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0.27.20 Is Live : Bug Fixes, Balancing, Quality Of Life & Polish

Hello all,

A great deal of this month's work is not featured in this update, as it is part of a larger update coming in May, focusing on menu overhauls, better settings, quality of life, controls, and localization. Thank you for your patience! Let's go over what WAS changed though...


[h3]Visibility, Features, and QoL[/h3]
  • Started improving the pause menu. It has a bit more info, and it is partially dynamic to your loadout
  • Asteroids now have a slight outline to differentiate them more from the background
  • Added a finder circle and a finder pointer for when you're near the edges of the screen
  • Grenade explosion artwork has been made less occlusive
  • Salvo explosion effects have been made smaller (the blast radius is the same)
  • When you screen wrap, the pulsing effect now moves with you, making the player object easier to locate
  • The volume and pitch of the crash sfx now changes depending on how hard you are knocked back
  • Added some pitch randomization to a few other sfx to try it out
  • More fonts are now retina friendly. All fonts now scale at 50% for non-retina to reduce distortion
  • Enemy missiles no longer screen flash if fired rapidly
  • Firing direction no longer modifies your forward-facing aim scope



[h3]Enemy and Wave Balance[/h3]
  • Made the wave speed modifier from Danger Zone and Mayhem a little less crazy compared to the previous adjustment
  • Added considerably more wave time padding for early waves, before wave 30 (was 20), up to 8 seconds
  • Enemies now start becoming stronger at wave 100 instead of 120
  • Reduced the scaling value, and the maximum value, of enemy knockback dealt to the player based on their hull
  • Serpent Elites fire their spines a little less frequently
  • Serpent Elites won't appear in the wild before wave 25 now, up from 20
  • Wardens and Interceptors now allow a little more time to defeat them
  • Pulsars now chase you somewhat less quickly
  • Normal and elite Pulsar shots have a little less targeting
  • Spitfires now won't introduce more Pulsars if there are already 2 or more
  • Spitfire is now a little harder to trick into not firing
  • Eclipse champions won't spawn randomly before wave 45 (was 40)
  • Eclipse shield retaliation cooldown 2 frames -> 3 frames
  • Small asteroids now push less hard
  • Small asteroids are more likely to contain orbs
  • Small Asteroids deal 10 -> 5 damage



[h3]Game Balance[/h3]
  • Grenade's knockback has been halved, making it easier to hit with clusters
  • Grenade base damage: 75 -> 85
  • Salvo base damage: 50 -> 60
  • Salvo's stockpile rate from projectile count now works consistently with other sources of rate of fire, and also has been improved from 5% -> 15% per projectile (If you go this route, I recommend Convergence over Fusillade)
  • A previous buff to Salvo's stockpile diminishing returns was accidentally a nerf. I have inverted this and buffed it further
  • Barrage now properly affects projectile count for the purposes of Loaded Mines (with all projectile-based weapons) and Stockpile
  • Mine hull 30 -> 25
  • Charged Mines now prevents mines from using a trigger radius. They will still detonate on impact (This is a huge buff for this mod in most set ups)
  • Mine trigger radius decreased by 25%
  • Loaded mines now take 2 -> 4 damage for innately charging weapons
  • Swarm Construct damage 5 -> 6
  • Interceptor Ally now uses a larger cone angle for targeting integrated weaponry. It is now more likely to start charging Vortex, more likely to start or keep firing Thermal Lance, and more likely to fire other weapons near enemies
  • Vortex base damage 4 -> 3.4 (-15% base damage)
  • Loaded Mines last rule has been modified: "For weapons that charge innately, your mines charge your weapon at 75% of your charge rate. Additionally, they constantly take 4 damage /s and pay +100% charge costs" (Note that Thermal Lance does not have a "charge cost", only Vortex does)
  • Mine effect, for innately charging weapons, has been made consistent with other forms of charge rate scaling instead of being multiplicative


Explanation: Vortex is most fun when it has a high risk vs reward element. Recent changes to its scaling allowed it to become monstrous without ever really putting you at much risk, due to increased levels of crowd control and charge rate. This reduction in damage will require that you spend longer charging and taking damage to reach those huge damage numbers from huge vortexes. As for the mine changes, Architect was on another level, with Vortex Mines being substantially better than any other kind of mine (or maybe even any other Architect choice). This was because of both mine hull being disposable, unlike the hull of the player or allies, as well as some explosive scaling with Architect's mine effect. Combined, these changes affect Vortex considerably, and Thermal Lance mines only a little.


[h3]Fixes[/h3]
  • Fixed Adrenal Module setting a value where it should be adding a value, overwriting the global damage gained from Masochism
  • Homing Strike now works properly with Burst Fire for Allies
  • Construct formations no longer flip out if the player teleports or is schlorped into a singularity
  • The finder no longer activates if the player does the above
  • Fixed some description formatting
  • Gemini + Shielded Drones + Discharge now properly ignores Gemini
  • Architect charging a blade doesn't detonate other constructs until it actually fires
  • Prevented the Ludicrous Speed achievement from being earned in debug mode
  • Phantom Strike and Outrage module now work with Homing Strike
  • Fixed a crash with Outrage module
  • Square Drift no longer crashes (perfectly square aspect ratios)
  • Grenades with Hyperboost are now less occlusive
  • Fixed Grenade's damage being misreported
  • Gemini Protocol now indicates that your shield must protect you, as was the case
  • Allies using Thermal Lance no longer discontinue the charge if a valid target exists
  • Ally burst fire homing strike no longer breaks projectile count
  • Halo + Gemini no longer works with Shielded Constructs, as intended
  • Prevented Bastion + Architect from detonating mines when it is assembled but not deployed (using Shielded Constructs)
  • Fixed Shockwave not creating a shockwave when your shield cooldown completes, but your shield capacity is full
  • Fixed Echo Strike misreporting that it hits twice
  • Fixed Carrier text colors
  • Blade now informs you that its construct limit is equal to your projectile count
  • Fixed Shockwave depth sorting
  • Stabilize now works while thrusting if Thrust and Up are bound to the same input
  • Defensive Drones prioritize hazards in Orbit formation
  • Orbit and Rampart formations prefer targets in the direction they're facing
  • Vortex charge and Thermal Lance beam now take directional offset from Propulsive Munitions into account
  • Antimatter Rounds proced with Salvo's stockpile now divides its added self-damage by your burst fire count, preventing unintentional massive self-damage from burst fire
  • Antimatter rounds with Salvo's Stockpile was additionally being applied a second time at a value far greater than intended. This has been removed
  • Clamped Bastion Shield's sprite index to prevent a crash when it gets too high
  • Prevented a crash involving enemy beam charges being unable to find their leader (when its cleaned up for being off-screen for too long)
  • Prevented Sanctuary from (improperly) working with Shielded Constructs
  • Fixed cases of Gemini Protocol (improperly) working with Bastion Shield when you have Shielded Constructs
  • Fixed some cases of Bastion using base damage instead of current damage to trigger hull-threshold-based mods
  • Prevented hull-damage-threshold-triggered mods (that they themselves trigger self-damage) from overwriting the original hull damage you were intended to take (?!)
  • Siege Weaponry self-damage now reports in the combat log
  • Outrage Module trigger now reports in the proper place in the combat log
  • Architect now properly triggers detonate on your constructs when a blade is produced by Phantom Strike or Outrage Module
  • The pause menu now properly reports ignite duration modifiers from body gear
  • The singularity doesn't blot out the pause menu anymore
  • The singularity doesn't draw in front of the darkness anymore
  • Fixed excessive Volatile Shield / Tempest Break with Blade + Bastion + Shielded Constructs + Burnout Reactors
  • Blade + Burst Fire + Courser / Battery can no longer cheat blade count and fire extra projectiles
  • Blades with Shielded Constructs no longer do less damage after taking damage
  • Visual Warp Shield radius now works with shield radius modifiers
  • Essense Sap can no longer leech from Asteroids and such using Force Armor's blast
  • Thermal Lance beam now resets its color after Hyperboost ends
  • The Blink reticle no longer disappears if you pause during a blink
  • Champion Juggernaut displays its hull bar
  • Fixed cargo train box hull bars
  • Hidden Power now prevents Mortar
  • Rancor charge slow down no longer persists with Mortar
  • Swarm Constructs will now attack Eclipses properly. When targeting, they have more accurate ranging (it was using square hitboxes, so oddly shaped enemies were an issue)

- State Of The Game / What's Next For Nova Drift -

From lead dev Jeffrey Nielson (Chimeric):

For the past year, updates have focused on increasing build versatility (and as a result, replayability). I'm proud of what was built, and we've got nearly 200 upgrades to play with now. Not bad for early access! However, along the way, I learned that there's a limit to how much you can add by piling on upgrades alone. I've spoken about Enemies 2.0, which focuses on the other half of that equation. More on that later in this update.

I've also learned that this rapid-fire schedule for releases leaves little room for improving the core experience. I think we've all seen other games fall into this trap, and I don't want to do the same. It's an easy mistake to make because nearly all of the data a developer has access to points to "more content = more users = more money". What this does not indicate is more abstract issues such as long term health of the game, the rate of player burnout, or the way your game is perceived by the public.

What I'm trying to say is...

With the Genesis update released, you can build a ton of things, and the bar has been raised really high for certain aspects. However, other things feel rough around the edges by comparison. I hear this line all the time from new players: "Wow! I didn't expect this game to be so fun!" Nova Drift should look and feel as good as it actually is. It has hundreds of hours of stuff to do, but sometimes it still feels like early access. Some of this is going to be the natural limitation of a mosty-one-person project, but I think there's plenty that can be done. So, I feel like its a good time to shift focus on improving the core experience.

[h3]Top Priorities:[/h3]

Visibility:

- I have plans for a new finder when you're near the edges of the screen or you've just wrapped. There's no reason this can't be made obvious and clear.

- I will increase the contrast between the backgrounds and the edges of asteroids.

- Occlusive effects, such as Grenade explosions, won't hide the player or objects as much.

- More intelligent and cooperative enemies should reduce the need for so many of them to be present and, as a result, reduce the visual chaos.

Physics and Feedback:

- The way the player collides with enemies and is moved around by them will be improved.

- Better collision damage: Damage will no longer be the same between a head-on collision and a love tap. Mass and velocity will be considered.

- Enemies 2.0 will iterate on the way that enemies enter the battlefield, and ensure that you have time to react to them.

Settings:

- The Settings menu will be made accessible during a run.

- The Settings menu will be modernized and made prettier.

- Mouse and Keyboard setups will be folded into a single setting and will work as expected regardless of which a player decides to start playing with.

- The pause menu will include a more useful data and will be made dynamic.

Clarity of Information:

- The game will receive a Glossary, accessible from the menu, which will clearly explain many of the game's mechanics and terms.

- The UI will be overhauled.

All of this happens in tandem with Enemies 2.0 as well as localizing the game to several languages at a time. These are all things I've known needed doing, but there's only so much time in the day. New mods will still be released, but please bear with a somewhat slower content schedule while we address these important issues!

And now.... ENEMIES 2.0

The player character has outgrown its opponents. With nearly 200 upgrades in the game, it's time to turn the focus of development to the enemies we face. It's time to bring enemies and their capabilities up to the standard of quality that has been given to the player character.

Enemies, and the ways they spawn are some of the oldest and most outdated systems in the game (Nova Drift is 5 years old and grew from a small hobby project.) Many players have voiced concerns about enemy spawns, diversity, bullet-hellishness, and the relatively narrow build options for surviving past wave 200. With Draft Mode and Boss Rush coming up on the roadmap, I see this as an opportunity for a rework that satisfies these issues while also improving fun and choice.

I'll break it down:

  • Older enemies will get a new coat of paint, while new enemies will be introduced to the game, both early game and late game. The quality bar for how an enemy looks and behaves will be raised.
  • Enemies will spawn with "roles" within formations, such as a protector or support of another unit.
  • Steps will be taken toward removing the need for a "spammy" late game. Enemies will trend toward tactical, dangerous, and diverse instead of numerous. In other words, encounters will be deadly for reasons which are better than "there were too many mines and bullets on the screen." As a result, the rate of spawns and the speed scaling of enemies at high waves can be reduced without being made easier.
  • The above fits better with Nova Drift's upgrade system, which incentives builds that require set up and timing. Right now, "area clear" strategies are overwhelmingly more important than intended, while dealing single target damage isn't as viable.
  • Enemy spawns will be revised. Instead of always entering from the edges without warning, enemies might fade in from the depths of space, warp in from a portal, or enter via the borders with a HUD warning.
  • The wave spawning system will become more dynamic and procedural, allowing greater variance while being easier for me to tweak.
  • Rather than one big update that attempts to fix all these issues at once, these changes will be rolled out over a series of updates, mixed in with the usual content updates (albeit less of them).


An Example of Enemies 2.0

A Peek At An Upcoming Enemy

- HIGH SCORE CONTEST WINNERS -

UPDATE - the contest is over - see the winners here: https://www.reddit.com/r/NovaDrift/comments/fub2ss/nova_drift_high_score_challenge_results/

As part of our 1 year anniversary celebration, we are running a high score contest for the next 3 days. There are 8 categories, and players can enter all 8 if they want. Here are the prizes for each category:

- 3 Nova Drift Steam Keys for friends
- The Nova Drift OST
- Last Horizon & OST (an older game by Pixeljam & Chimeric)


Rules For All Challenges:
  • 8 challenges will be revealed (below), each with its own unique ruleset. You may submit scores to any number of them.
  • No cheats are allowed for any challenges and practice mode cannot be enabled.
  • Any challenge modes, on or off, are acceptable.
  • Unless otherwise stated, the highest score in each category wins.
  • You must play on version 0.27.12, the Genesis update.
  • Scores must be submitted to Chimeric via a game-over screenshot. You may submit scores via email to [email protected]. Please tell us which category the screenshot is for, and provide your handle so we can give a shoutout if you win.
  • The contest will begin today at 10am EST and end on Friday, April 3rd, at 10am EST when we begin our Art Jam stream (https://www.twitch.tv/chimeric_).
  • We will announce the winners and discuss the builds used during the Art Jam stream, and share the results to Discord and Reddit shortly after the stream.
  • Prizes will be granted to winners on Monday, April 6th.
  • If someone wins multiple categories, they will only receive 1 prize package (in the category they submitted to first) and the other category they won will be awarded to second place.


[h3]THE CHALLENGE CATEGORIES:[/h3]

PURITY Challenge:
* Must take Ataraxia as your first mod (gear upgrades are not mods.)
* You cannot exceed 10 mods (gear upgrades are not mods.)

CURSED Challenge:
* Must include Omnishield + Shielded Constructs within your first 12 mods (gear upgrades are not mods.)

WILDERNESS Challenge:
* After you have selected your gear, you may only spend rerolls if no wild mods are offered to you.
* Must use only wild mods, unless none are available or you have zero rerolls (Any gear is okay.)
* You're on the honor system with this one.

THICCNESS Challenge:
* Score doesn't matter.
* The build which has taken the most damage according to the game-over readout wins.

ONE PUNCH Challenge:
* Score doesn't matter.
* The build which has dealt the highest damage in one hit according to the game-over readout wins (burn damage doesn't hit.)
* You cannot take Last Stand.

MY CHILD Challenge:
* Must include Architect + Overseer within your first 12 mods (gear upgrades are not mods.)
* Either Apex Machinery or Vital Bond must be used.
* You must use only one type of construct.

SWARM Challenge:
* You must use Carrier + Overseer.
* Either Shielded Constructs or Rapid Reconstruction must be used.
* You cannot have an assembly limit above zero for any construct apart from swarm constructs.

AU NATURAL Challenge:
* Must include Hidden Power + Rapid Reconstruction within your first 12 mods (gear upgrades are not mods.)

-----------------------------------

While we have your attention:

- Thursday April 2 is MUSIC DAY - Miles @ Pixeljam will be streaming music creation and analysis at https://twitch.tv/pixeljamgames around 11 AM EST

- Join the Discord Server for the most direct & immediate way to interact with the community and devs

- Please leave a review for Nova Drift if you haven't already!

- The GENESIS Update Is Live -

Hello all,

The GENESIS update adds long awaited gear and mods to the game, many of which were suggested by our community. As always, a bunch of bug fixes and balance changes are included. Here are the highlights:



Changelog Updated : Click here for the full patch notes.

[h2]New Gear[/h2]
[h3]Weapon: Thermal Lance[/h3]
  • Charge up and sustain a focused lance of heat to burn targets and make them vulnerable to further damage
  • While sustaining Thermal Lance, you also fire twisting sparks that are affected by your projectile mods
  • Thermal Lance and its sparks ignite targets for 120 burning damage /s
  • Damage from Thermal Lance and its sparks apply vulnerability to targets
  • Vulnerability increases the damage targets take from all sources. After targets stop receiving vulnerability for one second, the effect falls off over time
  • -35% thrust and -50% rotation speed while charging
  • Damage: Thermal Lance damage scales with its charge level
  • Spark damage: 8
  • Spark count: 1
  • Spark rate of fire: 7.5 /s





[h3]Shield: Shockwave[/h3]
  • Shockwave releases waves that ebb and flow, pushing targets and projectiles around it
  • When your shields reset after its cooldown, Shockwave releases a forceful wave which deals 120 damage and applies +20% vulnerability to targets it hits
  • Shields: 60
  • Cooldown: 7 seconds





[h3]Body: Carrier[/h3]
  • You automatically assemble and deploy Swarm Constructs, which apply vulnerability to targets
  • While a damaged shield protects you, a portion of your Swarm Constructs are assigned to recover your shields
  • While your shield is down or you have no shield, Swarm Constructs gain increased movement speed and rate of fire
  • -10% rate of fire
  • Hull: 110
  • Thrust: 75
  • Swarm Constructs: Type: Basic construct. Rarely created as standard or advanced constructs with improved abilities
  • Construct limit: 4 + 1 for every 2 of your levels
  • Hull: 8 Damage: 5. Applies 0.25% vulnerability
  • Rate of fire: 1.5 /s Assembly time: 1 second




[h2]New Super Mods[/h2]
[h3]Charged Mines[/h3]
  • Your mines charge your weapon at 100% of your charge rate
  • Charged Shot no longer applies to you
  • -25% mine trigger radius
  • Your mines constantly take 2 damage /s




[h3]Mortar[/h3]
  • Your mines are deployed at high velocity, in your firing direction(s), when you fire
  • Your mines detonate at low velocity instead of detonating within a trigger radius
    -20% mine damage and mine effect
  • If you fire with no mines assembled, a mine is deployed and 15% + 5 of your current hull and shields are removed. This removal cannot be mitigated, but also can not reduce hull or shields below 1




[h2]Reworked Mods[/h2]
[h3]Loaded Mines[/h3]
  • On detonation, your mines fire your weapon in a radial spread
  • The number of weapon instances produced by Loaded Mines is determined by your rate of fire and projectile count
  • For weapons that charge innately, your mines charge your weapon at 75% of your charge rate. Additionally, they constantly take 2 damage /s




[h3]Minefield[/h3]
  • Your mines are deployed all at once in a cluster
  • +3 mine construct limit
  • +50% mine assembly speed
  • -50% mine maximum hull
  • -25% mine damage, total mine effect, and mine trigger radius
  • Your mines cause a chain reaction when they detonate




[h2]Other Notable Changes[/h2]
  • Loaded Mines and Retribution have switched places on the tree, allowing mine builds to have access to this key mod earlier
  • Auto Mines has been replaced by Minefield
  • Interceptor Allies can now properly utilize innately charging weapons (Vortex and Thermal Lance)
  • New battle BGM added: Superlumen and Superlumen (Warped), for Endless and Wild Metamorphosis, respectively
  • Rancor has been reworked. It now has quite an explosive effect when triggered (roughly 5 times its previous magnitude), but wears off over time
  • Dozens of bug fixes and minor adjustments




We hope everyone enjoys the new features! Much more on the way. In the meantime, keep on drifting and stay safe & sane! :)

-Miles @ Pixeljam

New Tracks Added To The Nova Drift OST + 30% Discount

Hello all!

We just added 2 new tracks to the Nova Drift OST: Superlumen + Superlumen (Warped).

Also, the entire OST is 30% for the next few days, as part of the Steam Soundtrack Sale. Check it out: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1156340/Nova_Drift_OST/

These tracks will be added to the actual in-game music in March, when we roll out some major updates as part of our 1-year anniversary celebration. Excite!

If you want first access to the upcoming updates, keep an eye on the announcements in our Discord Server... juicy new stuff always goes there first!

Keep on driftin',

-Miles @ Pixeljam