Artifacts & Chill: Update 0.17.0

[h2]HIGHLIGHTS[/h2]

• New snowy map, Sub-Zerino!
  
• The return of Artifacts! (the newly-reworked Ultimates)
  
• Major change to enemy time-to-kill!
  

[h2]Read more about these featured changes in our first OMG Insiders news post, where we go in-depth behind the reasons for these changes and additions.[/h2]

https://youtu.be/ATIMuQlacVM

Now, let’s get into the rest of the changes.

[h2]Gameplay[/h2]

• Behavior overhaul for Space Bucket (Alien Dropship). The idea for this pass is to simplify it and make it more obviously part of the experience. Its previous design and presentation were a little invisible. We’ll keep iterating! Let us know what you think.
  
  
  
  
• It now only aggresses the player if you shoot it, or get too close to it
  
• Reduced the knockback impulse of the Octo Swirl (Ice) ability so it doesn’t throw frozen enemies too far away from you for shattering
  
• Rocket head now travels significantly faster and has a smaller hitbox. Deals less AoE damage but does 3x damage on an enemy it directly hits.
  
• Jetpack Torso now has a new ability, shoots Jetpack alien projectiles in a forward arc infront of the player
  
• Butcher legs and Hover Alien legs no longer have swim penalty in water
  
• Burrow from MoleMan legs now has 2x movement speed upped from 1.5x
  
• MeatBoy Legs now has a charge animation and can be held for a longer charge, or tapped for a quick burst charge (but still pretty long!)
  
• Removed meat drops from Boombots, but their “parent” spawner, Boxface still drops meats.
  
• The Rangus Torso’s Knockback ability now does less damage (-20%) but does more knockback (+11%). The Starter Rangus Meat abilities to feel more closely to utility abilities
  
• Wasps are now a little easier to deal with. They fire about 20% less frequently and hang back for a few seconds after taking damage (ex. If you use the Rangus Knockback on them, they don’t immediately close the distance and nullify your ability)
  
• Removed single point of damage that ticked constantly while being scanned by a Gobble Gazer.
  
• Increased Ham Hawk health 2200 → 3300 and reduced weakpoint damage 2x → 1.5x. The idea is that a player, even if focusing fire on them, shouldn’t be able to take them out before they level up a bit.
  
• Meat Zord Legs now have boosted passives for higher jumps, and faster swimming (I mean, they look like massive frog legs so we had to!)
  
• Sentry Turrets from the Turret Head ability now fire projectiles like their enemy counterparts. This was in order to reflect where they come from, and to distinguish them more from the Goober Shoorters (which are hitscan and shorter lived). Sentry Turrets still wreck shop!
  
  
  
  
• Adjusted the full set of Plasma Guns to feel more rewarding for longer range shots (with a time delay due to relatively slow moving projectiles). Exception is the Ice variant, which has a short range before it falls, to compensate for a super fast fire rate and freezing power. Slime variant had a range that was so short, it didn’t feel like the same kind of play style, so that was adjusted. Hopefully the Plasma Gun lovers out there will enjoy these changes. Let us know!
  
• Tuned Duckstone’s Throw ability so that it throws on tap, is easier to aim, and really lasers it if you charge the full duration. Feeling more like a quarterback now, as it should!
  
• Cooldown increased slightly
  

[h2]Animation[/h2]

• Anims added for Space Bucket (Alien Dropship)
  
• Adjusted the vista planets out the front of the ship bay window:
  
• To allow better readability of the “smart glass” planet information text (the random mode planets were blown out to white, making the white text hard to read)
  
• To raise up the overall vista toward the center of the view vertically (it was riding a little low for lil Squishy to see)
  
• Trader mike now has an animation that plays during his unlock cinematic and he now has an idle in the lobby.
  

• Polished Wasp stagger animation to read more clearly that they are helpless.
  
• Anims and VFX for the new Artifact “mystery meat cube” (Previously known as Ultimates)
  

[h2]UI / UX[/h2]

• You can now swap your Flair in the Bolt Burger between planets.
  
• Hunter Timer tutorial popups appear immediately after completing the tutorial planet
  

[h2]Art[/h2]

• Wasp spitballs have some spin and more “wobble” so they look juicier and slimier. We have loogies, folks!
  

[h2]Audio[/h2]

• Lots of new sounds for Space Buckets (Alien Dropships)
  
• New sound for Slime Rifle so it’s not as ear-bleeding with the explosions.
  

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

• Fixed a bug with Meat Zord Leg ability “Quake Rush” where if you released input, it would slow you back down, but keep the animation playing until the end of the ability active timer.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause the game to crash if you had certain combinations of extended characters as a part of your Steam username
  
• Fixed a bug that was causing some Jetpack Aliens not to attack players
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause AI to break out of states prematurely due to stun/stagger effects
  

[h2]Known Issues[/h2]

• No significant performance tuning has been done yet. If you are graphics bound, you can try lowering the quality settings in the Esc menu via Options → Video, but systems with more constrained hardware may struggle
  
• Not all input buttons and keys have icons in the UI yet. Text descriptions (eg. “J”, or “Button West”) will show up for things that do not yet have an icon in the input glyph map
  
• When observing other players, some UI bits such as the reload HUD don’t show accurate information for the observed player
  

[h3]Unsatisfied? Craving more? Get in-depth on our OMG Insiders post.[/h3]