Enter the Chronosphere - version 0.140

Today's update is focused on tightening up the core of the game, and addressing player feedback. The result should be less confusion, less unfair punishment, fewer bugs and, with any luck, more fun.

Difficulty tuning

Enemy spawn positions are adjusted to generally not be too close to the player, especially on open floors. Previously, players were getting overwhelmed or spawned into very unfair situations when entering a new floor (especially with enemies like Miners and Accelerando Turrets). The changes made should ensure fairer layouts, while still preserving the chaotic running battles of open floor layouts. Basically, you now have more turns to adapt to the situation.

Era 2 enemies no longer appear until the 3rd floor. It was too harsh having to fight them before getting a chance to get some early weapons, gear and gadgets.

Item and weapon reworks

This is the bulk of today's changes. We've reviewed all the items and weapons in game. Many things that were boring, confusing or underwhelming have either been adjusted or removed. Check the changelog below for more detail.

Aim indicators

Wanted to call this one out specifically. Aim indicators no longer pass through walls!

Next update

We always try to get bugfixes and improvements out as quick as possible, but rest assured we are working on brand new content in parallel. Next update (0.141) is going to be a big one.

I don't want to spoil it, but there's a pretty big chunk of content coming in.

Keep an eye out, the update will drop on August 3rd, to line up with Cyberpunk Festival.

Community

As usual we want to thank everyone for their detailed feedback. Really appreciating the feedback from the game's bug reporter too. Unfortunately that's all anonmyzed, so you won't be credited for your reports. But we've def been ticking off the reports.

I have to say, there is rarely an invalid bug report. Most reports are immediately turned into tickets to fix, and at worst we're getting continuous subjective feedback on the game.

If you want to give us feedback directly, you can reach us via Steam Discussions or Discord if that's your style.

0.140 changelog

🏓 Gameplay

• Fixed an issue causing some gadgets with multiple aim requirements (eg. minion summons) to occasionally lock up, not allowing the alternate uses (eg. lumpy attack) to be used the turn after being summoned.

• Fixed an issue causing some aimable gadgets to be usable through breakable walls.

• Fix a bug where attack would immediately be committed on MKB if the button was pressed immediately at the start of the command phase. (Reported by @pezzo, @zenkazemaru)

• Fix bug where pressing quickdraw while hovering the HUD stabilizer button would cause a "use stabilizer" action instead of rejecting the input for invalid aim. (Reported by @.swoopie)

• Fix issue where tapping "use ability" while hovering yourself would perform a reload or wait. (Reported by @zenkazemaru)

• Fixed an issue causing Molio to spontaneously combust if used when your back is against a wall.

• Radgun nerfed. It now fires a double shot (down from triple), and is very inaccurate when firing with no ammo. Ammo has been increased to compensate.

• Radwave nerfed. It now fires a double shot (down from triple), and is very inaccurate when firing with no ammo. The firing pattern has been tightened to compensate.

• Fixed a rare bug where Roarerborer could fire many megadrills consecutively. (Reported by @.swoopie, @juh9870, @octonalxx)

• Fixed an issue where Egg Host Larva were not immune to Eggs Inside. (Reported by @_volby)

• Reworked Bellusect Eggs. Now has an explosive combo attack which doesn't harm minions, allowing for some new builds and better mod support.

• Modified the mechanics of Burning Overload. Previously, minions and the player would take splash damage from each other, which lead to many confusing and unfun situations. Now, only enemies take splash damage from Burning Overload. (Reported by @dan7447)

• Wasp quickdraw attack now correctly fires wasps. (Reported by @octonalxx)

• Rocket launcher is now more accurate.

• Dronenests can no longer be pushed around.

• Fixed hitstop on abdomen and acid vomit being too high. (Reported by @rabbidowl)

• Lowered hitstop on malformed wasps when exploding in tight groups. (Reported by @juh9870)

• Era 2 enemies no longer appear until the 3rd floor. It was too harsh having to fight them before getting a chance to get some early weapons, gear and gadgets.

• Underwhelming gear and gadgets have been buffed or entirely reworked to make the item pool more exciting. A couple of the lamest items have been removed, pending a later rework.

• Breakneck Blitz, Potential Energy and Good Genes now apply buffs to you, as well as your minions. This should make them a more interesting option when pivoting into minion builds.

• Company Policy hitstop has been adjusted to be shorter when defeating large packs of enemies.

• Emesis and Molestone Shot have been removed from the game.

• Canary Protocol now provides twice as many stacks of fast when a minion dies.

• Idle Hands now reloads both weapons on wait, not just your equipped weapon.

• Overclock now deals 20 damage on stabilizer use, down from 30.

• Recycling completely reworked. Now provides a huge auto-reload buff after stabilizer use.

• Sausage in Molebread now provides twice as much healing.

• Seasonal Layoffs reworked. Now kills minions within aura to provide a huge power increase to your attacks.

• Toxic Shot reworked to make projectiles from quickdraw attacks poisonous (no more leaving poison pools).

• Absolute Stopwatch reworked. Now freezes projectiles within your aura in place for 6 turns, and releases them once the effect expires. ZA WARUDO.

• Chainsaugment reworked. Now uses a cooldown instead of charges, Allows you to lunge forward with a triple chainsaw attack.

• Clockwork Army minions have been reworked to have a beam attack which does not cause friendly fire, and is much cooler.

• Named Bullet completely reworked. Now inflicts Weak Point on all enemies within your aura.

• Siege mode reworked. Now applies only to projectiles, but increases the speed of ALL projectiles while active, not just the explosive ones.

• Speed Crank now provides triple speed instead of double speed.

• Booster Pack now has twice as many charges.

• Gigaton can now destroy destructible walls.

• Fixed an issue causing exploding projectile indicator sizes to be incorrect in some situations.

• Added ammo mods to the Mineral Processor weapon.

• Added ammo mods to the Overstimulator weapon.

• Updated Shurigun's mastery mod "Starbursting" to trigger on wait instead of reload.

• Replaced the Polymath and Autoloader weapon mods with 2 new ones.

• Added the Flame Turret gadget to the codex. (Reported by @sertainlysomeone)

• Fixed an issue causing aim indicators to not react correctly when the attack had drilling or was being fired into a door.

• Bushranger Armor no longer triggers if the incoming hit would have dealt 0 damage to you.

• Updated the Limiting tactic to always ensure the damage of the incoming hit is no greater than 20. (Reported by @octonalxx)

• Aim indicators are now clipped against the environment.

• The Sniper Rifle mastery mod Not A Whisper no longer loses it's effect on attack.

• Shuriken projectiles are no longer sticky.

• Replaced the Success from Suffering mastery mod for Shurikens with Overwhelming.

• Enemies hit by Toxic Byproducts are now alerted when poisoned.

• Removed the Chaining mod from the Clockwork Slugger. (Reported by @juh9870)

• Added a visual status when using the Shifty tactic that represents your current dodge chance.

• Added a text popup when damage occurs via the Lethal Sympathy distortion.

• Fixed an issue causing the Dampening tactic to apply before other damage modification effects instead of after.

• Alternate pistol forms can equip pistol mods (Nonstandard Issue still applies).

🦋 Progression

• Statistics and mastery for alternate forms now count towards the main equipment or enemy. (Reported by @_volby)

🤖 Tech

• Added a 165 FPS limit option.

• More optimizations targeting performance when many actors are present in a level.

• Reduced another source of performance spikes by increasing the default capacities of our ECS.

🌏 Localization

• Update Traditional Chinese localization.

• Update Japanese localization.

• Fix error in "Stocked" rule translation. (Reported by @kalishie)

✅ UI

• Fixed previously equipped equipment being shown in mod stations. (Reported by @pezzo)

• Partially holding to skip during dialogue now doesn't skip the current page.

• Added transitions to the rewards UI.

• Redesigned the Mod Station UI.

• Added flavor text to Lever Action and Highwayman

• Added flavor text to Portable Future.

• Clarified Portable Future description.

• Improved Canary Protocol description.

• Improved Molecular Katana attack descriptions. (Nani!?)

• Mod stations will now hide their navigation pointer on the HUD when the contents are seen, similar to other stations.

• Updated the weapon info card for the Bonesaw weapon to reflect it's unique on-hit behaviour.

• Tactics rewarded by completing irregular spheres are now shown beside them. (Reported by @dan7447)

• Removed biome labels from equipment, instead the icon is shown in the background.

🗺️ Level Generation

• Enemy spawn positions are adjusted to generally not be too close to the player, especially on open floors. Previously, players were getting overwhelmed or spawned into very unfair situations when entering a new floor (especially with enemies like Miners and Accelerando Turrets). The changes made should ensure fairer layouts, while still preserving the chaotic running battles of open floor layouts. Basically, you now have more turns to adapt to the situation.

• Added a callout on sphere selection for unvisited biomes.

• Removed hazards from all miniboss arena rooms.

• Removed all enemies/hazards from stabilizer rooms past the first floor. (Reported by @.swoopie)

• The posts between breakable walls are now breakable as well.

🔊 Audio

• Fix bug where holstered weapon "dry fire" audio was played when firing empty equipped weapon (Reported by @.swoopie)

• Fix bug where holstered weapon "dry fire" audio was not playing on empty quickdraw.

🖼️ Art

• Added heart death animation

• Updated the Crackshot rare weapon to have no weapon model, more akin to the "finger guns" theming.

• Updated Burning overload VFX

• Reduce the size of hit effect on explosions originating within an actor. This makes ailment overloads less distracting.

And that's it for today! See ya next time.

—Chronosphere team