Power-Ups
We have created three power-ups to assist you as you battle the alien invaders. Teal powerups will restore a portion of your ship’s health. Orange power-ups will cause your ship to fire twice as fast and to move 50% faster for 10 seconds. Finally, purple power-ups will give you XP. Power-ups only drop from cleared bits, so make sure you’re getting as many matches as you can!
Control Changes
We have now bound the drop scrap and use special ability to two separate buttons. On the gamepad, B drops scrap and X uses the ship’s special. On keyboard, C drops scrap and X uses the ship’s special.
Gameplay Overhauls
We have completely redone the gameplay of the game’s first level, Asteroid Field, as well as updated the background to improve the look of the level. We’ve also rebalanced the difficulties on all levels, making hard just a bit tougher, and expert even more frantic and challenging.
Enemy Changes
On top of the typical enemies that you are used to seeing in Galacide, you will now notice our new swarm versions of the Sine and Seeker enemies, which will drop scrap less often. We have also altered the Eradicator 27b (2nd level boss) to ensure that the encounter is more exciting and challenging.
Player Ship Balancing
We have done a lot of work ensuring that all of our ships are as balanced as possible in an attempt to make each ship valuable in combat. The Freighter now does more damage overall, and takes less damage when colliding with enemy ships. The Phase Ship has a longer phase cooldown, and the Mining Ship’s first-level weapon has been changed to a weaker version of its level 2 spread shot.
Full Change log
Gameplay:
- Drop scrap and Use Special are now different buttons and can be used at the same time.
- Gamepad:
- Drop = B
- Special = X
- Keyboard:
- Drop = C
- Special = X
- Camera Speed now scales down on Normal when there are a large number of bits on
- screen.
- Added bomb and scrap placement ghost effects.
- Implemented power ups that drop from cleared bits.
- The type of power up is determined by the color of bit it dropped from.
- Teal – Restores health.
- Orange – Ship fires twice as fast and moved 50% faster for 10 seconds.
- Purple – Gives ship XP
- Shooting a scrap on top of a power up moves the power up to the left so it isn’t stuck under the bit.
- These power ups have a weighting system that helps smooth out their spawn chance.
- Added a warp hint icon that displays on Normal difficulty when there are no bits on screen, hinting that the player can warp ahead through the empty area.
- Scrap and bombs spawned by the map/bit sequences are immune to tractor beams.
- Holding the Drop Scrap key/button (in addition to the Shoot key/button) prevents the ship from picking up scrap.
- Your ship can no longer be pushed off screen by bits that are currently clearing.
Player Ships:
- Mining Ship level 1 weapon was changed to a worse version of the level 2 spread shot.
- Mining Ship special no longer turns off when a scrap gets attached.
- Freighter now takes less damage when ramming enemies.
- Freighter now does more damage on all levels.
- Freighter now has the option to drop scrap at any time.
- Phase ship’s charge shot now only penetrates if it has damage left over after hitting an enemy.
- Phase ship now has longer cool downs for phasing.
- Phase ship can now phase out with scrap attached.
- Ship effects are removed upon reaching the end screen of a level (Mining laser, Freighter stored scrap, any attached scrap.)
- Player ships flash red when getting hit.
Enemies:
- Updated Sine Enemy and Beam Destroyer models.
- Added smaller swarm versions of the Sine and Seeker enemies that drop scrap less often.
- Changed enemy glow to white instead of red it it isn’t going to drop a scrap.
- Linking Turrets no longer play a firing sound.
- Updated material effects for Linking Turrets.
- Adjusted all enemy damage and collision volumes to be more accurate and consistent.
- Updated destruction effect to use a better mesh.
- Enemies now all flash red when getting hit, and the flash fades more smoothly.
Bosses:
- Increased the Eradicator 27b (aka boss on level 2) health, and the health of the bombs it spawns.
- The Eradicator’s bombs now have a chance to drop experience power ups if you kill them before they explode.
- Snake Boss now spawns shooters properly and they now have a chance to drop a bomb which can be used to do extra damage to the snake boss.
Campaign:
- Hard is harder.
- Re-balanced the current difficulties on all the current levels.
- Optimized background assets for all current levels.
- Did a total overhaul of Level One, Asteroid Field’s gameplay.
- Updated background on Level One, Asteroid Field.
- Expert is now significantly more frantic and difficult.
- Added tapering bit sequences to the campaign levels so the bit walls aren’t a hard vertical wall.
- Level 1, Asteroid field is now locked until completion of the Tutorial.
Puzzle Mode:
- Modified Linking Turrets 5 and Morphing 3 to make more sense for the skills they are intended to test.
- Puzzle Mode ship now drops scrap in place and has a half second delay before picking it back up.
- Added a tip to the intro screen when playing any of the first 3 puzzles of each normal tier.
- Bits take longer to clear in Puzzle Mode to assist in completing puzzles requiring rapid action.
- Changed the title of the Multi-matching tier to Rapid Action.
Misc:
- Reset save files due to overhaul of Campaign gameplay.
- Removed score display during Puzzle Mode.
- Added full screen scrolling asteroid / debris particle effect that scales intensity with camera/ship speed.
- Bullet particles now always render on top of explosions.
- The Star Map now shows the requirements to unlock each level.
- The in-game HUD now flashes your remaining lives when starting a level and whenever the number changes (green for gaining a life, red for losing a life.)
- Significantly increased the timer for streaming graphics resources when loading a level, to prevent texture popping.
Bug Fixes:
- Fixed scrap tracer and ghost showing up behind the bit it should appear in front of.
- Prevented spawning multiple player ships in Puzzle Mode if co-op was played prior to Puzzle Mode in the same session.
- Linux compile fixes.