Alpha release 6

v3.0.0-alpha changelog:

ADDITIONS:

• Added the Missions System
  • Missions work like they do in games like RuneScape, they cover a set of tasks and have prerequisites that you must complete before you can accept them
  • Finishing a mission gives you a summary of what you did through the tasks in the mission
• Added Siege Sectors, and a Wave Builder you can access from the World Creator with the 'V' key in Build Mode
  • Added really cool Siege Sector music courtesy of the one and only FlightWish!
• Added the Dialogue Canvas and Dialogue Overriding, this allows us to write dialogue for every entity in the game, not just the ones involved in missions! It also allows us to write more complicated dialogue than what was possible in the original game (i.e. complex dialogue systems with different branches in the remastered version vs just one node of dialogue in the original)
  • Added the dialogue roulette, essentially just chance-based branching, Sukrat got some dialogue using this so talk to him frequently and repeatedly!
  • Added the dialogue condition checkpoint, basically dialogue can check if you've completed missions/tasks
• Added multiple task canvas support - this means side missions/more dialogue for players
• Added a background floater to Haven 1
• Added the JSON window in the World Creator Ship Builder, now you can get JSON in the World Creator too
• Added more cores to the Havens, and a BUNCH of dialogue for the different cores in the game. I highly recommend starting over to go through it all!
• Added functionality to the World Creator's read/write JSON buttons in-game
• Added the ability for the Dialogue System to open the Ship Builder on the end node, this means we can give Yards/Traders (later Drone Workshops too!) custom dialogue and responses
• Power rocks now have minimap icons
• Added the original responses for task starting, and added dialogue to Mission Controls to remind players of tasks that they've already accepted
• Added the ability to migrate Alpha 2.1.0 saves into the new version. This will reset your task progress and put you in the Spawning Grounds, but you will retain your parts and credits, and other save related variables.
• Added the ability to backup/copy saves in-game (press the yellow icon below the save delete button)
• In the trader, you can now shift-click part buttons to instantly buy/sell them instead of dragging them to the right area
• Tabbing now switches your main target with the first secondary target, essentially allowing you to cycle through your secondaries
• Added 2 (two) new Tips From The Yard
• Added the Beamer Rescue mission from EP1, and also expanded on it a bit
• Added some additional main story - play it yourself!
• Added most relevant sectors pre-Haven 3
• Added a changelog

REVISIONS:

• Revised the Status Menu to have tabs, a larger map and a missions interface
• NPCs will not attack/charge at enemies while in a cutscene anymore. This allows interaction with other factions
• The shell/turret shooter parts now hide immediately upon destruction. This was a tough choice to return to the original game's explosion style but I felt it was better after a while
• Made the square particles a little darker
• Siege turrets can attack other turrets now (because turrets were made stations)
• Adjusted the background tile colors/sizes and pushed them back a bit
• You no longer even have to talk to Sukrat for the first task, you can just go straight to Haven 1 (though they'll be a bit pouty)
• Sukrat got a much-needed makeover to reflect their importance! Aristu will get one once they become relevant in the story
• Updated the save menu and save icons to look nicer
• The 8 unit secondary target limit has been removed
  • Info boxes now stack vertically and are masked to 5 on the screen
  • The boxes scroll now, you can drag it around to see the remaining infos
• Changed the secondary target marker from shapes to numbers
• Carriers now only spawn Drones if the zone has not been won yet
• AI should now follow/stalk targets in a fashion reminiscent of the original games
• Your unit count should update a bit faster when your drones get destroyed now (this will happen to Turrets too next update, I was too lazy to change it for Turrets)
• Multiple background spawns should now be addable and their factions should now be adjustable
• The minimum distance between non-platform item points in the World Creator has been halved, it stays the same for platforms though

BALANCING:

• Energy costs for firing weapons should now scale by level, and so energy costs have been changed

  • Bullet -> 50 energy -> 25 energy per tier
  • Beam -> 100 energy -> 50 energy per tier
  • Cannon -> 10 energy -> 25 energy per tier
  • Missile -> 125 energy -> 150 energy per tier
  • Torpedo -> 10 energy -> 100 energy per tier
  • Laser -> 5 energy -> 15 energy per tier

• Damage dealt by certain weapons have been changed (already per tier)

  • Bullet -> 450 damage -> 400 damage
  • Beam -> 500 damage -> 525 damage
  • Cannon -> 100 damage -> 200 damage
  • Torpedo -> 500 damage -> 600 damage

• Cooldowns for certain abilities have been changed

  • Speed Thrust -> 5 seconds -> 10 seconds
  • Beam -> 5 seconds -> 3 seconds
  • Cannon -> 1 second -> 2 seconds

• Shell Boosts/Core Heals have been buffed from 300 healed per tier to 500 healed per tier

• Energy has been buffed from 100 healed per tier to 250 healed per tier

• Reduced the survival time of Main Bullet projectiles from 0.3 seconds to 0.25 seconds

• Reduced the speed of Bullet from 25 to 20

• Reduced the range of Beam from 12 to 8

• Reduced the survival time of Missile projectiles from 7 seconds to 4 seconds

• Speed Thrust duration increased from 3 seconds to 5 seconds

• Speed Thrust and Speed should now increase in strength by an exponentiation of 1.5 of the tier instead of a simple multiplication by tier; this accommodates the increase in part mass in the higher tiers

BUGFIXES:

• The task system ID adjustment fixed the bug where the Mission Controls in any one Haven of the two in the game could assign tasks that only the one in the other haven should have assigned
• Fixed the "vicdefeatory" bug in the Battle Results window
• Clicking on the world while a window is active won't trigger a selection box/target click/movement command anymore
• Fixed a minor Outpost/Bunker glitch where you could have dead clicks/keypresses that don't open the outpost/tank interface sometimes
• Fixed a bug with the selection box that broke the info list
• Fixed a bug with the selection box that broke the box when you tabbed out
• Fixed zooming to work when you are not moving
• Fixed some dialogue clashing/incorrect lambda handling issues that have actually been plaguing the game for a while, I just never realized it
• Made a small change to the particle script, hopefully the squares don't line up anymore (haven't proven they don't, I'm not Don Knuth)
• Various node editor bugfixes, parsing fixes, fix to dialogue node calculations
• The olive faction is actually olive now (technically it's goldenrod though but olive sounds cooler so I'm calling it olive) and should be able to capture outposts correctly
• Hotkeys should now render above tier/ability images on the ability buttons
• The warning given sometimes after the Aristu task should no longer be happening, and you won't fail the task after you completed it if you die anymore
• Fixed a bug where the cores in the save icon image weren't masked by the scroll view
• Fixed the minimap not being "counted" as the HUD by the selection box
• Fixed zooming happening when scrolling in other windows/interfaces
• Drones should now follow you/go back to whatever they were doing after you tractor them, or after they finish attacking Outposts/Bunkers/Carriers
• Fixed the unfathomably annoying bug where Yards break if you open them out of editor mode (by shift clicking) after opening them in editor mode
• Fixed empty inventory Traders breaking sector loading
• Pressing 'C' while copying JSON/entering ship JSON file names in the Ship Builder shouldn't clear parts anymore
• Fixed the bug where one Trader's blueprint gets copied sector-wide

Stay safe; these are trying times.
Thank you for playing ShellCore Command Remastered!

Alpha release 5

v2.1.0-alpha changelog:

ADDITIONS:

• Added Background Spawning, the phenomenon where enemies can randomly spawn out of nowhere, also responsible for the infamous DeadZone BattleCores
  • Currently entities despawn the moment you leave the sector, this will be adjusted for Background Spawning in a later release
  • Exactly 1 (one) DeadZone has been given something that might be a little more than you can chew with the current parts, prove me otherwise for bragging rights!
• Added the Dragging Selection Box
  • Gives you more information than in the original games about your targets through info text
  • The layout for the text grows horizontally abruptly in some resolutions, that will be fixed later
• Added mouse movement
  • Shift-clicking allows you to queue movements, otherwise clicking works as normal
  • Option to disable the original simple mouse movements available in the Controls section of the Settings Menu
• Added Task Failure, now the Aristu rescue mission shouldn't be as gamebreaking
• Pressing F1 now hides the HUD (unleash your inner photographer!)
• Added a Developer Console that you can open and close by pressing F3. This will provide invaluable data for us for debugging should you find a bug so you'll be using this a lot.
• Zooming in is now possible (zooming out will be based on your core level, the basic core can't zoom out of the default camera level)
• World Creator Standalone Additions:
  • Added the ability to change your starting blueprint and story checkpoint while testing worlds
    • The game saves these values so you don't have to keep entering them every time you load the World Creator
  • You can now add secondary data to parts in the ship builder
  • Added warping to sectors when testing by clicking sectors in the Status Menu
  • You can now add parts in game to your inventory by allowing usage of the WC Ship Builder in the main game
    • You can press shift while opening up the Ship Builder while testing in the main game to access the regular Ship Builder
• Right click now clears your targets, secondaries first, then your primary if you have no secondaries
  • Right click will likely be subject to change over time
• Ship Builder Part Information can now be viewed on hovering over inventory/trader inventory buttons
• Volume sliders should now change the volume while you move the knobs (Thanks MotionKing!)
• Added hotkey indicators to the top-left of ability buttons (if you didn't know you could hotkey abilities, well I don't know what to say...)
• Dropped parts now carry sector origin metadata, now you should only be able to pass "gather part" tasks if you collect parts from the sector it asks you for parts from.
• Tasks can now be forced on to the player (i.e. without dialoguing). There's a small "easter egg" related to something changed in the story based on this!
• Added the map background floating objects in the original game
• Added a changelog

REVISIONS:

• Made the entity info box a little cooler
• Tweaked the beam effect and added after-particles to it
• Added a muzzle effect to the Main Bullet
• Defense Turrets now have 2 times their old shell and 4 times their old core in health
• Tweaked Tractor Beam graphics and layering
• Parts now blink faster
• Stations, outposts and bunkers now have larger minimap icons to distinguish them
• Made sector borders (in overworld) larger and (in both in overworld and in minimap) grey instead of white
• Changed the Ship Builder "snapping back" parts when placed in invalid locations to only happen when holding down Shift
• Ship Builder Parts now get dispatched if you place them too close to the shell right away, so you don't get parts stuck on the shell. If you placed them validly before they snap back to that position
• Active ability glows (Speed Thrust and Spawning Drones right now) have been made slightly larger
• Using active buffs (Speed Thrust is the only one in game right now) will now cause the indicator to blink instead of continuously glowing
• Softened the mind-meltingly loud Speed Thrust sound effect
• Weapons will now attack whatever is eligible and closest if the primary target you selected is out of range
• Reduced the range of Main Bullet (by reducing bullet survival time from 0.5 seconds to 0.3 seconds)
• Increased the range of Bullet (by increasing projectile speed from 15 units per second to 25 units per second)
• Reduced the range of beam from 15 units to 12 units
• Adjusted the minimap indicators to be above entity markers
• Pan Camera speed slightly adjusted during cutscenes
• With Background Spawning and tougher Defense Turrets the Spawning Grounds became a little too difficult, so some enemies were removed/replaced with weaker ones in it

BUGFIXES:

• Fixed the bug which allowed Mini Drones and other enemies with small hitboxes to become near-invincible
• Fixed the particle layering in the main menu
• Fixed a bug where station-spawned drones would not despawn on leaving the sector
• Fixed a bug which could cause a minimap reticle arrow to stick to the minimap
• Fixed a bug which reset healths when "health max" abilities (ones that provided additional shell/core/energy) were destroyed
• Fixed the tip that told you how long we'd been trying to find stuff to place there (It was certainly NOT just 12 days)
• (Hopefully) Fixed the typing overlapping bug in cutscenes
• Background dialogue should not overflow out of the box anymore

Thank you for playing ShellCore Command Remastered!

Alpha release 4

v2.0.0-alpha changelog:

ADDITIONS:

• Publicized the World Creator, the tool that we use to create the map and task set. Questions will be entertained but while we take bug reports, it shouldn't be expected that World Creator bugs will be fixed ASAP. Multiple new features of the World Creator were added in preparation for this release.
• Added Instant Transmission Dialogue, a method for cores to dialogue without the window blocking your view (also allows the player to speak a little more actively).
• Added Cutscene code, allowing us to move around entities and pan the camera alongside dialogue
• Added more story (up till the second mission in Haven 2)
• Added a changelog

REVISIONS:

• Changed the main menu sector to reflect episode 1's old sector more, also spruced up the logo and added versioning on the lower left. The music was changed to reflect episode 1 more as well.
• Lowered the mass of all parts by a third
• Changed the formula of speed and speed thrust (overall it should be a bit less powerful now)
• Buffed Air Carriers to not be as mind-numbingly easy to defeat as they were
• Changed drop mechanics to only allow drops from ShellCores not in the uninfected faction that do not have a spawning station, just like in the original games
• Changed the spawning sound to not play so annoyingly often

BUGFIXES:

• Fixed sectors glitching out when you carried defense turrets around

Thank you for playing ShellCore Command Remastered!

Alpha release 3

v1.0.1-alpha changelog:

ADDITIONS:

• Added a new dialogue animation, this can be toggled off in settings
• Added an autosaving toggle in the settings
• Added a "Save Settings" button, the previous system didn't save correctly sometimes but this alleviates that issue
• Added a changelog

BUGFIXES:

• Fixed an intermittent dialogue freezing bug in the start of the game
• Fixed dragged turrets not despawning upon sector reload

Thank you for playing ShellCore Command Remastered!

Alpha release 2

v1.0.0-alpha changelog:

ADDITIONS:

• Added some more story (getting close to the first BattleZone where the story will diverge a bit more significantly) and with it some more functionality in our task system.
• Added a better settings menu - allows display changes and more precise volume adjusting
• Added task arrows, both to the status menu and minimap
  (this feature is still incomplete, it doesn't follow entities you need to kill for instance, remind rudderbucky and Ormanus!)
• Added colors to task and target arrows to disambiguate them
• Added a changelog

REVISIONS:

• Settings are now all saved (instead of just volume) and they are saved as global player preferences instead of by save file
• Changed the sector with Strike Drones to spawn more of them and independently of your current task
• Adjusted updating saved characters to consider newly discovered world characters
• Minor tweak to the overworld music
• Changed saving to work more consistently with a constantly developing task set
• Minor changes to UI (target info, ability buttons and ability category buttons, power/units/credits display, status menu and map, info text, ship builder)

BUGFIXES:

• Fixed bug with selecting drones placed on the map (without owners)
• Fixed scaling inconsistencies with the UI - particularly font scaling
• Fixed ship builder part placing inconsistency with different resolutions
• Fixed a resolution issue with the background tiling (didn't impact the release until now because you weren't able to change resolution in game)
• Fixed a few race condition events which may have caused the game to break

READ:

• The saving system has changed to the point that all previous saves will stop working, however from this point onwards they should start working properly.

Thank you for playing ShellCore Command Remastered!

Alpha release 1

v0.0.0-alpha changelog:

ADDITIONS:

• The first very few parts and tasks of Episode 1's story
• Sector lines on the minimap
• Danger Zone damage
• Added music
• Added credits (the attributions kind not the currency)
• (Secret addition) Created the World Creator that will facilitate making tasks and dialogue chains (not usable in this release)
• Added a changelog

REVISIONS:

• Adjusted explosion and respawn effects
• Revised Status Menu map
• Adjusted Ship Builder outline over parts and background

BUGFIXES:

• Fixed an error with saving your part blueprint
• Fixed some sector bugs with geometry and entity disposal

READ:

• Prototype save files will almost certainly not work with alpha releases. Don't bother reporting issues with them. However, we now do care about save files from alpha versions working in later alpha versions, so keep an eye out for that.
• We are planning on releasing alphas a lot faster than in prototyping since we have all the tools necessary to create more parts of the story. Of course, more things need to be added and will be over time, but there are no more major hurdles behind creating and continuing the story.

Thank you for playing ShellCore Command Remastered!

Prototype release 9

v4.0.0-proto:

ADDITIONS:

• Added the Core Upgrader and an additional branch to upgrade to, alongside 2 extra upgrades
• Added 3 tiers of shards that are weighted differently
• Added the reputation mechanic
• Task progression is now saved
• Turrets/tanks can now be obtained using relevant hotkeys without opening the interface
• Added hit effects

REVISIONS:

• Reworked most interfaces
• Updated most weapon animations
• Reworked damage formulae; now you must attack the core of an enemy to damage the core, otherwise you will damage a part until it detaches, exposing the core further

REMOVALS:

• Removed the Sector Creator (Will eventually be replaced with a better one)

BUGFIXES:

• Fixed worker drones not working after you moved them
• Fixed broken part detaching mechanic

Thank you for playing ShellCore Command Remastered!

Prototype release 8

v3.0.1-proto:

BUGFIXES

• Fixed drone-related Yard/Drone Workshop crashes
• Tractor beaming a part that a worker drone is tractoring should free the drone's beam
• Minor change to ship builder formula
• Reconstructing with shell/core max parts should now correctly heal you all your health

Thank you for playing ShellCore Command Remastered!

Prototype release 7

v3.0.0-proto:

ADDITIONS:

• Added tasks, and a chain of 3 tasks to the default sectors.
• Added a task editor in the sector creator.
• Added all drones.
• Added drone diversity effects.
• Added the basic version of the Drone Workshop. Editing drones should function, though extra features like copying have not been added yet.

Thank you for playing ShellCore Command Remastered!

Prototype release 6

v2.1.1-proto:

BUGFIXES:

• Fixed some resolution issues with the ship builder
• Fixed interactions with enemy outposts/bunkers
• Fixed some issues with the status menu

ADJUSTMENTS:

• Slightly reduced threshold for parts being too far from others in the ship builder

Thank you for playing ShellCore Command Remastered!