Hello all!
I'm really hoping this is the last major patch for this beta branch and it can move on to the public branch, but I crammed some pretty significant changes in here so I expect there are probably gonna be some edge cases (or not-so-edge cases) that I missed when testing stuff out. Fingers crossed, but as always, let me know in the Bug Reporting forum if something is amiss!
Burn Damage has been completely rewritten for all non-boss enemies. Previously, burn damage was applied against an enemy's "burn threshold", and if that value exceeded their current HP, they entered a burning state. This system seems to be a bit more confusing than intended and can also result in molotovs/flares/etc. sometimes feeling like they aren't dealing any damage, if the enemy has a high enough burn threshold / enough health to withstand the burn damage. The burn damage model has been changed so all burn damage is now applied as basic damage, and if the burn damage deals the final fatal damage, the enemy will ignite. This has a few advantages:
An enemy such as a Peacekeeper or Harvester who is hit with a molotov/lantern/etc. will take continuous damage, and even if they don't take enough damage to fully ignite, they will still have taken a ton of damage from the flame particles and be easier to finish off.
Enemies can be started burning with flame weapons, and then hosed down with damage from other weapons, which will whittle away their HP on top of the fire which is also burning away their HP, so a tough enemy such as a Peacekeeper who would normally soak up an entire molotov, could be made to catch fire by dealing a little bit of extra damage while he's burning. You could do this with the old damage system but less efficiently.
Enemies will not be able to put themselves out by jumping into water, since they have to be at 0 HP to ignite to begin with. Enemies that are currently burning from a flame weapon that jump into water will not take additional burn damage until they leave the water, but if they're already in their burning state, it will still be fatal.
Players using the "Show Damage Numbers" option will be able to see a more straightforward representation of the damage enemies are taking.
Enemies that are immune to burn damage will now immediately extinguish any flame particles stuck to them, making it more apparent when fire is ineffective against them.
The Harvester now aims his hook near the top of your collider, meaning that it can be reliably crouched under now - just make sure you crouch after he throws the hook - if you crouch early, he'll just throw it at your head's crouched position instead.
The Harvester's Hook travel speed has been slightly reduced
Selecting a Custom/Map Loadout from Scene Select and starting on The Manor will now cram the selected loadout into the player's Stolen Gear, while still spawning the player with no equipment.
Chapter Start Maps (E1M1, E2M0 "Interlude", E2M1, etc.) will no longer forcibly wipe the player's loadout, so you should be able to use Custom/Scene Select loadouts to start a new run of Ch.1/Interlude/2.
Mopped up some outstanding instances where the Screen Shake/Tilt settings weren't being applied, resulting in screen shaking/tilting even when turned to zero
Custom Loadout Ammo sliders for Shotgun/TNT/Molotovs have been fixed to have the proper max values
Using the "Load Saved Loadout" function for Custom Loadouts should now properly apply upgrades from that save file
The player's bullet tracer origin was fixed on a few weapons where it was spawning in an improper location
Damage Numbers, when enabled, should now properly reflect burn damage
Infested Armor/Arbalist enemies now properly take impact damage from Incinerator projectiles
Enemies that were in a burning state when the game was saved should now properly load in dead
