[h1]Greetings Our Friends! [/h1] After a little gap since the last update, we are happy to present you with an update 0.7.155! As mentioned before our main focus was to optimize the performance and fixing bug, which we believe has been done quite well. However - that’s not all. We also have reworked the Oilmancy Pit (third biome) and added missing stages so you can face new challenges and continue fighting the enemies of Beloved Mother Nature! [h2]PERFORMANCE[/h2] Majority of changes we have applied are small, but all together have a positive impact on game’s performance, which you should notice in an increased framerate, especially in mid- and late-game. We have changed the way we calculate collisions of some objects which should significantly improve performance regardless if you play with Performance Mode or not. We have also changed the frequency of attacking for some skills, such as Hive Bomb or S.L.C. Bunny. As you may have noticed, these skills inflict very small damage but very frequently (10 times per second). Now trigger damage less frequently (5 times per second) but with a double value. In result, the “damage per second” of these skills is the same and the general efficiency of skills should be intact. We have also tweaked the way some sound effects are played. Thanks to that, the “missing audio” bug should not appear any more + there should be much less performance spikes during massive enemy exterminations, e.g. during flight of Jungle Squadron or when deploying Ancestral Totem. [h2]OILMANCY SANDPIT[/h2] We have added the missing stages of the Oilmancy Sandpit (third biome, the one on the desert): Survival, Conquest and Boss Combat. Along with that we have applied some changes to the majority of enemies from the Oilmancy Cult. First of all - small Oil Goo enemies (the little levitating eyes) are no more spawned as regular enemies. Instead they are spawned from other oil monsters when they get destroyed. Therefore, their health points have been significantly reduced, making them “one hit” targets for all basic champion skills (D. Staff, D. Mace, P.I.Flintlocks and T.T. Oars). However, health points of the majority of all other enemies of this biome have been significantly increased, making them harder to kill. Keep in mind that once an oil monster is killed, it spawns several Oil Goos, giving the player opportunities to get extra experience points. Analogically for Elite enemies - all Elite oil monsters spawn Elite Oil Goos. In addition to that, we have significantly changed how the slowdown and weakness debuffs are applied. Firstly - the debuffs do not cancel boosts (damage and speed boosts); and vice versa - boosts do not cancel negative statuses. Secondly - the duration of debuffs have been significantly reduced. E.g. every Oil Goo that manages to crash on the player applies 0.5 second of slowdown, instead of 1 second. Thirdly - currently there are three sources of this slowdown status - Oil Goos (if they manage to kamikazee themselves), Oil Bolts fired by the Oil Behemoth (boss) and Oil Missiles fired by new enemies - Oil Mega/Great/Lesser balls. In all stages of Oilmancy Sandpit we have added a new “event”. Those of you who played the Dwarven Playground (second biome) know that occasionally a loud horn can be heard, which announces an income of a specific wave of enemies. Analogically, in Oilmancy Sandpit there occasionally appears a black oil black hole that sucks in all common enemies and mana crystals that merge together to create an Oil Megaball. What it does? Check out for yourself! [h2]QUALITY OF LIFE[/h2] We have added the possibility to skip Max Level and Boss/Elite splash screens. For keyboard: simply press Esc key. For gamepad (Xbox): press either Menu or “B” button. [h2]BALANCE CHANGES[/h2] [h3]Active Vision (Drunken Gaze max level power)[/h3] The laser’s damage per tick has been reduced from 222 to 111. This is supposed to be a powerful skill, but not THAT powerful. [h3]Mother’s Payback (M.N.C. Arms max level power)[/h3] The power’s cooldown has been increased from 0.25 to 1 second. In other words, the thorns can be triggered only once per second. [h3]Gold prizes in Dwarven Playground[/h3] We have increased the amount of gold received for fulfilling tasks in Survival and Conquest modes of the Dwarven Playground, making them more attractive to play to earn gold. [h3]Pirate’s Imaginary Flintlocks[/h3] The basic damage of this skill has been increased from 50 to 70. When comparing this skill with Druid’s Staff (which is the most comparable skill) their efficiencies on level 1 and max level are very similar. However, starting from 3rd levels of each skill, the Hexxer’s guns are less efficient because each level increases attack rate by 10%, while the Harmon’s Staff gets either 10% of fire rate increase or double damage (due to additional orbs) on either even or odd levels. In result, the Flintlocks require more sacrifice to max them out (because each level gained is less profitable when comparing with D. Staff), but due to this change, the Flintlocks are a little bit stronger on the start of a run and on the final level. [h3]Vicious Crab[/h3] The initial attack frequency has been increased (crab attack every 2 seconds instead of 3 seconds). [h3]Sub-Marine Special Task Force[/h3] The initial cooldown has been decreased from 22 to 14 seconds and cooldown reduction on odd levels changed from 5 to 3 seconds (per odd level). Cooldown on max level remains the same. [h2]REWORKS[/h2] [h3]Reptilian Bouncing (Confused Tortoise max level power)[/h3] First of all, the way the tortoise’s shell is hitting enemies has been changed. Instead of flying “randomly” between enemies, the Tortoise returns to barbara after every hit. In other words, when the power is fired, the shell flies toward the nearest enemy. When the enemy is hit, the shell bounces back to Barbara and fires again toward the nearest enemy. This repeats until the end of the power’s duration. Moreover, the skill’s damage has been reduced from 333 to 111. In exchange, it received a strong knockback power. In other words - every enemy hit is knocked back. In addition we have added some trace that appears behind a flying shell, which should improve readability of how this power performs. [h2]FIXES[/h2] - S.L.C. Bunnies and the Wolven Puppy should no more get “missing in action”. - Fixed recovery from being stunned by Oil Hulks and Oilmancy Cultists. - As we have heard that some player’s still encounter issues with the persisting powers of Artifacts, we have added an extra fix to ensure that these powers do not remain active after a finished run. - Fixed a bug that occasionally made Hive Bombs remain unfired and in result - made them persist and rotate infinitely. - When pressing Esc key or Menu button (gamepad) during a Max level or Elite/Boss splash screen, the screen is skipped instead of pause screen being invoked; this fixes the issue with a dimmed screen after unpausing. - Fixed a bug that could make a Ghost Boat disappear for the rest of the run. [h2]OTHER[/h2] - Conquest mode: we have changed the visual assets of the conquest zones. It’s not final, but definitely looks better than what we had before and fits the game’s theme better. - Poison is not applied on bosses with Immunity (Boss Combat mode). - Oilmancy cultists will now heal only common enemies. - Increased frequency of firing oil orb by the Oil Behemoth (from 3.5 to 6 seconds). - Updated animations of S.L.C. Bunnies. - Updated electric shock effect for all enemies (mostly re-added the missing ones). [h2]Known Issues[/h2] - Nothing notable ;-).