Xenomarine
Alpha 4.2: Patch Notes
MORE NEW WEAPONS
NEW: 8 new weapon types
MORE ALIENS COMING UP THROUGH THE FLOOR!
NEW: aliens now come up through the floor more often and at random (rather than just for missions)
SECURE THE DOOR!
NEW: close doors with 'right-click' or 'o'-key
OTHER
NEW : mouseover info for aliens now includes health, attack damage and attack type if player has previously killed aliens of that type.
MOD: shooting an alien on same tile as trap now triggers trap
MOD: aliens hatching from eggs are less dangerous types on average
FIX: bug where shooting at teleport trap teleports self
FIX: incorrect mousehover info for 'open door' and 'floor with hazard markings'
FIX: ability to dual-wield no longer affected by 'to hit' penalties, e.g. from illness
FIX: error in number of targets in mission description for 'drone virus' and 'plant life' missions
FIX: scanner sound effect not playing for some scanner types
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A NOTE ON MIGRATING SAVED GAMES
It will sometimes not be possible to continue a saved game with a new patch such as this one. If you prefer not to update until you have finished your existing run, either change your Steam update settings, or 'roll back' to the previous version
To do this first quit and reopen Steam, then right-click Xenomarine in your game library and select ‘Properties’. Then go to the ‘betas’ tab and choose the version called ‘lastversion’ from the dropdown. When you close the window Steam should roll back the game automatically.
Then when you are ready to upgrade, follow the same procedure but select ‘NONE’ from the drop-down.
Alpha 4.1: Patch Notes
NEW WEAPONS
NEW: 10 new (high-level) weapon types, including new alien weapons, sniper rifle and void laser
NEW: improved sound effects for some weapons
MOD: rebalancing of all weapons
FIX: shotgun and mini-lascannon can now be dual-wielded
NEW MISSION TYPES
NEW: 3 new assault mission types: 'breach from below', 'drone virus' and 'plant life'
OTHER
MOD: add low-battery scanner to starting inventory
MOD: crafting costs reduced for ammo and medkit
MOD: line of sight for generator-lit rooms increased to 12 tiles
MOD: exploding barrels now cause explosive damage and destroy nearby walls etc
MOD: hallucination visual effect modified to be easier on the eyes
MOD: secret doors are now automatically spotted from within secret passages, even after failing earlier spot test
FIX: bug where chests spawn at edge of map in alien caverns (causing a 'tile not recognised' error)
FIX: bug where plants and equipment crates spawn on top of large equipment crates
FIX: bullets gained from workbench increased to 10
FIX: bug with mission time limit for salvage mission
FIX: bug with shadows not updating correctly when destroying walls with explosive weapons
FIX: formatting problem when showing 3 or more 'to hit' adjustments in inventory screen
Progress Update
Oh, and Xenomarine guy sends all best wishes for the festive season!
Alpha 4: Release notes
NEW ALIENS
NEW: Added 'alien plants' which grow in alien caverns (from level 2; 8 variants)
NEW: Added new base enemy type: ‘slicer’ (from level 9; 12 variants)
NEW: Added 3 new enemy variants for all base alien types: 1) phase-shifted, 2) dark blue and 3) multicoloured
MOD: changed level generation to increase range of enemy variants on levels 1-10
MOD: improved drone AI to allow targeting at up to range 3
MOD: improved alien AI so they find alternative route when blocked by other aliens
NEW ITEMS:
NEW: 3 new base scanner types for detecting traps and secret doors
DESTRUCTIBLE ENVIRONMENT
NEW: Walls, furniture and doors can now be destroyed by weapons with 'explosive' damage type
MOD: Weapons with 'explosive' damage type automatically destroy crates and barrels
UI
NEW: ammo now shown numerically for equipped weapons
NEW: camera follows player option now uses smooth camera panning
NEW: improved map scrolling with mouse (scroll speed frame-independent and relative to zoom level)
FIX: ‘no ammo’ pop-up text now shown for weapon equipped in left hand
FIX: added info about scrolling map with mouse+alt-key to controls screen
FIX: increased width of top-left ammo display text to avoid text-wrapping with more than 99 ammo
GAMEPLAY/BALANCE
MOD: increased rocket launcher to hit chance
MOD: power of mind globes increased from level 8
MOD: can now retain battery when scrapping flashlight with full (>=1000) battery power
MOD: reduced duration of radioactive damage debuff by 40%
MOD: increased weapon range of combat drones
HACKING
MOD: improved display for results of hacking data terminal
MOD: more detailed information shown for hacking electronics data
MOD: hacking aliens data now includes drones, eggs and alien plants
FIX: bug with data shown when hacking electronics data
OTHER
NEW: 7 new random tips added
NEW: New Unity splash animation
NEW: pressing F1 shows random tip in main log
NEW: added log message for when combat drones become hostile on taking damage
NEW: character stats screen now shows effect of encumbrance on weapon skill
NEW: added support for Mac Retina screens
FIX: information panel (e.g. for achievement) sometimes hidden behind terminal/inventory panels
FIX: log message for destruction of barrel no longer refers to ‘crate’
FIX: destroying a barrel no longer unlocks the ‘vandal’ achievement
FIX: error with item description for blade converter, and for weapons with blade conversion
FIX: removed visual artefacts (white vertical lines) while scrolling map on high-spec systems
FIX: speed of movement with keys held down now frame-independent (better for high-spec systems)
FIX: bug with mechanic for missed thrown weapon attacks
FIX: bug with target indicators when using mouse to target area effect weapon
FIX: stimpacks introduced in Alpha 3.3 can now be used from inventory
FIX: bug with occasionally failing to unpause game after using security terminal
FIX: hallucination visual effect not loading from save
FIX: improved log message when aliens trigger traps
FIX: improved formatting of mousehoverinfo for drones
FIX: bug with description of traps in inventory screen
Progress Update
It will be a little while longer before this update is released, partly because of the significant nature of the new features/fixes and partly because of less visible work on the back-end. Thanks to a new test machine I am looking into some issues I am aware have been affecting some high-spec systems, e.g speed-related issues with the UI and minor graphical issues.
Some things to look forward to very soon:
- New alien variants, including phase-shifted aliens that can walk through walls!
- A new alien base type
- More diverse alien variants in early levels
- Improved alien AI
- Changes to combat drones
Alpha 3.5: Patch Notes
GRAPHICAL VARIETY
NEW: alien caverns
NEW: secret passageways accessed by secret doors
NEW: improved lighting effects for randomly generated colour scheme
NEW: 4 new floor tile variants
GAME BALANCE
MOD: armor resistances limited to 50% resistance before level 10
UI
NEW: clicking on terminals etc now activates auto-mouse-movement
OTHER
FIX: bug where mission crates are generated for assault missions
FIX: spelling error on terminal screen for health
Alpha 3.4: Patch Notes
GRAPHICAL VARIETY
NEW: added 6 wall tile variants for variety
NEW: randomly generated colour scheme for each level
LINE OF SIGHT
MOD: line of sight for generator-lit rooms is now 360 degrees (firing arc unchanged)
MISSIONS
MOD: ‘salvage’ missions now involve special equipment crates
MOD: 'salvage' missions have fewer targets
GAME BALANCE
MOD: ammo from equipment crates increased by 100%
MOD: reduce experience cost to learn new skills by 20%
MOD: scrap from equipment crates increased by 1
UI
NEW: added ‘fail to spot secret door’ sound effect
NEW: added random tip to explain secret door mechanics
NEW: torch automatically turns off to save power when resting
MOD: changed font colour for random tip at start
MOD: allow limited mouse-controlled movement over radioactive/poison tiles
FIX: minimap now updates immediately after use of terrain scanner
FIX: can no longer access inventory while using workbench or terminals
FIX: mouse map scrolling added to controls help
Quick update (v3.3)
NEW: can now scroll map using mouse at screen edge
NEW: option to have map always centered on player
NEW: added random tip to starting log entries
MOD: decreased alarm volume
MOD: decrease crafting costs for low-level items
MOD: reduce mission success sound volume
FIX: bug with saving of zoom level at death
FIX: bug when determining when to scroll map
FIX: info shown when hacking aliens data and no remaining aliens on level