Starship Troopers: Extermination News

Troopers, listen up! Pyre Actual here. The Federation has been investigating and we’ve received this intel hot from the front! Transmitting the message now.

[MISSION CRITICAL: NEW PLANET: AGNI PRIME]

Troopers!

We've just pinpointed a new hostile planet, where the landscape itself is as lethal as the Arachnids that dwell there. The air crackles with the unending heat of perpetual flames, casting an eerie glow across the landscape like a volcanic volcanic ballet, a spectacle of otherworldly devastation.

We’ve found the Bug menace has not only survived but thrived in this primeval crucible. We’re facing fresh, relentless breeds, reducing everything in their path to smoldering ash. These new Bugs boast heat-resistant exoskeletons and flaming appendages, turning the very fires they live in into a weapon of destruction. It's a force we can't afford to underestimate.

These Bugs operate with a level of strategic chaos, seamlessly moving through the immense lava flows that stream through every inch of this hostile rock we call Agni Prime.

In addition, the Federation has received reports on encounters that stain the honor of humanity. That being traitorous individuals who, for reasons unbeknownst to us, have turned their backs on the Federation. These turncoats, driven by twisted motives or misguided ideals, have etched a dark chapter in our battle against the Bugs.

Let it be known that in the face of betrayal, we stand unyielding. Our history is not solely defined by the shadows cast by the treacherous; it is illuminated by the resilience of the loyal. The consequences of betrayal are severe, and we will ensure that those who stand against these traitors receive the full support of the Federation.

Troopers, together we shall emerge triumphant from the ashes. Gear up! For in the face of adversity, we find our strength. Our mission is clear, our purpose is unwavering. Let's make these bugs regret ever crossing paths with the Federation!

Onward, troopers, to glory and victory!

[END OF TRANSMISSION]

That's all we got on from HQ. We’ll be getting more commands soon but you heard them get prepped and ready! We’re taking the fight to them.

Pyre Actual Out.

…What was that? The Valaka caves… new threat? no survivors… we should pull the others out now. I’m not broadcasti-

We have the 0.5.2 Patch coming at 10:00 AM PT (GMT-7) on November 21st, 2023

This patch will fix a large number of issues along with a few improvements and adjustments to Starship Troopers: Extermination.

[h2]New Features[/h2]

• Epic Game Store support
  
• Crossplay with Steam players
  

[h2]Balance changes[/h2]

• Hive Hunt: Increased XP gained from destroying eggs from 1 to 10
  
• Hive Hunt: Increased XP gained from destroying a Hive Core to 50
  
• Speed Stim: Decreased speed boost from 1.5x to 1.15x, increased duration from 7.5s to 10s
  

[h2]Notable Gameplay/Quality of Life Improvements[/h2]

• Hive Hunt: Players can now respawn at the built resupply points (flags)
  
• Hive Hunt: Tweaked the number of enemy spawns, too many enemies were spawning sometimes
  
• Hive Hunt: Time limit extended to 20 minutes
  
• Watkins Trigger can now be manually detonated (hold interaction button when you are incapacitated)
  
• Friendly Fire is disabled during Extraction in all game modes
  
• Added next/previous screen buttons to the match results
  

[h2]Notable Bug Fixes[/h2]

• Bug Unburrow FX were playing in locations that bugs wouldn’t actually spawn
  
• Fixed the Sandstorm mutator not appearing for all players
  
• Trooper names were not appearing consistently on the HUD, only the class icon
  
• Bugs now deal damage to the Deployable Shield utility
  
• First person view was not fully aligned to the trooper model, making other troopers appear shorter than yourself
  
• Hive Hunt: a bubbling sound effect was playing after a hive core was destroyed
  
• Sentry (tower) MG was not running out of ammo
  
• First person weapon audio was sometimes disappearing if too many sounds were playing
  
• Morita XXX was a bit quiet compared to other weapons
  
• Ultrawide monitors: The trooper model was stretched in the mission results screen
  
• A beep sound sometimes kept playing after returning from a match
  

Hello Troopers! It's time for the November Community Q&A. Thanks again for all the great submissions, as always we decided to select questions from a range of topics to answer. This will be the final Q&A for the year, our goal is to continue this initiative in the new year.

[h2]Questions[/h2]

Are there plans to create more communication lines between player characters, like shouting quotes from the movie?
Yes, we will be looking to add more voice overs into the game post 1.0 and are exploring a robust Emote system for players to communicate with each other.

Will there ever be more Grenade variants added to the game?
We definitely want to add more grenade types into the game. Nothing is planned short term, but new grenade types are in the works.

Will there be customizable Troopers in Game?
A big thumbs up to this. Not only will there be customization for you to earn through progression, you will be able to customize three different areas on your trooper. The exciting news Trooper customization will be coming in the December Update! Stay tuned for more info!

Will you consider adding a third-person camera mode?
Not at this time.

Was the performance and stability impact from the Unreal Engine 5 upgrade expected?
As a team we decided that if we were going to upgrade the engine we needed to do it sooner than later. The more we continued to add features to the game the more complicated it would be to upgrade the engine, as more systems would have to be verified and integrated and eventually the ROI would not be there for the team. So we decided to do the upgrade when the game was still relatively small and had a smaller set of features, maps and game systems to upgrade.

There was expectation that there may be some short-term performance degradation after the update, but the goal was to have performance parity with UE 4.27 or close to. Since the upgrade was also mixed in with feature updates, it became very hard to keep track of the performance across the engine upgrade and new features.

In the end, some upgraded settings and changes slipped past that severely degraded performance, specifically on our server-side. The worst of which did not appear until our production servers were put under load.

Although we did hot-fix the major issues, future updates will further improve performance as we use the new tools available to us in UE 5.2.

What steps are taken to deal with player griefing through Team Killing? Can we have a vote-kick option?
Since our game has friendly fire, we need to make sure every report and individual case is handled with as much due diligence and investigation as possible. We all understand this is a serious issue and we look at every player report that is generated when players behave this way.

We are actively managing this through our player support operations and are actively actioning accounts that have been engaging in this behavior. We have acted on over 1000 accounts since Early Access began.

With all this being said in our December update we will be releasing an in-game system that will hopefully put the power to deal with this traitorous behavior back into the hands of all you loyal members of the Deep Space Vanguard. We have codenamed this system Shoot to Kick!

Will there be a Morita Mk3 in the game?
Yes, down the road we want to have as many of the weapons from the movies in the game.

When do we get our Text chat to communicate with each other?
Text chat will be added in Game Update 6.0. We will also be adding more accessibility features around communication such as Text to Speech and Speech to Text options during this update.

When are you going to introduce weak points on Bugs?
We are hoping to introduce this feature around the 1.0 launch of the game.

How do the developers intend to monetize the game in the long term?
We have no plans to move away from a buy to play model. Our goal is to offer cosmetics through skins for both Weapons and Troopers. We will NEVER sell POWER!

If this game takes place after the events of the CGI films, why do we have lower grade gear?
Our game takes place 25 years into the future from the first live action movie. More upgraded tech and weapons are coming to the game over the next few years, we have just started!

What is/will be the difference in difficulty levels?
Currently right now the only difference between difficulty levels are the following:

Recruit

• HP/sec = 3.6
  
• Bonus Health = +45
  
• Revive Speed = 80% faster
  
• Bug Health = - 50%
  
• Bug Damage = -25%
  
• Threat Events = Every 720 seconds (12 minutes) starting at 8 minutes into the game, they last 8 minutes
  
• Decrease Bug Speed = -20%
  

Trooper

• Hp/sec = 2 per 5 (0.4 per sec) 37.5 seconds from 0 to full basically
  
• Bonus health = None (Base health is 90 for Hunter + Op, 180 for Bastion)
  
• Threat Events = Every 720 seconds (12 minutes) starting at 8 minutes into the game, they last 5 for minutes.
  

Veteran

• Hp/sec = No Regen
  
• Bonus health = none
  
• Bug Health = +50%
  
• Bug Damage = +50%
  
• Increased Threat Event Frequency = Every 180 seconds (3 minutes) starting at 2 minutes into the game, they last 5 for minutes.
  

We are planning on updating our approach to mode difficulty over time. The first one is rewarding players who choose to take the fight to the Bugs in harder difficulties. In update 0.6.0 with Trooper and Veteran difficulty levels now having a bonus XP amount per game mode. This new XP reward table will be outlined in the 0.6.0 patch notes.

In a future update, we will offer different enemy challenges and scenarios per difficulty level. So that people who chose to play on higher difficulty tiers will have new interesting game mechanics. More to come on that closer to the design being finalized.

Powersuits/armor?
They are on the roadmap to come to the game in the future. Our hope is to get some of this into the game post 1.0. We do not have an exact timeline but we want to include powered armor into the game eventually.

The good news is we have concepts and high level designs on these important aspects of the universe. We also need to ensure the current gameplay balance is not impacted by introducing this impressive tech into the game.

Will it be tied to classes? Will it be world drops akin to power weapons, or will it be tied to base building? All of these scenarios are being discussed internally by the design team. The good news is that everyone at the studio is very gung ho about this feature.

Below are some very early concept images:



Is it possible to change the mutator for different servers?
No, currently right now it is a global system, though as we move to the Bug War (Galactic War) we will be adapting and curating the mutator system around the missions you go on.

Are you thinking about a solution for the dropship camping "problem"?
Yes, nothing we can share yet, but our designers are working on something.

-
Check out our last Q&A for October.

Thanks again for supporting Starship Troopers: Extermination!

Hey Troopers! Thanks for doing your part by taking the fight to the Bugs in our last update, Hives of Valaka 🫡 . Since its release, we've pushed a few minor updates out to address server crashes some of you have been experiencing. Our next regular update, Update 0.5.1, is available now!

This update brings a variety of bug and crash fixes, balance changes, and quality of life improvements to Starship Troopers: Extermination. Read the full list of fixes and improvements below ⬇️.

[h2]Notable Bug Fixes[/h2]

• Fixed several crash issues
  
• Fixed rank requirement not showing on game mode selection
  
• Fixed several typos in weapon and item descriptions
  
• Fixed grenade launcher firing sound disappearing after reloading
  
• Fixed purple debug VFX found in some remote locations on Valaka
  
• Fixed the discarded empty magazines not appearing when reloading the XXX Sniper Rifle
  
• Fixed an issue with getting stuck in the Tutorial when placing a Wall before it was required
  
• Fixed small collision and navigation issues in the Hive Hunt maps
  
• Fixed a server crash on Nuke detonation
  
• Fixed mission timer warning voiceovers in Hive Hunt playing after the main objective was completed
  
• Fixed rare issue of camera being sideways after reviving
  
• Fixed not being able to shoot out of the dropship during extraction
  
• Reduced excessive cave reverb in Hive Hunt
  
• Reduced the memory usage of navigation meshes
  
• Adjustments to volume balance of various weapon sounds
  
• Fixed various voice-over timing issues
  
• Fixed an issue of some ambient sounds playing on top of the FedNet intro during Hive Hunt missions
  

[h2]Balance Changes[/h2]
[h3]Weapons[/h3]

• Auto shotgun (Bastion): Extended ideal range by 4 meters, increased stagger power 300%, reduced recoil and added three extra magazines.
  
• SP.L.I.T Shotgun (Slug) (Hunter): Extended ideal range by 7 meters
  

[h3]Perks and Utilities [/h3]

• Magazine Bandolier now works with Shotgun weapons
  
• Speed Stim effect can only be applied up to 3 times
  
• Speed Stim duration does not stack, only the effect on speed (all stacks run out at the same time)
  
• Reduced the Stim effect time by 50%
  

[h2]Notable Quality of Life Improvements[/h2]
[h3]Hive Hunt[/h3]

• Increased mission timer from 12 minutes to 15 minutes to ensure there is enough time for Troopers to explore every inch of the caves of Valaka.
  
• Increased Hive Hunt Egg XP from 1XP to 2XP per destroyed egg
  
• Reduced the number of Gunners spawned during Hive Hunt missions.
  

[h3]Main Game[/h3]

• Increased Warrior XP from 1XP per kill to 2 XP per kill
  

[h2]Known Issues[/h2]

• The Reinforced Repairs perk UI doesn’t show at long ranges, if combined with the Long Range Repairs perk
  
• We are continuing to investigate and address performance issues.
  

Hello Troopers! It's time for the October Community Q&A. Thanks again for all the great submissions, as always we decided to select questions from a range of topics to answer.

Rest assured if your question was not answered this month they may be answered in the future! We have one more Q&A scheduled for November and it is our goal for this community initiative to return again in the new year!

[h2]Questions[/h2]

Will there be a feature change to allow us to instantly bleed out if we so choose to?
This is a great question, we will be looking at ways to improve that experience as we all understand that Troopers want to get back into the fight as fast as possible. We also need to balance that with how players revive squadmates in the field as we don’t want to diminish that gameplay element.

Are there any plans to add more optics/dot sights for the guns?
A big YES to this, as we explore our class progression 2.0 we are looking at ways to add more distinctness to our weapons through the inclusion of different mods such as sights, etc.

Do you have plans to add floodlights to the Base especially during Pitch Black?
We have a few plans to add more lighting options to matches occurring during night time or when the Pitch Black Mutator is activated. We did introduce a new light beacon device with Hive Hunt and there are plans to bring that over to the other modes.

Although, we are careful not to adjust the lighting in Pitch Black too much as we want the mutator to continue to present a very ominous and scary experience to the players.

What kind of stuff will you guys implement into the game with UE5?
Now that we are using Unreal 5.0 we can look at some of the core features it brings to the game. From an art perspective we will be looking at how we can use features such as Lumen and Nanite to further enhance our existing environments and of course create brand new ones.

For example, Lumen allows for more realistic lighting and shadows, as indirect lighting plays a significant role in creating a sense of realism in a 3D environment. In Unreal Engine 5, movable lights can also allow global illumination due to Lumen. This will naturally enhance the realism and look of our product.

Please tease us with a new weapon?
We can't say too much yet, but we definitely have our finger on the pulse of what weapons the community's been asking for.

Do you plan to improve/add more activities to existing ARC, AAS and HORDE game modes?
Yes, we are always looking at ways to improve the core game experiences for our 16 player modes. We have some good news to share, we will be rolling out our first small batch of new side missions and objectives for our December Update!

Is there likely to be a VR Version?
While we do enjoy VR games at the studio, there are no plans at this time for a VR version of the game

Will there be any re-balancing done to the ARC game mode itself, especially since Heroes of The Federation difficulty is no longer a part of the current roadmap?
Heroes of the Federation is still a part of the Roadmap and will be coming at a later time. As we continue through Early Access we are constantly looking for opportunities to balance our different modes. We will be doing a big balance pass across all modes for our Class progression 2.0 phase and then again closer to the official 1.0 launch.

I’m curious how ARC, AAS, and Horde fit into the final release. Will these modes still exist in the final release or are these placeholders to help you develop a more robust mode, like Galactic war?
As of right now all three will be a major part of the Galactic War experience. These modes will evolve based on community feedback also. We want to make sure each experience can stand on their own and help contribute to the overall experience we want the players to enjoy.

Will there ever be the option to have bots to fill out a team of 16?
The short answer is yes, but it is more complex than that as we are looking at interesting ways we can use a bot trooper system to add more complex gameplay moments to the game. We already have base Trooper bots working, but it is not something we would want to ship anytime soon. More to come in the future as we get closer to announcing something.

Will there be multiple loadouts for the classes?
As we design class progression 2.0, we are looking at how we incorporate more player choice into the feature. Multiple class playstyles are on the table, but nothing is set in stone yet.

Will personal flamethrowers/turrets be a thing?
We are big fans of flamethrowers here at Offworld. No promises, but I can say it is a good bet you will see some more fire in the future!

A plan for a mini-map for the top right of the screen-HUD?
A Tac Map redesign is on our roadmap and is something we really want to get to, as right now it is not as accessible as we want it to be.

How will the story of Valaka develop further down the road?
Without spoiling anything, we are going to step away from Valaka over the next little while and focus on other parts of the galaxy. Valaka will always be the first planet in the game and one we all hold very dear to our hearts. We do have some big plans to revisit different parts of Planet Valaka in the future and tell the story through new metagame activities.

Do you have plans to add Stuff to the Steam Points Shop?
Yes, we will look to do that post 1.0 Launch.

Any plan to expand on the Hive Hunt mode concept?
Yes, we will be continuing to add new maps and Bug challenges into the mode. With each new iteration we will look at what interesting gameplay elements we can add into them. For example, in our next set of Hive Hunt maps we will be introducing a new Bug menace.

What do you think about procedural generation for this game?
We are always looking at interesting ways to build out our maps and levels. Once we are comfortable with the tech we will look to where it best fits into our pipelines. As of right now we are in the early stages of exploring what this type of system could look like for our game. Will it ever be a part of our game? It is too early to tell.

Thanks again for supporting Starship Troopers: Extermination!