Update 1.1.0 Is Out Now!

Thanks so much for playing Steel Century Groove: Midnight and leaving your comments, feedback, and reviews! It's all been incredibly helpful in getting the full game ready for release later this year.

I've put together this patch to bring over some of those updates to Midnight, including a bunch of animation improvements, better charts for built-in tracks, and lots of quality of life UI/UX features. But there's still more to go, so if you've left feedback that you don't see addressed here, don't worry. I'm reading everything and there's many more improvements planned.

For instance, mirrored d-pad inputs for controller didn't quite make this version, but should be added before the full release. Likewise, this update focuses on the built-in songs, since that's what most players use, but future updates should come with improvements to the custom music analysis.

Patch Notes

[h3]Animation[/h3]

Fixed incorrect frame pacing that could cause Tenzerks to appear to be moving at a lower framerate than they actually were.
Added new additive foot animations that can be combined with the existing animations to create more variety and expressiveness in battles. These animations unlock over time with your Pilot Level.
Off beat animations (8th notes) are now done as an additive animation rather than a fully separate animation in battle. This helps the dance animations to appear more consistent.
Camera changes occur more consistently during battles.
Fixed issues that caused Tenzerk's feet to drift or wiggle during some animations.
Improvements to Tenzerk pelvis motion during battle.
Smoothed out the transition into the choreography at the start of battles.

[h3]Music[/h3]

Improved the accuracy of the manual beat maps across all built-in tracks.
Changed sustained notes (press and hold) for built-in tracks to use manually entered data, improving the accuracy of their placement.
When the song ends before one of the pilots has won a battle, the song will now loop instead of just declaring a winner.
Add support for ogg and wav files in custom music.
Fixed issues where sustained notes (press and hold) could overlap with the Aedonix's grace notes

[h3]UI[/h3]

Added a large visual effect and persistent glow to draw attention to important upcoming opponent moves, such as those that apply a debuff to the player.
The opponent's upcoming moves UI now scales to fill up the available space, making it easier to see in some cases.
Increased the size of all Tenzerk's resource UIs.
Added floating text to show XP gains in battle. The pop-up now only appears when your Tenzerk levels up.
Added an option to forfeit battles from the in-game menu.
Added an option to Exit to Desktop from the in-game menu.
Added a streamer privacy option to the options menu. This will redact file paths on your system in the custom music menus.
Improved the ability button animation when an ability goes off cooldown or becomes available.
Reduced the intensity of force feedback effects. This can be really variable across different controllers, so please submit feedback if it is still too strong on your controller (and say what controller you're using!)
Fixed an issue where the note prompts could be aligned incorrectly in 3D space.
Fixed certain icons that would become extremely low-poly with mesh quality set to medium or low.

[h3]Gameplay[/h3]

Slightly increased the difficulty of Medium difficulty and increased the ramp-up speed of difficulty in the early game. (All of Midnight is the early game)
The Aedonix Tenzerk now takes slightly more Attention to fill up its Solo meter, but its moves grant more Acclaim overall.
Increased the Acclaim gained when using the Sentilon's Genetic Algorithm move
Boss battles (and Endless mode) now last longer.
The Slow Cooldowns opponent move now applies for fewer turns (6 instead of 10), but applies a higher amount of negative cooldown-reduction (-150% instead of -100%). This should encourage players to wait for the effect to end to use their cooldowns rather than ignoring it.

[h3]Audio[/h3]

Added a sound when traveling between certain doors, including those in the Midnight Arcade.
Improved transitions between different background music tracks.

[h3]Art/Visual[/h3]

Improved the appearance of rim lighting in the Aedonix Solo state.
Adjusted the placement of some cameras in battles.
Updated the Tenzerk shader to have more contrast and shadows, especially in very bright or very dark environments.
Destructibles now respawn after a short delay during battles.

[h3]Bug Fixes[/h3]

Fixed an issue that caused a blurry first frame when VFX are spawned in battle.
Fixed skinning/animation issues with some hair models.
Fixed an incorrect reference to "instant solo" in the tutorial for the Aedonix's Meltdown move tutorial.
Fixed a large hitch when closing the options menu
Fixed a camera bug that could occur when opening the in-game menu during the slomo effect at the end of a battle.
Fixed a bug where ground textures could suddenly shift when entering a battle.
Fixed a rare issue where some move icons would fail to appear at the start of battles and the resource bar UI would be stretched into a single pixel.
Fixed an issue where the VFX would appear incorrectly when rapidly skipping dialogue.

[h3]Developer[/h3]

Added anonymous analytics via the open source privacy-focused provider Aptabase. You can opt-out in the options menu, and the game does not send identifying or tracking information. This data helps determine where players are getting stuck and which gameplay options they're choosing, in order to improve the game.
Added a one-time prompt to wishlist the full game when exiting the game. Sorry if this is annoying, but unfortunately earning wishlists before release is incredibly important for indie developers. Thank you for understanding!

Thanks for reading and for playing! If you run into any problems with this update or have more feedback, please send over a report via the in-game UI or post it on the Steam discussion boards. I read everything!