Hi. Not a biggie in terms of new content but some neat bits and bobs. :]
Previous versions of Straimium are made in GameMaker v1.4 which was recently discontinued. Unfortunately this coincided with there being growing issues related to high hz monitors. For some the game would speed up, for others slow down. So I thought I'd take a bit of time to upgrade Straimium into the newest version of GameMaker (v2) which should help a lot with compatibility in the future. Since there's some system changes to implement between the versions due to how they do things differently, I thought I might as well up the fps of the game from 50 to 60 too.
In GameMaker the game's fps is the speed the game runs, so upping the fps from 50 to 60 results in everything speeding up by 20%. This meant I pretty much had to go over everything to make sure movement speeds, attack rates, animations, etc, all behaved like before. I thought this would be a good opportunity though to tweak a few bits and bobs that's kind of become an issue for me. For example I felt at the beginning the game felt on the sluggish side and towards the end became pretty trivial as you max out upgrades. So I made some balance tweaks related to that. So for example you move a bit faster and level 1 primary weapons fire a little faster but level 3 primary weapons aren't quite so over-powerful.
I also added a faint outline and drop shadow to enemies, pinkies, etc, so they stand out more against the psychedelic background. And smaller projectiles in particular are a bit easier to see.
The new version of GameMaker has much improved gamepad support so you no longer have to faff around setting up whether it's XInput or Direct Input gamepads. Now any gamepad you plug in should work right away. Since it's easier to work with gamepad support the Co-Op Mulator has been replaced with a Party Play Mutator which now creates a robot companion for each gamepad you have plugged in.
The way the screen is displayed on the backend is improved too. The camera movements are now super smooth and it's possible to do some neat screen effects. In the visual options you can now choose to apply a CRT effect to the screen, though I wouldn't particularly recommend it and was added more for the Straima Classico mini-game which always has it. There's also a neat little wavy screen effect when you dabble in mushroomsies.
Speaking of Straima Classico, it can now be played from the main menu as a separate game mode which includes Steam Leaderboard support and I added some variation in the level design. To unlock it you just need to first get a score of 222+ in the shop arcade. If you get a score of 333+ in the shop then shoppie will be so impressed he'll offer an item from his wares for free! Alternatively there's a chance you may be the 1000th customer which also results in a nice prize.
Since it's generally not a good idea to faff around with the game's fps due to compatibility issues, the Casual/Asian mutators have been changed a bit. Now they're called Easier/Hardier Mode and just reduce/increase damage you suffer by 25% respectively.
In the Incursion game mode you may sometimes have to traverse through a warpy portal swarming with enemies, well there's now a chance that may happen in the regular Cubicus Crawl game mode too. There's also a new special monster that may also appear in a crawl, the Apertured Monsta. He likes lurking in a random door and popping out to hug you tightly! There's also a chance the Ninja Temple rooms may stock special gold variants of a regular power. These are more powerful versions of the regular power, and may also do something special too. And during a crawl if there's no Fungus Grotto then you may stumble upon a friendly seller who will part with a mushroom of a random level for some pinky.
Enjoy. And if you still want to play the previous version of Straimium then that will now always be able available as a Beta Branch (version_9). :]
Incursionedly Update
It's a biggie for you. :]
A new unlockable game mode has been added called Cubos Incursion. In it you must purge an entire galaxy of cubletted taint. The cublets are small single-biome dungeons and you can save your progress on the main map any time so it's more of a bite size game mode if you don't have time for a full crawl.
There's now options to show a minimap on the HUD and some advanced keys to force direction fire which allow you fire a certain direction even if you're facing the opposite way (mainly for pad users). Plus an option to allow firing from the right analogue stick.
There's a new robo enemy and robo challenge room, plus 5 new special rooms (Famishful Fatso, Technoarcanaka, Malevolenti Pacti, Tombcryptium, Jailed Jacky). There's been some changes to the Crawl game mode special rooms to fit them in. In the Cube size previously there was a select handful of special rooms used, but now it randomly chooses an amount from the whole pool of special rooms (you can't rely on mushrooms any more!) It's the same for the Cubic too. The Cubicus is so big it can accomodate all the special rooms, in fact it's so big I added the Robobroas as a permament additional boss.
There's 3 new weapons (Grida Intalocka, Acoustiaka, Statica Pulsar), and 5 new items (Soulless Mana, Fantum Shroud, Tiny Key, Hurty Buffa, Loyalty Card). The Shroud is pretty interesting in it allows you to fly through walls (no more traps thanks!)
The game modes now have a bunch of extra stats, such as recording your 100% goldified Crawls, victory streaks, average victory time and pinky, etc.
I played around with the soundwork. A bunch of the rooms now have special tunes, so upon venturing into a shop you're greeted with a lovely jovial tune, or discovering some place spooky plays an appropriately creepy track. When about to face a boss, the old tune fades away and a new track is handpicked so you're guarenteed a pulse pumper tune for the fight.
There's 8 new achievements, 6 are related to various Incursion challenges, such as beating it within a certain time or goldifying every cublet, etc. The other two are Spud Gun (murderise 5 bosses in a crawl using only lvl 1 guns) and Classico Hi-Scorico (Beat a 222 hi-score in the Classico arcade).
Queeni has had some changes so it plays less 'all or nothing'. The previous bullet hell attack is reserved for the second phase, while now for the first phase she has a bunch of different attacks to choose from (plus reinforcements!) So patience is key to beating her off.
A bunch of other bits and bobs too, enjoy. :]
You can find more animated pics here: http://steamcommunity.com/app/515650/discussions/0/1471969431594523412/
Robotica Update
Bit of a mixed bag this one. :]
A new Robo boss and enemy have been added. There's a chance one of the regular bosses may be replaced by the Robo boss, but only if you have previously beaten that biome's alt-boss. The surrounding area may also be robo-tainted which replaces the regular enemies with the robo variety.
A Seedly Runs section has been added to the Compendium. There are 10 special seeds right now that affect runs in varying ways. For example, the WARPROOM seed messes up all the dungeon biomes. The ROULETTE seed generates a new seed and randomly chooses a bunch of gameplay mutators. While WOMBLING turns the whole dungeon into Sanctumii.
A small mini-game has been added called Straima Classico. There's two variants which can be found in the Shopikeepa and Homely Oddity.
New Mutators: Wombling, Biome Shifta.
New Primary Weapons: Boomranga, Uzi Gatlingi.
New Special Weapon: Mesonorbiculas.
New room: Monolithi.
And 1 new banging tune.
Enjoy. :]
Compendified Update
The main purpose of this update was to add a wiki style unlockables Compendium. You can access it from the Escape menu and has a bunch of screens for gameplay stats, achievements, rooms, dudes, bosses, weapons and items. There's 5 new achievements too for completing the various Compendium sections.
A new enemy type and challenge room design has also been added for each of the four domains. And there's now a chance a room will contain randomised enemies rather than enemies of the same type, plus a new mutator which increases the chance of randomised enemies.
Enjoy. :]
Characterfulled Update
For this update I wanted to make the character class unlocks more interesting. Instead of simply shooting open a coffin, each character is now unlocked in their own individual way. Like some of the special rooms, unlocking characters involve puzzle elements to them related to exploring, performing tasks or using certain items. There's also achievements for unlocking each character. Note characters unlocked in previous versions of the game won't be unlocked now.
If you get stuck with the character unlocks then you can find some picture hints in the recent Sneakily Peaks topic in the forum.
There's also some new stuff to play with.
- Each of the main 4 areas has a new enemy and a new challenge room design.
- 1 new special room (Skulisella)
- 1 new primary weapon (Electro Casta)
- 4 new items (Virus, Mystery Box, Teleporta, Cape)
- 1 new mutator (Bday Bash)
- Minor bits and bobs.
Enjoy. :]
Chrimbo Patch
Just a lil something to tide you over the holidays. Merry Xmas Straibros. :]
- Game Settings can now be changed via the Escape menu
- Gamepad buttons can now be rebound
- Added a setting to change the Co-Op device input
- Added a Decorations setting which turns off background elements (e.g. trees, waterfalls, etc)
- Added a secret way of stealing from shops and killing shopkeepers :o
- 4 new items: Skeleton Key, Flamboi, Pulsa, Pain Purifia
- 3 new achievements: Fomad Run, Paddy Fulfillment, No Heal Run
- 1 new mutator: Moar Hazards
- 1 new cheat: Golded Map
Environmentally Unlocky Update
Firstly just want to give a big thanks for all the really great feedback recently. :]
Each of the 4 main areas now has a few environmental hazards to contend with. There should also be more randomness to the wall generation.
The way unlocks works has been changed. Hats are unlocked as normal, but gameplay mutators and cheats are now unlocked by doing certain tasks. There's also 10 new achievements, 2 new hats and 1 new gameplay mutator called Ball Busta.
There's 2 new items (Nanomachines, Item Marka), 1 new weapon (Pinga Launcha) and a few minor bits and bobs.
Enjoy. :]
Cubic Update
Bit of a mixed grab bag this one with changes based on the feedback over the past few weeks.
There's now a Medium Cubic dungeon size. The number of rooms sits firmly between the Small and Big sizes and there's 3 new achievements to go with it.
The game's soundtrack should now be available in the Steam media player thingy.
There's 4 new challenge room designs, one for each of the four main areas. They're a bit harder than the usual ones.
There's 4 new enemies and 3 new items.
Various bits and bobs gameplay changes, such as defensive orbs now being half as effective against bosses, some dungeon special room layout tweaks, etc.
Alt-Bossy Update
4 new alternative bosses have been added, one for each of the 4 main area themes. Alternative bosses are unlocked once you beat the regular boss and collect its Bossy Key. There's then a 50% chance of you stumbling upon the alternative boss instead of the old boss which are a bit harder and less forgiving.
