Exactly 5 years ago, Jupiter Hell has been funded on Kickstarter, let's celebrate that with a release, shall we? Brace yourselves, as this is - once again - a lengthy post and changelog!

Jupiter Hell 1.2 "Varia" brings a variety of changes, and changes that bring variety (see what we did there? :P). We have the player requested Mouse support (although it should be considered experimental still), a ton of new Callisto exotics, plasma SMGs (and unique SMGs!), new weapon perks, a big variety improvement of the traits (including master traits), a rework of damage type resistances (and affinities and vulnerabilities) and minor Callisto and Europa reward improvements. It's a lot to go over so lets split our changelog into sections - raw changelog is at the end as usual! Be sure to drop by the Jupiter Hell Discord (https://discord.gg/jupiterhell) if you have any questions - it's the best place to find help, discuss strategies, share mortems or videos of Jupiter Hell. The devs are very active there too!

== Mouse support! ==

While we still believe that Jupiter Hell is best played with a keyboard or gamepad only, we agree that an option for mouse control is great as an accessability feature, and probably also will be the prefered way to play by some people. JH 1.2 introduces experimental Mouse support. It's experimental in the sense that we didn't have enough time testing it, so there still might be bugs, and it isn't fully integrated into the game (no mouse tooltips, no tutorial support and the only source of help is in the help menu). That said, ALL the functionality (apart from name entry) is in the game, so it can be fully played without touching the gamepad or the keyboard :P. Enable mouse support in Settings/Input Settings by switching Mouse Support to "Active", and definitely read the Mouse and Mouse UI section in Help to get started! Feedback on mouse control needed and very welcome!

• NEW #1174 - Mouse support (experimental)

== New gear! ==

Early game exotics

As a part of our long standing goal of early game improvement we noticed that the variety of exotic loot in Callisto is very lacking (I mean, who gets excited at the 121st 9mm calibrated to drop?). This update introduces 13 (!!) new exotic weapons that can drop in Callisto, each with a unique perk, many designed to be strong in the earlier part of the game helping to transition into mid and late game gear. 2 armors, 2 visors, and 9 weapons have been added to the loot pool, each of them dropping from at latest depth 3!

• NEW #1591 - 13 new early game exotics!

Plasma SMGs

SMG builds didn't have a late game version of their favored weapon, so we fixed that. At the same time we fixed the horrible oversight of SMGs not having Unique's to be found! Plasma SMGs come with ADV variants, and 3 new Uniques in the loot pool.

• NEW #1591 - plasma SMG added (and ADV variants)
• NEW #1584 - 3 unique SMGs added! (early, mid and late)

New weapon perks

We took a critical look at the weapon ADV perk pool, decided to remove the unpopular and usually worthless Finisher perk, and instead introduced 6 new perks to spice up the variety of ADV weapons found. I'll use this section to also mention that CRI rail rifles got scopes that they were missing due to an oversight, and we buffed 7.62 snipers by a bit too!

• NEW #1652 - 5 new perks for ADV weapons added
• CHANGE #1625 - removed Finisher weapon perk, added Ambush perk
• CHANGE #1603 - CRI rail rifle comes with a scope
• CHANGE #1603 - 7.62 sniper damage 24 -> 25

== Trait changes! ==

Following further with the goal of improving early game, we also decided that it will be more beneficial for the game if picking early traits doesn't railroad characters into specific builds. We started those changes in 1.1, but only now can these changes truly shine. We took a deep look at every class in the game, with the goal of improving build variety, making traits have more character and opening up interesting new builds!

Marine trait changes

With Marine we wanted to have more gameplay around the Fury mechanic, and wanted to decouple the melee only traits into something that might be useful in non-melee builds in some edge cases. Vampyre now has a weaker effect if using non-melee weapons opening up for hybrid builds, Rip and Tear grants fury for non-melee kills and Furious grants a straight damage bonus on Adrenaline use. Army of Darkness was in a relatively good spot, but we wanted to give it some flavor. It now gives bonus to chainsaw damage and grants zero-time melee weapon swap to open up some proper hybrid gameplay options. If you know why a chainsaw specifically, then you had a groovy childhood like we did! Tough as Nails needed some love and gets a pain penalty removal functionality - without removing the pain status, so Adrenaline still works fully! Field Medic additionally grants faster medkit/stim use.

• CHANGE #1602 - Vampyre works with non-melee weapons (but weaker)
• CHANGE #1627 - Rip and Tear grants Fury for non-melee kills also
• CHANGE #1627 - Furious loses fury generation on gibbing
• CHANGE #1627 - Furious grants damage bonus when using Adrenaline
• CHANGE #1627 - Marine Skilled increases Tenacity heal by 10%/lvl
• CHANGE #1602 - Army of Darkness gains zero melee weapon swap time
• CHANGE #1602 - Army of Darkness gains chainsaw damage bonus
• CHANGE #1603 - TaN L2 provides -50% pain penalty, L3 removes it
• CHANGE #1603 - Field Medic L2+ adds small medkit/stim use time bonus
• CHANGE #1603 - Field Medic requires only one level of Ironman

Scout trait changes

Scout needed mostly a specific buff to the Assassinate master, and especially the hybrid Swashbuckler/Assassinate build. The former, while owning easier difficulties was definitely too dangerous for higher challenges, so we rebuild it with a charge mechanic that prevents it from going off the rails on Easy, but added crit chance bonuses and auto-hit so it can shine even in higher difficulties. Swashbuckler has been straight up buffed with the damage bonus now slowly degrading instead of being removed after using the other weapon group. Fairly casual gameplay with swapping between guns and melee will now fairly steadily maintain a +50% damage bonus. Speaking of melee, Gunrunner now works with melee, adding a third pure melee master option after Assassinate and Ghost builds, and even more opening up Scout to hybrid gameplay! Skilled has been buffed to provide an additional benefit of increasing energy, while Eagle Eye at level 3 now halves enemy cover. Speaking of Eagle Eye, Whizkid, Ghost and Gunrunner no longer require it, not to penalize pure melee builds.

• CHANGE #1603 - Assassinate uses charges mechanic
• CHANGE #1603 - Assassinate always hits, +50/100 crit chance at L1/L2
• CHANGE #1603 - Swashbuckler bonus now degrades instead of removed
• CHANGE #1603 - Gunrunner works with melee
• CHANGE #1603 - Scout Skilled L1 and L3 increase Energy by 10
• CHANGE #1603 - Eagle Eye L3 halves enemy cover
• CHANGE #1603 - Whizkid and Ghost require Hacking L1 instead of EE L1
• CHANGE #1603 - Gunrunner requires Son of a Gun L1 instead of EE L1

Technician trait changes

With Tech we really wanted to make him more unique by digging into status effects (which got big changes, see below) and grenades. Fireangel has it's namesake effect kick in from Level 1, and gives a bonus to ALL burning damage that you deal. Find a suitable relic or a nice Molten weapon? You'll be much more effective with it than a regular marine ;). Similarly Toxicologist got a blanket toxin damage buff at L1, and does smoke nade conversion at L2. This ties directly to the next buff, Grenadier L1 and L2 give a grenade damage boost (and they now crit if you have skills or items that increase general crit chance!).

• CHANGE #1603 - Fireangel sets things on fire since L1
• CHANGE #1587 - Fireangel L2/L3 grants +50%/+100% to ALL Burning
• CHANGE #1587 - Toxicologist L2 - smoke nades, L3 +50% ALL toxin procs
• CHANGE #1637 - Grenadier L1/L2 - +25%/+50% nade damage, no gib bonus
• FIX #1636 - grenades can now crit and use other character buffs
• FIX #1602 - Sharpshooter didn't increase auto/semi max range

Other trait changes

We cleaned up the trait descriptions to a pleasing universal format, and did two changes to the more general traits. While Ironman health bonus has been nerfed from +20% to +10% (giving an option for the health stations to shine more) this is because it also grants the important bleed resistance, giving it a wider desirability. Son of a Gun got a buff back to it's roots - while it stays weapon agnostic (did you know it works with melee and 'nades?), ADDITIONALLY it adds pistol/revolver range bonuses, to strengthen the early game of those pistol builds that we love. Gun Kata is once again, a bloodbath without incident :P

• CHANGE #1603 - Ironman adds only +10% HP, but also bleed resistance
• CHANGE #1628 - Son of a Gun adds pistol only range bonuses
• CHANGE #1627 - trait descriptions cleanup

== Other changes! ==

Damage types and status effects

In spirit of enabling more fun synergies and combinations we decided to do a deeper dive into damage types and status effects. Apart from resistances now the game has negative resistances (vulnerability) and affinities (bonus to all damage done with a damage type/status). We added vulnerabilities to many relics (instead of the boring damage debuff) for more interesting gameplay and also status affinities to several ones too (and some traits as you might have read already above). There are also more interesting interactions between damage types - for example burning damage now cauterizes bleeding effect. More useful though is that bleeding prevents regeneration effects. This is only a slight problem for the player (if using a regeneration relic, Heart buff or Survivor), but is very useful against some enemies - regenerating exalted or enemies under the warlock aura! Speaking of which we removed the bleed resistance from Warlocks and enemies under their aura to emphasize and encourage this counterplay. Oh, and frag grenades now cause bleeding - finally having a use late-game and providing a cheap source of bleed at the same time! EMP had only limited (but powerful) use - now however it will also affect semi-mechanical enemies (think which demons have grafted metal/armor) damaging them partially and slowing them down (but never disabling). To make things interesting, the boss stages 1 and 2 are now considered semi-mechanical too. Having access to the vulnerability mechanic, we could not resist making some enemies vulnerable, and hence fire fiends have cold vulnerability, while ice fiends, cyroberi and cryoreavers - fire vulnerability.

• CHANGE #1631 - several minor relics grant status effect buffs
• CHANGE #1631 - minor fire/ice relics -100% resist instead of -damage
• CHANGE #1633 - bleeding now prevents regeneration
• CHANGE #1633 - Burning damage cauterizes Bleeding
• CHANGE #1633 - frag grenades cause bleeding
• CHANGE #1633 - Warlock aura no longer grants +50% bleed resistance
• CHANGE #1633 - Warlocks no longer have bleed resistance (Archs 50%)
• CHANGE #1587 - resistances are displayed uncapped
• CHANGE #1587 - fire fiends have cold vulnerability
• CHANGE #1587 - ice fiends, cryoberi and cryoreavers- fire vulnerab.
• CHANGE #1587 - bots now have only 50% fire resistance
• CHANGE #1630 - semi-mechanicals can be harmed with emp damage (50%)
• CHANGE #1630 - boss stage 1 and 2 is semi-mechanical
• CHANGE #1587 - emp and toxin resistances displayed on bots and bio
• CHANGE #1587 - slash/impact/pierce resistances (with display)
• FIX #1611 - Acid status shows damage amount
• FIX #1587 - fixed some edge cases with wrong damage value display

Level generation changes

Preparing for the big Callisto changes coming in the next update (1.3) we decided to make the current special levels a bit more visit-worthy - Anomaly, Rift and Barracks rewards have been improved. We also noticed that Europa Ruins and Shadow Halls duo had a way lower amount of chests than intended - this has been significantlt improved. Frozen Temple is easier to open on Nightmare+, while Cathedral has a small added secret interaction - no hints are provided :P

• CHANGE #1642 - improved Anomaly, Rift and Military Barracks rewards
• CHANGE #1643 - Europa Ruins/Shadow Halls have a guaranteed box count
• CHANGE #1643 - on N!+ Frozen Temple also opens after 125% kills
• CHANGE #1578 - new small Cathedral secret added
• FIX #1617 - CalSec shutdown will properly disable Rift enemies

== Bugfixes! ==

And finally there' the usual splatter of bugfixes!

Gameplay bugfixes

• FIX #1636 - fixed chainfire weapons that didn't stop when dead
• FIX #1587 - Firecrown properly awards experience on kills
• FIX #1618 - Journal entries will not archive entering minilevels
• FIX #1625 - TAINTED properly shows up in enemy view
• FIX #1639 - zero-time action will always be queued next
• FIX #1638 - fixed status update on zero-time weapon swaps
• FIX #1611 - stage 1 of the boss properly has size 1 melee-wise
• FIX #1611 - boss conversion will not misplace player visually
• FIX #1654 - fixed manufacture hint about perks for stock items
• FIX #1641 - weapons with 100+ mag will display correctly

Engine bugfixes

• FIX #1644 - proper stretch of low-health overlay on widescreen
• FIX #1644 - fixed low-health overlay on some systems
• FIX #1619 - opt outline will no longer disappear on fullbody FX
• FIX #1653 - fixed Discord activity always showing "MED" diff

That's all the details you need - now let's sum this all up in the usual...

== Raw Changelog! ==

Release 1.2 - Varia - December 13th, 2021 NEW #1174 - Mouse support (experimental) NEW #1591 - 13 new early game exotics! NEW #1591 - plasma SMG added (and ADV variants) NEW #1584 - 3 unique SMGs added! (early, mid and late) NEW #1652 - 5 new perks for ADV weapons added CHANGE #1602 - Vampyre works with non-melee weapons (but weaker) CHANGE #1602 - Army of Darkness gains zero melee weapon swap time CHANGE #1602 - Army of Darkness gains chainsaw damage bonus CHANGE #1627 - Rip and Tear grants Fury for non-melee kills also CHANGE #1603 - Ironman adds only +10% HP, but also bleed resistance CHANGE #1603 - TaN L2 provides -50% pain penalty, L3 removes it CHANGE #1603 - Field Medic L2+ adds small medkit/stim use time bonus CHANGE #1603 - Field Medic requires only one level of Ironman CHANGE #1627 - Furious loses fury generation on gibbing CHANGE #1627 - Furious grants damage bonus when using Adrenaline CHANGE #1627 - Marine Skilled increases Tenacity heal by 10%/lvl CHANGE #1628 - Son of a Gun adds pistol only range bonuses CHANGE #1603 - Assassinate uses charges mechanic CHANGE #1603 - Assassinate always hits, +50/100 crit chance at L1/L2 CHANGE #1603 - Scout Skilled L1 and L3 increase Energy by 10 CHANGE #1603 - Swashbuckler bonus now degrades instead of removed CHANGE #1603 - Eagle Eye L3 halves enemy cover CHANGE #1603 - Whizkid and Ghost require Hacking L1 instead of EE L1 CHANGE #1603 - Gunrunner requires Son of a Gun L1 instead of EE L1 CHANGE #1603 - Gunrunner works with melee CHANGE #1603 - Fireangel sets things on fire since L1 CHANGE #1587 - Fireangel L2/L3 grants +50%/+100% to ALL Burning CHANGE #1587 - Toxicologist L2 - smoke nades, L3 +50% ALL toxin procs CHANGE #1637 - Grenadier L1/L2 - +25%/+50% nade damage, no gib bonus CHANGE #1627 - trait descriptions cleanup CHANGE #1603 - 7.62 sniper damage 24 -> 25 CHANGE #1603 - CRI rail rifle comes with a scope CHANGE #1631 - several minor relics grant status effect buffs CHANGE #1631 - minor fire/ice relics -100% resist instead of -damage CHANGE #1633 - bleeding now prevents regeneration CHANGE #1633 - Burning damage cauterizes Bleeding CHANGE #1633 - frag grenades cause bleeding CHANGE #1587 - fire fiends have cold vulnerability CHANGE #1587 - ice fiends, cryoberi and cryoreavers- fire vulnerab. CHANGE #1587 - bots now have only 50% fire resistance CHANGE #1630 - semi-mechanicals can be harmed with emp damage (50%) CHANGE #1630 - boss stage 1 and 2 is semi-mechanical CHANGE #1587 - resistances are displayed uncapped CHANGE #1587 - emp and toxin resistances displayed on bots and bio CHANGE #1587 - slash/impact/pierce resistances (with display) CHANGE #1633 - Warlock aura no longer grants +50% bleed resistance CHANGE #1633 - Warlocks no longer have bleed resistance (Archs 50%) CHANGE #1625 - removed Finisher weapon perk, added Ambush perk CHANGE #1642 - improved Anomaly, Rift and Military Barracks rewards CHANGE #1643 - Europa Ruins/Shadow Halls have a guaranteed box count CHANGE #1643 - on N!+ Frozen Temple also opens after 125% kills CHANGE #1578 - new small Cathedral secret added FIX #1611 - Acid status shows damage amount FIX #1636 - grenades can now crit and use other character buffs FIX #1636 - fixed chainfire weapons that didn't stop when dead FIX #1602 - Sharpshooter didn't increase auto/semi max range FIX #1587 - fixed some edge cases with wrong damage value display FIX #1587 - Firecrown properly awards experience on kills FIX #1617 - CalSec shutdown will properly disable Rift enemies FIX #1618 - Journal entries will not archive entering minilevels FIX #1625 - TAINTED properly shows up in enemy view FIX #1639 - zero-time action will always be queued next FIX #1638 - fixed status update on zero-time weapon swaps FIX #1611 - stage 1 of the boss properly has size 1 melee-wise FIX #1611 - boss conversion will not misplace player visually FIX #1641 - weapons with 100+ mag will display correctly FIX #1644 - proper stretch of low-health overlay on widescreen FIX #1644 - fixed low-health overlay on some systems FIX #1619 - opt outline will no longer disappear on fullbody FX FIX #1653 - fixed Discord activity always showing "MED" diff FIX #1654 - fixed manufacture hint about perks for stock items

== What's next! ==

Jupier Hell 1.3, currently codenamed "Valhalla", will be out between February/March, and will feature an overhaul to the Callisto zone, including several additions that will make the first half hour of a run more interesting and prettier! It will be either accompanied or preceded by a language update, bringing German, Russian, and Polish translations to Jupiter Hell. As this is the last mainline release of 2021 we wanted to wish you Happy Holidays and an excellent New Year! We're sure to do our part so that Jupiter Hell can still deliver new experiences and joy throughout 2022 :D Yours,

[ 2021-12-13 17:59:12 CET ] [ Original post ]