Today marks the release of version 0.3.

A lot of work has gone into this version, with a lot of improvements over existing features, as well as new features.

Full changelog will be at the end of this post. I also took this opportunity to start a discord group for the game. Anyone is welcomed to join: https://discord.gg/2eQMSHh

Notes about notifications and drop rates

Notifications are only sent (if allowed and enabled in the game options) when all ships are disabled or the mission objective is completed. Ideal to those leaving the game in a background tab somewhere while doing other work.

Equipment saw an overhaul over the previous version. There are still qualities, but these are bought with XP. Drop rates are also changed to a single value across all qualities. 

In terms of how the probability works, first time you kill a boss between level 1 and the level requirement of the mission, it is a guaranteed drop. Subsequent plays, or bosses above the level requirement use the global drop rate percentage.

On the Freeplay mission, because there is no mission requirement, every time you kill a boss for the first time it is a guaranteed drop. So pushing those levels is quire useful. In the future, when mission difficulty is implemented, it will also guarantee a drop using the rules above.

The future

Now that version 0.3 is released, is time to look into 0.4.

There's a lot planed for the future, which is available on the website of the game.

However here I though it would be more useful to have a rough schedule of my plans. Going forward I will not be packaging so many features together, so updates can come more often.

Early December 2019

• At least one new equipment piece for each of the 3 current player ships - one will decrease the delay on the Relief's healing ability. This will also see the first equipment pieces with more than one ability (and all abilities might not always be positive ones!).
• Choose what level to start the free play mission (from 10% to 90% of maximum level reached).
• Mission difficulty (Hard and Insane). This will bring bigger XP gains, more upgrade points and guarantee drops on the first run.
• Equipment boxes for player ships obtained with XP. They will provide another way to get levels for existing equipment, either for all ships and a specific ship (there will be options for both, with different costs).

Mid January to early February 2020

• 3 new player ships. At least on DPS and one Support, third one not guaranteed to be a Tank. Might be another Support. Still undecided.
• New ships will have different amounts of equipment slots.
• Volume 2 missions. Variable number of ship slots on different missions. Maybe the return of a solo ship mission?
• New equipments for the new ships as well as at least 1 new piece for each of the existing ships.
• Missions to award levels to specific equipment (and unlock it if you don't have it yet).
• New bonuses and achievements.

March to April 2020

• Re-spec upgrade points (with an ever increasing XP cost).
• Player ships alternative paint jobs.
• Rework of the bosses, with different attack mechanics, defense modes (shields maybe?), names, and modified visuals over the standard enemies.
• Static targets.
• Volume 3 missions.
• New bonuses and achievements.

June - July 2020

• Ship pilots. They will have their own skills and levelling up. XP will be earned if they are active in a mission, and will automatically unlock their upgrades once they reach the required level.
• Pilot's skills will also be upgradeable with the XP they have earned. This will be separate from the global XP used to upgrade ships and acquire equipment boxes.
• New achievements

September 2020

• Volume 4 missions
• New bonuses and achievements

Late 2020

• First look at active gameplay, where the player controls one of the ships.
• Planet building. After all these attacks, researching the planet's infrastructure might provide a nice bonus to the ships and pilots fighting capabilities.

Changelog

Notifications

• If supported, the game will send a notification to the browser when all ships are disabled or when the mission is completed. Can be disabled in options.

Gameplay

• Chapter 1 missions and story.
• Different backgrounds that change during missions.
• Starting a mission has an option to auto fill the slots with available ships.
• Free play mission type - upon reaching level 50, subsequent restarts can start at 90% of the maximum level reached, rounded down (if you reach level 100, you can start the mission at level 90).
• Single drop rate probability for equipment. Starts at 10% and can be raised by the global bonuses (and is visible on the Statistics menu).
• Equipment drop changes: first time you kill a boss at a specific level below or equal to the required mission level, it is a guaranteed drop (if the mission requirement is 30 levels, every boss on the first 30 levels have a guaranteed drop). Subsequent plays of the same mission, or bosses above the required level use the global drop rate probability.
• Free play missions don’t have a cut off level, so every boss killed for the first time is a guaranteed drop.
• Game speed, projectiles speed, enemy and player ship stats, xp earned and enemy spawn rate updated.
• New enemies added.
• New projectiles added.
• New sound effects added.
• New music added.

Ship changes

• New ship screens on main menu and during gameplay, with clearer information about the ship details and available equipment.
• Ships come with a certain number of slots for equipment. Some slots are locked and require the player to level up the ship to unlock.
• Equipment can be equipped at any time and only equipped items give bonuses.
• All ships have a global bonus.
• Equipment can be upgraded once it reaches a certain level. Higher quality items provide stronger bonuses.

Bonuses

• Completing missions and achievements awards upgrade points. These can be used to unlock and improve bonuses.

Achievements

• Added several achievements that once completed award upgrade points.
• Completed and in progress are separated in two tabs.

Other

• Ability to export and import a save.
• Several bugs fixed, including some that prevented the game from work in Safari.
• About section added with information about assets used and links about the game.