Big Update and New Steam Achievements

For anyone playing in the beta branch, this is old news. But for the rest of you, hold on tight!

Monsters on away missions can now have more than 60 new stat modifiers and powers. Here's a sampling:

• Sturdy : Has a 50% bonus to HP.
  
• Perplexing : Attacks cause confusion.
  
• Avenging : Automatically returns melee attacks (strike-back).
  
• Disappearing : Able to become invisible!
  
• Squishy : Weakness to smashing damage.
  
• Elite : An experienced combatant.
  

Most modifiers are only valid on certain types of monsters: you won't find any squishy robots or elite plants. But there's already a huge variety of possibilities, and the further you go, the more likely you are to encounter them.

You can easily recognize modified monsters by their red health bar. Then you can mouse over or use the Peer (look) command to get detailed information, including a description of whatever new abilities this creature might have.

All this makes it much more likely that your...


A few months ago there was a big change to the way crew deaths happen on away missions: when you take enough damage, a crew member dies immediately. That reduces your maximum hit points, but also raises your current total to about 75% of that new max. Temporary healing with a permanent down-side.

But when you were out of crew ("Red-Shirts" specifically) but still had some *officers* left, the next time your HP got low enough, the entire party was killed. But this was inconsistent with the new rules, so...



From now on, your officers can drop one by one, just like your poor no-name crew.

More dire consequences, but possibly longer survival times... we'll see...



When you're visiting a space station, the starship outfitter (equipment store) can be restocked for a small but ever-increasing fee. On the one hand, this sometimes allows you to find that one special item you just can't live without. And I only ever really paid attention to that one hand...

But this was recently discussed here on the Steam boards, and it was pointed out to me that this can often take away from the joy of defeating a powerful enemy and getting an awesome loot drop. Why bother if you can buy something better?

So we're trying something different.



From now on, the cost to restock the store has been GREATLY INCREASED.
'Wait, so what am I supposed to do about equipment?!'

Well,

The way enemies drop loot has been completely remodeled!

Each type of enemy that would be capable of dropping a particular type of item can now do so (randomly). Animals don't drop technological items (this isn't Pandora!), but intelligent enemies, as long as they're capable of wearing or wielding items you could use, will now drop them more often!

This is true both in space and on away missions. And there's a tiny new feature inspired by this: you can install ranged and melee weapons that you find (including grenades, but not suits) even when you're not at the shuttle! This is an experiment, so certain parameters might need to be tweaked, but..

THIS IS NOT A SHOPPING SIMULATOR!

It's a space exploration rogue-like.

[h3]And speaking of RLs, what's more rogue-like than...[/h3]


As I mentioned last time, I recently started a new Youtube series where I pursue the fabled AoY in my fast and sneaky Stealth Runner. Well, the whole series hasn't been released yet, (playlist here) but, Spoiler Alert...

I succeed!

At the end of my final video, I really started to ask myself, was that too easy?. At first, I wanted to chalk it up to careful planning, preparation, and LUCK. Those things certainly were factors. But I got the feeling that maybe the bugs were actually helping me this time.

They were.

So anyone who has already done the Amulet of Yendor, well, congratulations, but you had it easy.

No more!

All those aliens that are supposed to be hell-bent on destroying you? They're coming for you now. And have you ever met a "retribution squad"? Well, you might now :D The amulet affects your warp drive and cloak now too...and they're not positive effects.

But hey, the Bankers are super happy you're doing this. They might even give you a discount...




What, you didn't know there was a hidden way to win Approaching Infinity? Yep. And there's absolutely no mention of it anywhere in the game. So where is it?

Let's talk about that: The Amulet of Yendor is located on a planet in sector 20, at cave level 5.

Today I added 2 new Steam achievements related to the AoY: "ROGUELIKE!" and "Is it an amulet or a ring?". I'm the 0.1% of players who has that first achievement. AFAIK, no one has the second one yet.

[h3]So get out there and find that Amulet! [/h3]

You'll have a few options when you pick it up, so choose wisely (or in one case, choose very unwisely but selfishly). Who can be the first to get the other achievement? How many wins can we record in the next few weeks before 1.6 is finished?

Ooh, and Steam achievement bonus: the game will now retro-check that your Steam achievements match up with your local ones. (Note that not all Steam achievements have been added yet.)



I'm going to start streaming on Twitch! In a year, I'll probably know what I'm doing. Laugh at me (or with me) as I figure out broadcasting, play AI, and (try to) fix bugs LIVE ON AIR...Follow me!
https://www.twitch.tv/ibol17



Months ago, someone asked me about creating an all-IBOLOGY bundle. At the time, it sounded like a good idea, but I didn't know how it worked, and I was way too busy just doing my day-to-day dev to give it much serious thought.

Then a few days ago, the world renowned Space Game Junkie pinged me on his Discord, where lots of other space game developers were talking about putting together a bundle. After talking with them I decided to join, *and* I learned just how easy it is to put one of these things together.

So now, I offer you not one but TWO:

The IBOLOGY bundle, which includes Approaching Infinity, The Curse of Yendor, and XenoBloom (all games I made).
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/21576/IBOLOGY_Bundle/

The Independent Space Alliance bundle, with 10 awesome space games of all descriptions!
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/21546



I'll be going camping in Pennsylvania soon, we'll see whether I can still handle that...
Have a great weekend, and let me know of any bugs *before* I leave :D