Hello all,

A great deal of this month's work is not featured in this update, as it is part of a larger update coming in May, focusing on menu overhauls, better settings, quality of life, controls, and localization. Thank you for your patience! Let's go over what WAS changed though...


Visibility, Features, and QoL

• Started improving the pause menu. It has a bit more info, and it is partially dynamic to your loadout
• Asteroids now have a slight outline to differentiate them more from the background
• Added a finder circle and a finder pointer for when you're near the edges of the screen
• Grenade explosion artwork has been made less occlusive
• Salvo explosion effects have been made smaller (the blast radius is the same)
• When you screen wrap, the pulsing effect now moves with you, making the player object easier to locate
• The volume and pitch of the crash sfx now changes depending on how hard you are knocked back
• Added some pitch randomization to a few other sfx to try it out
• More fonts are now retina friendly. All fonts now scale at 50% for non-retina to reduce distortion
• Enemy missiles no longer screen flash if fired rapidly
• Firing direction no longer modifies your forward-facing aim scope

Enemy and Wave Balance

• Made the wave speed modifier from Danger Zone and Mayhem a little less crazy compared to the previous adjustment
• Added considerably more wave time padding for early waves, before wave 30 (was 20), up to 8 seconds
• Enemies now start becoming stronger at wave 100 instead of 120
• Reduced the scaling value, and the maximum value, of enemy knockback dealt to the player based on their hull
• Serpent Elites fire their spines a little less frequently
• Serpent Elites won't appear in the wild before wave 25 now, up from 20
• Wardens and Interceptors now allow a little more time to defeat them
• Pulsars now chase you somewhat less quickly
• Normal and elite Pulsar shots have a little less targeting
• Spitfires now won't introduce more Pulsars if there are already 2 or more
• Spitfire is now a little harder to trick into not firing
• Eclipse champions won't spawn randomly before wave 45 (was 40)
• Eclipse shield retaliation cooldown 2 frames -> 3 frames
• Small asteroids now push less hard
• Small asteroids are more likely to contain orbs
• Small Asteroids deal 10 -> 5 damage

Game Balance

• Grenade's knockback has been halved, making it easier to hit with clusters
• Grenade base damage: 75 -> 85
• Salvo base damage: 50 -> 60
• Salvo's stockpile rate from projectile count now works consistently with other sources of rate of fire, and also has been improved from 5% -> 15% per projectile (If you go this route, I recommend Convergence over Fusillade)
• A previous buff to Salvo's stockpile diminishing returns was accidentally a nerf. I have inverted this and buffed it further
• Barrage now properly affects projectile count for the purposes of Loaded Mines (with all projectile-based weapons) and Stockpile
• Mine hull 30 -> 25
• Charged Mines now prevents mines from using a trigger radius. They will still detonate on impact (This is a huge buff for this mod in most set ups)
• Mine trigger radius decreased by 25%
• Loaded mines now take 2 -> 4 damage for innately charging weapons
• Swarm Construct damage 5 -> 6
• Interceptor Ally now uses a larger cone angle for targeting integrated weaponry. It is now more likely to start charging Vortex, more likely to start or keep firing Thermal Lance, and more likely to fire other weapons near enemies
• Vortex base damage 4 -> 3.4 (-15% base damage)
• Loaded Mines last rule has been modified: "For weapons that charge innately, your mines charge your weapon at 75% of your charge rate. Additionally, they constantly take 4 damage /s and pay +100% charge costs" (Note that Thermal Lance does not have a "charge cost", only Vortex does)
• Mine effect, for innately charging weapons, has been made consistent with other forms of charge rate scaling instead of being multiplicative

Explanation: Vortex is most fun when it has a high risk vs reward element. Recent changes to its scaling allowed it to become monstrous without ever really putting you at much risk, due to increased levels of crowd control and charge rate. This reduction in damage will require that you spend longer charging and taking damage to reach those huge damage numbers from huge vortexes. As for the mine changes, Architect was on another level, with Vortex Mines being substantially better than any other kind of mine (or maybe even any other Architect choice). This was because of both mine hull being disposable, unlike the hull of the player or allies, as well as some explosive scaling with Architect's mine effect. Combined, these changes affect Vortex considerably, and Thermal Lance mines only a little.


Fixes

• Fixed Adrenal Module setting a value where it should be adding a value, overwriting the global damage gained from Masochism
• Homing Strike now works properly with Burst Fire for Allies
• Construct formations no longer flip out if the player teleports or is schlorped into a singularity
• The finder no longer activates if the player does the above
• Fixed some description formatting
• Gemini + Shielded Drones + Discharge now properly ignores Gemini
• Architect charging a blade doesn't detonate other constructs until it actually fires
• Prevented the Ludicrous Speed achievement from being earned in debug mode
• Phantom Strike and Outrage module now work with Homing Strike
• Fixed a crash with Outrage module
• Square Drift no longer crashes (perfectly square aspect ratios)
• Grenades with Hyperboost are now less occlusive
• Fixed Grenade's damage being misreported
• Gemini Protocol now indicates that your shield must protect you, as was the case
• Allies using Thermal Lance no longer discontinue the charge if a valid target exists
• Ally burst fire homing strike no longer breaks projectile count
• Halo + Gemini no longer works with Shielded Constructs, as intended
• Prevented Bastion + Architect from detonating mines when it is assembled but not deployed (using Shielded Constructs)
• Fixed Shockwave not creating a shockwave when your shield cooldown completes, but your shield capacity is full
• Fixed Echo Strike misreporting that it hits twice
• Fixed Carrier text colors
• Blade now informs you that its construct limit is equal to your projectile count
• Fixed Shockwave depth sorting
• Stabilize now works while thrusting if Thrust and Up are bound to the same input
• Defensive Drones prioritize hazards in Orbit formation
• Orbit and Rampart formations prefer targets in the direction they're facing
• Vortex charge and Thermal Lance beam now take directional offset from Propulsive Munitions into account
• Antimatter Rounds proced with Salvo's stockpile now divides its added self-damage by your burst fire count, preventing unintentional massive self-damage from burst fire
• Antimatter rounds with Salvo's Stockpile was additionally being applied a second time at a value far greater than intended. This has been removed
• Clamped Bastion Shield's sprite index to prevent a crash when it gets too high
• Prevented a crash involving enemy beam charges being unable to find their leader (when its cleaned up for being off-screen for too long)
• Prevented Sanctuary from (improperly) working with Shielded Constructs
• Fixed cases of Gemini Protocol (improperly) working with Bastion Shield when you have Shielded Constructs
• Fixed some cases of Bastion using base damage instead of current damage to trigger hull-threshold-based mods
• Prevented hull-damage-threshold-triggered mods (that they themselves trigger self-damage) from overwriting the original hull damage you were intended to take (?!)
• Siege Weaponry self-damage now reports in the combat log
• Outrage Module trigger now reports in the proper place in the combat log
• Architect now properly triggers detonate on your constructs when a blade is produced by Phantom Strike or Outrage Module
• The pause menu now properly reports ignite duration modifiers from body gear
• The singularity doesn't blot out the pause menu anymore
• The singularity doesn't draw in front of the darkness anymore
• Fixed excessive Volatile Shield / Tempest Break with Blade + Bastion + Shielded Constructs + Burnout Reactors
• Blade + Burst Fire + Courser / Battery can no longer cheat blade count and fire extra projectiles
• Blades with Shielded Constructs no longer do less damage after taking damage
• Visual Warp Shield radius now works with shield radius modifiers
• Essense Sap can no longer leech from Asteroids and such using Force Armor's blast
• Thermal Lance beam now resets its color after Hyperboost ends
• The Blink reticle no longer disappears if you pause during a blink
• Champion Juggernaut displays its hull bar
• Fixed cargo train box hull bars
• Hidden Power now prevents Mortar
• Rancor charge slow down no longer persists with Mortar
• Swarm Constructs will now attack Eclipses properly. When targeting, they have more accurate ranging (it was using square hitboxes, so oddly shaped enemies were an issue)