NIMRODS Update | Wombat Roll | 0.5.3
Greetings, NIMRODS!
It's been a while since we last shared new content with you. Recently, we published a Performance Devlog in which we discussed our plans, goals, and how we're balancing it all. Once we overcome this performance hurdle, you can look forward to more frequent and faster content updates from us. That being said, even though most of our engineers are hard at work retooling the entire game for better performance, we still have some exciting new content to share!
[h2]Wombat Roll[/h2]
One of the drawbacks in developing an early access game is that sometimes you have to release stuff in an unfinished state that doesn't represent how you envision it working in the final game. Abilities were one example of this; we needed to have a dash for Grimm in order for the early game balancing to work right, and Vixen wouldn't be Vixen without the ability to throw molotovs, but a tight, engaging ability system was one of the things we had to cut to hit our early access target deadline. A lot of players noticed that it seemed a little... unfinished.
This update is one of two major steps towards completing the ability system! First off, we have Vixen's second ability: The Wombat Roll.
This is a much faster reposition than Grimm's Adrenaline Rush. It's shorter range, but has one huge benefit: While rolling, your Dodge is increased by 9999, ensuring you take no damage from enemies! Grimm can speed through gaps between enemies, but Vixen doesn't need a gap: she'll tumble right through them! And at higher levels, she'll drop an explosive-filled decoy at the starting point of her roll and attach sticky bombs to any enemy she dodges through.
At higher levels, you ask? That's right. The biggest part of this update is...
[h2]Ability Upgrades[/h2]
Abilities now come in three tiers. You can level up an ability to tiers 2 and 3 by mutating its genome layout page to levels 6 and 11, respectively. Leveling up your abilities usually changes their functionality in key ways, adding greater depth and complexity to otherwise simple abilities.
Grimm's rush, at higher levels, will damage, knock away, and stun any enemy unfortunate enough to touch him. His frenzy gains a slight speed boost, but if you choose to stay still, your attack rate will skyrocket. Vixen's molotov turns into a persistent area of fire, gets a lower cooldown, a higher damage and radius, and Vixen gains a move bonus while she's in the area of the flames.
This system, where you start with a weaker ability and level it up into something significantly more powerful, will be our model moving forward. Any additional character abilities we make will come in three tiers and need to be leveled up by mutating its genome layout.
There's still one more piece we want to add to the ability system—the Gene Recombinator—but we've got a bit more work to do on the character system before we get there. We'll keep you posted!
[h2]Changelog[/h2]
[h3]Added[/h3]
Ability Overhaul
Other
[h3]Changed[/h3]
Underbarrel Flamethrower
Abilities
Knockback Changes
Other
[h3]Fixed[/h3]
[h3]In case you missed it...[/h3]
Thank you all so much for the overwhelming support. We're dedicated to make this game together with those joining us on this journey!
If you haven't already, come join our official Discord server:
It's been a while since we last shared new content with you. Recently, we published a Performance Devlog in which we discussed our plans, goals, and how we're balancing it all. Once we overcome this performance hurdle, you can look forward to more frequent and faster content updates from us. That being said, even though most of our engineers are hard at work retooling the entire game for better performance, we still have some exciting new content to share!
[h2]Wombat Roll[/h2]
One of the drawbacks in developing an early access game is that sometimes you have to release stuff in an unfinished state that doesn't represent how you envision it working in the final game. Abilities were one example of this; we needed to have a dash for Grimm in order for the early game balancing to work right, and Vixen wouldn't be Vixen without the ability to throw molotovs, but a tight, engaging ability system was one of the things we had to cut to hit our early access target deadline. A lot of players noticed that it seemed a little... unfinished.
This update is one of two major steps towards completing the ability system! First off, we have Vixen's second ability: The Wombat Roll.
This is a much faster reposition than Grimm's Adrenaline Rush. It's shorter range, but has one huge benefit: While rolling, your Dodge is increased by 9999, ensuring you take no damage from enemies! Grimm can speed through gaps between enemies, but Vixen doesn't need a gap: she'll tumble right through them! And at higher levels, she'll drop an explosive-filled decoy at the starting point of her roll and attach sticky bombs to any enemy she dodges through.
At higher levels, you ask? That's right. The biggest part of this update is...
[h2]Ability Upgrades[/h2]
Abilities now come in three tiers. You can level up an ability to tiers 2 and 3 by mutating its genome layout page to levels 6 and 11, respectively. Leveling up your abilities usually changes their functionality in key ways, adding greater depth and complexity to otherwise simple abilities.
Grimm's rush, at higher levels, will damage, knock away, and stun any enemy unfortunate enough to touch him. His frenzy gains a slight speed boost, but if you choose to stay still, your attack rate will skyrocket. Vixen's molotov turns into a persistent area of fire, gets a lower cooldown, a higher damage and radius, and Vixen gains a move bonus while she's in the area of the flames.
This system, where you start with a weaker ability and level it up into something significantly more powerful, will be our model moving forward. Any additional character abilities we make will come in three tiers and need to be leveled up by mutating its genome layout.
There's still one more piece we want to add to the ability system—the Gene Recombinator—but we've got a bit more work to do on the character system before we get there. We'll keep you posted!
[h2]Changelog[/h2]
[h3]Added[/h3]
Ability Overhaul
- Genome Layouts can now be mutated up to level 11, meaning you can eventually put genes in slots that were previously locked.
- Kill counts required to level up mutations changed from 7500/11250/15000/18750/20000/21000 to 6000/10000/14000/18000/21000/24000/26000/28000/29000/30000.
- When a genome layout mutates to level 6, its associated ability is evolved into a more powerful version of that ability.
- When a genome layout mutates to level 11, its associated ability evolves into its final form.
- Grimm's dash, when evolved, can damage, stun, and knock aside enemies.
- Grimm's Frenzy, when evolved, additionally gives movement speed boosts and fires much faster when standing still.
- Vixen's Molotov, when evolved, provides a persistent damaging area, which vixen can run through at massively increased speed.
- Added Vixen's second ability, Wombat Roll, which gives her a short range dash and increases her dodge skill by 9999 temporarily.
- Vixen's Wombat Roll, when evolved, drops bombs on enemies and the ground.
- Mutation progression will now appear in the Defeated/Victory screen.
Other
- "Disable Auto-Aim Override" added to the Settings menu
- You can now change your genome layout from the character selection screen.
[h3]Changed[/h3]
Underbarrel Flamethrower
- Base Charges: 40 → 80.
- Base Fire Rate: 10 → 20.
- Base Projectile Size: 0.018 m → 0.050 m.
- Projectile Size at max range: 0.14 m → 0.25 m.
- Base Projectile Damage: 5.0% Special Power → 5.2% Special Power.
- Underbarrel Flamethrower Range: 1.9 m → 2.45 m.
- Compressed Flamethrower Range: 2.7 m → 3.3 m.
- New Graphic for Flames.
Abilities
- Grimm's Tier 1 Frenzy Cooldown increased 60 s → 80 s.
- Grimm's Tier 1 Frenzy Cooldown duration 12 s → 10 s.
- Grimm's Tier 1 Adrenaline Rush Cooldown increased 20 s → 30 s.
- Grimm's Tier 1 Adrenaline Rush Cooldown duration 3 s → 2 s.
- Vixen's Tier 1 Molotov Cooldown reduced 105 s → 40 s.
- Vixen's Tier 1 Molotov damage increased 30% Special Power → 33% Special Power.
- Vixen's Tier 1 Molotov hang time reduced 0.75 s → 0.45 s.
- Vixen's Tier 1 Molotov now sets enemies on fire for 5 seconds.
- Improved descriptions of all abilities.
Knockback Changes
- Knockback can now stack with itself if you hit the enemy quickly or with multiple bullets, subject to diminishing returns.
- Quintupled Golemite's weight.
- Doubled Slime's weight.
Other
- Raging Hellfire Barrel has an additional ×1.55 fire rate and ×1.55 reload speed.
- Flames from the Jet Stock have received a new graphic.
- The wave directly before the boss spawns 17% fewer enemies in all biomes.
- Many colliders have been improved and optimized.
- The icons for genes in the genome layout screen have been made larger so they're easier to see and to click on.
- Gene border graphical improvements.
- Reduced the amount of flame puddles spawned at once by the Napalm Jet augment; it now matches the description.
- Accretion Barrel's Reload Speed: ×0.88 → ×0.87.
- Dodge Skill now caps at 9999. At 9999 dodge skill, you will dodge everything instead of having a 1% change to get hit, as would normally be expected.
- Localization improvements for all languages.
[h3]Fixed[/h3]
- Fixed an issue where the Drone Level could display Level 0 on the very last upgrade it obtains.
- Fixed an issue where the Chicken Charm aura visual effect did not disappear after unequipping the gun.
- Fixed an issue where Guns could appear in locked areas in the Home Ship.
- Fixed an issue where the Vipress Boss Trophy didn't drop correctly after killing it.
- Fixed an issue where Nosferatic Bullets were not allowing retaliation effects while the player is invulnerable.
- Fixed an issue where the character could clip through boundary colliders.
- Fixed an issue where the character could get duplicated in the Home Ship after swapping an ability.
- Fixed the frenzy status effect graphic appearing in the wrong spot relative to the character.
- Fixed an issue where the Golden Heart Charm was losing the passive regeneration ability it was supposed to inherit from the Fancy Heart Charm.
- Fixed an issue where the quests to set mystics on fire were expecting the wrong number of mystics to be set on fire. The values are now correctly 5 and 7.
[h3]In case you missed it...[/h3]
- Fixed an issue that caused severe performance slowdowns due to off-screen projectiles in a hotfix this patch cycle.
- Fixed an issue that allowed Target Dummies on the Home Ship to be destroyed in a hotfix this patch cycle.
Thank you all so much for the overwhelming support. We're dedicated to make this game together with those joining us on this journey!
If you haven't already, come join our official Discord server: