Patch v1.03

This patch was delayed by 1 week due to additional bugs found during streaming. These bugs were found only because they manifest beyond what a solo dev can afford to find out. Ie, completion with 2 or more players in the Campaign mode.

New Features

New Weapons!

1. Liquidator Bomb - A proximity-like bomb that explodes with a temporary AoA splash on the spot. Highly toxic and definitely helps in stacking any poison damage.
   
2. Napalm Flamethrower - A close-range burst of napalm liquid burning itself with a bubble of oxygen, this weapon deals substantial damage by stacking fire damage over time.
   

New Features:

1. NEW: End Shopping for All - in the weapon shop to quickly end shopping for all players.
   
2. NEW: Retire Players - Feature that exists in both Campaign Map and Weapon Shop - serves to properly retire a player from the game. For Arcade mode, the retirement is permanent. A new player that joins can inherit the old fighter's weapons but not the scores, crystals or capsules. For Campaign mode, all the crystals and capsules are preserved under the player's local account.
   

These features are meant to help players hosting Steam Remote Play to get on with the game even when the remote players no longer wants to be a part of it. (ie, disconnected)

Optimizations

Made huge optimizations in regards to heavy firing sequences. You might have noticed in the past where bosses tend to slow the game down when firing, even when the bullets have left the screen. This is now optimized.

Although, in cases of large number of particles, the game will still slow down (rightfully so).

Changes

There're a few changes made to the game:

1. Buffed EMP Cannon 2 and 3 to have more resilience towards enemy firepower.
   
2. Buffed EMP Cannon 3 to have more dicing hits. That means more overall damage and defensive cover.
   
3. Buffed Bonus Magnet Level 1 to have a radius similar to Level 2 but retain the slower speed of bonus attraction.
   
4. Re-arranged some items in the Weapon Shop so that only the most powerful weapons appear at the bottom of the list.
   
5. Made the prompt message box in the game slightly larger to accommodate the new commands in the navigation menu. This might appear a little jarring initially.
   

Bug Fixes

1. Fixed a bug in the Campaign Map where the loading screen rubberbands back and forth. This is because the wrong set of textures (compressed ones) were provided for med and low texture details.
   
2. Fixed a bug in the Campaign Map where certain missions might go missing for some reasons unknown. All missions that were BEFORE the current discovered mission will now be discovered regardless of their completion status.
   
3. Fixed a bug where Campaign mode scores weren't combined as one upon completion.
   
4. Fixed a bug where if Player 2 or Player 3 completes Campaign mode, the game simply hangs in a limbo, doesn't crash but doesn't allow Options to be opened either.
   
5. Fixed a bug where upon Campaign completion, Player 2 or Player 3 cannot enter hi-score on behalf of Player 1 who might have been killed in action.
   
6. Fixed an invulnerability bug exploit where players might enjoy an instance of invulnerability through the entire mission if it was mixed with warheads and special powers towards the end of an AREA.
   
7. Fixed the lighting doodad placement in the side mission "Foresight"
   
8. Fixed a bug where the last weapon in the weapon shop is sometimes not detected even when you own it and the weapon is there legitimately. This means it doesn't center upon the shop item even when it's there.
   

Conclusion

It has been a great week sorting out the bugs and implementing the new weapons. There should be more weapons coming in 2 weeks' time before we embark on our next part of the roadmap - the Boss Rush modes. (Yes, modes.)

Next week, we'll take a short break from Starlight and any patches will solely be on bug fixes. We'll have to get on with our Game Engine upgrade in preparation for the future.

Have a nice weekend!!

Regards,
Jeremy