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Vindictive Drive 2 News

Vindictive Drive 2 0.4.4 | "ZERO RISING"

It's been an intense couple weeks, I wanted to come back to you with something that really shows I wanna put words into action, here's some of the new things!:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]ZERO | GROWTH SYSTEM[/h2]


Zero has always been just the starter maidbot to teach you the basics, now, altough she starts very weak, she can be trained and learn new hidden skills, from now on, the cards with a colored number will own this new system:

Zero gains experience by attacking enemies, naturally, large enemies that allow you to connect a lot of shots are best for this.

[h2]ZERO | CITY CHAT[/h2]


You can now chat with Zero in the city, with time I will increase the number of interactions, some of the interactions give experience for the growth system.

[h2]NEW INSTANCE | STYGIAN TRAVERSE DEPTHS[/h2]

The black clouds have descended on the eastern side of New Noir City, infecting a large number of machines, this is an endless instance and enemies attack you at complete random, on top of that, there's two very powerful bosses lurking in the shadows.

[h2]GYUBEEH AND KIDOVAH | BIOKERNEL CONSTRUCT BOSSES[/h2]


The first of the Biokernel constructs, the Biokernel's response to Hexcorp's Maidbots, they are sassy, stylish, and verbally abusive, these two weirdos will keep getting stronger the deeper you go into the instance and continue to appear every 5 blocks.

[h2]VITAKROSIS | GUARDIAN SPIRIT OF REVENGE[/h2]


A bad omen, a warning of the tragedies to come, Vitakrosis has appeared somewhere in the Stygian Traverse Depths, her presence implies the destruction of this world.
She is mentor and protector of those who dedicated their lives to revenge, though her true intentions will remain a mystery, find Vitakrosis and you will receive a permanent stat boost.

[h2]LULLASTASIA | THE CALM DEATH[/h2]


The new Maidbot has arrived, it is #9, Lullastasia, she's a gloomy and quiet girl who protects ancient tombs from would be treasure hunters, she drags enemies to you and finishes them with her Death Touch.

[h2]ART | ALL MAIDBOT PORTRAITS AND CARDS UPDATED[/h2]


That took a while.

[h2]MEMORIMO REWORK[/h2]


Memorimo has always been kind of behind in terms of usability and performance, now, her skills have been updated with massive heals and buffs, she doesn't attack, but she protects!

[h2]BALANCE CHANGES | BUFFS[/h2]

Shireywha now has lifesteal, she recovers HP while attacking enemies
Kyvzaki now deals double damage if your HP drops below 20%
Mar's nuclear bombs deal more damage to make up for her possibly(most likely) kiling you sometimes

[h2]FINAL NOTES:[/h2]

I have fun making updates where I introduce new characters, this one was very challenging, please, let me know what you think, feedback is super important and critical for my progress, please post your thoughts here on Steam or feel free to contact me on Twitter/X at @boukensha_bal or via Discord at Bal_Dev

Cheers!


Small bugfix patch

Let me know what you think about this new update!

Thank you for playing and thank you for reading this.

Have a nice day

-Bal

Vindictive Drive 2 | New Maidbots and City expansion.

This week's update contains the following changes:

[h3]New Maidbots![/h3]

[h2]#07 - Zyrenette: The Space Princess[/h2]


Her Skills, Galaxia Step and Stardust Rebellion offer a strong kit that punishes the enemies for getting too close with continuous damage over time.

[h2]#08 - Taikavoran: The Volcano Snail[/h2]


Outstanding burst damage, she showers the enemies with bombs that deal splash damage, damaging also enemies nearby, combined with her final attack DAI VOLCANICA, a large flamethrower that engulfs everything it touches, makes her the perfect crowd control Maidbot.

They are here and ready to collect in the archive

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

  • The addition of stealth mines in the city give Shireywha's utility yet more uses, being able to dash forward and wipe them keeping you safe from their ambush while collecting their items.


[h2]Map Expansion:[/h2]

The NE zone, Natural Reserve, is now open, with new enemies and a new boss to battle.

[h2]Quality of Life:[/h2]

  • Now the city map tells you specific details of enemies, drops and what maidbot you can build with them.


I also added 8 new voice clips to Arris' death screen, making a total of 19, I wanna add more. Let me know what you think.

The transparent image of the update poster today is Taikavoran!



Please let me know what you think! Your feedback is very important and helps me make the game better, thank you so much for playing!

Update! Stealth mission rework, death voice clips and news!

tl;dr: Made the game more friendly for new players, killed bugs and added some polish to the stealth mission mode as well as death voice clips. Downside is, nothing was added in terms of expansion to gameplay, sorry about that, I will give you a very generous playable content expansion next update.

[h3]Changes:[/h3]

  • Game feel: Added sound effects, transitions and made the current stealth missions more intuitive and easier to get into as a new player. The helper drone moves around much better now. Added a Death Screen with options to make it feel smooth instead of just warping you into action again.
  • Learning: Simplified tutorial, only four screens, you can also now skip it. I was scared players would get severely stuck without it, but with the current system plaeyers can sort of learn on the go.
  • Programming: Reprogrammed the whole system for the stealth missions to make it better, easier to develop and less prone to bugs, this erased some of the old movement bugs as well, this will make game development much faster. This also reduced lag and updates will come more often.
  • Arris Fern's voice clips: I included voice interactions from Arris reacting to her death while in the Death Screen, they are funny to make and I like them, for now there are only 11, but I wanna add lots more with every update.


[h3]Here's the transparent image used for this update, it's an Arris update so it had to be her:[/h3]


[h3]Coming next! Possibly very soon![/h3]

Here's great news, what I did this couple days in terms of polishing the engine, will allow me to give you faster updates, next one will contain:

  • Maidbots: Zyrenette and Taikavoran.
  • Enemies: Undetermined new number of enemies/bosses, as many as I can.
  • Map update: NE Zone, Natural Reserve into Beluga Lake.


Thank you very much for playing! I'm really excited to hear your feedback, remember I take your comments seriously and will change the game into a better direction, tell me the good and the bad, I'll work on it, promise.

-Bal

Also by the way, in case you're curious, that voice is mine, very modified, I wanna have VA join the project in the future, but I'll need to be careful with costs, I'll keep you updated.

If you have suggestions for Voice Actors, let me know, I wanna find the perfect fits.

What's next on Vindictive Drive 2 and changes in development

Thank you very much for supporting VD2! This has been an exciting first 24 hours of Early Access, there's so much to talk about.

[h3]Here's some of my thoughts on the feedback I received so far, from Steam, Twitter and Discord.[/h3]

I really want to expand the city, add Maidbots and continue with the story, but there are some things that need fixing first. Mostly the stealth parts of the game are in need of some polish, I'm going to tackle those issues before I move onto next patch, so here's the order I will do:

What needs to be done before adding more content:
  • General improvements to stealth-mission areas.
  • Improvements to sound and control.
  • Bug fixes


Content coming after that:
  • City expansion(NE Zone: Natural Reserve into Beluga Lake)
  • Maidbots: #7 Zyrenette and #8 Taikavoran, both playable
  • Maidbots: #9 Ophelia and #10 Amaranth(Preview only, will be unlocked after specific future story events)
  • Story: Chapter 3 with new stealth mission, Hong rescue
  • Auriga: Two new characters will be added to the bridge, one of them will let you change your Battle Frame


Overall, I am aware that the part people enjoy the most is the Maidbots and boss hunting, but that starts in Chapter 1 after the prologue, game needs to be enjoyable for the whole duration of it, I'll work hard on fixing the issues you brought to my attention.

Your feedback is necessary and will be used to change the game in the direction you all prefer. Feel free to talk to me and tell me what you think:

General development thread: https://steamcommunity.com/app/2641420/discussions/0/3879348064930130347/

My Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/boukensha_bal

My Discord:
bal_dev

Thank you for reading! Here's the card for the newest Maidbot to be added soon, #8 Taikavoran! The volcano snail.