New Version 0.5.0 Release Notes

Version 0.5.0 is now available! It took me a lot longer than I had originally though to put out this update. It's not as large as I had intended it to be but I still wanted to get something out. As you play you should notice a large variety of visual changes that make the game look a lot prettier and should hopefully make it more fun. There are new models, new laser effects, new physics interactions and many others. Everything can be seen in the change logs below:

Visuals

• Created new splash screen image and applied it to the config menu
• Created new cover image for the website
• Changed color of some UI elements to match better
• Added props to level 2 and 3
• Changed some lights in levels 2 and 3 so they will flicker or be turned off
• Added laser effects to moving bots
• Added laser effects to enemy turrets
• Added laser effects to ally bots
• Changed the light material to be specific to the wall lights. It was previously using the door light material
• Created 2 different light flicker animations for the wall light
• Created a new light material for when the light is turned off
• Turned off some wall lights in the levels
• Fixed an issue where turret animations would get stuck or not player after attacking a bot
• Added a particle effect for when bots are destroyed
• Added a smoke/cloud effect to the impact effect of lasers
• Created an animation that changes the light intensity of the impact light
• Created new laser materials to switch through when shooting (the appearance of the laser)
• Created animations for the laser, barrel flash and impact flash when firing
• Changed the background of the commands menu in levels to fit the games theme better
• Changed background of the text log in levels
• Changed the image for many of the HUB and UI prefabs to get rid of all the grey backgrounds. They now fit the games theme better
• Changed color of exp bar on the load-out screen to better fit the theme of the game. It was previously white.
• Created a dirt material for placement on walls (only used in level 1 so far) 

Game Play

• Added ability for shots to move physics objects if they make contact (includes destroyed enemies)
• Removed some turret spawns from the 3rd level since they allowed turrets to fire at the player right when the level started
• Changed how the losses are calculated at the end of a mission. Previously it was hard to make a profit because the losses would cost too much
• Fixed the objective marker not switching to the exit door once the objective was completed 

Under the hood

• Added the new explosion sound effect to the sound effects volume slider so that the volume can be controlled in the settings menu
• Created a script that causes lights in levels to flicker
• Added a way-point to the search nodes for level 3. There was a disconnection at a point in the map.
• Cleaned up the animations and scripts folders
• Turned the impact effects for lasers into a prefab that is instantiated on hits
• Created a script that controls destruction of the impact effect object
• Added the ability for the destruction script to destroy different objects over set time stamps
• Made changes to the Friendly bot attack states and AI Machine to allow for all new laser fire effects
• Setup all friendly bots to use the new effects
• Added code to the player shoot that allows for the laser material to be switched out each time it is fired
• Changed player shoot and mouse reload scripts so that they no longer depend on animations for their triggers
• Setup new turret. Now works fully and has replaced old turret prefab
• Made changes to the enemy attack state so that turrets are not given move commands (since they cannot move) 

Sound

• Added an explosion sound effect for when bots, towers or structures are destroyed to go along with the new destruction particles and models 

Stats

• Changed how the fire rate is affected by the efficiency stat for the player and the bots
• Fixed an issue where turrets would not show their health when bots with the informant stat got close.
• Fixed an issue where the sentry state was not increasing bots range while in the state  

User Interface

• Changed how the time that shows on save files is calculated so that it is more accurate.
• Adjusted positions of HUB menus so they are all generally in the same position
• Adjusted position of text on the save game and shop item prefabs to fit their new bounds
• Changed version number on main menu 

Modeling

• Created a destroyed structure model
• Turned the destroyed structure into a prefab that appears in place of structures when they are destroyed
• Created a barrel model in blender
• Created a barrel prefab to be placed in scenes as a prop
• Created a shelf model in blender
• Created a shelf prefab to be placed in scenes as a prop
• Created a destroyed version of the bot model
• Turned the destroyed bot model into a physics prefab that appears in place of bots when they are destroyed
• Created a destroyed version of the turret model
• Turned the destroyed turret model into a prefab that appears in place of turrets when they are destroyed
• Created a turret bot model to replace the primitive turret
• Turned the new turret model into a prefab and set it up to work in levels
• Created a door model to replace the previous model that was made of primitive shapes
• Turned the door model into a prefab and replaced the doors in Level 1 - 3

With this update now out of the way I want to focus on getting the game-play setup correctly. If you have played any of the previous versions you will be aware that the combat is very unbalanced. I am going to spend a lot of time setting all the values so that the game plays fun and fair. The next update will probably be called 0.7.5. This is a rather large jump in version numbers and the main reason for that is I have been working on this game for far longer than I ever intended. The original intent of this project was to make a simple strategy team based shooter and that concept ended up making a much larger game than I had thought. I want to end work on the game at version 1.0.0 so I am aiming for 2 more major updates and the game will be complete. These updates will be rather large and so will most likely take longer than usual to get done. I am aiming for a 2 week separation between these updates but it is hard to gauge. I still intend to leave this game in a fully functional state so don't think this means I am abandoning the project or ending it before it's ready to play.

Anyways, I am going to leave it here. Expect updates and notes on my progress as I go. Everything I do will be posted here and on my twitter so feel free to follow either. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy my game!