Planet Killer Demo Update 0.1.5

This is the first major demo patch since demo release, and it includes a large batch of new features, balance changes, UI improvements, and bug fixes based on player feedback.

I've heard you all loud and clear and I'll be focusing my attention on more sound effect design to properly align with the tone of the game, including some new soundtracks. This will come on a future patch, but for now I think I tackled a lot of the major pain points I've seen players comment on.

Thank you to everyone who has played the demo, shared feedback, reported bugs, wishlisted the game, and helped Planet Killer reach so many new players. I've went through all 49 google feedback forms (as of now) and I've tried to fix most of the commonly requested features and bugs I've seen. If you want to follow along with the development and discuss the game join our rapidly growing discord here.

New Features & Improvements

• Added a new planet distress/news report system, featuring procedural radio transmission audio.

• Added the new Command Transfer feature. If your flagship is destroyed and you still have wingmen alive, you can now transfer command to a wingman, control them, and fire their equipped or base weapons.

• Added a new leaderboard for Total Planet Killer Score.

• Fixed the run score damage calculation so planets always award their intended score value, preventing stat padding by circling around and dealing extra damage.

• Added a new after-run stat report with more detailed loadout, weapon, and upgrade information from your run.

• Added a new Ship Encyclopedia to the ship select screen, explaining the three-letter designations used by Planet Killer ships and the main uses of each type of ship.

• Added new tooltip functionality that lets you compare your current loadout with reward cards before selecting them.

• Added hover tooltips explaining each section of the ship select screen radar charts.

• Weapons and modules now have dynamic pricing and no longer only sell for 1 credit.

• Added the ability to buy shop items by double-clicking.

• Renamed Planet Cracker Cannon to Nuclear Fusion Bomb.

• Consolidated planet stat language in lifetime stats.

• Weapons with damage ranges now display correctly in tooltips and reward cards.

• Added a new Unstable modifier for procedural weapons, giving them a very wide damage range for high-risk, high-variance builds.

• Weapon tooltips and reward cards now show weapon range.

• Improved the accuracy of the Survival Chance calculator.

• Improved wingman AI behavior.

• Added emblems to the star map to highlight galactic shops and elite/boss planets.

• Refined and polished weapon descriptions.

• Improved hover particles in the Loadout Screen UI so they better match the rarity of the hovered module. These now also work on perks.

Game Balance

• Planet Defense Lasers can now spawn much deeper in the planet, allowing laser-defended planets to remain dangerous for longer.

• Certain defenses can now spawn slightly deeper in destroyed terrain.

• Fixed an issue where some single-shot procedurally generated missiles and torpedoes could deal extremely underwhelming damage.

• Enemy Planetary Defense ships should no longer generate instant one-shot missile salvos of death, though they are still dangerous.

• Increased the maximum number of concurrent cannon shots.

• Increased tractor beam pull strength.

• Buffed Chemical Siege laser damage.

• Buffed Hellfire Missile damage.

• Buffed Ion Pulse damage.

• RCS Tuner now provides a base 10% speed boost.

• Made various weapon balance tweaks across premade weapons.

• Wingmen now inherit more speed and turn rate from the player.

• Adjusted some starting ship shield and hull values.

• Phase Torpedo now detonates inside planets more reliably.

• Slightly reduced Star-Sunder Beam damage.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where credits were not properly awarded to the player wallet after destroying a planet.

• Fixed an issue where some planets only awarded 1 credit despite the star map displaying a higher reward range.

• Wingmen should no longer try to crash into the planet.

• Fixed an issue where the in-game cursor could become misaligned on setups with two or more monitors.

• Weapon DPS tooltips are now more accurate to their real in-game performance.

• Shop-owned items can no longer be upgraded.

• Fixed an issue where upgraded weapons still used their base, un-upgraded cooldown rate in battle. Upgraded cooldowns should now work correctly.