Solaroids News

Another update coming at you in time for the "cold" holidays here in the northern hemisphere. This one is primarily some quality-of-life features.

[h2]Quality of Life is a Thing[/h2]

Not all screens are created equal and so several enhancements were made to improve the experience for those on small, but hi-res screens - for example Steam Link on iPhone/iPad.

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It's not automatic, but now you can increase the size of the reticle around your ship up to 200% regular size which can make taking advantage of its capabilities even easier. Whether it's tracking other players whether friend or foe, enemies (red squares), incoming missiles (red triangles), your lost power-ups (rings colored based on the weapon slot), or just that all important landmark the sun (yellow circle), the reticle has you covered. The Reticle Size option is configurable independently for each player.

Another Heads Up Display (HUD) improvement is now many of the text in-game (not menus) can now be adjusted up to 150% of normal size. Technically, you can reduce the size as well for any of you with mammoth monitors that just want the HUD "mostly" out of the way. It will adjust the size of each player HUD, Level Progress Indicator, Tip Text, Threat Lists, and so on. The HUD Size option is located under the Video option menu. Another option that can be useful in a similar situation is to adjust the Zoom Level under the Effects options menu to bring you closer to or further away from the action, adjust to your taste.

Another small but useful quality of life feature is I've added an

A lot of new players this month due to steam sales!

Welcome and thank you for playing... :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:ːsolaroidsLːːsolaroidsAː:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:ːsolaroidsDː:solaroidsS:

Congratulations to all!

1st place goes to mon-stryder with 5,010,775 using the Modern (dual-stick) control style.

Coming in 2nd place is -Fish- with 1,494,415 points using Classic (Asteroids) control style.

Finally, third place goes to Yarvik with 787,475 also using the Modern (dual-stick) control style.

Note: Another quick reminder that only the First Credit leaderboards are used for the monthly challenge.



The monthly boards are full this month! So as promised, I have Solaroids OST digital cards/keys for those in the winners circle. Use it yourself, give it away, or sell it if you can. The soundtrack is no longer tied to the game, it's been freed from DLC prison.

I think the easiest way to verify and transfer the digital card/key is via Steams friend/chat system. mon-stryder, -Fish-, and Yarvik, send me a friend request via Steam to claim your prize, and I'll send you a digital card/key via chat. You can de-friend me afterwards! ːsteamsaltyː



Cheers!

Chad (kiates)


Come join the (Solaroids Discord Server), exercise some much needed bragging rights, say high to other players, share some tips, and give me your thoughts about what would make the Best Asteroids Style Space Shooter on the planet.


Sign up on my Early Access Page to be notified at full launch across all platforms, not just Steam.

Hello arcade shoot'em up and classic Asteroids lovers across the globe. I have a "small" update for you this fall primarily focused on performance improvements, but also has a few significant changes under the hood that will especially benefit those with either "creative" steam names, or are from a culture with vast numbers of unique characters.

Some of you that also play games on Xbox One may already know, but I released a free demo for Xbox One last summer along with an update earlier this fall that added full leaderboard including daily, weekly, and monthly support to that demo. If you play on that platform too, please give it a try! Anyway as a part of that effort, I've done a ton of performance tuning in my custom engine under the hood to support consoles. This should translate to lower resource/gpu usage for PC/Linux/Mac users, so everyone wins.

In addition I have ripped out my entire text rendering system and replaced it with an improved framework. Everyone should notice slightly improved text rendering, but the big feature this enabled is the ability to render more character sets such as Chinese and Japanese as prime examples. ? marks in steam leaderboards should now be a thing of the past for non-vector mode. Vector mode will still suffer until I can figure out how best to create a vector font that can encompass these diverse characters.





For first time players, I've also introduced selection screens on game launch that allow to to pick both an initial theme and control style. This should help those just starting out get familiar with some of the ways to play and reduce initial frustration. The demo always shows it, but the full version will only show it the first time playing. There is an option under Miscellaneous to force it on/off.



Finally, I've started work on additional difficulty settings. For now, I'm only exposing the new Easy mode for more casual players, but in the future I'll enable Hard and Insane modes, once they are ready.

Cheers!

Chad (kiates)


Come join the (Solaroids Discord Server), exercise some much needed bragging rights, say high to other players, share some tips, and give me your thoughts about what would make the Best Asteroids Style Space Shooter on the planet.


Sign up on my Early Access Page to be notified at full launch across all platforms, not just Steam.

• Performance improvements.
  
• New text rendering that supports full character sets.
  
• Introduction screens to pre-select a theme and control style.
  
• New Easy mode for casual play. Select before each game, or from the options menu before starting.
  
• Update framework libraries used under the hood.
  
• Improved demo experience.
  
• Guest player scores default to Anonymous 1-4.
  

• Better handling of thruster volume in Modern (dual-stick) mode.
  
• Borderless mode now supported on Linux/Mac.
  
• Many other little fixes, that probably only I notice.
  

• There are still a few things in Vector mode that need to be finished up. Namely controller and controller button graphics, the Ammo/Heath bars, and the Level indicator.
  
• Borderless window option is only implemented for Windows right now.
  
• Disconnecting an external audio device being used by the game may cause a crash/freeze on Linux/OSX.
  
• Some options and more recent prompts are English only or machine translated right now. If machine translated, they are indicated with an asterisk (*).
  

BLURR holds 1st place for October with their early-in-the-month score of 259,940,365.

Flu Orid swooped in later during the month, I presume to assert their grand-champion dominance, but failed to topple BLURR while still securing a solid 2nd place entry with a score of 100,002,490.

Rounding out 3rd place is Harnulfson with a respectful score of 86,097,960. Harnulfson seems to have been enjoying some much-needed R&R over the last few months, as I haven't seen them in the leaderboards since they took the July 2nd place slot.



We didn't quite fill the boards this month, even with my paltry test score added, so the challenge is forfeit this month. That being said, the challenge still remains outstanding. I'll be watching for the time when the scales tip and that board is full!

Once again, if the boards are filled, the top three slots get Solaroids soundtrack Steam keys. Use it yourself, give it away, or sell it if you can. The soundtrack is no longer tied to the game, it's been freed from DLC prison.



Cheers!

Chad (kiates)

P.S. What is your #1 feature request for the next update? Let me know in the comments, or in the community under Feature Requests and I'll try to prioritize things based on which is the most in demand.


Come join the (Solaroids Discord Server), exercise some much needed bragging rights, say high to other players, share some tips, and give me your thoughts about what would make the Best Asteroids Style Space Shooter on the planet.


Sign up on my Early Access Page to be notified at full launch across all platforms, not just Steam.

It was a casual month on the Solaroids leaderboard for September 2020. Maybe everyone is settling into the change of seasons for those of us that don't live near the equator? Maybe we need to recruit some fresh pilots to up the challenge, maybe the pandemic is weighing on everyone, or maybe everyone is playing that Among Us game these days?

Raining all time champion Flu Orid skims through this month and takes 1st place. Probably didn't even break a sweat collecting a score of 45,715,435. Or maybe with one hand tied behind your back?

Another regular, morg556, coasted into 2nd place with a score of 25,461,215.

Coming in 3rd place is mochoaxx with 5,168,925. Welcome to the winner's circle.

Congratulations all, hope you have a great October, and let's fill the monthly board this month!



If the boards are filled, the top three slots get Solaroids soundtrack steam keys. Use it yourself, give it away, or sell it if you can. The soundtrack is no longer tied to the game, it's been freed from DLC prison.



Cheers!

Chad (kiates)

P.S. What is your #1 feature request for the next update? Let me know in the comments, or in the community under Feature Requests and I'll try to prioritize things based on which is the most in demand.