VULKAN HAS ARRIVED!

This may be a point release, but boooy a lot of new stuff is here! The biggest code-wise (but hopefully barely noticable) is the fact that we merged into a new rendering architecture with Vulkan as the default API. We only started optimizations on it, so the benefits as yet are small, but will ultimately lead to both performance gains as well as new graphical goodness. It is IMPERATIVE however to at least briefly test this release on your machine before Friday! Pretty please <3.

If you have any issues running the game (that you didn't before), please contact us  ASAP! (preferably on ChaosForge forums , but steam forums and Discord are also ok). If the game doesn't run at all you can also try passing --gl via right-click properties on Steam, but do report the problem anyway. 

VOICE OF JUPITER

I promised new stuff, so another big change is the long awaited voice acting for our JupiterGuy, by the irreplacable Mark Meer! We still didn't add all the interactions that we wanted, but a lot of it is already in. Be warned that our hero has a foul mouth! To those offended by this or streaming/youtubeing (or playing with children beside them), there's an option to tone down the profanity. You can also raise it, but it'll just remove some of the non-profane options. If you're not a big fan of VO, or want to hear less of it because you're playing the hundreth damn time you can also configure the frequency - from off or plot-only quips, to the full package. Tell us what you think!

ULTRAVIOLENCE

For the hardcore players, we invite you to try a bit of the old ULTRAVIOLENCE! While it isn't the highest difficulty we want to add, it should keep you entertained in the meantime. While on the topic of difficulty - we did some rebalancing - there are more enemies overall, Easy is easier (accuracy nerf to enemies), Medium is a bit harder and Hard should be even harder. 

SMGs

Next, we added a new weapon class - SMGs. These automatic weapons have poor accuracy (especially at longer distances), but dish a lot of bullets. The benefit however is that they benefit from pistol only skills. 

SKILLED

Also noteworthy, each class now has a Skilled trait that improves their class active and passive abilities. Our scout is slowly turning into an assassin? 

Apart from that a huge chunk of smaller changes and bugfixes awaits, see the full changelog below!

Beta  0.7.2 - July 11, 2019
NEW    #001 - Vulkan port!
NEW    #558 - Voice over!
NEW    #558 - voice over options to suit your preferences - profanity level and frequency
NEW    #543 - ULTRAVIOLENCE difficulty
NEW    #543 - rebalanced difficulties - more enemies on each, Easy easier, Hard harder, Medium a bit harder
NEW    #575 - added SMG's - bullet hose with low accuracy, benefiting from pistol skills
NEW    #565 - Skilled class trait - enhance your active and passive class skills
NEW    #561 - Steam achievements (not fully working due to unreleased game status)
NEW    #564 - Steam cloud save (saves, player data and score board)
NEW    #542 - different step sounds, CRI bot sounds, and door sounds (on later levels)
CHANGE #543 - more exalted enemies on higher difficulties (on Hard and UV more than one pack/level possible)
CHANGE #575 - power mod value depends on base damage (nerfed explosive P-mod)
CHANGE #565 - character starts at level 1 
CHANGE #541 - krak grenades have radius 1 explosion now
CHANGE #541 - spawn more repair kits and armor boxes
CHANGE #541 - chainsaw damage increased by 10
CHANGE #541 - summon sound a bit quieter
CHANGE #541 - small stimpacks clear pain
CHANGE #541 - Angel of Vampirism health gain scales less by enemy HP and depends on difficulty
CHANGE #586 - buffed CRI enemies - they now use pierce damage (later plasma)
CHANGE #586 - ADV weapons made stronger - more attributes changed, and picks best change
CHANGE #537 - option to turn off level 1 tutorial hints
CHANGE #580 - score, player and post mortem interfaces reset scroll
FIX    #--- - fixed terminal animation and feedback
FIX    #--- - fixed a case where bsp would generate a ton of doors

Next version (0.7.3) will be out in little more than a week! This will be the last version with new features before the August 1st Early Access launch! If all goes well we'll add account progression and finally upgrade Io to a worthy moon!