Protolife news & patch notes

Hello, Protolife fans, everybody who kept our feed enabled through all these years!

It's good to be in touch with you again -- we have some news for you.

Hexworld 0.16 is now stable, and it's the last major update before the 1.0. For those of you who haven't heard about it, it's the project we have been working on for the past few years, and it is finally reaching the stage where we can slowly move onto next endeavours.

I'll be honest - we'd love to work on Protolife 2 next. But whether we could or not, heavily depends on how well Hexworld will fare.

What could you possibly do to help and improve these chances?

1. Spread the word. Share the game with streamers and youtubers, talk in chats, make some posts in community feed. Any mention helps!

2. Join our Discord. The old fan-made server went down and we couldn't contact the owner, but the official VG Discord will always have a place for all the Protolife fans. We'd love to discuss the future of Protolife! Link: https://discord.gg/5fa3kag6D

3. Try Hexworld! It's not exactly Protolife-type of game, but it's still a goofy action RTS. And it's the best way you can support us. Wishlists also help, of course!

Thank you so much for being here. Giraffes are still alive and kicking, and we plan to hang on!

• Level 'Convoy' blocker - Uncaught TypeError: Cannot use 'in' operator to search for 'spawn-rate-percent' in 5 (thanks to juan ignacio)
• Custom levels with no builder units - Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'onMatterChange' of undefined
• Rare Experiments bug - Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'wavesGrp' of null (kudos to Kubla Khan)
• Rare Level Editor issue - Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'properties' of null

Steam Workshop

Version 1.2.1 - Changelog

• New: Level Editor
• New: Steam Workshop integration (levels only)
• New: Custom Levels list (+ 8 custom levels)
• In-game menu and result panel now show the progress of experiment.

• Damage block: reload time +15% (was +50%), burst delay +30% (was +50%)
• Damage M2 block: reload time +15% (was +30%), burst delay still +30%
• Burst mod: reload time +25% (was +50%), burst delay -15% (was -10%)
• Burst M2 mod: reload time +25% (was +30%)
• Buckshot mod: reload time +60% (was +100%)
• Pierce block: pierce value 3 (was 1), reload time +50% (was +100%)
• Plasma gunpoint: base damage reverted to 1 (was 2).
• Mortar gunpoint now prioritises targets according to armor penetration (mainly structures) and randomly chooses from a set of 10 closer targets otherwise.

• Crash Report: Cannot read property 'toString' of undefined at KeyBindingButton.refreshKeyLabel
• Game crash after finishing experiments caused by shader on some gpu’s
• Crash Report: Cannot read property 'toLowerCase' of undefined at AnyKey.redraw (big thanks to CrackParrot)
• Crash Report: Cannot read property 'setBoosted' of undefined (kudos to hiromi_teija)
• Crash Report: Cannot read property '1' of undefined at BigGrid.getBigCell (thanks to Přemysl)
• Crash Report: Cannot read property 'onComplete' of undefined. Caused by InfectionBuilder (multiple reports)
• Fix for 'destroy buildings mission continues even if your base is destroyed' (thanks to Discord squad and Starkweather)
• Now you can remap W to Z (sorry, laestril!)
• Now Corruptors won’t trigger 'if it works' achievement
• Now Corruptors can’t place infection while death animation is active
• Fixed NG+ levels resetting NG progress issue (cheers to dragonboy212)
• Win screen stuck animation fixed
• Tumor boss now can’t trigger both 'level win' and 'level lose' conditions simultaneously.
• No more sliding on the ground mortar projectiles, affected by pierce boosters.

Happy Birthday to Protolife!

1. New threats for Experiments!

• hp: 5, average speed
• Uses alternative paths to breach the defense and spread the infection. Stay alert!
• Can be found at yellow and red risk experiments.

• Pretty tough. Armored: 10 hp and 3 armor, Magmatic: 14hp and fire resist, Electric 12hp and electric resist.
• Appear only at red risk experiments.

• ???

2. New Game+ and Original Campaign

3. Tower Editor changes

• Range - max: 30
• Salvos - max: 30
• Bullets per salvo - max: 30
• Reload time - min: 0.1 seconds
• Burst delay - min: 0.01 seconds
• Armor Penetration - max: 3
• Splash - max: 5
• Projectile Speed - max: 30

4. Tower Blocks improvements

• Angle -5 deg. (was -20%)
• Speed +1 (was +3)

• Range +2 (was +3)
• Angle -5 deg. (was -25%)
• Speed +2 (was +6)

• Angle +15 deg. (was +60)
• Speed change removed (was -1)

• Angle +20 deg. (was +90)
• Spread change removed (was +1)
• Speed -1 (new)

• Reload time +30% (new)
• Burst delay +30% (new)

• Reload time +50% (new)
• Burst delay +50% (new)

• Reload time -10% (was -20%)
• Burst delay -10% (was -20%)

• Reload time -20% (was -40%)
• Burst delay -20% (was -40%)

• Reload time +30% (was +10%)
• Speed -1 (new)
• Burst delay +30% (was +10%)

• Speed +2 (new)
• Pierce +1 (was +2 when <10)
• Burst delay +100% (new)

• Energy -2 (was -1)
• Salvos +1 (was +2)
• Burst delay -10% (was -20%)

• Spread +2 (was +1)
• Salvos +2 (was +4)
• Burst delay -20% (was -30%)

• Speed +2 (was +5)
• Range -2 (was -20%)
• Bullets per salvo +2 (was +5)
• Burst delay +30%

• Reload time 1.2 sec. (was 1.5)
• Damage 2 (was 1)
• Burst delay 0.75 sec. (was 0.5)

• Angle 180 deg. (was 360)
• Reload time 1.4 sec. (was 1.6)
• Burst delay 1.2 sec. (was 0.5)
• Now prioritizes Magnetos and bioartillery shots (same as TX1, TX2, TX3).
• Proper sector color.

• Burst delay 1.2 sec. (was 0.5)
• Proper sector color.

• No changes

• No changes

• Energy -6 (was -4)
• Now has a constant range and angle (can’t be changed via blocks)
• Now has an efficiency factor which decreases all boosting parameters
• Range 8
• Angle 180 deg.
• Efficiency 75%

• 20 damage on impact, slow reload, slow projectile speed, electrocutes everything on its way.

• Energy -8
• Range 10
• Angle 180 deg.
• Efficiency 50%

5. Even more game balance tweaks...

• WALL now has 10 hp (was 8).
• Burst delay specified for all towers so they are properly buffed via linkboosters.

• All missions: No more Tunnel Spawners, ZAPPERs, Repulsors, Infection Cannons at green risk levels.
• All missions: New late-game enemies for yellow and red risks levels.
• Survivals: No more Orange Centipedes and Magnetos at green risk levels.
• Survivals: Overall waves difficulty reduced by 20%.
• Max evolution level limit for all enemy structures: green risk = 3, yellow = 5, red = 10.

• ZAPPER can appear as a random spawn structure now. Experiments and New Game+ only.
• Tunnel Spawners (big ones) now have an additional evolution stage with a lower enemies spawn rate (20 worms, 0 behemoths).
• Levels 'Hollow', 'Focus', 'The Core' — the first grow phase will be easier due to the Tunnel Spawners change.

• Crash Report: Cannot read property 'counter' of undefined at BigGrid.hasSome (multiple reports)
• Crash Report: Cannot read property 'X' of undefined at BigGrid.getBigCell (reported by A Pound of Life)
• Infection Cannon projectile size fixed. (reported by coeja73)
• Fixed infinite ricochet for a custom flame projectile (reported by Ghin)
• TX3 projectiles destroyed outside of the map (reported by Dmitry)
• Crash Report: SelectedTowerPanel2.show. Tower help and symmetrical patterns related issue (reported by Dmitry)
• TX2/TX3 proper boost/deboost of salvos count.
• Boost Linker multiple gunpoins does not work.
• Boost Linker can’t boost towers in its range.
• Range booster does not boost custom resource harvesters.
• Boost/Deboost and pattern lock structure issues.
• Jumping custom mortar projectile
• Fixed all outdated descriptions in level briefings.
• Fixed some localization strings.

Version 1.1.2

• Resource spawners and colony base won’t block any major paths on randomly generated levels. (thanks to Kezzbo, vervedan and Ernest)
• Resource spawners for survival type missions are closer to the base now
• Orange Centipede spawn chance is significantly lower for low risk experiments

• Crash Report: _this5.substate.closeDialog is not a function (thanks to Austinlb90)
• Crash Report: Cannot read property 'length' of undefined at new Watcher (thanks to Jseah)
• Crash Report: Cannot read property 'bringToTop' of undefined (kudos to Sam Quan)
• Crash Report: Cannot read property 'a' of undefined (thanks to⎝Dr. Danger!⎠and Austinlb90)
• Crash Report: Renaming a tower to a name you already have freezes the game
• Shader error for experiments reward dialog (thanks to do335)
• TMSL boost breaks its projectile trajectory (thanks to vervedan)

Version 1.1.0, 1.1.1

• New game mode: Experiments
• New game mode: New Game+
• New game feature: Tower Editor
• New game feature: Unlockable Tower Blocks
• New enemy structure: Pattern Shutdown — disables random tower pattern until the structure destroyed (health: 5, armor: 1)
• New enemy mob: Orange Centipede — drops orange slimes
• New tower patterns: TY1/TY2 — short range shotguns, low ap, high dps, high spread
• New booster pattern: RBST — boosts reload for all towers in range by x0.85, stackable
• New UI feature: survival wave preview — shows the amount of enemies in each wave
• Some performance optimizations

• 28 - Squid Ravine: now has 2 TX3 on start
• 33 - Cluster: now does not spawn Magnetos (while still have two repulsor structures)
• All survival levels now use wave spawners (cocoons) instead of spawn-from-the-air approach

• TX3 rework — now guards will return to the orbit upon target’s death, more sustainable
• TMSL1 — projectile follows the enemy
• TMSL2 — now fires 3 projectiles with 5 dmg each instead of 1x20dmg, projectiles follow the enemy
• WBUILDER (wall printer) — build time rate reduced to 0.5 seconds (was 2.0 seconds)
• Every tower now have a x0.5 time delay for the first reload (more convenient in a rush situation)
• Behemoths won’t spawn from L0 buds
• Enemy ZAPPER reload time decreased to 0.5 sec (was 0.7 sec) due to TMSL2 rework
• Wave spawners health increased from 1 to 10 to avoid unintentional agro

• Crash Report: Cannot read property 'invincible' of undefined at TiledLevel.checkDefenceIntersection (multiple reports)
• A lot of minor UI tweaks and fixes

• Robot now makes one step side if reaches an obstacle on its way
• New secret robot ability to lock towers configuration (default key ‘L’) — allows to nail down any tower so it will ignore any other possible transformations

Research

• Every experiment is a unique experience on the randomly generated maps with a different challenge level.
• Once completed, the experiment will provide research data necessary for discovering new technologies.
• You are in control of setting up experiment conditions. Take a low risk, or go for a high reward.
• If your experiment is proven to be too tough, you can always return to it later, when you obtain some new weapons.

Engineering

• You can design a custom tower pattern and use it in your fights.
• Balance the energy and stats to construct the super-weapons of your choice.
• Use the experiments data to unlock new gunpoints, stat boosters and behavior modificators.

New Game+

• New Game+ is now available for everyone who finished the game
• Manually redesigned levels, including new harder versions of bosses. If you, like me, thought that the original campaign was a bit on the easy side, you will like NG+.
• All towers available from the start — and as you play, you will unlock a couple of new ones exclusive to the NG+ mode.

New Game Plus

Random Campaigns

Tower Editor

Improvements

• Game speed is optimized for high refresh-rate monitors (120Hz, 144Hz, 240Hz). This also means game controls will be smoother in case of any fps drops.
• Gamepad hints are now available for in-game tooltips and help panel.

Balance changes — Karst Layer

• Angle of the left tunnel is tweaked so it’s more friendly to 45° defense patterns.
• Now includes special cocoons that will release all the waves on impact, this prevents 'spawning from the air' issue and makes speedrun more challenging and fair.
• Late waves now spawn less enemies, total amount of Behemoths: 61 (was 115), Big worms: 55 (was 90), Magnetos: 4 (was 10).
• Flame drop now can’t be blocked with a resource in cell (more effective).

Bugfixes

• Fixed T1 and other sounds been muted in some cases.
• Fixed game crash related to the crystal farms destruction (Cannot read property 'gridX' of undefined at FarmSmall.update).
• Fixed ricochet issue for T3, T4 and TLZR when Particles Settings are lower than MAX.

1.a Campaign Generator

1.b Tower Editor

1.c NG+

2. Level Editor, Steam Workshop & Trading Cards

3. Planetary Defense

New features

• Steam Achievements!
• New option for helping with build accuracy when using continuous building.
• Several keyboard/gamepad improvements

More controls improvements

• Start menu now includes 'Controls' setting where key bindings are (previously this setting was under in-game menu only).
• WASD work in the start menu, global map and in-game menu. These keys can be re-binded.
• Gamepad will not require an additional tap on level/global map start to interact.
• 'Hold SPACE and move to build a line of blocks' hint added for Biomass and Tower Defense levels.
• Global map remembers the level completed and won't scroll to the last one if some of the previous levels was replayed.
• Builder unit now does move if key released really fast.

Balance changes

• Acid Trip: Sleep time reduced to 75 (was 90). Green caterpillar now patrols the arena inside, so it doesn’t rush until player reaches the second corner.
• Biomass: now includes special cocoons that will release all the waves on impact, this prevents 'spawning from the air' issue and makes speedrun more challenging and fair.
• Explosions at the end of Biomass and Tower Defense will kill all the mobs.
• TX* tower family now prefers enemy bullets, then magnetos, then other enemies.
• TX3 charges amount buffed to 5 (was 3). As a result TX* are now much more useful at handling magnetos and more reliable at the front. TX3 hopefully will be less of a disappointment. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/32215614/85cd4155cd6c2f8373d122338dbae251cb71ffa5.gif
• Reworked TFLM2: - Targets the point on the ground. - Bullet collision is off until it reaches the destination. - Always drops flame in a 'plus' pattern. - Cooldown increased to 3.5 sec (was 2.0) - Still affected by magneto shield
• Magneto: Shield radius will now diminish when under fire. With the TX* buffs it should be easier to deal with these guys now.
• Green caterpillar respawn time increased to 4 seconds (was 3).
• Karst Layer: no changes so far, but the level feels better due to TFLM2/TX buffs.

Bugfixes

• Fixed Game crash related to switching between builder units in some cases (Cannot read property 'stop' of null at Hero.toBackground)

Bug fixes

• Fixed crash related to the game start right after the main menu (Cannot set property 'visible' of undefined at Object._adjustHints)
• Fixed crash related to the level start and shaders configuration (Cannot initialize shader: program not linked)
• Fixed crash observed on some levels after builder unit was damaged and healed

Other

• Level loading optimized a bit (infection seeding caused some lags at the start of the level)

GOOD NEWS EVERYONE!

What's next?

Release Date

• Windowed mode support. Has a set of fixed window sizes and ability to toggle fullscreen mode.

• Levels 'Adrenaline' and 'Cactus Field' now have a default intro instead of just empty dialog.
• Level pins adjusted to show the actual level size.

• Crash Report #1: SinglePad.pollStatus - Gamepad disconnection/sleep issue.
• Crash Report #2: 'disconnect' on 'AudioNode' on level start or restart.
• Crash Report #3: End of Chapter 2 and empty Global Map.
• WPRINT (wall printer) now works correctly on level edges.

• Removed some redundant messages in game logs ("WARN Cannot set frameName ...")