PATCH SUMMARY
Soldier armour added, 2 new suit mods, tons of bug fixes, multiplayer improvements + I've added some new game-loop features, including cooking, crafting, and praying + TPAI enemy AI reworked! These new systems tie together everything really well... giving purpose to items, and allowing players to tune their experience in different ways.
MULTIPLAYER FIXES!
Switched authoritative movement to Client - and bang! 80% lag + client weapon accuracy fixed!
IMPORTANT: I have de-coupled most campaign cross saves to avoid data issues when returning to single player. Multiplayer / Co-op is a bit more of a stand alone 'playground' experience for now.
The Kitchen
Chef can now prepare meals! Meals are used in the new 'final prep' stage (below) to buff the player character before the next mission. Who can resists a juicy squirrel burger or a mouth watering squirreleroni pizza?
The Crafty Craftsman
Why salvage steel, plastics and electronics? To make stuff of course! Players can now craft items such as traps, grenades, mines etc... More items coming ASAP...!!! (flares / bait / traps / ammo types / weapon mods, health packs)
Final Prep
This is a new lobby pre-mission stage. What will you do just before you head out on what may be your final mission? Here are your options:
LAST MEAL:
Buff the player character with foodstuffs. (health / speed etc)
PRAY TO RATATOSK:
Leave tithings which affect mission parameters. (reduce mutation / pacify / reduce map threat level / + more to come!)
VISIT FACTION (under development)
This is a big addition I'm working on... each character will belong to a faction... that faction will have a hidden mission objective on offer and may also supply a special weapon, item or change mission parameters... It's a huge task so may take me awhile!
Character Armour
New armour system added (finally). Soldiers can now take a few more hits before health is damaged. A new suit mod allows for more armour layers to be added. TPAI now have a chance to drop Armour Shards which are immediately nano-welded to your suit. Armour currently does NOT affect move speed.
Nanomed Mod
New suit upgrade that auto heals... if you are into tiny robots coursing through your veins rather than popping pills, this mod should do the trick. Expensive...
Character Starting Weapon Specialisation
Characters now start with a level boost in their specialised starting weapon.
Ammo / Health Packs
You can now use ammo packs and health kits on demand using [1][2] hotkeys. Hotkeys for deployables are now shown on the HUD. In multiplayer ammo and meds are dropped on the ground.
Chipped Squirrel Attack
I've given the primary attack a quick visual indicator and increased attack power. Player squirrels can now attack TPAI, other squirrels and other Players aggressively... and kill them.
The upgraded squirrel chips allow squirrels to earn XP / Points. Quad pickups not yet active - working on it. I will be expanding the player squirrel capabilities when I get some more time... GOAL: ninja squirrels / squirrel abilities / mounted weapons / deployables etc...
Quad Bike Returns!
I finally found the time to fix up the quad bike handling a bit. The quad bike has been re-added to the single player game on most top-side maps. With time the quad bike will be more integrated into level design... Next is to get a proper kinetic character model riding the quad bike!
OTHER PATCH FIXES / IMPROVEMENTS / CHANGES
I have been improving my game dev skills and have fixed / improved the game heaps over the last few months! Other noteworthy changes are:
- TPAI enemy behaviour updated with crouch capability and new RNG brain.
- Items collected by stranded soldiers are not added to Hive Inventory until rescued.
- Character suit textures improved
- Third Person camera improvements - aim / crouch camera distance tweaks
- Third Person scoped weapons now have crosshair when not aiming
- BALANCE: Squirrels no longer drop armour / health
- BALANCE: TPAI drop armour shards and sometimes ammo
- FIXED: random crashes on Game Over screen
- FIXED: character flashlight brightness in different mission zones
- FIXED: AI projectile hit register issues
- FIXED: Globs of Greed hit register issues
- FIXED: 'continue' doubling up item inventories
- IMPROVED: Player chipped squirrel movement
- IMPROVED: quad bike handling / acceleration
- IMPROVED: enemy TPAI behaviour / weapons
- MAP OVERHAUL: Training Gauntlet texturing / models / improvements
- All maps have had some tweaks in one way or another
THE RETURN OF AI
Now that Steam has allowed games to include AI content, I have re-added / updated the LORE INTRODUCTION to Squirrelmageddon! It still amazes me what the latest generations of AI can do now.
WHY DO I USE AI?
As a solo-developer with no funds to hire additional talent, AI helps me with the things I can't do well 'enough' = graphic design / art... I am now able to put in 'inspired / prompted placeholders' where I feel it would 'substantially' improve the game experience.
COMING ASAP
- UI / QOL improvements
- more squirrel mutations
- more tithing and meal effects
- more items and meal recipes
- more fixes for multiplayer!
Until then, stay squirrely people and I'll see ya top-side!
- Jono