First of all a big thank you to those who have contributed to the Xenomarine community with suggestions, bug reports and other discussions. All feedback is carefully considered and I’m happy to announce an upcoming update that aims to add some of the most widely requested new features.

The ‘Ascension’ update will add a completely new game mechanic that allows you to ‘win’ the game after unlocking access to an astounding new technology. At the same time you will also gradually learn of the radical - and dangerous - science experiments that took place on the station prior to your arrival.

After earning this highly challenging ‘win’ you will still have the option of continuing the game to reach a new highscore - with a nice bonus to help you on your way.

(Of course, there will also be numerous bug fixes/minor improvements in the update as well.)

Just a quick update with a few post-launch bug-fixes:

MOD: when equipping an item from a belt slot, belt slot now fills with item being swapped out
FIX: when equipped weapon/armor is also a belt slot item (now rare), belt slot display reflects changes in ammo/armor condition
FIX: bug preventing batteries being replaced on stealth, cloaking and phase shift fields
FIX: bug causing nonexistent ammo conversion type to be generated when picking up equipment crate ("Nothing [Device1]96" log message).
FIX: speed run achievement not activating correctly
FIX: bug causing occasional unpredictable behaviour when attacking bare-handed
FIX: improved display of 'to use' % for hacking devices to avoid text overrun

Yes, you are reading your scanner right - Xenomarine version 1.0 is here to meet all your alien-busting needs.

Check out the devlog for a full list of changes but here's a summary:

• Complete set of achievements (27 new achievements added)
  
• Long-awaited balance improvements e.g. better distribution of terminals
  
• UI improvements e.g. scrolling with middle mouse button
  
• Many, many bugs fixed

Overall these stability and balance improvements mean that you can now take full advantage of the ever-changing challenges, ever-new equipment and ever-more deadly hordes of aliens to level 30 and well beyond!

Movement. Signal's clean. Range 10 meters and closing...Xenomarine is transitioning to FULL RELEASE on 24th April 2019!

This update is mainly aimed at improving performance in some key areas, which should result in increased framerates and faster load times for most players.

NEW: improved average framerates on most systems
NEW: time taken to generate new level significantly reduced
MOD: darkened fog of war shadows
FIX: bug with log messages when destroying walls etc
FIX: scout drone not sorting in inventory

A few minor fixes:

FIX: bug with unintended motion of player direction indicator
FIX: wall tiles at the edge of the map made indestructible
FIX: added plural to log message when trying to push group of alien eggs
FIX: confusing log message when trying to use antipack to cure incorrect status
MOD: minor adjustment to responsivity when holding down movement keys

Apologies to those who bought or updated the game and tried to get past level 3 between 11pm on the 14th and 11am on the 15th (Pacific time), you would have been blocked by a message telling you this was the Demo version. This was due to a bug introduced in Beta 0.91, itself a hotfix for a minor problem with the Steam leaderboards. As of 11am Pacific Time on the 15th this bug has been fixed (but to be safe, check the version number on the splash screen and make sure you are not playing 0.91).

Beta 0.91

FIX: bug with leaderboard entries being made for zero kills/levels reached

Beta: 0.92

FIX: bug limiting the game to the first three levels (introduced in Beta 0.91)

Xenomarine is now at Beta! The game is now complete in terms of having all the content and features originally planned (as well as a whole lot that was not originally planned but was added on the way!).

It's not yet transitioning to full Steam release for three main reasons:

1) While the game is basically stable and all known bugs have been fixed, a further period of testing and player feedback is expected to reveal additional harder-to-find bugs
2) Similarly, during Beta further testing and player feedback is expected to lead to minor game difficulty and balance adjustments
3) Finally, during Beta, further Steam achievements will be added

So if you'd like to help shape the final product please do use this opportunity to give feedback - the best place for this is the discussions section right here on the Steam community.



Xenomarine Beta includes improved highscore stats, Steam leaderboards and some significant changes requested by players, such as a 'bestiary' and the ability to continue 'adventure mode' games without restarting the level. Here's a full list of changes:


IMPROVED MORGUE FILES:

NEW: description of how player died added to morguefile
NEW: number of drones/turrets hacked to morguefiles
NEW: enemy kills screen now shows detailed Xenobiology info
MOD: improved alien kills and general morguefile layout
FIX: some incorrect alien images on alien kills screen

BESTIARY

NEW: can now access all Xenobiology info learned in each run via special Xenobiology ('bestiary') screen (using 'x' key)

STEAM LEADERBOARDS

NEW: Steam leaderboards added for highest number of kills and highest level reached

BALANCE:

MOD: increase hit points for medium and heavy turrets
MOD: experience gain for destroying drones and turrets increased if unit is hostile
MOD: no experience gain when player controlled drone or turret is killed
MOD: night vision goggles battery life tripled
MOD: further tweaks to difficulty progression
FIX: advanced rocket launcher no longer has 20 ammo capacity!

UI:

NEW: added 3 new tips relating to xenobiology
NEW: more detailed skill info on character screen including new perks
NEW: push back chance shown with block info in inventory screen
NEW: log messages now describe turrets as neutral or hostile

SOUND:

NEW: sound effects for alien plants and slicers
MOD: improved railgun sound
FIX: sound effect for large reaper fixed

OTHER FIXES/IMPROVEMENTS:

MOD: can now continue adventure mode games without restarting level
MOD: aliens no longer not attack scout drones unless blocking path to another target
FIX: movement controls improved to avoid accidentally moving two tiles with a keypress
FIX: bug with pathfinding causing paths to be traced through turrets, causing infinite loop
FIX: bug where flamethrower cannot be fired with mouse from targeting mode
FIX: bug where flamethrower cannot be used to attack eggs when targeting an adjacent square
FIX: bug allowing placement of turrets in odd locations e.g. pit tiles
FIX: bug where not able to set traps on certain floor tiles
FIX: bug where hidden mechanism detecter fails to reveal secret doors if player has already
failed a spot throw for that door
FIX: removed irrelevant xenobiology log messages for drones and turrets
FIX: bug causing log messages which say damage type has been resisted despite 0% resistance

This is a pretty significant patch: with the new armor types and alien tech in this release, Xenomarine is now complete with respect to equipment (weapons, armor, items), at least in terms of having all items originally planned (I may actually add one or two more things yet, but these will be a bonus rather than part of the original plan).

In addition this patch adds 7 new perks (special abilities gained through skill progression) to the earlier 5, including such things as auto-reload, and 'push back' abilities - as well as a perk that introduces 'critical hits' to the combat mechanics. There's also a major overhaul of the way knowledge of aliens is gained and used, including new log messages to make this part of the game more accessible to players.

Finally this patch brings a significant adjustment to the difficulty curve that should be directly noticeable by players. While Xenomarine is still very much intended to be a 'hard' and intensely tactical game, the aim of this balance adjustment is to make the ability to get past levels 3-6 less dependent on lucky equipment finds. Instead you should experience a more gradual increase in difficulty as levels progress. However I would welcome further feedback from players on the new difficulty curve!

Overall Xenomarine is now close to being ready to ship: look out for the first 'Beta' release in the coming weeks!



NEW WEAPONS AND ARMOR:

NEW: 'superheavy' armor types
NEW: 'heavy' and 'superheavy' helmet types
NEW: high-level alien tech including 'singularity globe'

XENOBIOLOGY:

NEW: log messages for when knowledge gained about alien species
NEW: +5 to hit bonus for a species earned after killing 20 aliens of same species
NEW: ability to predict presence of aliens after killing 10 of same species

PERKS:

NEW: 7 new perks to be gained through skill progression

GAME BALANCE:

MOD: set trap should be on player square
MOD: replaced 'throwing knife' with '10 powerpacks' in workbench
MOD: number of shells/fuel gained at workbench increased to 10
MOD: minor reduction of number/difficulty of aliens in early levels, minor increase in later levels
MOD: number of alien eggs reduced for early levels, increasing with level number
MOD: limit (skill-dependent) on number of simultaneous drones

BUGFIXES AND MINOR CHANGES:

FIX: bug where neutral combat drones/turrets sometimes attack player at close range
FIX: bug where unable to block when alien attacks from the right
MOD: alien ammo renamed 'alien powerpacks'

Smallish patch with a few useful bugfixes:

FIX: bug where new enemy types prevented from spawning in levels 18-25
FIX: bug with advanced hacking kit not working and showing zero power
FIX: bug where aliens keep attacking after death
FIX: gun turret health not shown in mousehover info after kill of same type
FIX: auto-movement no longer stopped by neutral turrets
FIX: atomic vaporiser can now fire at walls/doors with ‘f’ key
FIX: bug where aliens sometimes not revealed by bioscanner
MOD: weight of medium boots increased to 3