Nova Drift - Like if Path of Exile and Asteroids dropped acid and had a kid

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Nova Drift - Like if Path of Exile and Asteroids dropped acid and had a kid

Lprsti99: Apr 7, 2011; Everything's coming up explodey!; Pillbug

NOVA DRIFT IS 33% OFF (:tenbux:) FOR TWO WEEKS! :siren:

Steam
Homepage
Official Discord
Devblog

No thread for this game is an absolute travesty, and the dev is celebrating the 1-year anniversary of going Early Access and asked players to spread the word. In the interest of not reinventing the wheel, here's the Steam description:

Steam posted:

Nova Drift is a 'rogue-lite' space shooter that melds a classic arcade experience with modern action-RPG elements like theory-crafting and deep player choice. Your ship rapidly evolves as you defeat enemies, allowing you to shape its abilities and weaponry to your desires in a matter of minutes. Unlike many ARPGs which can absorb hundreds of hours of time, Nova Drift allows you to take a ship build from inception to execution in a single game session.

and here's a post by Too Shy Guy from last June about the game:

Too Shy Guy posted:

You�ve played Asteroids, right? �course you have, even if you don�t remember doing it. The combination of drifting through space with thrusters and a gun against waves of foes (or rocks) is timeless for a reason, because it provides that classic escalating challenge in a way you can never fully predict. Nova Drift understands this and ups the ante; in fact, it goes all in on its roguelike elements and cashes out big with them. Layering an incredibly deep and complex upgrade system over this classic gameplay and polishing it to a mirror shine is a recipe for chaos, and possibly the most fun I�ve ever had with this style of game.

I hope you didn�t come looking for a story, because this is arcade score attack action all the way. You�ve got a tiny ship, drifting along in a gorgeous starscape, and stuff is gonna try to smash it. Blowing up asteroids or enemies with your pea-shooter releases XP stars that level you up, and at every level you pick an upgrade. Your first three are special and define your ship, allowing you to pick your gun, your hull, and your shield from a random selection of three (out of a lot). After that, you get seven upgrades to pick from every time you level, and they can enhance any of those elements or add new ones, such as drones or new thruster controls or even interact with the upgrade system itself. Picking solid upgrades for your build is key to keeping up with the waves of foes that will be assaulting your little craft.

I need you to understand how wild this upgrade system gets, because it�s 100% what elevates Nova Drift beyond a simple Asteroids clone. We�ll take weapon upgrades as an example, because those have effects that are easy to understand. Early on, you�ll have upgrades available that increase your rate of fire, or add extra projectiles to your attack, or make your shots explode. But each of those has three additional upgrades attached to them which you can take after taking the first, which build on the theme. The exploding shots one can be further enhanced to make the blast radius bigger or then make enemies explode in turn, for example. These mini-trees are arranged like a diamond, so after taking the first you can take either of the next two (or both) to unlock the last, which is usually a dramatic upgrade.

These mini-trees exist for every skill except the basic ones that interact directly with game systems. That means your shield upgrades, hull upgrades, thruster upgrades, everything has trees you can go deeper into to enhance or change your capabilities. And you can add entirely new systems like the drones I mentioned, which let you generate turrets or tiny fighters or mines which then have multiple mini-trees of their own. And, AND, all of these upgrades have different effects depending on the initial choices you made regarding your ship! Imagine blast radius upgrades with cluster missiles, or spread-fire effects with a railgun, or shield recharge boosts on exploding shields, and you start to see the kinds of insane builds you can get going here. It�s all the fun of breaking something like The Binding of Isaac but in a much purer, more deterministic system.

Beyond the XP and upgrades you can also score rerolls to get a new set of upgrades to choose from, as well as boost items that give you a temporary supercharge to your systems. You also have the option of switching your base gun, hull, and shield at upgrade time from another random set of three, in case your new upgrades don�t gel with your initial decisions. Performing well in a run unlocks new upgrades and options that get thrown into the pool on later runs, as well as new difficulty modifiers that let you start on later waves or bump up enemy density. Even just unlocking everything will last you plenty of hours, to say nothing of the fun you can extract from mashing them into wild new builds and shooting for ever-higher scores.

I will briefly assure you that the enemies you fight are varied and interesting, that the presentation is excellent, and that the sharp, stylized graphics and chill soundtrack make for a wonderful experience. But really it�s the builds I keep coming back for, the ability to make screen-filling cluster bombs or homing incendiary railgun salvos or shield auras that burn like the surface of the sun. Nova Drift is designed to let you get as crazy with your builds as possible, and reap the rewards of the chaos you unleash. And it�s still in Early Access if you can believe that, still adding new upgrades and tweaks and sculpting this great experience into a singular one. Really if you�re down for more Asteroids, for better Asteroids, or really just wanted to ruin a game of Asteroids with infinite splintering lasers, this is the title for you.

Indeed, in the months since that post, new weapons, shields, bodies, mod trees, and even a new game mode have been added. Based on the above roadmap, Beta 1 is complete (though enemies/waves have another rework planned), and Content Pack 2 just released with the Genesis update on March 25th. On the ND discord, the dev estimated that the game is ~90% feature-complete.

Wild Metamorphosis
Added in September, Wild Metamorphosis is the first challenge mode to be implemented. When WM is enabled, up to two mods every level-up can be Wild Mods, which fall into two categories: recursive and non-recursive.

Recursive mods can be taken multiple times, stacking their effects. However, they often come with downsides, which also stack. For example, one recursive mod, Heavy Caliber, causes weapon projectiles to be larger and deal more damage, but also lowers firerate and adds recoil to every shot. Stack enough copies, and any weapon becomes the Noisy Cricket.

Non-recursive mods can only be taken once (obviously), and tend to have weird, game-changing effects. Propulsive Munitions, much like Heavy Caliber, adds recoil to every shot, but it also rotates your weapons 180 degrees (behind you, generally). Never stop moving, never stop shooting!

Gifs/Build Examples

Mods:
Siege Weaponry: Firerate increases while trigger is held, but player takes ramping hull damage (which normally bypasses shields)
Gemini Protocol: Damage is split between shields and hull if there are enough of each (this includes self-damage)
Reflexive Shields: Shoot energy whenever shield takes damage (this is the straight blast of energy in the middle of the flak cannon)
Discharge: Whenever weapon is fired, shield takes a bit of damage and emits lightning.

Assault Drones: Drones shoot faster, prioritize enemies.
Formation - Battalion: Drones line up on either side of the ship, shoot straight forward with very high firerate.
Shielded Constructs: Shield protects constructs (drones/turrets/allies) and have improved stats, but no longer protects the player.
Overseer: Doubles maximum number of constructs, but player can no longer fire their weapon.

Siege Weaponry
Burst Fire: Weapon shoots in a 3-round burst, but adds a delay between each burst.
Splinter: When projectiles are destroyed, they split into weaker projectiles.
Targeting: Adds guidance to projectiles, or improves existing guidance.
Homing Strike: Adds broadside projectiles that are weaker, but have much-improved guidance.
Blink: Player's ship can teleport a short distance straight forward, low cooldown.

Burst Fire, Targeting, Homing Strike
Charged Shot: Hold fire to charge weapon, improving weapon damage, velocity, size, and blast radius.
Snipe: Improves projectile velocity, increases damage as distance to enemy increases.
Warp Strike: A Super Mod* that allows your weapon projectiles to screenwrap once with reduced damage, but the player's ship takes heavy, unmitigatable damage when screenwrapping.

*Super Mods are powerful upgrades that require two specific regular mods to obtain. Warp Strike, for example, requires Snipe and Blink.

One Year Anniversary

Pixeljam Miles on Discord posted:

Many of you probably don't know but today (March 27th) marks the 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY of Nova Drift's Early Access launch. To celebrate that we're going to dedicate all next week to um... celebrating! Each day of next week we've got something special planned.

MONDAY March 30 - Streamer Appreciation Day - We'll reveal the highlight reel and shout out the streamers that have helped get Nova Drift where it is today! Please don't be offended if we forget a few, there are... hundreds? Giveaway keys aplenty for streamers as well (please note that Youtubers are included with streamers).

TUESDAY March 31 - BIRTHDAY PARTY! 10 AM EST - http://twitch.tv/pixeljamgames Come hang out with Miles & Jeffrey on Twitch as we play games, talk about Nova Drift, give away a lot of keys and other fun stuff.

WEDNESDAY April 1 - High Score Contest - Time to show your skills! Fabulous Prizes! More info on this we get closer (because... we haven't thought about it much yet).

THURSDAY April 2 - Music Day - Miles will be streaming again and dissecting exsting tracks, remixing new ones and giving away OST keys.

FRIDAY April 3 - Art Jam / Q&A - Jeffrey will stream some live art, do a developer Q&A with Miles and maybe... we'll talk about NOVA DRIFT 2??????

Pixeljam, the publisher, is also doing a giveaway, one of their old games in exchange for filling out a survey (and hopefully spreading the word a bit). Link You get to pick one of Dino Run DX, Potatoman Seeks The Troof, Glorkian Warrior, Last Horizon, Snowball, or Cheap Golf.

~~Finally, I have three Nova Drift Steam keys to give out! Let me know when one is used, and please, just one per goon!~~
Gone! Go check out the anniversary stuff this week!

This is my first OP, so suggestions are welcome! As a personal recommendation, I bought the game around this past Christmas, and have ~250 hours in it. Game is perfect for people who love Path of Exile-level theorycrafting, but have altitis/don't have the time to invest in a 3-month league. Still only Early Access, though, so if that's a thing for you, consider wishlisting it, at least.

Lprsti99 fucked around with this message at 00:16 on Mar 30, 2020

# ? Mar 29, 2020 23:40

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# ? May 8, 2024 12:31

Plasbad: Oct 2, 2013

I took the first code, thanks! I've been really interested in trying out this game, it looks really fun from the videos I had seen of it.

# ? Mar 30, 2020 00:05

Megasabin: Sep 9, 2003; I get half!!

I claimed the 3rd code. Thanks a lot man! I was literally just eyeing this yesterday.

# ? Mar 30, 2020 00:13

Roluth: Apr 22, 2014

Took the second code! Looking forward to trying this out!

# ? Mar 30, 2020 00:14

Lprsti99: Apr 7, 2011; Everything's coming up explodey!; Pillbug

Excellent, enjoy! Please come back with impressions and whatnot, game is tons of fun.

# ? Mar 30, 2020 00:18

Plasbad: Oct 2, 2013

Just finished playing a round of it, and I'm pretty impressed and satisfied with it even if it is still in early access. The movement is responsive and the different weapon types are all really cool and fun, and I made it to about wave 50 and still kept seeing new enemy types. If someone is looking for an arcade style shooter then this one is definitely worth looking at.

# ? Mar 30, 2020 01:07

Hwurmp: May 20, 2005

Nova Drift owns and has become my go-to game whenever I'm not focused on some other title. It's the perfect mix of easy to learn, hard to master.

Still can't get a million points... :negative:

Hwurmp fucked around with this message at 15:39 on Mar 30, 2020

# ? Mar 30, 2020 15:34

Lprsti99: Apr 7, 2011; Everything's coming up explodey!; Pillbug

First day of the anniversary week! This was just released, it's a shoutout to some streamers who pushed the game early.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7ZdbWyB7kE

IDK what the hell that was at the end :v:

Hwurmp posted:

Nova Drift owns and has become my go-to game whenever I'm not focused on some other title. It's the perfect mix of easy to learn, hard to master.

Still can't get a million points...

The only two build styles I've managed to get 1mil+ score on are Hidden Power + Dying Sun and Architect Vortex Mines, because they both clear the screen efficiently without requiring much focus, allowing me to focus completely on trying to survive. That is an admitted weakness with the game currently, one of the most common run-enders is "I lost focus for half a second and got bounced to death." Chimeric (the dev) just recently posted an update on Discord regarding the upcoming enemy rework. Not gonna copy it here, because everyone oughta join the Discord, the dev, publisher, and general community are great :c00lbutt:

. It was also detailed in a recent devblog (after the Genesis update info). Here's the tl;dr:

Chimeric posted:

I'll break it down:

Older enemies will get a new coat of paint, while new enemies will be introduced to the game, both early game and late game. The quality bar for how an enemy looks and behaves will be raised.

Enemies will spawn with "roles" within formations, such as a protector or support of another unit.

Steps will be taken toward removing the need for a "spammy" late game. Enemies will trend toward tactical, dangerous, and diverse instead of numerous. In other words, encounters will be deadly for reasons which are better than "there were too many mines and bullets on the screen." As a result, the rate of spawns and the speed scaling of enemies at high waves can be reduced without being made easier.

The above fits better with Nova Drift's upgrade system, which incentives builds that require set up and timing. Right now, "area clear" strategies are overwhelmingly more important than intended, while dealing single target damage isn't as viable.

Enemy spawns will be revised. Instead of always entering from the edges without warning, enemies might fade in from the depths of space, warp in from a portal, or enter via the borders with a HUD warning.

The wave spawning system will become more dynamic and procedural, allowing greater variance while being easier for me to tweak.

# ? Mar 30, 2020 17:06

Hwurmp: May 20, 2005

Ooh, that sounds neat. Just so long as they don't nerf my Barrage Darts.

# ? Mar 30, 2020 17:18

Lprsti99: Apr 7, 2011; Everything's coming up explodey!; Pillbug

https://www.twitch.tv/pixeljamgames

Today's the 11-year anniversary of the EA launch, so the dev and publisher are gonna be streaming all day, answering questions and playing games and such. Supposed to be lots of key giveaways, too!

# ? Mar 31, 2020 16:18

nessin: Feb 7, 2010

For anyone interested in this game but only watches a single video or two, there is a LOT upgrades/power ups in this game and they drastically change how you play it depending on your path. That's what basically makes the game but it won't be a good representative of how that plays out in short snippets of a run or by watching just a couple individual runs.

# ? Mar 31, 2020 16:33

Mode 7: Jul 28, 2007

This game owns. The radically different powerup paths mean that the temptation of "just one more run" is always there every time I die. I think my favourite so far has been a Firefly ship (resilient, high thrust, thrust damages enemies) with a thermal lance weapon (large short range blowtorch out the front of my ship) and then a bunch of upgrades to improve my hull, thrust, increasing the damage enemies take from me plowing into them and reducing the damage I take from plowing into things. Topping it all off with a perk that increases my damage relative to how fast I'm going.

I was essentially a high powered needle tearing across the screen smashing through everything in my path :black101:

Unfortunately that proved to be a problem with bosses that I couldn't smash through in one hit and eventually the sheer density of chunky enemies on the screen meant that I bit off more than I could chew and turned into a glorious fireball. Still, what a way to go. :allears:

# ? Apr 2, 2020 05:02

Cobalt-60: Oct 11, 2016; by Azathoth

Bought the game off the strength of this thread, and it's awesome. Some RPGs could take notes from the skill tree implementation.

Only problem is, I suck at the game. Don't know if it's the weird interface (keyboard OR mouse?) or my general tendency to steer INTO bullet spam. Doesn't help that half the weapons are point-blank. I'd pay extra to be able to move with my keyboard and aim with my mouse (like most other space shooters).

# ? Apr 5, 2020 01:12

Lprsti99: Apr 7, 2011; Everything's coming up explodey!; Pillbug

Cobalt-60 posted:

Bought the game off the strength of this thread, and it's awesome. Some RPGs could take notes from the skill tree implementation.

Only problem is, I suck at the game. Don't know if it's the weird interface (keyboard OR mouse?) or my general tendency to steer INTO bullet spam. Doesn't help that half the weapons are point-blank. I'd pay extra to be able to move with my keyboard and aim with my mouse (like most other space shooters).

I'm fairly sure you can do this, I think I read Chimeric say something about changing the names of the control scheme. I play with a DS4 though, so I'd suggest hopping in Discord and asking there.

# ? Apr 5, 2020 05:05

Lprsti99: Apr 7, 2011; Everything's coming up explodey!; Pillbug

Lprsti99 posted:

I'm fairly sure you can do this, I think I read Chimeric say something about changing the names of the control scheme. I play with a DS4 though, so I'd suggest hopping in Discord and asking there.

To correct myself, I read that in the roadmap that Chimeric posted to Discord (and was just posted to Steam), so not in yet.

Content: Chimeric posted a patch to the beta branch:

Chimeric posted:

Visibility, Features, and QoL
* Started reworking the pause menu. It isn't finished, but it has a bit more info now, 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. If it isn't helpful, please advise on how to improve it
* 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 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

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, up to wave 25 (was 20)
* 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 a little harder to trick into not firing, now
* 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
* A Salvo stockpile is now considered 1/20th of a projectile for the purposes of Antimatter Rounds, down from 1/10
* Barrage now properly affects projectile count for the purposes of Loaded Mines (with all projectile-based weapons) and Stockpile

Under the Hood
* Further prep for localization

Having played a couple games, it does feel like the early game is less brutal, and the edge indicator is nice.

# ? Apr 7, 2020 23:19

Lprsti99: Apr 7, 2011; Everything's coming up explodey!; Pillbug

So, nearly a month since I've posted, which is shameful, but it's been crazy, even without the 'rona stay-at-home.

There's been a fair amount of work on the game, going by the Discord patch log (and sporadic playtime on my part). One big patch to the stable branch on 4/29, covering most of the beta releases:

quote:

Version 0.27.20

Updated April 29, 2020
Devnote: 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! But, hey, we obliterated the bug queue!

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 a little harder to trick into not firing, now
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)

Additionally, the experimental branch just received an update yesterday (if you decide to give the beta/experimental branches a shot, keep in mind they're potentially really buggy, normal software development warnings). Quoth the dev:

quote:

This GUI overhaul is a WIP! Please no bully.
*Check the pins in #nova-drift-general if you need assistance accessing this branch

Major Features
* Added a menu to the pause screen. You can now resume, quit, access settings, or view Super Mod requirements (work in progress) during a game. (Super Mod requirements will also be accessible in the upgrade screen, later this month, as will confirmation for quitting)
* Added French, Russian, and Traditional Chinese localization, which you can toggle between in the Settings menu. These are WIP, and we're working through the kinks
* Improved the Settings menu (Also work in progress)
* "Mouse Mode" and "Keyboard Mode" have been consolidated into one mode. Both always work. The toggle now controls whether the presets are Arrow Keys or WASD controls. You can now assign two bindings to both thrust and fire, which accepts mouse or keyboard inputs. You may need to rebind your custom controls
* There are now multiple toggles for windowed resolution. The game will also accept any resolutions that you manually input into your save file
* Rewrote Nova Drift's system for handling audio. It required some serious doing, so there may have been collateral damage. If you hear anything out of whack, let me know
* Music, SFX, and global volume can now all be adjusted separately

Improvements
* Removed the delay when switching from mouse aim to keyboard/gamepad aim
* Reduced the delay when switching from keyboard/gamepad aim to mouse aim (This delay exists so that accidentally brushing your trackpad or mouse doesn't interfere with keyboard controls)
* More mouse buttons are now supported for customization
* Whenever avoidable, text is no longer used in tutorials
* Collapsed a few tutorials into one
* Framed tutorial buttons now have a few discrete sizes to make localization easier (There is a known bug with this where the button is larger than needed)

*FYI: This build has a LOT of known GUI bugs. I'm mostly uploading it early so that the localizers can continue their work

Finally, for anyone who'd like to see the game in motion, there's a channel on the discord where people post when they're streaming. Obviously I recommend joining the discord, but here's a few people who've streamed recently:

https://twitch.tv/baphnedia
https://www.twitch.tv/yandrosthemad

Lprsti99 fucked around with this message at 04:19 on Jun 24, 2020

# ? May 5, 2020 22:18

Cobalt-60: Oct 11, 2016; by Azathoth

Well, I've run out of gameplay. Had a fun 17 hours.

Reached the point where every playthrough went the same; get weapon/shield/hull (hope I get one of the good ones, since half of them suck), clear 80-120 levels, eventually die when I get chain-knockbacked into 5+projectiles/ships/screenfull of bright shiny death and die faster than I can even see myself, let alone react.

Good little game; hope more content gets added.

# ? Jun 22, 2020 10:30

space marine todd: Nov 7, 2014

Cobalt-60 posted:

Well, I've run out of gameplay. Had a fun 17 hours.

Reached the point where every playthrough went the same; get weapon/shield/hull (hope I get one of the good ones, since half of them suck), clear 80-120 levels, eventually die when I get chain-knockbacked into 5+projectiles/ships/screenfull of bright shiny death and die faster than I can even see myself, let alone react.

Good little game; hope more content gets added.

Yeah, same. This game rules, but needs a lot more content/variety because at the highest levels, I am running into the same exact thing.

# ? Jun 23, 2020 21:28

Lprsti99: Apr 7, 2011; Everything's coming up explodey!; Pillbug

Cobalt-60 posted:

Well, I've run out of gameplay. Had a fun 17 hours.

Reached the point where every playthrough went the same; get weapon/shield/hull (hope I get one of the good ones, since half of them suck), clear 80-120 levels, eventually die when I get chain-knockbacked into 5+projectiles/ships/screenfull of bright shiny death and die faster than I can even see myself, let alone react.

Good little game; hope more content gets added.

space marine todd posted:

Yeah, same. This game rules, but needs a lot more content/variety because at the highest levels, I am running into the same exact thing.

Yeah, updates have slowed a bit recently, between the 'rona and the lead dev's first kid about to be born. They're still hard at it though. Chimeric posted an update to the site's blog a couple days ago, there's some pretty neat stuff in the works...

E: Should also mention that the current focus of development is Enemies 2.0, which should alleviate getting "chain-knockbacked into 5+projectiles/ships/screenfull of bright shiny death".

Lprsti99 fucked around with this message at 14:10 on Jun 24, 2020

# ? Jun 24, 2020 04:34

Cobalt-60: Oct 11, 2016; by Azathoth

New update!

0.31.19 SYZYGY

Major change: you get 7 options to choose from in weapons/shield/body at the beginning.

A bunch of tweaks, one new body type.

Missile still best weapon, close-range weapons still suck, upgrades are still random, you still can go 20 levels between getting a Tier 1 and seeing any Tier 2 talents.

Still fun game; still dying to bullet hell.

# ? Apr 20, 2021 05:45

ate shit on live tv: Feb 15, 2004; by Azathoth

Cobalt-60 posted:

New update!

0.31.19 SYZYGY

Major change: you get 7 options to choose from in weapons/shield/body at the beginning.

A bunch of tweaks, one new body type.

Missile still best weapon, close-range weapons still suck, upgrades are still random, you still can go 20 levels between getting a Tier 1 and seeing any Tier 2 talents.

Still fun game; still dying to bullet hell.

I'm glad they finally did that.

Also I started playing again with my old standby Vortex plus Venom Body. Ditch the Shield ASAP, get the defensive talents and the regenerative burn talents, and the Vortex with just a few weapon mods will burn through most bosses with ease. I just died to wave 100, but he was super low I tried to ram/vortex him before I had damaged him enough and he did his celestial lance thing through me and won. Anyway, great game though the wild-mods are a lot more mild then when they were first introduced.

# ? Apr 20, 2021 08:04

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# ? May 8, 2024 12:31

Cobalt-60: Oct 11, 2016; by Azathoth

I actually prefer playing without wild mods, unless I'm going Research body. Being able to complete talent trees is better than most of the random mods.

I never got the hang of collision builds; always wind up either too low on health to kill things or eating half a dozen projectiles trying to get close in bullet hell enemies. That's assuming I survive long enough to get all the talents you need just to support it.

Similar to the self-damaging talents and mods; the concept is there, but I don't see the execution.

# ? Apr 20, 2021 23:43

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Nova Drift - Like if Path of Exile and Asteroids dropped acid and had a kid