MADNESS: Project Nexus News

A big merger update coming your way, folks!

We're putting everything from the many Beta updates since the Magiturge release into the public build. Here are some of the highlights:



[h2]**Beta [2.06.d]**[/h2]
ADDED
⦁ Holding ALT while making a purchase will auto-equip that item, if possible.
⦁ The "Hold Shift" and "Hold Alt" indicators in the inventory now change colors to indicate what you're holding.
⦁ In Fast Track's fourth car, Half-Mags and Mags can each climb up top to chase you.
⦁ Arena Hirelings will warn you that they were unable to level up due to level cap when arriving back at the HQ. They'll also display a lock icon over their level when examined.
FIXED
⦁ Mashing the Swap Weapons button (TAB) when leaving an Arena stage would wipe out your purchased weapons for any junk weapons you're carrying. Great way to sneak a crappy wrench out of a stage, in exchange for that nice $4,000 SMG you bought. This should now be fixed.
⦁ A few cutscene, mission, and skill description typos.
⦁ Looking up the Arena HQ ramp that leads from the Hub room to the Helipad, you can see a bare wall at the top. This has been replaced with a better effect.
⦁ Removed a spawn point in Foundry that could allow some opponents to linger off screen where they could shoot you without recourse.
⦁ More protection added to the ramps in the second train car of Fast Track, to keep Mag executions from trapping you in the geometry underneath them.
⦁ Bandit headgear had a large collider that made them look like they're floating off the floor when knocked off of someone.
⦁ Being over-encumbered wouldn't recalculate your downgraded dodge or sprint correctly. Also did some work streamlining the calculation process on the back end.
⦁ The Gambler wasn't walking away in Contract 3.
⦁ Some background characters weren't disabling their body-smock when wearing an outfit (such as the ravers in Contract 3).
⦁ Leaping Zeds couldn't be countered with the appropriate skill.
⦁ Orderlies weren't grappling properly at the end of their dash attack.
TWEAKED
⦁ Magiturge wands are now available all at the same time, rather than starting only with Plastic and unlocking one-at-a-time as you advance through stages. To balance this, wand addons will instead be unlocked over time (the way gems already do).
⦁ Nerfed AAHW Half-Mag health. They still hit just as hard.
⦁ Clarified the descriptions of the Wizard Staff melee weapons (it wasn't apparent that their real power comes from charging them up).
⦁ When buying from the Arena Quartermaster, you can now swap between hirelings in order to compare their weapon and armor stats to the items you're buying them.
⦁ Added a few more Wildlander and Poltergeist enemies to the later waves of Haunting at Nevada House. Poltergeists are also a little faster.
⦁ Demoniac Demonstrator units use a deadlier skillset when dual wielding.
⦁ New descriptors for the waves of some Arena stage, such as Fast Track being called "Car 4" instead of "Room 4", etc.
⦁ Cultists will get through the windows in Haunting of Nevada House a lot more quickly.
⦁ Being over-encumbered can downgrade your Tac-Bar up to two times rather than only once.
⦁ Tiny nudge to grenades when they impact the floor, to keep them from "physics-ing" through the floor in some areas.
⦁ Dissonant Robots can be thrown when countered during their charge (with the appropriate skill).


[h2]**Beta [2.06.g]**[/h2]
ADDED
⦁ The Agent Origin's new origin skill allows their pistols to stunlock enemies and ignore even more Tac-Bar within their sweet spot (once you've got the skill). We're also giving 'em the AAHW voice set.
FIXED
⦁ The enemy indicator that appears over off-screen opponents at the end of waves will get wiped when you bribe them as the Mercenary origin.
⦁ Despite being the worst driver in Nevada, Doc can no longer kill you at the end of Fickle Friends by accident.
⦁ Trying to play Sleeper Labs with four players would break the stage select screen.
TWEAKED
⦁ The Patient Origin's imaginary friend got a tweak. We won't ruin the surprise. Also, the Patient is invincible at the moment the friend is summoned.
⦁ The Infinite Ammo powerup now applies to melee durability as well.
⦁ Significant weighting multiplier (currently x5) applied to Acrobatics XP earned in Arena. This should help casual acro gain for most players.



[h2]**Beta [2.06.h]**[/h2]
FIXED
⦁ Disquieted Mask found yet another sneaky way to be unequipped. That's been cleaned up, *again*



[h2]**Beta [2.06.i]**[/h2]
Tiny update today with a bunch of typo fixes.
By this weekend, we SHOULD have all beta fixes merged into the release build!



[h2]**Beta [2.06.m]**[/h2]
FIXED
⦁ Updated the controller system to be compatible with Steam's controller settings (again).
⦁ Bunch of typos fixed.
TWEAKED
⦁ When given the prompt to allow a controller to take control of Player 1, pressing Start or A on your controller will confirm YES, and pressing B counts as NO. The previous button system was confusing.


[h2]**Beta [2.06.n]**[/h2]
FIXED
⦁ Small update to how background characters handle outfit pieces that should and should not remove the part they belong to (such as gloves removing the hand objects, but *not* for fingerless gloves, etc.)

[You can access this build from the releasebeta Branch on Steam]

[h2]ADDED[/h2]
⦁ The Agent Origin's new origin skill allows their pistols to stunlock enemies and ignore even more Tac-Bar within their sweet spot (once you've got the skill). We're also giving 'em the AAHW voice set.

[h2]FIXED[/h2]
⦁ The enemy indicator that appears over off-screen opponents at the end of waves will get wiped when you bribe them as the Mercenary origin.
⦁ Despite being the worst driver in Nevada, Doc can no longer kill you at the end of Fickle Friends by accident.
⦁ Trying to play Sleeper Labs with four players would break the stage select screen.

[h2]TWEAKED[/h2]
⦁ The Patient Origin's imaginary friend got a tweak. We won't ruin the surprise. Also, the Patient is invincible at the moment the friend is summoned.
⦁ The Infinite Ammo powerup now applies to melee durability as well.
⦁ Significant weighting multiplier (currently x5) applied to Acrobatics XP earned in Arena. This should help casual acro gain for most players.

[You can access this build from the releasebeta Branch on Steam]

[h2]ADDED[/h2]
⦁ Holding ALT while making a purchase will auto-equip that item, if possible.
⦁ The "Hold Shift" and "Hold Alt" indicators in the inventory now change colors to indicate what you're holding.
⦁ In Fast Track's fourth car, Half-Mags and Mags can each climb up top to chase you.
⦁ Arena Hirelings will warn you that they were unable to level up due to level cap when arriving back at the HQ. They'll also display a lock icon over their level when examined.

[h2]FIXED[/h2]
⦁ Mashing the Swap Weapons button (TAB) when leaving an Arena stage would wipe out your purchased weapons for any junk weapons you're carrying. Great way to sneak a crappy wrench out of a stage, in exchange for that nice $4,000 SMG you bought. This should now be fixed.
⦁ A few cutscene, mission, and skill description typos.
⦁ Looking up the Arena HQ ramp that leads from the Hub room to the Helipad, you can see a bare wall at the top. This has been replaced with a better effect.
⦁ Removed a spawn point in Foundry that could allow some opponents to linger off screen where they could shoot you without recourse.
⦁ More protection added to the ramps in the second train car of Fast Track, to keep Mag executions from trapping you in the geometry underneath them.
⦁ Bandit headgear had a large collider that made them look like they're floating off the floor when knocked off of someone.
⦁ Being over-encumbered wouldn't recalculate your downgraded dodge or sprint correctly. Also did some work streamlining the calculation process on the back end.
⦁ The Gambler wasn't walking away in Contract 3.
⦁ Some background characters weren't disabling their body-smock when wearing an outfit (such as the ravers in Contract 3).
⦁ Leaping Zeds couldn't be countered with the appropriate skill.
⦁ Orderlies weren't grappling properly at the end of their dash attack.

[h2]TWEAKED[/h2]
⦁ Magiturge wands are now available all at the same time, rather than starting only with Plastic and unlocking one-at-a-time as you advance through stages. To balance this, wand addons will instead be unlocked over time (the way gems already do).
⦁ Nerfed AAHW Half-Mag health. They still hit just as hard.
⦁ Clarified the descriptions of the Wizard Staff melee weapons (it wasn't apparent that their real power comes from charging them up).
⦁ When buying from the Arena Quartermaster, you can now swap between hirelings in order to compare their weapon and armor stats to the items you're buying them.
⦁ Added a few more Wildlander and Poltergeist enemies to the later waves of Haunting at Nevada House. Poltergeists are also a little faster.
⦁ Demoniac Demonstrator units use a deadlier skillset when dual wielding.
⦁ New descriptors for the waves of some Arena stage, such as Fast Track being called "Car 4" instead of "Room 4", etc.
⦁ Cultists will get through the windows in Haunting of Nevada House a lot more quickly.
⦁ Being over-encumbered can downgrade your Tac-Bar up to two times rather than only once.
⦁ Tiny nudge to grenades when they impact the floor, to keep them from "physics-ing" through the floor in some areas.
⦁ Dissonant Robots can be thrown when countered during their charge (with the appropriate skill).

The release build is now available with all previous Beta fixes/updates, including the following:

[h2]New Arena Origin: The Magiturge![/h2]

Experience the canonical "end" of the Arena Combat story with the strangest addition to the Origin lineup to date. The Magiturge is an otherworldly weaver of arcane gifts and the artificer of unique spellcasting wands, which they construct from within their pocket-dimensional tower. Achieve three imprints to unlock this Origin, and go on to learn the final secrets of Nevada with arcane elements thundering from your very fingertips!

There will be more content in the coming months, as always: new weapons, new origins, and who knows what else. But for the time being, we hope you enjoy the free summer update!

[You can access this build from the releasebeta Branch on Steam]

[h2]ADDED[/h2]
⦁ The Story Campaign stage select screen now features little background images just like (most) Arena stages, courtesy of DarkSignal.

[h2]FIXED[/h2]
⦁ Water ripples were looping rather than playing once. They also weren't despawning, which hogged memory.
⦁ Throwing rocks were able to disarm like the Madarang.

[h2]TWEAK[/h2]
⦁ Disabled burning SFX on the fire DoT.