Skillshot City News

Fasten your seatbelts, we're about to enter Valve time. All the coolest moments in the campaign have been given a bit of slow motion just to make you feel extra badass. There is literally no point to this feature. Check it out in this gif below:




Talk about efficient gif usage! The animation above also shows off the new vehicle camera. Your vehicle is no longer fixed in the very centre of the screen. Instead, the camera will now shift forward slightly, allowing you to see further ahead and plan where you're going to turn next. This feature has been requested for a long time and really makes driving easier.


This is a pretty big addition, and something I've needed for a long time. There are now green barriers that block AI vision. They're effectively doors that enemy guards cannot see through. They will disable if you shoot or walk through them, but until then you are free to observe your enemy and plan your attack before the shit hits the fan. In the gif below you can see the guard walk past, and only after the door is disabled does he spot me.




Yet another map has been polished up with all the new features added over hte past 10 months. Residence, S04 starts off with a sexy slow motion vehicle sequence (as shown in the gif above), and has been polished from start to finish. Next version will focus entirely on the rest of the campaign, and finally finish up a years worth of work redoing the singleplayer.

Anyway that's all for this version. Have fun and please give me feedback here or in Discord: https://discordapp.com/invite/geneshift

Step aside Google, Geneshift now has self driving cars! That's right, cars can now be driven by bots. This has allowed me to add a bunch of cool new sections to the campaign, including escort missions, chase sequences and general man vs car combat. Get your bazookas ready cause you'll have a lot of cars to shoot! Check out this sweet totally unscripted gif:




Why walk when you can run? Why run when you can shift!? I've added a great new feature called Phase Shfting that makes movement way more tactical. Simply tap the shift key and you will now blink forward in an instant, dodging enemy grenades, escaping to cover, or charging in at your enemy with a knife. In PvP each player has 3 shifts, and can use them all up to get instant bursts of speed. After using a shift it will take 2 seconds to replenish, so you need to time them well.

This new system is a lot of fun, and best of all, the title "GeneSHIFT" finally makes sense, as shifting is now a key mechanic in the game.




Ok so we already had car boosting, but now it LOOKS awesome. Like actual fire comes out the back of your car. I've also made the boost mechanic a lot tighter. Your boost bar only lasts 3s now, but you get some real speed because of it. This is better than the old boost which lasted forever but barely increased your speed at all. That was more of a general speed increase, but now boosting really feels like a tactical maneuver. It sounds awesome too.




This version continues the slow but steady polishing of the campaign. Downtown (map 3) now joins Laboratory and Subway as being fully polished up with all the new features I've added over the last few versions. It focuses especially on vehicle combat using the new AI driving, and starts with a very groovy escort mission. In fact escort missions are now actually possible, as you can now fail a stage when AI characters die. This allowes for timed challenges and a bunch of other fun things.

Anyway that's all for this version. Have fun and please give me feedback here or in Discord: https://discordapp.com/invite/geneshift

In the not so wise words of EA, this version will give you a sense of pride and accomplishment. How you ask? By completely reworking the progression system. This new system adds strategy, gives cash a purpose, and lets you personalize your character as you progress through the game. Holy buzzwords batman, let's read on!




The old system was very simple. You discovered an item in the map and from that point on you could access it in the buy menu. This was great and all, but it meant that everyone had the exact same build. You were progressing, but it wasn't customizable and there wasn't any strategy or excitement to it.

This new system adds a simple step that fixes this. When you discover an item in the map it becomes "discovered", but now it is not immediately unlocked. To fully unlock it you must actually buy it in the menu screen shown above. You buy it with cash earned from the campaign. This single change makes the progression system a lot more interesting:

1) Cash now has long term value as it is needed to progress. This gives you an incentive to get those sick combo kills, and also introduces an "end game" grinding stage for completionists.

2) Your build is now personalized and requires strategy. Do you spend your remaining $8000 unlocking the M4A1 or Force Fields?

3) You can now get excited about cool items. Before you were just given Invisibility before you even knew what it did. There was no anticipation. Now you'll actually care when you finally invest the $20,000 required to unlock it.




Check out this cool new STAGE CLEAR thingy. It shows up when you kill the last enemy on each stage and makes you feel like a badass. I've also made the HUD a bit cleaner and given everything a sci-fi blue tint.

With the release of this version I think I'm 100% done with the "systems" aspect of the campaign. Everything is in place now. Now I just need to go through and polish up the actual stages themselves to work with all the cool new features I've been adding. Next version is going to be a whole new game!

A few nice changes in this version, the biggest one being a completely reworked menu system. I should have done this earlier, because it looks great and first impressions are oh so important. We've also got some nice changes to the campaign and yet another new combo kill system.




The menu has been reworked in a few ways. The overall aesthetic has been improved with a cool new blue background and new textures. The actual navigation has been changed too, with a dedicated main menu which lets you go into and out of the individual pages. This results in far fewer buttons on the screen at one time and is less overwhelming to new players. Even the options menu has been resdesigned with a new "common options" page that hides most of the advanced settings that no one cares about.




I've yet again reworked the Kill Combo system, but I think I've got it perfect this time. There is no longer any confusing cash multiplier step that indirectly affects how much money you get per kill. The new system simply gives you extra cash directly. Instead of a double kill increasing you multiplier by 20% so that future kills give more cash, now a double kill just straight up gives you $150 for a kill instead of $100. Easy!

There is still the concept of "special kills" which also award extra cash, and if you combo these together you get more money faster. Kills must be made within 3s of eachother to increase the combo. Here are some examples:

Normal Kill: $100
Road Kill: $150
Stealth Kill: $150
Double Kill: $100, then $150
Double Road Kill: $150, then $250


In the campaign there are no longer level restrictions when you unlock skills. This means you can now unlock high level skills like Teleportation at level 1! Before you had to wait till you reached level 10 to be able to do this, so with this change these skills are FAR more useful. I'm curious to see how this affects speedruns.




In the screenshot above you can see two barricades blocking off the top doors. This is a new feature that replaces the old doors that were hacked together with models. These are better not only because they're animated and sound cool, but because they go down into the ground when they're closed. The old models stayed the same but simply because walkable, which made it really hard to tell if you could go through them or not.


General Changes

• The menu has been reworked, graphically and with a new naviation system.
  
• The options menu features a new "common options" section that hides away most of the advanced settings.
  
• There are now three presets in the options menu that easily adjust your graphical settings.
  
• Tweaked a bunch of text and fonts throughout the menu system.
  

Campaign Changes

• Skills can now be unlocked at any level in the campaign.
  
• Help Text is now shown as a separate popup down the bottom of the screen, instead of being spoken by guards.
  
• A new animated barricade type exists to replace some of the old doors, making it clearer if you can or cannot pass through.
  
• The Kill Combo system has been reworked, now rewarding extra cash for special and combo kills directly.
  
• On each stage players can now compete for the total cash earned in the stage, rather than compete over the highest cash multiplier (which no longer exists).
  
• The loading screen between campaign stages now has animated text to build suspense when you see your end of round stats.
  
• Made some general tweaks to Laboratory and Subway.
  

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where vehicles would get stuck on the sides of walls.
  
• Fixed a performance issue on some systems.
  
• Honestly I fixed a bunch of other things, but I forgot to add them to the changelog this version. Lots of good stuff, go enjoy!
  

Plenty of new features! In the campaign we have a new exploding guard type who alerts nearby enemies, we have a fun new kill combo system, and the skill penalites have all been removed as well! In multiplayer we have a massive rework to how barrier works, and maps that resize based on the number of players in the server.




Some guards will now walk with a red backpack filled with explosives chemicals. If you kill them they explode in a dazzling fireworks display, creating a sound that alerts nearby enemies. This new guard type is currently only in the first 2 stages of the campaign, but will allow me to create a variety of awesome puzzles and high adrenalin sequences where the shit hits the fan the moment you explode one of these guards.


The gif above also shows the new kill combo system, showing a new "Double Kill" type as the grenade kills both guards simultaneously. Double Kills (along with Triple, Quad and Multi Kills) are a new kill type that rewards you with extra cash. This is done with the new cash multiplier system, which goes up when you perform "skillful" kills.

The cash multiplier stays at x1.0 unless you do something cool. If you get a double kill, it will jump up to x1.2. If you then get a road kill it will increase futher to x1.3. This means that any kill you get will pay out $130 instead of $100. You are rewarded with more cash for killing in awesome ways, and there are other new kill types as well, such as Skill Kills, Quick Kills, and Stealth Kills.




Maps will now resize based on the number of players in the server. When there aren't many players in the server, blue electricity will cover the ground the outsides of the map and kill anyone who walks into it. This forces players to stay in the centre, effectively shrinking the map size and resulting in far more active and fast-paced battles when playing in a smaller server.


In the screenshot above you can also see some blue highlights on the boxes to the right. This new feature indicates if a box is of a jumpable height or not, and makes it much easier to jump in a 3D environment with a top-down view.


Barrier is a fundamental part of combat, especially multiplayer combat, and so this rework changes a lot. Barrier no longer absorbs damage into your mana pool. Instead it has been simplified to a simple 25% damage reduction at the price of slower movement and -3 mana/s.

This change makes barrier more useful as you'll no longer lose all of your mana in an instant when damaged. It also ensures that you never die with "unused mana" which was a kinda silly way to die with the old system.


In the campaign there are no skill penalties. This is pretty huge, and should make it a lot more exciting to discover new skills and mutation vials, as they are nothing but 100% benefit now. I've also made this option available for PvP servers for shits and giggles (though it will probably be pretty unbalanced).



General Changes

• Skill Penalties are now optional in PvP servers.
  
• Blood is a lot more gorey.
  
• The game now uses a new default font, instead of boring ungamey arial.
  
• Dedicated campaign servers now reset to standard difficulty if the server is empty.
  
• Neutralizing is no longer required by the Newbie Checklist.
  
• Spectating will default to a player instead of free-look mode now.
  
• Cash bubbles now occur where you kill your enemy rather than floating above your head, making the cash rewards easier to see.
  
• Capturers now display with a blue smoke instead of red.
  
• Text bubbles now animate the text, instead of displaying it all at the same time.
  
• There's now a little bit of screen recoil whenever you shoot.
  
• Sprint speed is now 160% instead of 150%.
  

Campaign Changes

• Skills no longer have penalties in Stealth mode.
  
• Guards now show a little exclaimation mark above their heads when they're first alerted.
  
• You will take a $200 penalty whenever you die.
  
• The bomb explosion can't destroy a vehicle if player is inside it.
  
• Dying in co-op during a zombie phase switches you to zombie (instead of just sitting there watching).
  
• Guards turn speed is now a bit slower.
  
• Guards typically now only engage you once they get direct LOS to you, but after this they keep chasing you.
  
• Guards prefer not to jump over boxes now if it's possible to run around it instead.
  

Skill Changes

• All skills that used to cost 15 mana now cost 20 mana.
  
• Regeneration max mana is now 80/70/60/50/40 instead of 90/80/70/60/50.
  
• Self Repair mana cost is now 30 instead of 20.
  
• Self Repair range is now 2.5/3/3.5/4/4.5 instead of 2/2.5/3/3.5/4.
  
• Self Repair regen is now 15/20/25/30/35 instead of 10/15/20/25/30.
  
• Self Repair burn is now 6/9/12/15/18 instead of 3/6/9/12/15.
  
• Energize no longer awards cash.
  
• Energize ammo burn is now 130/140/150/160/170% instead of 140/150/160/170/180%.
  
• Static Charges required damage is now 8/7/6/5/4 instead of 14/12/10/8/6.
  
• Static Charges removes the barrier burn penalty on your victims.
  
• Lasing Orb won't suffer from the 3 mana/s barrier burn penalty.
  

Weapon Changes

• Super weapons now do 50% more damage vs zombies.
  
• USP damage is now 13 instead of 16.
  
• Deagle damage is now 20 instead of 24.
  
• Flare Gun flame duration is now 3s instead of 4s.
  
• Taser damage is now 20 instead of 24.
  
• UZI damage is now 16 instead of 20.
  
• MP5 damage is now 16 instead of 20.
  
• Nailgun damage is now 16 instead of 20.
  
• M3 damage is now 108 instead of 112.
  
• M3 rpm is now 90 instead of 100.
  
• M3 now does x1.05 damage vs guards.
  
• SPAS damage is now 60 instead of 77.
  
• SPAS now does x1.05 damage vs guards.
  
• Blast Cannon damage is now 44 instead of 52.
  
• AK47 damage is now 20 instead of 25.
  
• M4A1 damage is now 15 instead of 19.
  
• Seek Rifle damage is now 18 instead of 24.
  
• M249 damage is now 19 instead of 23.
  
• M60 damage is now 26 instead of 32.
  
• Minigun damage is now 16 instead of 20.
  
• Ruger damage is now 40 instead of 45.
  
• Ruger movement speed is now 0.90 instead of 0.95.
  
• Barrett damage is now 60 instead of 65.
  
• Photon Beam damage is now 50 instead of 60.
  
• Flamethrower damage is now 7 instead of 8.
  

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where the mouse was too sensitive.
  
• Fixed a bug where mini-checkpoints wouldn't always trigger in coop.
  
• Fixed a camera zoom issue with rotating vehicle camera.
  
• Fixed a bug with smoke bomb view ranges.
  
• Optimised netcode performance a bit.