[img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/33717650/21f1051820f78c9d54d6cb15982216db8482ccfb.png[/img] [b]Jupiter Hell 1.4 "Chaos"[/b] brings the Valhalla flavored upgrades to Europa branches and mainline, introduces a boss at Europa Central Dig, improves level generation (especially of cave/basalt generators), adds more manufacturer perks, several balance changes, buffs to many exotics and uniques and a SHIFT move to instantly swap places with that friendly bot! But first, a word from our sponsor, Raid Sha.... oh wait. I mean from [url=https://store.steampowered.com/pub/Hyperstrange]Hyperstrange[/url]! The good folks there released [url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1359980/POSTAL_Brain_Damaged/]POSTAL: Brain Damage[/url] to rave reviews (I can't believe I'm writing that about a Postal game...!), whereas their Dude can give the JupeGuy a run for his money in one-liners, I've also spotted a [url=https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans//33717650/eaa09f9e6e8621bea26e21ebf1c48150fa8e29cf.png]call-out to Jupiter Hell?[/url] https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/26624/Cheesy_OneLiners_Galore/ Aaaanyway, back to the update! Let's split this into sections to make the "wall of text" more approachable :P [h2]EUROPA[/h2] Just as "Valhalla" overhauled Callisto, "Chaos" does the same for Europa (guess I won't be able to hide what the next release will be about, eh). [h3]== Branch reworks ==[/h3] NEW #1732 - Conamara Chaos branch/special rework! NEW #1713 - Dig Zone branch/special rework! NEW #1731 - Asterius branch/special rework! NEW #1750 - Refueling Base/The Pit reworked CHANGE #1737 - improved Europa level generators (mostly visual) Three of the four branches have been given dedicated mechanics and a added reward at the end (Ruins will be overhauled with Io), the level generation has been more or less updated in each branch, although it will mostly be visible in the cave/basalt branches. Improvements have been also made to the mainline and mainline special levels. All special levels have improved rewards. All branches have their own new Manufacturer perk. You might even hear a new tune somewhere! [h3]== Ice Cold Boss ==[/h3] NEW #1712 - Europa has a boss too! An old favorite got a new job! However brand new mechanics are present, and you might consider getting some cold resistance for this particular fight! [h3]== Caves & Cliffs ==[/h3] CHANGE #1714 - improved cave/basalt level visuals CHANGE #1714 - improved cave/basalt level generators All of the cave and basalt levels got a visual upgrade, and most also got a architectural update for more variety. We'll be revisiting other generators in the next updates too! [h3]== Visuals ==[/h3] NEW #1709 - Callisto security visual improvements finished NEW #1745 - Europa security visual improvements We started the Callisto security visual upgrade in the Valhalla release, but now it's complete - human enemies should be much better visible in the dark (insert snarky comment about wanting to get shot here), and Europa security got a similar visibility bump. Some of the enemies look really disturbing, but fear not - you'll never see that 'cause the models are so small ;) [h3]== A taste of Io ==[/h3] NEW #1721 - Mephitic Mines branch/special rework! CHANGE #1695 - CRI weapon prefix is a manufacturer now CHANGE #1695 - CRI manufacturer present on alive CRI soldiers/branch CHANGE #1695 - CRI sword/CRI blaster always roll with CRI manufacturer As we left out an Europa branch for the Io update, it was only fair to pick a Io branch to update in this release - Mephitic Mines was chosen as it goes well with our visual basalt generator improvements! Also take careful note on the CRI Manufacturer perk, as it gives a whopping +25% damage against ALL demons, which is a significant buff to all Io weaponry! [h3]== Redacted! ==[/h3] NEW #1551 - [REDACTED] [REDACTED] (there's a new secret in this release, not as huge and not community driven like the last one, but close and personal ;) [h2]GAMEPLAY[/h2] It was time for another larger balance pass. Our main objectives were to make the mid-late game a bit harder, make mid-late game loot a bit stronger and more interesting, especially uniques and exotics, and rebalance a bit the master perks. [h2]== Enemies ==[/h2] CHANGE #1749 - balance - base/exalt reavers have lower melee dmg/acc CHANGE #1749 - balance - exalted reavers don't get +10% speed CHANGE #1729 - balance - fiend/kerberi/reaver status higher, lower base CHANGE #1729 - balance - sentinels proc cold effects FIX #1746 - fixed rare in-your-face spawns (mostly in mini-levels) Friendly Neighbourhood Reaver was a meme in the community since Early Access, and I though that I dealt with the most annoying cases of this syndrome, but alas some more nerfing is needed. Especially due to a bug in the enemy safe placement system, that if after several attempts it couldn't place the enemy in a requested safe distance... placed them happily on top of you. Now it reduces the attempted range instead of just giving up. Both reavers and exalted reavers were nerfed in their melee oppressiveness. Enemy status effects have been increased to make resistances more worthwhile and change up the gameplay depending what resistances you carry. To offset that, base damage has been lowered. [h3]== Masters ==[/h3] CHANGE #1729 - Vampyre - melee restore 8%/12%/20% CHANGE #1729 - Vampyre - grants overhealth CHANGE #1729 - Sharpshooter - resets skill cooldown on kill CHANGE #1729 - Gun Kata - only in opt_range, removed dodge penalties CHANGE #1729 - Gun Kata - single target dual shots from L2 CHANGE #1729 - Gun Kata - critical damage bonus based on proximity CHANGE #1729 - Survivor - no in-combat regeneration, 5/5/10 crit CHANGE #1729 - Ghost - L2/L3 swapped, L3 Stealth cost is 12 CHANGE #1729 - Wizard - smoke cooldown up to 25 Let's get the painful info out of the way - Survivor, Ghost and Wizard are OP, and needed a nerf (the alternative was to rebalance the whole game and all the rest of the traits around them, which would have taken the better part of this year). That said, at the moments the nerfs are slight, and hopefully the buffs to the other Masters will bring them closer in line. Vampyre now grants overhealth (and better melee restore numbers) and Sharpshooter resets cooldowns on kill (for Headshot synergy). Gun Kata got more significant changes - it somehow totally missed the initial idea of getting in between enemies and shooting like mad, and instead became a "snipe from the edge of vision" trait. Worse, due to often missing from that range it became very ammo inefficient and not a great Master at higher difficulties at all. So the plan was simple - make it more Mid-range focused, while making it much stronger to compensate. All dodge penalties have been remove (you even get a +10% extra dodge per shot), firing both pistols at a single target is at L2, and L3 gets a critical damage bonus depending on range (closer = higher) on top of it! Take them out for a spin and tell us what you think! [h3]== Weaponry ==[/h3] CHANGE #1729 - balance - 40mm drum launcher - 32 damage/6 capacity CHANGE #1729 - balance - plasma launcher - +10 damage CHANGE #1740 - unique buffs - level the same way regardless of tier CHANGE #1740 - unique buffs - Scrapgun and Void get +1 base damage CHANGE #1740 - unique buffs - Firestorm deals more fire damage CHANGE #1740 - unique buffs - Carnage - +1 opt, +4 clip CHANGE #1740 - unique buffs - Monster and Bloodletter - +20 damage CHANGE #1740 - unique buffs - Overlord works on Guardians/Sentinels CHANGE #1740 - exotic buffs - AWP and CRI blaster +5 damage CHANGE #1740 - exotic buffs - nailgun/super nailgun +2 damage CHANGE #1740 - exotic buffs - micro launcher/power saw +20 damage CHANGE #1740 - exotic buffs - toxin rifle +2 damage Bad things out of the way - it took a NetHack speedrunner to show us how ridiculously overpowered the 40mm drum launcher was, so it (and only it) needed a slight nerf in power. Plasma launchers needed some love. All post-Callisto Uniques got a blanket buff - they level up much quicker now. Apart from that a lot of exotics and uniques got straight-up damage buffs. Oh, and Overlord will now work on Guardians/Sentinels. Take that, Alighieri! [h2]== UI/UX/Other stuff ==[/h2] We're constantly dedicated to improving the UI and ease of gameplay, here are the recent changes in that field. [h3]== UI/UX ==[/h3] CHANGE #1744 - UI/UX - mouse path uses icons instead of highlights CHANGE #1748 - UI/UX - modded items don't display text description CHANGE #1747 - UI/UX - elevator, term/box/station reveal on clear Mouse mode now has nice visuals indicating the target path, not ugly highlights. Modded items will no longer display the description to give some real estate for mod descriptions (a full blown item view is coming too). Elevators and other items of interest will reveal on level clear, so you won't have to wonder where that *&^(*@) exit is. [h3]== Hacking ==[/h3] NEW #1739 - use SHIFT-move to swap position with friendlies CHANGE #1738 - improved friendly pathfinding (esp. for Hunt) It was pretty annoying to move around with an army of bots, now you can quickly swap positions with them using SHIFT! As a bonus, friendly pathfinding got a significant improvement - Hunt commands will be much more reliable now! [h3]== Other stuff ==[/h3] CHANGE #1743 - Purgatory - Cathedral hint leads to Inferno unlock CHANGE #1742 - Callisto Mines - 5 turn warning countdown for summon The path to finding the Valhalla release secret has been glorious! You can find information on it in the Wiki (https://jupiterhell.fandom.com/wiki/Purgatory) but to ease access to the Inferno difficulty we made it so that the Cathedral secret leads to the unlock bossfight (this all makes sense in context, I promise). Also those summoned reavers were really annoying in Callisto Mines, so we gave them a countdown warning timer. [h3]== Bugfixes ==[/h3] FIX #1729 - stimpacks properly reset Headshot FIX #1733 - status effect text for Freeze/Chilled fixed Several bugfixes and typos have been fixed in addition to the two above. [h2]== Full Changelog ==[/h2] [code]Release 1.4 - Chaos - June 13th, 2022 NEW #1712 - Europa has a boss too! NEW #1732 - Conamara Chaos branch/special rework! NEW #1713 - Dig Zone branch/special rework! NEW #1731 - Asterius branch/special rework! NEW #1721 - Mephitic Mines branch/special rework! NEW #1750 - Refueling Base/The Pit reworked NEW #1709 - Callisto security visual improvements finished NEW #1745 - Europa security visual improvements NEW #1739 - use SHIFT-move to swap position with friendlies NEW #1551 - [REDACTED] CHANGE #1737 - improved Europa level generators (mostly visual) CHANGE #1714 - improved cave/basalt level visuals CHANGE #1714 - improved cave/basalt level generators CHANGE #1738 - improved friendly pathfinding (esp. for Hunt) CHANGE #1695 - CRI weapon prefix is a manufacturer now CHANGE #1695 - CRI manufacturer present on alive CRI soldiers/branch CHANGE #1695 - CRI sword/CRI blaster always roll with CRI manufacturer CHANGE #1749 - balance - base/exalt reavers have lower melee dmg/acc CHANGE #1749 - balance - exalted reavers don't get +10% speed CHANGE #1729 - balance - fiend/kerberi/reaver status higher, lower base CHANGE #1729 - balance - sentinels proc cold effects CHANGE #1729 - balance - 40mm drum launcher - 32 damage/6 capacity CHANGE #1729 - balance - plasma launcher - +10 damage CHANGE #1729 - Vampyre - melee restore 8%/12%/20% CHANGE #1729 - Vampyre - grants overhealth CHANGE #1729 - Sharpshooter - resets skill cooldown on kill CHANGE #1729 - Gun Kata - only in opt_range, removed dodge penalties CHANGE #1729 - Gun Kata - single target dual shots from L2 CHANGE #1729 - Gun Kata - critical damage bonus based on proximity CHANGE #1729 - Survivor - no in-combat regeneration, 5/5/10 crit CHANGE #1729 - Ghost - L2/L3 swapped, L3 Stealth cost is 12 CHANGE #1729 - Wizard - smoke cooldown up to 25 CHANGE #1740 - unique buffs - level the same way regardless of tier CHANGE #1740 - unique buffs - Scrapgun and Void get +1 base damage CHANGE #1740 - unique buffs - Firestorm deals more fire damage CHANGE #1740 - unique buffs - Carnage - +1 opt, +4 clip CHANGE #1740 - unique buffs - Monster and Bloodletter - +20 damage CHANGE #1740 - unique buffs - Overlord works on Guardians/Sentinels CHANGE #1740 - exotic buffs - AWP and CRI blaster +5 damage CHANGE #1740 - exotic buffs - nailgun/super nailgun +2 damage CHANGE #1740 - exotic buffs - micro launcher/power saw +20 damage CHANGE #1740 - exotic buffs - toxin rifle +2 damage CHANGE #1744 - UI/UX - mouse path uses icons instead of highlights CHANGE #1748 - UI/UX - modded items don't display text description CHANGE #1747 - UI/UX - elevator, term/box/station reveal on clear CHANGE #1743 - Purgatory - Cathedral hint leads to Inferno unlock CHANGE #1742 - Callisto Mines - 5 turn warning countdown for summon FIX #1746 - fixed rare in-your-face spawns (mostly in minilevels) FIX #1729 - stimpacks properly reset Headshot FIX #1733 - status effect text for Freeze/Chilled fixed[/code] [h2]== What's next ==[/h2] It doesn't take an oracle to foresee that the next update will be all about Io! We do plan some additional more early-game improvements for it too, so stay tuned even if you constantly die on Europa :P. Jupiter Hell 1.5 "Ancient" is tentatively scheduled for the beginning of August to celebrate a year since Jupiter Hell got a full release! That's all for today folks, and now time for some really really needed rest. I'll give myself a few hours, maybe even a full day! xD [b]Yours,[/b] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/33717650/004e98061256dda3ac95738fd8db13a87798daef.png[/img]