TOP DOG News

This is the last major update, lots has changed on the wave/enemy balancing so bear with me a little: v0.99/1.0 will be for the last balancing/polishing touches

A lot of effort has been spent on making each run as unique as possible with varied and interesting waves and no biome repetitions. Also the duration of the average run have been shortened: v0.97 runs were becoming a bit of a chore towards the final waves

There is some new content in this update but it is probably less than what you were looking for and I apologize if I gave wrong expectations: I thought I could do more with it but TD's dev cycle have been quite long and I felt it was more important to improve on the game strengths instead of adding things just for the sake of it and risk to ruin the game

Enough talking, changelog follows 👇


[h3]New Structures & Pickups[/h3]

• Added Space Elevator
  
• Added Ground Outpost (WIP)
  
• Updated Space Station with the new heavy turrets
  
• When a structure is fully destroyed a random pickup will spawn: Extra Life, Extra Upgrade or Repair & Reload
  

[h3]New Scoring[/h3]

• Combo system removed and replaced with an accuracy bonus for each enemy damaged/killed event: reason for this change is to give more freedom of action, reward all play styles (not only aggressive) and have a tighter, more competitive leaderboard
• HUD updated accordingly
  

[h3]Upgrades[/h3]

• You can now call for an upgrade as soon as the tech level increases: added new input mapping for it
  
• Reroll system replaced by a single reroll option that will work like any other upgrade: reason for this change is to make each run more unique and encourage different approaches
• 'Armored': back to max hull increase only (extra life is part of the pickups)
  
• 'Scavenger': bumped scraps tech increase from 33% to 50%
• 'Adrenaline' changed: time-dilation when locked by enemy missiles

[h3]Enemy Tweaking & Balancing[/h3]

• Rogues are now aces (hexagon on the HUD)
  
• No more invulnerability window for Rogues and Wing Leaders
  
• Enemies are a bit more aggressive in general
  
• 'Viper Elite' renamed to 'Elite' and will appear in more biomes (not only space)

[h3]Operations & Misc[/h3]

• Back to 3 lives from start and changed the HUD representation: 1 triangle = 1 extra life
  
• 'Endurance' renamed to 'Endgame': made it shorter (3 stages) but more intense and with an extra upgrade at start
• 'Hostile Territory' is now a daily gateway to 'Endgame'
  
• Retry/New buttons on defeat screen: except for 'Endgame' which uses a daily seed and will show only the retry button
  
• ⚠️'First Strike' progress will be reset and everyone will have to replay it: needed to gauge how difficult it has become
• Visual improvements and tweaking for all biomes
  

[h3]That's it! 🫡[/h3]

👆 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]