v0.3.2: Heat Ray

Heat Ray is Out

The game now has its second weapon, the Heat Ray. This was Matt's idea from an extremely long time ago. Long story short, the Heat Ray behaves like an "energy" weapon in other shooters. The fire rate and bullet travel speed are both extremely high such that the gun essentially functions as hitscan. Clicking the Fire button shoots, but also fills up the corresponding Overheat meter. Releasing the button allows the Overheat to cool off. If you shoot too long, you'll reach the Overheat cap, and your weapon will be disabled for 3 seconds.

Things I am considering about the Heat Ray:

1. Is the disable time appropriate? 3 seconds is pretty long, but there needs to be a drawback to holding Fire too aggressively. This mechanic is what makes the weapon unique and worth choosing.
2. I think the damage output for the Heat Ray is in a pretty good spot. It is certainly higher than the Auto Cannon, which it should be -- I need to justify the downside of managing Overheat.
3. The visual cues around Overheat need to be improved. Right off rip, the meter in the bottom-left can probably be a little bit bigger. Second, I need visual and audio feedback for when the player has gone over the Overheat limit. Right now the gun just shuts off. I'm thinking a nice "hisssssssss" sound, steam coming off the thing, etc.
4. The Heat Ray synergizes extremely well with Lifesteal but I don't think it's problematic. Remember that Lifesteal has a ceiling of 10 hp/s.
5. The Heat Ray does not play well with the Firing Drone at the moment. The Drone shoots your weapon's bullets, and the Heat Ray's bullets deal less damage than the Auto Cannon's bullets. Both weapons have their bullets upgraded appropriately when fired by the drone, but the base damage is significantly different -- Heat Ray is 5, Auto Cannon is 20. So for now I guess just take this interaction into account when choosing your character/weapon/drones.

Other Changes

1. The UI around Loadout selection is simply a lot cleaner. Detail information is now shown when the choices are hovered over, not clicked. Both loadout pages now require the same behavior: Click the options in front of you to enable the button in the top-right of the screen that moves you to the next window.
2. I have given the Tank ship a starting +10 Health Regen out of the gate. This is for balance purposes (such a slow ship is going to be hit by more hostile objects) as well as identity purposes (this is a big brute that eats and absorbs damage).
3. For similar reasons, I have given the Mosquito a base +10% Lifesteal chance. That strikes me as more identity-based (simply dodge the bullets, you move insanely fast) but it's a nice balance boost as well.

Thank you and yet again I would love to be gainfully employed.