I forgot to make an announcement for beta 4, so it will be included in this post. For beta 5, scroll down a bit

Beta 4

-Story fixes/changes

-Using a heal in the map screen will immediately update the displayed HP

-Morphine now is the only item medbays have as loot. 50% chance to get 3x morphine, or 1 gene mod.

-Clarity gain across the board reduced

-Sector number now displays the right number instead of the right number + 1

-The map node hover info now immediately updates when a stealth check is passed

-Battle music no longer restarts when restarting the game

-In story mode, music volume is now dynamic, decreasing in volume when you are in the map page

-Other changes

-Mr Anderson trial enemy count lowered by 40%, but holding block now drains your energy

-Fixed game not pausing in Mr Anderson

-Notifications now go away on their own after 5 seconds each

-Ground slam special attack used by large bosses have their explosion effect timing fixed

-Fixed changquan having the flying kick button show up twice

-Stomp animation fixed at low frame rates/high speed

-Fixed enemies sometimes attacking backwards after using an attack that would face them away from the player

-Credits page now goes back to the top when entering

-Enemies with weapons when stunned will now have their weapon properly move with their equipped hand

-Added the First, Second, and Last Blood trials

-Added the Darkness trial

Beta 5

Developer commentary:

We\'re really close to a 1.0 right now.

Sound has been pretty neglected up until this point, as I\'ve been using Unity\'s underbaked native audio system this entire time. I was planning to brush up a lot of sound effects anyway, and when Wyatt handed over the intro and loop versions of every track and I literally couldn\'t get it to play seemlessly, he recommended I try using FMOD, and after a day of setup and learning, it\'s actually completely revolutionized audio management for me. Seriously, if you\'re making a game on Unity that\'s not just a very small project, please use something other than Unity\'s native audio system, since it is straight up cheeks.

Anyway, this update also involves a small rework to parrying and snake style, as well as a sound overhaul. Even if the sounds aren\'t completely finalized yet, my intent is to give strong auditory feedback to the player so it\'s much clearer if an attack fully landed, was parried, or was blocked. Previously, you could only tell with the particle effect and the damage number.

-Dan

Gameplay changes

Snake style mini-rework:

-Striking speed also increased with charge, up to a 50% speed multiplier

-Raw damage multiplier reduced to 1.5x

-New passive: 1.5x increased damage to an enemy mid-animation

Parrying buffs

-Parrying a knife attack now no longer applies the bleeding or poison effect

-Successful parry immediately resets your parry cooldown

-Parries now reduce incoming damage and balance damage by a flat 90%

-Parrying now can parry from both sides

-You can now parry while stunned, which will act as a regular parry and also prevent you from being ragdolled

Trials

-Added 5 new trials: Parrying, Death Punch, Disciple, Healing Factor, and Zombie Outbreak,

-Trials have been sorted into multiple folders and re-ordered

-Rebalanced Iron Mike: set Muscle Overclock from from 3x to 2x,

-Added descriptions to all Trials categories

-Spatial sense now scales properly with clarity. Radius = sqrt(clarity multiplier)

-Lithium vacuoles buffed from 40/90/150 to 50/150/300 bonus total energy

-Neurospec: Multi-target buffed: damage bonus changed from flat 15/30/45 damage to 25%/60%/100% damage bonus. Removed debuff where it would reduce damage if you nhit the same enemy

-Doing a flip into a wall will knock you over

Kick speeds buffed:

-Low kick: 0.35s to 0.25s

-Roundhouse kick: 0.40s to 0.35s

-High kick: 0.45s to 0.35s

-Push kick: 0.35s to 0.30sndind

-Snap kick: 0.30s to 0.25s

UI and visuals

-Main menu background now shuffles through character portraits

-Character portrait in checkpoint tints either red or blue based on clarity meter

-When not in game, controller east button now brings you back to the main menu

-Added icons next to reward buttons

-Hints text typing effect adjusted so it\'s more readable while typing

-Quantum strikes renamed to quantum energy

-Enhanced ATP Processing renamed to ATP Burst. The name and its acronym were a mouthful.

-\"Enemy density\" renamed to \"Enemy spawn rate\" as it more accurately describes the value.

-You now select the difficulty for story, arcade, and sandbox mode instead of just story mode. Higher difficulty for arcade mode multiplies score

Audio

-Updated existing sounds and added more sound effect variation

-Standard hits

-Parry/block

-Gun shot

-Machinegun shot

-Knife hit

-Music now properly intros and loops

-Changing the sound setting will now play an audio cue

Other Fixes

-Fixed character biography for the Trickster

-Fixed lighting in-game so that gunfire and explosions and some other lighting effects show up on the background

-Hints updated to remove outdated information

-Damage and other in-game floaty text no longer is above the overlay UI sorting layer