Greetings!

I'm putting up a new build a bit early as i'm sure i'll be pretty busy next month, but wanna share some interesting stuff with you.

Some technical stuff

First of all, i'm actively working on the shader pre-compilation problem, and this build contains the very basics to resolve that. This means you'll still should expect stuttering at the very first time you launch the game, but the game is already trying to pre-compile as much as it can while you load up a level.

What is important here, is that i wanted a solution which doesn't make the game boot up very slowly, as many games preloading shaders at launch, and usually you have to sit for minutes for this to happen, so instead of this, i'm doing it on level loading, which isn't covering everything atm, but can be expanded later.

As a result, you will experience slightly longer loading screens (at least 2 seconds per level, a bit more if it's your first time loading), and less stuttering as you go through the level for the first time, but the boot-up time of the game remains unchanged.

As for gameplay changes

Since i made enemies more interesting by having them extra attacks, and now even Void Manipulators can predict your movement i decided to intruduce a new form of defensive skill: Mana Shield. 

This is an active skill which you need to activate by holding your right mouse button. Any damage you receive while it's active will damage your mana before your life. When your mana is depleted by damage a short cooldown will prevent you from using the skill again. If the received damage is larger than what your mana can withhold the remainder of damage will damage your life as it would normally do. Your mana takes 200% of normal damage at skill level 1, and this penalty can be reduced to take normal amount of damage by maxing it. Aside of that, your movement speed is reduced by 70% while it's active for balancing reasons, so you can't just run around the level with this extra protective layer on you, it's meant to be used situationally. As another upside while you are protected by the shield, you cannot get elemental ailments, so you won't be able to be chilled even if a Mutant hits you with his Ice Spear attack.

I wanted this skill to be available right from start, so the passive skill Toughness got moved back to be available from lvl10. As new players without any gear doesn't have any armor to be multiplied by this skill it just felt logical to do that. The skill will become much more valuable when you actually have stuff to be boosted.

Smart hints

As i mentioned the level loading times got a bit longer, but i made use of this extra time, to show some hints and tricks about the game. While these tips are appearing randomly, they can have a level range, so low level players will get hints about the very basics, while high level players can get some of the juicy stuff for min-maxing. They can also restriced by your skills and weapons you are using, so when you play with certain skills and weapons you can get hints about it's secrets, ensuring what you see on your screen is somewhat relevant.

A minor balance change

Plasma shotguns felt lackluster so i increased their attack speed to 120/min and their magazine size to 12, enjoy :P

Thats all for now, see you next time!