Rhythm Storm News

1.1.02 Changelist:
Added 3 weapon +1 damage bonus (hidden)
Made Breakdown Ultra give both weapons +2 damage
Made Breakthru +5 (from +4) for Spread, and 5x (from 3x) damage for Ultras
Made Air Bounce on Vector add +2 damage when it bounces
Double Ricochet Ultra shots now add an extra +2 damage per ricochet
Ricochet Damage Ultra now does 2x damage per ricochet
Reflection Ultra (Plasma) now does 2x damage per bounce (instead of +5)
Saber Steady Hand Ultra adds up to +2 bonus damage when not rotating
Made all ionic effects deal 1 extra damage (silent non-destructive)
Increased default Hunter Damage by 1
Added Hunter Super Piercing as a potential upgrade to get Shocking Pierce Ultra
Added 2 bonus damage to both weapons for Shared Fractions Ultra
Increased Pulse default fire rate by 11%
Increased Converge default fire rate by 9%
Increased Burst default fire rate by 6%
Fixed a couple weapon Ultras not having quite the right requirements (wrong count or missing one)
Corrected Sweeper Ultra dual firing description (doesn't reduce range)

NOTES:
Mostly boosted a number of Ultra Combos, particularly ones that require 2 specific Ultras to unlock. Also added a minor damage boost for having 3+ weapons, since that makes the game a bit more difficult (upgrades combine exponentially, so you're making it harder to gain that exponential advantage). Basically trying to make it more worthwhile to do more diverse builds and make multiple Ultra Combos worth going for, compared to maxing out a single weapon (or maybe a power).

[p]I've been trying to finish this version for three days, and I think it's finally ready for release. I can promise there will be a 1.1.01 update in a couple days to tweak/fix something I missed. But as you'll see below, there's a LOT of stuff in this new version. Let's start with the major stuff:[/p][p][/p][p]2 NEW VEHICLES![/p][p]20 NEW MAX POWER UPGRADES![/p][p]ALTERNATE COLOR SCHEMES![/p][p]FULL UPGRADE LIBRARY![/p][p]MODIFIER COSTS REDUCED! (and cap added)[/p][p]FIXED A MAJOR BUG WITH KNOCKBACK AND FIRE RATE![/p][p][/p][p]Yeah, that last one is embarrassing, but taking the Knockback upgrades would reduce your fire rate by a lot, and not affect Knockback at all. But now it's fixed, and many weapons are a lot more powerful than they used to be (unless you were very careful previously).[/p][p][/p][p]Now we'll get into the excessively long changelist, which I'll try to split into similar sections, and I'll bold anything important that's not mentioned above.[/p][p][/p][p]RHYTHM STORM 1.1.0 CHANGELIST[/p]

• [p]Added two new vehicles:[/p]
• [p]-- Monolith: One body + one turret weapon slot only[/p]
• [p]-- Polaris: Two turret weapons and unlimited energy, 2nd turret fires backwards[/p][p][/p]
• [p]Capped max number of modifiers at 12 (except Tier 10)[/p]
• [p]-- Made additional upgrade cost more linear and capped at 4000[/p]
• [p]-- Can add one more non-Tier 10 modifier for every active Tier 10 modifier[/p]
• [p]Increased spark bonuses for completing worlds/runs at Pro/Elite/etc[/p][p][/p]
• [p]Added 4 alternate color palettes, and made SHUFFLE ENEMIES also change colors by default[/p]
• [p]-- Will choose any of the other 7 palettes than the standard one for that world[/p]
• [p]-- Added option to set when to use Remixed Colors (defaults to Shuffle Only)[/p][p][/p]
• [p]Changed randomize weapons to alternate weapon sets (2)[/p]
• [p]-- Cycles through three total sets, weapons are always in the same position[/p]
• [p]-- Each vehicle can't start with 1 turret/body weapon, but this feels better and is more consistent with powers[/p][p][/p]
• [p]Increased line drawing cap (main layer)[/p]
• [p]Doubled the number of lightning lines that can draw at once[/p]
• [p]Prevent massive damage from leaving long-lingering enemy flash images (common with blasts)[/p]
• [p]Reduce frequency of linger enemy flashes when draw count is high (they take a lot of line drawing and last many frames)[/p][p][/p]
• [p]Added full upgrade list for each upgrade set (and Power MAX upgrade list)[/p]
• [p]-- Renamed Ultra Library to Upgrade Library[/p]
• [p]-- Get ready to scroll REALLY FAR[/p][p][/p]
• [p]Added player pulse button (Y on Xbox controller)[/p]
• [p]-- Doesn't affect gameplay at all, just something for fun[/p][p][/p]
• [p]Changed Electrowhip to be more chill, stay closer to player (feels a lot better to me)[/p]
• [p]Changed Electrowhip Damage upgrade to +2 instead of +1[/p][p][/p]
• [p]Made the boss's shield for phase 1 way more obvious[/p]
• [p]Adjusted the speed spinning vehicle bodies spin while using beam[/p]
• [p]Added an energy penalty to Static Charge (Detonator ultra upgrade)[/p]
• [p]-- Prevent Static Charge from affecting enemies while you have no energy left[/p]
• [p]Stop player from doing insanely high damage to enemies (at high framerates) while invincible[/p]
• [p]Increased Trail power's default shock distances (both Ultra and bolts)[/p]
• [p]Slightly reduced move speed boost for a number of power upgrades (at top end player moved too fast)[/p]
• [p]Increased frequency and damage of Warp-related shocks (shockers + targeting)[/p]
• [p]Increased max shot upgrades for Saber (4->5)[/p]
• [p]Increased max range upgrades for Warp (5->6)[/p]
• [p]Slightly increased range of Solidified Blaster[/p]
• [p]Fixed Crusher 2nd-level damage not counting towards Ultra upgrade unlock[/p]
• [p]Fixed Flak barely doing any deathblasts (splitting projectiles weren't getting the flag)[/p]
• [p]Changed trail vfx of Wide to use simple trail (old version was very expensive)[/p]
• [p]Changed one of Crushers upgrades from Ricochet to DeathBlast[/p]
• [p]Changed Wide's backward firing upgrade to also Ricochet[/p]
• [p]Changed Dash to do more damage on blast (Super Blast Ultra now does 66% more damage)[/p]
• [p]Changed Warp to do more damage on blast (and use slightly more energy)[/p]
• [p]Changed Warp shockers to do be more frequent and no longer fire at 0 energy[/p]
• [p]Reduced Warp Usage upgrade bonus from -15 to -12[/p]
• [p]Increased Warp Blast Range upgrade (20->25)[/p]
• [p]Increased Warp Strike damage and width[/p]
• [p]Increased Warp Target shocker damage/range/chaining[/p]
• [p]Increased Detonator damage a bit[/p]
• [p]Increased frequency of main power/weapon ultra upgrades[/p]
• [p]Increased frequency of ultra combo upgrades (if they require 2 ultras to unlock)[/p]
• [p]-- They now almost always appear when you meet the requirements[/p]
• [p]Increased invincible timer when taking a hit, and when reviving[/p]
• [p]Fixed Trail firing rate upgrade literally doing nothing[/p]
• [p]Fixed Trail invincibility from toggling on/off constantly (and stunning enemies) at low energy[/p]
• [p]Redcued smaller grav mine lifetime a bit[/p]
• [p]Reduced enemy tank HP a small amount and made it drop a couple energy[/p]
• [p]Reduced speed of Blaster + Fighter (left-right moving enemy + flanking-red enemy) on world 1[/p]
• [p]Made Blastastic upgrade sometimes appear in Powerful upgrade sets when it's relevant to the power (6 powers)[/p]
• [p]Fixed Knockback upgrade (per weapon) affecting firing rate instead (in a negative way)![/p]
• [p]Reduced Blaster number of firing rate upgrades to 6 (and removed damage fire rate penalty)[/p]
• [p]Reduced many weapons firing rate upgrade boost to 12 (from 15) now that Knockback is fixed[/p]
• [p]Fixed Low Energy text overlapping with Lancer on player status[/p]
• [p]Tweaked most knockback numbers for projectiles in code[/p]
• [p]Increased Knockback from 25 to 30% on all solo weapon upgrades[/p]
• [p]Reduced Knockback upgrade count on Blaster (4->3)[/p]
• [p]Tweaked (mainly larger) enemies so they have less resistance to knockback[/p]
• [p]Added Sparky XP upgrade (5 XP per spark, General/Upgrader sets)[/p]
• [p]Reduced size of Storm's strike area (how close any enemy has to be to it's preferred location)[/p]
• [p]-- Changed Storm's Knockback upgrade to Range and made that affect strike area size[/p]
• [p]Changed pushback on enemies from damage to always move away from the player, regardless of damage direction[/p]
• [p]Nerfed most powers with Limitless Energy for Scorcher + Polaris (everything except Trail)[/p]
• [p]-- They still work, just less well at 0 energy for those 2 vehicles[/p][p][/p]

[p]ADDED THEN CUT[/p]

• [p]Added a system to allow both weapon Ultras at once, but it was lame (made Ultra choice feel pointless, and weapons get really powerful already), so I cut it[/p]

[p][/p][p]I'll be working on an advanced strategy guide to post next week, then I'll probably not work on Rhythm Storm again for quite a while. If you have any feedback on powers, weapons, balance, etc, please let me know sooner than later. I'll be playing the game a bunch and making tweaks for 1.1.01, but more feedback on that stuff is always appreciated.[/p][p][/p][p]- Luke[/p][p][/p][p]\[I know the game needs more music variety too, but unfortunately that's a difficult problem to solve with how the game works. Hopefully I can address the issue someday, but it won't be for a couple months at least.][/p][p][/p][p][/p]

[p]Version 1.0.05 addressed concerns about upgrade path knowledge/information among many other things, and Version 1.0.06 focused on more gameplay variety through other means.[/p][p][/p][p]Here's the full changelist, then I'll go over the two big additions:[/p][p][/p]

• [p]Added Shuffle Enemies option to the Difficulty menu (complete 5 runs or 1 on Elite to unlock)[/p]
• [p]Updated some unused enemies to function a bit better, and scaled a few on higher worlds[/p]
• [p]Updated some world 1 enemies to be tougher on world 2+, and some world 2+ enemies to be a little easier on world 1[/p]
• [p]Updated Swap Meet modifier allow you to change to alternate power upgrades on vehicle configure screen (and fixed some issues that caused)[/p]
• [p]Renamed Exchange It modifier to Swap Meet (and updated the description)[/p]
• [p]Make sound for invulnerable not high-pass[/p][p][/p]

[p]The smaller of the two significant changes is allowing players to use Alternate Powers for each of the vehicles (including the Guardian). Each of them has 3 new powers available, if you have the "Swap Meet" modifier activated. This was the easiest and safest way to allow more power choice for each vehicle. The Scorcher having unlimited energy (essentially) meant I had to pick 3 powers that wouldn't break the game for it. Every power is now present on 2-4 new vehicles.[/p][p][/p][p]SHUFFLE ENEMIES[/p][p][/p][p]The bigger change is the new "SHUFFLE ENEMIES" toggle on the difficulty menu. When this is enabled, the game replaces enemy spawns (for the whole run) with a random one from the same "class", and slightly adjusts the spawning/etc if there's a big power difference between the old/new enemy.[/p][p][/p][p]In addition to the existing enemies, a number of unused enemies were added to the shuffle pool (4 total I think), meaning you'll see some new enemies on occasion. I also adjusted some enemies to have slightly different difficulty on world 1 vs. later worlds.[/p][p][/p][p]I've played a number of runs (full and partial) and it seems to accomplish the variety goal quite nicely, but I'll continue to try it out. Feedback on particular enemies being too easy/hard on certain worlds is certainly welcome.[/p][p][/p][p]LONG-TERM VARIETY[/p][p][/p][p]I've been thinking a lot about how to add more variety to the game recently (was the most common complaint aside from wanting the Ultra Library in the pause menu), and these two changes address that in the most effective way I could think of.[/p][p][/p][p]I considered many other solutions for new songs/etc, but all of them will require a large amount of time to do. I hope to come back to that task later this year after I've had more time to think about it. For now though, this is about as much variety as I can squeeze out the current game. [/p][p][/p][p]Thanks to everyone for all the feedback and suggestions! I think versions 1.0.05 and 1.0.06 really pushed the game to be the best it can be (in a reasonable amount of time).[/p][p][/p][p]Luke[/p]

CHANGELIST

• Renamed Ultra Combos to Ultra Library, and added all Ultra upgrades to it (32 combos, 20 power, 40 weapon, and 8 others)
  
• Added Ultra Library to the pause menu
  
• Made Ultra Library track both discovering and using an Ultra (instead of just discovering it)
  
• Changed Guardian 1st body weapon from (Pulse) to Cyclone, and changed 3rd body weapon (Cyclone) to Orbital
  
• Changed Blaze 2nd body weapon (Orbital) to Pulse
  
• Doubled power of Revenge Mode upgrade (and reduced max count from 5 to 4)
  
• Added two new Ultra upgrades: Ultra Blasts and Ultra Survivor
  
• Added saving/restoring of scrolling position on modifiers/vehicles/ultras separately (resets on game restart)
  
• Changed how shield around player syncs to music (subtler and more in sync)
  
• Reduced Pulse inner ring brightness
  
• Added a cheat code for adding sparks
  
• Added a backup save file that the game uses if loading the main save file fails
  
• Fixed "In a Hurry" modifier to always work, and to update and display correctly
  
• Fixed first-run (after a restart) vehicle speed being too slow by a bit
  
• Fixed a bug with startup and save file being blank
  

The first update to the game focuses on the number 1 issue: Ultra Combos not being visible in the pause menu. I also added all the Ultra upgrades to that and renamed it Ultra Library, and it also tracks whether you've actually used it (instead of only if you discovered it). Unfortunately that means you'll see things marked as "undiscovered/unused" when you have discovered/used them already, because that data didn't exist previously. 2 new Ultra upgrades were added so the total is now 100 exactly.

I decided against adding the Epic (shiny blue) upgrades to the library for now, since there's already so much to show. I'll try to indicate those in a more subtle way next time (like a small icon on the upgrade you need to max out to see the improved Epic version).

There were a number of other minor changes/fixes in the update. One thing I didn't get to yet, but I expect to for next time: Letting you use more powers for the current ships. Not yet sure how it'll work, but I'll figure out something.

[I'm also thinking about how to add more replayability in terms of new worlds/music. That's a longer-term thing (2-3 months).]

If something seems especially easy/busted, please let me know. I haven't seen much feedback about balance (aside from it being slightly off and some non-specific things being too OP).

Not sure when the next update will be, but it shouldn't be more than a week or two, depending on what else comes up.

Enjoy! -Luke

[p]Rhythm Storm 1.0.04 is now available on Steam! In case you got here without knowing much about it, Rhythm Storm is a rhythmic bullet heaven/swarm survival/survivor-like. It uses vector-graphics (aka lines and polygons only, no textures), but more importantly, it has tons of vehicles, powers, weapons, and upgrades. There are many ways to succeed in the game, and if you want a head start, I posted a Beginner's Strategy Guide earlier this week.[/p][p][/p][p]After playing the game a bunch this week in preparation for launch, I made a number of minor tweaks to the visuals, audio, and a few gameplay elements. There was also some good feedback from the Steam forums thanks to the (no longer available) demo. You might notice some slight visual differences between the trailers (like the launch one below) and the actual game, but I think all the tweaks/changes are for the better.[/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p][/p][p]BUILD BALANCING[/p][p]With so many different builds and ways to play the game, there's always going to be some that are stronger than others. I'm less concerned with subtle variations or minor difficulty roller coasters, but I've tried to make sure most intentional strategies/builds can work out on Elite, and that no build is so OP that it makes the game feel easy from beginning to end. [/p][p][/p][p]I've really focused on making all powers and weapons viable. There are 10 powers, 10 body weapons, and 10 turret weapons, and you can combine those in a huge variety of ways. Each of those 30 things has two Ultra upgrades (you can only one Ultra at a time), so that's 60 different builds if you focus on any one of those, and then there are many combinations and different vehicle properties to consider, along with 32 Ultra Combos that require at one or more Ultra upgrades.[/p][p][/p][p]A RADIANGAMES ROGUELIKE[/p][p]I'm sure that some of the words I'm said in the paragraph above won't make sense to you. But I hope you are able to stick to the game to the point where they do. I'm still really enjoying playing the game after hundreds of complete runs (thousands if you count world 1-complete runs). The beginning of the game can be overwhelming for new players, and I'm still trying to think of ways to convey some of the game's secret/hidden upgrades prior to them popping up.[/p][p][/p][p]On that last issue, I've taken the approach of trying to add a variety of powerful hidden upgrades regardless of which build you attempt. I think I have most of the builds covered in that regard, but it's possible I missed a few, and I'm very open to adding more Ultra upgrades if I did. So if you max out an upgrade and think it should have an Ultra or special version as a reward, please let me know in the forums (or email [email protected]).[/p][p][/p][p]I wish I had made a roguelike game prior to Rhythm Storm, as they are especially fun to work on. But I'm glad that Rhythm Storm is Radiangames' first entry into the genre. Survivor-likes may be the "simplest" version of a roguelike, but they are far from simple to make. I probably won't make another roguelike for a few years, but I'll be updating Rhythm Storm for quite a while.[/p][p][/p][p]Speaking of updates, I'll be watching the forums and reviews for any issues and balance feedback, and I expect to update the game fairly frequently in the near term. [/p][p][/p][p]Thanks for reading, and hope you enjoy the game! -Luke[/p]