Periphery Synthetic EP v3.1.0
Greetings surveyors!
I’m excited to share the latest version of Periphery Synthetic EP. This update responds to the outpouring of feedback that I received after the Side C preview with a variety of new features, enhancements, and fixes. Many thanks to everyone who offered their time and feedback to make this the best version yet! Continue reading to learn more about the update and the upcoming Steam release.
Enjoy!
Summary of changes
- Material screen. Click on individual materials from the Materials screen to learn more about them. This screen relocates their discovered locations from the Perceptions screen to a table here. It also includes previously-hidden information about the materials, such as their atomic symbol and weight.
- Destination improvements. Portals now have dynamic names which encourage you to step inside. Mountains and caves now have secondary destinations which allow you to revisit them from the bottom up.
- Graphical improvements. The planetary bodies of Alpha Periphery are now visible from each others’ skies. Their skies have also been reworked to behave more spherically. While subtle, the improvement is most noticeable when looking straight up or down.
- Audio improvements. The collectibles are easier to hear and attenuated when they cannot be collected. This release also fixes some bugs reported by folks since the last update.
- Accessibility improvements. Some of the access hotkeys that were available to keyboard users are now available on gamepad by holding Y and pressing a directional button. Overall the interface received a variety of smaller enhancements.
- Manual revisions. Every section of the manual was revised. The revisions focused on using plainer language, expanding on missing details, and improving the accessibility of its markup.
v3.1.0 changes
- Core Gameplay
- Added dynamic destination names.
- Renamed portals on exploration status changes.
- Reduced jump height on quicker button presses.
- Filtered out explored destinations from scan results.
- Core Audio
- Attenuated uncollectable objects in the world and scan results.
- Improved audibility and spatialization of collectibles.
- Bent pitch of destination guide to its relative altitude.
- Improved difference between normal and charged jumps.
- Reset sounds consistently across fast travel and level loads.
- Core Interface
- Added screen for viewing individual materials.
- Added system name to subsystem screens.
- Added access hotkeys for screen readers on gamepads.
- Improved screen reader behavior on Destinations screen.
- Improved screen reader behavior on Perceptions screen.
- Removed materials and destinations from Perceptions screen.
- Added disallowed cursor when hovering unclickable buttons.
- Improved cursor styles when hovering over buttons.
- Revised data table styles.
- Fixed labeling of Resonators upgrades.
- Side A
- Added Alpha Periphery C and C2 to the sky.
- Improved sky color calculations.
- Side B
- Added destinations to mountain foothills.
- Added Alpha Periphery B to the sky.
- Improved sky color calculations.
- Increased the average number of falling snow particles.
- Side C
- Added destinations to cave endings.
- Ensured caves always end with treasure rooms.
- Improved cave reveal behavior and speed.
- Added Alpha Periphery B to the sky.
- Improved sky color calculations.
- Prevented overlapping diving and resurfacing sounds.
- Manual
- Clarified the pre-release progress loss warning.
- Revised most sections with more plain language.
- Improved screen reader accessibility of tables.
- Miscellaneous
- Upgraded desktop builds to Electron 29.
Coming this summer
Over the next few months I’ll be wrapping up the last of the content missing from the EP. Here’s what’s planned for the full release:
- The story. The placeholders you’ve been perceiving since the Sides B and C preview releases will be replaced with full text. Side A will likely receive some revisions too.
- Collectible trinkets. A procedural treasure system will spawn lesser artifacts throughout the worlds. Instead of having full text descriptions, these more simply set a backdrop for the worlds and their events.
- World rescale. The spawn conditions and distance scaling between destinations and other special features will be reworked to support future developments. Because this breaks the location of all destinations, this is the perfect opportunity to tweak the terrain generators one last time.
In my previous roadmap update I announced that there will be a saved game reset which will cause some progress loss. Due to these upcoming changes, I will be restarting everyone who has an existing saved game with a New Game Plus. You will keep your upgrades and inventories; however, you will lose your destinations and perceptions. I’m very sorry for the inconvenience, but I hope it lets you experience the story as intended.
I’m excited to share the release date with you soon. Thanks for playing!