v0.4.2a: UI refinements, tutorial pacing, nerfed contaminants and more

Substrate: Emergence Demo · build 24265928 · published

On SteamNotes only · this build shipped before we watched the app

v0.4.2a:

* Gameplay & Balance:

- Creative mode only: Place cells on demand in cultures. Ctrl + space opens the cell placer

- Tool consistency changes: particle density is now consistent across all tool radii and is set by intensity

- Improved effectiveness of antibiotics and viruses at high bacteria counts

- Reduced amount of dense substrate left behind by dead cells

- Motile cells have longer life spans

- Gentler contaminant events

* Legibility:

- Changed economy tickers to show strains rather than genes

- F1 now toggles all HUD panels off without hiding the HUD fully. ctrl + F1 hides the HUD completely (for screenshots/cinematics)

* Other:

- Improved optimization for the strain registry

- Added WASD/arrow key panning to lineage tree views

- F1 now toggles all HUD panels off without hiding the HUD fully. ctrl + F1 hides the HUD completely (for screenshots/cinematics)

- Re-drew HUD icons for clarity

- Simplified UI font for clarity

- Other UI visual tweaks

- Stability and load lifecycle improvements

- Added smoothing to address choppy movement as the lowest simulation speed settings

- Fixed Linux launch issue where it would try to run in OpenGL instead of Vulkan