Nova Drift News

Hello Drifters old and new,

We know it's been a while since the last new content, so we are extra excited to announce the OUROBOROS Update, live as of today!

[h2]FEATURES[/h2]

[h3]- New Body Gear: Leviathan (Nova Drift's most requested feature!)[/h3]

Yes, that's the player in the middle of the screen

[h3]- 5 New Wild Mods, plus significant adjustments to older ones.[/h3]



[h3]- You gain additional gear choices at account level 25 and 50, to a maximum of 7. This means that with 7 choices, it will never cost more than 1 reroll to get the gear you want.[/h3]



[h3]- Major reworks to certain shields and bodies.[/h3]

[h3]- Major improvements to construct AI[/h3]

[h3]- A new music track - RECURSOR - has been added to the game and OST[/h3]

[h3]- Balancing, Quality-Of-Life Updates, Bugfixes and Optimizations[/h3]


[h2]UPCOMING LINUX PORT[/h2]

In the past, Steam Proton ran the game just fine, but for unknown reasons this is no longer the case. In light of that, we will be working on an official Linux port, that is planned to be ready by November. Linux users can play on the Proton branch for now, which contains the last major update (0.28.13) that worked.


[h2]UPCOMING LOCALIZATIONS[/h2]

Simplified Chinese and Russian are currently not 100% supported in this latest update, but will be soon. English phrases will appear where translations are not yet implemented. We are also working on adding Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese and Polish by Mid-November.


[h2]UPCOMING UPDATES[/h2]

A good deal of progress has been made for the first wave of Enemies 2.0, but it isn't ready yet. We expect this content to be available by Mid-November.

Something is coming...




[h2]PATCH NOTES[/h2]

Major Features

• Added a new Body Gear: Leviathan (Nova Drift's most requested feature!)
  
• Major rework: Helix Shield has been replaced with Orbital Shield, and has been given entirely new mechanics and visuals (Nova Drift's second most requested feature!)
  
• Rework: Assault Body has been granted new power: There is an 8% chance for weapons fired by you to be "empowered", greatly increasing the stats of the attack. As with all unique body powers, certain mods can scale this power
  
• Rework: Assault Body now resists mobility-reducing effects from weaponry by 15%
  
• You gain additional gear choices at account level 25 and 50, to a maximum of 7. This means that with 7 choices, it will never cost more than 1 reroll to get the gear you want
  
• Added the above "Empower" mechanic to a few Wild Mods: Outrage Module & Phantom Strike. More mods will gain this keyword later
  
• Added a new BGM, "Recursor", to both Standard and Wild Metamorphosis modes
  
• Added the game credits to the main menu. If I missed anyone, please don't hesitate to mention it
  

Wild Metamorphosis Adjusments

• Added a new Wild Mod: Evolutionary Niche
  
• Added a new Wild Mod: Grandeur
  
• Added a new Wild Mod: Maelstrom
  
• Added a new Wild Mod: Quantum Decoherence
  
• Added a new Wild Mod: Spontaneous Generation
  
• Rare Wild Mods are now slightly more common (1 in 4 -> 1 in 3.5)
  
• If Chaotic Ambition increases your maximum Wild Mods per level by more than 7 it will begin to increase your minimum Wild Mods per level instead
  
• Transmogrification now grants +1 level
  
• Obsession penalties -1.25% / level -> -1% / level
  
• Phantom Strike is now an empowered attack
  
• Outrage Module is now an empowered attack
  

Improvements & Balance

• Research hull 90 -> 85
  
• Research shields -10% -> -15%
  
• Research can no longer banish THE VOID (Void banishes you)
  
• Research must now pay 2 rerolls in order to banish a rare Wild Mod
  
• Rare Wild Mods now say "RARE" in their titles
  
• Added shake and sound feedback for failing a Banish
  
• 110 -> 115 shields for Reflect Shield
  
• There is now a hard level cap of 100. If you manage to somehow reach this, we've got a problem, please report it
  
• Homing projectiles now seek enemies and targets equally
  
• You can now toggle healing numbers in settings for you and your constructs, off by default
  
• You can now toggle self-damage numbers in settings for you and your constructs, off by default
  
• Drones now spread out their firing sequence evenly
  
• If you have an old corrupted save file, the game will attempt to fix it
  
• Experience orbs now scatter a bit from enemies
  
• Experience orb probabilities change as waves progress, resulting in less but more valuable orbs for the same value. This reduces visual clutter
  
• Increased base exp needed per level a touch. This only really impacts the first dozen waves or so
  
• Increasing your level by a mod no longer affects the EXP curve at all. You will be treated as though you are your base level
  
• Added a border and some breathing room to owned mod displays
  
• Retribution gained a new rule: If Retribution causes your mines to exceed your mine construct limit, an existing mine is detonated
  
• Charged Mines gained a new rule: -1 to mine construct limit
  
• Antimatter Rounds is now stronger but only affects weapons fired by you. This change was made because it enabled insane shenanigans with mines, especially when charged. Additionally, the game could use more incentives for self-firing builds
  
• Since it is now possible to achieve +50%, or even +100%, for unique body powers, Engineer's added construct limits now respects this modifier (rounded down)
  
• Courser & Battery now scale their added projectiles with modifiers to body unique powers (rounded down)
  
• Warp Strike total damage -35% -> -30%
  
• Homing Strike has been given a more informative description
  
• Homing Strike total projectile damage -80% -> -70%
  
• Homing Strike total blast, velocity & size modifiers -70% -> -60%
  
• Homing Strike grace degeneration time extended from .6667 -> 1 seconds
  
• Changed how targeting affects various weapons. Most notably, very fast projectiles are now better at targeting
  
• Modifiers to thrust now have a minimum value of 0%
  
• Rampage now scales with modifiers to thrust, and the text has been changed to "You gain constant added thrust power"
  
• The pause menu now reports your size modifier
  
• The pause menu now reports your plating
  

Construct Improvements:

• Interceptor allies with Salvo now build up stockpile count and fire a spray of missiles of at least 10
  
• Improved construct targeting behavior, especially for Guardian Allies:
  
• Guardian targets the objects closest to the player
  
• Guardian tries to stay between the player and its combat target
  
• Turret with Counter-Artillery tries to shoot down projectiles heading toward the player
  
• Construct aiming rotation now has more damping so they don't overshoot
  
• Swarm Constructs now deal 6 -> 7 damage
  
• Swarm Constructs cap their firing range at 240 units so they don't fire out of range
  
• Swarm Construct attack scaling based on their target's distance is now more likely to hit
  
• Swarm Constructs consider the average of sprite width and height for the purpose of range, instead of the larger
  
• Swarm Constructs are allowed to clump up a bit closer
  
• Swarm Construct target range is now slightly shorter
  

Enemy Changes

• Triangle mines, from Pulsars, now spray projectiles 3 at a time with wider spacing (Because triangles)
  
• Enemy serpents use degrees for sinusoidal movement and reduce sinusoidal movement when near a screen edge to avoid leaving the screen. If they do leave the screen, they now wrap
  
• Bolt-Throwers linger a bit longer after firing
  
• Interceptor Champion charge speed ramps up more slowly, and they spend more time "charging". They drop mines less frequently for longer. As a result, mines are dropped farther apart, and you have more time to react to the charge
  
• Saucers now require wave 10 to be elite and wave 15 to be champion
  
• Saucers now screen-wrap more tightly
  
• Spitfire grants you an extra half-second to react to its arrival and deal with other waves before charging its orb
  
• Saucers give +25% orbs
  

Fixes

• Fixed a silly bug where enemy knockback would apply twice from collisions, resulting in about +25% more effective knockback from all crashes than intended (I'm so sorry)
  
• Interceptor Ally aim now takes firing direction modifier from Propulsive Munitions into account
  
• Fixed a crash with Ally
  
• Overseer's movement penalty now works properly
  
• Blades created by allies can no longer take blast or beam damage to their non-existent shields
  
• Made global damage calculations more sensible
  
• Fixed a bug where Scion wouldn't drop its rewards
  
• Fixed a bug where Settings would become stuck if you tried to go to the online leaderboards, but they aren't available on that game version
  
• Having both Overseer, a construct that can use your weapon, and Rapid Reconstruction no longer results in no Weapon Gear being offered
  
• Removed an exploit where you could enable Mayhem mode and disable the other modes by editing your save file
  
• Fixed a bug that would cause certain effects and objects to be deleted if you pause while the player is in a black hole
  
• Various performance optimizations
  

[h3]Upcoming Content[/h3]
Jeffrey has created a large and detailed blog post about major upcoming changes and additions to Nova Drift, and you can read it here. Highlights include Enemies 2.0, the new Serpent Body Gear, the Bestiary and thoughts on the upcoming narrative / story.




[h3]Upcoming Localization[/h3]
We're incredibly close to finalizing Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, and German. While we have 100% of these strings translated, we need more eyeballs on them to have full confidence in their quality, consistency, and correct use of game terminology. Please visit https://www.localizor.com/nova-drift if you can help with these languages!




[h3]Gamemaker Award Voting[/h3]
If you didn't know, Nova Drift is created using Gamemaker Studio 2.0 and we've recently found out that we're one of the top 5 finalists for their Game Of The Year Award! Voting has opened up today so please help us out by CLICKING RIGHT HERE TO VOTE!




[h3]Fatherhood[/h3]
Jeffrey, the lead developer, is going to become a new father any day now! If you don't see him around the Discord Server or as active on the forums, just know that he is probably attending to the baby drifter who just entered the world or catching up on sleep :)


Thanks for the continued support!

-Miles @ Pixeljam

Hello Drifters,

Today we launch 0.28.12, which includes many interface and quality of life improvements as well as full support for French, Russian, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese!

View the full patch notes here: https://blog.novadrift.io/patch-notes/

Also, we just launched a 35% discount for the next week - this is a great time to get your friends on board! :)

Our upcoming major update, Enemies 2.0, includes a sweeping overhaul to the wave system and existing foes, many new bosses and enemies, all new game modes, and a new array of powers. We're excited to share with you what's in the works, so please join the Discord group to hang out with the Nova Drift community and to see previews from the developers: https://discord.gg/Zp2MkPJ

Finally, please leave a review for the game if you have not yet! This really helps the game reach new players.

Thanks,

-Miles @ Pixeljam

Hello players,

In the experimental branch, you will find the following changes:

- Traditional Chinese translation, accessible from the settings menu. Simplified Chinese is almost ready, and will be available in the next few weeks. Russian and French are also available!
- Improvements to the menus, settings and general interface of the game
- Better controls customization

To access the experimental branch:

1) Right-click on Nova Drift in your library and select "Properties"
2) Go to the tab marked "Betas"
3) In the drop-down box, select "experimental-internal alpha testing"

Since this is an alpha test, be aware that things might break! We will be continuing to iterate on the menus throughout the week.

Please report anything you find to the Steam forums or our Discord server: https://discord.com/invite/Zp2MkPJ

Thanks again for the support!

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)