Attention All Aces

The 1.15 update just dropped on all platforms! New endgame content awaits if you can manage to beat the game with at least 3 Technophages active. That's right, you can now do runs with multiple phages active simultaneously for extra challenge. The phage selection UI on the title screen has been reworked to support this and also shows unlock conditions for all new and old phages after you unlocked your first one.

End Game Content

After your first multi-phage win youll get access to a chain of new challenge modes in the form of additional phages. There is a boss rush mode, a speedrun optimized mode, a hardmode that has you face more elite enemies and the star of the show: Technophage Hardgrade, which upgrades the final boss and gives it an additional third phase. If you manage to master all these modes then there is one more Phage that strongly changes how the game is played. More of a final reward than an additional challenge, but I wont spoil the effect here.

Flawless Unlocks and Boss Elites

But even outside those challenge modes there is a ton of new stuff to find. There are 13 new items, most of which are unlocked by flawlessly defeating bosses. Additionally, these unlocks will allow the corresponding boss to spawn as one of three elite variants in subsequent runs. Boss elites have increased stats and/or new behaviors but they also drop more SRM and grant you an additional free chest if you can defeat them.

Boss Rebalance

Some bosses, especially zone 3 ones, saw some major balance changes. The Space Tether counteracts cheesy strategies more and I attempted to make its attack phases more equal in terms of threat level. Your rival now has an additional movement pattern that is supposed to make it an easier target but potentially also a greater threat for periods of the fight. In part, this should also counteract situations where a fast rival can make the fight drag on excessively.

Tiny Features

Alongside all this I also added a couple new minor features. There is a redout mechanic as a penalty on certain items now, causing you to shortly loose visual awareness if you pull too many G with your maneuvers. A few melee related items now allow you to parry enemy laser beams, giving you another way to deal with these high threat attacks aside jumping and mirror plating. Some new enemy destruction effects and boss death sounds where added too.

Better 4k Support

I also tried to address the issue of the game not scaling well on very hight resolutions/large screens once more. The display options now let you control the games FOV/Cam Zoom independently from resolution. If you feel like the game objects and units are overall too tiny then crank that value up till it fits your taste. I hope the update offers sweet new challenges for you seasoned Aces out there and also improves the game for newcomers. For a more detailed changelog you can check the full change_dog here.

Supporting Sleeper Games

Hdog 1.15 No Masters is free for everyone who owns the game, just like the two content updates that came before. But for those of you who wanted to further support Sleeper Games and HDogs development I added the Deck Crew Edition DLC, essentially a donation that shoots me a few bucks extra. Purchasing the DLC itself gives you no additional content, aside from a title screen text that reminds you of my eternal gratefulness. <3 <3 <3

[ 2020-03-09 18:02:08 CET ] [ Original post ]