@Ringerill are you on update 48 (or even the latest 102?) I've not seen any crashes automatically reported via Testflight? Was hoping that issue had been fixed!! If you're definitely on the latest update, let me know and I'll look into it some more (though in all my testing it's not happened on my own devices) As for the MX22, yeah, all missiles are a little unbalanced right now. In fact, there's likely going to be a full balance run once the major elements of the game are working well. The intention for the swarm is for it to be far less damaging than it currently is. Kind of like peppering a target with a ton of missiles. Whilst I'm fixing the major broken pieces of the game I will do some balancing, so thanks for pointing it out! Also worth noting: any flak clouds in the field (created by flak frigates, or the player's flak cannon) should destroy missiles, though I think the radius is too small for it to be an effective shield for the poor enemies right now haha. Shielding should also be pretty strong against missiles in theory. Glad you're enjoying the game!
Interloper Release Notes (Beta) 0.8.162 Tutorial and other bits Update Another big update out today: this time focusing on improving the usability of the game overall. From improved graphics, to a revamped tutorial experience, there’s lots of new stuff to check out. If you wish to check out the tutorial, go to settings and press "reset player”. There's no warning on this button so be careful, and keep in mind that this will wipe all of your progress so far!!! Also worth noting that I frequently deprecate old builds, so keep an eye on Testflight for new updates! Updates: Gameplay Changes Dodge roll tutorial added Flak now kills missiles (Balance request from @Ringerill ) Minelayer Frigate added Mines added. Interceptors now have auto cannons instead of lance beams. Other Features Player ship remodelled. (Request from @Truncana) Added extra visual graphics to tutorial Gave player more interaction during tutorials Reset Player now works as expected. Flak Graphics improved. Speed effect should be more reliable now Lance Frigate weapons given a makover Improved UX in loot manifest Added more targets to kill in tutorial Cleaned up when haptics fire. Fixes: Removed async scene load due to potential soft lock on multiple playthroughs. Known issues: Carrier and Battleship might be hard to target? Explosions sometimes leave behind solid objects? Uninstalling and re-installing the game forces a tutorial re-run, might override player data.
Thanks for the redesign of the ship! I have to admit that I don’t like it, but at least it matches cockpit design. Why don’t you think about a complete redesign of the ship? The Babylon 5 fighter could be a good “all-window-cockpit” type to begin rethink it... anyway thank you again, and keep up the good work!!!
@Truncana Aww, fair enough. At some point, probably after release, I’ll build some kind of choose between multiple ships system for the game. Hopefully one of the designs works for you then haha. Also, I’d never seen Babylon 5 and yeah wow those ships are ace!
Interloper Release Notes (Beta) 0.8.248 Choose Your Destiny Update #1 Not the largest update I’ll ever do today, but significant nonetheless. This update introduces a new mechanic to the game that allows you to pick from three styles of run before launching into the game proper. Each run is picked from a master list once, daily. In theory I've got the seeding right so that everyone should get the same runs.. but in practice that’s probably not the case. On top of that, there’s a new frigate, the Rail Frigate out today. They’ll appear later on in most runs. There’s also my little favourite bit which is the start of some first person animations in the game. Namely, the “punch it” To Warp animation. Fingers crossed I’ll get some more time to work on these kinds of things before we get to launch. Updates: Gameplay Changes • “Pick Run” system added. • Core Run added. • Fast Run added • Frigate Run added • “Bring it On” run added • “Interceptors” run added. • Run Variables added • Pitched battle variable added • Random variables variable added (yeah….) • Continual Spawns variable added • New Enemy: Rail frigate. Other Features • Weapons now appear on the player ship in loadout. • “Punch it” animation added to warp. • Frigates and Capital ships now leave behind a corpse, will often split into little bits when they blow up. • Frigates are now no longer individually named, making it easier to identify what type of ship you’re fighting. Fixes: • Afterburner haptics should match the graphic now. Known issues: • Carrier and Battleship might be hard to target? • Explosions sometimes leave behind solid objects? • Uninstalling and re-installing the game forces a tutorial re-run, might override player data. • Got a crash on an 2018 iPad Pro 11 at quite a late stage in the game.
Hi again. This week has been a little crazy with my day job, and I haven’t had as much time as I’d like to put into a proper release. That means this week’s build will be pushed to next Monday instead. That said I’ve managed to put a fair amount of time into building out new environment and ship assets, so hopefully it’ll be worth the wait! Sorry for the slip!
Interloper Release Notes (Beta) 0.8.293 Hostile Environments Today’s build is mostly focused on bringing the game a little closer to it’s final look. I’ve spent the past two weeks working away at new models for enemy frigates, particularly paying attention to their silhouette. Ideally after some time it should be immediately clear that you’re facing down a lance frigate instead of a minelayer. The same goes for friendly ships. In fact this build comes with a total revamp of friendly ships. Common includes fighters and bombers. Uncommon brings a friendly Gunship (frigate), Rare, a new ship: Repair Frigate, Epic will pull in an all of the above, and another new ship: The Assault Carrier. This build also introduces new terrain assets for Region 2: The Ruins. Up until now, all the various regions had the same list of assets, asteroids, some wrecks and that was it. Now The Ruins contains a vast array of wrecked stations and ships. On top of that Nebulae have now been added to the game (or more accurately, small gas pockets). For now these larger assets simply block shots, but in the future I’m thinking about making it so that you can use them to hide from would be attackers. Beyond all of that, there’s the regular bug fixes, and balance updates. Please feel free to let me know if you run into any issues, or just have some more general feedback! Gameplay Changes Loads of new art New Ships New Environments New Player character model. Nebulae! (ok… space clouds) New Run Variable: Hostile Environment. Other Features Player fleet is now unique Interactive environment Mini Warp Drives now have their own sound effect Fixes: Fixed UI getting hidden by clouds (flak and nebulae) Removed my debug cube from explosions Player is now invulnerable during warp sequences Player can no longer warp out after their ships's health hits zero. Fixed lance beam not tracking targets properly. Known issues: Carrier and Battleship might be hard to target? Uninstalling and re-installing the game forces a tutorial re-run, might override player data. Got a crash on an 2018 iPad Pro 11 at quite a late stage in the game.
Unfortunately I don't have enough time these days to continue actively playing/testing it. But I am following the changes as they come out and I am really impressed. With every update, the game look more and more polished and some new content is added at a fast pace. I will have to take into account all of this when I will replay it. The rogue-lite aspect of the game makes it really well suited to come back whenever we like without needing to remember everything every time
All good, thanks for taking the time to test it in the first place and thanks for the feedback! I’m hoping to keep a regular (probably slower) cadence when the game eventually launches, so this is mostly just me getting used to the process.
Interloper Release Notes (Beta) 0.8.334 Choose your own adventure: part two This week heralds the replacement of the game’s run system with something a little more suited for the platform! Previously, if you managed to get to the final run, face off against the battleship and win, you’d be whisked back to the start, with more enemies to kill, and forever the loop would continue. Now, each run is a dedicated set of waves. If you get to the end, you warp out with whatever you gained. This should make the game more bite sized, and more appropriate for mobile. There’s still longer runs that’ll pop up in the daily rotation, however the focus will be on delivering smaller sessions that are better balanced. This also has the upside of making it easier to produce more variations later on down the line! This week I also took a stab at what I’m calling "a first pass" on player death animations. I’ve avoided this for a while because it’s relatively complex and really doesn’t add any functionality to the game. Hopefully down the line I’ll have a bunch to pick from so that we’re not always looking at the same one every time. Updates: Gameplay Changes Runs no longer loop, and are generally shorter now! UI to match new run layouts New Runs Lots of actual lore added to the game! Collision now works for every object, not just ship to ship Healing frigates! Other Features New player death animation! Fixes: Small, background fixes this week. Known issues: Carrier and Battleship might be hard to target? Uninstalling and re-installing the game forces a tutorial re-run, might override player data. Got a crash on an 2018 iPad Pro 11 at quite a late stage in the game.
Interloper Release Notes (Beta) 0.8.404 Choose your own adventure: part three Was hoping to cram a little more into this weeks update, but I ran into some compiler issues that chopped an entire day off of my timelines! Anywho, here’s the third major change to the structure of the game: Run Types. These variations mix up the major objectives for a given wave. From destroying stations to racing to holding out against all odds. Each of these run types combine with various run variables to hopefully give quite a bit of variation in both the second to second and minute to minute gameplay. With all this infrastructure in place I’m now pretty happy with the macro level gameplay, so the next couple updates will mostly be looking at improving the game’s graphics, audio and performance, with some final touches on the UI, control schemes and improving accessibility as much as I can before swinging by the tutorial one last time. Updates: Gameplay Changes Four new Run Types Blockade Runner Break through commonwealth defences to get to an objective point Escort Standard run, reversed. Keep that transport alive. Assault Destroy commonwealth stations in the sector Survival Survive against unyielding commonwealth forces. New UI Describing the run type at the start of each run Known issues: If you don’t have a Game Centre account, you can't play the game? Map is kinda borked right now. Looks like menu’s on the notched iPhones get hidden behind the notch... Carrier and Battleship might be hard to target? Uninstalling and re-installing the game forces a tutorial re-run, might override player data. Got a crash on an 2018 iPad Pro 11 at quite a late stage in the game.
Incredible news and cool changes! It was already nice to see the new types of runs but with these, there is even more to do. And it definitely adds to gameplay since the goals are quite different. It also allows for a more strategic choice of load-outs for each type of run And appart from the gameplay, the graphics and are really good looking now and quite detailed. I will try it out to see how difficult it actually is to finish these runs without any specific load-out when I have the time! Thank for keeping us informed on the changes for every update
Interloper Release Notes (Beta) 0.8.441 Operation: Clean House This week’s update is a wee bit all over the shop. Last week's compiler shenanigans left me rushing to get a build out… which unfortunately resulted in a relatively buggy build. That means this week I spent a bunch of time cleaning up various bugs and issues in between working on some graphical assets. The four big new assets we’ve got this week are frigate carcasses that're unique to each frigate, a new model for the stations in the Assault runs, “Entry Terrain” that makes jumping into a new wave just a little bit more fun and excitingly, I re-made the autocannon assets. We’ve also got a new bit of UI to give you more info on which of your friendly ships are still alive and kicking, I’ve simplified the intro to the tutorial a bit, added extra allied ships to escort missions and tweaked a couple other bits and bobs across the game. I’ll work my way through the remaining weapons, hopefully by next week. Updates: Gameplay Changes Runs are now separated into Easy Medium and Hard, and each day you're presented with one of each. Shield boosters and Repair Drones now heal 100% of player hull / shield, but take less time to recover with rarer drops. Waves are now denoted by icons as well as titles Allied ships now appear in-game ui Cruft removed from intro text for tutorial Tutorial for pitch now only allows player to pitch, not roll or yaw. Escort runs now warp to next sector when there are no enemies present Escort runs: Each run spawns in 3-7 allied ships to reduce the likelihood of enemy ai primary-ing the transport. New Weapon Models Autocannon Longshot Heavy Autocannon Vulcan Drastically increased terrain density in Deep Space missions New app icon! Fixes Game centre might no longer be needed? Need to test this. Map now shows actual run layout Game no longer locks up after killing a capital ship. Survival runs now always have constant spawns. Temporarily removed “Random Run Type” variable as it caused a ton of issues. Destroying all objectives now properly triggers a player warp Known issues: Looks like menu’s on the notched iPhones get hidden behind the notch... Carrier and Battleship might be hard to target? Uninstalling and re-installing the game forces a tutorial re-run, might override player data. Got a crash on an 2018 iPad Pro 11 at quite a late stage in the game.
hi, with latest build i've noticed some performance drop on ipad pro 12.9 2nd gen - 'transport run level' has worse framerate than others, visible especially during muzzle flashes. but not happening on iphone 7 (well, resolution...) latest build doesn't run on ipad mini 2 retina, only menu works, crashes during level loading. some builds earlier it was working, altough unplayable (framerate)
Hi comanhkha, thanks for the report! Yeah the last update added quite a lot of extra enviornment art that will tax older devices quite a bit. Don't worry too much though, as I'll run optimisation on that over the next few weeks. Honestly I'm surprised it made it as far as the menu on the iPad Mini 2! At this point I'm looking at probably bumping the version requirement up to iOS 13 (which will remove that device, as well as a bunch of older phones from my supported devices) as I don't really have enough time to support the whole iOS before launch. Rest assured, the game is nowhere near as optimised as it could be (and will be) right now
Interloper Release Notes (Beta) 0.8.512 Operation: Welcome Package This update will ask you to go through the tutorial again. I'd appreciate it if you would, but feel free to skip if you can’t be bothered. For this week’s update I’ve focused primarily on improving the game's tutorial and overall newbie experience. First up, I’ve tightened the tutorial a little, reducing copy where possible. Secondly, I’ve now set the game up so that you have to complete five runs before you start getting the easy / medium / hard choices. These runs will give you a chance to play through each of the game modes in a relatively safe environment. This should give you a relatively good pack of upgrades to start the game proper with. Third, I’ve begun work on making the very first thing a player sees a little more interesting. Beyond the tutorial, I’ve removed the two wave restriction on warp out. You can now warp out as soon as you get in. The original intent was to make sure you always warped out with some gear, but this ended up being restrictive with the new game modes. I’ve also played with the values for missiles across the board, with the intent of making them a little less powerful again. (for both the player and the AI) And lastly, in older versions, when you ran out of weapons, I'd provide you with two new basic autocannons. In this version, I do the same with Utilities and Fleet beacons. This is to ensure that you’ve always at least got a little bit of backup, an afterburner and a repair utility. Hopefully this reduces the amount of times a player gets stuck in a position where they just keep dying. I’ve still got a fair amount of work to go on the tutorial before I'm happy with it, and the overall onboarding experience could still be better, but this is getting close to where I’d like it to be! Updates: Gameplay Changes New tutorial and onboarding flow! Complete some simple runs before going onto freeform Easy / Medium / Hard Tightened tutorial copy Player now warps into the tutorial. Removed two wave restriction on warp out. Missiles tweaked Swarm goes faster, less lifetime. All other missiles slowed down significantly, reduced rotation speed. Ai missiles are much slower, worse targeting, easier to avoid. New replacement mechanics for Utils and Fleets Fixes Pitched battles now bring player themed ships to the fray, instead of Commonwealth ones. Added cap on the amount of ships allowed in any given arena. Run Description text for timers is now much larger. Known issues: Looks like menu’s on the notched iPhones get hidden behind the notch... Uninstalling and re-installing the game forces a tutorial re-run, might override player data Potentially issues with the tutorial / onboarding. I messed with some pretty core stuff to open up new opportunities later
Interloper Release Notes (Beta) 0.8.573 Just in time supplies: vol 1 Last weeks build was… pretty buggy. Sorry about that. To make up for that, this week is a festival of bugfixes! One major feature change is to make flight control customisation in the tutorial a set of onscreen settings instead of conversation choices. The design of this is nowhere near final, but hopefully it just gets things rolling. The other major change is that now the game no longer resets all player data when attempting to replay the tutorial. So now you won’t lose your hard earned weapons! Slowly getting there.... Updates: Gameplay Changes More changes to the tutorial flow. Added haptics to receiving hits to shields and hull Fixes Tutorial steps should no longer lock up at any point. Capital ships now properly take precedence for targeting. Exit button actually works again now. Tutorial should no longer repeat itself without request. Capital ships no longer just randomly jump around or teleport. and my personal favourite. Guided Rail Guns now continue to do their guided thing beyond the first shot. In response to that, guided rail guns have been nerfed a little Graphic glitch on advanced lance beam fixed reduced nebulae chance in deep space. Known issues: AI Missiles were flinging capital ships off into the void, Cap ships now only have plasma launchers for now. Looks like menu’s on the notched iPhones get hidden behind the notch... Uninstalling and re-installing the game forces a tutorial re-run, might override player data. Sometimes enemy AI.. just do nothing?
I think I will take some time to replay this game and see what all these changes are. The addition of tutorial maps is really cool and even necessary to familiarise players with all the different types of runs there are. It also seems that the game has become more difficult but that's a good thing (for instance, it made me realise how vital the dodges are)! One thing bugs me a little bit and I have notice it since the beginning: when you unequip an item, the model stays on the ship. Would it be possible to remove it as well when the load-out is removed?
@Ringerill Thanks for keeping up with the game! I want to be really careful with the difficulty of the game, as I’d rather make it easier than harder,but also not too easy, so thanks for that insight. I’ve always seen the game as being way more about the cool experience of blowing up giant spaceships than it is supposed to be a darksouls like challenge. As for the model hanging around on the ship, I’ll put it in the backlog of bugs I’ve gotta fix!
