Hostile Mars Windows game

This was another very productive week!

I spent some time addressing issues causing crashes for our earliest play-testers (thanks for the crash logs!) and am now unable to crash the build of the game.

Over the last couple of weeks the environment got an overhaul:



This isn't the final state and it will continue to evolve as playtesting goes on.

A few more objects and meshes were finished too. This is the bomb trap, which lobs up an energy core that explodes and throws enemies into the air.



Another is the collector trap that collects scraps and loot from destroyed enemies.



We also have a new enemy! They usually travel in small packs as they ramp over sand dunes looking for you or your base. They are ground enemies so they take extra damage from spike traps and are resistant to air movement manipulation from traps and turrets. They also are the first enemy that has been announced which has a wheel. Hmm, those scrap wheels may come in handy later.. but for what?



And last but not least, here is the new weapon printer press.



I have been spending a lot of time on the balance of the initial hour of gameplay. For anyone that has played a builder, you know how long it can take to get going and being able to access and build more complex stuff. I wanted the player to understand the concept of resource gathering, processing and refining, and item crafting before throwing all these traps and turrets at them. We've made some good progress and I'm getting great feedback along the way.

If you read last week's update, you will know that I've switched the game over to a wave-based spawning system. It still is being tweaked for timing and the quantity of enemies spawning but it already feels much better than before. I've also decided to start a wave each time a new base upgrade has been reached because usually the time between the upgrades is spent on crafting items and harvesting materials, which was one of the early complaints that the playtesters had of not feeling like they had enough time to focus on that. So the waves are spread out just a bit more and they also spawn upon upgrading the base. The base health also goes back to full each time the base is upgraded.

This week I am going to continue adjusting and adding new content to the playtesting build and I hope to reach out to everyone this week regarding scheduling playtesting with those that have patiently been waiting.

I also plan to add more guns and turrets and traps and enemies and resources and the power system! :)

Take care,
Jake


v 0.13a - 3 27 2021
Bug Fixes:
Fixed bug where the turret was placed incorrectly on the map if prior action was placing diagonal player placed panels.
Fixed bug where the turret was locked at the craft bench.
Fixed bug with the material processor that added incorrect ingredients and additional input slots
fixed bug with the material processor that only gave the player 1 item from the output slots when clicking "Take All"
Fixed bug that caused the Home Base health bar to appear full after taking damage
Fixed bug with machines that allowed a player to dupe items
Fixed bug where diagonal panels were not initializing with a Physics Shape collider component.

Added:
Added the Home Base health bar to the HUD.
Added wave trigger for upgrading Home Base
Added full health on upgrading Home Base.
Added more scrap harvest nodes.
Save System to save progress after each base upgrade.
HUD elements for current Home Base item progress.
Added temporary collider below terrain to push the player back ontop when falling through.
Added Magnesium nodes to the playtest map.

Changed:
Moved Wave Timer to the left of the screen with Home Base.
Increased spawn time between waves.
Increased health of player-placed build panels to 250 (previously 100)
Increased ammo max for stage 2 of the laser shot turret to 1000
Changed mesh on player-placed build panels to be more efficient.
Changed cost of the turret from 4 ingredients to 3 ingredients.
Changed damage by enemy laser shot bots from 9 to 4.
Changed Home Base starting health from 1000 to 2000.
Decreased the ratio of hover shock bots to laser shot bots by 1/2
Decreased the ratio of suicide bots to laser shot bots by 3/4