Enter the Chronosphere News

Today's update is a big one! As mentioned in our last update, we skipped a release to bundle in a bunch of progression changes.

[h2]Progression and story changes[/h2]

⚠️ When you first run the new build progress will be reset!

This is because we want you to experience the new progression from the start.

We've got some new core missions, and the character XP system has been replaced by special character missions. The mission screen has been given a bit of a glow up. Irregular spheres (unlocked by coordinates found during the run) are now accessible via their own dedicated screen so you can try them repeatedly until you finish them.

Characters are now able to use "tactics", which are a second passive ability. These can be unlocked by completing irregular spheres. Unlike passives, they're not locked to any one character, so either Urtar or Marcia is able to use them (and in future Lillypilly and the other planned characters of course!)

Besides a restructure to the missions, we've updated the narrative backgrounds so you can see different parts of the crew's ship, The Starseer. As a little teaser, we're also working on the ship so that you can see the crew hanging out in their home between missions (and listen in to their conversations).

We'd love to hear your feedback on all these changes. Are the missions fun? Are they interesting enough? Too hard, too slow, too many?

Besides those major changes, there are a lot of bugfixes and improvements, many of which are in response to feedback from our Discord members. Thank you to everyone who has submitted a bug report, idea or feedback. We read it all!



[h2]Localization[/h2]

We're now supporting Spanish, Russian, Brazilian Portuguese, Italian, Polish, and Chinese Traditional! We still don't have 100% human translation, but the languages are all there and the gaps have been filled by Google Translate (for now). We've also expanded the amount of human translated text, so things are slowly headed in the right direction.

[h2]Next release[/h2]

Our next planned release would land on new year's eve. Although we love making games, we're going to take a break so we'll be pushing it back until the following week (tentatively the 7th). Then we should be back to our regular programming of one release every two weeks.



[h2]🏓 Gameplay[/h2]

• Fixed an issue causing drilling projectiles to break when contacting specific interior walls.
  
• Updated Overclocked Bug Zapper (gear), Distracting (tactic) and Point Blank (mod) to use player aura.
  
• Fixed issues causing the player's aura to not appear when relevant equipment is held, and for those items to malfunction.
  
• Clockwork Fan can now redirect bombs and missiles.
  
• Crumbler minibombs now bounce, instead of sticking to walls.
  
• Fixed a bug where bombs colliding with hazards would instantly explode.
  
• Reworked item: Molestone Shot. Now triggers on wall hit, and 50% of the stones take an extra turn to explode. This makes it better at area denial, as well as fixing awkward edge cases where players were blowing themselves up with fire weapons. (Reported by @googlefrog)
  
• Reworked item: Hit and Grit. Now only grants grit on melee hits against undamaged enemies. This item was far too strong against bosses.
  
• Volley now adds spread, and has a clearer description. (Reported by @ninmonkey)
  
• Fixed issue where Starshard Unique "More Lasers", which claims to add more lasers, did not, in fact, add more lasers. Now adds more lasers.
  
• Fixed a bug where level 3 'Resting' mod was not fully reloading some weapons. (Reported by @rymarq)
  
• Fixed a bug where Siege Mode was applying to projectiles which did not originate from the player's weapon, i.e enfilade. (Reported by @gimbaaltroll)
  
• Empowered strike status reworked into "Power", a strike status which increases damage by 20% per stack to a maximum of 200%.
  
• Powerful now grants +2 Power to attacks.
  
• Many effects which increase damage now use Power instead.
  
• Fixed a bug where the Perfect Aim distortion granted Powerful, instead of perfect accuracy.
  
• Remove hitstop when enemies' melee clashes. This fixes excessive hitstop between Drilldrones spawned by Under New Management and enemy Drilldrones.
  
• Reduced collision radius of Orb of Porb.
  
• Flamelobber bombs now correctly fall into pits.
  
• Flamelobber bombs now correctly are deflected by melee attacks.
  
• Reworked Clockwork Slugger flow: Now throw ball on first attack, swing on subsequent attacks (or quickdraw).
  
• The mighty PORB fulfils it's destiny of sticking into people's faces.
  
• Fixed an issue causing Rexogenus to occasionally spawn minions outside of their arena before entering.
  
• Fix bug where Grapplebug would not fire its grapple beam.
  
• Wave spawning now spawns enemies continuously and with greater variation.
  
• Fixed an issue causing the exit to unlock 1 wave early in the exit ambush level event.
  
• Re-added Desperado enemies to the second half of all Outerback spheres.
  
• Fixed a nasty bug where dynamite and TNT could collide, exploding instantly.
  
• Added two new weapons to clockwork biome: Rivet, and Clockwork Fan.
  
• Fixed bug where Roarer Borers destroyed themselves with their own Megadrills.
  
• Reduced hitstop on Outlaw and Desperado enemy weapon hits.
  
• Fixed a bug where Ricochet Rifle unique 'Explosive Trick' was clearing its own bullets. (Reported by @megaquack)
  
• Enemies which explode on death now only do so at the very end of the turn.
  

[h2]🔊 Audio[/h2]

• Lots of new Weapon SFX.
  

[h2]🌏 Localization[/h2]

• Expand localization for existing languages.
  
• Added localization for Spanish, Russian, Portuguese (Brazil), Italian, Polish, and Chinese (Traditional).
  

[h2]✅ UI[/h2]

• Updated several lines of text to reflect the new "power" status functionality.
  
• Fixed typo in Horror Survival flavour text.
  
• Adjusted color of hits with increased power.
  
• Improved UI flow between stories and rewards.
  
• Hide Barrelman move indicator.
  
• Fixed case where character abilities could start unselected.
  
• Added styling for main and side missions.
  
• Cleaned up some descriptions relating to co-ordinates.
  
• Gave Uzi the more generic name "Machine Pistol".
  
• Added UI pointers for enemies which are blocking the exit as a result of an ambush event.
  
• Added Grit tooltip to Big Iron. (Reported by @brturn)
  
• Disallow progress reset during run.
  
• Return to title screen after resetting progress.
  
• Removed sphere select callouts for minibosses and the final boss.
  
• Fixed health bar getting stuck indicating low-health.
  
• Fix bug where move indicator would not hide when aiming a random attack weapon. Move indicator will now be visible on random weapons where the lunge is the same for all attacks (e.g. Pocket Pistol) and hidden for those where it varies (e.g. Acid Sac).
  
• Added missing rocket pistol ammo icon.
  
• Added missing ammo icon and audio to Radwave.
  
• Removed reference to 'items' in Wheels Within Wheels description.
  
• Fixed bug where reopening the Missions window didn't refresh the viewed details.
  
• Fixed gamepad soft-lock on character select screen when starting on a disabled character.
  
• Irregular spheres have a new dedicated menu 🪐
  
• Show a bubble above player's head when aiming quickdraw.
  
• Reverted sphere rotation on the selection menu to no longer be random.
  
• Fix bug where enemy aim indicators would turn red when player is making an invalid aim (e.g. aiming an empty gun or item with no charges).
  
• Fix bug where control prompt would overlap final boss health bar.
  
• Fixed incorrect description of overstimulator attack.
  
• Fixed issue where controls UI could inconsistently update when switching input device.
  
• Always show wait/reload UI above player when hovering/holding button.
  

[h2]📖 Story[/h2]

• Added a hold binding to skip dialogue completely.
  
• Reworked awkward line in 'One year later' conversation.
  
• Fixed a number of spelling errors.
  
• Urtar now only talks about Lillypilly's homeworld after she's mentioned it.
  

[h2]🖼️ Art[/h2]

• Removed camera transitions when entering and exiting gameplay.
  
• Updated character mission and dialogue icons.
  
• Enemy corpses now use lower contrast outlines.
  
• Added wall-base texture around the edges of cliffs to indicate you can't walk over them.
  
• Removed floor blending between different environment art themes.
  
• Fixed ragdolls disappearing close to the edges of the screen.
  
• While walking behind the boss, its tubes now fade out to avoid obscuring gameplay.
  

[h2]🦋 Progression[/h2]

• ⚠️ Force reset progression on first launch.
  
• Tactics are now available in demo.
  
• Tactics are now unlocked via irregular spheres.
  
• Character XP has been removed in favor of character missions.
  
• Fixed an issue where the mission 'Keep It Together' was completed with Urtar instead of Marcia.
  
• Unlocked tactics are now able to be used by any character.
  
• Added some new missions and unlockable passives for characters.
  
• Made certain weapons and gear unlockable via missions.
  
• Reworked biome gear/weapon missions to be based around discovering the equipment in special rooms.
  
• Nerfed "Highly Unstable" mission objective down from requiring instability level 8 to 5.
  
• Change "Weird Weapon" mission objective count to 12.
  

[h2]✅ UI[/h2]

• Fix bug where control prompts toggle would not apply immediately during a run.
  
• Control bindings are now styled differently from paragraph text.
  
• Fixed issue where post run statistics weren't updating.
  
• Fixed bug where ammo bar width failed to initialize (Reported by @googlefrog)
  
• Animated the item cooldown wipe.
  

[h2]🖼️ Art[/h2]

• Explosion scorch marks and cracks are masked off over holes.
  
• Fixed some projectiles receiving their own drop shadows.
  
• Silhouettes of projectiles obscured behind walls are now white for improved visibility.
  

[h2]🤖 Tech[/h2]

• Fix bug that could result in a softlock when restoring an incompatible save game file.
  

Check out the full changelog.





Just a reminder that we want to hear your feedback (good or bad) via Discord and Steam Discussions.

—Chronosphere Team

Hey everyone!

Apologies—we've decided to skip the demo update this week while we rework the progression a bit. This will change how things are unlocked and mission order etc.

The next update will erase saved progress so that everyone will can experience the new structure from the start. Obviously this is annoying, so we're taking the extra two weeks to make sure we have everything in place (and we don't need to do it again 😬).

I will take this opportunity to tease some of the stuff you can expect though...

• Tactics can be shared between all characters.
  
• Very cool new narrative backgrounds (see below).
  
• Doors! The open, they close.
  
• Ability to replay unlocked "irregular" runs whenever you like.
  
• Language support for Spanish, Russian, Brazilian Portuguese, Italian, Polish, and Chinese Traditional.
  
• And of course, the aforementioned progression changes.
  

Thank you for your patience
—Chronosphere team

We've made some fundamental changes to our our level generation system. This is the foundation for more complexity and variety of runs, as well as enabling more interesting mission objectives (stay tuned!).

We've also made a few of quality of life improvements, as well as the usual bugfixes and some tweaks to the new tutorial.

Our focus at the moment is building out more content and generally smoothing out the experience. We're always looking for feedback, especially if you're just playing for the first time. So let us know what you think of new changes, tell us about anything that irks you, and what else you'd like to see.

While some of the new content is for the release (no date announced yet), the next demo is going to include a few new missions and unlocks. :-)

[h2]Changelog[/h2]

[h2]🏓 Gameplay[/h2]

• Changed stabiliser heal to 40HP (from full heal). They now appear on nearly every floor.
  
• Updated the amount of enemies/hazards over the course of a full run.
  
• Removed the "Wild Card" irregular sphere.
  
• Cows no longer try to herd through walls.
  
• The final boss will now start spawned in, instead of appearing suddenly after 1 turn.
  
• Fixed a bug causing drilling and ricochet to occasionally fail with certain projectiles.
  
• Statuses now attribute to the last applicant, so gear like Company Policy will trigger when killing enemies with fire, poison etc.
  

[h2]🦋 Progression[/h2]

• Coordinates can now only appear after the first miniboss floor has been passed.
  

[h2]🖼️ Art[/h2]

• Updated tutorial hazards visuals.
  
• AOEs and explosion indicators should now correctly update when doors change between open/closed nearby.
  
• Fixed bug where spawn effects could persist when abandoning a run.
  
• Restored lighting on thrown weapons.
  

[h2]📚 Tutorialization[/h2]

• Added instruction to kill all targets in quickdraw tutorial when failure is triggered.
  

[h2]🗺️ Level Generation[/h2]

• Archways will no longer generate over doorways which are closely aligned with the camera direction. (Reported by @googlefrog)
  
• Created 3 new spheres for the main game, replacing the old ones.
  
• Small spheres now have 11 floors and large spheres have 15 floors.
  
• Small spheres have now have 1 main biome, and large spheres have 3 (in varying amounts).
  
• Added more authored layout generation to larger maps. Keep an eye out for the "chronut" floor!
  
• Updated grid generation to produce far less spindly areas around the perimeter of the map.
  
• Enabled generating floors in any order, reducing load time when restoring a an in-progress run.
  
• Removed Reality Leak and Biome Core special floors.
  
• Removed stabilizers from irregular spheres with special health-related mechanics.
  

[h2]✅ UI[/h2]

• Added callouts to various points of interest on the sphere select screen, such as specific rooms.
  
• Fix bug where control prompt would overlap final boss health bar.
  
• Fix bug where enemy aim indicators would turn red when making an invalid aim (e.g. aiming an empty gun or item with no charges).
  
• Add confirmation dialog before resetting progress from options.
  
• Show reload amount when hovering player for reload.
  
• Show item name when aiming item that's out of charges, cooling down, or otherwise unavailable.
  
• Fix issue where reload amount was not previewed when enemies were reloading.
  
• Moved narrative to a new system, this also fixes characters going off-screen on ultrawide. (Reported by @barrygillis)
  
• The amount reloaded is shown as text in the world.
  

[h2]🔊 Audio[/h2]

• Added Success and Failure SFX for Tutorial.
  
• New SFX for Twisted Biome Enemies
  

Check out the full changelog.



Just a reminder that we want to hear your feedback (good or bad) via Discord and Steam Discussions.

—Chronosphere Team

The biggest thing in 126 is the tutorial rework. We saw a lot of people struggling with it at PAX, so hopefully this new version creates a nicer intro to the game.

If you're reading this you've probably already completed the tutorial. If you're up to it, do us a solid give it a shot anyway. Let us know what you think. 😁

Also a few other fixes and changes below.

[h2]Changelog[/h2]

[h3]📚 Tutorialization[/h3]

• Reworked tutorial after watching people play at PAX Aus!
  

[h3]🦋 Progression[/h3]

• Rewards are shown in the main menu and not at the end of a run.
  

[h3]🏓 Gameplay[/h3]

• Reverse Gun bullets will no longer hit you, inflicting statuses or other effects.
  
• Reverse Gun now pulls bullets directly out of environmental surfaces ahead instead of thin air, removed drilling effect.
  
• Fixed bug where move commands could be immediately executed when exiting a chest.
  
• Cows now move in flocks. 🐄🐄🐄
  
• Bushranger Armor will no longer active on hits that deal 0 damage to you.
  
• Bushranger Armor now activates after Hardened Carapace.
  
• Bushranger Armor now shows 1 charge when available.
  
• Sprinting now only cancels when in line of sight of nearby enemies.
  
• Movement speed while sprinting now increases over several turns and kicks in sooner after leaving combat.
  

[h3]✅ UI[/h3]

• Fix bug where control prompts toggle would not apply immediately during a run.
  
• Control bindings are now styled differently from paragraph text.
  
• Fixed issue where post run statistics weren't updating.
  
• Fixed bug where ammo bar width failed to initialize (Reported by @googlefrog)
  
• Animated the item cooldown wipe.
  

[h3]🖼️ Art[/h3]

• Explosion scorch marks and cracks are masked off over holes.
  
• Fixed some projectiles receiving their own drop shadows.
  
• Silhouettes of projectiles obscured behind walls are now white for improved visibility.
  

[h3]🤖 Tech[/h3]

• Fix bug that could result in a softlock when restoring an incompatible save game file.
  

Check out the full changelog.



Just a reminder that we want to hear your feedback (good or bad) via Discord and Steam Discussions.

—Chronosphere Team

Thanks to everyone who came to visit our PAX Aus booth. We had a lot of fun, and it seems most people who played did too! Hello to all our new players!

This is the first update to our demo. We delayed one week for PAX, but we're back to our two-week cycle from now on!

Biggest change here is adding aim and move indicators to enemies, as well as fixing indicators where they were wrong or missing, including melee weapons.

[h2]Changelog[/h2]

[h3]🏓 Gameplay[/h3]

• Fixed an issue causing mods to not appear in the demo.
  
• Prevent melee clash hitstop when two enemies are fighting offscreen.
  
• Fix missing aura effect on Close Combat, Out of Touch, Broodmother, Twitch and Biofuel.
  

[h3]🤖 Tech[/h3]

• Resetting control settings properly updates UI.
  
• Fixed bug where resetting controls using a different device would fail.
  
• Fixed a crash when abandoning run while exiting a level.
  
• Optimization: Decorations that respond to touch now use a shader instead of the CPU.
  

[h3]✅ UI[/h3]

• Fixed bug where run victory screen said that you died. (Reported by @reuben)
  
• Gadgets with no charge limit show as :infinity: in HUD.
  
• Fix error calculating scimitar's spinning slash aim indicator mesh.
  
• Fixed visual bug where gamepad could focus and toggle task checkboxes.
  
• Instability level up has been reduced to one screen.
  
• Show enemy move indicators.
  
• Show aim indicators for "fire point" spaced weapons (Starshard, Mining Laser).
  
• Indicate initial angle of swinging laser attacks (Disintegrator draw attack).
  
• Add aim indicators for melee weapons.
  
• Beam attack aim indicators reflect beam width adjustment.
  
• Extend projectile aim indicators to reflect the length of projectiles (not just the point they move to).
  
• Show aim indicators for non-player actors.
  
• Fix debrief button hover state.
  
• Fixed aim and move indicators not displaying over pits in the tutorial.
  

[h3]🔊 Audio[/h3]

• Fixed bug where UI audio played multiple times when hovering (Reported by @atezian)
  
• More Rexogenous audio.
  

[h3]📚 Tutorialization[/h3]

• Fixed issue where quickdraw tutorial could be completed with attack.
  

Check out the full changelog.



Just a reminder that we want to hear your feedback (good or bad) via Discord and Steam Discussions.

—Chronosphere Team