Escape From Mandrillia News

Small one here, finishing up the wrist menu and cleaning up the menu scene a bit to better fit its upcoming final form.

• Wrist Menu now has three different sections: Main, VR, and LIV
  
• VR player preferences ported from the screen next to the Robot in the main menu to the VR section of the Wrist Menu
  
• Shuffled around the Preset and Bot Options screens on the main menu
  
• The old "RADAR" match setting now renamed "MOTION SENSOR"; it enables/disables the motion sensor functionality in the Multitool
  
• Left-handed holster mode no longer needs a scene reset
  
• Fixed visual bug where the main menu screens would show a wrong selected preset when starting the main menu scene with a custom preset
  
• Tweaked some of the preset text
  

Hello everyone! Another update with small changes that should make the game more engaging for both VR and PC players

I'm pretty happy with the state of Mandrillian's upgrades, but there was a pretty obvious outlier. The Scanner was pretty much useless and overshadowed by upgrades both cheaper and more expensive (even if it did look pretty cool).

Until now, the Scanner did a... well, scan of the area. If the lasers touched a Robot, it would get a marker showcasing its position for a while. It also replaced the scent tracking, making it the only upgrade that wasn't a Berserk replacement. It wasn't precisely an amazing upgrade, especially at its price point.

Enter the Jammer.



This rework of the Scanner still has the cool looking laser swipe effect, but for just 1 second. If there are jam-able stuff in the laser's range (around 5 meters on a ~200º radius in front of the Mandrillian), it will let out a disruption pulse.

These are the things that are affected by the pulse:

• Multitool force-uncloaks and gets prevented from cloaking again for 5 seconds
  
• Sentry Turret gets jammed for 10 seconds
  
• Gate Consoles freeze up for 10 seconds (loading screen freezes, button inputs don't register)
  
• Closed gates (keycard operated) are forced open
  
• Armed mines and C4 charges get disarmed
  

This makes the Jammer a pretty good deal for 400 points. In fact, it was such a good deal that the Healer is now also 400 points instead of 500, and the Fire Bomb is now 200 instead of 250. There's still probably some more adjusting to do so all upgrades are equally attractive, but I think it's starting to balance out pretty nicely. Cheaper upgrades can be good for annoying the Robot early-game, forcing it to waste resources but preventing the Mandrillians from saving up enough points for beefier upgrades. Mid-tier upgrades are good disruptors and can counter some of the Robot's common strats (with the Plasma Turret being able to blow up barrels, the Jammer disabling explosives and traps and the Healer negating poison smoke). And top-tier upgrades (the Self-Destruct and the Armor) are high-risk, high-reward "finishers" that can win a match while still being countered by a smart Robot.

With this out of the way, it's time for me to start working on the Main Menu scene and removing all the remaining placeholders. Stay tuned!

[h3]CHANGELOG[/h3]

• Scanner upgrade rework: now called the Jammer
  
  
• Decreased Fire Bomb price from 250 to 200 points
  
• Decreased Healer price from 500 to 400 points, making it the same as the Jammer
  
• Fixed some clipping geometry on the map
  
  
• Mutitool now counts as "cloaked" for an extra second after decloaking (the time it takes for the cloak FX transition to fully finish). This means you can no longer quickly tap decloak, fire/use the shocker the very next frame then re-cloak again without getting the battery drain/heat buildup penalty
  
• Multitool's shock now more effective against multiple insectoids surrounding you
  
• Small noises (sprinting footsteps, automatic doors) minimap notification radius reduced from 15 to 14 meters
  
• Keycard Gate noise minimap notification radius reduced from 60 to 45 meters
  
• Slightly increased average duration of the elevator's loading screens
  
• More code optimization
  

Hello there! I promised some hefty reworks so here we are.

[h2]WRIST DEVICE[/h2]
Having the Multitool's screen display the VR player's health made sense when I started developing the game, as it was basically attached to you. After the addition of the Akimbo setting, I awkwardly added a little heart on the left wrist to somehow track your current HP. Later, I added a menu on the right hand with some options. Then, I added the little floating timer for timed mission mode...



It was about time I streamlined all of this. Now, your wrist device will handily show your health while also holding the menu and a timer for the mission. It also displays the blocking shield level for the Warrior skin (that until now was an invisible value), and pretty soon it will also display the heat level (useful to know how long until your overclock or overheating ends). It's also a good reminder to heal while two-handing a weapon, as players sometimes get lost in the moment with catastrophic results.

[h2]MULTITOOL: MOTION SENSOR, BETTER HEAT METER[/h2]
With the Multitool being free of the HP indicator, the left bar now displays the heat level. Until now, the heat level was a kinda hard to see dotted bar next to the battery level.

And here's the big rework. The Radar is no more, having become the Motion Sensor.

I noticed the Radar was not very fun for the Robot nor the Mandrillians. For the Robot, flicking the switch was awkward and annoying, and the battery drain was not worth it compared with the cloak and shock. A lot of times, the Radar was only used for a second right before exiting a checkpoint. For the Mandrillians this was also frustrating: with the flick of a switch, the Robot could immediately reveal your carefully planned hiding spot.

The Motion Sensor tries to fix all of these issues. It's always on, and does not drain battery. But as you might have guessed, it's based on motion: a Mandrillian standing still will have no motion signature. Sneaking will update your signature roughly every 5 seconds, and walking/running will be a constant display. This has proven to make matches way more engaging, tense and tactical.



[h2]TUTORIALIZATION/ONBOARDING: GAME TIPS[/h2]
It's been a while since I wanted to streamline my clumsy attempt at a tutorial, but all these changes finally forced me as it made half of it obsolete.

While my original idea of a "Virtual Training" for the VR side tutorials was sort of nice on paper, the execution was a bit boring. Enter the in-game tips!



Enabled by default (can disable or reenable them at any point by using the brand new wrist menu) they will teach any new player the basics to play an Escape from Mandrillia match. They're also easy to translate for when I finally get to that...

[h2]NEXT UP: SCANNER UPGRADE REWORK, FINAL MANDRILLIAN TUTORIAL[/h2]
With the VR player onboarding out of the way, it makes sense that I'll focus next on bringing back the Mandrillian tutorials (that also got scrapped along the way as they got obsolete). This will be a perfect oportunity to give the Main Menu a good polish pass and FINALLY allow the VR player to pick up the Multitool that has been sitting there like a prop since the beginning.

However, before that I'm giving the Mandrillian's Scanner upgrade a massive set of buffs. Stay tuned because that will arrive later this month!

[h3]CHANGELOG:[/h3]

• Added wrist device displaying HP, shield level, match time and containing the menu
  
• Multitool's Radar is now a Motion Sensor: no battery drain, blips based on enemy speed
  
• Removed the "Basic Tutorial", replaced it with in-game tips
  
• Added option to toggle Insectoid shadows (off by default)
  
• Increased the damage Insectoids do to Mandrillians
  
• Insectoids are now attracted to the noise of yellow keycard checkpoint gates (I'm sorry)
  
• Insectoids now fit through the small opening at yellow keycard checkpoint gates (I'm really sorry)
  
• Small improvements in performance
  
• Slightly increased Robot's sprint speed, noticeably increased Robot's walk speed
  
• Fixed bug that allowed the Robot to move at walking speed while crouching
  

Hello there! Today's update FINALLY features the long-awaited Insectoid enemies.




As some of you may know, the concept for these lil guys has been around practically since the game's Early Access release. They predate the Mandrillian bots -back then I didn't think I had the skill to do any "intelligent" enemy. Mindless swarming insects were the only thing I thought myself capable to do for a single-player experience.

First design of the insectoids, dating back to the Early Access release

Luckily, the Mandrillian bots ended up being a thing. I still wanted to have the Insectoids, but I didn't like the idea of a simple swarm enemy. I wanted something that had the creepy factor of an actual insect, not a walking target that just beelined you. I needed to nail the movement and the behaviour, and I'm pretty happy with the results. I made them small, twitchy, and overall very different from the Mandrillians. I also wanted them to feel less like a swarm and more like a special encounter/disruption, which means that on standard modes you really won't be seeing them much.

First test of the Insectoid movement patterns

Insectoids are not out there to hunt you. They spawn on corpses and munch on them for a while, before moving on to other corpses. If you go near them, they will start their little threat display, and only if you really annoy them will they start attacking you.

They're also pretty easy to kill, being 1-shot by most weapons and even your fists. They also die from poison gas and react strongly to light sources (your flashlight will make them very angry, flash grenades will make them scatter like roaches).

Unlike Mandrillians, closing a door won't keep them away -they are small enough to fit through the little vents I added recently. While a single Insectoid is barely a threat, be careful about making loud noises (for example, unsilenced shots), or you might end up surrounded by an angry swarm.

They are also hostile to the Mandrillians (both human and computer-controlled), but any Mandrillian attack tears through them like butter, so they are little more than a distraction for them.

Like everything else in the game, Insectoids can be disabled or ramped up with Match Settings. By default, Standard matches will have the infestation level on "Minimum" and with no respawns, which means there'll be just a couple bugs scattered around the map, and once they're dead, they're gone for good. Other modes will have them fully disabled, and others will have a higher infestation level with respawns enabled.

Insectoid concept - I scrapped glowy eyes as I find it more fun for them to blend with the darkness


Besides the Insectoids, this update has some other stuff that should make the game more enjoyable.

[h2]FIXING CRAPPY CODE[/h2]
While working on the Insectoids, I discovered that a piece of code I was using since the very beginning of development was absolutely atrocious, causing a ridiculous amount of garbage allocation per frame (this is what you get from using free assets from the asset store, kids). The good news is that it was easy to fix, and this also kickstarted a now ongoing search for any other code that could be having an unnecessary performance hit. Expect better performance on upcoming updates!

[h2]FIXING CRAPPY CAMERA[/h2]
Until now, the camera for the Mandrillians had the same sensitivity for the X and Y axis. This meant that, when playing with a controller, a lot of times you could accidentally end up with either a screen full of monkey butt or looking straight down at the floor.

As a Mandrillian, you don't really need to look up or down that much, so by halving the camera sensitivity in the Y axis I think I've managed to make the game feel way better. It's also great for the Plasma Gun upgrade, as aiming with it should be easier!

This change doesn't affect mouse camera movement, as that is way more precise.

[h2]FIXING CRAPPY SMG[/h2]
The iconic SMG just got a buff, as it felt way underwhelming compared with the rest of the sidearms. Damage per shot has been increased, as well as rate of fire. I've also slightly increased the muzzle climb (especially when firing one-handed) and made its muzzle flash three times as big for good measure. Now it should feel like the spray-and-pray bullet hose it's supposed to be. Try it while overclocked!

[h2]NEXT UP: PROPER TUTORIALIZATION AND FINAL REWORKS[/h2]
After this update, Im gonna focus on finally replacing the very outdated VR player tutorial (probably with an in-game tips system).

Mandrillians used to have video tutorials on the Main Menu that got scrapped after they got outdated; this will also see a return, but with a twist. Stay tuned!

Other things that are in desperate need of a revamp are the wrist menu (I should make it look nicer and hopefully include the bulk of the VR player settings, like calibration and controller options), the Multitool's radar (which I'm considering turning into a full-on motion sensor that doesn't use battery), and the Dart Gun (which at the moment simply sucks).

[h3]FINAL NOTES: STEAM TRADING CARDS[/h3]
More than a year ago, Escape from Mandrillia was cleared for trading cards and points shop stuff. I've been neglecting that as working on the game was the main priority (and I didn't want to just have screenshots as trading cards). Now, I'm happy to say Mandrillia will soon have a proper set of trading cards with full illustrations by the amazingly talented iidarts! Here's a sneak preview of one of them:



And that's all for now. Have a nice day!

[h3]CHANGELOG[/h3]

• Added new enemy: Insectoids
  
• New bot setting: Insectoid infestation level
  
• New bot setting: Insectoid respawning
  
• Added different Insectoid settings for different Match Presets
  
• Halved vertical axis camera sensitivity on controller
  
• Fixed some bad unoptimized code
  
• SMG: slightly increased fire of rate
  
• SMG: slightly increased damage
  
• SMG: slightly increased muzzle climb (especially one-handed)
  
• SMG: made muzzleflash bigger