once.
Low ammo warning (when the beeping starts) lowered from 250 to 200.
Weapon Loadouts Another problem that has been discussed at length in the forums is the usefulness of the various weapons in the game. After much thought it is my theory that the major deciding factor was the fact that the player only had access to a single weapon for the duration of a mission. As a result of this, every weapon basically needs to be the same (as the Rifle) in every respect in order to be as efficient (as the Rifle).
In the interest of having the already implemented alternate weapons see more use I have decided to implement a kind of "loadout" design; the player may choose any 2 of the 5 existing weapons for a given mission and can switch between them at any time (TAB on keyboard, X on gamepad). It is my hope that many new interesting strategies will arise from this change. Personally I am very happy with the ability to carry both a Rifle and Shotgun at the same time, but combos like Rifle + Hammer4x are also quite interesting. Available permutations are:
Rifle + Shotgun
Rifle + Razor
Rifle + Hammer2x
Rifle + Hammer4x
Shotgun + Razor
Shotgun + Hammer2x
Shotgun + Hammer4x
Razor + Hammer2x
Razor + Hammer4x
Hammer2x + Hammer4x
Miscellaneous
See help screen for revised button bindings as a result of adding weapon switching.
Fixed problem with Randomize All that wasn't allowing for full range of door and fence chances.
Changed Randomize All so that there is a 25% chance of Power state starting disabled (was previously 50%).
Cassette version has been bumped to removal of game modes; existing replays will not be playable.
Work in Progress: I have implemented slightly more verbose status information when launching a mission (local mode only).
Fixed crash that could happen when firing a Shotgun with low ammo (underflow).
Motion tracker detection will now always give base Adrenaline (even when Tracker system is damaged).
Broken electronics systems will now randomly blink / glitch in the interest of being more clearly damaged (as opposed to just being off).
Fixed bug where view would still bob when in escape menu (local mode only).
All leaderboards are disabled for the moment, pending full removal of single mission leaderboards in favour of some kind of campaign feature.
As always, thank you for your support and patience.
/nornware AB c/o johno
nornware AB is happy to announce a new update to Space Beast Terror Fright.
UPDATE: A new build has been deployed that solves issues with the gui not being responsive when trying to join multiplayer parties.
User File Security and Validation Note that all user files output by Space Beast Terror Fright will always reside in the following directory: C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\nornware\sbtf
Work has been done to minimize program crashes and lock-ups due to invalid user files. In general much more care is taken to validate file formats and making sure that settings values that are actually used by the game are within reasonable ranges. In particular, all settings will be reset to defaults if they are outside valid ranges.
Lazy Loading of Obituaries In cases where the number of fallen characters on disk is very large (several thousand) it was found that the game locked up and / or crashed as it took significant time to parse this information (dead.txt).
The game now parses obituaries in batches, and in cases where you have very many fallen characters you will see the game noting progress of this process before the obituary list is displayed. Note that this file is updated on disk whenever a character dies, and is reloaded every time the user accesses the main page of the game menus.
The game should also be robust to corrupt data in the obituaries file, simply noting that parsing has failed. This is not a problem, as in this case the file will be completely overwritten with a fresh version the next time a character falls. Alternatively the user may take steps to manually correct the file contents (as the path is noted in the user interface).
User Interface Layout / Scaling In response to problems with desktops that aren't 16:9 aspect ratio, all front end user interface layouts have been adjusted to align better with screen edges in those cases that are applicable. Layouts are no longer based on factors of screen height as was previously the case, and should in general be more stable regardless of resolution.
In addition, there is now an option slider that allows the user to scale the entire user interface down to a lower limit of half original size. This is primarily intended to make the existing layouts work with 4:3 and similar aspect ratios, but other users may find it preferable to scale the user interface as well. Note that these settings do not affect in-helmet HUD text displays.
While scaling the gui is not a perfect solution for 4:3 aspect ratios, I hope it is a sufficient stop gap that will allow more players to enjoy the game.
Miscellaneous
Slider elements are now blue instead of white to better match buttons and other clickable elements.
Button clicks will now more properly only register if the user clicks down and releases on the same button.
Upgrade icons in the obituaries list now properly fade in and out along with text elements.
The game now has an experimental new splash screen, my very first digital paintover! :)
As always, thank you for your support and patience.
/nornware AB c/o johno
nornware AB is happy to announce a new update to Space Beast Terror Fright.
Mission of the Day There is now a dedicated button in the main menu for playing the "Mission of the Day". This mission will be new and unique every day (unix time / 86400) and uses default settings (Salvage/Randomize All). Time remaining until the mission changes is also displayed. When you play this mission you will always get a new character independent of your other local characters.
I personally find it interesting and motivating psychologically to try to beat this arbitrary challenge within 24 hours. While not implemented yet, I envision using the Steam leaderboards in a new way to log the number of attempts each player takes to beat the Mission of the Day, with the lowest attempt count being the winner. In the case of ties, I think unix time will have to be the tie breaker, with the player that completes the mission first being the winner.
If this mechanic proves interesting I expect it will provide the basis for things like Campaign of the Week.
Miscellaneous
Reticle Scale: A new option slider allows the user to scale the aiming reticle. This replaces the previous option for showing/hiding the reticle, as the lowest slider setting will remove the reticle altogether (including the aim assist text).
Master Volume: A new option slider allows the user to control the overall volume of the audio mix.
Increased Slider Resolution: All options sliders now have twice the previous resolution.
Breach / Door Break Effects: Breaches and Doors breaking now use the same effects, now with more flare particles.
Adjusted sound effect falloff ranges and more appropriate audio emitter positions.
Gibs now use the PVS (Potentially Visible Set) information to significantly reduce the CPU load for determining which gib meshes to generate each frame.
BUGFIX: Fixed bug where room options in Mazes were displayed wrong.
BUGFIX: Fixed hud showing FLT_MAX distance to civilian.
Known Issues
No Leaderboard Entries for Mission of the Day: As mentioned, leaderboards for Mission of the Day are not (yet) implemented. The mission outcome screen uses the same code path as usual, but since no scores are posted to the backend the mission outcome screen will show no personal score and no entries in the leaderboards.
As always, thank you for your support and patience.
/nornware AB c/o johno
nornware AB is happy to announce a new update to Space Beast Terror Fright.
As mentioned in the previous update announcement, I am going to be proceeding by updating the game in much smaller increments and more often.
Rescue Mode - Lab Style An option has been added to Rescue Mode called Lab Style, which controls some aspects of map generation in Rescue Mode.
Style A is the previously released (Update 34) version:
Lab networks are protected by indestructible doors that automatically close when no human is near.
DNA-screens are placed at the connecting passageway between labs, which only allow non-alien objects to pass (humans and projectiles).
Breaches may sometimes occur inside of labs (even when Random Breaches is off).
Style B is the new version:
Lab networks are protected by normal (destructible) doors, but they will always be closed initially, thereby hindering Beast and Creep line of sight into the lab networks. These doors will not auto-close.
Normal (destructible) doors are placed at the connecting passageway between labs, and these doors will spawn with a 50% chance of being open (the same rules as for all other doors).
Breaches will never occur inside of labs (unless Random Breaches is on).
Initial tests with these small changes feel like they result in a bit more varied gameplay. Beasts can still penetrate lab networks, but in a more classic / natural way. There is also more protection against Beasts within labs because if the doors inside.
Ultimately Style B rules have more player choice and responsibility involved as opposed to Style A rules. Please experiment with Lab Style B and let me know what you think in the forums.
Miscellaneous
Distance to civilian displayed in the HUD is now to the nearest civilian who is not directly following a player or running to the airlock.
Random Breaches now properly spawn in labs.
The ASSIST text is now properly removed (like the reticle) in the HUD when there is an interaction message displayed.
As always, thank you for your support and patience.
/nornware AB c/o johno
nornware AB is happy to announce a new update to Space Beast Terror Fright.
First of all I'd like to apologize for the amount of time that has passed since the last update and thank everyone for all their support during this period. In response to my current reduced capacity to do SBTF development I am going to try smaller (feature-wise) but more frequest updates moving forward.
Rescue Mode Finally it is here, the first public release of the new Rescue game mode!
The idea is similar to Salvage mode in that you are tasked with going into a derelict spacecraft to retrieve something, but in Rescue mode the prize is a number of civilian scientists that are trapped in the infested ship. The twist is that unlike the Datacores in Salvage mode these Civilians need to be escorted back to the Airlock in order to complete the mission. Successfully doing this will award the player(s) with upgrades in the same manner as Datacores do in Salvage mode, and the mission is completed when all Civilians are rescued or dead and all surviving players have retreated to the Airlock.
Rescue mode is based on new map generation algorithms that generate Labs throughout the map (lore: where scientists work on questionable experiments...). These Labs are protected by heavy doors that work similarly to the Airlock door in that they cannot be destroyed by Space Beasts and also will automatically close as a security measure. The player must extract Civilians from these labs and manually guide them back to the Airlock.
In Rescue mode your tracker is upgraded to show both the distance to the nearest Civilian as well as the distance to the Airlock at all times. It also displays motion blips for Civilians in a similar way to the motion tracker upgrade, with the difference that Civilians are shown in your current hud / player color (threats are still shown in white as before).
For security reasons Labs are equipped with DNA-screens per room that only allow human DNA to pass. This is part of company containment protocols and works quite well to contain botched biological experiments, at least as long there aren't any power failures... :) Considering that Labs are equipped with said DNA-screens and isolated from the rest of the ship by heavy doors they constitute relatively safe spaces in the scheme of things, but they completely lack utilities such as Armories, Sentries and Repair stations.
Civilians themselves are quite a nervous bunch, and to are subject to panic attacks when Space Beasts get too near, so beware of them getting in your line of fire and in general being a pain to manage. Also they are very fragile and don't take weapons fire or contact with Space Beasts very well. For some reason Astro-Creeps don't attach to Civilians, but that doesn't make Civilians fear them any less... :)
What I've seen emerging is interesting player choice concerning whether or not to rescue Civilians a few at a time or many at a time. A whole bunch of Civilians being rescued at once results in a huge boost of player power in a very short time, so I'm curious as to how this will feel in team games. I'm sure that players will figure out strategies where some players act as defense while others act as escorts.
I am quite happy that Rescue mode as it currently stands embodies the chaos that I originally envisioned. Things can either be very calm or very intense, and even when you think you are in control things can turn on a dime and get very messy very fast. Of course all of this has numerous rough edges since it is such a major addition to all systems in the game, but I expect to iterate on all aspects of it moving forward in response to player feedback.
Miscellaneous
The game is now built against Steamworks SDK 1.40.
Updated mouse/key interaction prompts to say "LMB" / "RMB" instead of "left-click" / "right-click".
It is now possible to recharge your battery from any Breaker by standing near it an holding RMB / A. Recharge speed depends on the level of your Battery Upgrade. This feature still needs more audio, prompts, and icon feedback.
Fixed bad map flag data which was causing a Fence in some cases where there should have been a Breach.
Grayscale is now the default infravision style.
Added check for object overflow in map generation (Fences, Doors, Cores). Bad maps will simply be re-rolled.
Optimized path map storage.
Fixed missing normals in smoke vertices; this was causing some smoke particles to look strange.
Fixed blood drip normals; this was causing some drips to flash white.
All mesh generation now uses optimized vertex maps to increase speed of vertex re-use checks.
Refactored infestation generation.
Light baking is now revision based, and all power outage / restoration audio is driven by this. This solves issues in multiplayer where events didn't correctly update lighting.
Deathmatch map generation is now fixed so that there are always Breakers available in case of power outages.
The "last mission" button now reads "last outcome".
Removed redundant sound system update.
Consolidated mission log audio; all log events now make a sound.
Removed redundant Sentry texture from memory.
Known Issues
Civilians can suffer from animation stuttering when pinned between threats and points of interest. This requires changes to the animation system to allow for smooth blending between animation states.
Battery recharging on Breakers needs more needs audio, interaction prompts, icons, etc.
The Library may crash if you have legacy .sbtf.cassette files. If so you can delete all .sbtf.cassette files from: C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\nornware\sbtf
As always, thank you for your support and patience.
/nornware AB c/o johno
nornware AB is happy to announce a new update to Space Beast Terror Fright.
Continued Development I apologize for the length of time that has passed since the last update, but real life intervened and kept me from working on nornware and Space Beast Terror Fright for a number of months. This update however marks an increase in development pace again.
For the most part changes in this update are behind the scenes and related to general code base refactoring and performance boosts, but in the interest of getting back to continuous deployment it is important that everyone is running the latest version so I can more confidently make changes to the game moving forward.
Randomize All I have implemented experimental support for a new Randomize All seed setting. This is partly in response to community request to introduce more variation and chance to the game.
With Randomize All selected the mission seed itself is of course randomized, but also all other options with the exception of the Rules setting (Salvage or Deathmatch). This means that you never know what style of map you are getting, whether there are Doors / Fences / Sentries, room styles, etc (Plan settings).
Perhaps even more interesting is the addition of mutating Rules while in-mission. Every 20 seconds all active Rules settings will randomly shift, which means that difficulty (spawn rates) will change on the fly, Breaches may spawn randomly or at the ends of corridors (or both), and Power Failures have an ever changing chance of happening.
While in Basic Party Config there is now a toggle to switch between Random (the previous default Seed setting) and Randomize All. Relevant user interfaces in the Advanced Party Config screen are disabled when Randomize All is selected, and this is also still the place to set up an Explicit Seed.
Randomize All is now the default setting, and I hope that this addition will make the game feel even more varied and unpredictable. I have certainly found myself in very interesting situations while playtesting this new feature, and considering that I almost always played with default settings (Random Seed / Corridors Plan with default settings) I'm seeing much more of my own game than I usually do. :)
Shotgun Experiment I'm experimenting with the Shotgun not having ammo type fire rate penalties, meaning that no matter what ammo type is being fired the fire rate is that of the lowest ammo type (orange).
This balances out the experience of using the Shotgun somewhat, letting you time your shots better, and effectively gives it a much higher damage per second than any of the other weapons.
I have also changed the number of rounds fired from 6 back to the original 8, which means that the fire rate is slightly slower than before, but with more damage output. Again, the Shotgun will always fire at the same rate, no matter the ammo type.
Change to Mazes The Mazes algorithm (Plan) has been revised to have an outer ring of corridors, in order to improve the flow of enemies through the space. You still get lots of mazey goodness and size, but the general experience is less static. This should also help to solve problems with players not having enough time to get from the Reactor to the Airlock in certain Mazes.
Changes to Breaches (aesthetic) I have put some work into the (previously non-existent) visual effects when a Breach spawns; a big burst of sparks and smoke.
Live breaches will now emit a single spark 10 times a second rather than 16 every second, making them slightly more visible. They will however no longer emit sparks when a Power Failure is happening, which can be dangerous.
The cables hanging out of the Breach mesh are now also more colorful. These catch the light better and give better visuals cue to the existence of Breaches.
Miscellaneous
Font textures are now power-of-two in order to increase compatibility with certain GPUs.
More musical themes have been added, many of which are still works in progress, but I thought it would be fun to have the variation.
Fences now reflect bullets in ALL cases when the bullet has energy remaining. This makes them more dangerous to Players, as Fences that are behind your target will reflect any stray shots back your way.
Steam Overlay Fix: All user input is disabled for 0.5 seconds after the Steam Overlay is closed. This is intended to fix input crosstalk.
Uniform Speed option has been removed, which means that players always move slower when moving sideways and slowest when moving backwards. This was the previous default setting.
Direct3D effect parameter handles have all been cached, improving performance across the board.
The Cassette format has changed to include integrity hashing every 256 ticks (roughly 4 seconds). This is intended to make sure that replays either properly play back a mission or otherwise break visibly.
The reactor overload klaxon is now disabled when the escape menu is active.
The space shader (outside the windows) now works properly when Infravision is active.
Emit textures now properly modulate when Infravision is active.
Infravision now properly shows heat in prop models.
Tech sections in Plan are now generated before reachability checks. This fixes unreachable areas.
Fixed Aim Assist and Pathfinder icons. Also reorded icons and text in the helmet HUD.
Fixed bug in reading upgrades for obituary list, and also added Map upgrade icons to obituary list.
Fixed crosstalk between player pulse trackers (each player now has their own state).
There are now explicit buttons for creating Public and Friends only parties, for clarity. It is still possible to change the public / friends state of a party at any time.
Known Issues
"In Memoriam" list may show broken entries for legacy characters. This is because the data format has changed. You can fix this if you like by deleting this file: C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\nornware\sbtf\dead.txt
Deathmatch may be broken when Power Start is set to "off", as certain permutations will result in no Breakers being generated.
Restoring Power via a Breaker will sometimes not correctly update lighting in networked play.
As always, thank you for your support and patience.
/nornware AB c/o johno
nornware AB is happy to announce a new update to Space Beast Terror Fright.
Cassette Version Bump / breaking changes in replays I have been doing heavy refactoring and optimization across my entire codebase, and as a result existing replays / Cassettes will NOT function anymore. This is most likely due to changes in vector rotation code that has been optimized to use single precision floating point instead of double precision, but this is just speculation on my part. Also I refactored some dubious vector code that was being optimized away in certain cases by the compiler, which also caused breaking behaviour between debug and release builds.
As ANY future simulation / game rule changes will invalidate existing replays it is better that everyone simply get used to the fact that replays / Cassettes may break on any update. If you have a Cassette that you absolutely want to save I would recommend recording a video of it (for example using nVidia ShadowPlay or Fraps).
Also I am suspecting some inconsistencies in replays that are very very hard to effectively test. I don't currently have the toolset in place to test this algorithmically, but I have a good handle on how to build such tools with (certain hashing techniques). With those in place I will be able to determine exactly whether or not replays are solid. As replays are very much the same thing as the network protocol this will also aid in making sure that everything is solid for networked multiplayer games.
Library Updates The Library interface has been greatly improved to better aid browsing among the enormous number of Cassettes that tend to aggregate after playing many matches. Sort order is now newest first, there are headers per day, time of day information for each Cassette, as well as the mission config string that was there before.
Now you must first select the Cassette you want, and at that time you will get a "play" and a "delete" button. Versions are taken into account, so old Cassettes will show up (so you can delete time) but be unplayable. If you choose to delete any Cassette you will be prompted for confirmation.
New Motion Tracker Style - Pulse In response to community feedback on the Motion Tracker being too powerful, I have implemented a new style of tracker called Pulse. Pulse is closer to the feel of the classic motion tracker from the Aliens film (James Cameron's film), and is definitely less powerful and feels more glitchy than the legacy version (called Adrenaline).
Basically Pulse Tracker sends out a wavefront every .75 seconds, and when this wavefront intersects a moving object it will light up a blip in that position that will fade out over time. The big change comes from the fact that blips are always static and are only refreshed when they intersect the wavefront. This creates a strobe-like effect where you get intermittent information about the threats in your vicinity. Correspondingly all threats at long range are also only refreshed when the wavefront hits the extreme range of the Tracker.
I have chosen to only include Beasts (big) and Creeps (small) as blips in the Pulse Tracker (as well as other players if playing Deathmatch) and not include gibs or bullets as Adrenaline still does. This is to clean up the image a bit and only focus on actual threats in order to compensate for the less powerful blip updates.
Pulse Tracker also plays a subtle sound each time it sends out the wavefront, which can most often only be heard when things are relatively quiet.
In general I think this change reinforces the feel of the game and help keep the player's eyes on the 3d view instead of relying too heavily on the Motion Tracker.
Pulse Tracker is the new default but you can always opt to go with the legacy Adrenaline of you like (in the options).
Miscellaneous
Power failures / restores are now noted in the mission log.
All mouse scroll wheel interaction can be accelerated 4x ny holding down SHIFT. This affects the main menu obituaries, network party lists and the Library.
The game now returns to the Library after you view a Cassette, and your selection is retained so you know which Cassette you just watched.
As always, thank you for your support and patience,
/nornware AB c/o johno
nornware AB is happy to announce a new update to Space Beast Terror Fright.
Infravision Bug-Fix Infravision was disabled by accident in networked games in Update 30. This has been fixed.
Audio Option : Stingers There is now an audio option to disable stingers. These are the audio cues that happen when a Beast comes within a certain range, as well as when an Astro-Creep attaches itself to a player. These are ON by default. Please review your options settings however, as this is a new option it will be OFF for anyone who has a settings file on disk. This is simply to avoid double-negatives such as having the option be called "stingers off". As always you can reset all your options to the defaults using the corresponding button.
As always, thank you for your support and patience,
/nornware AB c/o johno
