Killsquad News

Greetings, earthlings!

We bring you spooky news from across the Galaxy! Something weird has happened on the otherwise wild worlds of Killsquad. The spirit of Halloween is here and, with an evil grin, has turned our lands into a sweet mess. Enter our Hallowtide event, which turns Killsquad into a Halloween celebration that kicks off today, and carries on til November 18th!

This week, pumpkins have appeared all over the contracts, from Kemmekh to the Palace of Pain. Play Killsquad from now to Nov 18th to collect them, and trade them for exclusive seasonal rewards. But you didn't think it would be that easy, right? Once they've been collected, you'll have to find out who wants those pumpkins, and you'll be on your way for fresh goodies.

On Halloween weekend, join us for the grand opening of Plague, the next episode of the Killsquad saga. Plague brings 4 Cursed contracts, where the Plague spreads across your team mates. New Halloween-themed skins for you to discover. A new Spec Ops contract where Nightbringers take over. And much more.

Join us as we celebrate Halloween as part of the Steam's Halloween celebration. And we have much more in store from now til Christmas. Make sure you swing by to stay in the loop.

See y'all in the spookiest Outer Reach!

Today is a fantastic day in the history of Killsquad, one that consolidates all the hard work of the last 2 months. There's a TON of stuff we want to discuss, so let's cut to the chase!




To begin with, yes, update your version of Killsquad right away to enjoy our 2nd Community Update. And what an update! Here's the stuff you've been waiting for:

• You can now join any ongoing contract from the contract browser. Just look for contracts with a BLUE head (in Lobby, looking for players) or GREEN head (ongoing, click to join). This makes finding people to play with trivial. We promised a multiplayer centric game. It's taken a bit of time to get there, but we're done. Go play!
  
• You can also remain connected with your newly-made squad when the mission is over, so you can embark on contract after contract with the same crew.
  
  

Remember this works on top of the existing features, so press ENTER to text-chat on the lobby & in the mission, and find online contracts easily with our Contract Browser and the filters on the Top-Left corner of the screen.





What a better way to enjoy the new network features, than to fight the Federation? Remember our Federation update dropped a week ago. This is our biggest update ever, including:

• Career paths per hero, with exclusive content to unlock
  
• Portraits and badges, so you can grind for rewards and show them off to the community
  
• The all new Spec Ops contract, our hardest one yet
  
• 4 new federation units, appearing on our Veteran contracts
  
• New VFX & SFX on weapons, skills, etc to the game looks even better
  

But we're not stopping there. Halloween is next week, and there's no Halloween like a Killsquad's Hallowtide event! So make sure you download our Halloween update, starting next Monday, with exclusive gameplay and rewards, only available during the Halloween period.

And stay tuned for Plague, our next Major Update, which will drop on Halloween day itself. Plague includes a whole new range of contract goals & gameplays: be ready for your team mates to be cursed! Playing together will be more fun than ever when Plague drops.




Last, but not least, you know this is always been about you, the fans. We wouldn't be here if you weren't there, playing the game, reporting bugs, pushing us forward. And you know our main event is the Gathering, a monthly video event where we tell you all about upcoming features, and we give you guys, the community, the voice. We're happy to announce we declare the 2nd Gathering open, immediately. This is the main event link, with all the info and the Forum Discussion where you can suggest your features or ideas:

2nd Gathering of Bounty Hunters event page




We're very happy with where we are, but there's a ton of work ahead. We hope to see you all in the game this weekend, and please follow us in our Social Media Channels:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/killsquadgame
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/novarama_official/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/Killsquad-2214554828614147
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCg8XEl5FRxRzJPPL_kb4HFA
Discord: https://discord.gg/wbHeS54

If you like our progress, please tell your friends about Killsquad and, if you have 5 minutes, post a review. Remember when you couldn't find people to play with? Well, not anymore! And we want the world to know.

Thank you very much you all.

See you in the Outer Reach!

Hello all,

It's our pleasure to announce our second Gathering of Bounty Hunters, a community event where we discuss and chart the future of Killsquad together.




Every now and then, we will open up a Gathering period. During Gathering periods, We would like you guys to tell you what you like, what you dislike, to propose features, to voice concerns about the game.

We will then collect all these, and produce a video, so we can answer questions, show you where the game is headed, and generally speaking discuss Killsquad and its future.

We did a first Gathering about one month ago. You can see the video here:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

More than 50 questions were answered, and it helped us trace our course. With Federation & Halloween out of the way, we feel it's great timing to do this again.

We have SO much to tell you about. New contracts. New characters. New gameplay mechanics. Non-game initiatives (yes, we're talking about offers, merchandising, contests). We're hard at work, and we hope you'll begin noticing how far we have come.

And, you know what? The best is yet to come.




Good question! This is about all of us, together, discussing Killsquad. You DO have a voice, so, if you love Killsquad, and want your voice heard, please post your questions to us as a response to this message. You can also find this post in the Events section of our forums.

You can discuss ANYTHING, and we promise to answer everything directly, in our usual no-bullshit way.

Only one request though: please do keep things constructive and civil. So, like we did last time, here are our questions to provoke debate:

• What existing system needs a rework/redesign?
  
• What is great, and we need more of?
  
• What should we totally remove from the game?
  
• Which are things you've seen in other games, that you'd love to see in Killsquad?
  

Of course we may group questions together, as most likely several people may be interested in the same area.




Easy! The Gathering will be posted here on Steam & on YouTube. And, of course, on the day of the posting, we will be answering questions live! Stay tuned as we will create channels for that.




For this Gathering, we'd love you guys to post questions until the end of Friday, November 1st, and we will post the video exactly one week later, November 8th.

So, to wrap up:

This is your game, we want to hear your voice.

Post your questions & ideas until end of Friday, November 1st, by simply responding to this post.

Expect our first Gathering video with answers and goodies a week after, November 8th.

Can't wait to see you there!

Hello everybody!

We’re thrilled to announce our Federation update, available now. This is our biggest update ever, bringing a new progression system, player profiles, skins, as well as the all new Federation Forces and Spec Ops contracts.

This is part of a double whammy of updates: expect a second update in a week or so where we will upgrade our networking to support jump-in (being able to join an ongoing game) and stay together (keeping the squad together after contract so you can keep playing).

We’d love to thank all our Beta guys for tirelessly reporting bugs,as well as to all of you fans for your patience and support. Expect a lot of news in these days. Giveaways. Merchandise. Sales. Great things are coming. And a special surprise for Halloween. Things are gonna get… spooky.

Let me also announce that, after Halloween, we will celebrate our second Gathering of Bounty Hunters. Because this is a game about you, and about what you want us to do. But, before that, enjoy Federation. We leave you guys with the full patch notes here, so you get 100% clarity on how we’re spending all the funding we’re receiving through Early Access:



Spec Ops League

Unlocked the Special Operations Rank, the hardest challenges available only for the most experienced players.

· It unlocks when players have reached Vector 95 with any Character.
· Contains an exclusive contract: Trouble in Paradise (Vector 125).
· In future Updates we will expand the Spec Ops with new contracts.

Federation Forces

BioSystems Labs is having a tiny problem with The Federation. As always, they want to ensure that everything is only under their control. So now they are entrenched in Wasteland 7A, and have this huge camp, trying to play the tough guy. Your part on this? BioSystems Labs wants you to find the operation Commandeer, and kill him. Don't underestimate him though, he is infamous for his deadly "shield-trap", but some rumors say that it is possible to escape...

· Expanded the Federation Unit, with new troops, barricades and even deadly traps!

· Added a new Squad from the Federation:

- The Commander
- The Rookie Artillery
- The Rookie Grenadier
- The Rookie Melee
- The Turret Gunner.
- Automatic Turret.

Traps

- Added Laser-sensored Electric panels.
- Added Weight-sensored Floor Spikes.
· These deadly traps can be activated by entering in contact with its sensors. It can hurt enemies too!

Progression System

- New Profile Screen:

Now you can inspect players to see its statistics and progression.

· Added the average rank progression number of each hero in the player's portrait.
· Added Profile inspection: By hovering the mouse at your profile picture, you can see the Rank of the current hero, the equipped Badges and its faction.
· Added Detailed inspection: By Clicking at the new Profile button or by left-clicking the mouse at your profile picture, you can reveal more information:

- General Statistics: Played matches, Victory ratio, Enemy deaths, MVP, Most played character, Earned credits.
- Statistics on current selected hero: Played matches, Victory ratio, Enemy deaths, MVP.
- Hero rewards: Skins and portraits.
- Hero current Vector and Rank.
- Factions.
- Portraits.
- Badges.

· You can inspect other players too, but you won't be able to see its unlockables.

Hero Career path

· Added a new progression system on each Hero. At the end of every contract, you gain EXP depending of your performance. By leveling up its ranks you can earn unlockables, from new portraits to new skins.

Factions

Players can now choose in which Faction they want to be. By equipping one, it changes their profile color and grands you extra EXP if you complete objectives related to each Faction.
It can be accessed by clicking at the bottom left-corner of the Profile Screen.

· Added 4 Factions that can be leveled up to unlock rewards and bonuses:

The Unseen: By Completing Colosseum Contracts/Portals.
Rebel: By Killing Federation Units.
Consortium: By spending currency in the Shop.
Sentinel: By destroying anything related to the Plague, such as Crystal Fragments or the Nightbringer.

· Leveling up Faction levels grands you with Titles that can be displayed under your nickname.
· Equipped Factions will be displayed next to the player's nickname.
· Each Factions have unlockable bonuses related to their theme. Such as earning the possibility of gaining a 25% discount on every item bought from the Biosystem Labs or being able to buy higher vectored Unseen Equipment.
· In future updates we will unlock the rest of the Factions.

Portraits

· Added unlockable Portraits: Now you can buy and equip portraits once you unlock them by achieving its requisites.

Badges

· Added Badges: By completing its achievements you can unlock badges, to later equip it up to 3 of them in your profile.
· Tier system: Each badge has three tiers, leveling up your badges evolves its appearance.


Squad/Statistics

Expanded the Statistics screen at the end of the match. Now the MVP isn't always the players who top scores in damage.

· Added MVP to highlight the player who contributed the most on a victorious contract.
· Added yellow dots that appear in each category (Damage, Healing, Damage Taken, Deaths, Resurrections, Kills) to highlight the player who top scored.
· Added Match Time at the top of the right-corner, the duration of that session.
· Added the Hero level progression bar and the Faction progression at the end of the statistics screen.



General

· Increased Cass' health with an extra 500hp.
· Updated the Federation encounters. Added two barricades and the new units can appear in the Federation Squad.
· Revision on the UI to improve the feedback and readability of some elements.
· Revision on Tooltips to make it compacter in order to reduce overlapping elements and make it more comfortable to read.
· Made the Colosseum EXP available to see all times in the lobby menu instead of briefly seeing them at the end of the challenge, it is now located in The Unseen Faction.
· Added a couple of new environment maps in the "Wasteland 7A" location.
· Added a check mark on the player's name when they are ready to play.
· Added particle effects on Helldörren's stomp attack.
· Added a fire texture in Helldörren when he changes of phase.
· Added particles in Cass' Dimensional Tear and added particles to differentiate between the default and the upgraded skill.
· Added particle effects in some elements from the Palace of Pain.
· Added particle effects on Cass' Teleport Skill and some decal effects.
· Added particle effects on Cass' Teleport Skill to differentiate between the default and the Upgraded version.
· Added particle effects in intractable elements on each Planet.
· Added particle effects when Chests are going to appear.
· Added particle effects on every chest.
· Added particle effects when the players are affected by an slowdown debuff.
· Added particle effects and decals on Helldorren's cone-ranged attacks.
· Added decals on Enraged Myr's explosion.
· Added particle effects on Troy's Gravity Shot skill.
· Added particle effects on Troy's Execution Shot skill.
· Added particles on Troy's Strong Shot Upgrade skill, Detonable Shot.
· Added particle effects on Kosmos' Abyssal Destruction weapon.
· Added audio in Kemmekh's elevators when they are activated.
· Added audio in the weapon's Ice effect.
· Added audio in Zero's Stinger weapon effect, when it heals teammate's shield.
· Added audio in Cass' The Reaper weapon effect.
· Added audio in Kosmo's Chupacabras weapon effect.
· Added audio in Zero's Counterclaim weapon effect.
· Added audio in players when they get hit.
· Upgraded the particles of Kosmos' Berserk Burning Aura circle.
· Updated the particle effect of Zero's Event Horizon Ultimate Skill.
· Updated the particle effects of the Federation Forces spawning.
· Updated the particles of Cass' Phase Shift Upgrade skill, Decay.
· Updated particle effects on Cass' Shuriken skill and its impact.
· Fixed the issue where the size of Troy's Solar Void passive didn't match the effect.
· Fixed the particle effect's position of Zero's Laser Trap skill and Kosmos' Staff of Fthu'gonn's particles.
· Fixed the issue where Troy's Pisci'uum and Zero's Wave Trap particle effect duration didn't match with the weapon's effect.
· Fixed the bug in multiplayer where the sound looped infinitely when a Client died while resurrecting a teammate.


What are we doing right now:

· We are working on the ability of being able to join during on-going contracts, we are working on the ability to stay together with the Squad when the session is over. This had the knock-on effect that we had to delay the release of the new Hero. Thank you everyone for your feedback!
· If your game crashes, please send us your saved folder (C:\Users%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Killsquad\Saved) here at [email protected]

Want to help? Here's how:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/killsquadgame
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/novarama_official/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/Killsquad-2214554828614147
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCg8XEl5FRxRzJPPL_kb4HFA
Discord: https://discord.gg/wbHeS54

Please say hi on social networks, tell your friends about Killsquad and, if you have 5 minutes, post a review. All these things are free, and add tremendous value!

Best regards,

Novarama

Hello there!

We're deep in the trenches working on three updates simultaneously, so we wanted to share with you guys how things are looking in a general update. This supersedes our previous roadmap. And adds a few hints of cool things to come. As usual, we have good news, less good news, and cool things on the horizon:

1) Today, as planned and discussed, we drop 0.7.3, which includes the new contract browser. This won't cure cancer in itself, but as you'll see shortly, it's part of a larger strategy we're rolling out during the next few weeks. For the time being, you can now find all contracts and resources in a more useful display.

2) Oct 11th we will drop FEDERATION, our next large content update. This includes:

• All Fed units seen in our Gathering: commanders, artillery, turrets, barricades
  
• A Fed-themed Special Ops contract, vector 150. Wanna suffer? We know suffering!
  
• New Fed ambushes across veteran with using all these units, which should enrich the Fed / Veteran experience
  
• The new profile screen & career path for your heroes, which includes portraits, badges, skins, whatnot. This is a big system that should provide many hours of fun.
  
• The new Hero Rank metric as described in the Gathering
  

3) Oct 18th we plan to drop our 2nd Community Update, as discused with you guys. We could be wrong, but we feel this one includes THE cure to (we hope) our core problems:

• On the new contract screen, we add the abiity to "jump in" an ongoing public contract, so gone is the time when you had to wait alone in the lobby. All ongoing games become candidate sessions for you to join. This is taking a long time to implement, but we hope to attack the core of our community problem with this
  
• Also, allow teams to stay together after a contract, so the squad is not disbanded. Again, trying to make it easier to build squads and keep them having fun.
  
• We will drop this update or parts of it via a Beta if available earlier, so stay tuned.
  

4) A separate team is working on PLAGUE, our Halloween themed update: new contract types, curses and damnations. This is the update where we will delay Eekar the Engineer, our fifth character, as we agreed to give priority to the Community Update. Sorry about that guys


5) And Christmas should see our REFUGEE update, which:

• Upgrades our weapon systems as described in the Gathering
  
• Adds quest systems to support the new weapons
  
• Adds Eekar the engineer
  
• Adds new semiboss creatures as shown on the Gathering. These are of a similar statute as the Nightbringers, so with this our Veteran level should feel quite rich compared to Recruit, with Nightbringers, Feds and 3 special semibosses there.
  
• If time allows, add a lobby chat to reinforce even more the achievements of the Community update. If you're LFG, say so in the chat!
  

As a small thank-you gift for reading this far, we got a lot of requests at Trade Shows for Killsquad merchandise. We are very much working on this, talking with several candidate partners who wanna make you guys look cool. Expect news soon, very exciting times ahead.

BTW, we're trying to publicise our Twitter account as we see a lot of people here on Steam are not even aware we DO have Twitter. So, go follow @killsquadgame if you can. Very appreciated!

And as usual, report bugs on [email protected], and drop a review if you can. It helps keep the team motivated!

Best,

Novarama