First of all, there are 10 waves in total now (instead of the 12-13 we had). Focus has shifted from the stage (desert, clouds, space) to the single wave: each has it's own name (and a bit of character, if you will) and can escalate, for example: 'Furball' > 'Furball II'.
Current progression is split in 3 sections: the middile will feature the new 'Rogue' enemy and each section will shuffle the order and selection of waves to offer a more varied run each time.
Current balancing is not final and probably the game is a bit more difficult now so please bear with me while we tweak it out together with the upcoming updates.
All the things
New progression system
New 'Rogue' enemy: a more aggressive fighter that can strafe and takes 2 hits
New 'Scavenger' Upgrade: for maximum scraps attraction
Better 'Armored' Upgrade: boosts hull to 150% but no more extra life (there are towers for that)
Tweaked 'Wing Leader': still the hardest enemy but now a bit more consistent in it's behaviour + there are less of them (maybe except for the final wave 🙃)
Tweaked 'Sky Tower': takes one less hit + repair pickup gets activated on first hit + proper extra life pickup icon
'Sky Dog' achievement changed: obtained by destroying 5 sky towers
Interceptors are now officially aces: hex icon + ace category
New 'Vector' variant paint job: now comes in sexy black with red lines (rogues are using the same)
No more HUD flashing red during upgrade selection (rare-ish)
Added 'Stick Accel' option (Menu > Controls): setting it to 'exponential' might be useful if you are using a hotas setup
That's it! 🫡
SITREP #4 - v0.84 Preview
I've been working on a better wave/stage system but it needs some more time for basic tweaking and balancing: by next saturday it should be in a playable state for you to check out.
What's happening (work in progress, not in the current build)
New progression system based on waves (and not stages): it will allow for more randomness and finer tuning
New 'Traitor/Defector' enemy (let me know which name you like better): a more aggressive viper that can strafe
Tweaked 'Wing Leader' enemy: will be a bit more consistent in it's behaviour and there will be less of them
New 'Scavenger' Upgrade: for maximum scraps attraction
Better 'Armored' Upgrade: boosts hull to 150% but no more extra life (there are towers for that)
That's it! 🫡
v0.83 - 'Mechanic++'
Big Stuff
Baseline 'Mechanic' + tweaking: you now get 'scraps repair' by default (4% per 1 scrap) and the 'Mechanic' and 'Mechanic+' upgrades are boosting that to 8% and 12% (numbers are not final)
Leaderboard overhaul: 'smart view' that prioritizes friends + full view if you scroll down ('Show more players' button) + total (fighter) kills under the name
Last day leaderboard view: you can take a peek once (for now)
Tweaking & Polishing
'Supersonic' boosted: goes to ridiculous speed, outrunning missiles
Enemy Missiles/Drones arrows: they show up only when you are actually pointed at
'Enemy Hit' sound: a bit more hearable
I wanted to include more stuff in this update but I think there's enough to go around until the next big one which will include a new player upgrade and probably a new enemy.
Thinking further ahead: I'd like to do some improvements to the 'target lock' and begin to make stages a bit more random.
Let me know what you think, and please don't forget that I'm reading every bit of your feedback even if I don't always reply.
That's it!
v0.82b
Fixed bug that made possible to play the last stage endlessly
Friends are showing up on the leaderboards (cyan light)
v0.82 - 'Guns Guns Guns!'
The big stuff
Added 'Stick Mode' option (menu > controls): this one is for gamepad/stick players, it will allow to play with the classic flight-sim 'roll & pull' kind of controls, which is now the default setting (if you prefer the simpler scheme, you can set it back to 'yaw & roll'). That is something that was already in the game but I decided to disable for silly reasons
Bumped bullet thickness: so guns are a bit easier to aim and more fun in general
AI is now limited by ceiling altitude the same as the player
Added overheating mechanic to GAU-20 and AC-60: this is another feature I had dormant in the game
Tweaks
Plane turning rates got bumped a bit
'Supersonic' variant has better strafing: it's now in the middle between base plane and the 'Vector'
GAU-20 spread decreased a little (but same as before during overheating)
Bugfixes
Some AI navigation bugs
Frigates now attempt some obstacle avoidance
Mouse sensitivity adjusted when zooming
That's it!
v0.81d
First small update to get the ball rolling.
Changelog:
Fixed random seed issue: first run seed was not "random" enough
Leaderboard tweaking: adjusted score plates so personal score stays around the top
I will get into more details about the random seed in one of the next updates, now I need to go to sleep.
Thanks for playing!
SITREP #3 - 'Sky Tower'
This is the first static type of enemy you'll encounter in the game, it will appear in the second stage of the game: the Clouds.
When you get close enough, it will launch drones from the hangar, which can be damaged only for a few seconds while the doors are open. And each time you damage it, a repair pick-up will immediately replenish on top (which currently has a cycle of 30 sec).
What's next?
I'm planning to have at least 3 stages for the (Early Access) release: each introducing something new. First two stages (Desert and Clouds) are pretty much complete and so I'll be working on the third stage.
That's it!
SITREP #2 - 'Frigate'
Apologies for the late SITREP, I wanted to finish the Frigate before making an update but there's so much work to do.
Here we go with an "almost finished" version:
Enemy 'Warship' type: basically a boss
Single 360° heavy turret on top
Fire missiles from the sides
Drop mines when you get close enough
A bunch of critical points to destroy before killing it
What's left to do is to remodel the sides (at first I redesigned them with vertical mounted turrets but they got scrapped in favor of the missiles) and tweak some more the behaviour: like activating the missiles only after getting damaged.
Release Date Shift
As you might have noticed the release date got postponed to early 2023. I underestimated the amount of work needed for the boss-like enemies and these few extra months ahead will hopefully be enough to get a solid Early Access release.
That's it!
SITREP #1 - 'Wing Leader'
SITREP > 'Situation Report' > Development Report: I will post a quick selection of what has been done in the last development sprint.
'Wing Leader' first pass
Enemy 'ace' (exagon icon): you should give priority to them over fighters (triangle icon)
Transforms into a 'legs down' VTOL pose when strafing
'Wing' because it is supposed to come escorted by 2 'Vipers' (the basic enemy fighter)
What's next?
More enemy related work
Having a functional start screen is currently my highest priority: work in progress below 👇
That's it!
Feedback is always appreciated and if you like please share with your friends! 🙏
