Heartless & Dreadful : Return by 72 Hours · published · build 23972611
Welcome to another update that is big enough to require testing.
As per usual, I'm happy to make the changes based on feedback, so let me know if something's broken or if there are any other changes you would like to see. I might not be the best at it, but I try, lol.
Feel free to post the feedback on either Steam Forums, our very DEAD Discord, or send me an email at [email protected], whichever works for ya. (Just make sure to mention you are using the beta channel if you're on beta)
This time its to reduce the more annoying/non fun parts of the Missions, and to shorten those that overstay their welcome.
As a general reminder, to switch to the beta updates you gotta open the game's properties on Steam and change the channel to beta_unstable.
Here's the changes for now:
Shamir - Preservation is now included in the base kit. That means that him running outside of combat no longer uses CT energy for sprinting by default instead of needing to buy an upgrade for that.
(This kind of makes the CT orbs obsolete, therefore I'll adjust their location in the future builds, perhaps placing them in combat areas instead.)
Increased Pulley pull speed. (Although I want to change the way it feels also to make it feel better as well.)
Pulleys got a visual adjustment to be more noticable.
Rails got a visual adjustment to be more noticable.
Jump pads got a visual adjustment to be more noticable.
Adjusted breakable objects shading.
Optimized gate cameras to use less vram. Better performance in some areas basically as they no longer render anything when you are too far away from the monitors.
Added dash pads, sprinting into them will increase your running speed even further until you stop. (This will receive a proper tutorial video within the game later. But if you played any games with a certain Blue Hedgehog, this should feel familiar.)
Ice now looks... cool... nICE even... whats with the cold stare..? Chill.
Mod tool(the level editor sdk) package is now using Cecil from the package manager instead of their own DLL.
Reech (Self exploding demon fellas) no longer instantly explodes on reaching the player, instead they get a countdown before explosion upon nearing the player.
This should prevent bullshit damage if they manage to spawn near the player. Which could be very frustrating on the last difficulty setting as that could be basically an instant K.O. I'll likely make them flash/change colors on each beep too in the future update, but this should help for now.
Mission 5 has received an overhaul/rework. It is now built in a slightly different way.
Visual polish, now a bit more lively.
Level layout has been streamlined a bit to reduce backtracking and slow platforming, because of that some things have been shifted around, less downtime between combat areas.
The sense of scale remains the same. You are still small in the grand scheme of things. However the mission has been shortened and new shortcuts are possible now if you had already mastered the movement. (Hi, speedrunners.)
Enemies and the arena triggers were repositioned to flow better.
Mission time is now around 10-13 minutes.
Mission 6 got a minor rework as well.
Second part of Mission 6 is now more visually polished.
Second part of Mission 6's layout has been streamlined.
Enemies and the arena triggers were repositioned to flow better.
Mission time is now around 10-12 minutes.
Mission 8 will get a rework as well to be more streamlined and less backtracky while still maintaining the sense of scale.
The old Mission design/layout remains accessible and is available in the Extras menu, if you desire to replay the old versions again.
But please note, even if they are, they are not fully compatible just yet.
The old Mission designs in extras currently do not have the option to pick a difficulty setting.
Old mission triggers still contain level transitions, score counting and unlocks. It is not recommended to play through them on a new save file as it could mess with stuff.
This will be changed once the reworks are fully completed.
Known issues:
Due to restructuring of the reworked levels, some of the collectibles have not been placed yet and there may be a few glitches/bugs in them.
Due to further playtesting, the level score timers are currently still old. This will be updated with the newer builds.
Some screenshots used as dialogue backgrounds are still using old level visuals.
CT orbs are obsolete for traversal. I will adjust their placement across all levels later.