Genome Guardian News

[h3]I've been making great headway on Gameshow Mode (which you can see some teaser images for in a previous update post) - for now, have this:[/h3]


[h3]⚖ BALANCE[/h3]

• It's now slightly more likely for a weapon mod to be white (compatible with any weapon).
  
• (turret) Hotdog: I want it to feel more distinct from Daisy, thus:
  • Now has 2 weapon mounts (each holds 2 DNA Letters and 4 weapon mods).
    
  • No longer has -20% Firerate.
• (turret) Surge: Recharge Rate 3/s → 3.75/s (which, where the stat is displayed, will show as 4/s).
  

[h3]🔄 CHANGES[/h3]

• The "DNA Letter On Items" setting will no longer append the DNA Letter to the name of weapons in the shop (their letter is literally their icon so it's impossible to miss :P).
  
• (turret) Jester: an additional means of unlocking this turret has been added.
  

[h3]🔨 FIXES[/h3]

• A recent update caused the message that appears near the top of the screen during a wave to sometimes not show (for instance, "wave ending!" stopped appearing).
  
• Speaking of which, text will inform you that a mutation is imminent when one will occur after the current wave (this is hidden until you've gotten past wave 15 on your save).
  
• Turret stats for your selected turret would be incorrect (they'd be what you'd have if you had no Intro Research) when viewing its stats in the TURRET menu.
  

(It may not seem like I needed to push an update for something as minor as these changes, but let's just say I have my reasons...)

[h3]🔨 FIXES[/h3]
Fixed the music & sound bugs introduced in 4.2.0.

[h3]🆕 BEFORE→AFTER STATS[/h3]
When hovering over a slot to add a DNA Letter, Weapon Mod or Turret Mod, you'll now see BEFORE→AFTER STATS!

You won't get to see the new stats of an undiscovered weapon though, but still: The experience of picking & adding mods should feel much better with this feature. This feature is especially helpful considering it's not always obvious how Weapon Mods that affect Damage / Firerate will influence your DPS. Oh, and this is super helpful during Endless too, to see stats before→after replacing a mod.

Note that, this feature isn't perfect - for instance, you won't see how weapon stats will change if you've got that "+50% Size to weapons with G DNA" turret mod selected - the turret mod before→after really only shows heat-related changes. No plans to expand upon this later, but I might.


[h3]🔄 CHANGES[/h3]

• Weapon mods would immediately get sorted by colour when you add one to a row, but I'm removing this because it just doesn't serve any purpose. DNA Letters need to display in order though, of course.
  
• There's now a hint before you set out to find your true purpose that states the kind of build you'll need before you proceed.

[h3]🔨 FIXES[/h3]

• (award) 10000 Unspent Research: will now trigger more reliably.
  
• Things that check if a projectile "missed" will now work properly on projectiles with Bounce.
  
• Fixed a rare scenario where you wouldn't get the unlocks associated with finishing the story (if this happens to you, restart the game and you'll get them).
  
• Large projectiles with both Proximity and Sticky would stick to the sides (or never move at all) when you fired them in Shmup Mode.
  
• (perk) Briefcase: there wasn't a bug with the perk, but rather, everyone was experiencing the effects of this perk regardless of whether it was equipped (and this has been going on for a while now and nobody noticed 😅).
  
• Speed reduction on explosive weapons was affecting the Knockback value displayed when hovering over the weapon during gameplay (note that it never actually changed the Knockback value itself).
  
• The Arsenal's weapon stats were being affected by having the Inferno turret selected.
  
• I may have fixed a bug where music/sound would still play when muted under some circumstances (this bug was seemingly specific to Windows 11 users).
  
• The button for adding the Pierce weapon mod to a weapon that already has Pierce would sometimes be green, when it was supposed to be red (like how it works for Burn).
  
• In general there's less "flickeryness" when hovering over DNA Letters and mod slots.
  
• Sometimes sound (and music) would cut out temporarily if too many sounds played in a short amount of time (looking at you, CCGT Rail Splitshot) - this is handled now, and in a very elegant manner that you'll never notice.
  
• (I thought I fixed this in a previous patch, sorry!) Power-ups will no longer count as "hitting" you if they touch you or reach the bottom of the screen in Shmup Mode.
  

[h3]Currently in the middle of making big decisions regarding what my focus should be for the next major updates - gears are likely shifting towards that being centered around Gameshow Mode - this 6th mode will feature brand new mechanics that reward you based on how you play, and which Targets you select.[/h3]





No idea when it'll be out, but when it is, it'll be pretty sick. For now though, just some little things.

[h3]⚖ BALANCE[/h3]

Genome Guardian has grown a lot since its initial release, and with the arrival of Major Update 5: XY Variants, there will be support for 98 new turrets & 196 new perks in the form of variants. Only a handful of new turrets & perks will be released at the time of that update, but the idea is that I'll be able to add loads more gradually over time.

I also feel that a price increase is warranted considering just how much game you're getting - to anyone reading this that hasn't bought the full game yet, check out people's playtime in reviews.

Think of it this way: I'm increasing the base price instead of making future turrets & perks be DLC purchases 😉


[h3]SO WHEN IS MAJOR UPDATE 5?[/h3]
Uhhh... Not sure yet. Working on it. If I had to guess, near the end of July.

Updates might be a bit slow until then - my goal was to do a bunch of QoL / bug fix updates so that I could focus on 5.0.0, which is what I'm doing now!


Little teaser for you: