Machina Monday #8

Welcome back Voidseekers to another Machina update! A new Difficulty option has been added called Nightmare Mode which is unlocked when you've beaten all Difficulties. You can choose to play this mode through any Difficulty with it ramping everything up, more enemies, more pain, more tomfoolery. On the plus side you get to choose 2 weapons to start with instead of the usual 1 and have some starting Body stat boosts. They have their own leaderboards to beat off your chums with and 2 Achievements have been added, one for winning each of the two game modes which can be done on any Difficulty. It's still a bit experimental atm and can get very wild at higher Difficulties so best of luck nightmare runners! A new elite enemy has been added called the Missileer Lazumi who flies in pairs firing a laser between them. There's the usual Lure Ability for him too. During each sector you will now see wandering Booty Haulers who float on past. They are harmless and can be hacked giving you either a boost in Score or Cogs. During each sector a Data Dump interactable may also spawn (the chance being based on the sector) which gifts a Score boost when hacked. The Cog Crates and Spawn Beacons now have a chance of being Giga versions with the chance being based on the Difficulty. In the case of the Cog Crate it doubles its Cog value, or for the Spawn Beacon it boosts the amount of enemies it lures by +50%. A new Elementless weapon has been added called the Skullion Sceptre whose Spook Traitum can spawn Ethereal Shades when killing enemies. 7 new Challenge Achievements have been added which are for completing a Rogue Convergence run doing a particularly impressive feat. Each Difficulty has its own challenge, such as winning a run without getting hurt, reaching a nice high score, or within a fast time. A new Visibility setting has been added called Player Attack Alpha which adjust the opacity of your weapon's attacks and can even make them completely invisible. Some Campaign Reconnexus game mode stuff... - You can now play through the first 3 Difficulties. - Special class traits should all work now (eg the Vampire's Techarcana Card selection now shows each time you beat a sector). - Sectors will now almost always have a special event and can include the Stranger special sector events (eg Treasure Hideaway). Some Rogue Convergence game mode stuff... - There's a chance a Shop may now have a Corrupted Signal in which case you won't know its type and you can only enter once. - A new special room has been added called the Datarium Bank which gives Score when hacked. - In the first sector the guaranteed Essence Vat is now replaced depending on the Difficulty (eg in Difficulty 4 there's now a Cursed Monument instead). - The type of sector Element now affects the type of special rooms it has (eg Vulium sectors have an increased chance of a Cursed Monument). - When spawning an Elite Enemy there's now a 50% chance of it spawning a particular Enemy depending on the sector Element (eg Emeralt has an increased chance for Plump Nukems). - Essence Vat room: There's now a chance of it having a blue variant (which boosts either Recovery, Defence, or Speed) and a 15% chance for a Gold variant (which boosts all Body stats). - Elementalist Shop: It now has an extra chance of offering a Stone, Gem, or Jewel item based on your Weapons. - Win Screen: An extra text line has been added. The texts are now revealed line by line per Difficulty (instead of word by word). - Sector Exit Portal: There's now a small delay before the portal can begin to suck you. Some misc changes to the Survival Function game mode... - After the second Swarm sector enemies now start getting a bit faster with each extra sector. - Magical Trove: Its Options text now shows faster (was annoying having to wait for them to show). Other new stuff... - Added an Achievement called "Died To Weakest Enemy" for dying to a Scooties Mk1 (how embarrassing!) - 4 new Passive Items: Beacon Gigatonia, Crate Gigatonia, Data Beckoner, Force Field. - 2 new Abilities: Lure Lazumi, Haul Deliveroo. Other misc changes... - Hackable Interacters that have an active effect now say what they're doing when you enter their Hacking Circle (eg Spawn Beacons now say "currently: spawning enemies"). - There's been many tweaks to various weapon Damage and Fire Rate so they are more inline with comparable weapons (eg the Void Devourer was rather underpowered). - Melee weapons now have a Damage reduction if they do a lot of Damage (this only really has an affect if there's A LOT of enemies). - The amount of debris that enemies create when killed has been reduced (to improve visibility and performance). - Status Screen: The Config tab now shows the full Settings menu (instead of just the Visibility menu). - Settings - Visibility - Drone Alpha: This is now set to 90% by default. - Depreciated Wretch class - Wretched Stealings: The stolen items no longer need its price to be less than your Speed stat. - Monster Hunter class - Upgraded Hunter: The chance to fully upgrade enemies has increased to 11% (from 6%). - Mega Drones: When offered a Mega Drone the second required Drone to scrap no longer needs to be at level 3 (instead it can be any level). - Circlet Amplifier weapon: This now has Elementless Affinity (seemed a bit odd having a single Elementful weapon). - Void Devourer weapon: Its projectiles are now slightly transparent (so you can see Cogs and interactables behind it). - Knockback weapon trait: This now knocks enemies away by a set amount (instead of being based on Damage), but enemies now can only get knocked-back once. - Hex weaopn trait: The chance to inflict Hex has been reduced to 33% (from 50%). - Ghosts In The Machine ability: The Ghosts now fade out when near the center of the screen (to improve visibility). - Sector Systematiser enemy: They now won't attack you unless you attack it. - Ethereal Watcher enemy: The charge up for his laser attack is now slower (was rather difficult to react to). - Gyronoious enemy: Their balls will no longer destroy your attacks and upon death no longer spawn bullets (to reduce bullet spam). - Sentri enemy: They now fire one less bullet per spawn (to reduce bullet spam). - Blossum enemy: The amount of bullets they spawn when they die has been reduced (to reduce bullet spam). - Torpedo Glider enemy: Their bullets now destroy themselves more quickly (to reduce bullet spam). Changes to Passive items to make them more useful... - The cost of many items has been reduced (notably the higher priced items). - Abilitum Resync: Its Ability Cool Rate bonus has been increased to 0-25 (from 0-20). - Tome of True Diagrams: The bonus Damage now also applies to Elite enemies. It can now be offered in the Survival Function game mode. - Cog Magnet: Its bonus suck range has been increased to 44% (from 33%). - Hex Chipset: Its chance to inflict Hex has increased to 1-33% (instead of 11%). - Stolen Artifact: Its enemy upgrade chance has been increased to 15% (from 11%). - Five Finger Function: The stolen item no longer needs its price to be less than your Speed stat. Its cost has increased to 66 (from 50). - Aromatic Fungus: Its -5 Max Energy penalty is now a +5 Max Energy boost. - Mega Potion: When used this now gives full Health (instead of +69) and 6 seconds of Invincibility (instead of 3). - Smithy Anvil: This now has a chance of upgrading an Ability or Drone (instead of only upgrading Weapons). - Runner Supplies: The Shop weapon now has a chance of being offered at Level 3 (instead of only Level 2). - Inflamous Sphere: This no longer reduces your Max Health. - Curse Chipset: Its chance to inflict Curse has increased to 1-33% (instead of 11%). And bug fixes... - Tutorial: Fixed a typo (excercise). - Compendium - Leaderboard: When viewing scores in a Daily/Weekly Convergence Trial the Rogue Survival tip was showing. - When choosing a Class/Difficulty/Weapon hovering over Fortuity Destiny wasn't showing the Confirm button tip. - Mimic Mouldmaker / Psycho Possessed classes: They could be offered passive items at the shop which could cause issues when later taking Class related items. - Psycho Possessed class: If possessing an Ethereal Eternal you could get trapped - Encrypted Stranger - Classious Heirloom: You could be offered a Class item that could cause an issue with later offered passive items. - Automised Upgrader sector room: If you were currently Dashing when it upgraded a weapon then it would remove your weapons. - Mega Drones: Their Servomegatronica name was too long for the shop panel (they've been renamed to Servomegatron). - Element Mist abilities: You could be offered/given these even if the Element doesn't appear in that Difficulty. - Most of the Vulium weapons were using the same basic Auto-slugger weapon sprite. - Cogger Convoker weapon: Its stats weren't being boosted by its Level. - Rangum Converge weapon: Its muzzle flash was the wrong colour. - Derelict Runner item: It wouldn't create the Treasure Chest room if it was a special sector. - Specialous Sectorium item: It wouldn't create the extra room if it was a special sector. - Enormous Eyeball item: Its description was missing the More Enemies tip. - Sector Systematiser enemy: If not killed it would remain even after the sector had ended. - Ethereal Watcher enemy: When attacking left its weapon charge up animation was in the wrong position. - Blossum enemy: Dying to its projectiles would count as "Twists of Fate" on the Game Over screen. - Torpedo Glider enemy: Dying to its projectiles would count as "Twists of Fate" on the Game Over screen. - Gyronoious enemy: Dying to its balls would count as "Twists of Fate" on the Game Over screen. Enjoy! :]