v0.1.8 is here and brings a bunch of fun new things to DRONE SMUGGLER :)

Here's my high score from testing for this release:

While the changes introduced in 0.1.8 aren't revolutionary, there's a lot here in the background and just below the surface that helps reach my current goal of building stable, fun gameplay to build Privateer Mode around in the 0.2.0 cycle.

My thinking at this point is that 0.1.9 will continue and hopefully be released sometime in the next two weeks (there are some complex features and tools on my to-do list that I'm about to dive into) - while 0.2.0 will be a longer cycle still. One thing I know for sure about 0.2+ is that I want the first patch (likely 0.2.1) to be primarily about reducing the Known Issues/"Known" Issues/Known "Issues" lists which have grown quite a bit recently (but that's because I'm playing the game more, because it's fun, so I'm not complaining).

The difficulty level overall has definitely taken a leap in the more intense direction (hence the moderate/low-ish high score from testing, compared to prior releases) but that's been mostly by design. A lot of the under-the-hood changes in 0.1.8 are things that deal with spawn rate, the type of space objects (enemy ships, asteroids) that spawn, and the stats of those objects when they spawn. Those changes are largely in service of providing a gameplay experience with intensity that ebbs and flows throughout a run - there should be stretches of relative calm where you can collect your thoughts for the next wave of chaos that shadespace throws at you!

I definitely have some more work to do in that regard, but this is another step in the right direction that builds on what was tweaked in 0.1.7 (judging by my initial impressions). Another area that definitely needs more attention but that has seen a lot of progress in this build is cargo/consumable mods, and the UI elements relating to those.

Red, Green, and Blue Pyxel hoppers and three Cargo Bays have been added to the HUD in 0.1.8, just above the level's palette swatches

Speaking of cargo, the player's ship now has 3 slots where cargo is stored as it is picked up - one consumable per slot, for now - as well as 3 hoppers for Pyxels of the Red, Green, and Blue variety. Pyxels are the main currency that pilots will use to fuel their ship's various functions, power up modules, or accomplish other tasks both in shadespace orbits and while docked at a station.

Pyxels are earned when pilots destroy asteroids with their laser and the quantity you earn depends on the makeup of the asteroid (higher score-value asteroids have a larger Pyxel pool to distribute). The total Pyxels earned from destroying an asteroid are then filtered into three types - Red Pyxels (rPx), Green Pyxels (gPx), and Blue Pyxels (bPx) with the distribution of each type being determined by the % of each of those colors that are present in the asteroid's color palette.

Final thoughts - I spent a lot of time trying to find the right sounds and visual indicators for the new functions (the DRK and SES or, for the uninitiated, repair kit and shield modules) and I'm really happy with how they're looking. There are some minor things I want to tweak with the particle effects for each, but the basics are there as of 0.1.8 and I'm ready to move on to some of the other things that are planned for 0.1.9, 0.2, and beyond!

I think that's all I have to say about this one - patch notes are below.

EDIT FROM THE PATCH NOTES: Oh, and shields are awesome to play with. Pick one up, deploy it, and go stand under a 20-power Interceptor and let the diffused laser gloop wash over you - it makes for some good fireworks.

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Patch Notes - DRONE SMUGGLER v0.1.8

Fixes

• Fixed the spawn timer math to accomplish the following desired behavior which still wasn't occurring after the last spawn logic change:

• When the player has surpassed the original high score (the high score as of the start of the level), the spawn rate will ramp up and create increasingly dense waves of objects as the player approaches a multiple of the original high score

  • In other words, if the high score was 100 when the player started the run, and the player has scored more than 100 points, the spawn rate will increase as the score approaches each multiple of 100 - so around 200, 300, 400, etc., the spawn rate will intensify and then back off after that multiple is reached

  • When the player has surpassed the original high score, the spawn rate will gradually apply stacking intensity that scales with how many multiples of the original high score the current score is

  • This creates a gradual increase in difficulty through the run while the player's score continues to grow

• Fixed some spacing issues with the level palette swatches on the HUD

• Fixed player taking damage in situations where a shield was deployed and the laser passed through it

• Fixed situations where player took no damage from a laser hit because a shield was deployed but the chromatic aberration hit effect would still play

• Fixed an issue with space object stat generation that led to average power levels that were too low in most cases

• Fixed the damage blur effect not displaying immediately after taking damage

• Fixed weird functional and UI interactions when player attempts to deploy SES while SES is already engaged

Changes

• Destroying asteroids now earns the player rPx, gPx, and bPx proportional to the RGB channel values in the three colors that make up that asteroid's color palette

  • The amount of Px returned is based on a fraction that will be adjustable by ENG and RTM mods, as well as something that can scale as part of the makeup of any HEX

  • The player can collect up to a maximum of 1.0 of each Px shade by default and will not earn Px of that shade if that shade's hopper is full.

• Added HUD elements for each Px shade hopper and particle effects when the hopper is being filled

• Added HUD elements for cargo slots

  • Players will be able to see cargo slots fill with upgrades they pick up from the level and deploy them

• Changed default cargo slots for player ship to 3 (this will be reduced to 0 or 1 at some point and will be expandable through HEXes or their modifiers)

• Added a way for shields to be a time-based consumable - e.g., a 3 Second Shortwave Energy Shield will deploy the player ship's shield for 3 seconds when activated/consumed

• There's a 50/50 chance for cargo in enemy ships to be either a DRK or 3s SES - this applies after the game determines whether a spawned ship is carrying any cargo at all

• Holding a cargo slot's activation key for 0.25 seconds jettisons that cargo back into the level with the velocity it had when it was picked up

• Modules dropped by enemies now receive the palette of their parent ship when they are spawned into the level and retain that color palette throughout their lifespan, including the cargo HUD

• Added particle fx and sound fx for:

  • Energy shield deployment and retraction

  • Laser hit on deployed energy shield

  • Repair kit deployment

• Added scaling for level "difficulty" and "volatility" calculation, should give an easier hook to fine tune how levels feel in terms of intensity and variation over time spent in a given level

• Created a 5-second timeout for the mouse cursor when the mouse isn't moving; the cursor will be hidden when the timeout is reached

• Adjusted maximum spawn time from 20 seconds to 15 and minimum from .25 to .5 (the minimum can be still overridden in certain cases)

Known Issues

• Px hopper fill effects play the same whether it is growing or decreasing in quantity - need an "emptying" effect that plays if quantity stored decreases

"Known" Issues

• Some color combinations can create problematic visuals, needs reviewed - a way to quickly swap palettes/colors from inside the game might help, would be good to include the following:

  • No player ship collision (ship can't blow up / "god mode" toggle)

  • Enable "color test" mode

  • Click on swatch in hub to change a color to something else

• There's a crash that can happen when two or more cargo consumables are activated in short succession - need to test more and reproduce to find the cause

• The modification to space object spawn rate that happens as the player's hit multiplier increases might not be resetting correctly once that hit multiplier returns to 1.0x - more testing is needed

• There may be situations where the player is credited with a kill that was the result of damage from a source other than the player - needs more testing

• There may be situations where asteroids and ships are no longer correctly damaging one another when colliding or, at the very least, collision damage from asteroids to enemy ships (and vice versa) is not correctly triggering damage spark particles on either object

• There may be situations where the mouse has timed out and hidden its cursor, the player ship is destroyed, and the mouse cursor is not restored to its visible state (even if the mouse is moved)

Known "Issues"

• There's nothing you can do with Px yet

• The pause menu needs a separate screen for controls to be displayed and, later, re-mapped

• The DRK particle effect that plays when a repair kit is deployed has generic colors instead of the palette colors from the upgrade module

Development Priorities

• Make DRKs dropped by enemy ships scale the amount of damage they restore proportionally with the enemy ship's stats so that stronger ships provide a bigger bonus

• Review color combinations and potentially add in pre-selected (in addition to the current randomized) palettes

• Attempt steam sdk integration with a focus on supporting steam input for controllers, stretch goal of providing simple achievements and stats tracking

• A real local leaderboard for high scores, ship names, their stats, and some info about the level they were achieved on

• Find a better structure or foundation for save data that includes the current game version for future cases where an update might require that an old save is updated or wiped before playing the new version.

• Expand HUD to full screen when fullscreen is enabled