Heli-Cats News

This update increases the damage of the two bonus helicopters, Cat C and Cat D (as seen in the No Miss Cat D video),. Both of them require some getting used to in order to reach their full potential. But it should be evident quite quickly how high their DPS can be at max level.

To unlock Cat C, get the Victory Is and Illusion objective by getting Ending A after beating the mission 8 boss. This can be done with Novice Mode (regardless of continues) or Arcade Mode (must use a continue and have a cumulative destroy rate below 80%). To unlock Cat D, get the Hungry for Napalm objective by obtaining at least 13 additional bomb drops in a run (continues are allowed).

Some changes were made to the backend graphics rendering as well and should improve the performance on lower spec machines. If you have a high refresh rate monitor, the game should have little trouble hitting that stable rate.

Ver 1.3.1 Update Notes:

• Increased the damage of Cat C's angled sub shots. When aiming completely straight ahead with the main shot, the total DPS at max level is the highest in the game.
  
• Increased the damage of Cat D's missile sub weapon. The missiles hit BOTH air and ground targets without needing to change elevation. At max level, together with the main shot, Cat D's forward DPS is just slightly lower than Cat C's.
  
• Changed the rendering backend to improve performance on non-ancient machine specs.
  

It's now time to showcase the bonus helicopter Cat D (unlocked by getting the Hungry for Napalm objective). This variant based on the older Cobra platform features a main shot that pivots in the vertical direction the helicopter is moving, allowing for a forward aiming shot angle. The shots themselves are not that powerful, but the special factor of this gunship is the missiles it auto fires with every 10 shots, akin to the sub weapons in the Strikers 1945 and AeroFighters / Sonic Wings games. These are fire and forget hellfire-like missiles that hit BOTH air and ground! In addition to their versatility, they are also incredibly damaging at max level, making Cat D possibly the most powerful helicopter in the right hands. And this No Miss Novice Mode run proves it! (Turn on subtitles for commentary.)

(The damage seen in this video will be rolled out in the upcoming 1.3.1 update that will buff Cat C and Cat D.)

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

The Spring Sale is here and Heli-Cats is part of the sale event. Now is a good time to give this challenging game a go, even if you are a beginner to shoot'em ups.

You can get it with my other games in a bundle as well. https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/45275/The_DrearyWeary_Collection/

My upcoming shoot'em up and run 'n gun Yellow Trouble will be starting phase 2 of beta testing this weekend. This round adds an Easy difficulty to Arcade Mode. You can sign up for it using the Playtest button on the store page.

More details over at the Yellow Trouble store page. Thank you for your interest and participation!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3091520/Yellow_Trouble/

Heli-Cats's third major update is here with changes that aim to give the player a slight edge on the battlefield, several quality of life improvements, and better compatibility for those of us on macOS!

Version 1.3.0 Notes:

• Added a 5-frame window to the player helicopter for split second emergency bombing before a hit is registered.
  
• Slightly reduced the collision size of enemy bullets to allow for more leniency.
  
• Added a "Restart Run" option in the pause menu and single player continue screen to instantly redo a run from mission 1, which also counts the previous run for Steam leaderboards up to that point.
  
• Using a "Restart Run" with armor mods active will deduct any armor lost from the current run for the new run if it is still above 3. (e.g. An initial run with 30 armor mods that restarts after losing 5 armor will begin the new run with 25.) The new run will never be lower than the default 3 armor.
  
• Boss mid-battle explosions that signal major damage to the boss now also destroy all enemy bullets for a brief period, allowing a window to reposition or escape a difficult barrage.
  
• Added an "Armor Bonus" message that appears when getting an extend every 400,000 points.
  
• Added a "Time's Up" message that appears when running out of time on a boss.
  
• Destroying a hidden beacon sends out a visual shockwave that will remove all enemy bullets on screen (more on what beacons are in a later post...).
  
• Added an option in Display Settings to turn off "How To Play" before starting arcade mode.
  
• Increased the maximum system credits that can be unlocked beyond 9.
  
• More native compatibility for game controllers on macOS Sequoia (Steam Input should still be disabled on macOS due to Steam Input being recognized as a duplicate controller).
  
• Added another attract demonstration screen for mission 2 that will show after leaving the title screen untouched (for those of us who have this running on an arcade cabinet).
  

[h3]NOTE: This update is also a major change in the underlying architecture of the game for modern operating systems.
* If you have remapped your controls before, you will need to remap them again in the Options > Controls Menu. *[/h3]
Otherwise, this revision should not affect the experience for users. In fact, it should run better for those on macOS. This revamp of the game allows me to continually add more updates going forward whenever I discover development tricks with my other newer games. However, if you encounter any strange behavior, crashes, or difficulty running it on an ancient machine, please report it. Thank you.

If you haven't played Heli-Cats in a while, try version 1.3 out! And if you have it in your wishlist, perhaps it's time to get the game!