Hello. I'm calling this one a maintenance update because it doesn't really bring in new content but has additions and fixes for many little things. The game is once again taking part in G.Round testing and as a result many changes improve the new player experience but there's also plenty for existing players. I should mention that currently [b]Horde Hunters is on sale for under 3 bucks[/b] on the Steam Summer Sale! It'll likely be a long time before it's this low again so tell your friends or gift them to support the game. [h2]New player settings[/h2] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43106001/deace3202e569757561629cb04fee61c7a53f3d5.png[/img] You really enjoyed the player healthbar introduced in the previous update. So much so that you wanted more from the feature so here we go. You can now also show the energy bar and as a bit of a bonus enable player and party member outlines for better visibility. [h2]New difficulty selection screen + changes[/h2] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43106001/58bb9748e3e3340445e56fb08fb7d768ae1043d3.png[/img] Difficulty is still the number one feedback point I see with new players. I've now introduced a new difficulty selection screen before the tutorial begins to help make a more informed choice. There's also some extras to help players on the lower difficulty to complete their runs. You'll also note that weapon upgrade costs now vary on all difficulty levels (except Normal). FYI there are 5 new achievements for completing the main maps with the very hard difficulty. Sorry to say if you've previously done these they won't count because I wasn't tracking that information. Still, with the new weapon upgrade cost changes you may be facing an additional challenge. [h2]Honorable mentions[/h2] Other interesting additions include being able to Level Up Later, quickly toggle Auto-aiming with a hotkey and the Run mode changed so now you have to keep pressing the button like in most other games. For all the other changes see the full changelog below. Cheers [h3]Full changelog:[/h3] [b]General[/b] [list] [*]New setting: Player health bar - None, On hit, Always (Default: On hit) [*]New setting: Player energy bar - None, Always (Default: None) [*]New setting: Player and party member outlines (Default: No) [*]New shop action: Level Up Later - Allows to take a peek at the next level up rewards but also viewing character/gear without having to level up [*]New achievements (5) for completing main maps on Very Hard difficulty [*]New difficulty selection screen when starting tutorial [*]Weapon upgrade costs are relative to difficulty [*]Lower difficulty (Easy and below) end-game is a bit easier. Also extra open inventory slots on start [*]Difficulty screen: Corrected that "playing below the default" means the Normal difficulty [*]Auto-aim can be quickly toggled in-game with the [F1] key [*]Run mode changed: Hold button to run (instead of toggle on/off) [*]Energy Shield item will also knock back and stun surrounding enemies upon hit [*]Every time you're hit the energy recharge stops for 1s. With Ginseng your energy will still go up by 50% [*]Boss top healthbar removed. Added next move information on top of boss [*]Top "Main Menu" changed to read "Back" instead [*]Terrain speed information did not align properly to bottom of screen if there were no consumables [*]Added a new music track when losing a run [*]Added text to power-ups screen that they are saved for each character and map separately [*]Auras will have additional instructions for first time use [*]Replaced the player damage sound with another [*]Character stat information is shown when hovering the character panel healthbars with a mouse [*]Consumable amounts are shown again (when paused) [*]Active consumables are better highlighted [*]Map goal information moved to the zoomed out phase. Removed the big message from the start of run [*]Weapon stats are not seen on level up screens to declutter information [*]Some GUI color changes [/list] [b]Bugs[/b] [list] [*]Protect and Rescue mission timers didn't pause when outside area [*]Dwarf smash effect (visual only) did not align properly with character size and direction [*]10k+ leaderboard achievements do not pop immediately after run [*]Light Wand weapon was broken (fired a small blip in front of the character) [*]Gamepad navigation with shop consumables and weapons had minor issues since moving to the new GUI system [*]Minor graphical issues if Steam Deck plugged into a monitor [*]Power-ups navigation had some scrolling issues when using gamepad [*]Player can get stuck in the mountains after elite push (maybe fixed, hard to reproduce) [*]Boss battle may not trigger on certain game speeds due to rounding error [*]Some issues with building messages and ongoing mission happening during boss battle [*]When adjusting music volume during the game, the music stays on (although being muted on pause) [*]Mouse scroll speed was somewhat limited. You can now scroll e.g. consumables faster [/list]