Decimation Patch Notes v0.25.19

Major New Content

New Turret: Flamer Turret

• Complete implementation of the Flamer Turret
• Cone-based area damage system that hits multiple enemies simultaneously
• Burn damage-over-time effect with visual particle effects on enemies
• Stats: Short range, cone angle (30°/35°/45°), burn DoT (4/8/10 damage per second for 3-4 seconds)
• Workshop integration with dedicated module panel and stat display

New Turret: Sniper Turret

• Complete implementation of the Sniper Turret
• Critical hit system: 15%/20%/25% base crit chance per tier, 50% damage bonus on crits
• Critical hit visual/audio: Custom particle effects and sound on critical strikes
• Stats: Long range (60m base), high single-target damage (45/90/220), slower fire rate (.2/.22/.25)

Demo Level Added: Level 3 is now unlocked for the Demo version 

Enemy Death Disintegration Effect

• Custom death effect for all enemy types
• Enemies persist briefly with glowing edge effect during 1.5-second dissolve animation
• Individual materials per enemy type with custom colors

Gameplay Improvements

Combat & Balancing

• Line of Sight system for hero vehicles and turrets (except Rocket turrets) - now check for terrain obstruction before firing
• Range indicator accuracy fix: Now accounts for turret elevation to display a more accurate range indicator
• Turret stat rebalancing across all turrets for better role definition:
  • Machinegun: Reduced damage (8→7, 16→14, 32→28), reduced RoF gains, increased costs (100→125 base)
  • Laser: Increased damage (15→20, 30→40, 50→60) to better justify cost
  • Rocket: Reduced upgrade costs (T2: 550→500, T3: 1000→800) for better value
  • Sniper: Positioned as highest single-target DPS endgame with crit mechanics

Player Experience

• "Start Incoming Wave" hotkey: Press Enter (or custom keybind) to begin waves instantly
• "Center Camera on Hero" hotkey: Press H (or custom keybind) to snap camera to hero position
• ESC key closes menus: Turret Build/Upgrade Menu, Audio Settings, Game Controls, Hero Stats panels now close with ESC before triggering pause
• Tutorial skip system: Completed levels offer "Disable Tutorial" prompt on replay
• Adaptive victory screen timing: Level Complete UI appears intelligently after dialogue completion (no more awkward waits)
• Improved wave timing:
  • Start Incoming Wave button now appears after 3 seconds into a battle to allow  players to begin a mission immediately.
  • Level 1-2 - First wave start countdowns extended to 5 minutes for new player learning (skippable for more experienced players anyway with the Start Incoming Wave button)
  • Time between waves standardized to 30 seconds
• Dialogue timing improvements: Extended auto-continue times (5→7-8 seconds) to allow more time for players to read.
• Larger dialogue and tutorial exit buttons: Increased from 16x16 to 32x32 pixels for easier clicking

Audio Enhancements

• Critical hit audio: Unique sound effect plays on Sniper critical strikes
• Enemy death audio improvements
• Rapid fire audio: 3 randomized ricochet sounds accompany rapid-fire machinegun, lower pitch for comfort
• Low Hero HP notification made less frequent: Now repeats every 90 seconds instead of 10 (less intrusive when hero is low on HP)

Technical Improvements

UI/UX Polish

• Tooltip updates for all turrets including new Flamer/Sniper information
• Critical hit stats displayed in Sniper tooltips (crit chance/damage bonus per tier)
• Updated turret descriptions with color-coded important stats in yellow
• GameControls info updated: Documents new "Center Camera on Hero" feature

Bug Fixes

• Sticky ESC key prevention: prevents pause menu from triggering immediately after closing other menus using the ESC key
• Turret first-shot delay: Fixed an issue where turrets wait their full fire rate before actually firing on a newly acquired target

Level-Specific Changes

• Level 3: Boss Spectre HP increased (10,500 → 12,500) for better challenge
• Workshop Scene: Display models configured for both new turrets with proper lighting

Special Thanks: Community feedback from O Tipa Oarecare (Decimation Discord), Nekhon and Shifty (Mintmood Discord), and DaOpa (https://www.youtube.com/@DaOpa/) significantly influenced quality-of-life improvements in this patch.