Hello everyone,
Update 1.4 is here! This time, the main focus was on polish, balancing, and optimization.
1. Rework of old rooms and hallways
These areas of the map were very outdated and visually jarring. They have now been reworked to match the quality level of the latest map expansions.
2. Nightmare Mode rework
I completely redid Nightmare Mode. Enemies now spawn based on the room you are currently in, instead of using the old system, which was purely distance-based.
The old system had a major flaw: if the player stayed in a room with small doorways for a long time, drones could spawn in other rooms and never reach the player because they couldn't fit through the doorways. Since they couldn't reach the player, they would never be destroyed, causing more and more drones to spawn endlessly. This would eventually fill up the rooms, consume a lot of memory, cause the game to lag, and make those rooms inaccessible because entering them would mean almost certain death.
With the new system, I can now control which spawners are activated and which enemy types are allowed to spawn in each room. This makes the system feel more "scripted" and less random. You can learn where enemies spawn, which doorways they come from, and which enemy types can appear in each room. I think this is a much better approach for a game mode like this.
The new system also improved performance and made the experience more consistent. No matter which room you are currently in, there will be roughly the same number of active spawners, placed in logical locations so that enemies don't have to walk long distances or spawn in places where they can't reach the player.
Item prices now increase each time you buy something from the same spot, encouraging you to move around, explore the map, and avoid staying in one place for too long.
The map was expanded with the addition of B Sector, connecting the areas into an "8" shape. This lets you move through the map more freely and gives you more ways to avoid risky situations.
The enemy spawn rate now increases faster, making the game mode ramp up more quickly. This change made Nightmare Mode a faster and shorter experience, so I adjusted the scoring to match the previous versions. I also changed the survival-time achievements from 10, 15, and 30 minutes to 10, 15, and 20 minutes.
Fatty monsters can now spawn in Nightmare Mode. They start appearing after around 10 minutes and add quite a bit of extra challenge.
Drones felt too overpowered in Nightmare Mode, so I made them shoot less accurately to better balance the difficulty.
All enemies now give significantly more credits, making unlocking new areas much faster.
Gates now start flashing when you have enough credits to unlock them.
So, to sum it up, Nightmare Mode should now feel more complete and polished, more predictable, and, most importantly, more fun.
3. Holding the interact button for large objects
Players now have to hold the interact button for 0.5s to start moving large objects such as crates, tables, etc. This change was made to eliminate accidental interactions.
4. Added item descriptions to the PDA
Item descriptions have now been added to the PDA. This lets players see what each item does, making it less confusing. This was also a feature suggested by some players.
5. Other changes and fixes:
Footsteps while crouching are now more frequent.
Changed the footstep sound effects in ventilation shafts.
Added LODs to all pipes and some other objects to reduce their mesh detail when they are further away from the player, improving performance.
Limited enemy AI logic updates to 30 times per second instead of every frame, reducing CPU usage.
Jumping now consumes stamina.
Held object weight now affects jump height.
Fatty monsters can now launch projectiles at the player even if they cannot reach the player by walking (for example, when the player is standing on high-up pipes).
UI elements now pop and play a sound when hovered over.
Added a new command: *takedamage
Fixed a bug where ambient sounds could sometimes get cut off at random.
Fixed a bug where there was a small chance for the player to fall out of the map when using the *testscene command.
Other small fixes and improvements.
That's it for now!
I know this isn't the most exciting update ever, but these changes needed to be done. The next update, 1.5, will include more exciting new content, such as a new shotgun, upgrades, an objective system, and more.
So stay tuned!
Have a good day, everyone! :)