MAIN CHANGES
Photon Swarm rework. The projectiles now have a homing ability. This was… difficult. Hopefully the result will be worth it. Further tweaking will be required in a 2nd pass – try it out!
Some anti-exploit measures: Removed a lot of the session-dependent randomness from missions. This means that if you disconnect and reconnect, you’ll still get exactly the same waves. Boss movement is now repeatable (e.g. UCO slams). ‘Usable’ equipment (e.g., Special Weapons, Poultry Payback, etc.) is now permanently lost after being used, even if you dis/reconnect. More to come.
A lot of other minor improvements. Check the full list below.
Bug/Idea medals will be awarded later in the day (even after your medal is awarded, you’ll need to re-connect to see it). Your medal cannot be awarded if your in-game callsign doesn’t match your forum name (send it to me in a private message).
COMPATIBILITY
You will lose:
- any in-mission progress
- any graphics options you have configured (under particular circumstances, all menu options could be lost)
CHANGELOG
New features – Tweaks – Bug fixes – Internal changes
- Deleted users that haven’t logged in in the past 4 weeks and have less than an hour of playtime.
- Destruction meter now also includes screen and area damage (e.g. Missiles, Clucker bomb, Plasma area-of-effect) (@minasam123 Bug)
- Destruction meter max. range is now 10k (was 8k)
- Fixed bullets disappearing before they leave the screen completely (caused by “Removed debugging aids” fix in v.46) (@505 Bug)
- Reduced Plasma area-of-effect opacity to 50% (@Jasnah_Kholin Idea)
- Store: Updated Plasma description to include area-of-effect (@BoggY Bug)
- Store: Updated Lightning Fryer description to include chaining (@minasam123 Bug)
- “Trash Compactor” wave: Moved anomaly zones off-center (@Akemisora Idea)
- Improved area damage calculations to take each collision area into account separately (rather than just the enemy’s center) (@anon48763505 Bug)
- Darkness missions: Fixed excessive darkness removal on zoomed-out waves.
- Fixed Saucer Wreck disappearing too early when leaving screen (@SonicCrazyExe Bug)
- Advanced Graphics options: Fixed one-frame lag before UI controls are disabled (@minasam123 Bug)
- Mission now won’t end until all keys/bonuses/etc have been collected (or have disappeared) (@Enhawk a.k.a. Enhawk Idea)
- Fixed stale colors when returning to the Profile screen after changing color theme.
- “Surrender” text (in most recent/best result) is now orange to match ‘X’ icon (@minasam123 Idea)
- Power-ups dropped by Henterprise upon death now obey the “tone down effects” setting when deciding whether to spawn them raised or not (@anon48763505 @minasam123 Bug)
- Charity is now given even if no lives have been lost.
- Due to “Charity is now given even if no lives have been lost” change, desync crash (“Could not find object ID”) caused by charity spawning has now been fixed.
- Added CIU theme track (ambient & intense) as purchaseable music (@Recruit_75 Idea)
- Store: Fixed incorrect text wrapping of hardpoint descriptions.
- Utensil Poker: strong projectile now deals 400 damage (was 375).
- Ion Blaster: weak projectile now deals 200 damage (was 165). (@1galbatorix1 Idea)
- Customize screen: Flagship is now marked with a flag icon (@MoonKnight Idea)
- Color theme customization: Themes can now be named (@505 Idea)
- Egg Cannon Cannon Cannon Cannonade: 3rd phase: Shotgun attack is now 25% slower at 100% difficulty, lower difficulties also increase the time between attacks (2 seconds @0% difficulty) (@harakat Idea)
- Added specific “is empty” messages to contact/squadron search fields (@minasam123 Idea)
- Fixed dark-widgets-on-dark-background for dark color themes (@BoggY Bug)
- Renamed “Additional Droid Patrol” wave to “Backup Droid Patrol”.
- Removed per-session randomness from following waves (randomness is now only per-mission): Three by Three, Look in All Directions, Bullet Spray, Chicken Aerial Show, Egg Cyclone/Egg Hurricane, The Weakest Link/The Strongest Link, Caught in the Crossfire/Trapped in the Crossfire, Security Droid Patrol/Backup Droid Patrol, Supply Droids/Supply Line, Eggshell Fields, Caged Animals/The Zoo, Chicken Interception, Electrifying Descent/Electrifying Dive, Bend it like Beckhen/Kick it like Beckhen, Chicken Geometry (partial), Gyroscope Malfunction, Invader Crossing, Invader Fly-by, Omnidirectional Onslaught, Alien Container, Shoot and Scoot/Shoot and Loot, Visitors From Another Dimension, The Magic Flute, Armored Division (partial), Supernova Debris, Do the Backstroke, Swimming in Space, Technological Advances, Lethal Connections (partial), Interchangeable Parts, Divide and Conquer, Chink in the Armor, Chicken Rings/ Bubble Rings, Do Not Cross. (@BoggY Idea)
- Removed unused “Egg Hurricane” wave variation (“Egg Cyclone” incorporates both variations via mirroring).
- Added “The Strongest Link” wave variation (starts appearing at 80% difficulty) (@Sammarald Idea)
- Removed per-session randomness from movement patterns of all bosses (randomness is now only per-mission).
- ICBM satellite: Ammo is now 5 (was 3), rocket now accelerates (@1galbatorix1 Idea), reduced explosion shake by 25% (@Akemisora Idea)
- Microgun satellite: Ammo is now 250 (was 125) (@Enhawk Idea)
- Upon being triggered, Berserk/Assassin orientation is now reset to “preferred” (@Sammarald Bug)
- ‘Usable’ equipment (e.g., Special Weapons, Poultry Payback, etc.) is now permanently lost after being used, even if player dis/reconnects.
- Moron-only missions now receive a 25% score “weapon virtuosity” boost (@Francis Idea)
- Reworked Photon Swarm. Projectiles home-in on targets (strong projectile has greater homing ability). Heat generated and firing rate now follow inverse-quadratic rather than linear progression. Overheat time @ power 10 increased to 10 s (from 3.8s). Projectile damage: 100/170. Strong projectile appearance: 10% @ 6, 20% @ 7, 30% @ 8, 40% @ 9, 50% @ 10, 100% @ 20. 25% thinner weaker projectiles, 15% thinner strong projectiles. Projectiles are now more translucent. (@1galbatorix1 Idea)
- Assassin chicks now have a visual ‘tell’ (spoiler: their bandana is flipped horizontally), even before they’re damaged (@youraveragegrant Idea)
BACKUPS
You are reminded that during Early Access you are responsible for backing up your own progress. Make a copy of everything under C:\ProgramData\InterAction studios\CIU
(including all sub-folders). Never rename files or move them from one version folder to another. Simply make a copy and then later put it back exactly where you found it.