Today is a good (fantastic?) day! This update is packed with so much stuffs.
Before diving into the full changelog, let's talk a bit about the main additions.
We have added a brand new upgrade system for the player. They are randomly dropped by bosses and you can pick only one of those after the fight. Each upgrade will have a unique effect that will help you: additional damages, health points, score bonus... and many suprises! Choice will be hard and will have an impact on your run. Pick wisely.
You will also find two new weapons suggested by the community:
The Impaler, a piercing gun that will ruin closed-by groups. Simple, effective, deadly.
The Boomerang, a powerful weapon that can ravage an enemy fleet. This one is particularly fun to play and will reward a good player greatly. Try to grab it to throw it instantly. Speed it up by pressing the fire button.
As always, we need your feedback, especially on the upgrade system. Tell us what you think and what's your favorite combination (some are probably overpowered?). And maybe you'll have new upgrade ideas?
Oh, and there's even more: Zander Noriega has added two incredible new tracks to the OST!
You will hear the first one against the Carrier and the Battleship bosses. You can also find them on the game OST on Bandcamp. We keep the second for a next update. ;)
We also took the time to revamp the music system again. It's far from perfect, but it's taking shape. We will continue to improve it again in the near future.
Our focus for the next update is to improve the high-end gameplay (after finishing a run). It will be harder and way more chaotic.
Features
New feature: the upgrades system. More than 25 upgrades to enhance your game experience. ;)
New weapon: the Impaler.
New weapon: the Bomerang.
New event: the Laser Rain. Sorry.
New music: "They're Everywhere" and "The Bullets Before The Storm" by the wonderful Zander Noriega.
Redesign: the Crusher is bigger.
Redesign: the Megagun is a powerful machine gun (the old Megagun is now the Supergun and the Supergun has been deleted. Waow).
Redesign: the Meteor Shower only comes from one side now.
19 new waves.
There's a slight chance to get a double cargo with two weapons inside.
Arena: the retry button brings you to the Arena view directly, instead of the main menu. The "Menu" button in the pause will do that aswell.
Finally: you can tweak the settings during the game. o/
Bug fixes/technical stuffs
The Chainsaw is correctly slowed down by the Stasisgun.
The Carrier boss should no longer throws fighters when it's dead.
The bots are destroyed when their ammo runs out.
The Double Sentry will always be complete.
Mirror waves should work properly.
Fix the collider of every bullet.
Fix the nasty 1px gap on the player's mothership during the introduction.
Fix some problems with the weapon drop system.
Fix the duplicated score on the Steam leaderboards.
Balance
We have tweaked a lot of bullet weapons to be more efficient when you hit a ship with a few bullets at the same time. Too many weapons have been changed to enumerate them all. ;)
Change weapons' probabilities.
Cargos' probabilities have been modified.
Bots can collide against an enemy ship. And damage it!
Energy weapons will no longer destroy junks and rocks instantly. You'll see why with the upgrades.
The Minebots are a "Heavy" weapon now. New name: "Mines".
The Saw does not slow the player when activated.
The Homing Missiles have a small area of effect now.
Every boss has more HPs.
The Cruiser ship is more resistant.
The Carrier boss shockwave is larger and is triggered more easily. Be careful.
The events' score, some ships' score and the boss' score have been adjusted. And we will reset the leaderboards.
The first Cargo appearance is no longer fixed.
Have fun.
Out.
— Steredenn's team.
Steredenn 0.19.0
Yeah! Finally! A new update.
Sorry guys: between a show (the Stunfest), the start of the Early Access, some external works and a few big issues, we took more time than expected to wrap this update. We will try our best to be more active in the coming weeks.
One thing that took many time was a problem with high-frequency (144hz) displays. We had a working solution, but it broke many patterns, so we rolled back. Hopefully, we have a workaround for the moment.
This update focuses on 3 aspects:
The scoring system
The weapons drop system
The game UI
We've made some big changes to improve those 3 areas. The scoring is smoother and more fun. It's also a lot less punishing. Let us know what you think! As for the weapons, we we were not satisfied by the current random distribution mechanic. So, we added a new level property on each weapon to distribute them in the game.
We fixed a ton of bugs too. Squashed, destroyed!
As always, give us your feedbacks on the Steam forums, please. ;)
Enough chitchat, let's see what's in this new release:
Features
New weapons drop system: we have changed the way the weapons are dropped. Before this update, each weapon had the same chance to be dropped. Now, we are using a level for each weapon to determine when it should be in a cargo. There's still a chance to get a high-end weapon at the beginning, though. This new system is subtle, but should make the game more enjoyable. ;)
New scoring system: we still need to tweak it a bit, but here what it does: when you finish a wave, you get one or two multipliers if you achieve some conditions, depending on the wave's type. Each enemy gives you some points multiplied by the combo. Each event increases the amount of points you get for an enemy.
New Score UI: handle the Steam leaderboards and have a "Focus on me" button. Be careful: we can (and we will) reset the leaderboards if we tweak the scoring system again. You have been warned, space wanderer! :)
New Game UI: more legible, more information, more beauty. Still some work to do.
New weapon: the Hypergun. It's a big powerful gatling.
New weapon: Minebots. Probably unbalanced, but super fun.
New pirate: the Chainsaw. It's a stupid ship that rush on you until it kills you.
16 new waves!
New cosmetic event: solar winds.
More junks after a boss.
More catchphrases before a boss and during the introduction.
The saw have a new animation when it's expanded/shrinked.
Particles on the Death Ray laser.
New charging effect for the shockwave.
New mega-explosion for big bosses.
Add tips when you die.
Bug fixes/technical
The screen resolution is automagically chosen when the game starts.
The music is correctly stopped when you disable it in the settings and you go in the pause during the game.
The Destroyer boss should always explode, now.
EMP mine AND slowing weapons won't block the player.
The flamethrower throws more… flames. And destroy missiles all the time. Yeah.
Remove the Mothership-replace-the-Battleship bug. Sorry for the spoiler. :/
Balance
Weapons
Renaming:
Supergun -> Blaster
Hypergun -> Hyperblaster
Megagun -> Supergun
Megagun 2 -> Megagun (oops)
Flamesbots -> Flamebots
Rocketsbots -> Rocketbots
Sentrybots -> Gunbots
Rockets have been redesigned: they have a slight auto-aim, a bigger area of effect and are shot one by one. It's better, trust me.
Gunbots: bigger bullet.
Flamebots: more ammo.
Stasisbots: more ammo, increased range, less damages.
Death Ray: MORE damages, increased cooldown. It should destroy almost anything instantly.
Saw: more damages.
Driller: less damages.
BayGun: woooow. It's the most destructive weapon in the game now, as it should always have been. Increased area of effect, too. Still hard to hit, but when it hits... you'll see. ;)
Shield: its energy depletes faster when hit by big bullets and big lasers.
Enemies
Turrets have a bigger hitbox.
Shielders' shield can be broken by more weapons.
The Destroyer boss ultra-monstrous-laser does one more damage to your ship. 4 damages?! Are you mad!!?
Player
Yes, we are. That's why we have added 0.5s to the player's grace time after a hit. ;)
