Rick Henderson: Eternal Arena · published
First of all, thanks to all the playtesters, it meant a lot.
This is a big milestone for improving long-term game replayability. In a nutshell, every ship and every pilot will start at level 1, and there will be two more levels to upgrade them to, slowly introduce mechanics they use and keep things fun. For example: Astraea Group "Astral Moth" Level 1: Overcharged Guns: +10% weapon damage.
Easy to understand, and a good choice to begin with, nothing much to think about.
Level 2: Overcharged Guns II: +20% weapon damage. Plasma Converter: Each shot uses fuel. Stardust Accumulator I: Killed enemies replenish fuel.
+20% weapon damage is nothing to scoff at, but i introduce a new mechanic here, that is using fuel for shooting besides ammo. However, by killing enemies you replenish a small amount so you can't really spray and pray. Level 3: Overcharged Guns III: +25% weapon damage. Plasma Converter: Each shot uses fuel. Stardust Accumulator II: Killed enemies replenish more fuel.
Refinement of the mechanic, the ship deals even more damage and replenishes more fuel per kill. Ship is already pretty fast so if you want to boost and break and have a lot of firepower, you have to pay the price for it. Goes well with drone upgrades that save fuel and add fuel on enemy kill.
And the list of additions and fixes follows:
All the ship and pilot have three levels now, you upgrade them with credits
Napalm strike random event also affects enemies now, they start to burn
Aegis Drone upgrade - Prevent death when you lose health at 1 HP (5 minutes cooldown
Aegis Drone upgrade - Player bullets destroy kill enemy bullets
Aurora Drone upgrade - Increase Gem pickup range
Aurora Drone upgrade - When the Burn mine explodes, it creates a napalm strike
Shield pickup gives shield for 10 seconds (previously it only activated the shield for the ships default duration)
Terran Boss fixes
Rokh Raiders Boss Fixes
Helios enemy shoots less often
Stinger enemy shoots less often
Enforcer enemy shoots less often
Bosses and freeze interactions now all work properly
All the pilots, weapons and drones have pretty images in the main menu now (with small ones still intact for selection and runtime menus)
Critical hit text damage display is increased a bit
Added difficulty selection graphics
Some of the upgrades that increase burn damage or freeze duration will appear with appropriate pilots, not only when you have a drone that has a freeze or burn effect (yes, the upgrades are not completely random lol)
Valkyrie has now piercing +1
Added a knockback mechanic (one of the drones has a pushback after shield deactivation)
Fixed bug where hyperblaster did not activate "on last bullet in clip" effects
Gems now merge together (up to 5) to declutter the screen
More generous credit earnings
Further works on progression and enemy waves balance, especially endgame
A lot of pilots, weapons, ships and upgrades balance changes
Lots of other bugfixes
16:10 aspect ratio display is still not working properly, instead of letterboxing, the image is stretched a bit, will be fixed soon.