Demo 0.9.4 Update

Big update on a lot of core game mechanics.

• The charge shot/special mechanic has seen some significant changes. I discovered that some players were not getting it so I decided to make it cleaner and more impactful. The special is essentially a change shot that you release once you hit enough charge for a clear. I made the following changes to improve it:
  • Added a charging sound when the player holds the button down.
  • Added an actual charge shot to it. This will always fire no matter how little the charge button is held down. This is accompanied by an impactful charge shot sound. The idea is that no matter what this should fire and be a very familiar mechanic players will indentify. It exists as a ramp to the real mechanic of doing screen clears.
  • Added a secondary threshold that does a partial screen clear instead of full at a lower threshold
  • If energy for the special is depleted, it will fire at whatever level the charge is reached.
  • Overcharging (i.e. going past the threshold) is removed. Once the player hits a certain threshold, they will get a full screen clear

• Changes to the rank/difficulty. Overall my goal has to make a layered experience. If you play near the bottom of the screen and really focus on the basic "shoot and dodge" mechanics and don't really engage with point blanking/sealing and screen clears the rank will remain low. If you do, however the rank will increase and will escalate the difficulty.
  • In recent updates I made the rank bonus you got from killing enemies being related to how close you were to it when you killed it. I removed popcorn/zaku enemies from all rank calculations.
  • Normal Difficulty
    • Default Enemy difficulty level: 1
    • Enemy difficulty level increases to 2 at rank 5 
    • Enemy difficulty level increases to 3 between rank 8-10
    • No additional enemy spawns
  • Veteran Difficulty Level
    • Default enemy difficulty level: 2
    • Additional enemies that always spawn
    • Enemy difficulty level increases to 3 between rank 4-6
    • Additional enemy spawns between rank 8-10

• Removed the ability to "tap" or "mash" the focus fire button to fire a standard shot. Focus fire shot will not only fire focus shot. Because of this I was able to remove the "warmup" period when pressing the focus fire button. This results in a improved response from firing the focus shot. 
• The quick restart level function is now implemented in practice and arcade mode.
• Various UI changes. 
• Practice Mode Settings now retain last settings used
•  Improved (or I hope so anyway) layout of main HUD icons
• Power up level indicator no longer broken
•  Multi kill bonus now appears in a singular spot instead of individual point popups litered across the screen
• Added "Waiting/Ready/Depleted" popup indicators for capacitor/wingmen status
• Completely overhauled the Tutorial level. Tutorial level was not only a little behind the gameplay changes, but completely not functional. The tutorial level has seen massive improvements. 
• Balance changes - had to nerf some stuff...
  • Reduced damage of homing missiles
  • Reduced the amount of charge the green cubes give. It was too easy to get into a cycle of constant clears/iframes.
• Various bug fixes/optimizations
• Various tweaks and refinements to enemy and level design