Hey everyone, Quinn here.
Since about August, we've been pretty quiet. We've pushed several betas in the past few weeks, and with the help of the beta testers, we've decided that it is now time to push the update to the main branch. The entire team has been working really hard on making this game even better and trying to make it a more enjoyable experience that matches with the vision we have in our minds.
Why The Perks Overhaul?
The main focus of this update has been the perks and very late game balance (floors 6 and 7). For a long while, the perks have been a bit lacklustre, and so with help and ideas from the community (a huge thank you to everyone who gave us feedback) this part of the game has now been overhauled.
In terms of the late game balance, the game is now going to be harder than it was before. Previously, damage ups were way too strong, so by the time you got to floors 6 and 7 you would probably be super overpowered.
This balance has been changed significantly, so no more murdering enemies before they can respond. Enemies can now take a good bit of damage, without feeling too bullet spongy, and get off their patterns. Basically, those evil Rusted Lumiflares, which are the embodiment of the bullet hell side of the game, can actually get their pattern off before they die. Damage perks have certainly been hit by the nerfbat, but not so hard that they aren't still a good choice. In fact, they are now a hard choice to make. Do I want the extra damage or do I want some other cool perk?
Speaking of cool perks, we've added a ton of those! We tried to come up with a bunch of interesting ideas, then put the interesting ideas together and let you choose only one. We're mean like that. ;) Get ready for perks such as Savings Interest, An Eye For an Eye, Bloody Rage, Big Game Hunter, and many more.
Changes To Higher Floors
Despite loving to murder... er, I mean help players, we did make some really nice changes to make the game more fair. No more lower level enemies doing more damage on later floors for no reason! We also made the floors shorter, since we don't want to make Running Mech Simulator 2017 (tm). That also helps with the attrition that is now going on.
But Wait! We're Fair!
Wait a minute! You just said you were making the game more fair! Well, I also said we are mean. Now, most things do 2 points of damage, but you can only heal for one point. This means that you're less likely to steamroll your way to the end of the game leaving behind piles of health pickups, and much more likely to have to fight your way there, and actually pay attention to the pretty shapes the bullets make.
Side Effects Lead To Other Cool Things
The attrition does have a plus side though! The consumables in the game are REALLY nice. It used to be "Oh, I don't need consumables, I can steamroll my way through the floor", now it is "Ooh, this consumable will save my life more than likely on this floor. If not, I'm almost certainly going to be using it on the next. Unless you're Misery. Then you just ignore logic and win regardless.
Energy weapons are also more valuable now, since every enemy doesn't drop dead in a matter of nanoseconds, so the damage you deal actually, you know, matters. So the more energy you have, the more damage you can do, which means the faster you can kill things, so you take less damage. Its a great cycle!
Now, About Those New Items...
You remember the XP bubble things right? There are more types of them, that give more XP, so you'll enjoy those.
There are some new modules now too. Personally, I like the one that causes a giant ring of ice around you. It helps increase the amount of damage you do to most enemies and limits the danger of things like bulldogs. NB. Bulldogs and chargers are still going to mess you up even with this module. You still have to shoot them and play smart.
And New Enemies...
We've also added some new enemies! There are little popcorn enemies, that aren't really dangerous unless there are a lot of them, then there are defensive enemies, which block your shots (But they're rare, so you're relatively safe), and then there are maze types, which work well in complicated corridors.
Horrible news time: Misery got his hands on the dev tools. He made a super Blaze Cannon called an Inferno Cannon. In his words: "You'll die to these. A lot. You thought Blaze Cannons were bad? Haha. They're nothing compared to these nightmares. Fortunately for you, they only appear on later floors and they're somewhat rare. Unfortunately for you, it only takes one of these to make a room extremely dangerous in a way that no other enemy can. Like Blaze Cannons these guys fire sparking missiles that go through walls. It's what those missiles DO that makes them so very deadly." In conclusion, run. Run fast and far to escape the Inferno Cannons.
New Boss!?
He may have, uh, also gotten his hands on the tools for creating a new boss. So you might notice that there is a new boss that is going to make your life suck. That's all his fault.
This has been a pretty huge update, there have been a ton of improvements, changes, bugfixes, and additions, most of which we probably can't even remember -- it's a good job we have a changelog then! Thanks everyone! We hope you enjoy the new build. :) Relevant release notes are versions 1.502 to 1.506 if you haven't been playing the beta.