I’ve just released a huge update to the Final Days alpha demo (v0.15)! There’s quite a long list of changes, so I’ll try to give you a quick overview of the main ones.
The biggest change is the addition of split-screen local multiplayer support. Up to 4 people can now play locally on the same computer. In addition to that, split-screen games can also join online/LAN games. So for example, if you have 2 computers, you can have up to 8 players playing in the same game! Or 3 computers with up to 12 players! And so on.. 🙂
The next biggest change for the demo is that I’ve replaced the old “House” map with a new one called “Crossroads”. It’s a bit more open and should allow for a little more in regards to tactics and strategy. I hope you like it!
In addition to the above, there has also been several gameplay tweaks, a bunch of controller related improvements, heaps of aesthetic improvements, and many other miscellaneous additions, changes, and fixes! You can read the complete detailed list of changes below.
If you already have the demo installed, you should be automatically prompted to update when you next launch the game. If not, you can download the Final Days demo from here.
Changes:
Split-Screen Local Multiplayer
- Added support for split-screen local multiplayer (for up to 4 local players)
- To add another player, press “shoot” on the other players controller. (Other accepted inputs are “Start” or “A” on controller, and “Enter” or “E” on keyboard.)
- To drop a player out of the game, open the in-game menu using their controller (e.g. by pressing “Start” or “Esc”) and select “Player Drop Out”.
Gameplay
- Increased field-of-view to roughly 180 degrees and gave it a wider gradient
- Player now moves faster when running forwards, and slower when running backwards
- Player turning speed is now much faster
- Reload changes:
- Made reload a little faster
- Added progress meter for reload
- Shoving now cancels reloading, but it automatically continues reloading after shoving (from 1 of 4 stages)
- When reloading, the clip is now emptied after the first stage
- Can now cancel the first stage of a reload by firing if there’s still rounds in the clip
- Don’t auto-switch when picking up new ammo types if currently reloading
- Improved reload animation
- Changed player indicator to a health/armour meter
- Added ammo level indicator above crosshair
- Made a few improvements to the crosshair and target indicators
- Power-up changes:
- Power-ups now appear on the mini-map
- Power-ups now flash when they’re about to despawn
- Added glow effect to power-ups to make them stand out more
- Added highlight to crates to make it more obvious they can be interacted with
- Illuminate players more to make them easier to see in the dark
- Enemies now flash red for a bit when they enrage
Controller / Controls
- Changed how controller aiming and zooming works. The player now has full control over the crosshair position (which determines the zoom level).
- Can now hold “shoot” button to continually fire with non-automatic weapons
- Improved controller aiming sensitivity and added option to adjust it
- Added option to change controller auto-aiming mode. Can choose between full, partial (default), and none.
- Added “Sticky Aim” option for controller which lowers aiming sensitivity when the crosshair is near a target (on by default)
- Added controller vibration support (can be disabled via options)
- Added option to specify the controller dead zone
- Can now move in 16 directions with the controller (instead of only 8)
- Input device used to play the game (e.g. keyboard/mouse or controller) is now determined based on which input device was used to start the game
- Changed controller “interact” button from “X” to “A”
- Can now scroll credits with right thumbstick of controller
- Fixed: Menu navigation with controller thumbsticks was too sensitive
Aesthetics
- Improved the in-game UI
- In-game UI is now scaled based on resolution
- Improved view scaling method which reduces texture shimmering and scaling artifacts (only enabled when graphics quality is “medium” or higher)
- Added dynamic shadows (only enabled when graphics quality is “medium” or higher)
- Added muzzle flare and explosion lighting effects
- Added graphics quality option (under video options). Settings are:
- Low: Lower quality view scaling, Shadows disabled
- Medium (default)
- High: Higher resolution lighting
- Improved blood effects
- Gore chunks now fly out of enemies and players when they die
- Increased blood spray on death
- Bullet trail size and muzzle flare animation is bigger for more powerful ammo types
- Added bullet hit animation for objects and walls
- Added a different firing animation for heavy ammo types
- Added an animation for the player when changing ammo types
- Made a few improvements to walking animations
- Improved player shove animation
- Made map darker
- Added random debris, gore chunks, and stains to maps
- Added some shading variation to debris
- Changed Bloat sprite so that its face only looks up during attack
- Tweaked enemy rotation speeds (now different per enemy type)
- Highlight local player in player lists and rankings
- Ammo power-up text now follows player
- Improved appearance of large sprites (less jagged/uneven pixels)
- Reduced scaling artifacts in sound wave visual effects
Miscellaneous
- Removed Steam Greenlight prompt (Thanks for helping get Final Days greenlit!)
- Changed the minimum required OS to be Windows 7. Unfortunately, Windows Vista does not work.
- Replaced “House” map with new “Crossroads” map
- For single player, reduced the delay after game over before the player can restart
- Reduced display time of final rankings from 15s to 10s
- Can now change the display resolution while in-game
- Changed “frame rate” video option from “full/half” to “60fps/30fps” to be clearer about its effect
- Enhanced stereo effect on 3D sounds
- Changed default music volume to “5” (50%)
- Changed “bullseye” bonus to “crack shot”
- Added clickable links to website, Twitter, and Steam to title screen
- Made options to quit the game more user friendly
- Tried to make spawn message clearer
- Changed the message when continuing after surviving the final wave
- When starting a game, “max players” and “bandwidth required” is now hidden for private games
- Several performance improvements
- Made some improvements to the crash reporter screen
Fixes
- Fixed: On rare occasions, other players would be invisible when joining an in progress game
- Fixed: Made interaction with doors a lot more reliable (no more opening doors through walls)
- Fixed: Sounds were occasionally inaudible when they were actually close enough to be heard
- Fixed a few things which didn’t pause when the game paused (i.e. reload, invincibility, spawn timer)
- Fixed: When joining a game, the “press shoot to spawn” message would not be displayed in some circumstances
- Fixed a few glitches with the mini-map sonar range finder
- Fixed a bug in MonoGame which resulted in a crash when running from a UNC network path
- Fixed: Try to gracefully handle an unsupported graphics device/driver (instead of just crashing)
- Fixed: Gracefully handle errors when launching the updater or opening a web page (instead of crashing)
- Fixed: Reload animation was not cancelled when other players switched weapons
- Fixed debris animation speed for 30fps mode
