Nova Drift News

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]
Steam Reviews really help! As a tiny operation, Nova Drift relies on its quality and reputation to sell, and reviews also encourage the Steam algorithms to show the game to more people. Please do take a moment to fill out a short review, even if it's only a few words. It just might make a big difference.

Thanks for reading. Best wishes,

Chimeric / Jeffrey Nielson

This week we gathered feedback from players regarding the increased difficulty of the game, especially for newer players, since the Enemies 2.0 update. We agreed there was quite a bit we could do to alleviate the steepness of the learning curve and have made some changes in today's patch. Enemies 2.0 introduced dynamic waves, which, like any procedurally generated system, is famously difficult to tune. I'm sure it will take some time to get it just right, but I'm confident that today's changes are a step in the right direction.

* We tuned the exp curve to be slightly more like to the old one, which means a few more level ups during early game. I believe this small change makes quite a big difference to the new-player experience, which can be a bit exp starved due to the relatively low enemy quantity.

* Many of the more dangerous things that dynamic waves does are now gated behind the Challenge Mode: Elite Enemy, instead of being in the "core" experience.

* The new enemies introduced in Enemies 2.0, which tend to be tougher and more dangerous, are also introduced later if the Elite Enemy Challenge Mode is not turned on.

* Several of the more dangerous enemies introduced in the previous update have had their difficulty tuned in such a way that allows slower and less "glass-cannon" builds to deal with them.

* Many other small changes have been made to enemies that tend to be dangerous to new players, for instance, enemies that attack using beam weapons are now easier to escape.

Thanks for your patience as we continue to refine the game and approach release. We'll keep working to ensure that Nova Drift has something for everybody!

[h2]Enemies 2.0: A comprehensive overhaul to enemies and waves[/h2]

This is Nova Drift's largest ever update, incorporating a vast rewrite of its underlying systems. This update is the first of three parts, focusing on enemies and encounters. We're very proud to finally share it with you! Here's what's new:

• Dynamic Waves: Wildly variant procedurally generated enemy encounters. We've ripped out all of the preset enemy waves you're used to and replaced them with a system that generates them!
  
• Curated Waves: New unique, hand-crafted encounters
  
• 6 New Enemies: You will now face the Bulwark, Hammerhead, Myrmidon, Cherub, Tracer, and Swarmling
  
• Enemy Formations: Foes may now appear in formation with each other: Rank and File, Orbit, Flank, V, Trail, Fractal, and Support Formations
  
• Battlefield Zoom: Expanded views allow more room to maneuver as action ramps up
  
• Reworked Station Omega: We've raised the bar on the wave 40 boss encounter
  
• A New Challenge Mode: Annihilation: A blisteringly difficult arcade experience, designed for veterans and masochists
  
• New Wild and Super Mods: Deflagration, Explosive Growth, and Far Sight
  
• New Sound Effects and Music
• Much More: Lots of balance fine-tuning, quality-of-life features, borderless fullscreen mode, background parallax, new performance settings, major optimizations, a progression overhaul, legacy build support, and Korean localization
  

[h2]The complete changelog:[/h2]
https://steamcommunity.com/app/858210/discussions/0/3658515990056189069/

[h2]Read a dev DEEP DIVE on Dynamic Waves:[/h2]
https://steamcommunity.com/games/858210/announcements/detail/5812453185837511418

[h2]Read about the new enemies and their formations:[/h2]
https://steamcommunity.com/games/858210/announcements/detail/2968418692466778160









[h2]What you need to know:[/h2]

• The unlock progression has been reworked. Please check your Unlocks menu, and be warned: You may have lost or gained access to upgrades and features, depending on your Account Rank. You may also see the new unlock order here: https://trello.com/b/4NhLxMb9/unlocks
• Its a brand-new universe, please reset your expectations! The new enemies and formations are tough and will require strategy and adaptation. Major changes have been made to the exp curve, enemy stats, run progression, and meta progression. Some beta players expressed frustration that they weren't able to reach previous goalposts of wave number or scores. I'd like to remind players that, since the game is endless, these comparisons are relative. Allow yourself a metaphorically clean slate or a literally clean leaderboard. Later, once the campaign is in, we'll have more tangible goal-posts.
  
• Please keep in mind, even though Nova Drift has been receiving updates for years, it is still an early access game. Major sweeping changes to enemies and waves will naturally and substantially disrupt player balance. Before full release, its important for developers to be bold with adjustments and there are often unforeseen consequences. And that's okay-- its good for the longterm health of the game-- know that I will continue to assess and adjust the game's balance as we receive more data from players. All that said, many adjustments have already been made to the player abilities that appeared to suffer the most from the new encounters.
  
• This is just the beginning. What part 1 of Enemies 2.0 accomplishes, more than anything else, is laying the foundation for future content, making that content safer and easier to add from a development perspective. The roadmap to full release is posted on Steam and Discord.
  
• We now support legacy builds! Starting with the Syzygy update (on the branch legacy_syzygy), old versions of Nova Drift will be accessible on Steam branches. Legacy builds use their own global leaderboards.
  

Super Mod: Deflagration, Wild Mod: Explosive Growth, & Wild Mod: Far Sight

[h2]Future Content: Enemies 2.0 parts 2 & 3[/h2]

The next two major updates will build upon the new enemy architecture, adding new bosses and more alternate ways to play Nova Drift. As many players have requested, alternate boss encounters will go a long way to ensuring that every run feels unique and different than the last. That's the first task: Create an alternate boss for all currently existing boss encounters. At waves 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100, you will encounter one of two possible bosses.

With new bosses in place, we'll be free to create two new game modes: Draft and Boss Rush, each with their own global leaderboards. Draft mode allows you to start with a complete build and jump into late waves, while Boss Rush puts you up against all bosses in a row, as you grow in power between each one.

We will also continue to raise the bar on existing bosses as well as add new enemies and encounters. Finally, we've got some crazy concepts for new Gear and Super Mods that we're experimenting with, including a few melee weapons! We'll preview them as we make progress.



[h2]Retrospective[/h2]
I realize it had been a long time between patches, so I'd like to thank you all for waiting. While this update required us to completely rewrite several of the most core architectures of the game (work we began even before the Syzygy update!) I think it was well worth it. It is now fast and easy to create new Nova Drift content, and I am very relieved the hardest part of development is over. I'm excited to get back into the creative space that inspired the project in the first place.

[h2]Discord Upgraded! Come hang[/h2]
We've got quite an active discord with a very chill and inclusive community. The devs are also pretty active there. We recently opened some new channels like #ask-the-devs, #weekly-discussion, #frequently-asked-questions, 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!

[h2]Want to help Nova Drift grow?[/h2]
Steam Reviews really help! As a tiny operation, Nova Drift relies on its quality and reputation to sell, and reviews also encourage the Steam algorithms to show the game to more people. Please do take a moment to fill out a short review, even if it's only a few words. It just might make a big difference.

Thanks for reading. Best wishes,

Chimeric / Jeffrey Nielson

Our next major update, releasing on January 18th, represents the first part of "Enemies 2.0", Nova Drift's largest ever overhaul. Enemies 2.0 will be rolled out in several parts, the first of which focuses on enemy encounters. The update is currently being tested on the Beta Branch, if you'd like to give it a try. We've created special channels on the Discord server for you to discuss the changes and submit feedback. Please keep in mind that the update is not finished and we've still got a lot of work to do, especially on difficulty tuning!

To access the BETA branch on Steam: Right click the game in your Library and go to PROPERTIES, switch to the BETAS tab, and choose the "beta" branch. You might also have to exit Steam and restart it to force the update.

Nothing is set in stone for these updates, but things may go a bit like this:

[h3]Enemies 2.0, Part 1:[/h3] (Launching Jan 18th)

• Dynamic waves overhaul
  
• Enemy formations
  
• 6 new enemies & boss overhaul (Station Omega)
  
• Battlefield zoom
  

[h3]Enemies 2.0, Part 2:[/h3]

• 5 alternate bosses
  
• Boss Rush challenge mode
  
• Draft challenge mode
  

[h3]Enemies 2.0, Part 3:[/h3]

• More new enemies
  
• More classic boss overhauls
  
• Further refinements to dynamic waves
  

And as usual, these updates will also contain a whole lot of new stuff to play with, balance changes, quality of life changes, localizations, and other surprises.

[h2]What are DYNAMIC WAVES?[/h2]
Long story short, we've ripped out all of the enemy waves you're used to and replaced them with a system that procedurally generates them. Some people have expressed interest in exactly how they work, so let's break it down!

[h3]Step 1: Choosing The Enemy[/h3]
The first thing the script does is decide which enemy to spawn by picking from a weighted list. Some enemies are a lot more common than others. Some enemies don't have a weight until you've reached a high enough wave to encounter them.



Note that "waveInfo" is outputting exactly what the spawner is doing to both the debug console and the in-game wave log, which is accessible with cheats. This will really help us balance these huge changes during the beta.

It's getting all of this spawn data from a different script where many parameters are defined for the enemies, enemy spawn types, enemy entrances, and enemy formations.



Each enemy has a defined set of ways it can spawn, enemies it prefers to be paired with, and followers it's capable of supporting in formations.

[h3]Step 2: Choosing Spawn Type[/h3]
Next, the spawner must look up the different types of spawns that are valid for the selected enemy types and, again, choose one by weight (some spawns are more common than others). Spawn types determine the position and order enemies spawn in, whether they have followers, and if they do, how the followers behave.



Spawn types include: standard, arc, centered, fleet, pincer, v formation, v formation pincer, spiral, spiral double, spiral triple, box, cascading pincer, cascading pincer opposing, cascading fleet, cascading adjacent, cascading edges, formation: orbit, formation: flank, formation: rank and file, formation: trail, formation: protect, formation: support

[h3]Step 3: Choosing the Enemy Entrance[/h3]
Some enemies can enter the battlefield via a portal or by emerging from the background. This time the entrance is selected randomly from the choices.



[h3]Step 4: Determining Enemy Quantity[/h3]
A lot of factors determine how many enemies should be spawned. First, the script uses triangular distribution to get a base value from a low, mean, and high value derived from the spawn info. Then, it adds some random factor and scales it based on how far the player has progressed. Next it determines if this is going to be a paired wave. Paired waves mean that two dynamic spawns are happening at once, each with reduced enemy quantity.



Paired waves are usually inherently more difficult, so the two waves add up to 85% of the original quantity. (52.5% quantity for the first wave and 32.5% quantity for the paired wave).

Later, in step 6, it'll multiply quantity yet again based on which spawn type is being used.



Spawn types with a high quantity multiplier tend to be easier, distributed gradually, or more infrequent.

Certain enemy types either always repeat (like Saucers) or sometimes repeat (such as Interceptors or Shredder Mines). As the players reach higher waves, these waves are able to repeat more times. There is also a function here that determines how long the delay should be between a repeating wave. This is useful in some spawn types, too, like the spiral spawn.



[h3]Step 5: Enemy Followers[/h3]
One of the most exciting features of Enemies 2.0 are enemy formations.



There's more: Protect (stay between the player and the leader) and Support (cower behind the leader).

To make a formation, enemy follower quantity is first determined using the same method as the leader quantities. Followers may also have the ability to cascade their actions. For instance, if a formation spawns with a leader orbited by 8 Wardens, they might fire one at a time, slightly offset, instead of firing all at once. This makes things a bit more interesting. Also, followers might decide to break off from their leader, one at a time. The values that drive those behaviors are defined here, too.



Formation break off is especially interesting with the new kamikaze unit, the Hammerhead!

[h3]Step 6: Creating Enemy Spawners[/h3]
First, some default values are defined for the enemy spawner to use, many of which are overwritten by the unique needs of each spawn type. Now the script has generated all the variables it needs to tell the spawnEnemies() script what to do! A switch statement contains the spawn conditions for every spawn type that may have previously been selected.



This is code for 3 of the 22 different spawn types.

[h3]The Enemy Spawner[/h3]
The enemy spawner objects are responsible for a lot, too, but covering how those work could be a whole separate blog post. In short, they do the following:

• Determine, based on what was spawned and how many things were spawned, how much time should be added to the clock before the next wave automatically advances
  
• Stores an array of all enemies to spawn, coordinates where they should spawn, and determines their rarity (meaning the enemy could upgrade to elite or champion)
  
• Handles creating portals, warnings, etc
  
• Sets timers to create the enemy objects at the correct time and place
  
• Creates and arranges the enemy's followers, if any
  
• Repeat for incremental or repeating spawns, as needed
  
• And, finally, silently self destructs and experiences unending peace in the great beyond
  

But the Dynamic Waves script isn't finished yet...

[h3]Step 7: Creating Paired Waves (And Friends)[/h3]
Almost done. Now, the script sees if a Cherub (a new support enemy) wave is paired with the wave (at no extra charge!). This is something that happens very rarely. Next, paired spawns are handled. If it was determined earlier that the wave would be a paired one, it runs the dynamicWaves script again, this time with instructions to create that specific enemy wave with reduced quantity (and with formations excluded).



[h3]SO! What's Left To Do On The Update?[/h3]
While procedurally generated waves do add massive variety to Nova Drift, I ultimately decided that I did not want to have every possible wave (except bosses) be this unpredictable. There are some particularly mean or wacky things (like the above example) that are much better handled as "mostly curated" waves. I'd like to create a system that takes an array of such handcrafted waves and scales them based on a few simple variables like wave progression. The player would encounter these waves at wave multiples of 5 or 10, instead of Dynamic Waves, when the player is not facing bosses.

Also a bunch of other new stuff is coming that needs wrapping up...







[h3]Thanks For Reading[/h3]
It's been very interesting and extremely challenging crafting this system with the enormous help of our resident "Code Elf", Ultraken. It pulled me wayyy out of my comfort zone, it took half a year to create all the related assets, and I learned an almost overwhelming amount. When I started Nova Drift 7 years ago I was coming from an art background and was barely able to code, relying mostly on Game Maker's "drag 'n drop" functions and forum-copy-pasta. I feel like I've come a long way, this may be the first time I wasn't entirely embarrassed to show the "guts" of our game. Thanks for reading the blog and being a part of that journey with me. I'd also like to thank the other coders on our Discord that were able to provide feedback and guidance.

[h3]Want to help Nova Drift grow?[/h3]
Steam reviews really help! As a tiny operation, Nova Drift relies on its quality and reputation to sell, and reviews also encourage the Steam algorithms to show the game to more people. Please do take a moment to fill out a short review, even if it's only a few words. It just might make a big difference.

Best wishes,

Chimeric

Hello players new and old,

It's time to give some brand new peeks at what's coming up for Nova Drift in 2021. The full details on everything can be found at Chimeric's Blog, but here's a pretty comprehensive review in case you want to keep your experience fully in-Steam...

Quick note - the Nova Drift OST is currently 55% off for the next week!



[h2]Battlefield Zoom[/h2]

One of the more common complaints about Nova Drift is dying to late-game confusion. Player feedback indicated that things were feeling cramped as waves get into the several hundreds the screen begins to fill and with bullets and explosions. Also, the more tactical enemy formations that we wanted to create required more room to work correctly. We needed a way to control the battlefield size. To mitigate these concerns we added camera zoom functionality allowing us to pan out and view a larger battlefield. In future versions, the game will gradually zoom out as waves advance, or zoom way out for certain big encounters. We also added shiny new parallaxing starfields.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Boss Overhauls[/h2]

In order to make the zoom changes super-noticeable we revamped Station Omega. It was made 70% larger, much bulkier, and more visually interesting. We also gave all of its visual effects a once-over and added some new ones. It's more or less the same fight, but now it is easier to access its vulnerable nodes. Most bosses will similarly receive a revision before we're done and a few will receive drastic overhauls.



[h2]New Enemies[/h2]

Most bosses and many enemies will be overhauled over the course of the Enemies 2.0 updates. Additionally, many brand new enemies and alternate boss encounters will be introduced. Here's a preview of some of them:





[h2]Enemy Formations[/h2]



The backbone of enemies 2.0, enemy formations allow us to assign enemies certain behaviors while their leader exists. Currently there are 6 formations:

• Trail - Enemies follow their leader in a line
  
• Orbit - Enemies orbit their leaders in an ellipse
  
• Flank - Enemies flank their leaders at a certain angle
  
• Rank and File - Enemies line up rank and file behind their leader
  
• Support - Enemies focus on healing and supporting their leader instead of nearby allies
  
• Protect - Enemies will place themselves between you and their leader
  

We've got quite an active discord with a very chill and inclusive community. The dev team is also pretty active there. We recently upgraded the server to level 2 and opened some new channels like #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!

Finally, please consider leaving a review if you haven't yet - it always helps the game reach new players, which is nice!

Thanks for reading,

- MIles @ Pixeljam / Jeffrey @ Chimeric