Update v0.3.0: A Barrage of Enhancements and Balancing

Greetings Pilots,

I'm excited to roll out update v0.3.0 to the "testing" branch, packed with several additions and improvements based on your feedback. See beta opt-in instructions at bottom.

Here's a detailed look at what’s new:

[h2]Weapon and Power-Up Enhancements[/h2]

Persistent Weapon Upgrades: All weapon upgrades you acquire during a stage now carry over to the start of the next stage. No more resetting your hard-earned power-ups!
Shield-Dependent Weapon Loss: I've removed the random chance affecting weapon loss when taking damage. Now, the likelihood of weapon loss is solely determined by your shield strength. Higher shields mean a lower chance of losing your weapons.
Improved Power-Up Spawns: Power-up spawn logic has been improved to better track the status of your ship systems (weapons, shields, bombs). Power-ups will now spawn more or less often depending on your current needs.
Base Laser Power Rework: I've reworked the base laser power and how weapon upgrades affect it. Monitoring laser power is now less crucial, allowing you to focus on other aspects of combat.
WPN+1 Power-Up Removed: With the rework of base laser power, the WPN+1 power-up no longer serves a significant purpose and has been removed.
WPN Power Bar Update: The WPN power bar now displays weapon upgrade progression instead of base laser power, keeping you informed about your upgrade status (blue bar at the bottom left of the HUD).
New "Nuke" Power-Up: A rare but powerful addition, the "nuke" power-up deals massive damage to all visible enemies when collected.

[h2]Balancing and Performance[/h2]

Stage Rebalancing: Stages 1-3 have been rebalanced to accommodate the changes to power-ups and weapons.
Weapon Damage Rebalance: I've adjusted the weapons damage multipliers. Base laser damage is lower, but upgrade multipliers are increased, making weapon upgrades more impactful.
Increased Performance Awards: Life Bonus and Enemy Engagement awards during "Stage Clear" performance evaluations have been increased based on the difficulty level.

[h2]New Mechanics and Debugging Tools[/h2]

StageScript Additions: New additions to StageScript to support exciting mechanics for the upcoming Stage 4.
Debug Stats Overlay: A new debug stats overlay has been added to display enemy hit points in real-time. Toggle with F2.

[h2]Bug Fixes:[/h2]

Player and enemy lasers now properly despawn when exiting the screen area.
Hazard counter now displays correctly in the debug menu (F3).
Fixed several animations that were starting playback on the wrong frame.

I'm committed to continuously improving The Battle of Aurinoxia based on your feedback. Dive in, explore the new changes, and let me know your thoughts! If everything looks good, I'll push these changes to the default branch in a few days.

Good luck out there Squadron Leaders!

-- John

[h3]How to Enable the Testing Branch[/h3]

To enable Beta Version:

Open the Steam client.
Go to the "Library" tab and right-click on the game.
Select "Properties" from the context menu.
In the Properties window, navigate to the "Betas" tab.
Use the drop-down menu to select the desired beta version and close the window.

Steam should then download and update the game automatically. If not, follow these steps to force the download and update:

Verifying the Integrity of Installed Files:

Open the Steam client.
Go to the "Library" tab and right-click on the game.
Select "Properties" from the context menu.
In the Properties window, go to the "Local Files" tab.
Click "Verify integrity of game files" and wait for the process to complete.