PlaySelaco
patreon
Selaco's Big Demo Update now available to backers! (Changelog inside)
🕑 Added 2022-12-02 20:03:41 +0000 UTC
Demo Update
It was a long time coming, but we’re finally ready to share an early Test version with our supporters (that’s you!).
This update has quite a hefty amount of changes and we need your help to iron out as many issues as we possibly can before we launch this demo publicly on December 16 (and trust me, there will be some bugs!). There’s plenty of time for us to fix any issue you might find, but we do need to hear about them.
Before we dive into the massive changelog, let's discuss some known issues:
Known Issues we're addressing before the Public Launch:
- Full gamepad support has been added, but some menus still require UI redesigns in order to better utilize this. The Wrist Codex is especially an offender here.
- AMD / Steam Deck users: Due to the multi-threading upgrade, there might be some stability issues. We are going to fix this ASAP and will update this blog post when it has been corrected! Intel machines should be stable.
- A number of prompts (like the one about Ridiculous Settings) might appear too big
- Gamepad Only: Getting a Tutorial Dialog will mention having to press Square(PS) / X(Xbox) to close it, but the correct input is actually Circle(PS)/A(Xbox)
How to gain access?
We are using the Steam Beta feature in order to provide access to the demo. Follow these steps in order to get the newest version:
1. Open Steam
2. Go to your Library.
3. Right click on Selaco Demo. (For admirals: This would be just ‘Selaco’)
4. Click Properties
5. Click on the Beta tab
6. Enter code HeyManCoolUpdate
7. Click on Check Code
8. The drop down above should now have the v0.4_BETA_TEST beta available. Click on it to download the Beta Version.
9. When ready, launch the demo and play the game
10. Upon a successful launch, the menu should mention that you have successfully updated to v0.4.
Having issues? Please let us know! We’re here to help. In our Discord server, the ‘Patreon Demo’ category should be unlocked as a backer. We can discuss things there!
I’m going to sign off, but not without dropping you a chunky changelog to read through.
Buckle up, because this is a long one.
Changelog
**Summary**
(Important side note: While this changelog covers the important parts, there's a lot that slipped by undocumented! There is more than just this list)
- Significant Quality of Life improvements
- Pacing changes
- Added multi-threaded asset loading to combat stutters and improve gameplay smoothness
- Added Steam Deck Support
- Added Gamepad support
- Challenge rework
- Drastic changes to levels, both in design and visuals
- Engine changes for better performance and smoother visuals
- 90% of the Particle Effects have been migrated to our own Particle System, making performance smoother in combat
- Fully rewritten, better looking flashlight
- Brand new gore system
- Hundreds of new special effects and sound effects
- Improved AI
- All weapons rebalanced
- First phase for Translation support
- Over a hundred bugs have been fixed
**Quality of Life / Improvements**
- Performing slides and dashes is now much more responsive and triggers faster.
- Added Zoom Interpolation to GZDoom. Sliding, zooming and firing your weapon will now smoothly adjust the camera FOV without giving the illusion of the game running at a low framerate..
- Fully reworked Roaring Cricket. See below for more information.
- Added Asynchronous Asset Loading to GZDoom. Both audio, textures and sprites will now be loaded on a different CPU thread to eliminate a large amount of stutter.
- All Pickup Items have been brightened up for improved readability.
- Expensive transparent effects are no longer rendered inside reflections (both floor, ceiling and walls). This greatly improves performance for transparent effects.
- Added partial Translation support (~95% done). Language Packs have not been added yet, but fan translations are now possible. We will explore this further in the future! A couple of smaller things like Datapad Labels are not translatable yet, but will be the case before we launch the full game.
- Reduced the default UI scale to make the HUD less big. To customize the HUD size, go to the Options Menu -> Interface -> ''UI Scale''.
- A large number of objects no longer collide with the player, significantly reducing the amount of objects blocking you.
- Some tutorial pop-ups have been made bigger for readability on smaller screens / players sitting further away from the screen.
- Challenges have been reworked. We have removed challenges that required the player to use specific methods to kill enemies (Explosive Kills, Melee Kills, Headshots, Throwing Knives etc.) and decided to only keep general kill challenges (Kill X amount of Y enemy type) and exploration challenges (Find X amount of Y, destroy X amount of Wall Cracks). The previous system forced players into playstyles they may not like or would or not offer a tactical advantage.
- Some challenges have increased requirements. The intent is to make exploration the main source of income rather than challenges. Explore to find Credit Bags!
- Added Fall Damage. We've considered this for a while now but eventually decided to pull through with it. General fall damage is low, but high enough to give a slight penalty for recklessly jumping off a high ledge.
- Added Safe Saving system. Players are no longer able to save when there is danger nearby (e.g. Active Grenades, alerted enemies).
- Added graphical presets for the Steam deck. ''Favor Performance'' and ''Favor Quality''.
- Improved enemy pathfinding. They will not get stuck nearly as often and will have less trouble chasing after you. It is now possible for AI to chase you around the entire level.
- Drastically improved loading times when entering a new level.
- Added Context-sensitive Death Tutorials. Getting killed by certain types of enemies will give relevant Tips on the death screen.
- All Demo levels have been improved, both in visuals and combat design. Expect new rooms, textures and more.
- Armor has been made more important. They absorb more damage and deplete less fast. With how damaging the enemy can be, this armor change makes scavenging for armor more rewarding and important.
- Hitting the wall while sliding will now cancel the slide, rather than awkwardly slide you backwards.
- Weapon Switching has been tweaked to feel snappier. It is now easier to switch weapons even during animations.
- Grabbing objects now lowers the player's weapon to keep the screen free of additional clutter.
- Added 'Slide To Cover' mechanic. Sliding towards the cover will automatically crouch you until the crouch button is pressed. This feature can be disabled in the Gameplay menu.
- Added 'Shadow Quality' setting, which is separate from 'Shadow Resolution'. This setting adjusts the amount of lights that cast a shadow. A lower setting means less effects casting shadows (e.g. muzzle flashes, flashlight and more)
- Updated explosion effects to look juicier and more performant.
- Complete rework for lighting effects. All lights attached to special effects like explosions and muzzle flashes perform better than ever before.
- Smoke effects have a bit more transparency applied to them, causing less problems with visibility. (The RIDICULOUS setting of Smoke Quality uses the same thickness as the previous version)
- Migrated most effects to our own Particle System, resulting in more visually appealing particles that are more performance friendly.
- Added Particle Limiter. In case extreme amounts are happening to prevent stutters.
- Added option to increase Zoom Sensitivity above 1.0.
- Reduced CPU load for individual smoke effects.
- Applied some tweaks to the ‘Customize Control’ menu. They are categorized better and Weapon Key binds now show weapon names.
- Full rewrite for the flashlight. The new system runs and looks better, while also improving the way soldiers react to your flashlight.
- Improved feedback when punching enemies against walls through both visuals and audio.
- Added 'Longest Headshot' statistic.
- Crouching behind flipped cover will now properly protect your head
- Added 'coyote timer' to jumping, making platforming more responsive and less prone to failed jumps during platforming sections
- Other smaller improvements to how jumps are handled
- Dashes and Slides no longer share the same cooldown.
- Some of the music volume has increased.
- Added Dash Cooldown indicators
- Explosions made by the player deal significantly less self damage. Standing close to the origin of the explosion will still end up dealing a significant amount of damage, however.
- 'Secrets' label in the Datapad has been renamed to 'Current area secrets' and 'Total Level Secrets.
- All guns play a sound effect when the last bullet of a magazine is fired.
- HARDCORE MODE: Completing Level 1-1 will now give you a confirmation box asking if you are sure about continuing on with Hardcore Mode. In case you feel like Hardcore Mode is a bit too difficult, you can revert to Traditional Mode.
- ACCESSIBILITY OPTION: Finished Photosensitivity modes. ''Reduce Light flickering'' will eliminate most the light effects that last for a short duration of time, and ''Reduced Muzzle Flashes'' no longer kills the entire muzzle flash light, but rather makes them smaller and less strong; maintaining a power feeling weapon while still being more friendly towards the eyes.
- ACCESSIBILITY OPTION: Added auto-climbing feature. Run up to a ledge that's within reach and climb automatically!
- ACCESSIBILITY OPTION: Streamlined Screenshake intensity setting to be less overly complicated.
- ACCESSIBILITY OPTION: (Gamepad Only) Added Assisted Mode. On Commander Difficulty and below, Assisted Mode will provide additional guidance to lock-on to targets. Use this if you have difficulty aiming with a gamepad.
- ACCESSIBILITY OPTION: (Gamepad Only, requires Assisted Mode) Added option to enable a Ringing sound. This is a sound queue that plays when Lock-on acquires a target, and when the target is inside your crosshair.
- ACCESSIBILITY OPTION: Added 'Disable Camera Motion' setting. This will eliminate movement from the camera when using melee, sliding and other things.
- ACCESSIBILITY OPTION: Added 'Censor gore' setting. This will reduce the amount of blood and gibs, as well as altered scripts to contain less depictions of violence.
**VAC-BOTS**
Our little vacuum cleaner friends have gotten more competent at their job!
- VAC-BOTS now properly clean up trash that they can see
- Added VAC-BOT Emotion System. Their display will now portray how they feel and they will adjust based on circumstances. They will actively flee from incoming explosions, find a way to hide when shots are fired, look disgusted when cleaning up gibs and can get lonely if left alone for too long. If you want to keep them happy, give them frequent pets or stuff to clean up that aren't giblets.
- VAC-BOTS now utilize Pathfinding, allowing them to reach their destination better
- Added a cleanup effect when a VAC-BOT erases something from the map.
**Gamepad (BETA)**
- The game can now be fully played using a Gamepad. Keep in mind that this is an early attempt and many fixes and improvements are still coming. Feel like something is missing? Reach out and give us your input!
- Unlocked Gamepad options
- Rewrote the majority of GZDoom's Gamepad input code. Setting it to modern standards and improving support on Linux devices (and therefore Steam Deck)
- Added Vibration Support to GZDoom
- Added Aim Acceleration to GZDoom
- Added support for both Xbox and Playstation button prompts. Visible buttons can be tweaked in the Gamepad Menu.
- Added 3 stages of Aim Assist; Weak, Default, Strong. This adjusts how much the Aim Assist is going to help you aim.
- Added joystick button prompts that dynamically adjust based on the input device that is being used. Gamepad and KB/M are able to be used simultaneously.
- Added optional Lock-on mode for lower difficulties.
- Gyroscope Aiming is not included natively, but should work perfectly fine when using Steam's Gyroscope mode. If you have any trouble with this, reach out to us and let us know!
**World / Presentation**
- Updated Splash Screen
- Re-rendered some of the sprite work to make them seem less out of place. Not all sprites are properly 'converted' yet. This will be an on-going process.
- Enemy muzzle flashes now properly follow the shooter and no longer clip through the sprite of the shooter.
- Added proper impact effects when shooting at Window Blinds
- Added impact effects when a shot down sign impacts the floor.
- Added 10 new variations for Wall Paintings
- Enemy footsteps now react to glass shards and leave footprints behind when standing on water, blood or slime.
- Improved visual effects for Smoke Grenades
- Added new variations of Cardboard Boxes.
- Changes to Crate destruction to make them a bit more satisfying to break.
- All weapon descriptions in your Wrist Codex have updated artwork
- Brand new effects when destroying window panes. This new system ensures that the amount of glass shard matches the size of the window pane. Longer windows spawn more glass, smaller windows spawn less.
- Added Breathing Frames for the Roaring Cricket.
- Dawn shields her eyes from explosions much faster.
- Cleaned up the Slide Entering animation, making it less jerky
- Added new death animations for all enemy types
- With subtitles enabled, the names of the opposing side are written in Orange.
- Most actors will now properly adjust to the slope of the floor
- Food now fades out when eaten, rather than disappear right away
- Bullet Brass code has been entirely rewritten to be more performance friendly and visually appealing.
- All weapons will now spawn a unique bullet case model when fired.
- Added brand new toilet voxels. Happy flushing!
- Dawn will no longer eat the flag of a burger.
- Level Names have been adjusted to be more clear. A "Level" is broken up into multiple "Areas". Every loading zone takes you to a new area within the level.
- Shockwave effects from explosions are now smoother
- Drastic adjustments to the lighting of the levels to reduce visual busyness
- Retextured and redesigned significant portions of the demo level
- Walking on human blood will now leave bloody footprints behind
- Added transition effect when interacting with a Camera Feed
- Added splash effects when jumping into water
- Gore Changes:
| Gore rewrite! Improved performance and less bloated code.
| Added Intestines when gibbing enemies
| Added brain pieces for headshots / full gibs
| Added slime pools for enemies who have been dead for a while.
| Brand new sound effects for gore/impact/combat related audio
| Additional severed arm and legs sprites
| The position of blood effects when killing an enemy is now relative to the point of impact
| Recolored the blood effects and adjusted the way they are illuminated by light sources, resulting in an overall more pleasing visual
| Fixed a bunch of gore related errors
- Optimized ejected Weapon Magazine models. With the new optimization, we can keep them in the level for much longer. Playing with ''Effects Lifespan'' on Ultra, keeps them around permanently
**AUDIO**
- UC-36 and Shotgun have improved sound effects
- You will now be able to hear the mechanisms of the weapon when firing while zoomed in
- Added sound effects when hitting wooden surfaces
- Added unique sound effects per bullet casing type. Heavy sounds for big bullets, lighter sounds for machineguns.
- Added unique sound effects for paintings being hit, and new sounds for when they hit the floor
- New sound effects for Destroying Crates
- Added additional foley sounds for different player actions
- Brand new bullets impact SFX, making them sound more punchy and impactful than before.
- Added new sound effects for bouncing metal,
- Added sound effect for paper debris touching the floor
- Added sound effect for bouncing ceramic pieces.
- Updated sound effects for player footsteps
- Added new sound effects for Metal floors
- Added new sound effects for walking on boxes
- Added squishy sound effect when walking on blood piles
- Security Camera sounds have been updated so it's no longer a stock sound
- Enemy soldiers now have their own footstep and foley sound effects for improved recognition
- All weapons now have unique (de)selection sounds
**GAMEPLAY BALANCE**
Roaring Cricket [rework]:
While we always liked how much damage it dealt, its magazine capacity and recoil might have been too troublesome. We've made some changes to better balance this out and make it easier to use.
- Primary Fire Recoil reduced (1.5 -> 0.7). Alt Fire remains the same as before.
- Magazine capacity increased (9 -> 12)
- Damage per shot reduced (60 -> 48)
- Max ammo reserve increased (45 -> 48)
- Increased Roaring Cricket ammo pickup (9 -> 12)
- Roaring Cricket alt fire now works with less than 3 shots. It will deplete the rest of the magazine instead.
- Swapping speed is now nearly instant, making this the ideal weapon to switch to when caught with an empty weapon during a fight.
- Particle trail is now instant between player and target. The previous version made the Roaring Cricket look like a projectile weapon instead of hitscan.
UC-36 Assault Rifle:
- Changes made to the firing sound to sound more punchy
- Some sprite improvements when Zooming
- Changes to how recoil is handled.
ESG-24 Shotgun:
- Beefed up the firing sound of the shotgun
Melee:
- Quick Melee with your weapon is now much faster.
- Weapon Melee damage has been reduced
- Collision damage has increased. For maximum effectiveness, try hitting targets against walls.
Rifleman:
- Added Strafe Node System. See below!
- 'Attacker' Rifleman now has a slight speed boost to have an easier time closing the gap.
- Rifleman now have less issue dealing with faraway targets.
Engineer:
- Slight reduction in health (135 -> 125). This change should be enough to make it easier to take him down after he sets his sights on you.
- Engineers no longer fire when there's a teammate in their line of fire.
- Added Suppression role. Engineers can now choose to not rush towards their target, but instead unload shotgun shells from a distance to keep targets suppressed.
Energy Shields
- Energy Shields (that soldiers can deploy after reaching Invasion Tier 1) felt a little weak because their height was small enough to not cover the head of the enemy soldiers. We've added an extra piece on top that gives them a bit more protection
Juggernaut:
We liked how fast-paced and lethal the Juggernaut is. It's an opponent that has a similar moveset as the player and requires the player to use everything they have learned so far. However, we also felt he was a bit too dominating. Here are some tweaks to make him a more fun opponent while still being a dominant presence. Remember that the Juggernaut is not a one-off bossfight. You will encounter him often during the full campaign and he frequently learns new tricks!
- Health Reduced (1200 -> 1000)
- Tracer Speed has been reduced (80 -> 70)
- Added a slight delay before the Juggernaut starts firing during a Sidewash dash.
- Increased Splash Damage Range after leaping (300 -> 390)
Captain Difficulty and above:
- Various stat tweaks to enemy tactics and action speeds
- Portable Medkits now heal for 50, just like the other difficulties. We felt that 25 was not enough for such an uncommon item.
- Portable Medkits healing rate has been halved.
Admiral Difficulty:
- Given the slight tweaks to a certain number of factors, Admiral enemies deal 10% more damage to compensate.
- Enemies are much more mobile in this difficult setting.
**AI**
- Added Strafe Node system. This will allow soldiers to dynamically adjust their strafing behavior based on player location. This results in soldiers being more intelligent with how they strafe. A confident soldier with high health will be more likely to stay within line of sight of their target, while a low health soldier is more likely to strafe towards nearby walls for cover.
- All AI have less trouble locating the player and can now chase you around the entire level.
- Added intelligent reloading. When a soldier is low on ammo, there is a chance they will seek cover to reload their weapon.
- Pathfinding changes to make it easier for a group of enemies to flank the player
- Animation smoothing, logic performance improvements and other additional things have been added.
**BUGS / MINOR TWEAKS**
- 'Rifle Start' can no longer be checked. It is not supposed to be present in the demo because there's only one level, making a Rifle Start impossible.
- The Credits Track now fades in.
- Fixed a bug where the 'Open Codex' button would not work when '5' was one of the assigned buttons.
- Items can no longer be picked up through the walls
- Fixed an error where footstep sounds would play underwater
- Corpse hitboxes are no longer overly large, causing enemies to keep hitting corpses despite going over them.
- Players can no longer slide jump when there is no space to jump, preventing players from getting stuck
- Fixed a goof where the weapon sprites would show a breathing animation when underwater
- Soldiers no longer kill themselves with Smoke Grenades
- Fixed an error where Dawn's underwater speed was much faster than intended
- Fixed a bug where the UC-36's firing sound would abruptly end without a proper tail sound.
- Fixed an error where smoke grenades used an outdated sound effect from way back in our modding days
- Fixed a bug where tracers would be blocked by plants. My sincere apologies to all ACE Security agents who used plants as armor.
- Adjusted the size of certain objects. The scaling was not very consistent. This includes enemy sprite work
- Applied a minor tweak to Interaction Prompts to make them update faster and seem more responsive
- Stationary Grenades are no longer shootable
- Fixed an error where enemies touched by a burning actor would lose their Self Lighting properties
- Fixed a bug where bananas would briefly turn into a sandwich when eaten
- Fixed a bug where crates would jitter around the level when hit by particles
- Certain smaller items no longer collide with the player
- Dawn will no longer shield her eyes from explosions when dead
- Fixed a bug where throwing fire extinguishers against enemies would sometimes not put them on the floor, but would have them enter their Collision animation instead
- Fixed a bug where paper pieces would have a random angle upon touching the floor
- Fixed a bug where the hitbox of flipped cover was not high enough to fully protect a crouching player.
- Fixed a bug where keyboards could not get destroyed with melee attacks
- Fixed a bug where Zoom Sensitivity would have an effect on the overall sensitivity
- Fixed an error where some areas of the game looked darker than intended on the Low graphics setting
- Armor Shards can no longer be picked up when at full armor.
- Fixed an error that forced XY Billboarding on enemy soldiers after hitting them with melee.
- Fixed a bug where picking up Health Injector would take your health away when on health above 100
- Enemies colliding with falls no longer damage the player when nearby
- Sliding away after being near an explosion will no longer cause Dawn to awkwardly shield her eyes too late, and temporarily get 3 arms.
- Fixed a bug where 'chair base' could not be picked up
- Fixed an error where the Shotgun muzzle flash was not properly aligned to the animation of the weapon
- Fixed a bug where a certain easter egg progress a challenge
- Fixed a bug where Fire Extinguishers could pass through rushing engineers
- Fixed Fire Extinguisher duplication glitch.
- Zooming while reloading no longer causes the camera to 'jitter' to one game tick
- Fixed a bug where the 'end fire' sound would not properly play when a player stops firing a Zoomed UC-36
- Fixed an error in the Gameplay Menu where 'Automatic mode' and 'Manual Mode' were swapped around.
- Fixed an error where HoneyComb Cases would not properly align to the slopes they were on
- Fixed an error where using iron sights showed an unintended crosshair
- Fixed a bug where floor paper decals would not spawn
- Pathfinder's alert sound now persists to Level 1-2. This was always intended but ended up broken
- 'Toggle Run' has been renamed to 'Toggle Walk', since Run is already the default speed.
- Flares carried by the player now correctly transition between levels
- Sliding Sounds now require the player to touch the floor. Once contact with the floor is removed, the sliding sound stops.
- Fixed a bug where the player could slide while crouching, making their hitboxes 1 pixel high
- Fixed a bug where Strafe Tilting was still applied when dead
- Dying while holding an object will now properly drop the object
- Fixed a bug where bullet casings were able to climb staircases
- Fixed a bug where a couple of icons on the automap would disappear when getting far away from them.
- Fixed a bug where some footstep sounds were not playing correctly
- Fixed a rendering bug where Lightshafts would show artifacts at the bottom
- Fixed a bug where players could climb into very narrow surfaces and get stuck
- "Disable Hud" now properly disables the visor frame as well
- Fixed a bug where Slide Kicks would stack multiple times, sending enemies flying further than intended. (It was funny though! Will keep it in mind for a mutator >:) )
- The Quality menu that appears on first launch now correctly pauses the game
- Fixed an error where reloading an empty Shotgun would 'twitch' the weapon sprite
- Fixed a bug where reloading a weapon while being at max ammo reserve capacity would take too much ammo away
Comments
The quality of the work is already at the point where I've played a 10-15 minute demo for 10 hours. The new additions to areas I was familiar with were surprising, but welcome, and it felt like they were always "there". If Level 1 is any indication of what kind of game Selaco will eventually be, I've got no worries whatsoever. Gunplay, move speed, soldier dialogue and AI are all on point, and it's what keeps me coming back to this demo for more, just trying to see how the grunts react to my actions.
Alright! Came back here after speeding through the demo again. First of all, love all of the new changes. Feels a whole lot less like a demo and more like a full game to me. The level design changes kept everything that worked, made it better, and then reworked everything that didn't quite feel right to me. I think the movement speed helps things out a lot although I do find myself wanting to be able to sprint. I know, not a true retro shooter fan advocating for sprint, but hey, a guy has got to fantasize about being able to run again. Adulthood hit hard :,D Regardless, awesome job guys.
