The main focus of this release was scenario-related changes to the research labs. I don't want to spoil them but now there is an additional bit of gameplay that you will have to do once you reach the <REDACTED>. Nothing too serious, just a little more meat on the bones. This also served as a test of sorts for the amount of work needed to implement special scenario logic with custom ingame objects. The results are promising and after some changes to the low-level code I can now spawn objects on the region map, move area objects between areas and make logic that is related to multiple objects. I won't go into any technical details here, this post already promises to be quite large.
Lab areas now feature ventilation covers which the parasite can use to go "through the walls" in some places. This is very risky and situational since you will have to leave the host outside. Sorry, no man-sized ventilation shafts, hehehe. Another thing that was added are the security guard spots. Now security often guards the outer building doors and sometimes inner ones. If they leave their spots due to alert, they will try very hard to return back once they calm down. Another change done to the scenario lab area is that now if you raise the area alertness high enough by not being careful, you will not be allowed to leave the lab until you complete the related goals. This is only for the scenario lab, the other ones work as usual.
I have to warn you, there might be problems with savegames due to the changes. I couldn't think of a way to make them fully compatible with the scenario changes. In the best case the old savegames won't have the new gameplay available. If nothing changes in the lab once the plot leads you to find the <REDACTED>, wait until the next game. There is another labs-related update planned, and that one will be about the additional location-based gameplay with unique player rewards. Sorry, but no details until it's implemented.
There were two small but important changes that deserve a mention. Previously, there was no limit to the amount of security/law enforcement that responds to the alerts and often you'd be swamped by infinite cops. There is now a cap to this amount so that the total amount of law response is limited by the area type.
The second change is more of a fix. While testing something with two nearby security guards I noticed that no matter how much I shot one of them, the other one just didn't care. Well, it turned that I had a nasty bug in the ingame sounds code that didn't use the given sound radius to propagate. Essentially the radius was always zero. It wasn't that apparent because on receiving damage the alert propagated to nearby AI by different logic. So I've fixed it and added the "sounds" to all of the weapons. Both this fix and the change are pretty low-level so I'm hoping I didn't make the game harder for the more aggressive playstyle (it's not like it wasn't already too hard before, heh).
Parthenogenesis and rebirth
Now for the other big addition. After I was done with the planned changes I've noticed that I had a good chunk of time left before the release so I picked one of the features that is often requested by the players and did it. I'll just make the pedia article speak for itself:
After you evolve the Parthenogenesis improvement, the parasite gains access to the rebirth process. Normally, if it dies, it's game over but if you have the rebirth set up, the parasite will just move on to the "next life" with some losses. The first thing you need is to create the ovum object in region mode. It is a process similar to the microhabitat spawning. Go to the nearest sewers, pick a good spot on region map and activate the "Create ovum" action. Pick the place carefully because you will need to travel there to change settings and the parasite will be reborn there each time. The ovum itself is not in any danger from the antagonists at the moment and you can only build one.
Once the ovum is created, stepping on its tile will show you the info about its level and what improvements are marked for rebirth. There are two actions available. "Set improvements" opens the interface to lock and unlock which of the basic improvements you want to be reborn with. The second action, "Nurture ovum", allows you to feed your current host to the ovum, adding points to the next level. Each new level requires more points and there is a maximum ovum level. Different types of hosts will give you different amount of points. In general, the more dangerous the host type is, the more points the ovum will receive.
The rebirth process happens automatically on parasite death. At this point a new parasite will appear on the ovum location. The ovum level will be reduced by one. If the current ovum level is zero, it is the final death and game over. The basic improvements that were locked will stay with you, the rest will be discarded and you will receive another set of starting improvements. The basic improvements are the ones that can be received when you first open the evolution process in tutorial. All the ones that you've acquired during the gameplay after that will not be discarded. However, there is a large chance that some of them will degrade by one level to a minimum of one. Any evolution points that you've gained over the current improvement level will also be reset.
Pretty neat, huh?
Changes:
- Parthenogenesis improvement and rebirth-related changes
- New art for <REDACTED> courtesy of iwanPlays
- Scenario-related research labs changes
- Each area type now has a modifier to the base area alertness raise formula. The labs and military bases have the highest.
- You cannot leave the scenario-related lab if you raise the alertness high enough until you complete the appropriate scenario goals
- Ventilation covers and the ability to pass through them when not on host
- Lab security now sometimes guards doors, new AI state and logic for that
- Law response is now capped to maximum according to area info
- Weapon sounds now propagate into the world and alert AI
Fixes:
- Ambushes in normal areas will now also set a "cannot leave" timer
- Ingame sound code propagation radius fix
- Fix for save/loading AI alert timer
- Fix for save/loading backup arrive event
- Fix for leaving the host during shift-action