After quite a lot of work, I'm pleased to finally release SRB2infinity ver.2, a massive update that not only adds new content, but overhauls pretty much the entire game!
The update had to be scaled down slightly from the original plans mainly because the scope was too big for me alone, and the update as it currently stands is already makes it into a full length game playable from start to finish with additional post game challenges. As it's such a major upgrade from 1.x, I felt it was a good milestone to reach and release.
A full changelog would be far, far too big to detail, this is essentially a completely different game from the previous release.
Major additions and changes include, but are not limited to...
- New missions from 5-1 onwards, featuring new locales, enemies and boss fights.
- Singleplayer savefile is now used when playing online. Get stronger and find rare items whether you're by yourself or with friends!
- Level Synch system so that high and low level players can play together!
- Much faster paced combat, dodging now costs no PP and can also be used to interrupt some actions early!
- Level cap increased from 50 to 80
- New Type Skills and Photon Blasts
- 3 New weapon types: Spears, Launchers and Tech Mags!
- Addition of "Weapon Potentials", special abilities innate to every single weapon in the game
- Addition of weapon "Limit Break", allowing weaker weapons to reach outputs almost matching that of the current strongest gear!
- Added rare item appraisal
- 2 new Photon Arts for every existing weapon type.
- About 200-ish (I didn't count...) new weapons added as well as armour and units.
- Revamped inventory UI
- Revamped early game progression
- Exchange shop in the Café for powerful gear and items.
- Loadout save system to easily swap between Types and gearsets
- NPCs to make the Low Orbit Station a bit more alive. They'll always have something to say about your progress relative to the simple narrative going on in the campaign!
- Datapods in quests. They'll give you helpful tips and also some information about the locales you find yourself in...
- Fixed enemy collision
- Many, many, MANY bugfixes.
The major goal of this update was to turn the game into an experience akin to the first Phantasy Star Online, where players can experience the narrative and also hunt items together in quests.
The narrative is basic but has a bit more of a focus without taking the forefront of the experience, so players that are just here for the gameplay can ignore it and go questing.
By abusing the NetXCmd buffer, I was also able to let players use their singleplayer saves online, allowing the original vision to be realized. You can now go with someone to farm some items and then use those in singleplayer or vice-versa! This is genuinely one of the biggest upgrade as it means you can progress your character whether you're playing alone or with friends.
Because this would cause situations where high level and low level players are grouped together, I've also added a "Level Synch" system similar to those in MMORPGs which caps the raw stats of players to certain thresholds so that the integrity and challenge of quests is preserved in multiplayer. This feature can be toggled at will even in singleplayer for those who want to experience low level content again!
The general pace of gameplay has also been greatly accelerated, the dodge no longer costs PP and can be used to end some actions early. This however does not take away from the encounters which will still challenge you if you let yourself get surrounded!
I also really wanted to move away from the idea of items being "stat sticks" like in 1.x where there was no reason to ever use anything besides Orakl gear once you had found it, it was just stronger and superior, thus the choice to include Potentials similar to PSO2 and PSO2:NGS. Unlike those games, Potentials do not need to be unlocked with resources, they are innate to every weapon and always active.
Weapons early on will have very basic potentials that barely affect gameplay so that you can get used to your actions and flow of combat, but as you progress, weapons that demand more and more adjustment to your playstyle will begin appearing, and you will be able to decide for yourself the ones you like to build the arsenal that fits your playstyle!
Furthermore, weapons can be Limit Broken once you reach the level cap to raise their base attack power close to that of higher rarity gear, making your favourites always useful in the situation where they shine!
This in turn creates an experience where the idea of an "optimal loadout" varies from player to player based on playstyle preferences, but most importantly where every item is potentially someone's favourite for a reason or another.
I was overall very unhappy with how 1.x turned out because it was a neat novelty as far as SRB2 goes, but also an otherwise boring experience with slow combat and unsatisfying looting, so I did everything I could from a design standpoint to right those wrongs and create something that I can confidently say, is enjoyable through and through.
With that said, I hope you enjoy the update!
srb2infinity.miraheze.org
