Waves 2: Notorious News

Hello! I'm still here working on this game.

I'll admit I've been a bit lax on the updates recently but there is a whole thread about that on the forums. Short version is that I ran out of money.

I am however back to working full time on the game and I fully plan for it to leave Early Access this year.

I've update the Trello with a roadmap to shipping the game and I've started some threads in the Suggestion Box asking for your feedback on specific topics.

I need your help to finish this game and make sure it's the best it can be! I encourage you to get involved on the forums and to share your opinions.

I'm planning an update for the start of March which will introduce several new enemies to Arcade mode and kick off a new Season on the leaderboards.

Thankyou for your support during this incredibly long Early Access period. I hope to reward your patience with an excellent game at the end of it!

- Rob

Another small patch to address some issues in 0.6.

Bugfixes

• Rebinding Keys no longer gets stuck waiting for input.
  
• Compatibility Mode no longer crashes at startup.
  
• Pause Menu can no longer open over itself.
  
• Pause Menu can no longer interupt game startup sequence.
  

This is just a maintenance patch to fix some performance issues as well as a bug in the Crunch Time Leaderboards.

Engine

• Upgraded to Unreal 4.20.2
  

Performance

• Fixed hitch when towers spawn/despawn.
  
• Fixed hitch when Garbage Collecting.
  
• Fixed periodic slowdown in OS Nodes in GRID.
  

Leaderboards

• Fixed Crunch Time scores sometimes being submitted to a non-existant leaderboard.
  

The Vlog is on Youtube!

The Leaderboards are dead! Long Live The Leaderboards!

As of this update Steam is no longer responsible for the Waves² Leaderboards as the game is now using Gamesparks to manage all of it's online functionality.

This means no more score limit of 2,147,483,647 as the scores are now stored as 64bit integers. If you get a score that maxes out one of those then you must be cheating.

Every combination of Game Mode and Arena Type now has it's own Daily, Weekly, Monthly and Season based leaderboards and you are awarded points every day, week and month which increase your Rank for that mode.

Seasons are an arbitrary length often determined by major balance updates. The current season is "Early Access".



All points are awarded at Midnight UTC.

DAILY
#1 - 150 points
#2 - 120 points
#3 - 100 points
#4 - 80 points
#5 - 60 points
#6 - 50 points
#7 - 40 points
#8 - 30 points
#9 - 20 points
#10 - 10 points
Top 50% - 5 points
Everyone Else - 1 point

WEEKLY (Week starts on a Monday)
#1 - 2100 points
#2 - 1680 points
#3 - 1400 points
#4 - 1120 points
#5 - 840 points
#6 - 600 points
#7 - 560 points
#8 - 420 points
#9 - 280 points
#10 - 140 points
Top 50% - 70 points
Everyone Else - 14 points

MONTHLY
#1 - 16800 points
#2 - 13440 points
#3 - 11200 points
#4 - 8960 points
#5 - 6720 points
#6 - 5600 points
#7 - 4480 points
#8 - 3360 points
#9 - 2240 points
#10 - 1120 points
Top 50% - 560 points
Everyone Else - 112 points



- LEADERBOARDS
● Integrated Gamesparks.
● Added Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Season and Ranked Leaderboards for every GameMode/Arena Combination in Arcade.
● Rank is awarded at midnight UTC each day for daily, each Monday for weekly and on the 1st of each month for Monthly leaderboards.

- UI
● Redesigned Leaderboards screen.
● Redesigned Arcade Mode Select Screen.
● Redesigned Game Over Screen.
● Added Gamesparks connection indicator to Status Bar.

- ENEMIES
● Swarms and Bees (aka "Shard" Type Enemies) can now fly over holes in the Arenas.

- GRID
● Barrier can now be equipped in the loadout screen once it has been installed to Programs.

- Bug Fixes
● Startup Movie now plays while game is loading.

There is a Dev Vlog about it on Youtube!



Are you Unknown, a Newbie or are you Notorious? This update adds User Ranks to your GRID Profile. Cash in your hard earned Reputation in exchange for a better User Rank. Higher ranked Users have a higher Level Cap on their Avatars unlocking up to 30 upgrade points!

What use are all those Upgrade points though without something to upgrade?

The Repository provides all our Runners with access* to the latest software updates for their Avatar. Check the Repository frequently for new software prototypes as well as updates to existing projects!

*Access requires expenditure of Reputation.

- GRID
● User Rank is now displayed on the GRID Dashboard.
● User Rank can be increased by spending Reputation.
● User Rank determines Avatar Level Cap (6-30).
● Loadouts can now have less than the maximum number of upgrade points.
● Equipped Items Max Level is determined by Version (Prototype, Alpha, Beta, RC, Stable, Modified)
● New Repository Folder in File Manager.
● Software can be installed from Repository in exchange for Rep.
● Repository updates after clearing a Server.
● Filters added to File Manager folders.
● Can now select multiple files in File Manager.
● Clicking on a File will show a Description of it's content.
● Mousewheel can now be used to scroll through Files.
● Rep is now shown on the Status Bar when in GRID menus.

- Items
● Some Items have been renamed. This is a purely cosmetic change.
● Some Items have new icons. This is a purely cosmetic change.

- Bug Fixes
● Multiple music player bugs fixed.
● Spark weapon should no longer ignore the shield in Shoot The Core missions.
● General performance optimisations.

- Discord

There is a Squid In A Box Discord now for anybody who wants to hang out and talk about the game with other players and the Developer (me!)