Archangel Announcements 2020 : January-February
January was a very busy month for us, and we put out weekly preview updates in anticipation of this major update! 2020 is going to be an exciting year!
The last two story routes for Missions mode are now in the preview mode of the game, with a new threat to uncover!
The other two factions complete the story of the Baja Secunda conflict. This new storyline comes with new endings and new missions. The real reason for this conflict is unearthed!
Will the people of the planet survive the consequences of its revelation?
On top of that, new missions have been made for the Du Couronne and Sunfield Frontier factions as well! This means that the main routes should have 4 special missions at different points of positive prestige ratings!
With these secrets unearthed, the fate of Baja Secunda is now truly in your hands!
These new missions will go into the public build on Wednesday, February 12th!
A major update to mobility and movement is here! As described in previous updates to the preview build and wednesday warzones, we increased base movement speeds across the board, while also lessening the mobility differences between different speed types.
To coincide with this, however, we reduced base dodge distances for all units. This is in addition to the changes discussed in the last Archangel Announcement, in which we increased or applied uniform pauses before refresh.
We also applied the directional movement penalties of locked on movement to both lock-on modes. You will now only receive full mobility bonuses when unlocked.
We did this to balance the speed stat, which had come to affect too many important aspects of Archangel movement. This change also highlights boosted movement/flight as a cost effective alternative to the exclusive use of dodge and dodge cancel.
The Balang Araw Large Missile has been drastically reworked. It comes with a new, modified model, animation and mechanics! The missile will now fly at a reduced arc towards the target and can now detonate prematurely!
We hope this makes the weapon more viable for its weight and risk.
We have applied many powerful buffs for weapons we felt were underrepresented and/or underpowered. We want to make competitive PVP more and more diverse in terms of strategies and loadouts, so we decided to power up a lot of existing weapons!
Melee Weapons (and other weapons with melee attacks) like the Blutreiter, Mugenzakura, Sytekh, Shenqiang, Strelka and Nere Crucis have received increased base damage to some or all of their attacks. Even the melee attacks of non-melee weapons like the Dragoon SG and Molniya SMG have received hefty buffs to their bash attacks. Several melee attacks also had their animation speeds and dash distances raised.
In addition, charging weapons like the Mugenzakura and Charge Thrusters have had their charging attacks modified to become instantaneous hits upon touching the enemy, rather than having delays before the actual hits.
Ranged Weapons are more of a mixed bag, since some of them have received penalties and reductions rather than straight upgrades. For example, the Linear Missiles (Uhlan and Kopeyschik), Emancipator and Dragoon Shotguns received some damage increases, while the Schafer Flamethrower and Balang Araw received reductions to damage.
However, the most significant improvement that affects a lot of them is the capability to boost while holding down the weapon. This ability affects held weapons like the shoulder and back missiles, rapid-fire weapons like the vindicators and handheld machine guns like the Wespe and Molniya, and other similar equipment (like the Schafer Flamethrower and Astrape Dual Lasers). Some back-mounted weapons still do not receive this benefit for the sake of balance (like the Tatzelwurm Dual Cannons).
In addition, handheld ranged weapons like the Burst Rifle, Vajra Cannon, Emancipator, Magnum Barrette now enjoy slightly reduced recovery time between shots, allowing you to fire them faster than before.
Thrusters have had their weights reduced by 250 points across the board. This allows them to become low-weight options and frees up load from existing builds that use them, giving them some small benefits such as reduced dodge costs and slightly increased MDM on top of the Thruster's bonuses and abilities.
[h3]NEW GARAGE TEST MODE FEATURES[/h3]
We added several new features in Garage Test mode, such as visible enemy boost, enemy stability, and command input tracking.
This should help more people practice with more precision and detail!
[h3]OTHER MECHANICS TWEAKS AND FIXES[/h3]
Other game mechanics tweaks that are relatively minor and do not fit in previous categories involve fixes to archangel alignments during attacks, predictive aiming with ranged weapons, X/Y target-changing fixes, and several AI behavior adjustments (particularly for missions mode grunts after the boost/mobility changes).
Another splitscreen PVP duel tournament will be held on February 22 at the Spawn Point Game Lounge! We will be playing the game and participating as part of The D.A.R.K. Tournament Full Boost: Hard Rock Save the Space! Click the link to get all the necessary information!
Like previously, the grand champion of this tournament will be added to the community character roster, an encounter in the Arcade as an enemy jockey. (and/or as a Ghost in Missions mode, if the winner so chooses!)
We're getting very close to full release! The main story routes are done and all that's left are refinements and polish of existing systems. However, new features and mechanics changes are still on the table, so you can expect more from us in the future! Please continue to support us as we head for completion!
_________________________________________________
As usual, make sure to like/follow us on Facebook and Twitter for news and updates!
We also have a YouTube channel where we post videos of our game's development.
You can also visit our Discord and talk with the devs and players of the game!
PUBLIC RELEASE : IMPERIAL LEGION, PIEDRANA SEPARATIST ROUTES AND ENDINGS
The last two story routes for Missions mode are now in the preview mode of the game, with a new threat to uncover!
The other two factions complete the story of the Baja Secunda conflict. This new storyline comes with new endings and new missions. The real reason for this conflict is unearthed!
Will the people of the planet survive the consequences of its revelation?
On top of that, new missions have been made for the Du Couronne and Sunfield Frontier factions as well! This means that the main routes should have 4 special missions at different points of positive prestige ratings!
With these secrets unearthed, the fate of Baja Secunda is now truly in your hands!
These new missions will go into the public build on Wednesday, February 12th!
GAME MECHANICS BALANCING : DODGE AND MOBILITY
A major update to mobility and movement is here! As described in previous updates to the preview build and wednesday warzones, we increased base movement speeds across the board, while also lessening the mobility differences between different speed types.
To coincide with this, however, we reduced base dodge distances for all units. This is in addition to the changes discussed in the last Archangel Announcement, in which we increased or applied uniform pauses before refresh.
We also applied the directional movement penalties of locked on movement to both lock-on modes. You will now only receive full mobility bonuses when unlocked.
We did this to balance the speed stat, which had come to affect too many important aspects of Archangel movement. This change also highlights boosted movement/flight as a cost effective alternative to the exclusive use of dodge and dodge cancel.
WEAPON OVERHAUL : BALANG ARAW
The Balang Araw Large Missile has been drastically reworked. It comes with a new, modified model, animation and mechanics! The missile will now fly at a reduced arc towards the target and can now detonate prematurely!
We hope this makes the weapon more viable for its weight and risk.
BUFFS FOR MANY, MANY WEAPONS
We have applied many powerful buffs for weapons we felt were underrepresented and/or underpowered. We want to make competitive PVP more and more diverse in terms of strategies and loadouts, so we decided to power up a lot of existing weapons!
Melee Weapons (and other weapons with melee attacks) like the Blutreiter, Mugenzakura, Sytekh, Shenqiang, Strelka and Nere Crucis have received increased base damage to some or all of their attacks. Even the melee attacks of non-melee weapons like the Dragoon SG and Molniya SMG have received hefty buffs to their bash attacks. Several melee attacks also had their animation speeds and dash distances raised.
In addition, charging weapons like the Mugenzakura and Charge Thrusters have had their charging attacks modified to become instantaneous hits upon touching the enemy, rather than having delays before the actual hits.
Ranged Weapons are more of a mixed bag, since some of them have received penalties and reductions rather than straight upgrades. For example, the Linear Missiles (Uhlan and Kopeyschik), Emancipator and Dragoon Shotguns received some damage increases, while the Schafer Flamethrower and Balang Araw received reductions to damage.
However, the most significant improvement that affects a lot of them is the capability to boost while holding down the weapon. This ability affects held weapons like the shoulder and back missiles, rapid-fire weapons like the vindicators and handheld machine guns like the Wespe and Molniya, and other similar equipment (like the Schafer Flamethrower and Astrape Dual Lasers). Some back-mounted weapons still do not receive this benefit for the sake of balance (like the Tatzelwurm Dual Cannons).
In addition, handheld ranged weapons like the Burst Rifle, Vajra Cannon, Emancipator, Magnum Barrette now enjoy slightly reduced recovery time between shots, allowing you to fire them faster than before.
Thrusters have had their weights reduced by 250 points across the board. This allows them to become low-weight options and frees up load from existing builds that use them, giving them some small benefits such as reduced dodge costs and slightly increased MDM on top of the Thruster's bonuses and abilities.
[h3]NEW GARAGE TEST MODE FEATURES[/h3]
We added several new features in Garage Test mode, such as visible enemy boost, enemy stability, and command input tracking.
This should help more people practice with more precision and detail!
[h3]OTHER MECHANICS TWEAKS AND FIXES[/h3]
Other game mechanics tweaks that are relatively minor and do not fit in previous categories involve fixes to archangel alignments during attacks, predictive aiming with ranged weapons, X/Y target-changing fixes, and several AI behavior adjustments (particularly for missions mode grunts after the boost/mobility changes).
METRO MANILA MINI-TOURNAMENT
Another splitscreen PVP duel tournament will be held on February 22 at the Spawn Point Game Lounge! We will be playing the game and participating as part of The D.A.R.K. Tournament Full Boost: Hard Rock Save the Space! Click the link to get all the necessary information!
Like previously, the grand champion of this tournament will be added to the community character roster, an encounter in the Arcade as an enemy jockey. (and/or as a Ghost in Missions mode, if the winner so chooses!)
DEVELOPMENT CONTINUES
We're getting very close to full release! The main story routes are done and all that's left are refinements and polish of existing systems. However, new features and mechanics changes are still on the table, so you can expect more from us in the future! Please continue to support us as we head for completion!
_________________________________________________
As usual, make sure to like/follow us on Facebook and Twitter for news and updates!
We also have a YouTube channel where we post videos of our game's development.
You can also visit our Discord and talk with the devs and players of the game!