My initial post was too long, so here is part 2.
On to Stage 3! The red of the background makes seeing the enemy indicators a bit tougher. However, this is even more open than the previous stage, and I found the gate in under a minute. This time when I activated the gate the boss was a ways away from it. It took a bit to find it, but I took it out in the first volley of regular fire. Unfortunately, it did not seem to register, as I am still seeing that I need to defeat the boss, though there is no longer a boss HP bar. I also no longer seem to be able to interact with Black Markets, Turret Fabricators, or similar.
I started from the Linux terminal. It has had plenty of errors and warnings from the start (UIDs, changed parent Nodes, viewport textures, and similar) but now I'm getting new ones. It looks like some of this might be AoE effects trying to be added to enemies that were already destroyed between triggering the AoE targeting and dealing damage.
And now I seem to be stuck on the ring. I was trying to head towards the bright shiny station looking thing in the distance to see if I could find another boss so the gate will finish charging, and while fighting off a swarm of enemies I probably backed or strafed my way into a situation where I seem to have very limited movement... OK, so it looks like I can move, but it felt like I could not because the ring did not appear to be moving, and to get back to the gate I had to head into the ring as if I was going to hit it or go through it. Still have no idea if I will be able to get through the gate.
Current stats:
HP: 414, Shield: 7890, Delay: 3.1625, Rate: 0.25, Energy: 140, Speed: 183, Acceleration: 1.12, Boost: 329, Rotation: 0.04489, Speed Scale: 1.0, Damage Scale: 225.09, Fire Rate Scale: 0.85, K. Armor: 290, E. Armor: 315.
I'm at 90 minutes. I've destroyed everything I can. I've beaten the 2 Restricted Zones I found. I've gone off in various directions, using the gate as a rough guide, and not found any boss or other way to advance. I can fight enemies, and could activate the Restricted Zones, but cannot interact with any of the shops. There is also a Throne that I thought about trying, but it did not seem to react either. At this point the enemies are not even a challenge anymore. They are just constantly there, with new ones arriving as I take out others. Eventually my shield gets taken out, and I use the invincibility several times while it recharges, then repeat. I can use the heavy attack fairly constantly as I regen enough energy when hitting enemies for the next shot.
Here are my current stats:
HP: 414, Shield: 7890, Delay: 3.1625, Rate: 0.25, Energy: 140, Speed: 183, Acceleration: 1.12, Boost: 329, Rotation: 0.04788, Speed Scale: 1.0, Damage Scale: 688.806, Fire Rate Scale: 0.85, K. Armor: 290, E. Armor: 315.
I'm going to charge into the enemies and end it to get a final score... And the ship AoE took out all the enemies... I charged into several and then just stopped so they could take me out, and then they were gone. All of them. I haven't seen the screen this empty in a while. The next wave spawned, and I just sat there. They took out my shield, and did nothing to my HP. I don't think they can get through my armor... Yeah, I did it again and they kept hitting me, but no damage at all. I'd like to end and see my final score stats, but I may have to simply quit, as I don't think there is a way for me to lose any more. Maybe one of the Restricted Zone enemies would have been enough, but they are gone now. Oh well, I ended it. I think I am done for now. I will pull it up again later to try out the Sandbox.
This has been an excellent update from the previous version. The bug preventing me from moving on was really annoying, as I was doing so well. Hopefully with my better understanding of just how important the Upgrades are I will be able to regularly do better in the future and get past that stage. This is a much faster paced and intense game than I generally play these days. I did pretty badly last time, and expected to do similar this time. I don't think I did that great, but I had some good luck on a couple runs and was able to take advantage of it to continue on. I enjoyed playing and look forward to seeing what the next update brings.
Primarily, is the game fun, and is replay value yet apparent? Is the game's onboarding effective?
Yes, the game is fun. I have not beaten all the levels yet, so I can't fully judge replay after beating them, but I would say that there is at least some replay value in trying different ships out. Much of the game is very random and luck based, so it will likely take several tries to win. Replaying to win is certainly there, as long as players don't get too frustrated at many early deaths from bad RNG.
Here are the errors I got later in the game:
Adding 0.120, total added 0.120, speed scale now 1.120
Adding 0.120, total added 0.240, speed scale now 1.240
Adding 0.120, total added 0.360, speed scale now 1.360
Removing 0.000, speed scale now 1.000
SCRIPT ERROR: Invalid access to property or key 'global_position' on a base object of type 'Nil'.
at: Gift._ready (res://game_data/ui/Gift.gd:28)
GDScript backtrace (most recent call first):
[0] _ready (res://game_data/ui/Gift.gd:28)
[1] spawn_gift (res://game_data/entities/props/Breakable.gd:42)
[2] explode (res://game_data/entities/props/Breakable.gd:34)
[3] on_hit (res://game_data/entities/props/Station.gd:18)
[4] receive_hit (res://game_data/entities/ship_components/Hitbox.gd:28)
[5] collide (res://game_data/entities/ship_components/Hurtbox.gd:56)
[6] update (res://game_data/entities/ship_components/Hurtbox.gd:76)
[7] _physics_process (res://game_data/entities/ship_components/Hurtbox.gd:69)
SCRIPT ERROR: Out of bounds get index '6' (on base: 'Array[EnemyTier]')
at: EnemySpawner.spawn (res://game_data/entities/functional_objects/EnemySpawner.gd:20)
GDScript backtrace (most recent call first):
[0] spawn (res://game_data/entities/functional_objects/EnemySpawner.gd:20)
[1] _on_timer_timeout (res://game_data/worlds/EnemyManager.gd:51)
Adding 0.120, total added 0.120, speed scale now 1.120
Adding 0.120, total added 0.240, speed scale now 1.240
Removing 0.000, speed scale now 1.000
Adding 0.120, total added 0.120, speed scale now 1.120
Removing 0.000, speed scale now 1.000
Adding 0.120, total added 0.120, speed scale now 1.120
SCRIPT ERROR: Out of bounds get index '8' (on base: 'Array[EnemyTier]')
at: EnemySpawner.spawn (res://game_data/entities/functional_objects/EnemySpawner.gd:20)
GDScript backtrace (most recent call first):
[0] spawn (res://game_data/entities/functional_objects/EnemySpawner.gd:20)
[1] _on_timer_timeout (res://game_data/worlds/EnemyManager.gd:51)