Starship Troopers: Extermination News

Hello, Troopers! It's a new year which means It's time for a new Q&A. We want to thank the community for the great submissions for this Q&A. Our mission is to keep our development process as transparent as possible during Early Access and with our Q&As we try to select questions from a range of topics to answer. But before we dive into it all, we had one big question from the community to answer.

Every month we get a set of questions from the community that revolve around these four things.

[h3]Will we get new Bugs, Weapons, Planets, and Classes? [/h3]

We’re happy to give a resounding BIG YES to all of these! 🙂

With that first question out of the way, let us begin this month's Q&A!

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[h3]Will any DLSS or FSR be added?[/h3]
DLSS and FSR will be coming to the game really soon, both are being tested and slated to be available in-game in the February/March time frame.

[h3]Are there plans to add an option in the near future for players to select which planet they want to deploy to? [/h3]
Yes, but it is a part of the seasonal campaign system in the Galactic War.

[h3]Are there plans to optimize smoke & particle performance?[/h3]
Yes, this is an ongoing effort and we have cleared a sizable amount of time in our schedule to focus on this with every update to the game.

[h3]Are there any new game modes that you are considering or in the pipeline to be released?[/h3]
We are working on improving all of our existing game modes leading up to the official launch of the Starship Troopers: Extermination. An example of our commitment to our existing game modes is we have more side missions coming to ARC game mode soon.

As for new modes, we are actively designing and fleshing out what solo experiences would look like in our game; more on that mode will be shared when we get more concrete details.

[h3]Is there any chance Hive Hunt is getting expanded? [/h3]
Yes, we already expanded Hive Hunt in 0.6.0 with the addition of the Royal Guard mini-boss and expanded the MI Caches loot table to include more weapon and item variety. We love running Hive Hunt with a SAW on the Operator! Hive Hunt will continue to be expanded on in the future to ensure it is continuing to offer increased challenges and new experiences to the players.

[h3]Why is your game so fun? [/h3]
I decided to ask our team this question, here are some of their responses:

“Bugs, Bombs and Bedlam…” - Trooper Shawn

“It's basically a reverse incremental game, you hold down the mouse button and the ammo and bug count goes down” - Trooper Nick

“Doing your duty is always fun” - Trooper Carl

“Chaos. Both from bugs and the people you play with.” - Trooper Gareth

“Teamwork makes the dream work" - Trooper Froiland and Trooper Renn

“16 > 4” - Trooper Matt

“For me it's creating moments that are similar to what you see in the movies” - Trooper Michael

“The secret ingredient is love (and Bug guts)” - Trooper Stuart

“The satisfaction of holding back the tide with a good team and a well-designed base layout.” - Trooper Griffin

“Bugs, I say Nuke them all!!” - Trooper Ed

“Relying on your teammates while you "do your part" comes across well in the gameplay” - Trooper Paul

[h3]Will there be better controller/gamepad adjustments?[/h3]
We are working on making sure our game is 100% feature complete for gamepads as we understand that many people on PC choose to play our game with controllers.

[h3]Will there be weapon upgrades down the line? [/h3]
Yes, coming with update 0.7.0 we will introduce the Weapon Mastery System, which will allow the player to continue to upgrade any weapon they choose, be it improving the weapon stats or its visuals in some cases.

[h3]What "Story" is there to come? [/h3]
Story is a loaded question; our game was never designed to be a full-on Narrative experience but to be a game that continues to focus on visceral and over-the-top, moment-to-moment gameplay.

One thing we noticed right from our Early Access launch was amazing emergent narrative moments, told by the players themselves. The community took over, and every match is testament to how highly our players regard the source material. It is not uncommon for people to join a match and hear people roleplaying and spouting one-liners from the films.

Are there opportunities for us to add “story” elements, sure, but it will be done strategically and never to distract from our core gameplay experiences, but to enhance them. The first example of this is coming with Galactic War, as each campaign will have its overarching theme and focus so that players understand the motivation and what is at stake.

[h3]Is the idea of providing community mod support on the roadmap or a future possibility? [/h3]
Not at this time.

[h3]There are currently 5 fireteams available in game modes, but only enough players to fill 4. Do you intend on expanding lobbies to 20 players? [/h3]
Not at this time, however, we will evaluate this constraint as we continue to optimize the game.

[h3]Are there any plans for more building opportunities, both at base and beyond it? [/h3]
Yes, we are exploring a lot of new things for our updates to the building mechanics. Building is a fundamental pillar in our game so you can rest assured we will always be looking to add more interesting ways to engage in this gameplay.

[h3]Will there be a console port? [/h3]
We are currently building our game to reach as many people as possible; we want our game to be available wherever players choose to play.

[h3]Will there be Horde Mode changes in the future? [/h3]
Yes, we are looking at an update to Horde in the future. Whether through combinations of more waves, side missions, mutators, building options, etc.

However, we want to make sure we retain what makes it special but also evolve the mode so that it offers more interesting challenges and experiences.

[h3]Are there plans to introduce additional resources? [/h3]
Yes, we have plans to have new resource types for the game in the future and we’ll share more details when we can!

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Well that is all troopers for this month's Q&A! We hope you enjoyed the answers as much as we enjoyed the questions given by the community. Don't worry if your question wasn't answered this time around as we aim to do more Q&As down the line.

If you haven't you can check out our last November Q&A.

Thank you all for your support in the development of Starship Troopers: Extermination!

[h2]The New Trooper Vanguard[/h2]

At launch, Starship Trooper: Extermination will include six Trooper Classes. If you didn’t catch the announcement, we revealed them HERE. Each Class will bring a new arsenal, as we have curated progression tracks that include new weapons, utilities and perks. The launch of 0.7.0 is just the beginning as we plan to add more class advancement levels on a regular cadence post 1.0 launch.


Before we begin, it’s important to remember that everything remains subject to change, and in the coming weeks, we will be releasing more blogs to share our development processes regarding each of the new troopers you will be able to play. But today, we will be talking about the overall expectations from this Revamp, as we want to provide you all with a bit of insight into the decisions surrounding the overall change. Additionally, we’ll share our thoughts on what we liked and disliked about the existing system.

[h2]Gameplay Variety[/h2]

In our ongoing development of Starship Troopers: Extermination, our goal is to have each class specialize in a distinct gameplay role. Within each class, various loadouts will be available to cater to individual citizens' preferred playstyles, ensuring players not only feel effective but have an enjoyable experience in that role.

By emphasizing specialized gameplay roles, we have equipped each Class with purpose-made abilities and an optimized progression path. As troopers advance in each class, they unlock new loadouts. Our aim is for every unlock earned by troopers to offer more options and new gameplay experiences and opportunities, all while remaining relevant to the player’s chosen role for each class

As our seasoned veterans may already know, the existing Classes exhibited some degree of role variety through various loadouts. The objective of the Class Progression Revamp is to more precisely define each Class's unique gameplay role. Rest assured, variety within each Class will still persist! Different Trooper loadouts, featuring various weapons, utilities, and perks, can steer Classes into different niches within their overarching role. This enhanced loadout diversity now introduces more novel methods of performing your Class's intended role while still preserving the distinctive identity of each Class.

Remember troopers no matter the Class you choose you’ll be doing your part.

[h2]New vs. Revamp[/h2]

There’s been rumbling that the troopers you’ve all come to love will be going away, but fear not, Troopers! With this Revamp we aim to retain the elements you love from the current three classes while bringing in a breath of fresh air adding unique and exciting mechanics into the new six.


We aim to broaden the possibilities within our Class selection. Moving forward with the Revamp involves revisiting existing elements; enhancing certain features within their kits, and possibly separating extraneous elements into their own fully fleshed-out Classes. New mechanics will be introduced to create fresh gameplay opportunities and address areas the community felt were underutilized in the current Class system.

Has anyone used the Medical Station recently?

Troopers should expect significant reworks for some of ST: E's less developed and suboptimal mechanics with this Revamp.

[h2]Weapon Mastery[/h2]

In addition to the revamped Classes, we are introducing a new Mastery System for all trooper weapons. Weapon Mastery enables troopers to earn XP on the weapons they use, unlocking powerful modifications to their evergrowing arsenal. As a reward for those who fully master their weapon of choice, we want to introduce the new Armory Unlock System.


The Armory Unlock enables troopers of any Class to equip a given Weapon. An Armory Unlock allows Classes to bypass Class Restrictions on weapons – however, they will still need to meet the minimum level to equip said weapons.

The Weapon Mastery System at release will only apply to your arsenal of firearms. However, in the future, we hope to expand the Mastery System into other areas of your troopers' loadout.

[h2]Custom Loadout Slots[/h2]

Speaking of loadouts, with the Revamp, troopers will now have access to loadout slots! Each of the different Classes will have its own Loadout Slot by default, allowing you to customize each of the six Classes with your preferred gear tailored to your playstyle.

These Loadout Slots can be personalized to any available Class. By changing the Class of a loadout, you alter the current abilities and their gear restrictions. The loadout will then earn progression towards the chosen Class. You have the flexibility to assign any Class to each of your slots – whether it's one of each Class, all Medics, or any combination in between. Having multiple slots dedicated to a single Class will enable a greater variety of builds suited for different scenarios and battlefields. We're very excited to see the diverse loadouts you troopers will bring in the fight against the Bug menace!

[h2]Re-enlistment[/h2]

With all the talk about progression we want to let you know about our new system for our most dedicated troopers. We wanted to provide you all with a further milestone when it comes to progression. Troopers when the Revamp is available will be able to continue their journey beyond Career Rank 100.

Upon reaching max rank, troopers can Re-enlist! Re-enlisting provides a new Custom Loadout Slot, but resets Career Rank and Class Levels. Don’t fret troopers as you will keep all Mastery Progression, Achievements, and Career and Gamemode Unlocks. Each re-enlist will provide an additional Slot and increment your Re-enlistment Tier. More details to follow in a future Developer Diary as we draw closer to the launch of 0.7.0.

[h2]The Next Steps[/h2]

That’s all we have to show for now. We hope you enjoyed this glimpse into what is coming to Starship Troopers: Extermination! If you would like to know more, keep a close eye on this space over the coming weeks for more Class development diaries, reveals, and other details about the upcoming Class Progression Revamp. If you have feedback or questions, please share them with our dev team in the ST:E Community Discord!

On behalf of the entire ST:E development team, thanks for stopping by, trooper!

Update 0.6.1 will be available to download today January 15th, 2024 at 2:00 PM PT (GMT-7).

This patch is a collection of performance improvements and numerous bug fixes.
[h2]New Features / Content / QoL[/h2]

• Added V-Sync option under Settings
  
• Federation logistics corps have discovered surplus crates of Light Poles and they are now available when the Pitch Black mutator is active
  

[h2]Notable Bug Fixes[/h2]

• Agni Prime: Lava in crystal region was missing FX
  
• Agni Prime: the Deliver Ore objective was not always completing on one of the ARC missions
  
• Agni Prime: Numerous small environment fixes and improvements (LODs, object culling, overlapping/floating assets)
  
• Audio - Troopers played the wrong pain sound when on fire from the Inferno Bug
  
• Decals on the helmet's visor vanished when rotating character in the Loadout view
  
• Extraction music started playing late
  
• Fixed a rare issue where the Hunter class could not be selected due to corrupted save data.
  
• Fixed a slowdown issue on Hive Hunt when a hive core was destroyed due to a large number of particle systems
  
• Fixed a soft lock issue where the player would have an invalid party after returning to the main menu
  
• Fixed an issue where enemy spawners were not always spawning the correct number of Bugs
  
• Fixed being able to pick up deployed, live nukes
  
• Fixed the wrong prompt showing when aiming at the Twin MG.
  
• Hive Hunt: Bugs were spawned outside the level in some cases during extraction
  
• Hive Hunt: some ambient sounds effects were not playing on the first spawn
  
• Hive Hunt: the "Respawn at this spot" prompt was briefly showing after the mission ended in Defeat
  
• Hive Hunt: the audio near hive cores audio was too low
  
• Hive Hunt: the wrong voiceover was playing if a hive core was destroyed after the extraction started
  
• Players were able to equip cosmetics that they had not unlocked yet
  
• Resetting the Gameplay Settings in Main Menu also reset the Control Settings in-game.
  
• Shoot to Kick: player name and traitor icon were misaligned
  
• Shoot To Kick: there was no voiceover when the trooper becomes a traitor.
  
• Shoot To Kick: Traitors were sometimes able to redeploy
  
• Squads did not always have the correct score displayed in the post game screen
  
• The "Build Mobile HQ" objective used the wrong color of the build icon in the Tac Map.
  
• The blue overcharge effect was not visible on all buildings
  
• The buzzing sound of a light beacon did not stop immediately after being picked up.
  
• The music volume for an Endless Horde could not be adjusted using other audio settings.
  
• The reload sound of the TW-2 SP.L.I.T Shotgun (Slug) and the TW-2 SP.L.I.T Shotgun faded too early
  
• The sound effects of the TW-2 SP.L.I.T. Shotgun (Auto) when reloading did not sync with the animation.
  
• Trooper Customization: Suit Palettes did not show a tool-tip stating their color like when you hover over a Visor or Decal
  
• VOIP activity indicators were not visible if text chat was disabled
  

[h2]Known Issues[/h2]

• Troopers are unable to spawn on Rally Beacons or the MBU if they are on fire. This will be fixed in the next update.
  

[h2]Performance Changes[/h2]
Numerous reported issues and bugs were fixed and addressed in 0.6.1 regarding performance and optimizations, Below are some of the highlights.
[h3]Server Performance Improvements[/h3]

• Optimized bug navigation increasing performance and accuracy
  
• Bug spawning optimized & improved
  
• Navigation mesh optimized
  
• Optimized some noisy network messages
  

[h3]Client Performance Improvements[/h3]

• Bugs now respect animation budget and will animate at a lower frame rate to preserve FPS
  
• Optimized bug footstep events
  
• Optimize bug IK updates
  
• Optimize bug animations, nativize expensive operations and improve multi-threaded update
  
• Changes to bug movement update/interpolation to prioritize the most relevant bugs to the client
  

[h3]Map Performance Improvements[/h3]

• Detail level optimizations on Agni Prime
  

[h3]Other improvements[/h3]

• Improvements to Bug management; enemies are less prone to stay stuck if they wander into difficult geometry.
  
• Bugs that end up completely stuck will burrow down and unburrow elsewhere on the map
  

Troopers! it is class name reveal time, as promised here are the names of the upcoming six Classes that will be replacing our retiring Hunter, Bastion and Operator classes.

• Sniper
  
• Demolisher
  
• Guardian
  
• Engineer
  
• Medic
  
• Ranger

Keep your eyes open as we will be doing multiple design diaries over the next few weeks as we introduce our overarching design and development goals for the class revamp followed by deep dives into each of the six new classes coming to Starship Troopers: Extermination.

Update: We previously announced that Game Update 0.7.0, coming in the spring, would come with our class revamp and a wipe to all XP systems. We deeply understand that this has caused some concern within the playerbase, and we totally get that. We pride ourselves on communicating openly and honestly as much as we can as early as we can. I wanted to offer more context on the decision here today and also provide an update on where we are at. When 0.7.0 releases, we will be redefining our existing classes; the Hunter, Bastion, and Operator classes are going to cease to exist in their current form. Starting in 0.7.0, we will have 6 classes that have been designed out of the existing 3 classes, but mostly from the 6 months of community feedback threads and new class wishlist discussions. Over the next few months, we will be sharing tones of information on the new classes, their loadouts, mastery systems, and weapons. One thing I do want to mention is that I know people love our existing classes. Rest assured, our new system is designed so that if you master your weapons, abilities, and perks, you can create some wild and epic class load-out options.

So back to the XP wipe discussions: moving to a new class system meant a complete wipe of class XP as we are decommissioning the old classes; however, we have found a way to not wipe Career XP. So I am happy to announce that only Class XP will begin at 0. We plan to run bonus XP events during the release so people can quickly level up their new classes. If you are an existing player with a career rank of, say, 50, you will retain all the XP, but depending on the rebalancing of the career rank XP table, you may log in to find your career rank now at 50, or perhaps at Career rank 35 or Career rank 100 Prestige (work in progress name)

Again, thank you all for your feedback and support.

- Pete, aka owi_pmo