Nova Drift Azimuth is now live!
Read the Full Patch Notes: Nova Drift Version 0.30.5
Over the last few months, we've been working on the exciting tech needed for Enemies 2.0, which includes enemy behaviors and formations. While the tech is finished, we haven't had the time to implement it yet. This will be a big design challenge, and any change to enemies this large is certain to incur a lot of rebalance needs. Additionally, it'd be nice to have new enemies and bosses ready to take full advantage of the tech. For these reasons, this will be included in a later update. That said, there are plenty of improvements in this update that are ready!
Hot on the scales of the Ouroboros update, the Azimuth update is here to entertain you while you wait for Enemies 2.0. We've got:
New Localization
We're proud to announce that Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, and Polish languages are now supported! Just head over to settings to toggle language options if your game does not auto-detect it.
Revised Roadmap
The roadmap needed to be updated to reflect my latest understanding of the game's trajectory based on progress and player feedback. Please keep in mind that these tend to be... mercurial at best :)
Enemy Entrances
Certain enemies can now enter anywhere on the battlefield via emerging from the background or utilizing portal technology. This helps reduce instances where the player is blitzed from off-screen.
Enemy Overhaul: Celestials
These feared creatures now boast improved visuals and revamped attacks to match their ferocity!
Construct Improvements
Allies can now utilize Charged Shot and Siege Weaponry. Additionally, several constructs now have refined movement.
BOOOOOOST!
Rainbow cycling improves everything, right? Added about a dozen new instances of rainbow cycling for the BOOST power up and improved existing effects.
Help Nova Drift Get More Free Updates?
Steam Reviews really help! Please do take a moment to fill out a short review, even if its just a few words. It just might make a big difference.
Why Steam Reviews Matter
Thanks to you guys, Nova Drift has 98% positive reviews. That's awesome! However, as the game is introduced to larger audiences, this will be increasingly difficult to maintain, especially once outside of early access. Indie games with little to no marketing budget like Nova Drift depend on positive reviews to convince content creators and streamers to spread the word about the game, as well as to entice larger businesses, like consoles, to work with us. This is good news for players, as small developers must rely on creating great games instead of paid advertising in order to succeed– but it only works if the community has our back!
Thank you all for your continued support and enthusiasm. Please join our community and share your thoughts on Nova Drift on the Discord. Happy Drifting!
Best,
Nova Drift: Ouroboros Update
Read the Full Patch Notes: Nova Drift Version 0.29.0
This update adds highly requested new and reworked gear to the game, many of which were suggested by our community. Additionally, the the Wild Metamorphosis game mode has been improved. As always, a bunch of bug fixes, new features, and balance changes are included. Here are the highlights:
New Body Gear: Leviathan
If you'd told me a year ago that you'd be able to control a player character larger than any boss in Nova Drift, I would not have believed you.
Body Gear: Leviathan
- You have 10 base body segments
- You have +1 segment for each of your levels
- Segments take -75% damage from targets and enemies
- Segments additionally take -75% burn damage and crash damage from enemies
- +0.5% global damage per segment
- +0.5% knockback resistance per segment
- The faster a segment is rotating, the more crash damage is dealt, up to 600%
- Hull: 50 + 2 per body segment
- Thrust: 100
Reworked Body Gear: Assault
The Assault body has been given more advantages to give self-firing builds a little boost. The new "Empowered" keyword results in 300% damage and +30% velocity, blast radius and projectile size. Moving forward, I'll be adding it to other mods.
Body Gear: Assault
- When you fire your weapon, it has a 8% chance of being empowered
- 15% improved rate of fire, projectile spread, and projectile velocity
- +15% resistance to mobility-reducing effects from your weaponry
- -10% maximum shields
- Hull: 90
- Thrust: 100
Reworked Shield Gear: Orbital
Formerly known as "Helix Shield", this has been fully overhauled by popular request!
Shield Gear: Orbital
- Your shield is orbited by 3 energy orbs
- The orbs release a damaging pulse when they touch targets, at a frequency that scales with your shield cooldown
- Damage dealt to you or your shield increases the charge of the orbs, increasing their size and damage
- At a certain charge threshold, the orbs collide with enemy projectiles, degenerating their damage and size or destroying them outright
- The orb charge falls off over time
- Shields: 110
- Cooldown: 7.5 seconds
New Wild Mods
Rare Wild Mod: Quantum Decoherence
- +5 levels
- You lose all rerolls and can never gain more
Rare Wild Mod: Maelstrom
- While your shield protects you, you are wreathed in a maelstrom that pushes targets and enemy projectiles around you
- Damage dealt to you or your shield adds to the effect and radius of the maelstrom
- The effect and radius of the maelstrom falls off over time
Rare Wild Mod: Grandeur
- +2 levels
- +8% crash damage, knockback to targets, and crash knockback resistance
- +8% size
- -12% thrust
- Grandeur will not appear again in the random mod pool for your next 2 upgrades
- Recursive: This mod may be taken multiple times
Rare Wild Mod: Spontaneous Generation
- When an enemy is killed, there is a chance you spawn one or more Swarm Constructs from its wreck
- The greater the maximum hull of the enemy killed, the greater chance one or multiple Swarm Constructs are created
- Swarm Constructs take 0.75 hull damage /s
- Recursive: This mod may be taken multiple times
Rare Wild Mod: Evolutionary Niche
- Your body gear unique powers are improved by 10%
- Adds "THE VOID" mod to the random wild mod pools, which cannot be removed
- Recursive: This mod may be taken multiple times
Additionally, many old Wild Mods have been reworked, and several have been powerfully buffed. For instance, Phantom Strike and Outrage Module now trigger the "Empowered" effect, seen on the Assault body.
Other Good Stuff
- You gain additional gear choices at account level 25 and 50, to a maximum of 7. This means that with 7 choices, it will never cost more than 1 reroll to get the gear you want
- Added a new BGM, "Recursor", to both Standard and Wild Metamorphosis modes
- More settings for damage numbers
- Big changes for Construct AI, especially for Swarm Constructs
- Added the game credits to the main menu
- The pause menu reports more stats
- Dozens of balance changes and bug fixes
Enemies 2.0 Progress
As promised, Enemies 2.0 is now the primary focus of development. If you're just joining the community, you can read a lot more about it here, in the second half of my earlier post:
https://blog.novadrift.io/nova-drift-genesis-update/
TL;DR: Enemies 2.0 is a huge update that drastically overhauls the wave system, and the enemies you face. This includes how they enter the world and interact with each other. It will be released in many small parts. Beyond raising the bar on enemies, the overhaul aims to improve Nova Drift's variety, scaling, and fairness, while emphasizing tactical gameplay, improving build versatility, and reducing general chaos and confusion.