0.6.5
=====
Fixes
-----
* Fixed bug where mini-bosses destroyed by a smart bomb effect would not drop
their fuel!
* Fixed appearance of Carpeting Celbalrai II.
* Weapons which fired fragmenting, knockback, or wall-penetrating bullets were
lying about how much damage they dealt in their descriptions - they were
reporting only half their true value!
* If fuel is somehow spawned within solid ground, it will now move upward until
it leaves solid ground. Weird, but necessary: it is possible to kill the
Tunneling Taurus (Huge) mini-boss with bullets that go through terrain;
before this fix, doing so would have made the Fuel inaccessible, making it
impossible for you to progress through the game! Agk!
* Fixed a minor display issue when equipped with two pieces of Armor.
* Fixed an issue which would - on rare occasion - place an enemy just "beyond
the seam" of the level (for example, -4 on the X axis falls outside the
level). These enemies would be visible, but nothing else in the level
(including player, or bullets fired by a player) would be able to interact
with them. This issue rarely manfiested meaningfully, because any kind of
motion on the part of ANY object beyond the seam of the level triggers code
that would bring that object back inside, but the Aiming Altair enemy, and
the new Beehive enemy (see below) could have become stuck in this way. (P.S.
I really love this bug. "Objects BEYOND THE SEAM, visible, but unreachable,"
just sounds so incredibly epic. Alas, a bug is a bug! :P)
* When you pass the seam of the level, the weather effects no longer vanish for
a fraction of a second.
Orbital Co-op
-------------
* Orbitals no longer take damage of any kind, or collide with enemies or enemy
bullets!
* Removed the Orbital Hull upgrade (of course).
* When an Orbital's host ship is slowed, the Orbital is now slowed as well.
* When an Orbital's host ship is disabled/reviving, the Orbital is now slowed.
* Upgrades that improved Orbital's fire rate by 100% now improve it by 50%,
instead. (It was WAY too good before! And now Orbitals are immortal!)
Player Revival
--------------
* While reviving, you deal only 1/2 collision damage. Because ramming
mini-bosses to straight up kill them is kind of silly :P (I'd still like it
to be a valid strategy, it just needs to be a little riskier.)
Music
-----
* The sector map now has music: "Set a Course", by DDRKirby(ISQ).
UI
--
* When playing as the Alien Alwaid ship, Alien Artifacts now tell you the
special effect they will have on you, instead of the effect they would have
on other ships.
* The game now detects when a gamepad is added or removed, and adds/removes it
from the pool of available controllers. (Doing this mid-game is still not
handled as well as it could be.)
* Creatures (players and enemies alike) now smoke or bleed only when below 50%
hull strength (previously, any amount below 100% caused smoking or bleeding).
Sector Map
----------
* Elimiated(?) instances where there are two planets of the same type in a row
(ex: Desert followed by Desert), and instances where you're given a choice,
but the two planets to choose from are the same type.
Weapons
-------
* Added two more sounds that weapons can use when firing.
* Greatly increased the probability that non-basic forward-shooting guns are
generated. (They're more fun! Players should have fun things!)
* Some forward-firing guns now fire backwards, instead.
* Split-blasters can now be created that can fire anywhere between 2 and 6
bullets per shot (instead of just boring ol' 2 all the time).
* Some Split-blasters now have a variable firing angle; the angle widens and
narrows at regular intervals.
* Added "Spiral" weapon, which fires bullets in a spiral pattern around you.
When your controls are inverted, the direction that your Spiral weapons fire
are also inverted. Just for fun :P
* Some Quad blasters now fire at an angle, instead of straight up/down/left/
right. (This affects Four-way Fomalhauts as well; see below.)
* Increased base firing speed of all quad blasters.
* The spacing between bullets in dual-blasters now varies from gun to gun.
* Some dual-blasters now have variable spacing between their bullets; the
spacing widens and narrows at regular intervals.
* Reduced speed of rubberized bullets.
Shields
-------
* New shield: "Desperate Shield". Doubles fire rates of all weapons while the
shield is depleted. Slightly stronger and slower than shields of similar
level.
* New shield: "Synchronized Shield". Adds vent resistance and movement speed.
* New shield: "Overcharged Shield". Makes temporary shields between 30% and 70%
stronger. The greater the overcharge effect, the slower the shield's regen
rate.
* Rarely, any shield may now be "Tiny", having roughly half strength, but
roughly double recharge speed.
* Updated Nova Shield to have three subtypes, which trigger at different
shield thresholds, and fire different numbers of bullets. Also, the Nova
Shield description now tells you how much damage each bullet deals. (Hint:
it's always been 1/3 the shield strength, and still is.)
* Angry Shields can now fire bullets more often. When they do, the individual
bullets are weaker.
Armor
-----
* Angry and Volcanic Armors can now fire bullets more often. When they do, the
individual bullets are weaker.
Accessories
-----------
* New accessory: "Shield Rerouter". Activating it drains your shield in order
to fire a weapon built in to the accessory.
* New accessory: "Alien Teleporter". Teleports you to other places on the
planet.
Upgrades
--------
* Upgrade blueprints have a new icon, and each has its own, upgrade-specific
color.
Enemies
-------
* Enemies despawn a little sooner, now (at a slightly shorter distance). My
hope is that by despawning off-screen enemies sooner, new enemies can appear
on-screen faster.
* Slightly changed the appearance of Four-way Fomalhaut.
* 1 in 4 Four-way Fomalhauts now fire at an angle, instead of straight up/down/
left/right (see change to Quad blasters, above). These Four-way Fomalhauts
have a different appearance, representing their angled firing pattern.
* Dashing Deneb no longer appears on barren worlds.
* New enemies: Beehive, and Bee.
* New enemy: Cloaking Cor Caroli.
* New enemy: Antares Anemone.
* The collectible data entries for enemies have a new icon, and each has its
own, enemy-dependent color.
Mini-bosses
-----------
* The core of a Regenerating Rigel is no longer affected by smart bombs. (Its
various parts still are, though.)
* The EMP-firing parts of Regenerating Rigel now take much longer to regenerate
than its other parts.
* Each time a part of Regenerating Rigel is destroyed, it takes longer to
regenerate that part.
* Regenerating Rigel's EMP bullets now travel faster.
* New mini-boss: "Menkalinan Manufactory".
Planets
-------
* Reduced the number of meteors in meteor showers (roughly halved).
* Added a foreground layer for planet decorations (rocks, cacti, etc). For
extra prettiness. (I really need to get someone to just draw me a ton of
awesome plants and things.)
* Added bushes to forest worlds, weeds to desrt worlds, and underwater
whatever plants to ocean worlds. Lots of them!
Fuel
----
* Fuel now has an animated glow. In case the fuel itself is obscured by
foreground rocks/vines/whatever.
Misc
----
* Changed how damage is handled in the code. Previously, damage was passed
around the code using two variables: an "amount", and a "type". Various
behaviors were inferred based on "type", for example self-inflicted damage
ignored shields and armor, going straight to the hull. As more complicated
mechanics were introduced, though, this single "type" was proving limited.
So now, a "Damage" object is passed around, which carries the amount of
damage, the type of damage (collision, bullet, self-inflicted, or smartbomb),
and various other properties, such as whether the damage penetrates shields
and/or armor (meaning that self-inflicted damage does not HAVE to have this
property, and bullet damage now CAN have it), and even things like whether or
not the damage should trigger a sound on the player (added for the Shield
Rerouter accessory). This new system also theoretically allows for weird
mechanics, such as an equipment that changes the properties of damage as it
moves through a ship, though no such equipment or effect has been implemented
this release. (Maybe later!)
0.6.4
=====
Fixes
-----
* In many cases, the game was instructing you to press A or ENTER to throw away
an item, instead of Y or DEL! This has been fixed.
* Added missing "â" character to font spritesheet.
* In split-screen co-op games, on the Game Over screen, each screen is now
colored according to its player's detail color, instead of both being colored
according to the first player's detail color.
* The text "This ship part has not been identified" now wraps correctly,
instead of bleeding outside the menu interface.
Scoring
-------
* Totally changed how many points enemies are worth for killing, and Fuel is
worth for picking up. In short: enemies are worth less; Fuel is worth more.
* Every second spend in a level is now -2 points, instead of -1.
* You no longer gain points during play; there is a new "summary" screen at the
conclusion of each level which tallies up your kills, pickups, and time
spent, and awards points them. It also shows the "difficulty" modifier, which
was previously unseen, but very real. Yay for clarity!
* Players are now credited for kills only when they're near the killed enemy.
(An enemy is considered "near" if its within a distance of 1440 pixels; 150%
the width of the screen. Fuel pickups are still shared by all players,
regardless of location.)
UI
--
* In co-op mode, your friends now also appear on the minimap.
* On the minimap, player and miniboss indicators now blink.
* Redid control instructions on sector map ("enter" to select planet, etc.)
Players
-------
* Player ships now have smaller hit boxes, which should greatly reduce
instances where enemy bullets would hit empty space near the player.
Mini-bosses
-----------
* Increased frequency of mini-bosses from 1:4 to 1:3
* Increased drop rates of mini-boss COLLECTION entries. (Drop rates for enemy
COLLECTION entries used to be 1:100 across the board, which is fine for
normal enemies, but super-annoying for mini-bosses.)
* Added "Grosse Baeline", a giant whale. It may be found on Ocean and Lava
worlds.
* Added "Tunneling Taurus (Huge)", found on some Lava, Desert, and Barren
worlds.
Enemies
-------
* Added "Petit Poisson", which are found swarming around Grosse Baeline.
* "Biological" enemies (bugs, fish, etc) now bleed when damaged, instead of
smoke.
* On planets without atmospheres, Swarming Sirrah (the little black gnat-like
things that swarm around picksup) are white, instead of black (making them
visible against the COLD DARKNESS OF SPACE).
Upgrades
--------
* Added "Super-repellent Surface"; its blueprint is dropped by Grosse Baeline.
* "500 Points" upgrade now starts at 1000 points.
Equipment
---------
* New armor: "Heavy Armor". Has a higher armor rating than armors of similar
level, and resists winds and vents by 20%, but comes with a -20% movement
penalty.
* Basic armor is now sliiiightly less common.
Planets
-------
* Added meteor showers, a very rare event that can happen on any planet.
Internationalization
--------------------
* Translated names and stats of creatures for French.
* Added French translations for "Alien Scanner" and "Strengthen Hull" upgrades.
(Name only.)
Misc
----
* Added a new system which allows for more-precise collisions. See
https://mysteriousspace.com/2015/03/31/0-6-4-update-better-collision-boxes/
for more information.
0.6.3b
======
Fixes
-----
* Removed "Asteroid Belt" levels, which were not supposed to be in the game!
They're incomplete, and you can't beat them, so if you stumbled upon one,
you'd be so sad. MY BAD.
0.6.3
=====
This update mostly brings UI and translation improvements. Not super-exciting,
I realize, but important all the same :)
Known Issues
------------
* Discovered a bug present since 0.6.2: music does not always loop for Windows
8 users! A little googling reveals that this is a known issue with MonoGame
since 2013: https://github.com/mono/MonoGame/issues/1821 (Thanks to player
Markieer for reporting this to me!) An immediate fix does not come to mind;
I'll be on the lookout for work-arounds and other options for a future
release.
Fixes
-----
* The changelog for 0.6.2 was missing the entry "when viewing your Equipment,
categories containing new items are individually marked "NEW".
* In the Equipment menu, a category is immediately unmarked as having "NEW"
items the moment you identify all of them. (Previously, it did not unmark the
category until you left the menu, and re-entered.)
Upgrades
--------
* The Regenerating Rigel mini-boss now drops the "Alien Scanner" upgrade
blueprint if you haven't already found it. This upgrade can no longer be
found in any other way. (As I add more mini-bosses, I will move blueprints
over to them in similar ways. I'm hoping this will feel like a cool reward
for players, and give a better sense of progression.)
Equipment
---------
* Berserker Armor now doubles the firing rate of ALL your weapons (not just
your second; that was weird!), but is also slightly more rare, and will grant
slightly less armor.
UI
--
* On equipment, the increased shield/weapon regeneration rate text has been
made more succinct. It now fits on one line, which should make it easier to
read, and eliminates many instances where equipment descriptions leaked
outside the UI!
* Most messages which specify a button to press, for example "Press A or ENTER
to equip", now specify only the button relevant to the type of controller the
player is using. So our example "Press A or ENTER to equip" now reads "Press
A to equip" when using a controller; "Press ENTER to equip" when using a
keyboard.
* Moved elements around on the "assign controllers" screen (when loading a
game), and the and "create character" screen.
* Also on that "assign controllers" screen: added an animated orbital to
players with orbitals.
* The accessory status indicator, if any (ex: the "Engine Booster" charge bar),
is now hidden when your ship is disabled/reviving.
Mini-bosses
-----------
* Regenerating Rigel may now drop a COLLECTION item describing itself.
Translations
------------
* Added French and German month name translations (for the release date, seen
in the bottom-left of the title menu).
* Added French and English translations for Equipment screen controls. ("Press
A to equip", etc)
* Added "Shielded Core" text for English and French translations.
* Added French and German translations for instructions when starting a new
game ("Add a player", "Remove this player", etc).
* Added French and German translations for all Armor, Shield, and Accessory
names (ex: "Last Resort", "Hard Shield", etc).
* Basic descriptions of Armor and Shield effects (damage absorbed; speed of
regeneration) are now translated to French and German. Other effects remain
untranslated, except as noted below.
* Added French and German translations for "Resists X% of damage resulting from
collisions."
0.6.2
=====
Known Issues
------------
* Music does not loop perfectly. This is MonoGame's fault.
* Music volume controls sound effect volumes. This is MonoGame's fault >_>
(Interestingly, sound effect volume does not control music volume!)
* The UI for adding controllers to games, both when starting a new game, and
loading an existing game, is not the super best. This is MonoGame's fault.
* The above "Known Issue" is incorrect. (The bad UI is totally my fault :P)
Fixes
-----
* Sandstorms once again rage on desert worlds!
* Sandstorms no longer push you around when you've left the planet's
atmosphere; their effects taper off as you leave the atmosphere.
* Fixed a minor display bug when you had 10 or more Upgrade points.
* Fixed the math related to % recharge rate increases. This is effectively a
nerf, but only when the total recharge rate bonuses are large (usually from
multiple equipments or effects). Small bonuses will feel pretty much the
same as before, and small bonuses are what most equips give.
* Fixed a bug with modal dialogs which could have prevented players from
closing the dialogs in they had more controllers plugged in than they were
using.
* Fixed a couple display issues with local co-op.
Local Co-op
-----------
* Increased speed enemies are summoned in co-op.
* Added support for FOUR PLAYER CO-OP! Two playears can play ships; each ship
can have an orbital player.
UI
--
* Updated UI during character creation, hopefully making things CLEARER.
* Added "cancel" sounds when backing out of ABOUT and COLLECTION pages.
* Updated ABOUT page, adding an entry for DDRKirby(ISQ), and giving entries
identifying colors.
* When viewing Alien Artifacts, there is now a bit of text explaining that they
can be used both on a planet, and while in space.
* Sandstorms now have an accompanying wind sound effect.
* When viewing your Equipment, categories containing new items are individually
marked "NEW".
Music
-----
THERE'S MUSIC IN THE GAME NOW. Some songs are still missing (like a title
song!) but SOME music is better than NO music... right? maybe? I hope?
The following planets have music: Ice Worlds, Lava Worlds, Ocean Worlds, Desert
Worlds, and Asteroid Belts (not yet implemented). To make sure ALL planets have
music, the music of these worlds is also being used outside their intended
areas: Barren Worlds use Desert World music; Forest Worlds use Ocean World
music; Mining Worlds use Asteroid Belt music. As more songs are made, these
duplications will be removed.
Title screen and sector map remain completely music-less.
Mini-Bosses
-----------
* Some levels now have a mini-boss! When a level has a mini-boss, that mini-
boss has one of the level's Fuel, so you'll need to defeat it in order to
progress (unless it's a level with extra/"secret" Fuel).
* Mini-bosses appear on your mini-map. (Speak that line aloud as if talking to
a baby, or cat. It sounds ADORABLE :P)
* The first time you encounter a mini-boss, the ship's AI tells you about them.
* Added a new mini-boss: Regenerating Rigel.
Weapons
-------
* EMP bullets are now always blue/cyan;
* Rubberized bullets are purple/pink;
* Other bullets are red, orange, yellow, white, or rainbow (saving green for
later);
* Angry/fragmenting shield and armor bullets remain the color of their shields
and armors.
Enemies
-------
* Crawling Carinae now has a death explosion sound. (About time!)
Planets
-------
* Redid background textures entirely, allowing for angles and jaggy edges which
I hope convey "you can go through this"!
* Forest and Ocean worlds now have hanging vines.
* Added fog effect to blizzards (seen on most Ice Worlds).
* Added a fourth tree graphic.
* Increased the minimum "depth" for some planet types: Lava and Mining worlds
appear later than they used to, and the first level will now never be a
Barren world. I pushed Barren worlds back not because they are more
challenging - they aren't - but because they lack a colored atmosphere.
Colored atmospheres provide an important visual cue - that there's something
DOWN - and I want to be sure that a first-time player will ALWAYS see that.
Misc
----
* Generally improved how alpha transparency is handled in the code. (I was
handling it poorly.)
0.6.1
=====
Fixes
-----
* Fixed bug which prevented you from completing the tutorial! (It was not
properly tracking whether or not you were firing or moving!)
* When Embedded Armor explodes, it is now correctly removed from your
inventory.
* Some of the bullets fired by the EMP Channeler Accessory were invisible. This
has been fixed.
* Changing the controller vibration setting in the SETTINGS menu no longer
resets the settings, and selecting "Reset Tutorial" now correctly resets the
settings! (Oops!)
UI
--
* Equipment is no longer listed in the "INVENTORY" tab of the menu.
* The EQUIPMENT tab of the menu has the text "NEW" on it when you have
unidentified ship parts.
* The UPGRADES tab of the menu shows the number of upgrade chips you've
collected on the tab itself.
* Added semi-transparent black box around map, to make it stand out more from
the surrounding level.
* Until you collect your first crate in the game, crates now have the word
"GET" blinking next to them.
* Until you collect your first fuel, fuel crystals now have the word "FUEL"
blinking above them.
0.6.0
=====
Fixes
-----
* CRASH FIX: fixed a bug where the game would crash when Embedded Armor was
depleted. (Related to the addition of on-screen damage numbers in 0.5.1.)
* CRASH FIX: fixed a bug where the game would lock up when visiting some mining
worlds. (Thanks to DeltaBladeX from Steam for reporting this!)
* CRASH FIX: Fixed a crash that could occur on the COLLECTION screen when
pressing UP while in the top row of collected items. (Again!)
* Fixed a bug where the camera would sometimes scroll across the WHOLE level
trying to find you >_>
* Four-way Fomalhaut now drops the correct enemy log item. (It was dropping the
log item of a different enemy.)
* Fixed a bug where a single bullet might hit multiple enemies. (Occurred when
two or more enemies overlapped, and a bullet struck that area.)
Local Co-op: Standard
---------------------
Local co-op is now supported! There are two types - "Standard" and "Orbital".
Here are the details for "Standard" play:
* During character creation, a second player can be added.
* When a second player is added, the game's window width is doubled! I realize
this is a SUPER WEIRD way to do it. If your monitor is less than 1920px
across (1080p), the game window will stretch. It doesn't look super-great
when this happens, but it's not AWFUL either. This will all be fixed in a
later update.
* Gameplay works as you would expect from any other co-op game. It's split-
screen, each player has their own equipment, etc.
* If EITHER player dies, it's game over! (However, see "Player Revival",
below!)
* You must collect three Fuel per player in order to leave the planet. Fuel is
a shared resource, so it's even okay if one player collects all six.
* In order to unlock a secret system in co-op, you must collect EIGHT Fuel.
* There is now one Upgrade chip on every planet PER PLAYER, and each Upgrade
chip is colored, indicating which player may pick it up.
Local Co-op: Orbital
--------------------
* During character creation, the second player may choose an "Orbital" instead
of a standard ship. This is only available to the second player, and only
when that player is using a gamepad.
* During game play, the game window width is NOT doubled; there is no split-
screen. Players share one screen.
* The Orbital is stuck at a fixed distance from the first player, but may
circle around him/her.
* The Orbital has a single weapon, which fires in the direction it's facing.
* The Orbital can be hit by enemy bullets, and enemies themselves. If it's
destroyed, it remains destroyed for the duration of the level. It is fully
repaired when the level is complete.
* The player ship itself is given a second slot - Orbiter Accessory - which may
be filled with any Accessory. (The only Accessory that is useless on Orbitals
is the Alien Integrater, as the Orbital cannot use Alien Artifacts, and even
if it could, it has no Shield.)
* Orbitals have separate health from their ships. A ship can die while the
Orbital lives on, or vice-versa.
Player Revival: Ships
---------------------
Added a new mechanic: Player Revival!
The short version:
* If you die, you will come back to life in a few seconds, unless you take a
lot of damage, first!
* Your chances of coming back to life are much better in a co-op game, where
your buddy can protect you by killing enemies near you.
* Dying shortly after being revived will result in a LONGER wait before you
come back to life again, increasing your chances of a real and true death.
* You fall when you die, so try not to die over spiked terrain!
The long version:
* Players now have a "Revive Energy" bar which fills up as they play.
* When a player's hull is exhausted, they are now "disabled," instead of dead,
and an explosion sound effect is played.
* While disabled, a player's pool of Revive Energy is gradually drained, in
order to build up a "Revive!" bar. When the Revive! bar is filled, the player
is revived with 25 Hull, a sound effect is played, and the screen flashes
pale blue.
* If a player takes damage while reviving, the Revive! bar is reduced; if there
is not enough Revive! bar, Revive Energy is reduced. If Revive Energy is
reduced to 0, the player is really and truly dead!
* The Revive Energy drains to fill the Revive! bar much faster than it
regenerates itself, so if a player is revived, but then quickly disabled
again, their Revive Energy bar will likely not be enough to immediately
refill their Revive! bar, meaning the player will have to wait much longer
to come back to life.
* When a player is disabled, they gain invulnerability for 1 second.
* While disabled, a player falls downward, toward the planet's surface.
Combined with the 1 second invulnerability, this allows a player to fall out
of harm's way, HOWEVER: falling onto a spiked surface WILL cause you to
repeatedly take damage, until you are really and truly dead. (Sandstorms and
vents on water and lava worlds could similarly push you into danger! Beware!)
Player Revival: Orbitals
------------------------
* When an Orbital dies, it is dead until the level is complete. Between levels,
Orbitals are completely, 100% healed (and revived, if needed).
UI
--
* Tweaked some text on the "ABOUT" screen.
* Maximum length of ship names is now 25 characters. (Previously, there WAS no
maximum, which you could probably use to game-crashing effect, if you really
tried :P)
* Increased opacity of selected letter, when inputting ship names via gamepad.
Enemies
-------
* Enemies used to start spawning ~2-3 seconds after you began a level; now they
don't start spawning until a player approaches the planet's surface.
* When colliding with an enemy, the damage you deal to one another is now:
current shield strengths + current armor strengths + MAXIMUM hull strength
instead of:
current shield strengths + current armor strengths + CURRENT hull strength
This was mainly done to ensure that players still deal collision damage when
disabled, but also means that collisions with enemies are a little more
damaging. And so:
* Slightly reduced collision damage dealt by several (but not all) enemies.
* Aiming Altair now has a death sound effect.
Upgrades
--------
* The following Upgrades must now be unlocked by finding their blueprints:
"Scrapping", "Alien Scanners", "Adaptive Software"
* New Upgrade: "Shielded Core". Halves damage while reviving. Must be unlocked
by finding its blueprint.
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