062821 Shield Cat Build (Patreon)

Hey guys! Coming at you with a new Shield Cat build today. In this build, I added the Lignum Village! There's no NPCs yet, but you can run around and check it out anyways. I also changed a bunch of lighting in various spots in the game and made a ton of other changes.

The biggest gameplay change is that Lance can no longer just spin infinitely. It now costs magic but it should regenerate pretty quick (also you get it from hitting stuff.) Please let me know how this works out for you and if I need to balance it further, thank you!

A full list of changes can be found below

 ===== NEW =====

• A new Rainbow Pretty Petal has been added. It has a spawn rate of 0.69% (nice) and gives you 100 petals.
• You can now use the scroll wheel to swap Lance's thrown abilities (if you have more than one.)
• You can now double tap in a direction to make Lance run in that direction, rather than holding the run button.
• Added an option to adjust the double tap timing window.
• You can now configure the run button to be toggle based instead of hold based.
• Fireflies have moved into the forest (I can't believe my eyes)
• A treasure chest has been added at the end of the first stage containing the key to the Lignum Village.
• You can open the gate to the Lignum Village with this key, allowing you to visit the village. It's a wip, so the insides of buildings and NPCs will be added later!

 ===== IMPROVED =====

• Camera movement has been smoothed out when moving between screens.
• Improved tiles around pits to make them more clear.
• Lance will now flash when his magic is restored and you can use abilities again.
• Animation for fully charging the dagger has been improved.
• Map markers have been added to Lignum Stage 1.
• Map markers will now update depending on the current state of the game (ie if you pick up a collectible, open a gate etc.)
• Raven's telegraphing when they're going to attack has been improved.
• Map sprites have been changed some for readability.

 ===== CHANGED =====

• The "Alt. Timing Method" option has been removed. Instead, the game will automatically switch to it when disabling VSync.
• Removed the pop-up message about automatically disabling VSync when the game is running slow.
• The Speedrun counter is now drawn over everything else (including during transitions.) Let me know if this causes any issues.
• The game is now 64bit.
• Made some minor stage changes based on feedback.
• Pit checking code is now more efficient.
• Lance's Tubular Twister has been rebalanced. Now it takes magic and if you continually mash it, you will run out of magic. However, this is counterbalanced during combat with the fact that enemies now restore your magic when hit.
• The minimap now will only show you the boundary of a new room that previously didn't show on the map - it's up to you to actually explore the room to see everything.
• Shadows have been adjusted in certain areas for the sake of visual clarity.
• Colors have been adjusted around Lance's house and the path leading to Stage 1 for clarity.

 ===== BUG FIXES =====

• Fixed the bridge that's supposed to be broken (to make you have to learn how to swim) by breaking it.
• Fixed a bug where Lance would appear to walk out of a secret area when he was supposed to be swimming.
• Fixed an issue where Lance would have a shadow when moving between areas while swimming.
• Fixed the transition in Lance's house when he goes up and down the stairs.
• "Current screen" time shown on the speedrun overlay will now pause between screens to give a definite amount of time that you spent on that screen.
• Fixed a bug where you could quick swap between thrown abilities when on a peaceful screen (ie. inside Lance's house.)
• Fixed a bug where, if you bought the Shield and then used the ability swap to swap to it rather than equipping it from the menu, the game crashed.
• Fixed a bug where throwing the Shield in a room where environment collision isn't correctly set up could crash the game. (Very unlikely scenario.)
• Fixed a bug where Lance's abilities would draw shadows when over pits.
• Fixed an issue where particle effects were missing when hitting certain objects.
• Fixed a bug where Lance's attack substate wasn't being cleared properly after hitting objects.
• Fixed a bug where adjusting the music level could temporarily cause garbled sound.

 ===== KNOWN BUGS =====

• Collectible totals don't show correctly on file select menu or pause menu.

Thank you!

Thanks to the following people and everyone who makes this possible!

Shadow8t4, BeepSterr, BenTheDragon, Bizarre Machinist , David Wolfpaw, Caliburn Absolute, Chris Badger, Clover Arizona, Vix-N, DimSumthing, Cloud Hop, Fao, FaultBat, Flake, FoxyDude, Nutalie Frost, Gri, Goronhead, Holly 'Frinkel' Lotor, JD Laclede , Jyrki, LanceCharge, Katie Durmeter, Kaylex Deer , Hulex Fox, Kirbizard, Trash, LF, LexiTheTT, Lorxus, Luna, Luna Moona the Little Kahuna , Durk Vash, phantomsqueaks, Markus Joseph Kitsinger , Marlyn, Maxine Red, Mello the Ferret, Midori, Nenekiri Bookwyrm, Axel Husky , NovaSquirrel, Ripp_, Cam D'Arcy, SUSHiCLAWS, Saxxon Fox, Scylla-Leeezard , Ansel Geisel, Spyduck, Carlis A. Moore., Susan Tolias, Tabby Cromarty, Touku, Vivee, William 'Kenku' Swiftfoot, Kazy, meerm, megaRammy, raine

Patron Note

Soon, I'm going to start crediting people in builds and on streams by their Patreon name if they haven't already given me a preferred name. If you want to be credited appropriately, please message me! Thank you!