Well that took longer than expected. We've been in Early Access for over a year now, and I've only just completed reworking the singleplayer campaign. This version polishes the final 4 stages, updating them with all the cool improvements I've made over the past year. There are story rewrites too. The completion of the campaign marks a huge turning point in the development of Geneshift, as I'll be shifting focus back onto multiplayer and marketing after this. It also makes my self-diagnosed OCD happy that it took a nice, clean 10 versions to rework the campaign.

Awesome Points and Cash Drops

How will you know the new campaign is awesome? Because the game will constantly remind you whenever you do something cool. My favorite thing about this version (apart from the relief of finally finishing the campaign) are awesome points. Awesome points are awarded when you perform extra well during combo kills, and give you XP and a skill-point or a phaser. This gif below shows them in action, as well as the new cash drop animation. Cash no longer drops on every single kill, but instead happens randomly about 30% of the time. This means you earn far less cash during the campaign, and really makes every kill and every dollar far more valuable and necessary to survive.

Better Skill Balancing

You now have the ability to buy skill points in the campaign for $2000 a pop. This, combined with the buffing of a bunch of skills, adds a lot of flavour to the game. You can also level skills all the way up to level 5 now, allowing for some fairly ridiculous skill combos. Awesome points also award skill-points too. With all of this, I've reworked a bunch of skill values (see the changelog below) to ensure that all skills are useful and the more points you invest into the skill, the better it becomes.

Permanent and Ranked Servers for Demo Users

I have changed the permissions for demo users, allow them to now play in permanent and ranked servers. This is done for the benefit of paying players, as these servers will now become more populated. Permanent servers are one of Geneshift's most unique multiplayer features, and now we'll be able to enjoy them again!

New Trailer & Marketing Plans

To celebrate 1 year in Early Access and the completion of the campaign, I've created a new trailer showing off all the new features added so far. Check it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOV0gG9CXcE Now that the campaign is done it's marketing time. I'm finally happy for gamers to see the game. So over the coming weeks expect to see more players in the servers. I'm going to be sending emails to relevant youtubers and try get some love from them. If you want to invite your friends to play the free multiplayer in the demo, now would be a great time! Have fun and please give me feedback here or in Discord: https://discordapp.com/invite/geneshift

Changelog

GENERAL CHANGES

• Massively reworked the final 4 stages of the campaign.
• Community Credits now get +200 for buying the game and +50 for adding a reference.
• Demo users can now join Permanent matches and Ranked servers.
• You can now purchase skill points in the campaign for $2000 each.
• Reduced the cost of many campaign unlocks.
• Improved the graphical effects of collecting cash from guards.
• Long custscenes can now be skipped by pressing ESC in-game.
• Synergies have been removed from the campaign, allowing you to level straight up to level 5 with normal skill points.
• You no longer lose $200 whenever you die. Instead you gain $500 if you complete a stage without dying.
• Holding middle mouse now opens the skill rose and defaults to selecting instead of auto casting. It also pauses the campaign.

GAMEPLAY CHANGES

• Awesome Points now occur when you do something awesome, awarding +300xp and a phaser or a skill point.
• Guards now drop cash only 1/3rd of the time. Making cash a lot more rare and valuable.
• The kill combo system has slightly new multiplier values and a longer timer (4s instead of 3s).
• Guards occassionally drop health and mana, healing you for +50hp. This happens about 10% of the time.
• Mana no longer regenerates up to 20 mana in stealth.
• Barrier mana burn is now 2 mana/s instead of 3 mana/s.
• Guards now do about 50% more damage, though there is a smarter dynamic difficulty system in place.
• Playful guards now have 100hp instead of 50, but their damage is 50% less instead.
• Superweapons now only cost $5000 instead of $10000, but have half as much ammo in PvP modes.

SKILL CHANGES

• Force Field explosion damage now ranges from 60 to 40 instead of 60 to 20.
• Venom Shot has been flipped from levels 1 to 5.
• Venom Shot damage vs guards is now x4 instead of x3 (ensuring it
• does enough to kill). Venom Shot mana cost is now 15 instead of 20.
• Vampirism now restores mana against guards ranging from 2% to 6%.
• Phasic Bullets no longer needs Energize.
• Bullet Time now unlocks at level 0.
• Static Charges now unlocks at level 5.
• Self Repair mana cost is now 20 instead of 30.
• Radiate damage is now 35hp/s instead of 30hp/s.
• Radiate now does x1.5 damage vs guards.
• Blade Fury mana cost is now 25 instead of 20.
• Blade Fury can now be burst after 4s instead of after the full cooldown.
• Blade Fury has switched from levels 1 to 5.
• Blade Fury max damage no longer applies to guards or zombies.
• Plasma Ball has been flipped from levels 1 to 5.
• Plasma Ball mana cost is now 25 instead of 20.
• Plasma Ball now does x3 damage vs guards instead of x1.5.

BUG FIXES

• Massively improved the performance when you have a lot of idle vehicles in the map.
• AI now enters the correct vehicle when following you.
• Fixed a bug displaying the top cash earners in each campaign stage.

[ 2018-06-20 07:07:59 CET ] [ Original post ]