Hi all, It's been a long while since I've dropped an update but I've now had the chance to add a few elements that didn't make it into the builds last year. I've also tweaked the balancing in a few places and overhauled the game mode selection so that the difficulty setting is clearer (and set easier by default). [b]Main changes[/b] [list] [*] "EXTENDED" game mode: This new mode is a variation of "Standard" in which bosses, and therefore factions, are persistent. This means you have to play through ALL stages of every zone along a route in every run. The aim of this is to cater for players who want to be able to use their levelled-up car and weapons on weaker enemies and bosses earlier in the game. It's a little closer to the more "traditional" rogue-lite structure and some might prefer that. However, this mode has a longer play-time and is a more grindy experience in my opinion. [*] Custom livery patterns: Adding a little more to the visual customisation for the car, you can now choose from seven 2-colour patterns (and select both colours from the existing palette). Note, the Custom livery only becomes available once you've completed the first zone. [*] "BOSS TOUGHNESS" difficulty setting: This new setting can be found in Options -> Usability (and on the updated game mode menu - see next point). This allows you to tweak how tough the bosses are in terms of the damage they receive. 75% is now the default for a new savegame. [*] "NEW GAME" menu: The game mode menu has reverted its title to "New Game". Now when starting a new game, as well as selecting the game mode you can also adjust the two difficulty settings ("Damage Scale" and "Boss Toughness"). Hopefully this draws attention to the existence of these options to new players. [*] Default difficulty: When starting a new game with a fresh savegame, the default difficulty values will both be set to 75%. This is easier than the original default settings. If you want to start a new game equivalent to the original settings then please use 100% for both. [/list] [b]Balancing changes:[/b] [list] [*] Rocket Launcher: Now unlocks at a higher level, is more expensive and causes a lower amount of damage. I hope everyone would agree it was overpowered. That said, it's still going to be one of the choices of preferred end-game weapons. [*] Mine Layer ammunition capacity doubled to 10. [*] Increased damage done by Caltrops by 5x. [*] Forward shotguns: Lowered damage, range and fire-rate slightly. (I've left the Incendiary Shotguns alone for now but I think they are probably also OP and will review further.) [*] Charge abilities: Weapon Maintenance, EMP Scramble and Caltrops have been swapped around to account for the degree of effectiveness of Weapon Maintenance. [*] Fourth Union Kickers' (saloon cars) guns do less damage. [*] Fourth Union APCs' guns do less damage. [*] Strike Legion large truck guns do less damage. [*] All helicopters toughness reduced to account for rocket damage changes. [*] Final boss balancing: All three stages now have the same toughness instead of ramping up slightly with each one. This makes it a tiny bit easier and keeps the health-bar chunks in even thirds. [*] Value of currency drops increased by about 10% in all game modes. [/list] [b]Other Fixes:[/b] [list] [*] Stability fix for loading screen (mainly a console problem so possibly not seen on Steam version) [*] Fix for fast animation of loading screen flag when vsync is turned off. [*] If you've completed Deadly mode and unlocked the secret livery then this will now permanently unlock and be available in other modes. (Has anyone even seen this livery?!) [*] Fix so that Schematic Scanner should only be offered if a schematic has been assigned to an enemy vehicle. [/list] [b]Next update[/b] [list] [*] The aim is for the next update to have another new game mode (likely a boss-rush style mode). [*] If time permits, I'd still like to get the controller mapping / key rebinding in. Though I've not seen that many posts asking for this. So, please let me know in the community discussions if this is important to you. [*] Any further fixes and balancing. [/list] The usual note: Where feasible I will always make the previous version of the build available if you don't want to upgrade. You can access this through Manage -> Properties -> Betas and enter "PREVIOUSBUILD" as the access code. (The previous build is now set to version 1.0.2.0.) Thanks, Richard (Red Phantom Games).