Gunlocked 2 News

I was alerted to a critical bug with settings caused by an update to the Simulator (of all things).

The 0.15.00 Supply Drop update will have significant balance and pacing updates, but most aren't ready for primetime. You may notice, however, a few small tweaks in this hotfix because it didn't make sense to disable them for the patch.

Bugs

• Fixed a bug that could lock controls after changing settings from the main menu (but not in-game)
  
• Fixed a bug that would cap the damage the Monarch could take in its vulnerable state before the vulnerability finished
  

Balance

• Bosses have less downtime at the start of the fight when they first appear
  
• The Hive Queen boss fight has fewer enemy spawns
  
• The Sting King, Lightning Lord, and Monarch boss fights all have slightly more enemy spawns
  

Not quite large enough to justify a full patch update, but significant for those of you wanting to dive into the simulator and break things. And you will break things. Once fully unlocked, It is entirely possible to equip so many utilities in the Simulator that everything crashes. Limits will eventually be introduced for stability.

This update is the last of any significance before next week's very large content drop. Hotfixes will be made as needed for any game-breaking bugs, should any of you find any.

As progress is made on the content update, it has grown significantly in size, and I'm really excited to share what I've been cooking. It will touch on more than just new utilities. Until then!

[h3]QoL[/h3]

• Simulator: The “view inventory” button in the Simulator menu will now function like a toggle, allowing you to quickly switch between the available library of upgrades and your currently equipped inventory of them
  
• Simulator: When you open the loadout drop down menu, your most recently selected loadout will be highlighted
  
• Simulator: The options menu has been enabled in the simulator
  
• Simulator: The inventory button in the pause menu has been removed, as inventory management happens in the simulator menu
  
• Simulator: Enemies should no longer drop non-gem items on death (bosses still drop hull repairs)
• Simulator: The same bosses can now be fought multiple times without restarting the simulation. Note: Further testing will be required to make sure there are no conflicts I missed, but everything seems good so far.

[h3]Bug Fixes[/h3]

• UI: Fixed an issue that would prevent access to the simulator when using mouse controls, if that pilot currently had no saved game (smh).
  
• Simulator: Loading a saved loadout will properly remove the current loadout first, and counters will update consistently
  
• Simulator: The reset equips button now consistently removes upgrades, and resets upgrade counters
  
• Mouse: Fixed a bug that would confirm an upgrade choice if you clicked on an inventory item.
  
• Mouse: Fixed a bug that would exit the Simulator menu if you clicked on an inventory item
  
• Keyboard: The correct shortcut hotkey to close the Simulator menu now works
  

Daily upkeep

• Due to a cloud conflict for my own backup files, the wrong upgrade libraries were uploaded with the latest patch. This only affected descriptions and rarities. Now fixed.
  
• The Hercules Beetle ships (large coleop ships that fire 3 bullets end-game) now properly deal damage
  
• Shock rounds is now applying to bullets correctly (again).
  

[p][/p][p]I’ve had the opportunity now to watch quite a bit of footage of various skill-level players attempt one or more runs in Gunlocked 2, and this patch is about massaging certain pain points in everything from balance to usability.[/p][p]Getting to actually watch players engage with the game is something I don’t have access to before Early Access, being a solo dev without a QA team. So this is always a huge part of my focus in the first weeks of my newest game's availability.[/p][p]As I continue to settle into a more regular work cadence, expect fewer polish patches, and a larger focus on content patches, ideally spread out by a week or two. There is still one more big-ish patch coming for the Simulator to get it into a more user-friendly state though. Then MORE CONTENT![/p][p][/p][h3]Quality of Life Improvements[/h3]

• [p]Hazards: The elite cosmic storm event that creates electricity on the battlefield has been visually updated to be larger and brighter (but the hitbox has not been changed).[/p]
• [p]UI: Sped up the Mission Menu startup a bit[/p]
• [p]UI: Changed Electric and Plasmic damage to Chain Shock and Plasmic Burn damage post-game for clarity. Note: These categories were not counting electric-type or plasmic-type upgrade damage, but just the actual elemental damage bonuses when they proc.[/p]
• [p]Tutorial: Updated the text for the Data Disk tutorial to also explain the inventory/items tracking\\[/p]
• [p]Tutorial: CRT’s portrait will now animate in the tutorial[/p]
• [p]Text: Updated the Improb Drive text to more clearly state that it is currently disabled[/p]
• [p]Text: Particloner now states the base amount of hits it can take before being destroyed[/p]
• [p]Upgrades: You can no longer banish locked upgrades. Note: this was correctly removing the utility from the pool, but allowing you to keep the upgrade until it was unlocked.[/p]

[p][/p][h3]Balance Updates[/h3][p]Notes:[/p][p]The focus on these balance changes is three-fold:[/p]

• [p]To give certain chance-based abilities more up-front oomph, while requiring more supplementary help to scale into absurd power levels.[/p]
• [p]Reducing some of the craziest power-points for bullet weapons, which players seem to universally agree is the most powerful archetype in the game[/p]
• [p]Prepare for the upcoming content patch coming late next week [/p]

[p]The goal going forward will be to buff under-performing upgrades more than nerf over-performing ones, but getting bullets down to a more realistic level first gives me a better bar to aim for with the other abilities (and making enemies feel consistently balanced).[/p][p]Balance changes to enemies, difficulty scaling, and items drops, should also lift every build up a little more, today.
[/p][p]Changes:[/p]

• [p]Bosses: Now always drop at least 2 Hull Repairs[/p]
• [p]Enemies: A special zone that spawns a lot of the “egg” type enemies, that drop down on the battlefield, should now spawn fewer eggs[/p]
• [p]Enemies: Scarabs always drop at least one hull repair if you kill them[/p]
• [p]Enemies: Enemy spawn density has been slightly decreased from warp zones 11-15[/p]
• [p]Hazards: The elite cosmic storm hazard has been rebalanced to create electricity less frequently later in the game[/p]
• [p]Weapons: The Big Shot has had its base damage reduced by 5, base range reduced by 12%, and its total charge time increased by 20%. Note: This is all less impactful than it sounds.[/p]
• [p]Weapons: The reload time on Pulse Cannon has been ever so slightly increased, and the base damage per bullet reduced to 15 from 20.[/p]
• [p]Utilities: Auto-Clip is now a rare upgrade[/p]
• [p]Utilities: Refractor now grants double the base chance to trigger (24%), but no longer gains chance on additional copies. Instead, chance boosting utilities will be required. Note: There will be additional ways to improve proc-chance beyond the few in the game now with next week's patch[/p]
• [p]Utilities: Afterglow now grants double the base chance to trigger (20%), but no longer gains chance on additional copies.[/p]
• [p]Items: Warp reroll tokens drop more often from enemies, banish tokens drop less often[/p]

[p][/p][h3]Bug Fixes[/h3]

• [p]Save/Load: Your synergy counts will properly be restored when resuming from a saved game[/p]
• [p]Save/Load: Signal Dongle, Banish Bounty, and Bug Bait will no longer grant extra copies each time you resume from a saved game[/p]
• [p]Save/Load: Fixed an issue where your total unique utilities might not be properly counted when resuming a save. It was only an issue if you exceeded 24 unique utilities.[/p]
• [p]Utilities: Fixed an issue causing Gas Generator to give the maximum cooldown benefit at all times[/p]
• [p]Data Beacons: Completing a beacon when it reaches 0 seconds should now properly grant the upgrade. Tie goes to the runner, as we ‘Muricans say.[/p]
• [p]Keyboard: The Banish menu shortcut key is now binding correctly[/p]
• [p]Keyboard: Rebinding controls will properly update glyphs without needing to exit and return to settings[/p]
• [p]Keyboard: Binding the cancel button will no longer also cancel you out of the keybinding menu[/p]
• [p]Misc: Fixed a bug that could, in very rare instances, cause Phase Shift invulnerability to become stuck on, even though the animation is no longer playing[/p]
• [p]UI: Fixed an issue where you could change the selected upgrade while confirming a banish[/p]
• [p]Text: Rooster no longer indicates he has the Laser synergy in the pilot select icons. This was from an old build of Vulcanorb.[/p]

[p]
[/p]

Nothing crazy, just two quick changes:

• A little bug snuck by in the update allowing other upgrades to override the range on the new Plasma Bomb. This could cause inconsistent results depending on the upgrades you chose. Should now be fixed.
  
• I also sped up the launch arc of the Plasma Bomb projectile, so it lands a little faster