Bionic Dues:Post Release Notes

Beta 1.002

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

• Fixed some bugs in the new merged customization/inventory layout where stat comparisons would cause line-wrapping (in a very unhelpful and indecipherable way).
  • Thanks to BobTheJanitor for the report.

• Previously, a ClawBot could not heal itself. Now, a ClawBot is also prevented from healing other ClawBots.
  • Thanks to Sethra for the suggestion.

• Fixed a bug where the "Order Playback Speed" setting was not persisted across sessions.
  • Thanks to ScrObot for the report.

• Fixed a bug where loading a profile from a later version would cause a crash (null exception); it was correctly telling you that it couldn't actually load the profile, but the crash kind of put a damper on things anyway.
  • Thanks to Lokarin for the report.

• Fixed a bug where the auto-equip button's prioritization of your selected sort/filter stat would merrily stuff a (say) +500 shields part in a slot when you asked for more shields... totally ignoring the fact that said +500 shields effect does not apply when put in that slot because it's one of those weird parts whose effect depends on the system it's put in.
  • Thanks to Iyravega for the report.

• The Recent Patch Notes now points to this page rather than to the alpha page.
  • Thanks to Jabor for reporting.

Further Iteration On New Customization Interface

• Thanks to nas1m, Admiral, BobTheJanitor, ralphie, Pepsisolo, Taikei no Yuurei, Winge, ScrObot, Misery, and others for inspiring these changes.

• The experiment with drag-n-drop actually seemed like a step back in usability, so now to select an inventory item for installation you just click it (and then click the slot you want it to go in).

• One use case that honestly didn't occur to us last time, but basically everyone asked for: click on a slot, then click on an inventory item to install it in that slot.
  • Naturally this also displays a comparison when mousing over an inventory item, which it did not previously do.

• Now the dimming out of slots (of ineligible ones, when an inventory item is selected, or of non-selected slots when a slot is selected) is much higher-contrast. Should help with readability, at least.

• Now other inventory parts are dimmed when an inventory part is selected.

• In the new screen mode the scroll wheel switches to the next/previous exo, since it's no longer needed for scrolling the stats list.

Beta 1.001

(Released October 14th, 2013)

• Fixed bug where Rey could lose multiple exos in a single turn (overlapping AOE attacks, etc).
  • Thanks to Patashu for the report.

• While we were at it, also made Rey's auto-revive ability restore hacking, mine, sentry, stealth, and virus points to the revived exo (previously it already restored health, ammo, and un-disabled weapons).

• Fixed a bug where Sentries granted credits when destroyed. Which would be fine, except it motivates dumping out all your spare sentries just before the end of each mission for a fleecing. Cute, but wrong.
  • Thanks to SNAFU and others for reporting.

• Fixed a bug where Sentries and Mines could be deployed even when the exo had no more left (or had never had any!) through the hotkey or interface button.
  • Thanks to SNAFU, bladewarp, and others for reporting.

• Ok, whew, Sentries were REALLY overpowered. Them being good is cool, but certain cheesemasters were trivializing high-difficulty endgames with 300+ trap skill, etc... wily players. Anyway:
  • Sentries no longer get an ammo boost from trap skill (unless they were already placed in an old save).
  • Sentry range boost from trap skill is capped at 5 (max total range of 11) (unless they were already placed in an old save).
  • The +TrapSkill effect now costs 4 item levels per point instead of 3 (from a player perspective this basically means trap skill values will be 33% lower on the items you find in the future, has no impact on items from old saves).
  • The +%Propulsion-related effect's range from 12%-to-60% => 9%-to-45%. (again, won't affect items from old saves).
  • The +SentryCount effect magnitude from 2+level => 1+(level/2) (same deal with old save items)
  • Overall, with the +attack and +shields boost from trap skill still intact (albeit with lower trap skill, and fewer sentries to work on), these are quite possibly still too strong. We have a sneaking suspicion that players will find out and let us know.
  • Thanks to Sooty, Misery, Frumple, Reasonance, Waladil, The_Ring-Bearer, Tridus, Mick, and others for inspiring these changes,

• Fixed a bug where the post-misison ironman save happened after all mission-end-related stuff (mission-reward loot parts, etc) had been queued, but not generally after it had actually been processed.
  • Thanks to nas1m for the report.

Customization Quality-of-Life Improvements

• Added new toggle to Extras tab of the Settings Window: "Enable Customization/Inventory Merge". This is an experimental feature (and the toggle defaults to off; you'll need to specifically turn it on if you want to use/test this), 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.

• 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!)