This update contains dozens of major changes in response to all this feedback. It fixes some very serious bugs with the microphone settings, and adds some new features like mineable amber blocks that contain spiders, and much improved hitboxes and aim. Also a much better-looking UI, asteroids that are now decorated with atmospheric abandoned industrial equipment, and more.
VOICE CHAT
Selecting a different microphone now works properly.
The microphone gain slider now works correctly, and the game volume slider no longer affects the microphone input volume after selecting a microphone.
The "hear yourself" playback mode was removed, so now other players can hear you talk as you change microphones in the settings menu.
The "mute player" button in the pause menu now works 100% of the time.
UI
Total HUD UI visual overhaul, it's now much more polished with a curved look and has a lens chromatic aberration effect to make it look like it's projected on the inside of your curved spacesuit helmet. The edges of your helmet are now visible around the edges of the screen too, to give it a more immersive feel.
Some players mentioned they weren't getting good feedback when being attacked, so there is a new red transparent full-screen pulse and UI jostling shake animation, in addition to the sound, that makes it extra clear when you're getting hit by an enemy.
All the interfaces inside the spaceship have a new metallic gold look with nice frames, instead of merely being solid black backgrounds.
For the spaceship payment, a partial payment causes the alarm system to reset momentarily to give a time extension. Some people were confused by this so now it flashes text saying "Partial Payment, 30s extension..." near the payment button as the alarms reset.
The bank amount is more prominent, larger font, and green letters because it wasn't obvious enough. All the money displays (payment amount due, etc) have been colored bright green to make it clear they're related and to do with money. Fuel display is also now orange. This makes the spaceship interface more intuitive to use.
There's also now a neat 3d glass-window fuel gauge to the ship near the map that shows the fuel tank fullness so you can see it drain visually instead of merely reading numbers.
After leaving and joining a game repeatedly, "username" could show over people's heads instead of their real steam username. Now there are multiple redundant name update checks on initialization in case one fails to due lag or resets.
Now after someone leaves a match, the number of players displayed for that server in the server browser now decreases to the correct number.
The item delivery box could be confusing to use - now it says "You didn't order anything!" if you didn't get any items, instead of just saying nothing. Also fixed a bug where the box opening function was double triggering, which would sometimes cause confusing messages (usually saying you didn't get anything when you actually did).
One review said it doesn't convey the necessary information to enjoy the experience properly for new players - so there is now another page of instructions to help beginning players better know how to succeed early on, which hopefully addresses this.
The main menu and pause menus also now have a "dirty CRT screen" look that gives it some character.
DIFFICULTY ADJUSTMENTS
The exosuit upgrade power has been increased by 2x. Which makes you walk and run faster, and jump higher with each purchase.
The spaceship payments are lower and increase less quickly in the later payments. Now 900 is owed on the first payment instead of 950, and 1100 on the second payment instead of 1500, and so on. Players were finding the second payment very difficult to make.
ENEMIES
Enemies were too easy which made escaping to the ship boring - now shadow beings that only move when you don't look at them, move 60% faster. The lightning ball moves 3x faster and tracks you more accurately, and from a much farther distance. When it hits you it slows you down, so that other enemies might catch up to you. Spiders can spawn with higher max speeds so now you can't always outrun them.
Improved spider run animations, much less janky looking when running at full speed or when turning.
Spider hitboxes have been improved so the player only gets damaged when the fangs of the spider touch the player, instead of just any part of the spider.
Spiders previously only were on the planet during the day, but now they can also spawn at night along with the other monsters (and in great numbers).
The sundown enemy spawn rate has been turned up. It goes exponential as the night goes on, but now they spawn even more quickly in the first hour or two of nightfall. Then late at night they will begin to all congregate near the ship.
Enemies can no longer spawn stranded up on boulders so more of them will be able to move to attack the player.
Adjusted all the enemy spawn area boundaries to be closer to where the players walk.
NEW MINING BLOCK TYPE
Spider blocks have a spider preserved in amber, but if you break it, the spider comes out and comes to life! Now you have to be careful not to mine the wrong blocks!
PICKAXE AIM
Pickaxe aim has been fixed. There was a bug where the collision of the pickaxe swing is calculated at the beginning time of the swing, rather than at the time of impact. So if the player is running or turning, and takes a swing, the aim would be off. This was greatly impacting accuracy while running away from a spider. Now it precisely hits at the location and time of impact, which greatly improves the accuracy and feel of using the pickaxe.
The pickaxe collision location is also now more centered on the screen overall so it's easier to aim, instead of being off-center to the right. The pickaxe swing animation now adjusts based on the distance of what you're going to hit. The swing animation is improved to look more powerful, and the damage sparks and pickaxe are better lined up so it looks more impactful. Has an overall improved feel.
OTHER
If you are out of stamina, now it doesn't disallow you from jumping, but jumping does still use up stamina. Players found it too frustrating or confusing to be disallowed to jump when out of stamina.
Fixed a bug where the spaceship takeoff sound would double-play with an echo if leaving due to everyone dying or the 24 hours running out.
ATMOSPHERE
Decreased fog intensity on all asteroids, fog was too strong and made navigation too difficult.
The moon brightness at night has been turned down on some asteroids to make it darker and creepier at night.
Improved lightswitch functionality in the ship so it turns off the texture of the lightbulb as well as the light emitter, and also turns off all the floor lights. Now it actually gets dark.
Added a significant amount of interesting and abandoned gear to the asteroids because they were too empty. Now each asteroid has a lot of abandoned industrial equipment that was custom-made for this game. There are gears, tanks, pipes, and more. Pieces were carefully placed on all the asteroids to create unique environments that are more interesting to move through visually (and tactically) as you make your way to and from the mines and fight off spiders along the way.
Added more maze-like structures to some of the beginnings of the mines to make them more interesting to explore.
That's all the changes for now. It's a whole new game in a lot of ways, so please try it out! Thanks again to everyone for the dozens of suggestions to make Mining Company a better game. If you have more, please let us know!
Changed files in this update