Bionic Dues:Post Release Notes

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Beta 1.006

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

Official 1.005 Combined Customization

(Released October 28th, 2013)

  • Previously there were four different ways a part could be assigned a particular effect (+Shields, +Stealth, etc): 1 effect from the base type ("Nano-Rifled Barrel", for example), 1 effect from the variant type (a particular image of the nano-rifled barrel where it's turned another direction, for example), 1 effect from the prefix, and 1 effect from the suffix. This gave a possible total of 4 effects (except for those parts that have different effects in different systems) and combined with the sheer number of slots you can have in this game compared to other games with procedural loot this seemed to be one bridge too far in terms of loot complexity and how much info the player needed to parse after each mission.
    • So now the variant part type does not grant an effect, bringing the total down to 3 and ensuring that all common (white-text) gear only has one effect.
    • To avoid advanced parts having too _few_ effects, anything blue and up is now guaranteed to have both a prefix and a suffix, and thus 3 effects. But Greens now only ever have one or the other, not both (previously they had a 10% chance of having both), and thus have 2 effects.
    • Note: this does not affect parts already generated in previous versions of the game.
    • Thanks to nas1m, BobTheJanitor, Admiral, and many others for inspiring this change.
  • The Pistol is now not quite so usefulness-challenged; as per the new description:
    • Short Story: free action, disables enemy movement, 3-turn cooldown.
    • Long Story:
      • The old MurTech MkVI "PebbleProjector" Pistol was the worst weapon in the galaxy. Customer feedback was torrential. Mainly from next-of-kin.
      • In fact, the MurTech Complaints Department received so many letters that a counter deep within the Inefficiency Engine overflowed into negative numbers. The explosion atomized many Complaints executives and led to a truly remarkable event: the first, and last, documented case of MurTech efficiency.
      • The resulting "KneeSeeker" model has the invaluable benefit of disabling the movement of any bot it hits. Further, firing the weapon is a "free action" because the other bots are too surprised to respond. The weapon itself is so astonished that it EMP's itself for 3 turns.
    • Thanks to Kruztee, ScrObot, doctorfrog, zharmad, muttala, nas1m, and jonasan for inspiring these changes.
  • HideBot range is now capped at 5, regardless of difficulty level (starts at 2 but on high difficulties it can get way higher later on), to avoid cases where they could fire on you while staying stealthed.
    • Thanks to [RR] Sleepy, [Pony] Wharrrrrrgarbl, Misery, and Frosty the Pyro for inspiring this change.
  • Tuck now has an additional sensor-related bonus: his sensors can scan through doors and barricades which normally block sensors.
    • Thanks to nas1m, DarkTroZo, Frosty the Pyro, [RR] Sleepy, Misery, Winge, jonasan, and zharmad for inspiring this change.

New Customization Screen Moves To Main Branch

  • Since feedback seems to indicate that the new customization layout is stable and an all-around improvement on the old layout it is now enabled by default. There's a toggle to force the old layout, and the old layout is still used by displays that aren't at least 1280-wide and at least 768-high. After a while of the new layout being in the hands of the non-beta-branch audience we'll probably try to rework the smaller display mode so that it incorporates the most important features of the new layout.
    • Thanks to... well, basically everyone complained about how customization used to be, at least in the UI, so thanks to all of you ;)
  • The "instruction text" shown on the new customization screen now draws as part of the mouseover tooltips, at the top, with color highlights on the inputs ("left click", etc) and the resulting actions ("install", "sell", etc).
  • Shift-right-clicking an unequipped (or archived) inventory item in the new customization screen now sells that item.
    • Thanks to ScrOBot for the suggestion.

Beta 1.004

(Released October 25th, 2013) 

  Steam will not automatically update you to this version unless you specifically add yourself to the beta branch for this game.  
  To do so, right-click the game in steam and choose properties.  Under the Betas tab, choose "beta" from the dropdown.  
  You may have to restart steam after that in order to get it to trigger the download of the 1.001 version.  
  Once this feature set is considered stable, it will be merged into the normal steam update path for everyone.
  • Fixed another array-out-of-bounds error that could happen on the customization screen in some cases.
    • Thanks to ScrObot for the report.

Beta 1.003

(Released October 23rd, 2013) 

  Steam will not automatically update you to this version unless you specifically add yourself to the beta branch for this game.  
  To do so, right-click the game in steam and choose properties.  Under the Betas tab, choose "beta" from the dropdown.  
  You may have to restart steam after that in order to get it to trigger the download of the 1.001 version.  
  Once this feature set is considered stable, it will be merged into the normal steam update path for everyone.
  • Fixed an index-out-of-bounds error in the customization screen logic.
    • Thanks to Pepsisolo for the report.

Beta 1.002

(Released October 23rd, 2013) 

  Steam will not automatically update you to this version unless you specifically add yourself to the beta branch for this game.  
  To do so, right-click the game in steam and choose properties.  Under the Betas tab, choose "beta" from the dropdown.  
  You may have to restart steam after that in order to get it to trigger the download of the 1.001 version.  
  Once this feature set is considered stable, it will be merged into the normal steam update path for everyone.
  • 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) 

  Steam will not automatically update you to this version unless you specifically add yourself to the beta branch for this game.  
  To do so, right-click the game in steam and choose properties.  Under the Betas tab, choose "beta" from the dropdown.  
  You may have to restart steam after that in order to get it to trigger the download of the 1.001 version.  
  Once this feature set is considered stable, it will be merged into the normal steam update path for everyone.
  • 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!)

Previous Release Notes

Bionic Dues Alpha Release Notes

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