The new content update, chapter 2, act 2 or whatever you want to call it is up. The new stuff is still work in progress but I'm tired of working on these new areas. Next up I'm going to focus more on the earlier parts of the game that still need fleshing out before I move on to progressing the main quest again.
Here's a list of the things that haven't changed:
The game is still a pain in the ass to get started with and you're still going to be lost a lot even if it's slightly more forgiving in some ways.
The missing content in earlier levels is still missing. I've been focusing on the newer areas, so other than more general changes the new content is mostly for people who have already beaten the base game. I would still recommend starting a new game due to changes in the level up system etc.
Here's a list of some of the changes.
5 new areas of differing levels of completion.
New major case.
Some side cases.
Bunch of new weapons, most of them don't even have sfx or any interesting defining features.
New mech parts and equipment. Some more complete but not in the game yet as I didn't yet figure out a good place to put them.
Weapon and part upgrade system. You can upgrade stuff with upgrade modules and advanced upgrade modules, to a max level of +10. This is very much work in progress. In the future this will unlock more ammo types for the guns at +5 and +10, but I haven't gotten around to this yet. Advanced upgrade modules are very rare right now.
Leveling up no longer uses money, but orgone points, which is the same as XP. You get these from solving cases and killing enemies.
Introduced the concept of work hours. If you get drunk and sleep all day your pay is docked. To balance this the enemies now drop more money.
There's a shitty universal silencer item for the arm slot that doesn't have proper sfx yet because I keep forgetting about it.
Command line interface where you can do some dumb shit. Also work in progress and the help command isn't very helpful yet.
Jump legs.
Gambling, still needs a lot of work but it's sort of fun as it is.
Dialogue related to cases is now marked in different colors. Cyan means that the line starts a new case, green means relation to a case. Yellow means that it triggers something but isn't directly linked to a case.
Trespassing works differently, you now have five seconds before the enemies start shooting at you. If you're not spotted while trespassing the enemies will not become hostile. You still need to be careful around security cameras.
Weapons are now held two handed, excluding some. This is only a visual change.
Movement is a lot smoother, you can now jump properly on slopes.
Going over the load limit prevents you from boosting or dodging while in the V-Stalker.
New ammo types, smart bullets that you can control with your mouse and guided bullets that go for the nearest enemies.
Sideways elevators that are currently still missing the collision on their sides so you can walk right through them. I just remembered this as I was typing this change log.
Sonboy Megapractical has a null item that crashes the game when you click on it.
Damage isn't instant, you bleed after getting shot, unless the target health goes to zero. This currently makes no difference as I didn't add the bandage item yet.
Parts have different stats that mostly aren't used much yet, but will help differentiate them more when I get around to it.
Overall damage was reduced by around 20%, this includes both damage to the player and to the enemies.
The game is further made easier by the addition of the armor class stat which gives you a flat damage reduction on top of the regular armor damage reduction. This isn't tied to the amount of armor left and will continue functioning even after armor is 0.
I did some optimization, most people have had improved performance, a couple have had worse. You win some you lose some. The shader cache stutter is still there and will probably remain for the duration of EA.
There's a map you can access by pressing Y. This doesn't work in some levels currently as I need to rebuild some of them for it to function properly. Even if the map itself doesn't show up it will show where known NPCs are in relation to your position.
Case files recognises names of NPCs and allows you to click on them, taking you to the database, provided that you know the NPC.
Log entries now show up in the message box so you don't have to check the log every time something is added.
Message box can be scrolled with the mouse wheel.
Hacking has a simplified regex box to filter the data.
The hacking network map can be moved by clicking and dragging.
The message box now notifies you when new stuff is in stock.
There's a case that can be failed, I'll probably add more failure conditions for the existing cases where it makes sense. (killing the wrong people etc.)
Added hearing protection and sunglasses for when you're feeling a bit overwhelmed.
Enemy V-Stalkers can now boost similar to the player to close distance.
Enemies actually take bullet drop into account so the snipers can actually hit you now.
Selling and buying multiple stocks should work now.
Difficulty settings are now saved, and the menu will update correctly. Difficulty also has more of an effect in generally as it affects both armor and health damage.
Fixed the UI scaling a bit, still has issues but it's better.
New boss music and effects.
The mech aiming style of the original release can be enabled by toggling the "Legacy Aim" option.
Double tap dodging can be enabled again by toggling it in settings. This is a divisive feature so I left it off by default.
Mech third person camera is a bit different, you can toggle the side by pressing the middle mouse button. It also tries to not go through walls, often failing.
Probably some more bug fixes, it's hard to tell with all the new ones I've introduced and fixed over the last year.