Bionic Dues 1.005 "Combined Customization" Released!

[x4000]

Original: http://arcengames.blogspot.com/2013/10/bionic-dues-1005-combined-customization.html

This one is our first non-beta-branch update to Bionic Dues since it released, and so it comes with a plethora of goodies from 1.001 on upwards in the release notes linked above.

The biggest thing, by far, are the improvements to the customization interface.  The game supports a minimum resolution of 1024x720, and so our previous customization interface basically adhered to that at the expense of using the screen space of larger resolutions.  Now on resolutions that are 1280x768 or higher, you get a new and easier-to-use customization interface that combines a number of functions into one screen.  If you prefer the old interface for some reason, there is a settings option that lets you re-enable that.

A number of balance improvements are also in this version.  Sentry turrets are no longer OP.  Groups of ClawBots are no longer death on wheels.  Tuck now has an improved special ability.  And the pistol has been buffed quite a bit.  Among other things.

Enjoy!

This is a standard update that Steam will automatically download for you.  However, if you want to force a quicker update and are currently running Steam, just restart Steam.

[nas1m]

Cool stuff!
FYI: You might want to post an Announcement over on the Steam forums, there seems to be a reasonable amount of folks there who are into the game but do not frequent the Arcen forums...

[tigersfan]

Cool stuff!
FYI: You might want to post an Announcement over on the Steam forums, there seems to be a reasonable amount of folks there who are into the game but do not frequent the Arcen forums...

Done.

[LaGrange]

Thanks for working on this! Are current savegames compatible with it?

[Oralordos]

They should be, and if they aren't it's a bug. Arcen is very good about savegame compatibility.

[keith.lamothe]

Yea, if it breaks an old save please send us that save ASAP so we can fix the issue before too many people run into it

[Rekka]

Great job on the customisation interface. I didn't tried the beta updates (but followed what was in) so this is the first time I actually try it.

[TechSY730]

Hooray. The first non-beta update post-release update. I'm gonna have to try this now.
Come to think of it, I haven't tried Skyward collapse yet either...

Crud, my Arced "cred" is deteriorating, I need to fix this fast. 

[LaGrange]

Yea, if it breaks an old save please send us that save ASAP so we can fix the issue before too many people run into it

Well, I played a save from 1.0.0 for about an hour last night and there were no problems, so thanks for your carefulness here! I'll let you know if anything changes.

[doctorfrog]

Is Steam the only way to get this update? I'm mobile and have dropped my Steam install onto a flash drive.

[keith.lamothe]

Is Steam the only way to get this update? I'm mobile and have dropped my Steam install onto a flash drive.

Yea, it's the only supported way.  I could probably get you an updated copy of the relevant files (for windows, /Bionic_Data/Managed/Assembly-CSharp.dll is all our actual game code, and \RuntimeData\Language\en\a_bionic.xml is all the loca strings), but that would rely on me remembering if there were any images added or changed, or something that required recompiling the asset bundle, etc.

I don't think it would be very safe

[doctorfrog]

I will figure something out, but thanks. I'm a *little* dismayed at Arcen relying on Steam this way, not much, but a li'l bit. I assume this has less to do with implementing DRM, and more to do with saving costs and time with distributing patches?

I do appreciate you not roping the game into SteamWorks, so I can still get a technically DRM-free copy of the game, but I will miss the easy in-game updates that came with AI War. Are there plans to do this with any of your existing games, like AI War?

[keith.lamothe]

I assume this has less to do with implementing DRM, and more to do with saving costs and time with distributing patches?

Yea, it has literally nothing to do with DRM.  Bionic is easier to pirate than AIW, but at least we wouldn't be paying the bandwidth for updating the pirate copies and there's no chance of a pirate "claiming" someone's legit key.

It's just cheaper for us this way both in time and money, and that's fairly important.

I do appreciate you not roping the game into SteamWorks, so I can still get a technically DRM-free copy of the game, but I will miss the easy in-game updates that came with AI War. Are there plans to do this with any of your existing games, like AI War?

I'm not aware of any such plans, no.

[x4000]

The other reason here is that we don't have a good way of distributing patches on linux aside from Steam.  For AI War or similar, likely any version that was linux specific would be steam-only, but beyond that I don't plan to shift things on older titles to be steam-only.

[doctorfrog]

I appreciate the explanation. I'm sure that I speak for a very minor subset of your fans, but for me personally, being tied to some form of DRM is a pretty significant thing. I've been enjoying Bionic Dues so far, and it's good to know that I can play it wherever I would like to without being tied down.