Posted February 26, 2024 by Taska
#armoredarachnid #update #features
Welcome, one and all, to the official version 1.0 release of Armored Arachnid! I've been hard at work adding in all of my planned functions and features, and now the gameplay loop finally runs as I originally planned it to! Although there are no new levels yet, there's a ton of changes with this update, with the most significant of those being the addition of the augment system; replacing the orbital system from the original Dark Space, certain enemies will drop new weapons, subweapons, and augments for you to use. An introductory cutscene, a combat training room, and game rebalancing are all present in this update, too.
At the moment, all of the bosses and minibosses carry a unique augment. By defeating them and retrieving the augment, it will become a permanently available option for you to equip on the new augment interface. Along with their specialized purposes, the majority of augments also adjust your basic parameters (such as attack power and movement speed). Each augment has an associated capacity cost, which limits the total number of augments you can have equipped at one time, forcing you to be careful about which augments you want to incorporate into your loadout. For version 1.0, you'll have 5 capacity points, which should be enough for the currently available augments, but a way to increase your capacity will appear in the future!
I've also done some general difficulty balancing to make the game a little more accessible. As in the original game, enemies will now occasionally drop health restoration if you're not in top shape; if you have a subweapon equipped, every enemy will also drop a small amount of energy, too. The initial weapon, Dart, now fires 6 shots per second instead of 5, which should make it considerably easier to fend off your enemies. I'll keep an eye on how things feel as I add new levels with more dangerous opposition in the future, but for now, the difficulty should hopefully be in a comfortable spot.
I hope you enjoy getting this first "real" taste of Armored Arachnid!