What's New in our Closed Beta Playtest?

Hi everyone!

The Blindspot Games team has been working very hard since our last Alpha Playtest, which happened in early February. Our closed beta playstarts starts today at 1PM from April 9th.

Since then, we've created a whole new onboarding, added Laxmee's full animations (with some super cool VFXs), stunning emotes, and more!

Here’s a recap of our latest Patch Notes:

[h3]📖 Onboarding[/h3]

ONBOARDING – The tutorial was a big complaint during the Alpha. We worked on a new version; there’s now a tutorial to learn the basics, and an advanced tutorial to dig deeper. Onboarding is a huge focus for The Hexadome, your feedback is going to be very valuable.

[h3]⚔ Game modes and waiting time[/h3]

DUEL MODE – We added a duel mode to play against a friend.
QUEUE – You can now play versus an AI while you wait to be matched in an online game. When an opponent is found, your AI game will stop, and you will join the multiplayer game.

[h3]🎲 Gameplay mechanics[/h3]

TIMER – The timer’s duration was changed. Previously, you could stack 30sec, making your total timer 1m30. We reduced it to a maximum of 1m15 to allow for quicker games without compromising too much on thinking time.
SPONSORS - Sponsors have been added to Pick and Ban. Each Sponsor comes with their 2 new Tactics and 4 new Rewards. 6 Sponsors are currently implemented. You will not be able to see which Reward comes with the Sponsor you pick yet. We’re working on it!
KO – We’re still working on the gameplay mechanics around KO’d Champions. Their behavior will be the same as during the Alpha, except for the fact that they’d be down on their knees instead of lying dead. During the Alpha, some players hated KO’d Champions blocking paths, other enjoyed the added strategic layer. We’re still working on finding the right balance for KO’s.
INITIATIVE – The initiative stat isn’t used anymore. A Champion moving to a timestep will automatically go after the Champion already present.
TIMELINE – The timeline was something players struggled with during the Alpha. We worked on a new visual representation to make it clearer. Let us know what you think.

[h3]⚖️ Balancing[/h3]

ULTIMATES – They now cost 60 Cheers instead of 80. Ultimates were a little too expensive and were not used as often as we would have liked during the Alpha. We want to make them a more attractive option for players. We’re also considering applying different costs for the Ultimates of certain Champions.
HANNIBAL – Programmed Strategy is now limited to a range of 10 hexes and now requires LoS on its target. On top of that, a Champion who can play an action by using Programmed Strategy or the Code: Tactic can now upgrade their attributes, their skills, or use Tactics. The range reduction is a nerf that will require players to position Hannibal more strategically, but we’re offsetting it by enabling upgrades and Tactics when using Programmed Strategy and Code:.
PARVATI – Her Reset roll values have been tweaked: we added more 2s and removed the 3s that were useless since her max HP is 3.

[h3]🖌️ UI[/h3]

ROLL RESULTS – The have a new UI and new VFX. We also hid all other UI during rolls to help players focus on the important information.
OVERWATCH – We wanted something visually more interesting than the plain red text we had before. It feels a bit out of place for now, but it’s a work in progress and we’d love to know your thoughts!
TACTICS – You can now see your opponent’s Tactics! It will allow the player to know which Tactics have been used by their opponent and make strategic decisions accordingly. Do they still have their Cleansing Tactic, or can I safely Dazzle Lunah? 😎 The players will be able to know what Tactics and what Sponsor their opponent picks during the pick & ban phase, so it’s only fair for them to keep having access to that information during the match instead of having to memorize it.
DISENGAGE – We added color to the Disengage feedback text to communicate the chance successfully disengaging from an opponent. Green means high change of success, Orange means average, Red means low.
CHARACTERS – They all have new avatars.

[h3]🎨 Visuals [/h3]

EMOTES – We added Emotes! They’re adorable and we love them.
LAXMEE – Her model and animations are now in-game! She also has VFX for her D/Buffer and Purge skills.
MAJOR LUNAH – She has a new animation for her victory pose. She no longer waves at the crowd but does a military salute. She also has new VFX for her Suppressive Fire skill.
HEXXER – She has a new Idle Breaker animation.
GATA – New Contender animation
SPONSORS – The sponsors you capture will now take the color of your team, regardless of the sponsor’s branding. It helps communicate which team controls which Sponsor.
ARENA – The floor texture was changed for better visibility + the stadium now has screens and holograms.
VFXs – New permanent VFX for Dazzled.
FIGURINES – Champions who are still figurines are now slightly animated to give players better feedback on the states and actions of the Champions.

[h3]🎶 Sound[/h3]

MAJOR LUNAH – New SFX on Called Shot and Suppressive Fire
8-BALL – New SFX on Eat my Fa Jing and Be Water Dude
GATA – New SFX on Misdirection and Contender
ARENA – New SFX on the Sponsors
TUTORIAL – New SFXs everywhere

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We’ve got lots of exciting news coming up in the next week! Our closed beta playtest starts TODAY until April 9th, and we’re participating in Turn Based Thursday Fest at the same time (April 4th to 8th). To register for the closed beta playtest, head to our Steam page, scroll down to “Join The Hexadome: Playtest” and click on “Request Access”. Remember to share the news with friends you’d like to play with: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1498550?utm_source=steam&utm_content=devblog

Want to stay in the loop on the latest developments? Be sure to join our Discord, Wishlist The Hexadome on Steam, and follow us on Twitter, Tik Tok and Facebook for exclusive sneak peeks, playtest updates, and exciting news!