v0.1.4 Update - Minor

Change Log - DRONE SMUGGLER v0.1.4 Early Access

Fixes:

• Fixed an issue where the spawn rate scaling (relative to score / high score) was adding the level's minimum spawn rate each time it was updated while the score was less than the high score

Changes:

• Pause menu displays current application version number in the bottom right

• High, Mid, and Low color option packs now have 37 color slots each

• Added a 1.25% stacking decrease to the spawn cooldown time for each combo multiplier over 1.0x

• Asteroids received a 50% buff to hull after spawning to give them a bit more staying power

• Player ship now displays RCS-style thruster jets/cones when thruster input is given and the ship can still accelerate in that direction

  • The color of these cones is a transform of one of the ship's palette colors

Known Issues:

• Some color combinations can create problematic visuals

• Some thruster colors end up being too dark because the transform doesn't check the source RGB before transforming - leading to undesirable 0 brightness/value color

Development Priorities:

• Review color combinations and potentially add in curated (in addition to the current randomized) palettes

• Attempt Steam SDK integration with a focus on supporting steam input for controllers, stretch goal of providing simple achievements and stats tracking

• A real local leaderboard for high scores, ship names, their stats, and some info about the level they were achieved on (instead of just the single high score that is currently tracked)

• Add simple powerups that drop from destroyed space objects

  • Adding powerups will also require adding foundational elements for ship upgrades into the game, currently classified into two categories - Upgrade Modules and Tech Modifications

  • Upgrade Modules are added to a ship's module slot(s) to change the ships stats and/or behavior

  • Tech Mods are generated as part of an Upgrade Module's statistics or applied manually after being researched and crafted by the player

  • The current Arcade mode will support only a very simple version of these features but will be built upon a foundation that can support the more advanced goals for this part of the game - so keep an eye on this as we move closer to 0.1.5!