Zerograve News

Difficulty: Now with 4 levels of difficulty. Affects enemy movement, health, damage etc, and enemy attack patterns become significantly tougher going from Normal to Hard.

Beams: New enemy types whose attack creates a beam when hitting a wall.

Booms: Exploding enemies and boxes which can destroy each other in spectacular chain reactions.

New secondary weapons: Sniper-like Slayer Bolt, and slow-moving Nova Bomb with a huge explosion.

Environments: New tileset for fire-themed environment, and added post-processing and particle effects to match environments.

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Four difficulty levels: Easy, Normal, Hard, Insane. Difficulty can be selected when starting new game and in Level Select screen.

• Easy: 40% less damage to player, enemies move around a bit less and other minor changes.
  
• Normal: (default)
  
• Hard: most enemy attacks modified (e.g. more bullets, wider attack cones. See below for details), small stat buffs for enemies
  
• Insane: larger buffs for enemies (+100% damage, +60% hp, much faster, move around more, etc)
  

Enemy attack changes going from Normal->Hard:

• Normal->Hard enemy attack changes:
  
• Scout L1 (white): 1->3 bullets
  
• Scout L2 (green): 2->4 bullets and faster fire rate.
  
• Heavy laser: 6->12 bullets per attack.
  
• Bruiser balls L1: 3->6 balls + wider cone
  
• Bruiser balls L2: 5->9 balls + wider cone
  
• Homing missile: 2->4 missiles and faster fire rate
  
• Plasma bomber: 1->2 bombs
  
• Bouncing baller: 3->5 balls
  
• Destroyer: 7->12 laser bullets, 2->3 balls+wider cone
  
• Blue scout: 8->12 bullets + wider cone
  
• Blue heavy: 9->18 bullets, doubled cone
  
• Turret L1: 5->7 bullets, faster fire rate
  
• Turret L2: 5->9 bullets, wider cone
  

New mechanic - Wallbeam: Bullet which creates a beam orthogonal to the wall it hit, lasting a few seconds. Touching a beam causes 10 damage and removes the beam.

Wallbeam Scout (new enemy) - fires 2 bullets which create wall-beams

Wallbeam Heavy (new enemy) - fires 4 bullets in a cone

Exploder (new enemy) - explodes on death, attacks by charging and self-destructs if it gets close to player.

Changes to existing

• Increased tech point rewards for some newer enemies.
  
• Green melee enemy: Model modified. Now does dive attacks instead of constantly moving towards player.
  
• Homing missile damage increased 8->10
  
• Scout L3: Increased dodge maneuvers cooldown.
  

New behaviour - Dive attack: Enemy decelerates and takes aim towards player, then moves directly forward and attacks if player doesn't get out of the way.

New weapons:

Slayer Bolt (New secondary): Accurate sniper bolt with heavy single-target damage.
120 damage / 6 cost.

Nova Bomb (New secondary): Slow-moving bomb with massive explosion, capable of annihilating a group of weaker enemies.
150 damage near explosion center, +50 damage on direct hit / 20 cost.
(Explosion damage on self is reduced so you don't accidentally die too easily from it.)

Changes:
Chainsaw: now acquires targets in a small cone, instead of having to directly point at an enemy.
Lock-on range reduced 12->10, leash range 17->12, leash angle 40->30.
Zapper: Ball now has a fixed duration of 4 seconds, instead of a limited number of zaps.


Beaming (new level): Contains plenty of enemies firing wallbeam bullets.

Explosive (new level): Contains lots of exploder enemies and explosive boxes with several chain reaction opportunities.



Added new fire-themed tileset/environment (Mad Hot, RIsing Heat, and Explosive levels now use this)

 

• Lighting, postprocessing etc effect now are different in different kinds of environments.
  
• Added fog effect (distant places fade towards a color).
  
• Added particle effects, e.g. fiery sparks, chilly fog etc.
  

 

Updated box prop visuals
Added explosive boxes

 

Main menu flow changed; added Continue button which loads last save, and Slot Select which allows selecting save slot. New Game section now allows selecting starting difficulty.

Key icon in UI now looks more like the actual keys ingame

Tech point info is now always displayed on the UI; current points, a bar showing progress to next level, and current level.

New message for level up, which also describes what was gained.

Map display: Edges brightened a bit

Some map generation optimizations, resulting in slightly reduced level load times.

Curve paths can now show on map and use occlusion culling.

 

Fixed issue where control rebinding could stop working until game was restarted (happened if that menu was accidentally closed while changing a bind)

Hot: Fight the new 4-legged walker boss in a heated battle.

Cold: Face two new enemy types with delayed bullets in the chilly Hail level.

More: Added Line Laser weapon, removed friction against walls, enemy pathfinding update and much more.

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Mad Hot (New boss + level): Level with short start section leading to boss. Hot Hatter is a 4-legged walker boss with destroyable weapons. (Note that this level is before "Cryptic")

Hail (New level): Ice-style level with 2 new enemy types.

Loading screens: Now shows level name, index and a short description (description currently for only a couple of levels).

Key pickup effect updated. Keys now hover over an access node thingy from which the power line going to door starts.

Changes to existing levels

• Updeep - added tutorial screen about weapon configuration and tech levels at start.
  
• Glasskey - a few changes to the drone part tubes and other
  
• Vertical - changed end zone to encounter battle instead of reactor
  
• Highway - minor changes
  
• Red door is redder in map view
  
• Ice biome - glow edges adjusted
  

Danger Below - boss:

• removed initial enemies from boss area
  
• encounter now starts by picking up key
  
• added lockdown
  
• modified arena
  

New mechanic: delayed bullets which move very slow for 0.5 secs, then accelerate to high speed. Trajectory is indicated with a line.

Icy Scout (NEW ENEMY): Swift small enemy. Attacks with diagonal cones of delayed bullets.

Icy Bruiser (NEW ENEMY): Attacks with a wide cone of delayed bullets, alternating between horizontal and vertical.

Changes:

• Destroyer: Balls attack cone is wider and fires more bullets at a time, but fewer times.
  
• Blue baller: speed increased, cone width increased, AI preference for maximum distance to player increased.
  
• Green melee: move speed increased
  

Movement: Reduced friction from enemy wall collisions so they get around corners faster

Pathfinding update: Implemented new enemy 3D pathfinding system (old system used multithreading and caused some unpredictable side-effects).

Effects: Added a bit of randomness to enemy death sequence duration. Also the model now disappears with a slight delay after the death explosion has started.

Damage flash on boss parts: Destroyable boss parts now have a damage flash effect separate from the boss (dealing damage to main body only flashes things belonging to it). Also those parts have a different effect.

Health bars:

• Added a small flash effect on the enemy healthbar when doing damage, and a bigger flash when enemy is destroyed.
  
• Boss health now shows only on the separate boss bar (so progress on destroying boss parts is easier to see)
  

Enemies drop resource pickups more rarely in a pseudo-random fashion. Value from pickups slightly increased. Also, if shields are at lower percentage, they are slightly more likely to drop, vice versa for ammo.

Pickups found in levels are no longer picked up if the resource is at maximum to avoid accidentally wasting them. Model also updated for those pickups.

Added two big resource pickup types with +40 shields and +40 ammo.


Line Laser (NEW WEAPON): Fires 5 laser bullets in a wide horizontal line with very low spread.

Changes

• Quadual Laser: cooldown 0.25->0.3
  
• Chainsaw: damage per second 60->80. Increased maximum allowed angle before blade returns. When using without target, blade is now directly in front instead of slightly to the side.
  
• Homing Missiles: damage 25->40, cost 4->5, cooldown 0.3->0.4
  
• Plasma gun: cooldown 0.45->0.4. Bullet model updated.
  

Descriptions updated for some weapons. Also added ammo costs to secondary weapon description.


Removed friction when moving against walls.

Added option to limit look rate when using mouse. With this, look rate is limited to the same value as gamepad rotation with the "fast turn at max input" enabled.


Key indicator size increased

Active sonar is now disabled by default, can be enabled from settings.

When active sonar enabled:

• Added a little progress bar while enabling map display.
  
• Reduced hold time to activate full map 0.5->0.4 sec.
  
• If holding map button when not in full map view, full view gets activated.
  

Changed brightness setting to use a color correction curve instead of separately adjusting lights. Performance is improved especially for weapons which have many bullets with lights (e.g. Burst Laser)

Visuals now are more consistent between different brightness levels.


"OUT OF AMMO" text moved to the ammo bar and changed to "NOT ENOUGH AMMO".

"Door Opened" text removed to reduce captain obvious-ness.

Green status messages: Added a little animation when message appears.

Main menu visuals slightly modified

"Help" section of menu updated.

Pause menu UI slightly updated, renamed "Abort Mission" -> "Go to Level Select" to better describe what it's about.

Level Select screen modified to make room for more levels.

Targeting reticle is now about 33% bigger

Passive headlight dimmed.


Fixed issue where "Rising Heat" level was missing (it incorrectly loaded the "Danger Below" level instead)

Settings menu: "Reset defaults" now updates all sliders/toggles to the default value (the button worked but the sliders etc didn't get updated).

New content: Missile Massacre weapon, Bouncer enemy, Cryptic level.

Movements: Trichording added, adjustable rotation inertia, increased movement inertia.

Enemy animation: Added inertia to enemy fins and other parts to make them more lively.

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Missile Massacre (NEW WEAPON): Unleash lots of ricocheting seeker missiles. Very expensive and powerful.

Homing missiles: Homing rate significantly increased, especially when missile is near target. Cost reduced but now fires only 1 missile at time

Chainsaw: hitting effects adjusted

Burst Laser: bullet pattern spread reduced a bit, max range increased

Zapper: Damage reduced a bit

Improved hit registering on enemies for fast-moving bullets (e.g. lasers)



Added some new music and replaced old ones.

Music changes while a lockdown encounter is active.



Movements

• Removed acceleration bonus when switching directions
  
• Trichording added
  
• Increased inertia (ship takes longer to stop after movement)
  
• Adjusted acceleration
  
• Movement sound logic updated.
  

Settings

• Twitch aim toggle removed
  
• Added rotation inertia setting slider with 4 states
  
• Lowest setting is much faster than previous non-twitch, but not quite twitch anymore
  

Sonar ping

• Enemy locations are now displayed if the ping reaches them. (this may be changed to an upgrade bonus later)
  

Textures brightened a bit

Turrets: Models modified, wreck is now darker color.

Bouncer (NEW ENEMY): Fires balls which bounce off walls.

Plasma Bomber: Updated model, weapon and stats. Tougher and more accurate than before.

Orange short-range: Model, stats and AI updated. Attack changed to horizontal cone of 3 energy blades.

Effects: Modified some bullet models. Updated some effects and added new effects for bullet launches etc.

Destroyer (orange enemy w many guns): Size reduced, added movement behaviours, increased move/rotation rates, updated weapons.

Animation: Added some inertia to movement of fins, wings and other parts for most enemies. Also changed many trail effects from particles to continuous lines.



Cryptic (NEW LEVEL): Maze-like level where map may be needed occasionally.

Level updates:

• Tutorial: Boss room changed to a lockdown encounter
  
• Trifork: Replaced some Destroyers with other enemies
  

Tips: Added loadscreen tip about ammo mechanics and updated some old tips.

Crafting menu: The menu now shows all weapons in the same screen, so weapon system doesn't need to be chosen first anymore.

Green text removal: Removed most of the green texts on the right side of screen. Shield and ammo gains are now displayed next to resource bar, and tech point gains are displayed for a few seconds in low left corner.

Lockdown encounters: Added message on start and end.



Increased ammo/shield values from pickups lying around in level. Values from enemy drops reduced slightly.

Pickups no longer "slurp" towards player and instead are picked up at a slightly longer range.

Updated effects for loot.



Fixed issue where Zapper could zap enemies which didn't exist yet.

Fixed minor issue with loading screen

Fixed issue where last tech rewards were not shown in the tech section of menu. (also updated that section a bit)

Fixed issue with keyboard horizontal UI navigation

New weapons: Shred bots to pieces with Chainsaw and electrocute enemies with bouncing Zappers.

New level: Escape rising lava while fighting waves of enemies.

Unlimited energy: Energy resource removed from the game.

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New Weapon: Zapper (Secondary)

• Fires a bouncing ball which zaps nearby enemies up to 20 times. Slows down while within zap range of enemies. Replaces Ball Lightning.
  

New Weapon: Chainsaw (Primary)

• Hovering sawblade which attaches to an enemy and saws it until dead.
  

Homing missiles

• Lock-on angle reduced
  

Energy costs

• Energy-resource removed from the game.
  
• Energy pickups changed to smaller ammo pickups.
  

Lasers:

• Sound and visuals updated a bit
  
• Quadual laser bullet speed increased to match other laser weapons, added small move speed reduction while firing.
  

Level-up rewards:

• Max energy bonuses replaced with some ammo/hp bonuses
  
• Added new weapons as rewards.
  

Controls:

• Movement controls in the outside map view now match regular move controls much closer.
  
• Added a bit of roll/bank while rotating sideways. Weapons roll slightly more for effect.
  
• Added separate configurable axis for continuous roll.
  
• Added setting to toggle auto-leveling (aligning ship with nearby walls)
  
• Added compass orb which describes your current orientation. Can be toggled from settings.
  

Resources:

• Shield & ammo pickup sounds changed.
  
• Resources can no longer get reduced after changing level.
  
• Health is also fully restored on level change.
  

HUD

• Crosshair updated
  
• Resource bars updated
  
• Weapon texts moved to right corner
  
• Distance text removed
  
• Added option to hide HUD overlay lines thing
  

Rising Heat (New level): Escape a flood of rising lava while fighting waves of enemies.

Edges: Modified model for more bulky glowy edges, especially in the white areas. Also reduced brightness of some glowy materials.

Redball: Added red energy tubes from the red area. Minor other changes.

Guide paths: The moving thingy is now colored when player has key and gray otherwise. Also slightly updated textures.

Path mesh: Fixed a couple of issues with 3D path mesh UV mapping. Some of them look slightly different.



Hit/death effects

• Enemies now have a red flash effect on hit. More damage equals stronger effect.
  
• Removed the little fiery effect on hit.
  
• Updated death sequence effects.
  

Melee Plasma Exploder: Added a short-range dodge/spin behaviour + changed movement trails

Blue Homer: Added a dodge behaviour where they spin 360. Also changed trail to 2 continuous lines.

Scouts

• Green scout movement behaviour is now more like the weaker scouts, so they move around more.
  
• Adjusted behaviors so they turn differently during long moves.
  
• Changed movement trails to use continuous lines instead of particles.
  
• Green scout area light reduced
  

Fixed map creation issue where some objects were duplicated.

Fixed issue where enemy AI would try to move to positions out of LoS

Fixed issue where the map sonar ping looked janky if player rotated while it was expanding.

Fixed issue with some enemy weapons if going out of sight after they started firing charge-up.

Small reactor turret: missing weapon rotation limit direction fixed

Controls: Gamepad support improved, key rebinding added, movement model updated

Map display: Levels can now be viewed from the outside in a separate view (by holding map button).

New level: Featuring 4 encounters where the zone locks down and enemies appear in waves.

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Controls are now done using Rewired addon.

Controls customization added to Settings menu.

Any axis can also be inverted (click the double arrow icon next to axis)

Gamepad UI navigation improved so it should now be possible to navigate all UI sections.


- Faster turn at max input: turn 50% faster when at >90% look input.

- Twitch rotation: disables rotation inertia.

- Visual quality level adjust


New style for buttons, menus modified a bit

Settings menu now has separate sections for Controls, Sound & Music, Visuals., Control Mapping.


New level - Redball. Features new type of combat encounters where a zone locks down and enemies spawn in waves.

Occlusion culling: Occlusion culling is now used which improves performance. Basically optimizes off-screen areas so they use less resources.

Intro: Updated text to give a better idea of the situation + updated visuals.


Added outside map view (hold map button to enable)

Adjusted transparent map materials/model

Added indicators for doors, keys, start location and exit

Simultaneous firing: Primary and secondary weapons can be fired simultaneously

Ammo for all secondaries: Plasma Orb and Ball Lightning now use ammo instead of energy, so all secondary weapons use ammo

Added rotation inertia (~0.2s for 90% rotation, ~0.4s for 99%)

Acceleration adjusted

Slightly slower movement stop.

Base movement speed increased by about 40%.

Sideways and backwards speed are now same as forward speed.

Turbo removed for now, may come back later in some form.


Scouts (the smallest enemies) move around a lot more and spin while doing so.


The quality / input customization screen is no longer displayed when launching game most of those can now be done ingame.

(Fullscreen/windowed mode and resolution selection may be added later to settings if needed)