Beat Invaders News

Hey everyone!

With this patch some new features made it into the game.


I knew for quite a while that some runs can really take some time. And there is nothing worse then having to cancel a run just because of running out of time to play.

[h2]In-run saving[/h2]
Now it is possible to leave a run and continue it later from the last successful wave.


[h2]Profiles (Save Slots)[/h2]
Another feature that is especially helpful when multiple people play on one machine are the Profiles (Save Slots). You can now select from three Profiles that will track progress individually.


[h2]Tutorials[/h2]
I also know that some game mechanics were never really explained very well - for example the Enemy Links. To help with that I added a series of small in-game tutorials, highlighting and explaining the different core mechanics. If you are a Veteran, you can of course disable the tutorials in the game options.


[h2]Performance Boost[/h2]
The games performance was improved. This will be especially noticable on the Steam Deck and in scenes with a lot of enemies. This should also help a bit with the battery drain on the Steam Deck 🔋

[h2]Railgun Class rework[/h2]
Before this patch, the Railgun class felt a bit on the weak side. Especially the game design around the Attack Boost was a bit weird. Fire Rate was an upgrade that really only helped for Attack Boost while Charge Level did not help a lot there. This left players at a decision on upgrades that always felt a bit meh.



The rework did the following:

• When having an Attack Boost, the charge rate is doubled and the shots are automatically released when fully charged.
  
• Fire Rate was removed from the Upgrade Pool.
  
• A new Upgrade was added to the Pool: Discharge (The first hit of the railgun explodes, dealing 30% of the charged damage. - Upgrades increase the explosion size.)
  
• This Upgrade will also help with horizontal clear speed.
  

[h2]Smaller Changes[/h2]

• Hyperbeam can now be chained (using a Hyperbeam while a Hyperbeam is active will restart it.)
  
• Spreadshot Class: Spread Upgrade now also increases Damage.
  
• A bug was fixed where sometimes it was not possible to use a Repair Bot even though it should have been.
  
• Smaller bug fixes.
  

I just deployed another quick patch, it fixes a visual bug that was introduced with the last patch.
It also rebalances two things that I was looking into for quite a while.

Bugfixes

• Turrets on the destroyer had no Texture and were displayed as white.
  

Balance changes

• All ships received a slight increase in their base speed.
  
• Enemy projectiles were slightly slowed down.
  
• Destroyer turrets now reward an Upgrade Token on destruction (Shield Tower reward three Tokens)
  
• Destroyer turrets now take longer to reload on normal difficulty
  

I hope these changes make the game more enjoyable!

Hey everyone,

after seeing some new players play the game live, I noticed that the color of the Upgrade Tokens in game can be very misleading.

I changed it to a blue color now and added an additional trail to make it look more like some "energy ball" that you can collect.

I hope this change will help new players to not run away from Upgrade Tokens.

Also, the upgrade menu between waves was slightly adjusted, pressing two times in the same direction to select an upgrade is no longer an option as it often lead to players choosing an upgrade without reading or even wanting to select the upgrade. Now it is mandatory to press the accept button to select an upgrade - A button prompt was added to the screen.

The Upgrade screen was also increased in size to allow for a bigger font size - it was especially small on the Steam Deck.

Apart from those changes, a bug was fixed on the Railgun Ship class when the main gun was charging while an Attack Boost was activated.

I hope you enjoy the new changes and it's not too confusing for Veteran players!

Good luck in your runs!
Raffaele

Hey everyone,

thanks to everyone that used the feedback feature of the game to send in suggestions and bug reports.
It weren't many, but I finally found time to tackle them!

Here are the most recent changes:

• Rebalanced the Railgun Class, the charge time is now much more consistent and shorter in higher Charge upgrade levels.
  
• Increased the width of the Railgun projectile.
  
• Made the Railgun feel more powerful (sounds and visual effects).
  
• Fixed a bug when the Convoy was not going to cover behind the player when activating an Attack Boost right after another Attack Boost ran out.
  
• Slightly reduced the overall glow effect of the game.
  
• Ship Meta Upgrade cost was overall reduced, some perks were slightly increased in cost - this will reduce the "grind".
  
• Fixed a translation file error in the Controls menu (rebinding controls popup).
  

Hey everyone,

first of all - sorry for the last days. There were two patches, especially 2.1.4 that were far from perfect and introduced some new bugs.

But thanks to user using the new "Feedback" feature, I was able to quickly identify the bugs and patch them.

One issue is fixed in this patch: The Drone groups were not "bouncing" off the screen edge anymore.

One change is also done to the balancing: Drone groups will now also spawn on easy difficulty.

I will try my best to improve the patch quality in the future!