Axon TD: Uprising News

Axon TD: Uprising will be a part of Steam Next Fest! Join us on Thursday, June 22nd at 2:00pm EST for a Dev Stream! In this stream, we'll be showing off some of the other modes.

Try out the game now in the Public Demo, available until June 26th!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2296550/Axon_TD_Uprising__Tower_Defense/

Axon TD: Uprising will be a part of Steam Next Fest! Join us on Monday, June 19th at 4:00pm EST (right when the festival starts) for a Dev Stream! We'll be running through the basics, and then we'll try a harder level or so.

Try out the game now in the Public Demo, available until June 26th!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2296550/Axon_TD_Uprising__Tower_Defense/

Public Demo is now live! At last, you can play Axon TD: Uprising yourself. Of course, it's not the full game, but all the mechanics and gameplay are there, and most the visuals and audio are in place.

The menu this time around is a lot cleaner than in our previous game.

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[h2]Demo Contents[/h2]

Tutorial
First up, you have the Tutorial. It'll teach you the basics of the game, like how to maze, how to place tiles and extend the map itself, gaining and using Power, and other stuff.

You even get prompts and flashy blue lights showing you how it works.

Quick Play
Up next, there's 3 Quick Play Levels available. This is a mode where you select your Loadout first, and then you try to beat the level with it. There's a Beginner level, an Intermediate Level, and an Advanced Level.

There's also Leaderboards for each level. Beat the level, top the charts!

Survival Mode
And lastly, there's Survival Mode. A roguelite mode where you only start with a couple towers, then after each wave, you unlock something new. Another tower, one of their upgrades, or a passive tech. You'll also occasionally gain the ability to place Expansions. Grow and mold the map as you go!

Survival Mode is limited to 15 Waves for this demo.

And yes, this one has Leaderboards as well.

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[h2]Play Now[/h2]
So what are you waiting for? Play now! The Public Demo will remain playable from now through June 26th.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2296550/Axon_TD_Uprising__Tower_Defense/

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[h2]Steam Next Fest Dev Streams[/h2]
We're a part of Steam Next Fest, which runs from June 19th to June 26th. During this time, we'll be showcasing the greater game in a pair of Dev Streams. These are scheduled for:

• June 19th at 1pm PST / 4pm EST
  
• June 22nd at 11am PST / 2pm EST
  

Look forward to our showcase in a few weeks. But in the meantime, try out the demo!

For those of you with super early access to the game, we've updated the game to Version 0.0.5, which is a mix of fixes, more sound, tooltip adjustments, Armor rework, and balance. It's also a continuation of the previous version (which wasn't available on the private version). Click here to read those notes.

Before we move on though, those of you that don't have access to the game will soon be able to play it. We have a public demo of the game releasing on June 8th! This demo will be available all the way through June 26th. Its content will be severely limited, but the game should be a fairly playable and polished state otherwise. Look forward to trying it out soon!

Now onto this version's patch notes:

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Fixes

• Reordered the Tower Loadout for Astrosys/New Frontier towers
  
• Traps with cooldown-based abilities should trigger from the center now
  
• Shield visual now scales with Axon size
  
• In Survival, fixed not being able to right-click towers for more info
  
• In Survival, if you reach the point where you only have one Tower Upgrade left to fill, it should instead offer two Perks instead of that Upgrade twice
  
• In Survival on Wave 30, fixed a bug where it would immediately end in the offchance you killed the wave before the boss
  
• Fixed a bug where World Engine U2's buff wouldn't retain properly after loading from a checkpoint
  
• Fixed Cloakers still cloaking despite being EMP'd
  
• Fixed EMP Gatling not switching targets when the EMP Bar is full
  
• Fixed firing arc always facing north when previewing a Tower Upgrade
  
• Fixed not being able to build at the edge of a Rotator in specific situations
  
• In Co-op, fixed a bug that would let you break the path and freeze the game
  
• In Co-op, activated Generators/Aura Towers are now colorcoded to show the respective player ownership
  
• Fixed an issue that got you stuck on a tower if you had it selected when a game ended
  
• Fixed Seeker Drone not shooting Armored enemies
  
• Fixed Link Blaster U2 getting bonus damage from the towers it was linked to
  
• Fixed all the towers that used to break armor still listing that functionality in their tooltips
  
• Fixed multiple perks breaking on loading checkpoint
  
• Fixed Portable Generator U2 not having a "range" indicator
  
• Fixed Inertia Blaster U1 not updating its range indicator when hovered over
  
• Fixed Mines and Traps being affected by attack speed buffs
  
• Fixed being able to repeatedly trigger Perks that had to do with activating pre-placed towers
  
• Fixed the Global slow perk's damage reduction activating off of pre-placed towers
  
• Fixed a Rush Mode tooltip error
  

Audio

• Fixed EMP Gatling audio being overbearing
  
• Fixed placing an Expand being silent
  
• Fixed disabled items in the menu triggering an "on hover" sound
  
• Fixed Drilling Laser sound not ramping up over time
  
• Flame Vent & Radiation Vent now only play their audio during a wave
  
• Overload Hypercharge sound added
  
• Overload Boost Range sound added
  
• Overload Nuke sound added
  
• Overload Stasis Wave sound added
  
• Overload EMP Wave sound added
  

Tower Tooltips

• Target Threshold #'s have been included into the base tooltip and should now read much cleaner
  
• Any tower that deals more damage from its effect now lists "Damage Bonus", instead of ten variations
  
• Any tower that grows in damage over time now state "Damage Growth", instead of five variations
  
• Towers that the stats of others now specifically state "Buff"
  
• Towers with cooldown-based abilities say "Periodically"
  
• Towers that have a firing arc now state they have a firing arc in the base tooltip
  
• Slow/Stun/EMP/Damage Amp wording has been made consistent
  
• Redid upgrade text on EMP Mine and Network
  
• Effect conditionals are now stated first
  
• Fixed inconsistent capitalization
  
• Fixed inconsistent spacing
  
• Fixed Flame Vent & Gravity Driver U1 not saying they Ignore Armor & Shields (apparently, they always did this)
  
• Updated Tutorial 5 text to match the new Armor behavior
  
• Other minor fixes
  

General Balance

• Armor has been reworked:
  -- Old Armor: Blocks 8 damage per hit. Receives at least 2 Damage per hit. Some towers either Ignore Armor or Break Armor.
  -- New Armor: Blocks 6 damage per hit. Once it blocks damage up to 50% of its Max HP, the Armor breaks.
  -- A UI indicator has been added in the form of a Armor HP Bar.
  -- Sniper, Mass Driver, Inertia Blaster, Drilling Laser, and Frag Hammer no longer Break Armor.
  
• Shield charge count increased from 3 to 4.
  

Survival

• Axons no longer get faster over time (by Wave 30, was by about 30% faster)
  
• From Wave 11 onwards, the HP Multiplier increases from 4% to 6% per wave
  
• Some Expands have been adjusted.
  
• Some Waves have been adjusted.
  

Axons

• Runner
  -- HP increased from 30 to 36
  
• Overcharge Tank
  -- Move speed boost increased from 55% to 75%
  -- Move speed boost duration reduced from 5 to 4 seconds
  
• Survival Boss
  -- HP reduced from 800 to 600 per stage
  -- Move speed increased from 0.15 / 0.3 / 0.45 to 0.3 / 0.45 / 0.6
  -- Wave 30 Boss HP increased from 800 to 1200 per stage
  -- Wave 30 Boss Move Speed increased from 0.26 / 0.52 / 0.78 to 0.3 / 0.6 / 0.9
  

Towers

• Blast Cannon
  -- Damage from 6 to 9
  -- Cooldown from 1.4s to 2s
  -- U2 slow duration from 1s to 1.5s
  
• Link Cannon
  -- U2 can no longer stack its buff
  -- U3 temporarily replaced with something generic. We're gonna revisit this one later.
  
• Target Marker:
  -- U3 upgrade cost increased from 25 to 30
  -- U3 AoE damage multiplier from 50% to 40%
  
• Proximity Mine
  -- U1 aftershock damage from 100% to 80%
  
  
• Sniper
  -- U1 no longer takes away an extra charge of Shields, damage from 35 to 36 (so that it doesn't leave Runners with 1 HP)
  
• EMP Mine
  -- U2 now only triggers on Armor, and deals 40 damage to everything in range when it does. AoE increased from 2 to 3. This is possibly overtuned.
  
  
• Seeker Drone
  -- Damage from 6 to 8
  -- Cooldown from 0.5s to 0.7s
  -- U1 damage bonus from 6 to 8
  -- U2 damage growth from 0.25 to 0.33, damage cap from 15 to 20
  -- U3 damage from 5 to 6
  
• Arc Reactor
  -- U3 power cost increased from 25 to 30
  -- U3 damage multiplier per bounce reduced from 30% to 25%
  
  
• Artillery
  -- U1 Cooldown reduced from 2 to 1.8
  
• Drilling Laser
  -- Damage cap increased from 20 to 25
  -- Can now have its attack rate buffed
  
• Plasmathrower
  -- U2 damage reduced from 4 to 2. DoT kept the same.
  -- U2 power cost increased from 30 to 35
  
• World Engine
  -- Damage increased from 8 to 9
  -- Can no longer be buffed by Command Link or Gravity Generator U2
  -- U2 power cost from 30 to 35
  

So a bunch of stuff got applied in this patch; however, it also made the game somewhat unstable. That said, this is just a post to list the lengthy patch notes. It is currently not applied to the main branch.

We'll likely be applying Version 0.0.5 to the main branch within the next week or so, which will include everything listed below + updates on it + and more.

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New Stuff

• 3p Co-op Map Added: Trident
  
• 4p Co-op Map Added: Axon Crossing
  
• New Axon Type: Overcharge Tank
  -- 100 HP
  -- When it dies, all Axons within a medium area are given a speed boost for a short duration, ignoring Slows and Stuns during this time.
  
• New Axon Type: Mass Cloaker
  -- 120 HP
  -- When damaged, it releases a wave, cloaking all Axons within a medium area, preventing them from being targeted. Has a long cooldown.
  
• Whenever you Start or Clear a wave, there's now a UI Transition.
  
• The Error Screen now has buttons closing down the log and quitting.
  
• In Co-op, Player Pings now show up on the Minimap
  
• Gravity Trap U3 now works. Cooldown-based ability where it pulls everything within an AoE towards its center.
  
• Target Marker U3 now works. Cooldown-based ability where it sticks a debuff on a target. All damage applied to that target for 3 seconds is temporarily halted, then released in a large shockwave, dealing 50% of the damage stored.
  
• Plasmathrower U2 now works. Applies a DoT to the target. If the target dies, the DoT drops on the ground.
  

Survival

• You can now choose which two towers you start with in Survival
  
• Both of these starting towers come with all Upgrades unlocked
  
• You no longer start with 20 Power
  
• The Boss has been updated:
  -- Each Stage now has a Sub-Stage
  -- At each Sub-Stage and Stage change, the Boss briefly turns invulnerable
  -- Each Sub-Stage has 800 HP
  -- Movespeed from 0.13 / 0.26 / 0.39 to 0.15 / 0.3 / 0.45
  
• Some adjustments have been made to the wave list. In particular, wave 24 was nerfed quite a bit.
  

Visuals

• Added a buff indicator visual. If you place something next to the relevant tower (Damage Aura, Generator, Link Blaster U2, etc), it'll now show a green highlight.
  
• Enemy Shields have visuals
  
• Stun VFX has been updated
  
• When the Boss dies, it explodes in a much larger explosion. Still a somewhat temporary visual.
  
• Supply Tank, Debuff Cleanser, Mass Teleporter, and Mass Cloaker now have Effect Visuals
  -- There's an "aura range" displaying the range of their effects
  -- Then an actual "pulse" when it activates
  
• Toned down Protector shield visual
  
• Repairer has a healing pulse on death
  
• Teleporter has a blink VFX
  
• Temporal Mine has a blink VFX
  
• Radiation DoT has been made more obvious
  
• Reaper VFX has been updated
  
• Inertia Blaster has fancy new VFX
  
• Target Marker U3 now has VFX, somewhat placeholder, but now you can tell what/when it's doing stuff
  
• Radiation Vent now has a radioactive smoke plume during the wave
  
• Ion Beam U3 has been made red-orange, you can properly distinguish it from the slows
  
• Reduced visual clutter on Sniper
  
• Reduced visual clutter on Missile Launcher U3
  
• Added VFX for Overload: Hypercharge
  
• Added VFX for Overload: Boost Range
  
• Added VFX for Overload: Compound Rounds
  
• Added VFX for Overload: Nuke
  
• Added VFX for Overload: EMP Wave
  
• Added VFX for Overload: Stasis Wave
  

Audio

• In-game music has been updated. For the time being, it no longer changes between wave breaks and in-wave.
  
• When you win, there's a music stinger, and it has its own outro.
  
• When you lose, there's a music stinger, and it has its own outro.
  
• There's now a sound for using rotators.
  
• World Engine has sound
  
• Radiation Vent has sound
  
• EMP Mine has sound
  
• Temporal Mine has sound
  
• Reaper has sound, though it's gonna be updated to something "not so weak and basic".
  
• EMP Gatling has sound.
  -- Note, if it sounds overbearingly loud like it's "stacking", then it's bugged.
  

Fixes

• Fixed the "Give Credits" button not working in Co-op
  
• Fixed the Spawn Timer not working correctly in Co-op
  
• Fixed the Tower Cost perks affecting Traps and Mines
  
• Fixed Armor Break visual triggering every time a tower with Armor Break hit an enemy
  
• Fixed Pulseray U2/Ion Beam U2 power caps not resetting after each wave (yes, this is the main reason they sucked)
  
• Fixed Ion Beam U2 getting more power than intended on a kill due to multiple stacks of its slow effect
  
• Fixed certain towers not being buffed properly from damage buffs (Mass Driver, Inertia Blaster... there could be others)
  
• Fixed Inertia Blaster U3 starting with 53 damage instead of the intended 50 damage
  
• Fixed Gravity Driver U3 only slowing for 25% instead of the intended 50%
  
• Fixed Portable Generator charges not showing up in replays
  
• Orbital Cannon U2 will now prioritize stacking its beams on the same target, meaning you'll actually see it activate during a wave instead of only when there's on enemy left
  
• Fixed Replicator sometimes not spawning Replicants
  
• Fixed Random Loadout in Quickplay randomizing your loadout everytime you did "Load Last Checkpoint"
  

Mechanics

• Armor
  -- Removed the rule where Armor breaks if a tower deals at least 50 damage in one shot.
  -- Any tower/mine that previously dealt 50+ damage in one shot now states it breaks Armor.
  -- Armor Break no longer goes through Shields.
  -- Armored enemies will now take at least 1 damage from all towers. Except the ones that don't deal damage, obviously.
  
• Stuns no longer refresh when reapplied
  -- This means an enemy needs to finish being stunned before a new stun can be applied
  
• In Hard Difficulty, you only have 100 Lives, instead of 120
  

Tower Balance

• Pulseray
  -- U1 range increased by 0.5, damage gain from 5 to 6, damage cap from 30 to 36
  -- U2 power cost from 20 to 25, cooldown from 1.5 to 1.2, power gain per kill from 2 to 1, power gain cap from 15 to 10
  -- U3 power cost from 30 to 25, damage from 12 to 15, extra attack count from 3 to 2
  
• Blast Cannon
  -- Will now prioritize shooting Squadrons
  
• Gravity Trap
  -- Slow reduced from 30% to 25%
  
• Proximity Mine
  -- U1 aftershock damage from 50% to 100%
  -- U2 damage from 120 to 90
  
  
• Reaper
  -- Cooldown from 1.2 to 1
  -- Now ignores Shields by default
  
• Sniper
  -- U2 power cost from 25 to 30, now caps at 100 damage
  
• Missile Launcher
  -- Damage from 20 to 18
  
• Mass Driver
  -- U1 power cost from 25 to 30
  -- U2 power cost from 25 to 30, damage bonus from 50% to 60%, target threshold from 6 to 5
  
• Gravity Driver
  -- U2 perpendicular slow from 75% to 60%. This means sticking it sideways for one tile isn't quite as stupidly effective.
  
• EMP Mine
  -- EMP duration from 4s to 6s
  
  
• EMP Gatling
  -- U1 stun changed from cooldown-based to just be a mini-stun of 0.1s per hit.
  
• Arc Reactor
  -- U1 bounces from 8 to 7
  
• Seeker Drone
  -- U2 damage gain rate from 0.33 to 0.25
  
• Inertia Blaster
  -- When it hits max damage, it now prioritizes and breaks Armor. This includes the first shot on U3.
  
• Orbital Cannon
  -- U1 damage from 20 to 18
  
  
• Drilling Laser
  -- Credit cost from 75 to 100, damage from 5 to 6, gain rate from 1.5 to 2, damage cap from 16 to 20
  -- It now breaks Armor when it reaches its damage cap.
  -- U3 AoE from 1 to 1.5
  
• Plasmathrower
  -- Damage from 5 to 4
  -- U1 power cost from 35 to 30, range from 5 to 4
  -- U2 power cost from 25 to 30
  
• Frag Hammer
  -- U1 power cost from 40 to 35, secondary tiles deal 80% damage. Only the primary tile breaks Armor now.
  -- U2 power cost from 30 to 35, stun duration from 1s to 0.75s
  -- U3 damage from 32 to 30
  
• Ion Beam
  -- It will now switch targets if the current target is at the max number of stacks. This heavily reduces how much it was "wasting" its slow before.
  -- U2 power gain per kill from 2 to 1, power gain cap from 16 to 10
  
• Radiation Vent
  -- U2 AoE damage from 4 to 3
  

Perks

• The following perks have been removed from the Survival Perk Pool:
  -- "Deal 10 Damage to all Axons upon spawning."
  -- "If there are more than 25 hostiles on the field, deal damage to all Axons"
  -- "If there are more than 25 hostiles on the field, slow all Axons."
  -- "Path Length gives Credits."
  -- "Path Length gives Power."
  -- "Extending the path by 5 gives 30 Credits."
  -- "Extending the path by 5 gives 15 Power."
  -- "Upgraded Towers Generate Credits per kill."
  
• The following perks have been added to the Survival Perk Pool:
  -- "Each time an Axons hits a Blocker, gain 3 Credits, up to 30 per wave."
  -- "Once per wave, extending the path by 5 gives a Recycle Tile."
  -- "Once per wave, killing an Axon with less than 10% of the path remaining gives you a Recycle Tile.
  -- "Once per wave, using a Recycle Tile gives 15 Power."
  -- "Un-upgraded Towers generate Credits per kill."
  -- "Once per wave, if more than 40 Axons are on the field, warp the 5 frontmost Axons back 10 tiles."
  -- "Each wave, 2 random tiles on your path will get marked. All Axons within the marked tiles take 10% extra damage."
  -- "Towers placed in the current wave deal 5% increased damage."
  -- "Every 15 seconds, a the strongest Axon (excluding the Boss) gets struck and takes 50% of their max HP in damage."
  -- "Building on a Blocker gives a 5% damage bonus."
  -- "Building on a Blocker gives 20 Credits"
  -- "Once per wave, selling a tower gives you a Blocker"
  
• Interest Perk cap from 30 to 20 Credits
  
• "All Axons are slowed by 5%" has been reworked to "All Axons are slowed by 5%. Towers, Traps and Mines with adjacent deployments deal 5% reduced damage."