Hello, dear players of Fractal Space! We thank you again for the many bug reports, suggestions and more that we have received lately. We've been delaying the hundreds of Steam key requests to access the Pre-Alpha, in order to solve these first before having new players report new bugs :) The latest update 0.587 is now live on Steam! It solves many more bugs, and adds new improvements, various levels changes and more. We'll discuss the important ones here. [quote]IMPORTANT: RESTART CURRENT CHAPTER: If you were playing before this update, please restart current Chapter from the beginning to avoid bugs, prevent softlocks, and ensure the new bugfixes are correctly applied.[/quote]

DIALOGUES | REPETITION

• Do not play already played level dialogues again within the same session
• There might be exceptions for some dialogues because some should be repeated in the same session
• If you exit the game and resume, these dialogues will be played again (intended)

CUTSCENES | HANDS

FRAGILE | WINDOWS

• They had holes, which required you to aim more precisely to avoid shooting through he holes instead. This was intended, but it seems like more players are annoyed by this than anything - so they no longer have holes, but they do have visible cracks.
• Holes were partly also present to make the fragile windows stand out more from regular windows and make them more visible. This new version now has a much more visible crack to help making them more noticeable, as some players had a hard time differentiating them.
• After shooting a first time on a fragile window, shards will then break with player weight and / or dropped cube on them. It now makes more sense that they do not do so until a first shot has been fired.

CHAPTER 1 | NEW AREA

CHAPTER 1 | OPTIONAL RECORDING

CHAPTER 2 | LAST ROOM

OTHER

• Chapter 1: New checkpoint added above the Go Left, Go Right area to save outside as well. In addition, checkpoints here will save multiple times after various key interactions are done.
• Cameras: Disabled Cameras can now be destroyed
• Physics Debris: You can now shoot through the cylinder of floating pipes debris in Chapter 3 (The Cube area)
• Tablets / Power Cores / Encryption Keys: Will now react to Taser shots (be pushed) in Zero-G.

CHANGES

• Lasers: Various insta-kill lasers now have more tightly-packed lasers to make it more clear you wont survive if you try to get through. Many of these areas will have similar additions over the next updates to make it more predictable.
• Saws: Some saws (especially moving saws, or static that should be jumped over) are always more tolerant than others (intentionally) to avoid you getting damaged when a fairly acceptable jump was performed instead of a perfect jump. This will remain for the upper part to avoid frustration. Though the sides shouldnt behave like this for this saw. They will now damage the player more accurately from the sides. Please report any unintended damage by saws that may now occur with this change (in some specific areas, this change might be an issue)
• Saws: Now have additional red lines coming from the center when activated
• Bloom: Bloom is now a bit more intense
• Taser Shot: Impact light now more intense and more visible
• Doors / Vent Doors: Closing a vent door with a Cube in the middle would now push it better out of the way since the previous update already. With Power Cores, its more complicated due to their shape. Now, if a Power Core gets caught inside a closing door or vent door, it will be automatically forced out of the way. This solves the issue. To be tested in case it creates new bugs!
• Dodge Cooldown: The Dodge cooldown gauge could sometimes remain indefinitely visible when used with the Taser Toggle system. In addition, it could sometimes not be visible with Taser Toggled on, preventing you from knowing when it has finished recharging.
• Dodge Cooldown: Will now always be displayed, and move downwards while aiming in order to avoid being disturbed when trying to aim with the Taser.
• Speedrun Mode: Some lasers have player collisions in speedrun mode only. Previously, changing Speedrun Mode during a level would not update laser collisions (restart of Chapter required). It will now change appropriately instantly.
• Chapters Replay: Selecting Chapter 1 from the Chapters page would not play the first introduction (it was only played on New Game without Speedrun Mode).
• Chapter 1: Pipes to reach the skip (Fragile Wall) next to the Smasher button are kept, but not the lowest one, as it creates more confusion than anything (was intended to be here to help and provide a hint that roof is accessible).
• Chapter 1: Small vent in Taser Room cannot be closed after being opened to prevent potential softlock
• Chapter 1: Saw in This is bad room has a new path, which doesnt clip through the Door pillars. Other various small changes and improvements were made in this room.
• Chapter 3: Vertical row of Lasers next to the Camera (for which you must disable Shield to get through, that is looking at the vent), could let you go through with somedamaged - they are meant to kill if you go though. Now changed to reflect this.
• Chapter 3: Horizontal lasers in the area after the 2 breakable glass to access the Power Core to disable the camera shield mentioned above, will now instantly kill you if you go through it to prevent you from skipping this room.
• Chapter 3: Solved potential softlock with locking the cube on the wrong side in the Initialization Room
• Chapter 4: When reaching the last room, the retractable walls will now deploy to prevent you from backtracking to a potential softlock (room with flames)
• Upgrades: Tutorial about upgrades (and associated dialogues) will not play when interacting with a mandatory Upgrade Terminal if its your very first terminal ever (ex: first terminal ever interacted with is Hyper-Speed terminal in Chapter 3). This is because the player has no choice for this terminal.

BUG FIXES

• Taser Toggle: When toggled always on, the Taser could be shown after a Cutscene, even with an object currently in hands.
• Saws: Cannot Stand Here could happen when crouched really close to a Saw
• Room Control: Sometimes, a button would require clicking it twice to perform the turn ON/OFF of a specific action. Should be fully solved. To be tested - as this change may have caused unwanted new bugs in various other Room Control interfaces.
• Moving Platforms: Vertical Dodge from a moving platform could sometimes result in bouncy reception upon the next moving platform landing. This should now be fixed (to be tested).
• Power Cores: You could potentially encounter bugs if you inserted a Power Core inside a Power Core Slot at the same time as Relocation would be happening. You can no longer drop / insert a Power Core Core while a relocation is in progress (to prevent this bug, and to prevent unintended situations / softlocks due to leaving a Power Core in an unreachable area).
• Lasers: Laser beams could go through the edges of vent doors (leak). Now fixed.
• Taser: In some specific cases / angles, you could sometimes shoot through walls. Shouldnt be possible anymore.
• Sprint: When a sprint is pending, and getting out of a vent could result in sprinting while remaining crouched.
• Chapter 1: Ensured the Ext door of the very first Camera room will not sometimes re-open once you went past the door (could happen in some cases).
• Chapter 1: Relocation could sometimes briefly be displayed upon entry of the very first Cube room.
• Chapter 1: Math Door: Entering slightly then returning back, could result in relocation bug that allowed to skip the Laser Cage room if you were to go outside on attempted to reach the roof.
• Chapter 2: Solved possible unintended backtracking after disabling lasers in the first Electrified Room if you returned outside using the vent below, after going past these (now disabled) lasers.
• Chapter 3: You could skip the 2 cages with cubes by flying further on the sides
• Chapter 3 You could activate The Cube button remotely with the Taser, earlier than you should be able to. Now fixed (not usable until going actually through)
• Chapter 3: Generator to break for glass-cubes area (just after the Tunnel): There were multiple bugs with the vents / lasers in this room, could cause laser issues, and softlocks. All should be fixed. Added an Ammo Pack in this room as well to prevent soflocks.
• Chapter 3: The Cube Area Encryption Key Formatter: The game should now only save in front of the formatter Terminal, after leaving it, but only if the Lasers have already been disabled by breaking the generator. This avoids potential softlock if went through using cover, then removed it, or passed through and survived during Dodge.
• Chapter 3: In the last hallway, sometimes laser fields would not be properly activated for the Bridge power puzzles (where you must deploy only necessary Bridges). Should now always be the correct way (all laser fields enabled correctly)
• Chapter 4: The Map of the Room Control Terminal in the Hyper-Speed suppressor area would not be displayed correctly upon very first interaction
• Chapter 4: Portable mirrors were falling like leaves when Zero-G was disabled. Should now behave correctly.
• Saving: A change was made on saving data, hopefully will help reduce chances of having an in-game error about a value being negative. However, if your game crashes while saving, or you exit the game with ALT+F4 while saving, data will still be corrupted (like with any other game). Later on, there will be a backup system in case this happens, but this is not here yet.
• Texts: Texts that appear gradually (tutorials, etc.) could display the full text for a very short period of time, before starting the smooth apparition. Should now be fixed.
• Reported Bugs: Fixed many in-game reported bugs