Big Demo Update - July 19, 2023
First of all, thanks a lot to all our Commanders who provided valuable insights, feedback, and who reported bugs and issues in the Steam forums, on Youtube and Twitch, and on our Discord server.
We are extremely grateful to see so many people care about our game. So we do our best to improve it based on your feedback, and this is our first major update for the demo, with more to come!
[h2]Major UI Improvements[/h2]
We continuously work on the UI and HUD to make the game more beautiful and self-explanatory.
You can now check the Merc's skill trees in the Pause menu during a run or in the Barracks when inspecting your Merc roster.
This is a very early implementation and it is still in development. We will improve the visuals and usability in future updates. But we already believe that this helps a lot in planning your squad build and level-ups.
Additionally, we made all menus look nicer by adding more animations and details, as well as fixing issues with navigation and how information is presented.
The Pause menu now shows your current Commander, Mercs and Gear. You can make better decisions for your squad build and see the effects that upgrades will have on your squad.
[h2]New Commander Cloning[/h2]
Cloning a new Commander now works more like we intend it to do.
The average, basic Commander is now only appearing for your first run. After that, all Commander clones are randomized with the Traits you have unlocked from the Genome Lab.
You get two free Commander clones before every run. After that, the DNA cost for additional clones increases with every clone.
Be aware that clones will not be saved!
Once you pick your Commander for the next Operation, all the other clones will be "discreetly discarded".
Surviving Commanders will be available for the next Operation, but they will also be discarded if you choose another one. Commanders that are KIA can be revived for DNA. All your previous fallen Commanders are stored, so you can revive multiple dead clones - if you have the DNA for it.
The Commander cloning will receive additional updates which are currently in development. With these, you will be able to have more control over which Commanders you want to play, e.g. by pre-defining certain Traits.
[h2]Balancing Adjustments[/h2]
We saw that a lot of you really disliked the penalty for extraction, so we removed it! The amount of Blood Diamonds and DNA you will find was adjusted a bit to keep it balanced with the unlocking prices.
This is an intermediary change, as we are working on a more complex loot & inventory system with different materials that you will need for building more bunker rooms. Also, we're working on changes to how Traits are unlocked, so stay tuned for future updates.
You can now also upgrade the Treasury with fewer Blood Diamonds and up to a 75% saving of your unspent Blood Diamonds.
[h2]Visuals Improvements[/h2]
We adjusted some of the rendering effects for Traits like "nostalgic" and "colorblind". They appear now less extreme. We also improved some graphical assets and effects in some areas like the objectives.
[h2]General Fixes and Optimizations[/h2]
[h2]What's next?[/h2]
We are already working on the next update for the game which will also go into the demo. Our main priority is performance improvements. We made great progress over the last weeks and are already seeing good results. But we didn't want to delay this update while we're wrapping up development and testing on the performance improvements. Thanks for your patience and for giving us some more time to make it good!
As always, we are looking forward to hearing your feedback on our Discord server, or here in the Steam forums.
Lock, load, and loot, Commanders!
We are extremely grateful to see so many people care about our game. So we do our best to improve it based on your feedback, and this is our first major update for the demo, with more to come!
[h2]Major UI Improvements[/h2]
We continuously work on the UI and HUD to make the game more beautiful and self-explanatory.
You can now check the Merc's skill trees in the Pause menu during a run or in the Barracks when inspecting your Merc roster.
This is a very early implementation and it is still in development. We will improve the visuals and usability in future updates. But we already believe that this helps a lot in planning your squad build and level-ups.
Additionally, we made all menus look nicer by adding more animations and details, as well as fixing issues with navigation and how information is presented.
The Pause menu now shows your current Commander, Mercs and Gear. You can make better decisions for your squad build and see the effects that upgrades will have on your squad.
[h2]New Commander Cloning[/h2]
Cloning a new Commander now works more like we intend it to do.
The average, basic Commander is now only appearing for your first run. After that, all Commander clones are randomized with the Traits you have unlocked from the Genome Lab.
You get two free Commander clones before every run. After that, the DNA cost for additional clones increases with every clone.
Be aware that clones will not be saved!
Once you pick your Commander for the next Operation, all the other clones will be "discreetly discarded".
Surviving Commanders will be available for the next Operation, but they will also be discarded if you choose another one. Commanders that are KIA can be revived for DNA. All your previous fallen Commanders are stored, so you can revive multiple dead clones - if you have the DNA for it.
The Commander cloning will receive additional updates which are currently in development. With these, you will be able to have more control over which Commanders you want to play, e.g. by pre-defining certain Traits.
[h2]Balancing Adjustments[/h2]
We saw that a lot of you really disliked the penalty for extraction, so we removed it! The amount of Blood Diamonds and DNA you will find was adjusted a bit to keep it balanced with the unlocking prices.
This is an intermediary change, as we are working on a more complex loot & inventory system with different materials that you will need for building more bunker rooms. Also, we're working on changes to how Traits are unlocked, so stay tuned for future updates.
You can now also upgrade the Treasury with fewer Blood Diamonds and up to a 75% saving of your unspent Blood Diamonds.
[h2]Visuals Improvements[/h2]
We adjusted some of the rendering effects for Traits like "nostalgic" and "colorblind". They appear now less extreme. We also improved some graphical assets and effects in some areas like the objectives.
[h2]General Fixes and Optimizations[/h2]
- "Survivor Bonus" is now only shown in the end-of-run screen if you get a bonus level for a Merc.
- When recruiting a Merc with a "Survivor Bonus", the free level-ups are now titled accordingly to help you differentiate them from regular level-ups.
- Reduced default volume for all audio to save the ears of headphone users.
- Adjusted the sandbags around the objective sentries to reduce the probability of Mercs getting stuck.
- Added an option to adjust the settings in the Pause menu.
- All Mercs are now extracting as intended. No one is left behind!
- Fixed various localization strings for EN and DE.
- Fixed multiple smaller UI glitches.
- The Commander is invulnerable for a bit longer after capturing objectives.
- Fixed the scale of Commanders in the Clone Bay and other menus in very high or very low resolutions.
- Reduced flickering in some UI elements.
- Fixed a bug that healed your Commander randomly after pausing the game.
- Defender shield can now be aimed freely and is no longer axis-aligned.
- Fixed an instance where the Extraction Point would not trigger after capturing it.
- Made vampiric aura and some other effects more transparent for better visibility.
- Slightly improved rendering performance of particle effects.
- Added shadow proxies for all enemies and Mercs to improve rendering performance.
- Fixed an instance where you could start with a Merc from a previous operation.
- Fixed an issue where your Commander could be glitched out of bounds.
- Added V-Sync and frame limiter settings
[h2]What's next?[/h2]
We are already working on the next update for the game which will also go into the demo. Our main priority is performance improvements. We made great progress over the last weeks and are already seeing good results. But we didn't want to delay this update while we're wrapping up development and testing on the performance improvements. Thanks for your patience and for giving us some more time to make it good!
As always, we are looking forward to hearing your feedback on our Discord server, or here in the Steam forums.
Lock, load, and loot, Commanders!