Demo Update 0.5.10 released

# 🔧 Nion Forge – Patch 0.5.10

Hello community,

It has been almost two months since the last demo update, and a lot has happened since then.

At the beginning of October, we also attended a large conference in Vienna, where we received valuable feedback that we have implemented directly in many areas.

During this period, a major security incident at Unity also came to light.

We took this as an opportunity to update our project from Unity 2021 to the current 2022 LTS. The update was a bit bumpy at times, but it brings many long-term benefits.

This is one of the most extensive updates to date, so please excuse us:

• Older save games are unfortunately no longer compatible.

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## 🚀 New Features

• Controller rumble support (currently not yet available for PS5 controllers)

• More screen shakes in the tutorial and in the game scene

• 4 new connector modules

Since the extenders were well received and corners were requested, corner connectors are now also available.

• New module: Thruster Amplifier

Increases the thrust of all engine types by 2.5 percent per installed engine.

• 18 new upgrades, especially in combination with the weapon upgrade trees

• Complete overhaul of all in-game upgrade trees

• New menu in the hangar that clearly lists all upgrades for a run and provides filter functions

• New options in the main menu: FPS limit, controller rumble

• New options in the in-game settings menu:

• Fixed Camera Mode (Motion sickness option)

• Bloom, FPS display, ship speed, damage numbers

• Screen shake, controller rumble

• Manual level ups (Flow Mode)

• Flow Mode

Level ups can be collected and triggered manually without constantly interrupting the flow of the game.

• Revised Time System

Runs now start with 15 minutes. Each defeated boss grants +5 minutes of playtime. This gives you more time overall, but less time at the beginning.

• Death Mine Revised

Spawns explosion orbs that chase the player. Explodes when too close to the player and creates a damage field.

• Boss 02 new attack

Depending on its health points, spawns OrbSpawners that generate Explosion Orbs. The spawners can be deactivated by the player.

• Blue Supply Box now provides a Reroll Orb instead of the Magnet

The Reroll Orb increases the free rerolls by 1.

• New Powerup System

Powerups appear after a certain number of enemies have been defeated and despawn after 20 seconds.

• Ghost Mode: Fly through for 10 seconds without taking damage

• Magnet: Collects all experience orbs

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## ⚖️ Balance Changes

• Adjustments to several upgrades:

• AdjustedLightning ReloadAttack speed increased from 7% to 10%.
• AdjustedCritical AmmoCrit chance increased from 3% to 5%.

• Head Cannon: First level deals 1 less base damage.

• Other minor adjustments.

• Bullet class:

• Crit chance per level reduced from 7% to 5%.

• Crit damage reduced from 20% to 15%.

• Order of some upgrades in the trees changed.

• AdjustedBoss 1Spread of attacks in phase 3 reduced.

• Death Mine now has significantly more health points.

• Collection Box subquest: Timefields now open significantly faster.

• District kill quests partially increased by 25%.

• Explosion force reworked.

The player ship is now always cleanly repelled from the center of the explosion.

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## 🐞 Bug Fixes

• Various text corrections, especially in German.

• Collection box subquest: Quest logs sometimes disappeared when timed out.

• Levelup menu could appear simultaneously during Victory and Game Over

• Game Over screen now shows defeated bosses instead of the district

• Tutorial:

• Input prompt window sometimes did not trigger when collecting orbs

• During Victory, the player received scrap via the time bonus

• FixedGameSettings menuincorrect prompt for game start corrected

• Main menu: spawned ships sometimes did not die

• FixedHangarfixed crash when a sphere was deleted instead of a module

• Fixed EXP orb sound bug

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## 🎨 Visual & Audio

• New splash screen video/logo animation

• Scattershot projectiles are more clearly visible

• Backfirebeam hit particle now spawns in the correct position

• All districts now have colliders and ship parts no longer fall through the map

• Boss weapon pickup has a new color

• Experience orbs are now smaller than other pickups

• Damage numbers from explosions on enemies appear at the point of impact instead of in the center of the enemy

• Explosion enemies from Districts 1 and 3 now trigger a visual shield when they are invincible

• Boss colliders have been reworked; previously, bosses only had one collider, which sometimes looked strange during attacks

• Boss 01:

• Improved startup animation

• Longer bullet trails for better readability (Phase 1)

• Ring explodes correctly again (end of Phase 2)

• Phase 3 sequence reworked: ring, explosion, opening, attack explosion

• Boss 02 shields have a minimap icon

• Levelup UI has a dark background for better readability

• Quest boxes have new models, effects, and a spawn animation

• Collection box subquest shows how many boxes are still missing

• Modules in the shop have been reordered

• Many 3D models and districts have been revised

• Tutorial ship has been visually improved

• All districts and lightmaps have been revised

Lightmap UVs are now created manually by us, offering more control

• District names are now part of the models

• New icons for modules, thermal spheres, and input prompts

• New sounds for various effects, such as Boss 1 explosions

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## 🧩 Misc

• Massive system overhauls for performance optimization – the game runs much more smoothly

• More object types are now actively pooled (UI elements, Broken Ship Prefabs, Damage Fields, etc.)

• Enemy movement reworked:

slight target offset + more efficient follow logic

• Game scene now pauses automatically when the Steam overlay is opened

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What do you think of the update?

Feel free to share your opinion as in-game feedback or via our Discord.

Thank you for your support. Your feedback is extremely important to us for the further development of Nion Forge.