Bugz! Bugz! Bugz! 3 major species of bugz, many variations of each, the second two will only show up late in the game, so you probably don't have to worry about them
a bunch of new music files have been added, at some point they will be linked to stages or modes of play, but for now, it'll just play them at random
Akhlut and Zheng have been further refined, so if they felt not-so-good last time, they are now much improved
Also video footage of the Akhlut and Zheng characters from the last update:
New enemy type, Zombies! There are 2 tiers and 2 varieties of melee zombies and 4 varieties of gunner zombies that will start showing up and deeper levels.
I've fixed a problem that was causing characters to freeze up after attacking,
it turns out I never turned on the robots' walk cycle animations,
I added ammo to start with in Survival Mode so that new players can learn the game a little easier,
I added buttons to randomly select a character and palette swap,
I've slowed down the difficulty progression, so you should have more time to buy upgrades before the really hard enemies show up (since the new zombies make things trickier, and I haven't even started with the harder robots)
I've made a few character tweaks here and there, but I've especially boosted Silence's melee attacks and greenshot, since she was especially struggling against hordes of zombies.
And if you missed the previous update, it's 3 new characters, Thrash Psyche the Dragon, Revenant Eclipse the Nekomata and Agate Melody the Unicorn.
Next up I will probably keep adding enemies, since it will be very helpful to have all the enemies implemented before designing game modes. At some point, this will include AI enemy versions of the playable characters, and friendly team-mate versions of enemies.
Got some video footage of the three new characters mentioned in the previous announcement
I like 'em. The dragon might be too hard, since she was originally too powerful, I may have gone overboard in the opposite direction, but it might just be that I'm unfamiliar with her style of play. I'm interested in any opinions.
3 new playable characters have added to Hot Shots, Thrash Psyche, Dragon from Kracow, Agate Melody, Unicorn from Glasgow, and Revenant Eclipse, Nekomata from Vladivostok.
Check back on the previous news post for video of the new Survival Mode gameplay. I'll try to make videos of these three, but I need a rest.
Next up I'm going to try and refine the AI, add more enemies, and then work on stages. Might throw in new stages during the AI process if the inspiration hits me.
As it turns out, I hated the old dungeon crawling mode. I tried to replace it with something better, and I hated the better thing even more. So this time, I've super-replaced it with a wildly better format, the "battlemap" system, then walked out of my programming chamber and shouted "WHAT YEAR IS IT???"
Anyways, try it yourself maybe. There are still bugs to hunt, the game is still begging for more stages, enemies and characters, but for now, this is where we're at and I feel happy with Hot Shots for the first time in months.
Weight: "Please! The only way I'd ever get on a scale is feet first!"
Background:
Freedom Evergreen grew up in historic Dodge City, surrounded by monuments to America's idyllic Wild West. As a young girl, she ran away from home to join a Rodeo Circus. Freedom was a crack shot and fantastic singer, and before long, she had become one of the Circus' main attractions. The Rodeo Circus had always been close to objectionable, but when an unscrupulous corporate overlord bought out the management, the shows became much darker. The same crowds that cheered for young Freedom's songs and trick shots now hooted at the grown woman's burlesque acts and wanted to see her injured in robotic bull fights. When Freedom tried to quit the Circus, the corporate overlord sent goons to capture her, but quick thinking and sharp shooting allowed her to escape. Now, she flees her pursuers all the way to the end of the Earth, Advent Frontier, to see if her shooting skills can earn her a new living on her own terms...
Security Footage:
Name: Murky Lagoon
ModBod: Hydra
Power: Venom/Radiation
Arsenal: Chem-Chucker
Hobbies: Mud Bathing, Taste-testing
Fav Food: Catfish Gumbo
Fav Beverage: Limeade
Fav Music: Alkaline Jazz
Hometown: New Orleans, USA
Weight: "Perfectly healthy"
Background:
Murky was originally trained as a chemist, and worked on a variety of projects, such as super plastics, gene-hacking, munitions and food science. During the Second Civil War, her home state seceded, but Murky and most of New Orleans remained loyal to the Union. Murky decided to use her chemical skills to serve her country as a secret freedom fighter, sabotaging Neo-Confederate infrastructure, smuggling refugees out of the warzone and synthesizing supplies for Union loyalists. Through it all, Murky dreamed of the day she could stop fighting and work to rebuild her unique city, but after a decade of violence and secrecy, she can't let go. She can't bring herself to trust the people around her, she can't help but calculate how much explosive compound it would take to blow up the shop around the corner, she can't help but imagine Confederate agents closing in on her. The bright smile that hid a secret agent now hides a tortured soul. Now, Murky Lagoon wanders the world to find the life she left behind, and finds herself at the end world, Advent Frontier.
This new update is kind of a minor one, I've been doing some character ground work too, but I didn't want to add more characters until I updated the enemies. After a lot of uncertainty and mind changing, I'm FINALLY confident about how I want enemies to work and I'm going to start adding them in.
Our main new enemy is this guy, the "Hoveroid". They will come with various weapon attachments to spice things up.
This is its big bro, the Spheroid. You will start encountering them after the first level. I have various other weapons thought up for them, but for now, they only have the one variation.
Besides new things to beat up, I've been doing a lot of minor tweaking of the characters' movesets, and I've added back attacks for everyone, so each character has 4 total melee variations, attack while not moving, attack while moving forward, attack while moving backward (this is the new one), and attack while dashing. I've also changed Silence Shuriken's body proportions to make her look a little more petite.
Lots of other new things in the works, I've got most of the groundwork done, so hopefully it will be much much quicker for the next update. I mean a month and half, holy shit, sorry about that.
Weight: "Well, I have hollow bones now, so it's not really fair..."
Background:
Velocity grew up as a relatively normal girl living in the suburbs of Mongolia's new capital city, but she always dreamed of being a corporate agent, like the heros (and villains) of the VGs and movies she loved so much. Through dedication and effort, Velocity graduated with phenomenal grades and secured an apprenticeship in a corporate security program, where she learned from the best in the business. Now, with an exquisite resume and sparkling recommendations, Velocity Verve makes her way to Advent Frontier, to finally make a name for herself and live out her dreams...
Security Footage:
There are also 2 fully functional shops, upgrades and consumeables:
