Solaroids News

Hello everyone! This is just a small update to release a few features that I didn't want to wait for a bigger update.



First, watching players at a local gaming event, and on YouTube, I fast tracked an idea I had for helping to identify power-ups that can be used. Now if a power-up can't be collected, or wouldn't be useful to collect, they will be drawn ghosted as an indicator. Cases where power-ups can't be collected are when you're maxed out on a capability such as bullet rate/velocity/strength, or for repair power-ups, when your already fully repaired. In the later case, previously it would collect it anyway, but I felt that was misleading since other power-ups would just fail to collect. I hope now it will be more clear when to chase after the buggers!



I also improved the ability to swap outriders for fresh ones. If you have a bunch of outriders and one of them is more damaged than the one your about to pick up, they will be exchanged. Previously it wouldn't always swap them out.

Oh and one more. After watching Space Game Junkie do infinity circles around two of the early bosses trying to get their own missiles to hit each other, I just had to enable it. So now after a short delay, enemy missiles can actually hit enemies if your adept with the piloting skills!

I hope you enjoy the mini-update and have a great weekend!!

• Drifting power-ups are now transparent "ghosted" if you will not be able to pick them up -- for example if you have already maxed out the capability. This includes repair power-ups, so no longer will you feel like you have to chase something down to only find out that it wasn't useful at that moment.
  
• Adjusted floating power-up effects to make the central icon graphics more visible.
  
• Enemy missiles can now be used against them. After a delay, their missiles can hit enemy ships including the source of the missile.
  

• Swapping outriders for outriders of better health wasn't working as intended. You should now be able to swap a damaged outrider for one in better condition.
  

• Borderless window option is only implemented for Windows right now.
  
• Disconnecting an external audio device being used by the game will 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 (*).
  

It's finally here!! In addition to the expert control and challenge of the classic Asteroids® controls, Solaroids now has more modern control styles for your (or your friends) enjoyment! I'm happy to introduce Hybrid (single-stick) and Modern (dual-stick) control styles.



If you enjoy Twin-stick shooters, now is the time to test your skills against veteran players. Just select the Modern (dual-stick) control style before joining or from the player options menu while in-game. Use one thumb-stick to thrust and orient your ship, or both at the same time to perform advanced dodging and strafing.





If you almost like the classic controls but wish you could use one of the thumb-sticks to control the orientation of your ship, we have you covered too. Just select the Hybrid (single-stick) control style.

If you're a classic player and worried about new twin-stick cowboys besting your scores, have no fear. This version now supports score Multipliers and taking direct control of all the ships thrusters via Classic controls has a few rewards. While using Modern (dual-stick) controls there is a bit of a multiplier penalty, and the multiplier increases and decreases at a less advantageous rate. These aspects may be adjusted over the coming months as necessary to balance things.

Another requested feature by several players has been to add "drum brakes". While I can't literally add them, it is space after all, I've done the next best thing. I've added lateral thrusters that you can use manually for advanced strafing maneuvers, but you can also activate all thrusters to dynamically slow your ship regardless of the direction it is facing. In Modern (dual-stick) mode this happens automatically whenever you release the movement stick. For Hybrid (single-stick) and Classic modes it can be engaged by pressing both forward and reverse thrusters at the same time.



But wait, that's not all! All these control styles are also available using keyboard and mouse. Yes, that's right, if you prefer to use the utility of the mouse to aim and fire, both Hybrid and Modern styles are augmented with mouse controls along with the ability to re-bind the mouse buttons to your liking.

In addition to mouse support in-game, the main menu and options menus have been re-written to support the mouse as well so click away. This also includes the control layout editor, so now you can click controls to re-bind them instead of having to hold the existing binding to activate reconfigure mode. Something that you may need if you have a controller that doesn't have some of the default bindings.

With the exception of the mouse movement, all thumb-sticks and buttons are reconfigurable to your tastes so if you don't like the default layout I've chosen, mix it up!

These are the big features, however there are a lot of other little features that have also been tweaked or introduced. Let me know if I hit something you like, or if the feature you've been hoping for is not available yet. I'm totally open for suggestions, and most have found a way into the game in one form or another.

I hope you enjoy the update. Let the blasting commence!

• Alternate control styles:
  
  • Classic - This is the original control scheme as in the original Asteroids, aka "tank" controls.
    
  • Hybrid (single-stick) - Orient the ship with the left thumb-stick or use the mouse to both orient and fire your primary and secondary weapons.
    
  • Modern (dual-stick) - Orient the ship with the left thumb-stick and control your thrusters with the right thumb-stick.
    
• Lateral thrusters for advanced pilots.
  
• Increase power of all thrusters.
  
• Dynamic braking. In Classic and single-stick mode, holding down both forward and reverse thrusters will slow the ship gradually to a stop. In dual-stick mode dynamic braking is automatically engaged when idle.
  
• Basic score multipliers. They go up for each kill and go down gradually when idle -- or really fast when you take a hit.
  
• If the spawn location near the sun is congested, spawning will be retried at an alternate location.
  
• Moved some options that were under Video to Gameplay and a new Effects menu as the video menu was getting crowded and too broad.
  
• Allow changing game play options while in-game. Now you can tweak friendly fire/collisions after starting.
  
• Early access reminder/disclaimer shown before title. You can skip it the same as the DynF/X Digital splash screen.
  
• Early Access version is now displayed in the lower right corner of the title screen.
  
• Beta is displayed when running an alternate build.
  
• Mouse navigation support in the main menu and option menus.
  
• You can use the mouse to pick the control to reconfigure which is especially useful if your controller doesn’t have the same buttons to “hold down”.
  
• You can left click the mouse button to skip the splash screen and early access disclaimer screens.
  
• Default parallax is now 200% instead of 400%.
  
• Adjusted layout and flow of HUDs:
  
  • Forfeit dialog is now within the player's HUD to not disrupt the flow of other players.
    
  • When joining, allow the introduction of minimal configuration choices before entering the game.
    
  • Move ship color selection to a dedicated step in the HUD.
    
  • Add control style selection as a step within the HUD using Left/Right on the D-Pad/Keys.
    
  • Add ability to navigate to next and previous HUD.
    
  • Display icons indicating which directions on the D-Pad/Keys can be used to change options.
    
• Rapid fire power-up now responds to the recharge rate power up, increasing the rate of fire. Very satisfying!
  
• Steam profile icon now displayed for the player tied to the steam account (player 1).
  
• If stand-in machine translations are used, they will be indicated with an asterisk (*) until they have been reviewed and/or translated by a real human.
  

• Borderless window option is only implemented for Windows right now.
  
• Disconnecting an external audio device being used by the game will 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 (*).
  

The next big thing I'm working on (and getting close to completion), are alternatives to the classic "tank" controls. Soon you'll be able to use the mouse to orient the ship when playing with keyboard controls, and use the thumb sticks to orient the ship when using controllers with analog capabilities. I’m also planning some limited twin-stick style controls.

This update adds a few small features and tweaks that I hope you'll enjoy till then. There's a new power-up, along with some balancing/bug fixes, but probably the most exciting is that some of the Terminator style bosses can now be destroyed before finishing off all their peripheral parts. Alas, normal energy-based guns can't do this, but missiles can, and so can your ship. So… as at least one person requested, and others have eluded to, the ability to kamikaze is born! It's quite satisfying to see the remaining pieces of the boss drift off as space debris.

• Added a Primary Weapon Recharge power-up which allows more standard/outrider bullets to be fired at once (normally limited to 4). This also increases the auto-fire rate.
  
• Bonus ships are less likely to be found and can only be collected up to level 10.
  
• Add kamikaze dynamic. Ramming asteroids and enemies at high speed result in detonation of your ships core.
  
• Enemy cores can now be destroyed using missiles (or player ships) before all peripheral parts have been destroyed. Normally they are invulnerable until they are the last remaining piece.
  
• Free Play mode has now been locked until level 10 has been beaten.
  

• Main cannon bullets were not being limited to 4 as they were supposed to.
  
• Terminator MKII bosses were not firing strafe bullets as they were supposed to.
  
• Fixed issue that caused activation of "trial mode".
  

• Borderless window option is only implemented for Windows right now.
  
• Disconnecting an external audio device being used by the game will cause a crash/freeze on Linux/OSX.
  
• Some options are English only.