Zerograve News

Hotness: New lava shader and the heated Lava Labyrinth level to go with it.

New enemies: Big balls scout, rocket propeller, shotgun balls.

Other: Walker boss updated, changes for a lot of enemies, and more.

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Lava Labyrinth (New level): Lava moves up & down repeatedly.

Updeep

• Changed end encounter from reactor to lockdown encounter, redesigned end room layout.
  
• Added a bit more space to a couple of cramped locations.
  

 

Lava

• New shader/material
  
• Can now insta-kill only when it's moving up.
  
• No longer deals continuous touch damage to enemies (but getting sandwiched between rising lava and walls still insta-kills them)
  

Props

• Updated box prop split effects
  
• Ammo/shield boxes now have glowing icon for the resource on top.
  
• New shader for Red energy wall
  
• Updated some materials in first biome
  
• Updated 2x2 window model
  
• Hidden doors: Added different opening sound, also added visual effect when opening them
  
• Guide paths: The moving glowing indicators are now longer and bend along the path.
  
• Tech point pickup: Visual and pickup effect updated
  

Doors

• Updated door models in the first biome.
  
• Added a little particle effect when opening doors
  
• Updated indicator for unlocked doors.
  

 

Shotball: Fires 5 balls, 1 in center and 4 on sides (Hard+: 8) in a very wide cone.

Big Scout: Slower than regular scouts, fires one ball at a time.

Rocket Propeller: Long-ranged enemy firing 2 rockets at a time.

 

General: Enemies will now stop shooting when they die, instead of when they explode after death.

Walker Boss

• Health increased 4500 -> 5500, plus health of some parts increased.
  
• Ball weapons fire bigger balls
  
• Laser arms fire in a cone pattern
  
• Homing launch pattern adjusted
  
• Minor other changes
  

Scout

• Now fires small ball bullets instead of very slow lasers.
  

Laser Slicer

• Updated model/weapon/projectile/AI etc
  
• Weapon fires a more dense wave of lasers, but rotates a lot slower while charging up the shot. Damage increased 5->8, but deals damage only once per attack.
  

Green Scout

• renamed to Plasma Scout
  
• Now fires 1 slow plasma bullet (2 on hard+), which hits harder
  
• moves around a bit less
  

Green Turret

• Renamed to Plasma Turret
  
• Now fires 3 (hard: 5) slow plasma bullets which hit hard
  

Ice scout

• moves around a bit less
  

Laser Bruiser

• turn rate slightly increased
  
• weapon effects&sounds updated.
  
• Bullet speed greatly increased, slower turn rate while firing
  

Homer

• AI starts firing missiles at longer range
  

Destroyer

• weapon updated, bullet speed increased, increased accuracy, slower turn rate while firing
  
• Updated death effects and wave spawn effect.
  

Ice Dancer

• modified animation after firing
  
• turn rate increased
  

 

Chainsaw:

• can now be used to open doors.
  
• position while using without target is further away.
  
• updated some effects
  

Laser Turret - Ammo cost increased 8 -> 10

Burst Laser - updated launch effect

 

Loading screen: adjusted fade in/out sequence.

 

Settings menu: Fixed issue where changing on/off type settings didn't work.

Fixed issue where enemy healthbar could flash every few seconds for one frame out of combat.

Fixed issue where mouselook didn't work for some players. Note: Base sensitivity changed slightly, you may need to adjust it from controls settings.

Chainsaw hitting effects are now once again visible.

Fixed issue where Laser Turret weapon could fail to spawn the turret.

Fixed issue where level exit trigger was too big and could be accessed through nearby walls.

Fixed issue where Mad Hot boss encounter lockdown/music ended before boss had appeared, and the boss appeared to teleport in.
Fixed issue where Ice Destroyer enemy primary attack projectiles didn't have delay before accelerating to high speed (and were way too powerful as result).
Fixed issue where the slight banking when turning stopped working correctly after activating map view once.
Fixed visual issue with Vertical map drone part line props.

New boss: Challenge the Cryonite boss in a new chilly map.

Weapons: Updated effects for several weapons including Dual-/Line-/Quadual Lasers, Rockets, Nova Bomb.

Maps: Modified early levels, updated fire zone tileset.

UI updates: HUD updates, improved menu usability, updated death sequence and more.

 

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Chilly Chapel (new level) featuring Cryonite (new boss)

Skirmish (renamed Entry) - Modified layout, added blue key/door and some drone part props. Tutorial tips modified.

Updeep - Modified layout, added new section and some hidden paths, etc.

Vertical - Added tons of drone part tubes

Redball - Now uses the "Fire" tileset, plus some small changes

 

Scrapbot - tutorial enemy

Ball Dancer (blue) - Hp 200->150, they were too beefy for their looks.

Enemy pathfinding improved. (Enemies will also get randomly stuck less in lockdown encounters.)


Aggro broadcast - when an enemy notices player, it will alert other nearby enemies.

Added small effect around enemies when they get aggroed

Updated delayed ice bullet effects.

 

Fire zone: New models for most glow edges in white, blue, red areas. Some wall textures updated.

Guide paths: texture updated

Drone zone: New: Wide tubes with 3 parallel drone part lines
New: Thick energy lines model.
Updated existing round drone part tubes.

Box props now break from a single hit and have a more fancy death effect.
Updated map start location model

Added collider to door frames (so the edges can't be passed through when door is open)

 

Initial maximum ammo reduced to 60, ammo on game start to 20.
Player collider size increased by 25%.
Changed damage taking sound, and its intensity depends on amount of damage.

Added an effect on wall collisions, with volume based on impact velocity, so bang your drone against a wall to your heart's content (doesn't do any damage though)
Also added a sound when moving against wall.

 

Dual Laser: effects and sound updated

Homing Missile: hit effect updated

Rockets

• effects updated
  
• damage 40->50
  
• cost 4->5
  
• cooldown increased
  

Line Laser

• model and effects updated
  
• Bullet damage 8->10 and cooldown increased
  
• Adjusted spread to be a bit wider
  

Nova Bomb

• Effects updated
  
• Explosion delay increased to 0.5s.
  
• Radius slightly increased
  

Quadual Laser: effects updated

Plasma gun: model & animations updated

Plasma Orb: effects updated

Bullet launch positions are now more consistent between weapons.

 

HUD

• Enemy healthbar updated
  
• Added icon for shield/ammo next to resource bars.
  
• Secondary ammo cost is now displayed next to owned ammo.
  
• Added flash on screen corner when picking up shields/ammo/tech
  
• Some UI effects are more flashy
  

Death sequence: Updated death screen visuals. Also added slow-motion, and music stops during the death sequence.

Level select menu: Small visual updates

Encounter messages: Updated lockdown start/end and boss start message visuals.

Door messages: Trying to open locked doors now displays a fancier message in 3D space. The message is aligned to player rotation, so it's always readable.

Menu Usability: Fixed inconsistent behaviour when using cancel/back button to move in menu. Rebind controls screen can now also be exited with cancel/back button, as long as there's no input being changed currently.

Mouse cursor is now hidden in menus if it hasn't been used in the last 5 seconds.

 

Game start intro: Updates to texts

Level starts: Added loading screen texts for several levels and updated some existing ones.

 

Mouse look now uses raw input instead of a simulated axis.

 

Sensitivity

• Minimum is now about 40% less sensitive and max is about 70% more sensitive.
  
• Also added steps and a numeric value from 1-15
  

Autoleveling

• is now disabled by default.
  
• Increased delay after rolling before autoleveling starts, and it starts gradually instead of full autoleveling immediately.
  

 

Fixed issue where all weapons were unlocked at game start.
Fixed issue where difficulty text in top-left corner could be incorrect after changing difficulty.

[build b72]

New Level: Descent, the hot vertical level where lava goes down gradually after picking up keys and destroying enemies.

New Secondary weapons: Slice with the vertical Plasma Wheel bomb, deploy Laser Turrets as little helpers.

HUD updates: crosshair elements for weapons, killfeed messages, updated layout & more.

 

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

 

Plasma Wheel (new secondary)

• Launches a "wheel" which explodes in a large vertical circle.
  
• 80 damage near center, +20 on direct hit
  
• 6 ammo
  

Laser Turret (new secondary)

• Create a laser turret on a wall, firing at enemies every 0.5 seconds for 15 seconds.
  
• 10 damage per turret shot
  
• 8 ammo
  

Zapper

• Now prioritizes targets with lowest health-%
  
• Damage per zap 5->6
  

Plasma Gun changes

• Reworked, updated effects
  
• Now fires 2 bullets per shot, cooldown increased to 0.6s and damage per bullet reduced 25->20.
  
• Bullets are also slower and larger.
  

Plasma Orb

• Changed from primary to secondary weapon.
  
• Model and animation changed
  
• Explosion radius reduced 20%
  
• Projectile modified for both enemy and player. Now has a dark center which makes it easier to see with lots of bullets flying around.
  

Homing Missile: Damage 40 -> 50

 

Descent (new level):

• Vertical level where lava gradually descends after picking up keys and defeating waves of enemies.
  
• Belongs to the second arc ("fire" levels), placed between Explosive and Mad Hot levels.
  

 

HUD changes

• Keys and tech level things moved to top left corner.
  
• Health / ammo bar moved to bottom left corner (so they won't cover secondary weapons on bottom center)
  
• Added more colorful message on key gains, which appears next to the key list.
  
• Added effects to gaining and losing health and ammo on the bars.
  

Killfeed UI / tech point gain

• Destroying enemies now shows enemy name and gained tech points.
  
• Multiple messages can be visible simultaneously.
  
• Tech point pickups display a similar message.
  
• Also current tech point value now updates over a short time instead of instantly.
  

Crosshair: Added crosshair elements for weapons, indicating

• cooldown
  
• which side will fire next
  
• whether player has enough ammo
  

Weapon select: The weapon list should now match the weapon unlock order, so newest weapon is last.

 

Added option to show shields + ammo with small texts near crosshair.

 

Bullet wall hit vfx

• Hitting a wall can now leave a lingering glow effect for a few seconds. Implemented for most of the available player weapons
  

Lava changes

• Lava now has a more flowy effect and lights changing over time.
  

 

Reduced max acceleration rate and auto-braking rate to increase movement inertia a bit.
Added some inertia to rolling.

Tech level rewards

• All ammo/shield upgrades are now +10, added a few more of them.
  
• Total maximums for ammo/shields are now 150 at max tech level, and max level is now 26.
  
• Changed order of weapon tech rewards.
  

 

Fixed issue with saving/loading current weapon setup.

Fixed issue where Continue button was disabled initially even if a save existed.

Fixed issue where starting weapons could be incorrect on New Game start.

Fixed issue where the walker boss didn't want to step on lava.

New level: Peer to the future via glass tunnels in Preview.

New secondary weapons: slice through groups of bots with Plasma Blade and go brrrr with Gatling.

New enemy types: Bombers with bombs splitting to delayed bullets, new icy Destroyer variant.

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Preview (new level): Level where you get a glimpse of the future by entering white area through blue area, blue through green, green through red, and red through yellow. Also features two new enemy types.

Ice environment: New door model and animations

Tech point pickup interact range increased.

Gatling Gun (New secondary)

• Rapid-firing dual gatling with decent accuracy.
  
• 8 damage/bullet
  
• 1000 bullets per minute
  
• 0.2 ammo/shot
  

Plasma Blade (New secondary)

• Wide horizontal cone of plasma which slices through enemies.
  
• Damage is reduced by distance.
  
• 120 damage at short range, 6 ammo.
  

Ice Destroyer (New enemy): Destroyer variant which fires delayed bullets and homing missiles.

Ice bomber (New enemy): Fires bombs which break into delayed bullets on wall impact.


Fixed issue with 3D path mesh normals.

Fixed issue with some light effects.