Added a short cinematic as level transition from the Moon to Mars
Added the game's theme song to the main menu screen
Sound and Music levels should be properly adjusted in the settings menu now
Made performance improvements to the Neptune level
Currently working on the release version with additional levels and 2 new rovers. Please leave a comment in the Discussions section if you have any suggestions.
- Inferno infusion trait now gives a flat +1 Spell Power instead of scaling off of mana cost. - Crystal Barrier no longer blocks Status damage. (Burn, Inferno infusion spell cost, bloodshop.) - Reduced Astral Spark's extra radius per spell power from 15% to 8%. (Thanks to Jazdia for info on how to break the game.)
- Reworked much of Shyro's action AI. (Shouldn't affect gameplay that much, but Shyros should no longer vanish mid-warp or do other weird stuff.)
- Added some custom textures to Eclipse Brittlekeep. - Made various minor visual fixes.
- Added parry to sword tooltip.
- Dead characters are now revived at 1 health instead of 0 when traveling to another area in co-op. (Reported by Aewynne.) - Fixed ice variant Astral Spark infinitely chilling hit allied players. (Reported by Aewynne.) - Fixed Thunder Rune traps not replicating if they were on off-beat to client players. (Reported by Conrat.)
- Improved MAP System adding more location hints. - Improved Danger State Screen. Now you'll see a red screen pulsating while in Danger State. - Improved Save Hints so you don't overwrite your saves by accident. - Fixed ArtGallery Enemy Collisions when you miss the Puzzle.
Sometimes updates brings news bugs so.... If you are experiencing issues, Please let me know.
Hello everyone, and welcome to the Weekly Dev Log for March 13th, 2023, detailing all the changes that have happened since March 6th, 2023. Note: Devs that don't appear in the weekly log are not necessarily away or not doing work, but may be working on things currently not announced or backend work that doesn't need to be detailed.
Accessibility Suggestions
We've created a forum post asking the community for suggestions on how we can improve gameplay for players with certain conditions such as colorblindness, dyslexia, or anything else that might affect a players ability to use the standard presentation and controls of the game.
If you have any ideas or suggestions, and possible solutions on how to solve a particular issue, please check out the forum post here.
March / April 2023 Condo Contest - Tree House - NEW
Hey everyone!
The theme for the March/April contest is Tree House!
So, build a house in a tree! You can build your own tree or use one of the existing ones, and feel free to make your tree house in any style.
Also, remember that you can disable collision on items (such as trees) by right clicking and selecting Disable Collision.
The submission period ends on April 10th, 2023 at 11:59 PM.
macdguy created a Media Organization shelf, useful for cleaning up all your game cartridges and physical media.
madmijk continued working on MIDI Support.
Condo: Media Organization Shelf
Condo: MIDI Support Instrument Settings WIP
A preview of MIDI settings for musical instrument items. Displayed are the sound sets that are detected for each of the 16 MIDI channels, using 'program change' events. This information can be used to select which channels to play back on the active instrument.
SDNL
Now that Libretro support has been released, our focus has turned to SDNL.
macdguy worked on the level design for "Frostbite", adding new structures and fixing platforms, while also identifying where jump pads could go. He also continued on weapon handling.
SDNL: Frostbite WIP
Miscellany
Nuclearxpotato continued working on the Virus map, "Catzek Temple".
Joshua worked on a new Dragon plush, as well as the other Plaza NPCs.
Lifeless continued working on Part 2 of the Minigolf map, "Dark".
Sketchman continued working on backend improvements and optimizations.
Wheezwer continued working on props for the Virus map, "Theme Park".
Will continued working on SDNL music.
Wrap It Up
That about covers everything that happened since March 6th, 2023 at PixelTail Games.
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Upheaval just got a shiny new main menu and super cool new graphics + interface for the journal! Plus, Mac and Linux gamers can now play Upheaval as of Alpha Version 0.0.8, which you can get on https://leonegaming.itch.io/upheaval or Google Play. Try the free demo today!
With the release of the 4.3 update, we will be saying goodbye to the Manic-5 map. Since joining the Squad map roster with the release of the Canadian Armed Forces faction, Manic-5 was liked by some but overall was recognized by our community as one of the least popular and weakest maps for a variety of reasons. Well we’ve heard you and undertook a mission to rework the map and raise the quality, with that we’d like to introduce you to Manicouagan.
Lore: After making a successful amphibious landing at Goose Bay in Labrador, Canada, opposition forces have pushed south along the 389 Highway into Quebec and seized the Daniel-Johnson hydroelectric dam and the surrounding area. This has crippled the power infrastructure of the northeastern United States and prompted counter-attacks from US and Canadian forces. After a lull in the fighting, US and Canadian forces are making a final attempt to retake the dam.
Manic-5 was originally an experimental map that played around the ideas of creating more linear flow within the game space, as well as experimenting with drastic changes in elevation. And although the most positive element of the map was probably the novelty at how the map felt different from other maps in the game, Manic-5 suffered from numerous design problems such as:
Poorly flowing paths between points of interest (POIs)
Linear pathing didn’t feel as good as having the freedom to choose an approach to an objective
The drastic changes in elevations tied up potential gameplay area, made traversal tedious and time consuming, as well as created overly powerful overwatch positions which could control large areas of the map
Rework Goals
When beginning the rework of the map, the two priorities were to retain elements of the original map and to bring the design more in line with the most enjoyed Squad maps (such as Yehorivka and Gorodok), in particular the concept of allowing players to have freedom when it comes to choosing how to approach an objective or POI.
The first major step in the rework was to clamp how drastic the changes in elevations were. Overall the elevation changes on Manicouagan are roughly 60% of what they were in the original map. This step enabled resculpting of the terrain to allow much better flow between adjacent POIs, open up more area of the map for gameplay, and limit how powerful elevated overwatch positions could be. In order to preserve some of the original spirit of the map, there are still relatively significant changes in elevations, but care has been taken to craft these more carefully to avoid or mitigate the issues we saw in the original. The Daniel-Johnson dam remains on the map but it too was shrunk to about 70% of its original size, and efforts have been made to mitigate it from being used as an overwatch position over the valley below.
Dam - Manic-5
Dam - Manicouagan
After the elevation was reduced, the density and distribution of POIs was pre-planned to improve the balance between having a good variety when random POIs are selected on a game mode like Random Advance and Secure (RAAS), while keeping the distances between points roughly fair and usable for more symmetrical game modes like Advance and Secure or Skirmish. And although lots of new POIs have been created for Manicouagan, many of the originals still exist in some form, although their position or composition may have changed. In general, most of the POIs on Manicouagan will have multiple numbers and types of approaches, these generally fall into three categories:
Open approach - suited for vehicles or high-risk & high-reward tactics
Covered approach - suited for infantry leap-frogging from cover to cover
Concealed approach - suited for a disciplined squad to have a chance at sneaking onto the objective before being noticed
Another large part of the Manicouagan rework was to integrate amphibious water systems into the map. The reservoir behind the dam and the rivers that cut through the map have been updated with deeper water. These will provide opportunities for amphibious-capable factions to flank and approach enemy positions from unsuspected directions. Factions that lack amphibious capabilities (such as the US Army or Canadian Armed Forces) will be limited to making use of the bridges and shallows that form crossing points for their ground assets. In order to prevent factions without amphibious capability from being too punished or bottlenecked at crossing points, the main rivers on the map will be shallower towards the edges of the map to ensure they still retain freedom to access most parts of the map and the coloration of the water on the minimap will reflect this.
Thanks for reading, we’re excited for you to experience the new version of the map and here are a few extra shots of the before and after rework!
What a launch day huh, people have been reporting crashes that hopefully now have been fixed with the new update. I guess that's why day one patches exist. Sorry to everyone trying to play. Please try to update with the patch or uninstall the game completely then reinstall it.
to get the game running on the Deck please use Proton HotfIx in the compatibility settings.
The Library of Taborea has opened its gates to the world of knowledge. Seize the chance and improve your skills in battle with a matching encyclopedia! From 14th March at midnight until 14th March 2023 at 11:59 PM (CET), you can find new encyclopedias in the shop. Take a look now and boost your skills for an entire week!The following are just some of the highlight items waiting for you: