Flight of the Athena News

This mid-sized update has been mainly focused on fixes and quality of life, but all are helping to bring the game close to V1.0. The title and logo updates have been on the todo list for a while, and the ability of enemy Colossus transports to summon reinforcements has added some spice to that key event! The full list of changes is below:

Flight of the Athena V0.65EA changelog:
-Logo and title update - The logo and title screen assets have been updated in game & on Steam.
-Battle controls popup - A popup with the controller layouts appears in the main battle screen for the first mission now.
-Key event, Colossus reinforcements - The Colossus transports encountered can now summon reinforcement waves, take care when raiding!
-Hi-score campaign progress - Progress data has been added to the hi-scores data, i.e. whether the campaign was successful, if not which Act was reached.
-Location option highlights - some visual targeters have been added to highlight which current and target location options are available (or not).
-Screen descriptions - Tooltips added to the top left on console screens to describe the purpose and actions of the current screen
-Node complete graphics -replaced the tick image with the allies (lightning strike) logo for the current & completed nodes on the campaign map.
-No controller warning - A pop up message and option to quit via the escape key has been added to the main title screen, depending on (un)detected controllers.

One of the main appeals of building a shmup + roguelite hybrid is the ability to add new content, be it weapons, craft, events etc, and "feed" it into the procedural generation engine, where it can be incorporated into the main game campaign - it has benefits for the developer, as well as the player!

The Screamer Missile has been added, a primary weapon which has semi-homing capabilities, and can be found / bought / traded like other weapons in the game. A couple of new enemies have been added which are also equipped with these, so watch out whenever they are on screen. A few other tweaks and quality of life updates have gone in, see below for further info.

Flight of the Athena V0.62EA changelog:
-:New weapon: Screamer Missile, player - these semi-locking missiles are available as a player primary weapon to find / trade / buy within the main campaign.
-Screamer Missile, enemies - these missiles accelerate towards a player with semi-locking capabilities, be prepared to get out of the way fast! Enemies wielding include the Batteron Corvette with 1x Screamer hardpoint, and the Dreadnought Capital with 2x Screamer hardpoints.
-Objective descriptions - these have been added to display the objective during active key events (e.g. Intercept, Minefield etc). They usually involve destroying things, but good to have some context!
-Key Event scaling work - this ramps the difficulty of key events the further into the game they are encountered. Later convoys will have deadlier ships, later minelayers can throw out mines quicker.
-Mine on mine collisions - updated to have a "spacing" collision sound and graphics between mines.
-PCore pickup text - this pops out a brief onscreen text of the value of the salvage that has just been recovered.
-Score popup text - this pops out a brief onscreen text of the score from destroying an enemy (if non zero).
-Score, game version info - the game version info of an obtained high score has been added, displayed on the high scores screen.

The demo has also been updated to V0.62 also. Onwards to the next update!

The V0.6 Update for Flight of the Athena is now live! This is a fairly substantial update over the previous version - key updates include:

• Act IV content - Campaigns can now be generated up to the penultimate act, bringing higher level weaponry, but also the heaviest enemy forces yet!
  
• Lowlands, new region type - The lowlands has been added; it brings an improved chance of merchant nodes, however node visibility intel is lowered, so careful route choices may need to be made.
  
• Weapon balancing - The laser and bolo projectiles have been given a bit more punch, and the secondary vulcan and laser turrets rotation speed has been increased to make them a bit snappier.
  
• Craft balancing - the movement force has been increased (acceleration, ability to change direction) across the board, and the speed ranges of ships has been refined. The initial Mk1 ships will still need upgrading eventually, but with a bit more weight from an armour rather than maneuverability perspective.
  
• Minor UI, stability etc fixes.
  

The Flight of the Athena Demo has also been updated to benefit from the V0.6 improvements (with the single chapter & 2 available bosses demo restrictions still in place).

For the next release, on the agenda potentially are final boss refining, final act content, key event additions / updates, UI and usability improvements, achievements. Which of these will be targeted is still TBD, but will have an impact on the timescale for the next release (current plan is for it to be available end of August).

Any feedback or comments, feel free to send them on!

The next version of Flight of the Athena, V0.6, will go into Early Access in a couple of weeks, including content generation up to Act 4, some balance updates and fixes also. The enemy formations and attacks at this stage of the game will be pretty fierce, so the stronger the ships and weapons available in the Athena's hangar bays, the better!



Work is also ongoing on creating the final boss, Omega, who packs an array of weaponry and tools (obligatory giant laser included!). He will be the final adversary at the end of the last Act, Act 5.



Looking forward to getting this release out!

Flight of the Athena V0.5 is now out in Early Access! The biggest addition with this update is scoring; harder difficulties and game modes both increase the campaign score multiplier. So a brutal difficulty rogue run has the potential to greatly outscore a normal classic run - depending on how far the player or players get... Alongside this, high score tables are now implemented and campaign run scores are saved (if a high score is achieved).

Other notable inclusions with this release are;
-Craters: Ground object explosions (turrets, vehicles etc) now leave craters where the explosion occurred
-Large enemy bolo turret: These larger and more destructive enemy turrets can be encountered, with full 360 rotation.
-Boss update (Aegis): Aegis's shield generator will no longer always stack to two full rings of shielding before an overload burst, and can fire them off earlier. Although dangerous, this does also mean more openings for the player to attack.
-Act interstitial cut scene: Shows after a boss has been defeated, before moving to the next act.
-UI updates to try and smooth the experience.

The next update will mainly focus on content, to move closer to the full 5-act experience and the full V1.0.

Any thoughts or feedback, feel free to send on - thanks!