Trying to get that release cadence up, and good thing too since the holiday break is coming up and we hope to get a bunch more done. Today’s release is smaller, with some quality of life improvements and a few oversights from the last release. Most particularly, we revised the portrayal of reloading and ordnance in the UI.
Feedback was showing that people misunderstood how reload cooldowns worked: Most weapons are “free” to use, but cannot be used again until their particular cooldown is complete. We’ve got more prominent meters in to help convey that. There was also confusion around ordnance (which is a special type of explosive ammo that certain stronger weapons do use) because it looked like “bullets”, as in people thought it was required for all weaponry. Hopefully some iconography and other changes should help out with that.
Enjoy!
Changelist for Version 0.6.23
Content:
- Fixed lack of hostile forces in SW Arizona (the first overworld sector after the starting area).
- Removed (for now) the social chatter about drivers (rivals!) who are not the player, since their lack of introduction to the player makes it feel like a bug.
- Reduced the starting ordnance from 25 to 15.
Graphics/UI:
- Zooming out, sounds and encounters shouldn’t start until a level is loaded and has started to fade in
- Adjusted the compass graphics slightly as directed by our UI expert.
- The Automap can now be dismissed via the automap button again (sorry), the character button is now what toggles the automap to the world map. This is conveyed via UI.
- Additional small tweaks to the UI.
- Scaled back the distance blur, so that destination labels can be more easily read.
Addressing Reload and Ammo Confusion:
- Replaced all instances of the bullets with a new “ordnance” icon that hopefully looks unlike a bullet. That includes the emoji in the font, all UI, and flying icons.
- Clock meters now expressly show (in a more visible way) how many turns until each wepaon reloads.
- Targeting with ammo-consuming weaponry now play distinct sounds that match that resource’s pickup sound.
- Warn the player when ordnance or gas is getting low after use.