This update focuses on a few small features and bug fixes. Our last update took a very long time so we're adjusting things back the other way in an effort to get improvements out on a more frequent basis.
Features:
Add screen shake; when you get hit by enemy fire.
Add different shield effects based on which shield item you have equipped.
Bug fixes:
Damage on items is shown to one decimal place to make upgrades less confusing.
Create a upgrade limit for items that won't benefit from additional upgrades.
Opening the inventory removes all item pickup popups.
Fix boss enemy movement, will now fly at player instead of some random direction.
Fix enemy movement; enemies won't fly at you backwards or oscillate left/right as they attack.
Rework the mouse/controller turn sensitivity; mouse sensitivity has a wider range and mouse/controller have a better default setting.
Update 1.6.0!
It is a BREAKING CHANGE; finish current games before updating to not lose current progress! Unlocked ships aren't affected.
Its main focus is on items. We've added two new item slots on your ship and reworked all the items themselves to make them better. You can now find and equip secondary weapons that affect how your secondary attack behaves (damage, fire rate, ammo, etc). You can also find boosters that change how your ships booster works (thrust amount, fuel, etc).
This involved doing a lot of work under the hood to make everything work. This is why saved games from 1.5.4 aren't compatible. It also laid the ground work for doing more interesting things with items. For example the different engines and boosters you get change the color of your engines flame. With future updates we plan on explore more of these types of things. Possibly expanding them to non-cosmetic changes like life stealing.
As part of the work under the hood we removed the 60 FPS frame rate lock. Our code was architected such that frame rate changed actual game behavior. For example your ship would move slower at lower frame rates. Now the games behavior is consistent despite the current frame rate. With this we've changed the 60 cap to be 144 but left vSync on. We left vSync on because without it there are some effects we offload onto the GPU that end up looking bad.
The combination of all these changes has actually made the game harder. This is where we'd really like to get feedback. Let us know if the games difficulty feels right to you and if you are finding it too difficult what aspects are being the most troublesome.
Update changes breakdown:
Rework the entire item system to allow better items and fix bugs with current items
You used to be able to get items that were worse than your base ship
Items didn't correctly affect the ships movement/turn rates
Items weren't "interesting" when compared to each other
Added two new item "types" that you can equip to your ship.
Secondary weapons (affect how your secondary attack behaves)
Boost engines (affect how your ships boost behaves)
The inventory is larger (30 slots now versus 25 before).
Remove 60FPS lock; game will match monitor refresh (vSync is on) up to 144Hz. Assuming computer can push that many frames ;)
Improve the item tooltips to display more useful information.
Gold colored numbers in () that show what upgrading the item will do.
Make health drops fly towards your ship sooner and from further away when you're hurt.
Gave different colored radar icons for the different things enemies drop.
Red - enemies
Orange - upgrades
Green - health pickups
Grey - items
Removed glory stuff in preparation for a new progression system in the next update.
Key bug fixes:
Fix several enemies AI to be less clunky (won't run away forever, or just fly into you).
Controller navigation and sound fixes
Update 1.5.4!
A small update to address some of the feedback from Conviction (big thanks for the great feedback!). We're doing a small update like this since we have some large things in the works that will likely take a while so we wanted to get this out to folks first.
Updated ship Roll controls:
-Double tap to roll can now be disabled.
-A new "Roll" control can be used to roll in the direction of your strafe.
-New "Roll Left" and "Roll Right" controls can be used to roll in a specific direction.
Enable users to "double bind" controller buttons that are only used in the inventory.
-Equip item controller button can also be bound to roll left for example.
A few bug fixes.
-Fixed an issue where battle music would continue to play after you die.
-Hitting ESC will now close the inventory when using keyboard/mouse.
Update 1.5.03!
This update has added more enemies and enemy abilities!
We're working on making the gameplay more fun and less repetitive by improving the enemies. To do this we've added more enemy abilities such as; warp, afterburner, and flanking. We've combined those abilities with the current set of enemies to create new variants. We've also added two new larger enemies with powerful weapons.
Other changes:
New mesh for the Upgrade Units drops from enemies.
UI changes in the inventory for showing item level, upgrade state, and UUs needed to upgrade.
A handful of controller related bug fixes.
A bunch of other bug fixes.
Patch 1.5.02!
This update focuses on adding controller support. There were a lot of things we needed to do under the hood to make it work and as a result this update took much longer than we'd like and there are still a few rough spots.
Go into the settings menu or on the pause menu to enable controller input. Right now it only supports the 360 controller but going forward adding additional controllers (like the Steam controller) is something we've built around so if the desire is there let us know.
We've discovered that playing with a controller is a lot harder than we want it to be. So we would love to get feedback from users on the current state of playing with a controller as well as ideas on how we could make it better to reach parity with keyboard/mouse.
What's coming up?
For the next update we're going to keep the focus small; controller feedback and adding a few fun content pieces to the game.
Patch notes:
Xbox 360 controller support.
Picking up items at the end of a wave of enemies should be faster.
You can upgrade your ships with Glory at the ship select screen.
Upgrade Unit drops from destroyed enemies.
Update 1.5.01
The first EA update for Void Vikings is here! We wanted to explain some of the changes we've made so you get an idea of what we're thinking about the game.
Currently VV emphasizes a lot of enemy avoidance at higher difficulty levels. This can cause the game to become somewhat stale/repetitive. In order to address this we've added health/shield drops. These will linger for a short time and then expire, meaning if you want them, you'll have to get into the fray. This should allow players to play in the middle of a swarm more effectively.
Another big issue we wanted to tackle was upgrading your ship. Previously we had some icon randomization on the items that could make it very hard to find an upgrade of the same component type. This meant players either didn't have their best equipment equipped, or they spent too long trying to sort the equipment out. The items now have static icons which should make finding an upgrade for a particular type much easier. There are still item balance issues we want to address, but we think this makes the upgrade portion of the game much smoother.
We want to continually make improvements to the visuals of the game, and to that end we've made a few changes in 1.5.01. First off we've added a warp in effect for enemies, so you'll get a small "preview" of what's coming your way as the enemies show up. We've also added a more dramatic death sequence for our boss ship, so that destroying it feels a little more special.
Data! We want it, you have it, we'd like to borrow it with your permission! We've added code to the game that lets us know how people are playing. It's completely optional, and no personal information is sent. You can enable/disable this in the setting menu.
Finally we've got a number of bug fixes included in 1.5.01 that should smooth out some rough edges.
What's coming up?
We want to give you some idea of what we're focusing on next. These plans are heavily driven by feedback from the community, so be sure to let us know what you want us to focus on.
The next big item is controller support and it's a good bit of work to do. We don't have an ETA for you atm, but we're planning on it being included in the next update.
Patch list:
Added health (shield and armor) drops from destroyed enemies.
Added a "warp in" effect for enemy ships.
Added a "death spiral" for the boss ships.
Use just a single item icon for each item to make them easy to differentiate.
Rework the score multiplier to "decay" slower.
Increase afterburner default fuel to 75 (from 50).
Fixed bug where health bar would show health after death.
Improved visuals on some menus at higher resolutions.
