v0.5.0 Changelog (+ how to play)

Hello! Today comes version 0.5. This is a very exciting moment for me as it truly signifies the game transferring from prototype to actual game. You are no longer mindlessly shooting nobody in a block arena for no reason, there is an actual goal. What is that actual goal?

From the start I wanted this game to have ctf-like gameplay - my thinking was that the environment presented could offer new ways to approach this classic gameplay. In the end, the current gameplay loop I have created is pretty much the same as the one I had initially came up with before I even started devloping. It works like this: each team has their own 'vault' on their side of the map. Players can deposit gold into their own vault, and steal gold from the enemy vault (both achieved by holding 'e' on the vault). Gold can also be obtained by killing players, with extra gold awarded for 'high-value targets', that being those with the highest killstreak on their team or in the game. At the end of the round, the team with the most gold deposited into their vault wins.

The game round is split into two primary segments: first, preparation. During preparation,  a large barrier exists in the middle of the level making it impossible for teams to interact - though they can still just about see eachother. This phase lasts at least two minutes and gives each team an opportunity to plan and defend their vault. Vaults are hidden underground and revealed by a beacon coming up from its position which is only visible to the vault's respective team, therefore it is up to your team to ensure they can get to their vault in order to deposit gold while steal concealing its position. After preparation ends, the barrier lifts and players enter the battle phase. During the battle phase, players must accumulate as much gold as possible and deposit it into their vaults. Finally, when the battle phase ends the round is over and the team with the most gold is declared the winner.

Final Changelog:

• Options menu (currently includes sensitivity slider and toggle for autoreload)
• Config file (this is what the options menu writes to in the background, also includes more advanced features not exposed in the options menu and allows enterring values outside normal range)
• Teams & team selection menu
• Three game states: Prepare, Battle, Round End
• New weapon: shovel. The shovel breaks dirt and sand instantly and in a 3x3 area in front of the player. Perfect for digging tunnels!
• Faster chunk generation
• Vaults
• Gold on kill
• Scoreboard (hold tab)
• Central barrier
• Map is now an island instead of infinite
• Round end screen (shows how much gold each team got and the winner)
• Interpolation (this means much much smoother player movement! Can be turned off in the config file - set movementInterp to 'None')
• Water around edge of the island.
  • Players will drown when under water.
  • Water will rapdily spread to fill any available space (carefuly where you dig!

Known Issues:

• Innacurate scoreboard player count
• Occasional holes in chunks when breaking blocks allowing you to see into the abyss

Final note: for those of you (none) thinking 'where is the devlog!?' don't fear! As this is a proper large update a devlog will becoming, however it will be on YouTube. As the game approaches a more presentable state, I'm trying to gradually ramp up my marketting efforts so when it comes time to start getting wishlists up for the steam page I can have people actually, you know, care. YouTube is my first step to that - beyond this Itch page, of course.