So we've taken the opportunity to radically change a lot of things in Basingstoke over the last few weeks to fix subtle gameplay problems that our fearless testers have encountered. And of course, loads of bugs.
The big changes in the game are:
There's an introduction
Yes, you're going for a job interview at Omni-corp. It's just about there... probably needs a little tweak or two over the weekend.
Weapons now break
After a few whacks, your trusty old frying pan will degrade into useless scrap. So will all of the other weapons, though you'll find that the more purposeful a weapon is, the longer it lasts. Conversely you'll also find that the bigger the gidrah you whack with it, the shorter it lasts.
Don't worry, though they now break, they are slightly more plentiful in supply, and they've all been given a +1 damage buff in compensation.
This change essentially brings melee weapons into parity with bait and ranged weapons - a way of dealing with gidrahs that has limited uses. It also means you don't just end up stuck with one go-to weapon of choice.
Backstabbing is now a status effect
We used to have it such that if a gidrah was under any status effect, such as panicking, asleep, on fire, blinded, or poisoned, that your weapon did +1 damage; and if you sneaked up behind it, that was another +1 damage. So you could get a +2 damage bonus. This is a bit over the top to try and figure out, really, so we've just included backstabbing as another status effect. The end result is, the maximum bonus is +1 now, but you can achieve it either through manual dexterity and risk by creeping up on unsuspecting enemies, or you can set the buggers on fire and hit them in the face. Basingstoke is a charming place, isn't it.
Loot Decks Revamped
The looting system has been overhauled to try and ensure that you don't get a string of crap through a combination of level design and bad luck. The system has a counterbalance for level design decisions that would otherwise cause you to get too much boring loot. It may need further tweaking.
Panicking Gids Noise Distraction
When you set gidrahs on fire they will tend to panic and screech a lot. This will attract the attentions of other nearby gidrahs. They won't be interested for long, mind.
Environmental Light Loot Highlight
Things that are being illuminated by environmental lights such as streetlights now automatically highlight if they contain loot without you having to use the torch or go near them.
Life Insurance Policies
You can now buy a life insurance policy from most shops. It doesn't activate straight away - you need to select it and actually activate it like any other device. At this point, your game is saved, and if you die, you will miraculously respawn right there again, in some sort of even more dystopian version of Groundhog Day. This is particularly useful on those later levels which get very long, or right before the exit of the level which is usually the trickiest bit.
You can buy more than one life insurance policy on a level if you manage to have the money (or even find one hidden somewhere), but only the latest policy is ever active.
Once activated, the insurance policy respawn is unlimited, until you decide to start a new game from the campsite, which you might want to do because the level is randomly regenerated when you do.
Please test away! Test as much as you can, we've only got this weekend to make changes and then I've got to make "gold" builds on Monday to upload to itch.io, Humble, and GOG.