Hi everyone! Mark here with a Development Update news post about what's coming for Adeptus Titanicus: Dominus!
Players who have been keeping tabs on us or chatting with Glenn and me in our Steam Discussion forums already have a good idea of what we're currently working on (and that's definitely the best way to stay abreast of what we're up to), but we know not everyone has the time to hang around and chat with us—and it's been a while since our last formal update—so we wanted to do a Development Update news post to let you know what we're working on and what you can look forward to in the next update.
Parallel works
There are some things we're both working on together, in parallel with things we're working on individually.
Single-player Campaign
The first and foremost of these parallel works is a massive bucket of work that we tend to refer to as the Single-player Campaign work—broadly speaking, Glenn is working on 3D art assets for the campaign while I'm working on delivery of the story elements and mission structure.
The single-player campaign is not yet ready for release. This will be the focus of the next Major Update, which will most likely be the last Major Update before we hit Version 1.
Campaign story and artworks
While we're discussing the single-player campaign, I can let you know our story and script were approved a while back (and we're REALLY happy with how both of those have turned out!). At that time, we engaged a fantastic artist for the campaign story art, Tazio Bettin, who many of you will know from his work in the 40K comics arena. Tazio is an extremely talented artist and we're really enjoying working with him.
We can't wait for you to experience the story and its art when the campaign is ready to play!
Individual works
Final iterations of Reaver and Warhound
One of Glenn's major efforts over the past few months has been in finalising the Reaver and Warhound, in order to bring those models into line with the quality of the final Warlord and Banelord, which have been in the game for a good while now.
The process of finalising Titan models is a painstaking one and not something that can be rushed, so we very much appreciate the patience you have all shown in waiting for these.
The good news, then, is that the next update will feature the final Reaver model, and I know Glenn can't wait for you to see it in all its glory!
The final Warhound model will be featured in a later update—most likely the one following.
Improved Multi-player Lobby
One of the most requested feature improvements we see in the Discussion forums is for an improved Multi-player Lobby system that allows players to choose the battlefield on which they play. For me, this has been a major focus for the next update, and I'm very happy to say that this feature improvement is now in internal release testing!
In the next update, you will be able to set up your game in a New Game dialog, which allows selection of the battlefield from a dropdown list.
User-defined keybindings
Another often-requested feature, particularly for those playing in non-English countries, is user-defined keybindings. This has been my second major focus for the next update, and I'm again very happy to say that this feature is now in internal release testing!
In the next update, from the Options dialog, you will be able to open the Keybindings dialog. In this dialog, you will be able to review default keybindings and re-bind any of them to suit your keyboard layout or just your personal preference.
This feature has been a long time coming (mainly because it was really hard to get right!), so I'm particularly happy that this is included in the next update. For those of you playing in non-English languages, I hope you will accept my heart-felt apology that this has taken so long—I am extremely grateful for the patience you have shown me.
And I haven't forgotten about content localisation, by the way—that feature is coming in a future update.
Localisation!
Yes, I have fiiiiiinally implemented localisation, adding German, French and Spanish language support, and this will be an important feature of the next update.
We will discuss our plans for other languages a bit further into development.
Bug-fixes
Of course, the next update will have as many bug-fixes as I can squeeze into it.
The focus of this update is on Multi-player issues, so the majority of the bug fixes are for that mode; however, there are also fixes for a few of the more serious issues that have impacted single-player games, most notably an issue that was affecting the turn sequence.
Lots to look forward to!
So that's it for this update. We hope you're looking forward to the updates discussed above, and we'll of course be keeping an eye on your feedback.
Glenn and I are always extremely grateful to our player community for your patience and your continuing support for us and Adeptus Titanicus: Dominus through this Early Access journey. We remain greatly appreciative of the feedback you share with us, via your Steam reviews and Discussions forum posts, as well as for your enthusiasm for what Glenn and I are trying to achieve with Dominus. Thank you.
We hope you will continue to add your voices on our Steam Discussions forum, in Discord, on Facebook and on Twitter, sharing your thoughts and opinions with us, and your suggestions as to how we can further improve. — Mark & Glenn
Skulls for the Skull Throne 4 - Special Khorne-inspired scenario released!
Hi everyone! It's Glenn and Mark here with a couple of news-worthy announcements for Adeptus Titanicus: Dominus!
SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!!
Yes, the festival of Warhammer gaming that is the SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE sale has arrived!
In celebration of Skulls For The Skull Throne 4, we have not only discounted Adeptus Titanicus: Dominus by a massive 50%, but we've also added a new Khorne-inspired environment and battlefield, featuring an epic set of Chaos fortifications!
This map can now be selected in the new Skulls For The Skull Throne Special Scenario, and it will also appear randomly in your Skirmish and Multi-Player games.
The Skulls For The Skull Throne Special Scenario is our biggest yet, with a whopping 10,000 points for each side!
Because of the much larger scale of the Skulls scenario compared with other scenarios, we'll be keeping a keen eye on our Steam forums in case anyone's PC struggles under the weight of so many Titans all at once, so let us know if you do have difficulties with it. Our internal testing indicates the performance adjustments we've been working on are doing their jobs and keeping performance reasonable, but please do let us know in the forums if you experience difficulties with the increased force sizes.
Thank you!
Glenn and I very much hope you enjoy the new Skulls battlefield and its scenario. We remain extremely grateful to all players in the Adeptus Titanicus: Dominus community for your continuing feedback and support for Dominus as we undertake our Early Access journey. Your Steam reviews and enthusiasm for 40K and Dominus is very much appreciated.
We hope you will continue to add your voices on our Steam Discussions forum, in Discord, on Facebook and on Twitter, sharing your thoughts and opinions with us, and your suggestions as to how we can improve the game and as a team. — Mark & Glenn
Fixes for Sliding Titans, Close Combat AI and more
Hi everyone! Mark here with another update, this time aimed at fixing up a few of the more annoying issues in Dominus—some of which, embarrassingly, have been with us since we launched into Early Access!
AI Still Misbehaving in Close Combat
The first and more important fix we've implemented is to the AI in Close Combat, as the AI Titans were STILL misbehaving even after the last update.
We finally identified that there were several issues working together. Independently, each issue did not do anything all that terrible and went largely unnoticed; however, when they occurred simultaneously, the results could be rather annoying, and see the AI Titans seemingly cheat their way out of Close Combat.
The good news is that these issues have now been tracked down and rectified. You should no longer see the AI Titans escaping your clutches by walking out of Close Combat (although they can still choose to flee with a March order, as can your Titans, as this is actually something we would encourage where necessary—say, when your poor Warlord has been cornered by a Banelord!).
Sliding Titans
The next fix is one that has annoyed many of you for far too long—Titans sliding across the terrain instead of animating properly with a walk or a run.
This particularly issue has taken me a long, looong time to track down, but I am very happy to say that I finally spotted where the error was occurring.
For what it's worth, the cause was a stupid, STUPID logic error on my part. I have appropriately berated myself—A LOT—for my apparent idiocy. When I realised what I'd done and where the error was...suffice to say, I was "a tad chagrinned" and called myself many, many bad things. All of which were well deserved. But I'm ecstatic now that the problem is finally resolved. ːsteamhappyː
Cinematic Camera
We've also fixed an issue that was impacting certain Cinematic Camera positions. This too turned out to be a very silly mistake on my part (a rookie syntax error) that should have been picked up AAAAGES ago. More berating of self has since occurred, but again it's good to know it is fixed.
While fixing this issue, we also took the time to add a requested camera position, which is a "pilot's point of view" perspective.
We know the Cinematic Camera still needs more attention to get to where it should be, but this will likely need to wait now until after our final Major Update, as we need to focus on completing the single-player campaign and the final iterations of the Reaver and Warhound Titans.
Thank you
We hope you enjoy Dominus that little bit more with these fixes, and we of course hope you will continue to add your voices on our Steam Discussions forum, in Discord, on Facebook and on Twitter, sharing your thoughts and opinions with us, and your suggestions as to how we can further improve.
Glenn and I are always extremely grateful to our player community for your patience and your continuing support for us and Adeptus Titanicus: Dominus through this Early Access journey. We remain greatly appreciative of the feedback you share with us, via your Steam reviews and Discussions forum posts, as well as for your enthusiasm for what Glenn and I are trying to achieve with Dominus.
Thank you.
A small update that is part of paving the way to the campaign
Hi everyone! Today, we have released a small, but important, update.
A while between drinks
Firstly, we realise it's been a while since our last update, for which we can only apologise. The reasons are mainly due to Mark being busy with rebuilding his house (which took a year!) after a nasty storm at the end of 2018 caused most of it to fall down.
As of this month, Mark's home is now rebuilt, which is good news! ːsteamhappyː
Changes to AI in Close Combat
Several players reported in our Steam Discussions forums that AI Titans were not behaving correctly in Close Combat—notably, being able to shoot in Close Combat and/or being able to walk out of Close Combat. We have fixed this, so AI Titans should not be able to shoot after you've engaged them in Close Combat—and they can only leave Close Combat with a March order, same as players. We apologise for these bugs.
Cinematic mode is no longer the default
We received a lot of feedback that made it clear Cinematic Mode was confusing some players, who thought that was the ONLY mode available.
While you can of course (for those who noticed it) turn Cinematic Mode off in the Options menu or the Options dialog in-game, nonetheless to help those players who prefer a more strategic view, we have defaulted Cinematic Mode to off in this build.
If you DO like Cinematic Mode, you can turn it back on in the Options menu (from Main menu) or the Options dialog in game again, and thereafter it will remain on (until you toggle it of, that is). ːsteamhappyː
Snap-To Camera now stops after first activation
A number of players let us know that the camera snapping to an available unactivated Titan at the start of each activation opportunity was annoying.
We have removed this feature for the time being to see if that is preferable, so snap-to now only happens once, at the start of your first activation opportunity.
Back-end changes needed for single-player campaign
We have made a large number of back-end preparations for the single-player campaign. These should not affect your playing experience, but please notify us in our Steam Discussion forums if you notice anything that is no longer working as expected.
Thank you!
Glenn and I are always extremely grateful to our player community for your patience and your continuing support for us and Adeptus Titanicus: Dominus through this Early Access journey. We remain greatly appreciative of the feedback you share with us, via your Steam reviews and Discussions forum posts, as well as for your enthusiasm for what Glenn and I are trying to achieve with Dominus. Thank you.
We hope you will continue to add your voices on our Steam Discussions forum, in Discord, on Facebook and on Twitter, sharing your thoughts and opinions with us, and your suggestions as to how we can further improve. — Mark & Glenn
New Warlord Titan model released—with Powerfists!
Hi everyone! Glenn and I are very happy to let you know we have released the long-awaited final iteration of the Warlord Titan.
You are likely already aware that Glenn and I regularly review the feedback we've received and make changes when we decide requested features are something we can and should implement. Your feedback told us you wanted greater customisability to the look-and-feel of the Titans, namely things like a variety of heads and armour plates, so you can give your Titans greater individuality.
And you also told us you wanted Powerfists for your Warlords.
So here it is! The final iteration of the Warlord model brings this level of customisability AND Powerfists!
The above-mentioned customisability enhancements have been done as part of our already planned final iterations for each Titan, starting with the Warlord, so today's update provides a brand new Warlord model with new textures and much greater customisability, resulting in an enhanced visual overall.
The Warlord is the first of the Titans to get its final model, and the fact the other Titans still have the out-dated look-and-feel will mean that the difference in visual fidelity will be quite stark. Of course, the Reaver and Warhound will be getting their own final iterations soon—a much quicker exercise now thanks to the tools and processes we established in redeveloping the Warlord—so there's good news in that you won't have to put up with the marked difference in visual quality for very long. ːsteamhappyː
As mentioned, we have also added the first of the new weapon systems to the Warlord—the Warlord Powerfist! More weapon systems will follow, along with the final iterations of the Reaver and Warhound.
Glenn and I are always extremely grateful to our player community for your patience and your continuing support for us and Adeptus Titanicus: Dominus through this Early Access journey. We remain greatly appreciative of the feedback you share with us, via your Steam reviews and Discussions forum posts, as well as for your enthusiasm for what Glenn and I are trying to achieve with Dominus. Thank you.
We hope you will continue to add your voices on our Steam Discussions forum, in Discord, on Facebook and on Twitter, sharing your thoughts and opinions with us, and your suggestions as to how we can further improve. — Mark & Glenn
Dev Update
Hi everyone! Mark here with a development update. It's been a while since our last update, so we wanted to fill you in as much as we're allowed to about what we've been working on.
You are likely already aware that Glenn and I regularly review the feedback we've received and make changes when we decide requested features are something we can and should implement. Most recently, the features we decided to implement based on your feedback involved greater customisability to the look-and-feel of the Titans, namely things like a variety of heads and armour plates, so you can give your Titans greater individuality, so this is what the next update will bring as part of the brand-new Warlord model.
We think you'll like it when you get to play around with it. ːsteamhappyː
FINAL TITAN ITERATIONS
WARLORD The above-mentioned customisability enhancements have been done as part of our already planned final iterations for each Titan, starting with the Warlord, so the next update will provide a brand new Warlord model with new textures and much greater customisability, resulting in an enhanced visual overall.
We have also added the first of the new weapon systems to the Warlord—we have added Warlord Power Claws!—so you will get to play with those in the next update. ːsteamhappyː
A NOTE ON TIMEFRAMES The Warlord updates have been a significant effort, especially as there were all-new lessons Glenn and I had to learn, which is why the gap between updates has been so long. We would of course have liked this to take much less time, but we are extremely happy with the end result, so we know that time has been well spent.
And there is good news in that the tools and processes we have developed as part of the Warlord works will greatly improve the timeframes for the Reaver and Warhound redevelopments, so the final iterations of those Titans should not take anywhere near as long.
REAVER AND WARHOUND Once the Warlord is done, we will do the same thing with the Reaver and the Warhound—improving the models and textures, enhancing them with custom options and adding new weapon systems. We will most likely release each Titan update as a separate update, as we want to avoid large gaps going forward.
ADDITIONAL WEAPON SYSTEMS
As discussed above, we will be releasing new weapon systems alongside the final iterations of each Titan, and then expanding the available weapons further over time. The first new weapon system will be the Warlord Power Claws, as mentioned, and then others will follow. The most advanced of these are the Reaver Gatling Blaster and the Warhound's top-mounted Plasma Blastgun, and there are more in the pipeline to give you more and more options for how you configure your Titans for battle.
We had actually intended to release new weapon systems before now; however, the increased scope in the redevelopment of the Titans (the improved textures art and the customisability) meant that we had to do the final Titan iterations first, and then release new weapon systems for the new models (because the approaches between how we did them last iteration and these final iterations is very different).
SINGLE-PLAYER CAMPAIGN
We have also continued our work on the campaign in parallel with the Titan updates discussed above. There is still not much we are able to tell you about the campaign at the present time, but I can say we have settled on the plotline and the story artwork is coming together. We will talk more about the campaign when we can.
A BRIEF ONE-WEEK HOLIDAY
School holidays are upon us here in Australia right now, and Glenn and I are taking next week off to recharge the batteries and remind our families who we are. (That's right, kids! Dad isn't actually dead—he just looks that way!) ːsteamhappyː
We'll be back in the office refreshed and ready for more Titan-on-Titan combat goodness from 14 October, though!
THANKS FOR YOUR PATIENCE!
Glenn and I are always extremely grateful to our player community for your patience and your continuing support for us and Adeptus Titanicus: Dominus through this Early Access journey. We remain greatly appreciative of the feedback you share with us, via your Steam reviews and Discussions forum posts, as well as for your enthusiasm for what Glenn and I are trying to achieve with Dominus. Thank you.
We hope you will continue to add your voices on our Steam Discussions forum, in Discord, on Facebook and on Twitter, sharing your thoughts and opinions with us, and your suggestions as to how we can further improve. — Mark & Glenn
33% off Adeptus Titanicus: Dominus in the Steam Summer Sale!
The Steam Summer sale is on! Which means that, right now, you can get 33% off Adeptus Titanicus: Dominus!
Steam has also launched a fun event as part of the Summer Sale this year. They are giving players the chance to earn points that can be redeemed for special rewards. Similar to the rewards from the Lunar New Year Sale Rewards Booth, those who have spent a certain amount can redeem their points for a special US$5 instant discount coupon (or equivalent currency), emoticons, badges, and more. Cool! ːsteamhappyː
— Glenn & Mark
You are likely already aware that Glenn and I have been reviewing the feedback received to-date and making changes to game play when we decide it is a good idea to do so. Today's update is focussed on implementing a variety of changes based on your feedback. We hope you enjoy the changes.
SHOOTING CHANGES: LONG RANGE ATTACKS
Further to our last round of changes to how shooting works, we received generally supportive feedback, but also some useful criticisms that have caused us to review shooting again.
In today's update, we have made some key changes that should further improve your experience with shooting in Dominus. In addition, today's update of course also brings in the flanking bonuses and weapon destruction mechanics we announced in our last news post.
You can now shoot with reasonable accuracy at ANY range. While accuracy is now good at long range, shots made at longer than optimum range will suffer a significant penetration penalty as the power of the shot falls off, making it very hard for these shots to do damage against a Titan's awesome armour (but not impossible).
This change makes it possible to engage from Turn 1, if your Titans can pick a line of fire to their target. You will discover there are both advantages and disadvantages to doing so, however.
FLANKING BONUS
We have again revised how damage works, this time adding differentials between front and rear armour values. In practical terms, you can now out-flank your opponent's Titans to gain a significant penetration bonus against their rear armour. If you're able to get behind your target, your Titans now gain a significantly improved chance to hit and penetrate.
This flanking bonus makes your nimble Scout Titans more dangerous to their larger Battle Titan cousins—if you can sneak them around for shots on the rear!
This has potential to be a real game-changer as, with careful manoeuvring, faster Titans can potentially exploit rear armour vulnerabilities. We will be watching our Steam Discussion forums for your feedback, so please let us know what you think of this change.
WEAPON DESTRUCTION
Titans' weapons are now destructible! Weapons fire that strikes the actual weapons now has a chance to inflict catastrophic damage, to the point where the weapon is completely destroyed. This chance is increased for Macro Weapons—and particularly Titan Killers.
EXPANSION OF DEPLOYMENT OPTIONS
We have expanded your deployment options from 9 to 18 positions in Maniple Builder. In addition, the new deployment positions are further forward on the map, starting closer to the front line. The extra deployment points mean you can properly enable strategies like a refused flank.
Combined with the shooting changes discussed above, these deployment changes mean combat is likely to be initiated on Turn 1!
SCENARIO AND SKIRMISH ARMY LISTS RECREATED
All scenario army lists have been recreated to take advantage of the deployment changes, so the scenarios now offer veteran players all-new tactical challenges!
WHAT'S NEXT?
Recently, you have probably noticed our focus has been on improving the player experience within Dominus, and this will certainly continue throughout Early Access—and beyond, in all likelihood—but you will increasingly see new content coming online in future updates. In part, this will flow from our iterating of existing assets like the Titans themselves, which will be getting new weapon systems, new assets like weapon systems, but also environment palettes and of course new battlefields using those palettes.
We remain extremely grateful to our player community for your continued support for us and Adeptus Titanicus: Dominus through our Early Access journey. Your feedback, your Steam reviews and your enthusiasm for what Glenn and I are trying to achieve with Dominus is always greatly appreciated.
We hope you will continue to add your voices on our Steam Discussions forum, in Discord, on Facebook and on Twitter, sharing your thoughts and opinions with us, and your suggestions as to how we can further improve.
— Mark & Glenn
News! Flanking bonuses and weapon destruction incoming!
While we were very busy for the past couple of months preparing the Banelord for Games Workshop's Skulls for the Skull Throne 3 event, Glenn and I were also spending time in review. Two key changes that were often requested are to introduce flanking mechanics and to make it possible to destroy weapons.
Today, we can let you know that the next update will bring in both of these features!
FLANKING BONUS
If you're able to get behind your target, your Titans will gain a significantly improved chance to hit and penetrate. This flanking bonus will make your nimble Scout Titans more dangerous to their larger Battle Titan cousins—IF you can sneak them around for shots on the rear!
WEAPON DESTRUCTION
Titans' weapons will be destructible! If a weapon is struck by weapons fire, there is a chance it will penetrate and cause catastrophic damage, destroying the weapon.
As always, we are extremely grateful for your continued support for us and Adeptus Titanicus: Dominus through our Early Access journey. Your feedback, your Steam reviews and your enthusiasm for what Glenn and I are trying to achieve with Dominus constantly amazes us and is ALWAYS appreciated.
We hope you will continue to add your voices on our Steam Discussions forum, in Discord, on Facebook and on Twitter, sharing your thoughts and opinions with us, and your suggestions as to how we can further improve.
— Mark & Glenn
Skulls for the Skull Throne 3 - Banelord!
Games Workshop's Skulls for the Skull Throne 3 sale is now on, and to celebrate this great festival of Warhammer gaming, we have made the mighty Banelord Chaos Titan of Khorne available to Adeptus Titanicus: Dominus Chaos players!
The Banelord is a possessed Warlord-class Battle Titan armed with the terrifying Hellstrike Cannon and the Doom Fist for epic close-quarters destruction.
The Banelord is now available for selection by all Chaos players in both single- and multi-player games.
BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!!
