My drifters, it has been a long while! Too long. But I am happy to say that the radio silence has been for no other reason than that we have been working very hard. On fun things! So, without further ado, I'm excited to share with you what we've been creating for the next big update, which will enter beta testing as soon as possible.
[h2]Overview: Enemies 2.0, Part 2[/h2]
Draft Mode is a new Challenge Mode that can be unlocked at Rank 50. Enabling it allows you to jump right into wave 120 with 30 upgrade points to spend. This is a great way to test build concepts before committing time to them, or for veterans to simply skip to the fast-paced, blood-pumping late game.
[h2]New Major Features[/h2]
[h3]Three New Alternate Bosses[/h3]
This update introduces alternate bosses. Three of the five that will be added are in this update, potentially encountered at waves 20, 80, and 100. Alternate bosses are more difficult (but also more rewarding), so you will only encouter them if you've enabled Challenge Mode: NEMESIS.
The Ceratotitan is a melee attacker, encountered at wave 20, that can move surprisingly fast given its size. Its pincer attack deals a lot of damage and will test your mobility and positioning. Additionally, it can spawn and attract swarms of offspring to assail you or charge up a radial projectile attack.
As for the other two alternate bosses coming up, I won't spoil them just yet. And two more will appear in the update following this one. Additionally, all new bosses have their own original sound tracks.
[h3]New Upgrades[/h3]
Ultra-Rare Wild Mod: Ricochet
- When your weapon projectile would be destroyed, it instead rebounds an additional time toward a nearby target
- -15% projectiles
- Recursive: This mod may be taken multiple times
Supermod: Charged Shields (Requires: Charged Shot + Focused Shields)
- While charging your weapon, 25% of your charge value applies to your shield effect radius and shield effect power, up to a maximum of +100%
Ultra-Rare Wild Mod: Challenger
- Summons a challenger, a champion or boss enemy bearing increased power and orb drops
- Each subsequent challenger is stronger and grants more orbs than the last
- If the challenger is destroyed, it will drop a random power-up
- If the challenger is destroyed, you will gain +1 level
- Recursive: This mod may be taken multiple times
Supermod: Infuse (Requires: Discharge + Magnitude)
- Discharge now deals 15% of your current shields self-damage to you
- When you fire your weapon its base damage is increased by the amount of self-damage dealt by Discharge divided between projectiles fired
- Discharge's bolts of energy originate from your weapon projectiles instead of you, when they are destroyed on impact
[h3]Construct Overhauls[/h3]
Drones were feeling dated, and so we have given the trees a major overhaul, allowing them to better compete with the perils of Enemies 2.0. Additionally, many underperforming mods have been folded into existing mods. For instance, you don't have to purchase Formation: Pursuit or Formation: Rampart anymore. They just come with the Assault Drones and Defense Drones mods, respectively.
We've also made many QoL changes to constructs. For instance, for specialized Drone and Ally types, you no longer have to make it to the bottom of the tree. You can get Assault Drones, Defense Drones, Interceptors, or Allies right after buying the root mod.
[h3]More Construct Love:[/h3]
- Mines have been reworked to provide a low-investment, alternate option to Loaded Mines. Mines (without Loaded Mines) now spawn 6-9 bomblet explosions moments after detonation. Each bomblet deals a portion of the mine base damage. Additionally, Minefield and Retribution have received large buffs.
- Turrets have been given much better scaling from mods and improved missile damage and base hull.
- Other construct support mods, like Self-Destruction and Burnout Reactors have also been made stronger.
- Construct AI is being looked at, especially in regards to their behavior in the presense of a Bulwark. They will soon regard the business-end of a Bulwark as a bad target, and a bad place to hang out.
- Formation: Battalion and Formation: Rampart track more firmly with the player, like the default formation does.
- Carrier has been given a pass as well, and we'll be watching during beta to make sure its performing up to par. Carrier has lost its malus to rate of fire and gained a shield durability buff. Additionally, it's got some newly refurbished mods to play with...
[h2]More Overhauls, Big Buffs, and Balance[/h2]
As with all of our updates, we'll continue improving the quality of the game. Here are some of the other buffs and features you can look forward to:
- Ataraxia has been reworked, providing bonus powers for threhholds of stored upgrades.
- We've continued to address complaints of spikey difficulty, especially for new players. Particularly unfair waves and enemies are being iterated on.
- Many dozens of player buffs have been included, especially for underperforming Supermods, shields, weapons, and bodies.
- Cargo Train boxes now drop four different types of power-ups.
- Power-ups and experience orbs are now highly resistent to the pull of singularities. Rejoice!
- Raycasting has been implemented for Railgun, allowing you to strike enemy weak points with precision.
- A visible list of banished mods can now be seen on the upgrade menu.
- We've made dozens of bug fixes and optimizations.
- Spanish localization has been added.
[h2]What's Next?[/h2]
Enemies 2.0, part 3, follows this upcoming update. That will add the last of the 2 alternate bosses, as well as Challenge Mode: Boss Rush, where you will face all 10 bosses, one after another, and earn large upgrades inbetween. As usual, other features and reworks will also arrive, such as new weapon gear and a glow-up for the Ally trees.
[h2]Discord Upgraded! Come Hang[/h2]
We've got quite an active discord with a very chill and inclusive community. The dev team is also pretty active there. We recently opened up some new channels like #weekly-discussion, #ask-the-devs, and #feedback. The latter allows you to submit feedback to a bot that lets players upvote or downvote the suggestion. I'm also quite proud of the #game-dev-help channel, which is a space for current and aspiring developers to learn and collaborate. So...
come chat with us![h3]Want to help Nova Drift grow?[/h3]
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Thanks for reading. Best wishes,
Chimeric / Jeffrey Nielson
Super Mod: Deflagration, Wild Mod: Explosive Growth, & Wild Mod: Far Sight