As we start to design and work on the third and final act of the game (which is going to be pretty involved and take longer than any update we've worked on thus far) I wanted to push out a small patch with a few bug fixes and balance changes we've been working on. ...plus a bonus new Act 3 panel :D

New Panel: The Portals!

General Changes

• The electricity meter now only displays 4 full bars when the panel has the maximum electricity it can use. Previously the electricity amount was rounded which meant when you had 99% of the electricity needed it would display 100%.
• Steam engines now emit steam!
• Increased the size of particles in the wind gust effect to try and help players notice it effecting other panels more.
• Improved the carrot explosion particle effect.
• Added particle effects to Ellen during the race.
• Added sound effects to Ellen during the race.
• Added some new backgrounds which are used in the Act 3 challenge modes.
• Changed the scale of act 2 backgrounds.
• Bumpers no longer require electricity and now fire objects and the player at a predictable constant speed.

Balance Changes

• The power of effect caused by lasers is now effected by the square root of the length of the laser rather than the raw length. This is to encourage and reward players to use the beam directors rather than just building long straight paths.
• Challenge modes are now all unlocked using stars. Previously the sandbox modes required you to submit so many daily and weekly challenges. We have felt bad about that initial design decision for a while, in particular the kinds of behaviours it encourages.
• Drop rates of panels in story mode have been completely changed. You will now see act 2 and 3 panels in act 1 and 2 in the pre encounter truck stop.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where placeholder assets were used when the flywheel and gravity wells got destroyed.
• The laser sound effect no longer activates when you try to turn the laser on without enough electricity.
• Fixed a bug where the game calculates how much money you *could* have earnt in the story mode. We use this to effect how characters talk to you and some of the dialogue options. Prior to this patch the calculation was under estimating how much money you could earn, this meant the characters always thought you were spending all your money all the time!
• Boulders no longer spawn into the player.