Update v0.2.1

We've been hard at work trying out things based on the feedback that we received over the course of the raid party and other sources and are excited for you to try it out! In preparation for Steam Next Fest we pushed a major update to the demo.

Based on your feedback, we set out to improve the pacing, clarity, and balance of the game. We hope that these changes make the game more fun and easier to understand!

We've also added a brand new boss to the demo!

A high-level summary of the changes (full patch notes below):

• Improved the speed and feel of combat by introducing attack chaining and reducing cooldowns on successful dodges

• Fearless difficulty has been made significantly harder.

• Improved clarity during fights: player outline, sound feedback, boss attack indicators

• Tutorial has been completely overhauled with improved clarity and more detail

• More abilities have been added to the ability pool and shops have been rebalanced!

• New boss fight has been added just for Next Fest!

The new boss is Media Maleficum:

Media Maleficum uses the scrap metal of its domain to continuously construct towers that cause electricity to arc between them, confining Hunters’ movements while inflicting grievous injury. In this boss fight, you'll need to carefully read the patterns of Media Meleficum's attacks to succeed, finding safe spots between it's attacks. Media Maleficum has the unique ability to intefere with its victims' nervous systems, which will invert your movement controls or disable your abilities if you are caught in the wrong place, so you'll need to constantly be on your feet to stay ahead!

We're really grateful for all of the feedback we've received, it has definitely helped us make the game better! If you have any feedback for us, please share it in our Discord!

V0.2.1 Patch Notes:

Balance:

• Bleed effect no longer stacks per player.

• Exploit passive now only counts unique status effects.

• Rebalanced shop item counts, prices and chances

• Rebalanced all currency in the game.

• Rebalanced certain abilities.

Melee Rework:

• Melee basic abilities can now be chained together up to 3 times by pressing the button multiple times.

• VFX and movement changed for some other melee attacks to improve combat feel.

• Ability cooldowns are now reduced any time an attack is successfully dodged.

Difficulty Rework:

• New status effect "Vigor", applied to players at the start of fights in New difficulty. Slowly regenerates health.

• New status effect "Insanity", applied to players during fights after about 5 and a half minutes on Fearless difficulty. Deals damage over time.

• Health loss when being revived is now dependent on the difficulty. (Normal or Fearless)

• Health loss removed during rests is now dependent on the difficulty (Fearless only)

• Player revival timer now varies based on the number of players.

Clarity Improvements:

• Player outline is now split into two colors, the innermost outline always black regardless of the suit color, for better visibility behind certain attacks.

• Attempting to use an ability on cooldown now shows a cleaner visual on the ability slot, accompanied by a sound and player animation.

• Non basic abilities now play a sound when they come off cooldown

• Added Glossary screen (work in progress)

• Simplified process of creating an online multiplayer room by 1 step by removing the connection method screen; now implemented as tabs on the room settings screen.

• Players spectating a room can now open the "local players" page of the multiplayer screen, and request to add players.

• Added some missing attributes to ability descriptions.

• Added new icons for existing status effects.

• Star systems with no playable planets no longer play entering/exiting animations.

• Improve visual indicators for 4-hit bonus ability.

• Implemented new player health bar and Trauma Unit visuals.

• In-world interactions now make a sound when interacted with

• Increased size of ability/status effect/concept icons within text.

• Health packs are now referred to as Trauma Unit Charges everywhere in all text.

• Implemented sound effects for cutscenes

• Updated VFX for various abilities

• Added new status effect icons.

• Added shortcut for opening Status screen.

• Added animation for when status effects appear.

• Improved attack indicators for several bosses.

Tutorial Rework

• The tutorial has been completely overhauled with improved clarity! Give it a try!

• Mechanics are explained in more detail with text and illustrations.

Other Changes

• Added a built-in screenshot function: F2 on keyboard. Screenshots are saved to the user directory (%appdata%/Godot/app_userdata/Nullpoint Protocol Demo/screenshots)

• More boss attack shaders are now precompiled before entering the main menu, to prevent stutters during gameplay.

We're aware that this significantly increases the time it takes to reach the main menu, and we have plans to mitigate this in the future.

• Increased deadzone for walk-interruption during charged attacks

• Updated visuals of the Rest encounter scene.

• Audio re-balance on the demo bosses.

• Some new abilities might have found their way into the ability pool

• Optimized Hub geometry.

• Optimized some boss arena geometries, which now reuse meshes across scenes.

• Added new boss introduction cutscenes

• Changed default input mapping on controllers: Special and Support abilities are now mapped to triggers. Interact button is now mapped to right face button.

• Added interactable item in hub to reset ability cooldowns.

• Added resolution settings.

• Updated Credits (no, not the currency, the attributions)

• Adjusted loot table for shops, more items are now sold.

• Boss challenges now grant currency (without skipping).

• Room Settings configuration is now saved to a different file. Players may have to re-configure their rooms next time.

• Shop camera now follows only your own player(s).

• Input map settings screen now starts on the page corresponding to the input method used to get there.

• Temporarily removed Boreal Facade Phase 2 music.

• Known bug: the preview when hovering over the rest option still displays the full health bar and doesn't reflect the health that will be regained.

• Added section on the hub hallway where players gain increased movement speed.

• Fixed some cutscene text only appearing for host.

• Fixed error labels in loot screen attribute labels.

• Fixed shop item previews getting stuck in online multiplayer.

• Fixed ear-shattering level up sound.

• Fixed texture popping on Boreal Facade walkup scene.

• Fixed music not playing while game is paused.

• Fixed cooldown indicator incorrectly appearing to finish earlier than supposed to the more hits the player dealt.

• New boss fight added just for steam next fest

• Cutscene audio added