Bionic Dues:Post Release Notes

Prerelease 1.001

(Not yet released; we're still working on it!)

• Added an "Auto-Equip One Part" button to the Exo Customization screen. As its tooltip says:
  • Feeling indecisive? Just want _something_ put in those slots so you can get on with the robot-annihilation?
  • Just ring the bell and one of our maintenance crews will be right over to make a total hash of things. Er, that is, to take exquisite care in their meticulous selection of a well-suited part to install in your exo. Yea.
  • Notes:
    • This will never remove or replace a part that is already installed. To auto-equip the whole exo first use "Remove All Parts".
    • If your exo has a non-negative power-balance, this will never pick a part that makes it negative. If your exo has a negative power-balance, this will never pick a part that makes it worse.
    • This will only auto-equip a single part; to continue auto-equipping the exo just keep clicking the button. Simple, no?
  • Thanks to BobTheJanitor for the suggestion (others suggested something similar, but he was the one with the temerity to say "even the most rudimentary"; here you go!)

• Added new toggle to Extras tab of the Settings Window: "Enable Customization/Inventory Merge". This is an experimental feature, but one felt necessary in the wake of very widespread feedback that it's part of the game that actually gets in the way of the fun.
  • Description from the tooltip:
    • This feature is still in testing, use at your own risk. But it's generally less explosive than a plasma cannon.
    • If you are running the game at a resolution of at least 1280-wide and at least 768-high, this toggle will enable an alternate layout of the customization and inventory screens that are used between missions. Instead of clicking on a slot to bring up a separate window to pick a part for that slot (and having Inventory be a third window where you can just browse all your parts), you will see your inventory on the same screen as your exo's slots and be able to drag-and-drop parts from your inventory into the slots.
  • The game's minimum specs are 1024x720 so there will always need to be a display that works for that too, but the information available to us is that at most 5% (and probably way less) of the audience uses devices incapable of 1280-wide and/or 768-high, so it seemed appropriate to have an improved version of this one interface for the other 95%. If this experiment works out, the really key improvements can be integrated back into the smaller version.
  • For the curious, here's a screenshot of the overall layout: http://arcengames.com/dl/Bionic_RevisedCustomizationScreenFor1280x768.jpg
  • Thanks to ragosaurus, Arnos, Jin, Pakuska, Conir, Mick, navik659, BobTheJanitor, Knight of Virtue, Penumbra, Kevdogg155, Cool_Roxas, Hermundure, BriianC, Underwhelmed, Velorien, xDURALx, Haldurson, and others for inspiring these changes.