Survival mode is here, Bob! Main Update 13 is a complete game changer. For everyone who likes their games to last for tens of hours, survival mode is here to save the day.

Survival Mode Highlights:

Unlike the short-term rogue-lite mechanics of the original Invasion mode, where time would continually reset when traveling through the jump-gate, in survival mode the jump-gate is gone. Well, to be more precise, the Replicons have shrouded it's jump beacon meaning Bob can no longer see it. If he's going to have any chance of finding his way home, he's first going to need to spend hours collecting the materials required for a massive sensor upgrade. This makes Survival mode a single huge continuous game mode that will take tens of hours to complete. You can play it as an open ended traditional sandbox survival game or work towards the long-term goal of escaping.

Return of the Life Saving Teleporter:

Survival mode completely replaces the old Exploration mode and only the emergency teleporter survives this huge change. This is great news for those who aren't the biggest fans of the permadeath mechanic because as long as Bob has enough energy to power his emergency teleporter (and that's easy to do at the lower difficulty levels) then he'll be teleported to safety a moment before he dies. He can even collect enough energy to stockpile multiple 'lives'.

Crafting Remix:

Another big change - in Survival mode - is a dramatic increase in the number of materials required to craft the various upgrades. This suits the slower pacing perfectly and you will also find that the difficulty slider has a much bigger impact on gameplay than you are used to.

Dynamic Difficulty:

On the lower difficulty levels you can kick back and relax with Replicons that not only do less damage but also invade far more slowly. However if you enjoy a more serious survival challenge then at the higher difficulty levels the cost of the teleporter becomes so prohibitive, and crystals and other resources become so scarce, that you'll need to rethink everything in order to survive. With six difficulty levels available you should be able to find one that perfectly suits your mood or ambition.

Respawning Resources:

Survival mode brings another new feature in the form or respawning crystals and illmenite. This takes many hours but it means Bob could technically survive forever.

Realtime Leaderboards:

There's also new leaderboards for survival mode but unlike invasion mode your score updates every few seconds so even if you die your score will still count.

Craftable Lander, Grapple Cycling, and much more....

It doesn't end there though as the base game has also had a huge number of improvements, tweaks, and bug fixes. For example, Bob can now craft a replacement lander if he destroys his first one and the scoring system has had a big buff. Then there's a much improved grapple selection system that allows Bob to cycle through all visible grapples via a pair of new hotkeys. Mouse users can take this a step further and select grapple lines directly by clicking on their end nodes.

Main Update 13 - Build 1.3 - Full Changelog:

There's no point repeating everything twice, so take a look down below at the complete list of everything that's new and we'll see you on the leaderboards.

Survival Mode - Features and Changes:

• Six dynamic difficulty settings for survival mode dramatically alter how the game plays out by manipulating many different aspects of the game. See below.
• Bob's refinery ship is equipped with a life saving teleporter that Dave can use to teleport Bob to safety the moment before he dies. As long as he has enough energy to power it, Bob can't die.
  • The cost of the teleporter is tied to the chosen difficulty.
  • The teleporter is disabled at max difficulty.
• The amount of starting resources is tied to the chosen difficulty.
  • Lower difficulties provide enough resources to power the teleporter from the start.
  • Higher difficulties begin with barely enough to fund your first away mission.
• The number of resources that can spawn on any given planet is tied to the chosen difficulty.
  • At lower difficulty levels resources are abundant but at the higher levels crystals and illmenite become so scarce that only the most efficient salvage experts will survive.
• The materials required for all crafting recipes have been increased five-fold to better suit the long-term objectives of Survival mode.
  • This is less extreme in practice than it sounds. The overall pacing of Survival mode is much slower and far less time critical than the default game mode.
• The speed of the Replicon invasion varies based on the chosen difficulty settings.
  • This ranges from four times slower at the lowest difficulty setting to fifty percent faster at the highest.
  • The arrival of the various Replicon defense stations has also been equally slowed. They appear later and expand their influence more slowly.
  • The logic determining how and when individual Replicon drop ships appear on each planet has also been rewritten to suit the very different gameplay requirements for survival mode.
  • Replicons spawn over a much longer period of time and take considerably longer to respawn after being killed.
  • This dynamic spawn rate then increases over time based on the current difficulty setting.
• Crystals, illmenite and carbon plants all now respawn.
  • This takes many hours and varies based on planet type and resource type.
• The spawn chance of craftable upgrade machines is significantly lower in Survival mode.
  • Bonus upgrade dispensers will spawn in their place.
  • Bob is expected to craft the majority of his upgrades in Survival mode.
  • There are a maximum of two craftable upgrade machines per game but there's no limit to the potential number of bonus upgrade dispensers.
• Exploration mode achievements/challenges have been removed and replaced with new survival mode achievements/challenges.
• Many changes to Dave's dialog have been made to suit Survival mode.
• Additional dialog and conversation for Dave has been added to Survival mode.
• The Mega Cube and all related storyline elements are either absent or inaccessible during Survival mode.
• The music selection dynamically alters to match the slower pacing of survival mode based on the chosen difficulty setting.
• A 25,000 point penalty is applied if Bob is forced to use the teleporter (dies) in Survival mode.

New Features for both game modes:

Craftable Lander



• It's now possible to craft a replacement lander via the crafting panel.

  New Grapple Selection Options:

  
  
• You can now select a grapple line by directly clicking on the end grapple nodes with the mouse.
• 'Cycle Grapples Next' and 'Cycle Grapples Back' hotkeys have been added.
  • This new feature allows for cycling between all visible grapple connections. At least one termination grapple node must be visible for a connection to be considered visible.
  • For keyboards these keys are bound to 'Z' and 'C' by default. (The 'Cycle Weapons' hotkey has been moved to 'F' by default and the Select Pistol' hotkey has been moved to 'G' by default.
  • For gamepads the weapon selection hotkeys have been moved to the two thumbstick buttons and the new cycle grapple hotkeys have been set to left and right on the D-pad by default.
  • Existing players will likely need to rebind these keys manually (or reset to defaults) as these hotkeys will not overwrite previous custom keybindings.

  Updated Scoring System:

  
  
• The points scoring system has been overhauled.
  • Points are now awarded for ALL resources ever salvaged. In all previous builds, resource points were only awarded for what the player currently had in storage.
  • All respawning resources have had their value increased signficantly to reward players that constantly travel between planets. (Carbon, energy, fuel, hyperfuel, illmenite).
  • The various carbon plants for each biome have been given additional 'Bonus Salvage' points ranging from 2500 to 3500 points to also reward exploration.
  • Replicon loot spawns have been reworked to better balance farming Replicons for score versus farming resources.
  • These changes should ensure that the most efficient playstyle is to keep on the move collecting resources while killing Replicons along the way.
  • Build 1.2 saves are compatible with build 1.3, and will update to this new scoring system, but will not include the score for resources already consumed while previously playing build 1.2. That data was not previously recorded.

  Miscellaneous Improvements:

  A new in-game dialog tips system has been added to inform players about Scan mode, how to remote control the lander, and other important features that didn't suit being taught during the tutorial. These will normally appear soon after completing the tutorial but for those that have already completed the tutorial they will instead appear in their first game after this update.

  The time since Bob last visited each planet is now displayed on the System map to help with resource collection in survival mode. This information can be used to gauge when resources have likely respawned on previously visited planets.

Improvements and Tweaks for both game modes:

Replicon Tweaks:



• Replicon expansion speed across the system has been halved for the lowest difficulty setting in Invasion mode.
• Rask damage has been reduced by 10%.
• Dart damage has been reduced by 10%
• Rasks are now much less likely to jump while shocked.
• The maximum distance that the various Replicons can travel from their host defense station has been tweaked. It's possible that some very distant planets may only ever see spiders or no Replicons at all.
• It now takes ten times longer for Darts to appear on planets at their maximum range from the mothership.
• Replicons no longer drop loot or award score if they die due to damage from liquids. This avoids a potential score and loot exploit.
• The range at which wasps can detect and therefore follow the player has been increased.
• Spider Drop Pods will now sometimes self-destruct to keep their numbers manageable over long survival games.
• Score for killing each Replicon type has been altered to:
  • Spiders: 500 points
  • Wasps: 1000 points
  • Rasks: 1500 points
  • Darts: 2000 points
• Kill points are now awarded for salvaging live Replicons.

  Quality of Life Improvements:

  Bob's rocket pistol now only does a maximum of 20% self inflicted splash damage to himself.

  Invasion mode now begins with 750 energy and fuel in storage rather than 500.

  Improved the automatic detachment of grapples when entering the refinery ship to be more intuitive.

  Bob will no longer point at the on/off buttons, in the refinery ship, if he has something attached to his grapple gun.

  • He no longer needs to jump over these buttons to drag items past them.

  Bob's laser sight has been reworked to be visible against both light and dark backgrounds

  Dave will no longer begin talking to Bob if Scan mode is currently active.

  If Bob shoots his own lander, it now only does 50% normal damage.

  The mass of stalactites has been reduced by approximately 25% to make them a slightly more viable salvage option. (Please note: stalactite mass varies by size AND type. Some are more viable to salvage than others.)

  The 'Swap Gun' hotkey now toggles between the two guns and never holsters to an empty hand. If Bob's hand is empty, it will toggle to his pistol.

  A new 'Empty Hand / Holster Weapon' hotkey has been added for those that would still like to holster their weapon when not in combat.

  Significantly reduced the damage caused by various Replicon body parts, and machinery parts, when hitting Bob or his lander.

  Bombs have had their damage doubled to be more useful for destroying certain object types. Of course, they will almost certainly kill Bob, or destroy his lander, if they are close to the explosion.

  The icons representing the left and right analog stick buttons, for Xbox controllers, have been redesigned to be more recognizable.

  The trigger that opens the main entrance door of the central Replicon station has been significantly increased in size so nobody will ever miss it again.

  Miscellaneous Improvements:

  The green jump-lines, that connect to previously visited planets on the system map, have been widened to better differentiate them from the white jump-lines that connect unvisited planets.

  The tutorial has been updated to include a new section that covers the new grapple cycling hotkeys and direct selection method.

  Dave now warns Bob about the significant danger posed by acidic bubble plants.

  The default description text for planets with no desciption has been updated to 'No Data Available. Click to Add Custom Notes'.

  • Some planets deliberately have no data to help new players realize that this text can be customized by clicking on it.

  When Dave first informs Bob that he's detected the arrival of the various Replicon drop ships he now gives a tip on how to combat each one. eg. 'Spiders can't fly' and 'you can fly faster than them' etc.

  Miscellaneous Tweaks:

  The 'Continue From Saved Game' button no longer appears if saved data is incompatible for any reason.

  When accessing the leaderboard panel, the Single Game leaderboard is now the default rather than the Total Score leaderboard.

  • Accessing the leaderboards while playing Survival mode will automatically show the Survival mode single-game leaderboard.
  • Players can still change the currently visible leaderboard by clicking on the column titles.

  The save system has been extended to prevent Dave from commenting on some past events after loading from a save.

  The Quit panel has been reworked.There are now three options:

  • 'Kill Bob' which does not save and returns to the main menu.
  • 'Quit To Main Menu' which automatically saves and returns to the main menu.
  • 'Quit To Desktop' which also automatically saves.

  The main menu tips panel has been updated to reflect changes in this update

  Frozen geyser mist damage has been reduced by 30%

  The larger planets have had the number of crystals that can spawn reduced.

  The system map now only draws jump lines to planets within jump range rather than to all planets within fuel range.

  Tweaked the amount of fuel and energy required to refuel and repair Bob's suit, jetpack, and lander for improved overall balance.

  A much higher resolution model is now used for the crystal forcefield during the tutorial.

  • Bob no longer kicks up gravel while walking on this forcefield.

  The in-game patch notes panel now shows all patch notes since the 1.0 release.

  runInBackground added as an option to the game's gameConfig.ini file.

  The lander thruster upgrades have been reduced in power by 10% without affecting their top speed. The tier 2 upgrade was previously so strong that the tier 3 upgrade was barely needed.

  Fusion cores can now be salvaged from a few more hard to salvage objects.

Miscellaneous Bug Fixes:

• Fixed an issue that would cause all grapples near to the lander to be removed when using the 'Detach Lander Grapples' hotkey, rather than only grapples attached to the lander.
• Fixed a bug that prevented the energy storage tank from visually updating after crafting an item that required energy.
• Fixed a bug that prevented Exploration mode (and the new Survival mode) saved games from loading unless the player had first saved a game in the main Invasion mode.
• Fixed a bug that prevented correct navigation of the game select panel, while using a gamepad, if there was a saved game in Invasion mode.
• Fixed an issue that caused collectible carbon mushrooms to fall over without any interaction.
• Fixed a bug that could cause the Game Mode selection options and Main Menu options to appear at the same time if entering the options menu while at the Game Mode selection screen.
• Fixed a bug that caused a specific stalactite type to show fuel twice as a salvageable resource.
• Fixed an issue where tapping the on/off button could sometimes be ignored when trying to activate the various screens in the refinery ship. They are now consistently responsive.
• The 'Eject/Toggle Remote Control' hotkey is now disabled for 2 seconds after ejecting from the lander to help prevent unwanted behavior when spamming this hotkey while ejecting. (Increased from 1 second).
• The lander ejector seat now has a little extra power. This ejects Bob a little further to help prevent him from falling back into the lander if the lander is moving at the time of ejection.
  • Warning: Bob is now more likely to bump his head on low ceilings when ejecting.
• The smallest Replicon salvage parts have been artificially increased in size to make them less fiddly to grapple but to also help prevent them from penetrating other objects during extreme physics conditions.
• Fixed visual duplication errors in the background layer of planet Eitis.
• The 'All Materials' panel now appears after crafting the last upgrade of a specific upgrade type rather than a blank 'Required Materials' panel.
• Fixed a bug that could prevent the Friends filter from working correctly on the leaderboards.
• Bob can no longer take collision based damage while inside his lander. This was previously possible under some very rare circumstances (eg. being attacked by a large sand worm).
• Fixed a bug that prevented some heavy hail weather effects from appearing.
• Replicons now correctly register their death when salvaged alive allowing replacement Replicons to spawn on the current planet.
• Fixed a bug that caused Rasks to push Bob's lander instead of climbing over it.
• Fixed a bug that would disable a huge amount of Dave's conversation dialog if loading from a save.
• Fixed an issue when attempting to register an achievement while disconnected from Steam.
• Dave no longer warns Bob about the lava on planet Brurn. It doesn't have any lava. :P
• A large number of dialog typos have been cleaned up. (Thank Mango Bango's OCD)
• Fixed water surfaces being visible in front of the fog of war on a couple of the most recently added planets.
• Fixed a bug that prevented 'kill score' from sometimes being awarded for killing Rasks and Darts.
• Fixed a floating tree on planet Reotera.
• Fixed Pulser mushrooms in the new mushroom biome from rendering in front of crystals
• Fixed a bug that made it cost considerably more energy than intended to repair Bob's suit compared to repairing the lander.
• The toggle ship control hotkey no longer functions while in the configuration menus.
• The gun icon in the UI now immediately updates when Bob's gun is upgraded using an upgrade dispenser

NB. A huge shout out must go to Mango Bongo who was a massive help with playtesting and bug fixing this build.

[ 2019-03-01 13:42:07 CET ] [ Original post ]