Haven't been here for a long time! Here's a bug that happens quite frequently on Cage Boss, when there is a lot of creatures bumping around. The game suddenly and instantaneously freezes to 1 frame per minute or so, every zooid looks misplaced and damaged and camera moves to the center of map and pans out. Processor gets heavily loaded during the freeze. This happens very often to me.
Here are some thoughts on the last update and game in its current condition:
Overall power balance moves in the right direction, although you over-nerfed claws a bit and over-buffed spikes (or is that just my perception tricking me? Spikes seem to be the new "claws" now in terms of power, while claws are something players want to get rid of as soon as they get something else). But overall it's okay, we understand that balancing is tricky.
Energy leech and sniper zooids are perfectly functional and balanced now, but muck isn't. I won't complain that it slows you down just as it slows enemies down - it seems to be designed not for a chase but for a disengage. But perhaps it shouldn't slow down projectiles like launched thorns, spikes and the muck blobs themselves? Kinda weird that muck helps to keep distance, but at the same time makes your ranged attacks useless.
Jet movement zooid seems to be inferior to rattler or turbine, or does it actually have more forward speed than these two? Perhaps it needs more forward speed to stay unique but viable.
Poison attack seems to be inferior to poison mine due to similar effects but advanced mechanics of mines. To make them more unique, and equally viable I would advice to make poison's poison more... poisonous, in relation to poison mine, while giving a mine some instant impact damage and reduce it's poison damage. In other words, make mines more about explosion damage on impact with little poisoning and let poison spewers be best at poisoning.
Leech combat zooid is weirdly balanced. This one is tought, though, because it is currently too weak to play with (relatively low damage, I would better kill an enemy fast and eat their dead body to heal than leech them slowly, potentially taking damage in process); but it's also hard to play against due to automatic latching on your zooids and the abundance of enemies that have it. Leech isn't good enough to use it over some melee weapons , but buff it and enemies based on leech will become too dangerous. Perhaps making it cost less energy would allow players to use it effectively in multi-weapon melee builds while not affecting enemy difficulty.
Harpoon. This one is fun but perhaps it could be more effective if it didn't release it's grip so soon (or maybe it should hold onto enemy and drag it to you as long as you hold attack button?). Great idea with a tiny flaw that makes it less useful.
Now, speaking of levels... Have I said that they look fantastic, including new ones and the ones that were retextured? I think I had, but I can say it again. Although, progression speed seems a bit too fast, as I clear a level in a minute or so. Some of the later levels get cleared after 1 or 2 kills, so I only have a few moments to look at level art and map design (yes, I also noticed that maps look more detailed now).
I wonder if there will be more levels with different themes. I understand you are currently working on other stuff like aquarium and tuning game mechanics, so it's not gonna be any time soon, but I honestly was curious how Nodev Facility would look like. I imagined it to be a mechanical-themed level, which would feel fresh, but it seems you decided to scrap this idea for the time being. I also assume that drawing all the sprites takes a lot of time and effort.
Speaking of more levels, what about Advena Crown of Thorns boss? Was it cut because there are not enough levels to fit all the bosses? I only see it occasionally on free roam level...
PS: 
- can't argue with that, but why is there even a choice if it can only be fantastic? :D
The longer I play at free roam level the lower my fps drops, down to 1 frame per second. If I quit out to menu and continue, everything gets back to normal, for the time being, then fps gradually drops again. Perhaps there are some objects on the map that aren't properly disposed over time? Little green blobs maybe? It needs debugging to say for sure. Thanks in advance.
Edit: Remember the trick with final boss that allows player to get new zooid and quit out before completing boss fight as long as 1 minion is alive? Turns out it also works on cage boss. I kinda like this bug, though, having full zooid collection is fun. But you might see this the other way.
Also, when I click Play Again button after final boss - it doesn't do anything.
PS: Is this a good place to leave bug reports? I used to leave bug reports in this post so that other players would see them to prevent duplicate reports, but now I notice there aren't many bug reports coming from other players, so would you like me to sent reports anywhere else?
At the cage boss I ate all of his minions and grew rather large. On the next level the game started "zone cleared" after I ate just one enemy, and on the level after that "zone cleared" sequence started immediately, spawning the very first whirlpool right at my position. And I noticed that whirlpools only show the DIVE button when you move into them from outside. I was curious what will happen if I just wait in the whirlpool... In the old days it would just force me to dive, but thankfully these days are over. However, it just kept growing and then other whirlpools appeared and grew bigger, and then I thought "hey, how am I gonna dive without DIVE button? I need to enter it from outside, but it's whirlpool everywhere and I don't have my button..."
In other words, welcome to the second circle of Dante's Inferno.
Eventually I managed to find the last small patch of still water and the DIVE button appeared as I entered whirlpools again, but that was lucky.
Sometimes final boss is unresponsive until some unclear event triggers it. In this dormant state it regenerates any destroyed zooids instantly and indefinitely and doesn't have protective red shell on its primary zooid. This may happen more often when I sneak around and kill a few mini-bosses first. Perhaps it's something with boss ai, as it's quite complicated as I can see.
Gonna catch them all! Too bad there is no achievement for collecting all the parts, but I'm pretty sure you didn't intend it to be possible for players to collect all of them. But here I am again...
Here's how I did it (testing branch version): I got to the last boss, and it's awesome, and it has all the parts and rotates to attack me with various strategies, and there are also 4 supporting mini-bosses that come to help the boss when it's in trouble, and you only finish the level once all 5 of them are dead, but zooid part drops from the main boss once it's dead and if I quit out to menu once I get it before killing mini-bosses, I can continue the level from start, with all the bosses alive. Even though it's hard, one can farm last boss for parts and quit out as long as they don't kill mini-bosses, as the game ending sequence does not activate. This can make free roaming level quite fun :D
Greetings everyone, it's me again! So I checked out newest testing branch version and it's great, graphical changes and level design improved, but... here I am at the cage boss and as I expected it spawns 2 minions that I easily defeat. Then it spawns 3. Then 4. Then there is a constant stream of a whole horde of minions all mobbing up on me and pushing me around. I am experienced player, I didn't fall, and it was a fun battle, but I imagine some players will be... puzzled, if they have to fight constantly increasing number of minions for what feels like 20 minutes. Was this intended? I remember people were arguing that cage boss was hard back when there were 2 minions, but here it's just a zerg-rush, they just don't stop. Boss used to absorb itself to spawn these little minions, but now it does so at a slower rate. This is cool for a hard mode, but new players gonna be massacred)
On the picture - this is just the beginning, there's gonna be more of them...
I'm not even sure this counts as a bug or just slight disbalance
At great speeds collision with walls may get you stuck within the wall. I think it should either bump you out or damage your parts which would be reasonable giving the fact player just ran into a wall at mach 1 speed.
PS: Dominas, the DD22 game version has disappeared from your profile and requires password to access now. If you hid it intentionally, does that mean we were not supposed to access and test it? If you feel that it's too close to complete product state to be a demo anymore, we will understand.
Sailor. Did you know you can propel yourself forward by blowing your insides outwards? Neither did I, but apparently you can. (pic on the right is the process of self-propelling, I synchronized both dash and blow abilities by linking them to same key and the speed is spectacular).
Spikes would fit better with this one, but I only had pincers. And I like pincers, in case you didn't notice already.
Thanks for the answer) And now I have another bug for you.
My actions: start as sea creature; complete first level with 41 total nutrition by destroying some green blobs after the message "stage clear" (good job on the message and weakened whirlpools by the way, feels much better than forced whirlpools). As soon as i start second level (boss) I hit space to redesign my creature but instead I see title screen. I pick "continue" and instead of 1st boss I get into this abyssal empty level with nothing but darkness in all directions. Can't find player logs on windows, no idea where it is.
Edit: could not reproduce the bug by doing the same, might be a rare exception rather than stable error.
Hello everyone, I found a peculiar bug in the Demo Day 22 Sipho edition. It can be reproduced like this: delete all creature parts, then put structure parts in a T shape as depicted on the image (don't put anything else but structure parts). If done right, creature structure in the editor will become distorted slightly and the grid will tilt a bit. Upon the exit from editor window something bizarre will occur: creature parts will move on their own, twisting and stretching the structure, likely "explode" and scatter parts across the map or get them stuck in walls or destroyed on spike debris.
Edit: notice how on the 3d image the top of the T shape takes less space than it should. That's the distortion we look for.
I present to you one of my latest creatures: Greed. On the left side of the picture you see a healthy Greed, unable to absorb any more nutrients but storing them inside of its body anyway. As a consequence, it is a normal occurrence for Greed to have misshapen body, deformed by the amount of undigested food stored within. Some of the little green fellas might even be alive in there.
Whenever Greed receives any damage, some of the nutrients are absorbed immediately and used to heal the wound, giving it great regenerative ability as long as its belly has any food in it.
Other creatures often get confused about Greed and won't see it as an enemy but rather as a source of food: instead of attacking it they would rather rub against it in hope to get some of the nutrients inside. Ironically, that usually means they are chewed to pieces and added to the Greed's food storage. However, sometimes a small creature makes its way inside while remaining alive, occupying one of the two stomachs (pic on the right). That creature then has an opportunity to feed on whatever Greed can't absorb and grow within like a parasite. Because of above-mentioned confused reaction, parasite creature will not attack Greed even if it grows some combat parts. That relationship, however, doesn't need to be parasitical: as the inner creature grows through the Greed's body, its combat parts can stick outwards and later used against enemies, giving Greed additional protection.
For the Queen of Corrosion boss fight, if you only have melee weapons on you, rushing at her can be suicidal; instead you can use your spikes to hold and push the harmful floating spiky debris. Find these spiky balls and push them towards the boss spawn; as the boss chases you it will damage itself on these. Make sure not to touch spiky balls with unprotected parts of yours, only with the points of your spikes.
As for the infamous Leech Lord or Cage Boss as I call it, here is the strategy I came up with: as I enter the room and boss spawn animation starts, I rush upwards, hide behind the boss as it spawns and eat away at his unprotected brains. Easiest boss ever once you know the trick.
