[h2]Manual shooting and Overwatch[/h2]
We have greatly improved shooting in TRS2. All three firing modes have been polished and given extra kinks to make them more distinct and useful in different situations.
Manual aim grants additional damage but slows your marine down, making it specially suitable for holding positions or slowly pushing forward.
Example:
In
overwatch mode marine automatically targets nearest monster. Targets are selected based on range alone without any consideration of armor or other parameters and target selection is not as fast as manual targeting often is. It might not be suitable for intense combat situations, but it allows for uninterrupted access to strategic elements of the game making it ideal when planning your next move, observing the environment, scouting the corridors where there is a considerable chance of something slimy jumping at you from the dark, or executing certain tactical maneuvers.
Both modes can be improved and changed with various
upgrades[h2]Armor system and damage resistance[/h2]
Armor acts like an additional (often quite large) HP pool that has to be shot through before health can be damaged. There are certain items and skills with the "armor shred" ability that can be used to remove it.
You may choose to try and gun an armored monster down, but throwing a simple grenade at it will completely destroy it’s armor, saving you tons of ammo.
Some monsters have more than 1 block of armor, and their armor can regenerate, so you will have to find adequate tactics in order to destroy it.
Example:
[h2]Suppression[/h2]
Every bit of damage the enemy takes will add up into the suppression bar. Some damage types are more efficient at suppressing enemies, and some hardly cause any suppression.
Once the monster reaches full suppression it is drastically slowed and becomes vulnerable to certain combos that can be done to punish it even further. For example, using a big burst of energy damage on a suppressed creature would result in fully
stunning it for awhile.
Suppression can help a lot in slowing down a horde or a particularly tough boss.
Example:
[h2]Enemies and executions[/h2]
Monsters have been made much more distinct, both in terms of behaviour, vulnerabilities and attack types… Each one is like it’s small puzzle, there will always be the most efficient way to kill it. Killing the monster in that “right” way (like throwing a grenade at an armored mutant to break it’s armor before gunning it down with bullets or a few shotgun shots) will save you tons of time and resources.
Dying has always been a large part of The Red Solstice experience. Executions are a new thing that makes it even more fun. It feels much better to be brutally stabbed and having your head chewed off by a monster rather than just collapsing on the floor from a little parasite that grabbed your leg.
The idea is that most monsters will have some kind of an execution attack. While they are executing your comrade you can use that time to kill that enemy, and turn the tide of a very bad situation into a somewhat good outcome. An example of one of the most notorious monsters - "fluffy" executing a player is below.
Instead of finding out the exact solution to the puzzle of each monster by trial and error, player can also capture monsters and thus gather information on them in the bestiary.
There are 2 ways to finding the exact puzzle and tactics on how the creatures will react, one way is that you go in by yourself and explore and battle your way through until you've gathered all the information, another way would be to capture the enemy, send it to your base and research it.
You will then gain an entry into the bestiary which will describe best and most efficient ways into defeating that enemy, as well as additional bonuses and it's behaviour on the field.
[h2]Explosives and handling[/h2]
As in the first game, players can fast-activate explosives in the order they are placed in. Since one of the primary goals of our game is to provide clear tactical information players can react to, this time we improved this system in two ways:
- Other players can now see when the owner of the explosive has the intention of detonating it.
- The moment the explosive is activated there is a short delay in which the radius of the explosive fills in with red in order to give a bit of extra notice before the explosive detonates.
Example:
Reason for this was to give more information in multiplayer on who is doing what, the result of selecting and detonating to an effect looks like this. One of our pillars for this game is that a lot of tactical information is known so that other players can react accordingly based on that, and that this information is easily read.
[h2]Semi-procedurally generated maps[/h2]
We now can confidently say that most maps in The Red Solstice 2 will be semi-procedurally generated. Each map has a basic set street and spawnpoint layout, but types of plots (buildings, open plazas etc.) that spawn will be randomly selected. This system still enables players to still get better with experience, learning how to adjust their strategy for each plot type, but also have a distinctly different experience on every playthrough.
[h2]Barrel throwing, because we have it in our every game![/h2]
There is nothing more fun then throwing a barrel at a zombie (and accidentally debraining your friend in the process). We just had to include it, now better then ever, Enoy!
We had some delays when it comes to the alpha build of the game. There will be some more news soon. We really want you to fall in love with the game the first time you try it.
Stay frosty marines! Alpha is coming soon!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/768520/The_Red_Solstice_2_Survivors/
