[img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37274156/2623ee5b8bea6c43e1e475f0a66b6bb8437d0cb6.jpg[/img] The update this month is a little less beefy than usual as most of my time was spent working through the backlog of remaining tasks needed to ship the beta. While a lot of these tasks are technical and boring, there are a few new interesting additions. I'll keep it short and sweet and then get back to finishing the game- that's where my time is best spent at the moment! [h1]Final Grenade Mods[/h1] Last month all weapon mods and perks were finalized for the beta- the same was done this month for grenade mods. I tried to focus on more interesting mod mechanics than just plain stat increases: there are some potent new combinations possible with these additions. [list] [*] [b]Bubble Grenade:[/b] Grenades are surrounded by bubbles that deal constant damage [*] [b]Spike Strike:[/b] Chance for grenades to explode into a delayed fiery spike strike [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37274156/06241ed09d2e22a486c40bcc6d4ff108184fff55.gif[/img] [*] [b]Imploding Grenade:[/b] Grenades deal more damage but have a smaller explosion radius [*] [b]Firework Explosion:[/b] Chance for grenades to explode into a cluster of fireworks [*] [b]Thorn Explosion:[/b] Chance for grenades to explode into homing thorns that stick to enemies and deal damage over time [*] [b]Glue Grenade:[/b] Grenades stick to enemies and deal more damage but there is a short delay before damage is dealt [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37274156/d60d6bbd546139767f19a4a79f552b3b092729e9.gif[/img] [*] [b]Crystal Strike:[/b] Chance for grenades to explode into a delayed crystal strike [*] [b]Ultra Mushroom:[/b] Chance for grenades to grow a gigantic explosive mushroom when exploding [*] [b]Shotgun Explosion:[/b] Chance for grenades to explode into a huge shotgun blast [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37274156/8002313ec466cc6e746d0a28d9a5e6bb4a154c8e.gif[/img] [*] [b]Elemental Explosion:[/b] Chance for grenades to explode into a random elemental damage area [*] [b]Cluster Explosion:[/b] Chance for grenades to explode into a cluster of bombs [*] [b]Layered Grenade:[/b] Chance for grenades to explode twice [*] [b]Spore Explosion:[/b] Chance for grenades to grow explosive mushrooms nearby when exploding [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37274156/6dea2c73987f89928c69174f89ee9166c34c8cf5.gif[/img] [/list] [h1]Destruction Improvements[/h1] [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37274156/46c4f44945a6e3fc1995f4d37990643692ba0ab9.gif[/img] Destructibles have needed some love since they were originally added: they previously were very static and exploded instantly when taking damage. I've added a "leaking" mechanic so that when destructibles take damage, they start leaking from the damage location, rapidly losing health until they explode. This creates interesting situations where an enemy may set off a destructible rock near you while cornered in a cave, creating a ticking timebomb! Enemies can now also spawn destructibles as part of their attacks such as these new green slug projectiles which grow explosive mushrooms when exploding. [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37274156/0445f5e0dc2c13828da2ec0c09b0cfc954f875f6.gif[/img] A wider variety of destructibles can also now spawn with black hole and energy ring rocks appearing in later biomes on top of the current roster of crystal, challenge, fire, ice, poison, lightning and health rocks. Finally, destructibles can be attached to enemies by the player with new mods such as Spore Shot, allowing for complex interactions! [h1]Evolved Enemies[/h1] [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37274156/9cfc2a8b2ea2bc28fbb04754d90d4f593e359878.jpg[/img] More difficult evolved variants of enemies now have a chance (which increases with each cleared island) to spawn instead of vanilla enemies. Evolved enemies have a completely new array of attacks and usually specialize in a debuff like fire or lightning which results in entirely new encounters. This gives end game runs more variety and difficulty rather than just increasing the health and damage of regular enemies. Evolved enemy difficulty lies somewhere between a normal enemy and an elite enemy. [h1]AutoSave[/h1] [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37274156/cd2b097a878f0bd9f8a03e0d89e9ddea44726550.jpg[/img] While not the most interesting feature ever, it's something that I wanted to be in the game from day 1, allowing players to pause a run and continue later or to gracefully recover from a crash (it's no fun to lose a long run due to things outside of your control!). If you have an autosave stored, a red portal will appear in the lobby which will take you right back to the island that the game last saved on. This system will also work if losing connection to a multiplayer match: all players that were in the game can join a new lobby, jump into the red portal and continue where they left off! If it's not possible to rejoin (such as when playing with random players), you can continue the run solo without losing progress. [h1]New Weapon Mods[/h1] With the various improvements made this month, I quickly added a few new weapon mods! [list] [*] [b]Spore Shot:[/b] Chance to attach explosive mushrooms to enemies when hitting them [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37274156/0cfb8d8732300e763876d6c17c2dfae81ec1374e.gif[/img] [*] [b]Torpedo Shot:[/b] Chance to fire a powerful homing torpedo along with your shot [*] [b]Thorn Shot:[/b] Chance to fire a homing thorn along with your shot that sticks to enemies and deals damage over time [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37274156/d300218eb2ec5cfb0d676ed49c573677b08e00cc.gif[/img] [/list] [h1]Other Stuff[/h1] Some of the tasks completed this month aren't super exciting on their own but are essential to ship a working beta! It's encouraging that the main focus is here and away from new features as it means that the game is finally nearing completion. [list] [*] [b]Projectile FX Improvements[/b] [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37274156/c0365cfb9d0b60dff1c337e566f4e2cc35d53041.gif[/img] Projectiles now have much longer lasting visuals, allowing for players to create unique visual trails when combining weapon mods. [*] [b]Balance Changes[/b] After dozens of daily playtests, I've found a sweet spot in terms of enemy density, type, health, damage and more! There were many specific combinations of enemies that needed tuning, for example a high number of slugs on smaller islands were causing cascading explosions the cleared the islands instantly. I've also heavily tweaked how difficulty scales as runs progress, introducing big bumps in difficulty after each completed biome to allow the player to get extremely strong near the end of a biome but to expect a new challenge when moving forward. The pace of each island has been sped up also with the majority of islands being focused on a single intense wave rather than multiple waves in a row which could feel tedious and ruined clutch moments where you just barely cleared a wave but another began right after and you got eliminated. [*] [b]Temple Reward Improvements[/b] Temples now always offer a choice between keys, hearts and crystals locked behind one way gates- players can only choose one path! [*] [b]Enemy Improvements[/b] Enemies now have faster attack animations and also spawn more quickly depending on how far into a run you are! Extra elites spawn on Elite islands after each loop for an added challenge. Elites can also start appearing in regular islands on later loops. [*] [b]Quality Of Life Changes[/b] [b]-[/b] Armor plates have been limited to a maximum of 10 at once as it was possible to get hundreds of plates in a single run which could extend the late game survivability in ways that weren't intended. [b]-[/b] Crosshairs have been updated with a new design and black outlines to make them much easier to see in bright scenes. [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37274156/9f683e45635acffcbe772bfa94569475e281686e.jpg[/img] [b]-[/b] The island progression shown last month has been slightly restructured for more action and less downtime choosing rewards. This preserves the flow state of moving from island to island without as much time spent reading loot descriptions. To compensate for this change, when you do reach a treasure island or a shop, there's more opportunity to make multiple improvements to your build at once. [b]-[/b] The camera height has been adjusted to be lower which feels much better when aiming uphill. Aiming field of view has also been boosted for all weapons for a more distinct difference between aiming and hipfiring. [b]-[/b] Destructible crystals now have a tiny chance to drop a random pickup when destroyed in addition to their usual guaranteed crystal bonus! [b]-[/b] New FX have been added for many perks that were previously hard to notice such as all perks that trigger when armor is broken or when an enemy is eliminated. [b]-[/b] The Rare Treasure perk (enemies have a very small chance to drop mods and perks when eliminated) now has FX! This makes it much harder to accidentally miss these rare drops in the chaotic action. [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37274156/82ee76b1a2d018a8482ae058b82975071bb5daf7.gif[/img] [b]-[/b] Grenades now have 10 mod slots- the same as weapon mods! They previously had only 6 slots but there are too many fun combos that are lost if sticking to that limit! [b]-[/b] Bosses and other powerful enemies can now attack without requiring line of sight, countering tactics that previously made their fights easier! [b]-[/b] The mod and perk interaction UI has been improved to show more information such as the level that you are upgrading to if the mod or perk is already in your inventory. [b]-[/b] Perks that damage nearby enemies when dashing or sliding no longer affect nearby destructibles which could quickly ruin a run! [b]-[/b] Players now get credit and the usual crystal reward for eliminating enemies by knocking them off cliffs or into hazards. [b]-[/b] Players can now die to fall damage (previously it was possible to cheese certain islands by falling into a hazard on purpose during a tricky encounter with enemies and get respawned in a better position away from the enemies). [b]-[/b] Secret chests (found rarely on combat islands) have had their loot pool weighted more towards lower rarity drops like health or keys and are now free to open if you can reach them. [b]-[/b] The Weak Shot, Charm Shot and Confusion Shot weapon mods have been removed as I felt that they were underperforming even at the lowest rarity. The Weak, Charm and Confusion debuffs still exist however and can be applied to the player from enemy attacks. [b]-[/b] Fixed all remaining bugs surrounding projectiles (not bouncing properly, homing being inaccurate and plenty of other edge case issues that had been on the list for quite a while). [b]-[/b] Specific lighting presets have been added per biome, making it easier to give each biome a more distinct look. [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37274156/a006e6ca0ca6f7f04c159b11a7550eed9dd3e89a.jpg[/img] [b]-[/b] Save files now have safeguards in place to allow for me to make changes in the future without breaking existing saves. [b]-[/b] Underperforming weapons like the crossbow, cluster launcher and orb launcher have received large tweaks to allow them to compete with the stronger weapons and be much more fun to use. For example, the crossbow has been changed from a slow single firing shot to a dual burst shot which makes it much more powerful. [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37274156/e612cd3f9d245ca6cebbee8db34578814b1fc091.gif[/img] [/list] [h1]OK cool... but WHEN IS THE GAME COMING OUT????[/h1] Thankfully I'm down to the last batch of code tasks to complete (mostly small things) before moving into 100% content mode- this means that I'm happy with how the game plays and won't be adding any more features (unless absolutely necessary) and instead will be putting all my time into making the remaining FINAL assets for the game: environment art, enemies, island layouts and completely finishing the soundtrack. Having done so many playtests over the last few months, I've a very clear understanding of the types of level designs that play well and which enemies are fun to fight against so all of that experience will go into making the best final content possible. Ideally I have already come across and fixed the majority of annoying bugs or design flaws and your experience playing the beta will be nice and smooth! As usual I'm not going to give any estimates for the release to avoid further disappointment until there's a concrete beta build ready to go: as soon as there is I'll be dropping it and people can finally get their hands on the game. As always the patience is greatly appreciated! That's all for this month, thanks for reading! [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//37274156/bf21d5573e1de97dcc43c748b56dc4b694cc792e.gif[/img] Join the Crab Champions Discord server: https://discord.gg/crabchampions Follow Crab Champions on Twitter: https://twitter.com/crabchampions Join the Crab Champions subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/CrabChampions/