Because it is never a bad idea to resurrect a project and make things better as best you can even if it has been awhile, v1.1!
Fresh trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueatSNuYo9M&It’s here! The summer update is finished and uploaded to all distribution platforms (however, as of the time I’m writing this, it still has to go through Desura validation and the IUP newsletter containing the new version hasn’t been sent yet). The demo has NOT been updated, it is still a hopelessly old version of the game.
The update has been uploaded to the BMT servers, so re-visiting your download link should allow you to download version 1.1. Make sure the file that you’re downloading says KOYA_RIFT_1_1. If you have any problems, email me at sunnykatt [at] live.com and we can fix whatever went wrong.
What does this include since the initial game release? (we’re ignoring the half-update that came out last month)
-Energy System (“Guard the Pod Initiative”): There wasn’t an incentive to guard the pod, so I made an “energy” system. Now when you fire a weapon, you drain your energy. To get it back, you need to visit the pod on the surface so it can recharge you. In my opinion it works great and actually forces you to protect your stuff on the surface!
-New Health/Energy Bar: The old health bar looked nice, but it was hard to judge how much health you had left, and colorblind people couldn’t use it. Now health and energy are displayed in easier-to-read formats that take up less space. The smaller value of the two is pushed to the front, in case you’re having trouble understanding it.
-New Rank Graphics
-Wider Range Of Sound Effects: Sound effects added for:
Player getting hit
Player at low health/energy (warning buzzing)
Ally getting hit
Enemy getting hit
Landing on the ground from a fall
Buying a new unit
Obtaining an upgrade orb
Gnat exiting a wall
Crystal Death
Entering the pause menu
Ally teleports (they do that now)
and others I forgot to list. whoops.
-BALANCE CHANGES:
Enemy HP less sensitive to the difficulty adjustment: before enemies took too long to kill after you hit difficulty 650 or higher.
The “phasing” ability moves more quickly.
“Inspire” (white) weapons have reduced effectiveness: With a large group of droids and a smart player, this combination was way overpowered.
Difficulty adjustment is more sensitive in the downward direction: Before it seemed that it was easier to get the difficulty raised on you than having it reduced when you’re losing. It needed to be a bit more forgiving.
Droid prices have a sharper exponential gain: Earlier it was too easy to buy a zillion droids and just wipe everything out in the tunnels. So their prices steepen based on the number you have already bought a bit faster than before.
Droid AI values following the player more: If the player was trying to run somewhere but a droid was busy fighting, they used to prioritize the enemy over following the player. Now they still follow the player, even if they’re shooting at an enemy.
The “Reinforcements” bonus needs to have a dropoff as you get more droids: It was really overpowered if you get maybe 3 reinforcement bonuses in a row. If you already have a lot of droids out on the field, it should only give you maybe one now, to prevent the player getting an unfair advantage (and later getting nailed with a difficulty increase.
-“Campaign” Lock Symbol: I’ve had several people point out that it’s hard to know about the existence of campaign mode unless you’re told about it. So now in the main menu the “Campaign” button will still show if you don’t have it unlocked, but it will be greyed out and have a lock icon next to it. Upon hovering the mouse over it, it will say that you need to complete more battles to unlock Campaign mode.
-Hover-Over Tooltip System: Learning the game was way too hard, especially in campaign mode. Now there’s lots of tooltips to help explain things, and they work very well!
-In-Game Screen Shake Control: This is the most-requested option – The ability to turn screen-shake off will be in the options menu so you can adjust it in-game without having to modify a file.
-Skip-able Death Animation (actually a bug fix): Some Redditors requested that it’s possible to skip the player death animation. The long wait times were actually from a bug (more of an oversight) that’s fixed now, so no worries about waiting a long time any more!
-Replace all Code Drama logos with SunnyKatt ones: I won’t be starting a game with Code Drama until after I graduate university, if even then. So it is only hurting me to have a split-persona within the game.
-MINOR INTERFACE CHANGES:
Additional Numerical Representation of Money: Sometimes it is hard to judge using the symbols exclusively. Now numbers are superimposed on top of the money icons, as per request.
“NEW” text above newly acquired weapons: Before, your newest weapon was just highlighted in yellow. Now it is emphasized with textual clarification.
Slightly higher contrast between cave walls and background: People with CRT’s and other displays that have a deeper, darker color range had trouble seeing the difference between the cave walls and interior. So I slightly widened the difference in the brightness between these two.
Make screen shake based upon your resolution: Before, Screen Shake was a hard-coded value that seems more extreme when you play on a smaller resolution (because there are less pixels). This now adjusts automatically so people playing on tiny 720p resolutions aren’t getting headaches. The shake is much more bearable now.
-When low on health, the edges of the screen darken and the character sparks and smokes to warn the player.
