Latest Pulsetense News

Solarix’s third patch is out! Version : 1.3

Posted 3 Jul 2015 by Baris at 9:18 am GMT

Hello Solarix fans!

We are happy to inform you about our latest patch which brings our sci-fi stealth horror game Solarix to version 1.3

Here are the patch notes:

We have added more check points to the overall of each chapter since even on easy difficulty, the game is now more challenging

Pistol crosshair is now in red color, as requested by some players to improve aiming in brighter areas.

Added auto-weapon switch functionality, when you pick up weapons and items for the first time, to focus better on the related tutorial
Increased flash-light radius and brightness to see in the dark areas better

Miner-Zombies have much better sight radius and vision abilities now to detect the player, even on easiest difficulty. This would add extra tension and challenge in the related chapter.

Alert periods are increased for some of the soldiers, in a randomized manner. Some of the guards are more paranoid now, they will insist in searching for the player “more” when they become suspicious. We haven’t applied this to whole of the guards to balance “randomization” of A.I and some “unexpected” behavior will now add more tension. Be even more careful now, about not to alert them, since some soldiers might not give up until they search every near nook and cranny once they are suspicious.

Soldiers now have limited clip-ammo size for the machine guns. This means that when you are caught, they will still try to hunt you down mercilessly but when they run out of ammo for each clip, they will play reloading animation. Because of this, players will have a bit more “extra time” to manage their escape when they are caught.

One of the criticism to the A.I was that their patrol routes were easy to detect and memorize. Now, we added some randomization to patrol routes of certain guards. Some of them will randomly switch to alternate paths while patrolling. Now, players have to be more careful if they want to knock them out during their patrol routes because it is more “randomized”.

Some of the soldiers & cyborgs now work in teams, alert one, he might “notify” his closest buddy. However, we randomized this feature to add more realism to the A.I. Some of them would prefer to investigate “solo” when they sense danger, some of them would want to work in teams all the time.

Some of the cyborgs have better sight radius and vision abilities now to detect the player, even on easiest difficulty. This would add extra tension and challenge in the related chapters.

Fixed A.I Pathing problems around crew quarters in chapter 7 by adding a sound proof volume.

Fixed some collision problems & A.I Pathing issues in chapter 4 and chapter 5

Fixed A.I Pathing around crew quarters in chapter 7 by adding a sound proof volume.

Added more easy-to-understand objective descriptions to chapter 2 and chapter 7

Solarix Patch 1.2 Released

Posted 15 May 2015 by Baris at 6:51 pm GMT

As we have stated, we’ll keep on patching Solarix and making every possible improvement based on the whole feedback we have received. Keep on giving us feedback please!

Here are the v1.2 patch notes :

Increased player interaction distance : Now players can pick up throwable objects and items and interact with doors more easily.
Increased crouching speed : In all difficulties crouching speed has been increased, as expected you’ll have slower crouching speed on harder difficulties.
Major overhaul to the electro shocker/tazer gun : Now both aiming and hitbox detection of the tazer gun has been improved, which should be easier and more reliable. You still have to aim from behind and you still have to be careful not to alert guards by making noise when approaching them from behind.
Added more check points all across chapters and allowed multiple saves to certain check points.
Fixes certain key items not being pick-upable on medium and hard difficulty.
Extra improvements & fixed terrain collision problems. Player should move more smoothly over terrain now both in running and crouching mode.
Removed keycard access to Mines entrance in chapter 3. Now that door doesn’t need keycard, in case people forget about it and don’t want to backtrack.
Adjusted player’s jump height to avoid collision problems on certain world objects.

Solarix Patch Released

Posted 7 May 2015 by Pulsetense at 4:18 pm GMT

Since the release, we have been doing nothing but listening to the fans and we tried to fix as many bugs as possible and make necessary adjustments to the whole gameplay, based on the feedback we have received. This is only the first patch, we’ll be releasing new patches regularly.

Here are the patch notes :

Coding Related Notes:

List most common resolutions and add them all to the game code and options page in ascending order. (NOTE: Because of this change, if you are updating the game, and not just buying, make sure to re-adjust the resolution you want to use in the options, after you start the game.)Here’s a list of resolutions you can set within the options page, grouped by aspect ratio: http://img.prntscr.com/img?url=http://i.imgur.com/A73HJXI.png
Remove forcing the last resolutions at the beginning of levels, so player can use config files for more resolutions.
Remove unused DD and exec functions from player controller for optimization.
Add fov option, min: 60, max: 120, with increments of 5.
Force the player’s weapon (including hands) to disregard the change of FOV, it’ll use FOV of 90 all the time.
Polish all the options pages, as well as confirmation UIs.
Make the option steppers able to affect another text field within the same UI (needed for aspect ratio text).
Add aspect ratio text under resolution, that updates based on the current resolution.
Add MaxHealthPacksAllowed to PC, so player can only carry a limited number of health packs.
Add MaxHealthPacksAllowed to DifficultyManager, so we can define different limits for each difficulty level. Now, player won’t be carrying too many of health packs so use them wisely.
Add a limit on how high the player can get using a throwable object. This should prevent flying with throwable objects.
Add a limit on how low the throwable object can get when you loook down. This should prevent flying with throwable objects.
Create a SwitchWeapon action, so we can switch the active weapon from kismet. Will implement the solution in the next patch in case some users request it.
Fixed not being able to fall off a ledge when crouched. THIS should prevent many of the collision errors, being stuck after you jump onto things. Now you can fall down silent if you are standing on something. Also, it fixes the “OMG! I can’t crouch while I’m going down the stairs” bug(!)
Changed how the logo is displayed, so changing the FOV won’t make it unreadable.

Level Design Changes & Related Notes :

Removed most of collision of floor objects that people tipped onto. This wasn’t a bug, it was a design choice but some users found this and presented this as if it is an error. Initially, our purpose was, within the scope of “old-school realism” make all of the objects on the floor having collisions. However, since some users deliberately showcased this as if it is an error, we removed the collisions of floor objects, so people can have “easier” time to walk on the floors. We are living in an era where users can complain about “not being able to crouch while going down stairs” so this was necessary decision we believe.
Fixed the slipping through containers.
Re-arranged some of the throwable objects in the first chapter for easier navigation.
Fixed the type error of “Power Cell”.
Adjusted lighting outside areas in chapter 2.
Added more hints for the puzzle in chapter 2.
Fixed collision errors in Chapter 3, will keep on doing so in the next patch.
Fixed the typo error “Incoherent” in chapter 3.
More optimization to chapter 6

AI Related Changes and Notes :

Fixed the dancing AI issue in some cases during patrol.
Increased peripheral vision for all of the AIs : They will have better seeing abilities now.
Increased and randomized monster speeds : Some of them will run faster now so players won’t easily run away from them.
Human soldiers have much better vision now, they will be using their “laser-sights”. We added this feature already to the AI code base, but prior to release removed it since some of the “beta-testers” found the soldiers to be “very difficult” to pass by. Now, on the other hand, we have some users calling these soldiers “blind”. Hence we made this alteration.
Now, with the increased vision abilities, and since they will be using the laser-sights, players should be much more careful around the human soldiers.
Human Soldiers now react to if you shoot out lights nearby them.
Human Soldiers’ Idle voices are less repeating now.