Development update - September 11, 2025

Reminder: Will start preparing Plazma Burst 3 closed(?) beta on stable 100 Patreon supporters of any tier.

Full version of this development update contains list of changes I've done in past 30 days.

More work towards Plazma Burst 3 features that would be needed in case of any kind of release (either beta or full), still working on elements that would be needed for story mode - started working on new boss-like entity, this one will be a 3D one. Finished basic invite system features, made plenty of UI fixes.

Plazma Burst 2 H5 gets some of new Flash version trigger actions working (some still don't work), as well as some of new fair play measures (ping limits, cheating detections, delayed respawns in ranked, no spectating in ranked, respawns next to enemies fixes etc).

Star Defenders 2D gets some variety and quality of life updates for the most part.

No video, will only show a screenshot of new UI elements for now. New boss entity I'm currently working on will stay behind spoiler until any kind of release.

Plazma Burst 3

Gameplay

- Designed new boss-like entity, made visual concept;

- Finished models, UVs for models and made multiple textures for this new boss-like entity.

Interfaces

- Made UI for Invite Code management;

- Implemented Invite Code creation, made it possible to expire invite codes and receive spent Reputation points/Plazma Coins when invite expires;

- Made it possible to remove expired Invite Codes as long as they aren't associated with any new players;

- Implemented listing of previously made Invite Codes;

- Added UI and error handling for Invite Code expiration/removal;

- Fixed a visual bug causing main menu buttons to look hovered whenever cursor moves on top of them but also there are other windows between cursor and buttons;

- Added Invite Code Secret copying button logic;

- Implemented listing of invited players by particular player;

- Made it so disabled accounts are not listed anywhere;

- Fixed an issue causing Invite Code listing to be requested multiple times in a row;

- Added Reputation listing in player lists;

- Removed extra character preview from player profiles (since character preview is already in profile header);

- Added listing of a clickable nickname of a user who has invited viewed player profile;

- Made it so viewing other player's Invites section only lists invited players (and not the invite listing/making UI);

- Made it so player lists header does not inherit color of values;

- Added sounds and click effects to Invites tab elements;

- Reworked File Manager icons to be stored as vectors rather than raster images (raster images appear too blurry);

- Fixed an issue causing Invite Creation UI to look incorrectly on some screen resolutions;

- Updated first visit screen to reflect recent changes;

- Fixed an issue causing background to not be animated on first visit screen;

- Fixed an issue causing UI elements overlapping in Audio Settings;

- Fixed an issue causing Clan settings editing screen to ask for saving of unsaved changes after user removed the Clan with unsaved changes;

- Made it so Invite Code restriction rules alter UI of Invites section of user profiles;

- Made it so used Invite Codes do not look like they can be used in UI;

- Made it so inviting player's Invite Code information updates dynamically when somebody accepts their Invite Codes;

- Made it so private messages button does not have rectangular border on click animation effect;

- Made it so language change reloads current screen contents in a new language while showing save confirmation prompt if needed;

- Updated language selection UI element to look better on dimmed screens, added click audio/visual effects;

- Fixed an issue causing "Remove" button in invites to be out of bounds on expired Invite Codes;

- Made it so checkboxes play animation when click starts;

- Fixed an issue preventing stickers from being sent due to no text channels being selected by previously send chat messages - now they are sent to first available channel instead.

Level Editor

- Fixed an issue causing Code Editor to cover clan management overlay as well as Settings screen;

- Made it so Code Editor overlay hides when in-game context menu is open;

- Made it so Code Editor overlay hides when in-game escape menu is open;

- Fixed an issue causing UI to freeze on Revert button being pressed if Skin/Map was never previously saved.

Server

- Added support for newer type of client and chat service communication that is compatible with chat service and sync-back point (more flexible for further development and updates);

- Implemented invite handling and forwarding through chat service to sync-back point so cached values on chat service are up to date;

- Implemented user removal locks from chat service for cases when user might be executing long request which might need to trigger sync-back operation (for example in case of reputation decrement when creating invites);

- Updated database time properties to support storing dates after year 2038;

- Implemented support for partial chat service operation execution in case if some of operations trigger sync-point errors;

- Fixed an issue causing Reputation points to be not saved until player reconnects;

- Fixed an issue causing Reputation points to be not refunded on manual Invite Code expiration;

- Implemented user account disabling, made disabled account information and Creations unavailable;

- Server error reporting fixes;

- Made it so Invite Codes from users with removed/disabled accounts as well as restricted invite permissions can not be claimed;

- Made it so Invite Code restriction rules apply when processing Invite Code creation requests on server-side;

- Made it so Reputation and Plazma Coins from invite are given to newly made accounts;

- Implemented Invite Code expiration tests, made it so Reputation and Plazma Coins from expired Invite Codes are returned to user who made these Invite Codes;

- Made it so Invite Codes can't exist for longer than 7 years;

- Made it so used Invite Code uid is tracked when new user is created;

- Invite Code lookup optimizations;

- Fixed new release build bugs that started to happen whenever game is compiled;

- Game updating improvements and fail-safe measures to prevent wrong versions being uploaded;

- Fixed an issue that was causing game update to not happen;

- Fixed an issue causing skins to act differently in release builds.

Sounds

- Made custom sounds for checkboxes (2 sounds).

Plazma Burst 2

- Fixed "Clear all saved data" button not working;

- Hopefully fixed match join restarts;

- Hopefully fixed floating dead players bug;

- Fixed a bug causing players to be unhealable via healing pistol;

- Fixed an issue causing sword-equipped damage multiplier not being synchronized correctly on non-instakill Multiplayer maps;

- Added hint for connection error cases;

- Made it impossible to see other players in ranked modes for spectators and dead players who aren't staff team members;

- Made it so players stay in ranked matches for 2 more seconds if they were alive during match leave;

- Fixed a new bug related to ranked match delayed leaving during map change;

- Added trigger actions from Lin's updates that were done for Flash version, haven't tested them though;

- Added people who worked on trigger actions to Credits screen;

- Hopefully fixed Windows 7 bug that was preventing match passwords from being type-able;

- Added new gameplay modifications for approved Multiplayer matches: health=130,no-impact-damage

- Fixed a bug causing player and teammates look the same on Tab key leaderboard;

- Added delay to -kill command, to Restart button action as well as to team change in ranked modes.

- Added zoom hack detections (no penalties so far as I'm still testing it);

- Added local_atom_id to DAMAGE_PLAYERS_VIA_EXPLOSION multiplayer events logs to further inspect case of grenades occasionally dealing more than 125 damage;

- Added extra information to frag messages describing players dying seemingly to nothing even though someone is responsible for that;

- Added option to add ping limit to matches including ping limit actions that force players to spectate, spectate 3 times then ban, and option that pauses whole match;

- Made it possible to change ping limit with -ping command;

- Made it possible to change ping limit action with -ping_action command;

- Made so match listing tells information about ping limits in matches and paints matches outside of ping limit as yellow;

- Made it so "Respawn" in Esc window makes spectators join the game;

- Reworked DM/TDM respawn logic so it pays more attention to players potentially peaking and no longer prioritizes weapon positions;

- Made it so new DM/TDM respawn logic can delay respawn for a limited amount of time if map has no perfect respawn position;

- Made it so DM/TDM respawning is now queue-based, meaning players should no longer respawn next to each other as long as there is space on a map for them to respawn;

- Re-added old respawn model as option when starting a match just in case (likely temporarily);

- Added ping limit change UI button;

- Reworked match management UI;

- Added information for level designer to Esc screen when map is played by map owner (variables, session variables, recent error messages);

- Hopefully fixed a bug that was causing body-broken players to survive with missing spine/head if they have started regenerating health.

Star Defenders 2D

- Added sdMeow hostile alien robot;

- Trap sound effect;

- /zoom command;

- Tiny and rotatable antigravity fields;

- Support for slow motors, better accuracy for motor sensors;

- Earthquake fixes;

- Higher initial ground;

- Fix for empty singleplayer worlds;

- Optimizations (hopefully);

- Fix for a bug causing world to not be visible while connecting during earthquake;

- YouTube video player fix;

- Mimic fixes;

- Illusion maker fixes;

- Illusions can be put into amplifiers and combiners now;

- Drain rifle optimization;

- Events can be called by admins by using full event type path to a constants;

- /god 2 now allows creation of entities that require leveling up or workbench;

- Spectator camera shaking fix;

- Items from broken storages won't despawn instantly now;

- Made drain shotgun;

- Made drain sniper rifle;

- "???" object is hopefully more useful now;

- Cubes can now understand who is crushing them with doors;

- Less forgiving cubes for higher level players;

- sdMeow becomes stronger;

- Crash fixes;

- sdRoach stuck fixes;

- Fixed missing confirm message when moving to a new server through UI;

- Some of tier 2 crystal specialities;

- Hopefully memory leak fix;

- Flesh asteroid bug fix;

- Limits for some of council tasks;

- Crystal combiner visually missing crystal fixes;

- Grass restores more regeneration rate now;

- Steering wheel-like scan for motors;

- Antenna and solar distributor tasks are 3 times faster now;

- Lost walls no longer act weird;

- Dimensional tier no longer takes player weapons;

- Roaches no longer stuck going up;

- Event tasks no longer prevent randomly assigned tasks from being assigned;

- More stats to report during backup saving in case memory leaks happen again.

Rest changes are done by other contributors ( https://github.com/Eric-Gurt/StarDefenders2D/commits/main/ )