A new update, in preparation for Tuesday's Early Access end. This time, we bring a much needed review of how heads work, some changes to COPGORE and balance improvements.
HEADS REVIEW
For some time, we had planned on consolidating how heads work. The idea was for all of them to share a common basic mechanic, apart from whatever made each unique. That basic mechanic is the ability to mark enemies as targets, and have the camera automatically track them.
Now, finally, this vision has come to fruition and we can proudly say that the ability to lock targets is in the game. By tapping on camera action (Tab, Middle Mouse Button or Right Analog Stick Button, in most cases) you can re-centre the camera. If an enemy is nearby, it will be selected as target. Once a target is selected, the camera will follow them while they remain close enough. To switch targets, move the camera left or right. Tapping camera action again will deselect the target, returning you to the normal camera.
Some heads, like B-DSS Head or COPS Head, had a special attack triggered by tapping camera action. Now, that special action will be triggered by holding down camera action, instead.
Although simple in appeareance, this change has required extensive modifications on how heads are implemented and configured. So we've decided to use this opportunity to further improve the heads that most needed it.
In particular, we have modified extensively the Rocket Head. Its missile platform ability is now enabled by default, so you can fire missiles from the get go. That used to be the third update, so it has been replaced by a cool new one: the ability to target the same enemy with more than one missile, plus two extra missiles. The destruction power of this piece of equipment has increased considerably.
We have also changed how the Mecha Head special ability works, providing a wider window in which its missile deflection power is active. It should be easier to use, but still require precission.
Other changes and improvements won't be as noticeable, but will result in more consistent behaviour.
And, as a plus, because we've spent so much time checking missiles, we have decided to change one small aspect of their behaviour. Now, if a deflected missile cannot find a target, instead of continuing in a straight line, it will fly randomly until it collides with something or it runs out of fuel. We hope you like this piece of visual flair.
COPGORE
The fight against COPGORE had two problems which made it last much longer than initially expected:
- If the COPS bots were destroyed fast enough, COPGORE could be trapped in a loop in which it did almost nothing besides dropping more bots to replace the defeated ones.
- The Big Missile collided with the space lift tether quite often, depending on how people preferred to face it.
We have made some changes to the probabilities of each COPGORE attack, so that it is less focused on dropping new enemies unto you. Also, it will fire the Big Missile a little bit more often than it used to.
And to fix the second issue, the Big Missile will try to avoid the tether cable if possible. It can still be tricked into hitting the pillar, but it has to be a much more concious choice by the player.
BALANCE
There were a couple of enemies which were a little too hard to fight against. These were the DOGBOTS, missile turrets and Big Grunts with chainsaws.
DOGBTOS dash legs now tend to evade a little less, so it is easier to trick them into evading and move in for the kill. Their knife attack is also easier to evade. It used to do damage too late into the animation, when players had already finished their evasion movement. Now they move a little slower and do not track the player so much, so in general that attack is easier to avoid. But it is still quite dangerous, if you let more than one enemy surround you.
Missile Turrets will now fire less missiles (4, instead of 6) in the city and the space lift. Returning their own fire should be somewhat easier, but still risky.
And, finally, the chainsaw slash attack. It was a little too fast, and did a lot of damage. Standing close to a Big Grunt with such a weapon was a sure way to lose a couple of hearts. That was not the original intention, so we've made the attack considerably slower. Now you'll have time to cancel fast attacks before you're hit. But should you get too greedy, be warned: this attack now does more damage. It was required to even things out. You won't be destroyed in one hit, but you should be careful if you're low on hearts.
BUGFIXING
And, as usual, a couple of fixes got in the mix, too:
- Smoother COPS mortar target movement.
- Reduced volume of Green Chasm rooms when spawning enemies.