Genome Guardian News

[h3]I know these patch notes are likely only read by those that still own the game, but there's been a surprising number of refunds this last 5 days and I genuinely have no idea why.

I don't think performance has gotten any worse, and I've only been improving the new player experience, squashing bugs and adding polish. The reasons provided for refunds don't paint any kind of consistent picture (ex. I would notice if everyone was saying that the game couldn't start or that something was broken). It's disheartening and confusing not knowing exactly what's going on… But, maybe it's nothing, or just a coincidence.

Still - If anyone has any insight (or if you're someone that has refunded or is considering doing so), please let me know your reasons.

Anyways...[/h3]

[h3]🎵 NEW MUSIC[/h3]

• Wave 1-10: Oleksandr Stepanov - Light Drum and Bass
• Wave 1-10: KbamWillis - ALCHEMY
• Wave 1-10: Ilya Myagkov - future
• Wave 11-20: Eidunn - Riviera
• Wave 11-20: Evgeny Bardyuzha - Entropy
• Wave 11-20: FASSounds - Techno (Vocal Gaming EDM)
• Wave 11-20: Praz Khanal - Blame Me (UK Drill Music)
• Wave 11-20: Lost Reflection - Distorted Steps (a member of our Discord!)
• Wave 21+: Anomy5 - Neon Night
• Wave 21+: FASSounds - The Fighter
• Wave 21+: BLACKBOX - Human AGI 18
• Wave 21+: BLACKBOX - Drum Drum Drum
• Menu: Timothy Kulig - Artificial Emotions

[h3]⚖ BALANCE[/h3]

• (turret) Fortress: -50% Range → -40% Range
  
• (turret) Riptide: Time added for buffs Riptide recieves when shredding a microbe +4s → +5s.
  
• (turret) Tank: Movespeed 10 → 15.
• (turret) Commander: NEW MECHANIC: When not firing (aka left mouse not held down), projectiles have regular Homing behaviour, but +2000% Homing!
  
• (turret) Deadeye: Cooling Delay 1s → 0.75s.
  
• (turret) Breach: Cooling Rate 1s → 0.75s.
  
• (turret mod) Heat -10% per elimination, Heat Max -15%: Heat Max -15% → -20%.
  
• (turret mod) Shield Max +4: Price 25 → 20.
  
• (turret mod) +5 Biomass from oversized microbes: Price 20 → 25.
  
• (turret mod) Homing +100% to weapons with Homing: Price 15 → 20.
  

[h3]🔄 CHANGES[/h3]

• The description for Brood Mode now mentions that extinction mutations can't occur in it.
  
• You'll now see the name of the currently playing menu music in the top left of the main menu.
  

[h3]🔨 FIXES[/h3]

• "Try a new weapon!" text won't show past the point that it's supposed to if you still have "Beginner Tips" enabled in SETTINGS after the Intro.
  
• (weapon) CCGT Rail Splitshot: you'll no longer experience instances of firing a shot and it producing no explosions.
  
• Projectiles with lots of Homing (especially Hitscan ones) would sometimes "vibrate" around a target instead of point directly at it.
  
• When you have a weapon mod selected and you're ready to replace a weapon mod, hovering over the locations of where mod slots would be IF you had 6 mod slots would make the before→after stats appear, even if you have fewer than 6 weapon mod slots on that mount.
  

EDIT: Fixed the before->after no hover bug thing.

[h3]⚖ BALANCE[/h3]

• (weapon) Minigun: Many players still aren't satisfied with it, so here's what I decided upon: Minigun now spools up over 3s to reach its full Firerate, and its Damage has been adjusted so that, after spooling up, DPS will be 156.25/s instead of 125/s! It will spool down at the same rate that it spools up (so it's not just like the Turbo perk), and it will always start unspooled at the start of each wave. (P.S. I know that real Miniguns don't actually spool up, but it's still a great mechanic for this weapon and I don't want to change the name 😅)
  
• (perk) Glue: 3s → 5s effect time.
  
• (perk) Saline: Heat when losing Health while at or below half Health -20% → -25%.
  
• (turret) Hotdog: Now also has +30% Accuracy.
  
• (mutation) Oversized Microbe Chance +200%: this is often a total freebie, so it now also increases Oversized Microbe Damage by 4.
  

[h3]🔥 PERFORMANCE[/h3]

• Tweaked a few things, hopefully a bit better performance for some people…
  

[h3]🔄 CHANGES[/h3]

• Added a text bubble for new players that essentially informs them that the game does not in fact have only 4 weapons (with an explanation of how to combine weapons). Yes, it's stated elsewhere during the intro experience, but this one is much harder to miss.
  
• I state clearly now that the Award requiring a weapon with 1000 Damage can only be achieved if it's 1000 Damage on a single projectile.
  
• Tweaked some beginner SETUP tips.
  

[h3]🔨 FIXES[/h3]

• I've now truly, FINALLY, ACTUALLY, fixed the bug where weapon stats on the WEAPONS menu (where you pick a starting weapon) would sometimes display as "999". It was still occuring if you had "Extra Stat Decimals" enabled n SETTINGs.
  
• (turret) Avarice: It would sometimes continue to drift even while time is stopped. That, and Hitscan weapons would wobble + explosions would continue to grow while time was stopped.
  
• (turret) Fume: Strange things would (still) occur if you had 0 Heat Max.
  
• (turret) Dragoon: Weapons with Proximity (anti-air weapons) would seemingly vanish for no reason right before hitting an enemy sometimes.
  

[h3]⚖ BALANCE[/h3]

• (perk) Antrifreeze: Firerate while overheated -50% → -60%. (look, this perk was designed super early in the game's development before it had so many broken setups)
  
• (turret) Commander: Homing +200% → +400%, Firerate -50% → -45%, Speed -50% → Speed -45% (the fix that prevented Speed from influencing Homing strength inadvertently nerfed Commander, and people really struggle with Commander regardless).
  
• (turret) Diesel: Even if you subvert its limited Fuel struggles, it still doesn't offer a whole lot, so I'm adding a trait: "+40% Damage while below 50% Fuel". This should add an extra layer to Diesel's gameplay experience while decentivizing builds that always keep you at high Fuel.
  
• (weapon) CCCC Ion Laser: I'm going to double down on its excess base Range by increasing it from 150% → 175%.
  
• (weapon) AAGG Heatwave Repeater: I wasn't keen on how similar this weapon feels to flamethrowers, so I'm changing it to fill the niche of "rapidfire wave weapon":
  • Accuracy 67.5° → Accuracy 33.75°.
    
  • DPS 68/s (+Burn) → 65/s (+Burn).
    
  • Damage 5.7 → 8.2.
    
  • Knockback 23 → 33.
    
  • Firerate 12/s → 8/s.
    
  • less squiggly.

[h3]🔄 CHANGES[/h3]

• (turret) Jester: Just... play a Jester run with music enabled.
  
• The "Heat Circle Shadow" (activated via SETTINGS → Accessibility) is more opaque now (which increases visibility).
  

[h3]🔨 FIXES[/h3]

• (turret) Fume, Helios: Using a setup that has 0 Gas/Charge Max would cause strange, buggy things to occur.
  
• (turret) Demon: Its Burn ability would sometimes add 0 Burn Damage to enemies.
  
• I've finally fixed the bug where microbes would essentially rotate on the y-axis, which makes them appear thinner (or dissappear entirely). This primarily affected microbes with both A & G DNA.
  

[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.