TOP DOG News

👆 This here (WIP) is a glimpse of where I'd like to take the game: a "somewhat curated" (short) campaign progression around structures/objectives (and not just a random progression of different biomes) but keep the roguelike elements for enemy wave composition and upgrades.

Problem is that this kind of stuff can take a lot of time and that is the reason for the lack of updates recently, which I apologize for.

The plan at the moment would be to prototype a couple such missions and start testing them out along an updated version of the current operations.

Let me know what you think and thank you for your patience 🫡

⚠️ Last time that some achievements will be reset, I promise

[h3]What changed[/h3]

• 'First Strike' simplified and locked once completed: will be further tweaked to become the tutorial operation
  
• 'Hostile Territory' is the new 'random' operation which gets unlocked by completing 'First Strike'
  
• 'Endurance' got longer (12 waves) and more difficult in the end: it gets unlocked permanently when 'Hostile Territory' is completed for the first time
• Removed 'Blitz': game works better when you build your aircraft from the ground up. Also it was an annoying (daily) gate to 'Endurance'
  

[h3]Tweakings[/h3]

• 'Iceman' renamed to 'Adrenaline': slow-motion (less than before) + mobility boost during target locking (when the view is zoomed-in)
• 'Scavenger': in addition to better scraps attraction there is also an increase in the "scraps to tech" conversion rate
• Some waves will now have a specific name to better identify (at a glance) their composition
  
• Some tweaking to biomes
  

[h3]That's it! 🫡[/h3]

⚠️ Some stats and achievements will be reset

Apologies for the long update: once again things got flipped around but I'm pretty sure this is the last major change to the game structure.

With this one the game rolls back a little to how it used to be before the endless/operations updates: with more randomization and a simpler progression. Let me know what you think!

[h3]New Campaign Structure[/h3]

• 3 operations: more might be added later depending on feedback
  
• 'First Strike' is randomized per run: stage/wave composition and upgrade choice will be different for each new run
• The others are randomized per day: stage/wave composition and upgrade choice will stay the same throughout the day and reset the next day
• 'Blitz' operations are short, intense and start with pre-installed upgrades: currently there's only 'Valkyrie' (which is not very different from v0.95's) but more will be added later to the random pool
  
• You now start with 2 lives instead of 3
  

[h3]Rerolls & Upgrades Tweaking[/h3]

• You now get 3 (upgrade choice) rerolls per operation
  
• Tech leveling has been tweaked to allow quicker upgrading: runs will usually end at tech 6-8
  
• Buffed 'GAU-30'
  
• Added 'Premium+': unlocked with achievement 'Fox Two'
  
• Changed 'Armored': max hull increase + extra life

[h3]Other Changes & General Tweaking[/h3]

• Increased Frigate jump time
  
• Reduced invulnerability windows for Rogues and Wing Leaders
  
• Removed Valkyrie sliding on surfaces
  
• Restored triangle icon for Elite Vipers
  
• Changed missile/drone icons to diamond shape
  

[h3]That's it! 🫡[/h3]

⚠️ Some stats and achievements will be reset

Sorry about the stats reset! Was not an easy decision but I managed to limit it to stats related to the new operations system, all the upgrade unlocks and kill stats are intact.

[h3]Operations[/h3]

• There are currently 4 operations: some of which are unlocked at start and each with something special. I'm eager to hear your thoughts for making making new operations and/or tweak the current ones
• Completing an operation will make it go up one tier (currently up to max 3): the idea is to increase the difficulty each tier and make all operations a viable choice regarding the score/challenge you can get from them
• Leaderboard entries will show which operation was run and if completed (otherwise last wave number is displayed)
  

[h3]Main Changes & Tweaking[/h3]

• Replaced endless looping with operations system
  
• Added Space Station enemy, first pass: destruction effects are not finished and its fight mechanics might be changed later
  
• Frigates cannot jump if you destroy their engine
  
• Wing Leaders got a bit more aggressive
  
• Rogues can be killed with 1 normal/swarm missile: makes fighter class (triangle icon) more consistent
  
• Bumped a little base scraps attraction force
  
• GAU-30 damage tweaked
  
• Armor cap restored at 250% (was 200%)
  
• Fixed some inconsistencies with bullets raycasting
  
• Vector: restored normal paint
  
• Valkyrie: comes in black and can now "slide" on surfaces 👀
  

[h3]Achievements[/h3]

• Achievements page: merged stats into achievements
  
• Added ‘Stronger Dog’ achievement
  
• Added ‘Rabid Dog’ achievement
  
• Added ‘Daily Dog’ achievement
  
• Changed ‘Sky Dog’ achievement: now you have to successfully take an extra life from the Sky Tower
  
• Changed ‘Elite Dog’ achievement: reach 1,000 total kills
  

[h3]What's Next?[/h3]

• Tweaking & balancing for the new operations system
  
• Input system refactoring to support multiple devices and possibily a better input binding menu
  
• First player experience: some kind of quick tutorial in the first operation
  

[h3]That's it! 🫡[/h3]

⚠️ v0.92 ETA: Saturday 11th (18th at the latest)

[h3]What's happening[/h3]
As you can see from the thumbnail, a new enemy is getting ready and as you probably gathered from last update we are going back to a finite number of waves and shorter runs. Your response on last update was very useful and made the decision to switch much easier, Thanks!

[h3]Operations[/h3]
We are going back to short and challenging runs, where TD really shine but this time you will be able to run different 'Operations': each with a different distribution of enemies, difficulty and some special features (such as bonus upgrade at start, more upgrade choices, etc.).

There will be no changes to the daily leaderboard, except for showing on which operation the score was obtained.

*work in progress: the details shown will probably change, as well as the operations (there will probably be 6 of them)

[h3]That's it! 🫡[/h3]