Update - Surge difficulties, pacing + balance changes and more!
[h2]Introducing new difficulty levels: Surge Levels[/h2]
New game plus is here! I'm very excited to introduce this feature and I hope it extends the enjoyment folks get out of the game tremendously. This is another major feature on the roadmap so we are getting very close to having all those features ready for a full release. Here's how the roadmap looks now:
When you finish a run for the first time you'll unlock an new "Surge Difficulty Level". During your next run you can increase the difficulty on the ship select screen. If you complete a run on that surge level you'll unlock a new one (up to five levels right now). Each level will have an augment that will make the game a bit harder and contain all augments from the previous levels. For example, level three will add an augment that gives a shield to small enemy ships when they spawn and additionally civilian deaths will also accumulate over regions and you will get no progression upgrades at the start of regions (augments from previous levels). Here's the list of levels and their augments:
Along with these difficulties new Steam achievements have been added to the game for completing them. Pick your favorite ship get your achievements!
[h2]Game Pacing[/h2]
I'd like to reduce the reliance on "asteroid farming" for majority of the game. I do believe it can serve as a filler activity if there's zero other options but I'd like to make those down times happen less often. Additionally I'd like to make the act of farming asteroids a little more interactive so I've created a small mini game with asteroids where there's a chance more valuable asteroids will break off and speed away creating a little more excitement when you have to resort to this activity.
The other approach I'm taking is increasing the visibility and value of enemy ship debris. This should make it so players only need to farm asteroids as a brief filler after they gather resources from ships they destroy. I've also added a obvious glow to the destructible debris so it's clear to new players they can be destroyed.
[h2]Balance and Tuning[/h2]
[h2]Fixes[/h2]
New game plus is here! I'm very excited to introduce this feature and I hope it extends the enjoyment folks get out of the game tremendously. This is another major feature on the roadmap so we are getting very close to having all those features ready for a full release. Here's how the roadmap looks now:
When you finish a run for the first time you'll unlock an new "Surge Difficulty Level". During your next run you can increase the difficulty on the ship select screen. If you complete a run on that surge level you'll unlock a new one (up to five levels right now). Each level will have an augment that will make the game a bit harder and contain all augments from the previous levels. For example, level three will add an augment that gives a shield to small enemy ships when they spawn and additionally civilian deaths will also accumulate over regions and you will get no progression upgrades at the start of regions (augments from previous levels). Here's the list of levels and their augments:
- Timetravelers will no longer join you on sequential runs and give progress upgrades.
- Civilian deaths will accumulate across every region. Maximum casualties allowed is increased by 50.
- Small enemies will start with a weak shield.
- Gear containers always start at the lowest tier.
- An additional planet attacking ship will spawn with each wave of Deadeye ships.
Along with these difficulties new Steam achievements have been added to the game for completing them. Pick your favorite ship get your achievements!
[h2]Game Pacing[/h2]
I'd like to reduce the reliance on "asteroid farming" for majority of the game. I do believe it can serve as a filler activity if there's zero other options but I'd like to make those down times happen less often. Additionally I'd like to make the act of farming asteroids a little more interactive so I've created a small mini game with asteroids where there's a chance more valuable asteroids will break off and speed away creating a little more excitement when you have to resort to this activity.
- Asteroids will occasionally spawn a fast moving "gold" and "silver" asteroids that will drop a lot more resources when destroyed.
The other approach I'm taking is increasing the visibility and value of enemy ship debris. This should make it so players only need to farm asteroids as a brief filler after they gather resources from ships they destroy. I've also added a obvious glow to the destructible debris so it's clear to new players they can be destroyed.
- Enemy debris will give more resources when destroyed.
- Enemy debris have an outline to show they can be destroyed.
[h2]Balance and Tuning[/h2]
- Final boss numbers have been slightly tuned down. With higher difficulties in the game I want the initial difficulty to be a bit more accessible.
- Enemies with auras will turn off when they start drifting.
- Enemies with auras will follow their lead ship more closely.
- Resource needed to power up shield generators has been increased slightly to compensate for increased resources given from other sources.
- Amount of large resources that spawn has been decreased to compensate for increased resources given from other sources.
- Reduced the cost and increased fire rate of multiple under powered weapons.
[h2]Fixes[/h2]
- Fine tuned some scaling issues with smaller UI scaling.