BlastZone 2 News

A new update has been released for BlastZone 2! (v1.29.3.2) The main focus of this update is on rebalancing Training Mission mode to make it more fun to play. This is the first impression many players have of the game, so it is a very important element to improve. Damage output for all ships have been greatly increased to make enemies easier to destroy, addressing an issue many new players have. This also makes each section of a level quicker to take down, putting a greater emphasis on “popcorn” enemies generated between each section as the player gains experience. To counterbalance this and keep overall difficulty the same, this mode starts with fewer lives and fewer bonus lives are awarded during play. This also helps serve as a better training environment to help new players transition to higher difficulties.

General improvements to the Mission Area 1 design have been made for all difficulty levels, as well as many other fixes and improvements. Here are the full release notes:

• Rebalanced Training Mission mode to be more fun to play
  -Greatly increased weapon damage for all ships in this mode to make enemies easier to destroy
  -Also makes boss battles complete faster
  -Many level sections can be completed faster now, putting a greater emphasis on generated "popcorn" enemies
  -Reduced the number of starting lives and bonus lives to counter balance to the easier to kill enemies
  
• Increased the Z range when enemies can be hit by player bullets
  -Makes enemies moving quickly in Z space easier to hit
  
• Added hand placed Health and Points item drops for fast moving Z space enemies in Mission Area 2 and 3
  -Converts these enemies to "bonus enemies" with rewards for destroying them
  
• Adjusted several enemy spawn positions for Mission Area 1 to prevent them from moving outside the gameplay space
  
• Updated emissive lighting for bosses and enemies to be completely uniform, regardless of external lighting
  
• Added a "Try another game mode" gameover screen option when using Kiosk mode
  
• Removed the "Quit Game" menu options from the Pause and GameOver screens
  -The only "Quit Game" menu option left is in the main menu
  
• Added a new "Ship Selection" menu option to the GameOver screen
  
• Removed the "Disconnect" menu option from the Online Multiplayer pause screen
  -This makes it more difficult to quit/disconnect from an online game accidentally
  
• Added a hidden "useParticleHelperThreads" option to the config file
  -This is enabled by default
  -Disabling this still uses multithreading for the particle system, but limits particle updates to a single thread
  -Enabling this uses existing functionality from previous versions, allowing dynamic particle thread scaling up to 16 CPU cores
  -This option was created for debugging purposes; it fixes a rare crash issue when multiple instances of the game are running on the same system
  -It is still recommended to keep this option enabled, as the crash issue doesn't affect running a single instance of the game
  

As usual, to make sure you have the latest version, launch the game and check the lower left corner of the title screen for “v1.29.3.2” or higher. Enjoy!

A new update has been released for BlastZone 2! (v1.29.3.1) This one is focused on making several changes based on feedback and observations from the AVGC BlastZone 2 was shown at. This includes difficulty balancing, streamlining menus, screen wipes, improving ingame text, bug fixes, and more. This is a relatively small update, but it addresses many small things to improve the experience as a whole. Thanks a lot to everyone who dropped by our booth and helped contribute to making the game better!

Also, UAC access requests have been removed from the game, which may fix antivirus false-positives and administrator requirements. BlastZone 2 never made use of UAC access, but the access request is a compiler option that was never supposed to be enabled. Another long running bug that has finally been fixed is the 4k render scale issue. People running 4k monitors or high DPI scaling will now display the game properly. Any feedback on how well these fixes work for you is welcome.

Here are the full release notes for v1.29.3.1:

• Increased hyper power usage for the OmegaCannon from 200 to 250
  
• Increased all ship damage for Mission Training mode to make enemies easier to kill
  
• Player 2 exploder shots are now easier to see
  
• Changed the wave intermission weapon unlock text to be more exciting
  
• Increased starting stat levels for a few level select options
  
• Removed screen wipe animations during the level select screen
  
• Removed the Local/Online selection menu when playing a multiplayer Kiosk game
  
• Fixed incorrect game render scaling when Windows is set to a high DPI render scale above 100%
  -This fixes rendering issues with many 4k displays
  
• Removed UAC access requests
  -This fixes administrator requirement issues with some systems
  -This fixes some antivirus false-positives
  -UAC access was never used in BlastZone 2 and the access request in the executable manifest was left in by accident
  

As usual, to make sure you have the latest version, launch the game and check the lower left corner of the title screen for “v1.29.3.1” or higher. Enjoy!

BlastZone 2 has a booth at AVideoGameCon (AVGC) 2018 this weekend Sept 15-16 in Secaucus, NJ! In celebration, there is a 25% sale on the game all weekend for everyone. Pick it up while the sale lasts!

For more information about the convention, visit the website at: http://www.AVideoGameCon.com

A new update has been released for BlastZone 2! (v1.29.3.0) The biggest part of this update is a completely new packet compression system for online multiplayer games. The primary benefit of this is a significant reduction in latency and CPU usage, and packing higher precision floating point values while keeping bandwidth usage about the same. The amount of latency reduction varies depending on CPU power. The time to generate a packet with the old code ranged from 2-16ms, but the new code ranges from 0.25-0.75ms, a huge difference! The old way to compress packets was done by a zLib post process after each packet was created. This was a very CPU intensive operation for the use case. The new compression system has been created from scratch and is done while each packet is created. It uses fast bit-level compression specialized for the way BlastZone 2 packets are constructed.

Another notable part of this update is a new command ship to defend in both of the Classic game modes. This gives better context for the goal of the game, instead of abstractly needing to prevent enemies from passing by the player. Now, the game plays like an escort mission; if too many enemy ships crash into the command ship behind you, it explodes, causing a chain reaction making your ship explode as well. This in combination with the new weaving enemy type in the previous update makes the Classic A and Classic B modes more engaging and fun to play.

A few other fixes and improvements have been made in this update as well. Here are the full release notes for v1.29.3.0:

• Created a completely new netcode packet compression system
  -Reduces latency by 2-16ms depending on system specs
  -Significantly reduces CPU usage during online multiplayer games
  -Uses similar bandwidth to the old system, but with higher data precision
  -Uses lightweight specialized compression logic as each packet is built instead of running an expensive post operation
  
• Added a command ship you need to defend in Classic A and Classic B modes
  -Converts the game mode into an escort mission instead of abstractly preventing enemies from passing you
  
• Updated Classic mode help screens to reflect the new objective to defend the command ship
  
• Added support for the Classic A/B death sequence on the client side for online multiplayer
  
• Corrected kill counts for Survival and Blitz modes in the help screens
  
• Fixed a few rare multithreading crash bugs
  
• Fixed the disconnection option not working correctly in the gameover screen when playing a Steamworks multiplayer game
  
• Improved multithreading concurrency in a few areas to improve performance
  
• Optimized the final death explosion sequence
  
• Added "Help", "HighScore", and "Credits" main menu options to the Kiosk version
  
• Renamed the "Config" menu to the "Options" menu
  
• Removed bonus lives and unlock messages from the Kiosk version
  

As usual, to make sure you have the latest version, launch the game and check the lower left corner of the title screen for “v1.29.3.0” or higher. Enjoy!

Also, the new website for BlastZone 2 has launched! It includes an improved design, interactive buttons, bandwidth saving features, and better news page navigation. The leaderboards page has been significantly improved as well, with better category selection and data caching. The website has been brought up to modern standards in many ways and thanks a lot to Kevin Edzenga for all the hard work to bring this to fruition!

visit the website here:http://www.BlastZone2.com

A big new update has been released for BlastZone 2! (v1.29.2.0) The biggest part of this update is to add a new ship unlock progression system. New players will now start with the A2, A3, and B1 ships, with the rest of the ships being locked out. Players upgrading from a previous version will have additional ships unlocked if they have Mission Veteran mode or Blitz mode unlocked. To unlock a new ship, the player needs to surpass Wave/Area 8 in Mission, Survival, or Blitz mode, and this can be done multiple times until all the ships are unlocked. Also, unlocking a ship in one game mode will unlock it for all game modes. This way, the player can focus on their most proficient game mode to unlock ships to help out with other game modes. The goal of this update is to make the content progression more gradual by making the player earn the more powerful ships through proficient play. This also helps newer players focus on the more basic ships to start with to build up gameplay skills.

This update includes a new enemy type for Classic A and Classic B modes that moves up and down. This new enemy is introduced a few waves in to the game and gradually increases spawn frequency as the game progresses. This mixes up gameplay by having to track enemies in more ways than the old horizontal linear movement.

This update also includes emissive lighting improvements for the OpenGL 3.0 renderer. Item drops now have the same emission animation as the OpenGL 1.5 renderer, as this capability was previously missing from the GL3.0 renderer. The new emission maps for enemies and bosses are now animated as well, improving visual fidelity. Each item drop, enemy, and boss now have their own unique emission material that can work independently of each other.

This update also includes many other improvements, bug fixes, and tweaks. Here are the full release notes:

• Added a ship unlock progression system
  -The game now starts with only the A2, A3, and B1 ships available; the rest are locked out
  -Surpassing Area/Wave 8 of Mission, Survival, or Blitz modes unlocks new ships
  -Unlocking a ship in one mode will make it available for all modes
  -Anyone upgrading from a previous version will start with additional ships unlocked based on other progress
  -Having Mission Veteran difficulty unlocked will unlock an additional ship
  -Having Blitz mode unlocked will unlock an additional ship
  -If one of the above conditions are met, the B2 ship will be unlocked
  -If both of the above conditions are met, the B2 and A1 ships will be unlocked
  
• Integrated all unlock text displays into the general messaging system
  
• Added new unlock text displays for each ship unlock event
  
• Added a new EnemyB type to Classic A and Classic B modes that also moves up and down
  -Gradually introduces this new enemy type in later waves
  
• Added per-object material emissive lighting support to the OpenGL 3.0 renderer
  -Light emission now works correctly for item drop models, just like how the OpenGL 1.5 renderer behaves
  -The amount of light emission can now be different for each enemy model
  -Light emission is now animated for enemy and boss models
  
• Disabled the "kills left" display during the outro screen for Survival/Blitz/Classic modes
  
• Optimized matrix operations for several object types, such as particles, bullets, and enemies
  
• Improved packet loss tolerance in a few areas, including ship selection, ship size, current health, and boss/player state
  
• Reduced multiplayer item drops by 25% overall and by 50% when one player runs out of lives
  
• Fixed a bug allowing ship changes after selection in the local multiplayer ship selection screen
  
• Fixed a broken lighting bug when switching from the OpenGL 3.0 renderer to the OpenGL 1.5 renderer
  
• Fixed screen shakes not affecting the player booster
  
• Fixed screen shakes affecting the wave splash screen and dialog box when it is not supposed to
  
• Fixed a wave progression bug for online multiplayer games
  
• Fixed incorrect player 2 animations for some wave splash screens
  

As usual, to make sure you have the latest version, launch the game and check the lower left corner of the title screen for “v1.29.2.0” or higher. Another update is in the works that greatly improves the netcode and improves the Classic game modes. This will be released within the next week or so. Enjoy!