v0.84 - Weekly Update

New:

• Defend the Shrine now has a character select scene: the shrine in a graveyard clearing at night, with lit lanterns, a stone fence and the forest behind it.
• Dungeon Sweep now has its own character select scene: a stretch of the buried board behind your squad, with cracked slabs, clue numbers on the floor and a sigil in an opened cell.
• Added two new trap types to Classic arenas: saw channels and spike rollers.
• Players hit by a saw blade or spike roller now bleed. Blood sprays out of the side of the player facing away from the trap.
• Classic now changes arenas mid-run: every boss kill flips the arena into a brand new layout. A shockwave rolls out from where you stand and turns every floor tile, wall and trap over to reveal the new arena underneath.
• Match settings now carry over between sessions: your modifiers, difficulty sliders, starting weapon and selected mode are restored the next time you open Play.
• Smoke now carries Deja & Vu, a permanent pair of akimbo pistols that can't be dropped or swapped out. His grenade is now a cluster grenade: after the main blast it throws 5 smaller grenades that bounce and roll out to random distances. He still maintains his unlimited dash knack.
• The Heater now has full barrel audio: a motor spin-up, a running loop while firing, and a wind-down that ends when the barrels stop, with the visible barrel spin matched to the sound.
• Large hordes now run much faster: enemy rendering, co-op enemy syncing and enemy line-of-sight checks were rebuilt for speed, so big waves stay smooth on the host and teammates' screens keep up with the action. ( Needs lots of testing )
• Bush now carries Meatplug, his own two-handed sniper rifle with a 7-round magazine, shots that always fly straight and pierce every enemy in line. Each hit marks the target for 30 seconds with a red crosshair every player can see, Meatplug hits on it deal 25% more damage per stack (up to 10 stacks), and the whole squad deals 15% more damage to it.

Changed:

• Classic arenas now have about half as many loose props, and the open floor has been cleared more than the walls, so there is less clutter in the middle of the fight. Test phase of this change is over and the prop count and interactions now should be dramatically reduced.
• Classic and Chaos now bring in new enemies a few at a time instead of in big groups, with the biggest arrivals and elite packs showing up on banner waves.
• The wave banner now fits more enemies at once, so new arrivals no longer get hidden behind a +1.
• RPG now adds new enemies floor by floor instead of opening the whole roster on floor 2.
• Two of a Kind now adds a new enemy or elite pack with each rune pair you match.
• Dungeon Sweep now adds new enemies round by round instead of opening most of the roster on round 2.
• Elites now arrive in themed packs in every mode that adds enemies over time.
• Newly arrived enemies spawn more often at first, so you actually meet them.
• Floor tiles in Classic and Two of a Kind are now drawn at their true size, half as wide as before, so the floor looks sharper and more detailed. Spike plates and steam vents shrink with the tiles to 4 by 4 meters, and so does their damage area. Classic maps also load slightly faster.
• The Classic and Chaos character select floor now uses the same stone, dirt and cracked tiles as the Classic arena. The dirt floor on the Death Match, RPG, Escort and Two of a Kind character select screens is finer.
• The Fat Boy can no longer be fired by Afterimage Protocol decoys or attack drones.
• Bullet Magnet, Halo Rounds and Star Barrage now apply to shots from attack drones, Afterimage Protocol decoys, Disposable Arsenal turrets, Psych's turret and Echo Chamber repeats.
• Fire rate perks such as Rapid Fire, Overcharge and Entrenchment now speed up attack drones, and Sharpshooter's slower fire now slows them too.
• Halo's grenade no longer recharges over time. It recharges only from healing done with her Vita-Ray, including healing from her drones and decoys. 42 HP of healing refills one grenade, which is 28 seconds of healing at the base rate. which can further be reduced by perks or danger motes.
• Performance pass on the HUD, weapon bar and enemy health bars: a busy fight with the full HUD on screen now renders in about half the time per frame on my test machine.
• Attack drones now fire Smoke's Deja & Vu, and they fire the minigun, SMG, needler and The Heater in sustained bursts instead of a single round per attack.

Fixed:

• Fixed rune stones on the Two of a Kind character select screen sticking out of the floor at an angle. They now lie flat in stacks and loose piles, each showing its own glyph and color.
• Fixed blood splatter flickering where it lands on the metal edges of traps.
• The crash report that appears after an unexpected shutdown now includes the game's recent log instead of saying "log: unavailable", so reports you send us carry what we need to track the problem down.
• Fixed a crash that could occur when playing Smoke with the Afterimage Protocol perk while dashing repeatedly. (Credit To Alpha Tester: Name for the findings.)
• Fixed bosses getting stuck against walls when you were nearby on the other side; they now go around to reach you. Ranged enemies that keep their distance, fleeing orc raiders and vampires no longer jitter in place or run into walls (Credit to Alpha Tester: Woodrat for the findings.)
• Fixed Boomsday bombs sometimes never going off in co-op.
• Fixed the bullet glow on the lower and upper floors.