We’ve just uploaded the first bug fix patch for Rogue Continuum online multiplayer. This is just a bug fix patch, so it doesn’t have any new features, but it does fix some of the more annoying issues we found out after launch. The issues fixed are:
Fixed: Enemy hitpoints (especially bosses) were not updating properly when being hit by more than one player simultaneously.
Fixed: If a game host left the hangar, the game would still be visible in the games list for about 30 more seconds.
Fixed: Cancel button not working correctly on some menus, when using a gamepad.
Fixed: Minimap would occasionally center on the incorrect other player when the player’s own hero has died.
Fixed: If the player’s own hero died, the player would be unable to switch the spectator-cam to other heroes (in a 3-player or 4-player game)
We hope you’re enjoying the online multiplayer modes. Next week we’ll have a proper feature update, so please stay tuned for that!
Regards,
William
Rogue Continuum is Now Online
Online Multiplayer Update
Hey everyone! Rogue Continuum is now online. We had been doing a lot of final testing, bug fixing and balancing during the past couple of weeks, and are happy to say the game is ready to be played online on a broader scale now. Currently the multiplayer servers we’re using are in the U.S., but we plan to enable Asia and Europe servers later on.
Play-testing the online multiplayer mode has been quite fun, thanks to all the awesome people who’ve helped us playtest the game (there’ll be a credits section in the game shortly).
Again, we’re sorry this multiplayer update took so long to complete, and are really grateful to everyone waiting patiently for this update. Some of you had contacted us about Xbox One controllers not working on Windows 10 while playing the game. That has been fixed in this update too.
Along with further balancing/tweaking and fixes, we’re already working on implementing the next remaining feature right now, which is adding in the other two abilities for each hero.
So, head on over to the online multiplayer tab and we'll see you there!
Regards,
William Tan
Rocktastic Games
Online Multiplayer will be live next week!
First off, we’re really sorry about how long you've had to wait for the online multiplayer. Making the game online-ready was definitely one of the most difficult tasks we undertook. If we could start-over, we'd definitely begin with coding the online modes. We underestimated the amount of time it takes to optimize a fast-paced twin-stick shooter, especially one with lots of enemies.
Now, after more than 300 builds and enough coffee to 'buzz up' a small army, we can announce... it's finally coming! Yes, you heard right. We will be launching online multiplayer on July 19th U.S. PDT, so we can all be shooting green-blooded galactic scum together. We’ve extensively tested the game online and would love to hear your feedback. Let us know how it goes for you.
Full disclosure: We made a few adjustments to the online mode. Having listened to feedback from the tests, we've cut down on some of the dialog. Also, enemy damage, HP and spawns have been balanced better for online play.
We've also taken the decision to make Online mode available for Rogue mode but not for Conquest mode. It was really important to make Rogue Mode, which is the main gameplay mode, as good as it can be. The experience is now much better than if we'd split our efforts between both modes. We understand this might disappoint some of you, but hopefully you will still enjoy Conquest mode with friends in the offline multiplayer.
Now that we're delivering the online Online, our next step is to continue improving and completing the game for all our fans ahead of the full launch. Here are next tasks we're working on:
Steam trading cards (we hear ya, and we’re gonna make it happen)
Two additional special abilities for each hero
Final boss world (sorry, no spoilers!)
We’ll also be posting a lot more updates here over the coming weeks. I know we went radio silent for a bit while we were getting online multiplayer done. We hope you forgive us for that but we needed to remain focused. Going forward, Trip, our artist and animator for the game, will join me in providing updates for you all. We're also listening to everything you tell us. So if you have any questions just let us know.
In the meantime, please stay tuned for the online multiplayer update to be released on July 19th. See you all online!
-William Tan
Rocktastic Games
Surprise Attack Sale, Rogue Continuum 15% off
Listen up soldiers! Just a quick update to let you know that Surprise Attack Games is having a sale to celebrate a brand new localisation update for their terminal-based hacking game, Hacknet. So tell all your friends, because there are some great deals, including 15% off Rogue Continuum!
You can also view the entire Surprise Attack Games catalogue by clicking here!
Until next time, keep defending the galaxy!
Steve - Community Manager
Online Multiplayer
Hey everyone,
Some people have been asking us where the online multiplayer update for Rogue Continuum is. Well, we wanted to take the time to explain the delay.
A few months ago, Unity (the game engine we're developing Rogue Continuum on) released a brand new multiplayer framework for developers. After doing some research and testing it out, we decided to switch our multiplayer engine from our current method (we were using an older multiplayer framework), to the new native Unity multiplayer implementation. As a result, we had to re-code all of our network code to make it work, but this would mean a smoother experience for everyone, as well as allow us to keep the netcode updated longer after release.
The good news is that we have the basic online multiplayer functionality in our developer build, and we're making great progress towards the public release. Once we are confident that the netcode is stable, we'll launch the online multiplayer update on a new framework that offers more stability and support post launch.
Thanks for your patience! We're look forward to getting the online multiplayer into your hands as soon as possible. In the meantime, please keep providing us feedback for the current build on the Steam forums :)
regards,
William Tan
Rocktastic Games
The Conquer The Galaxy Update is Now Live!
Conquer the Galaxy Update
Hey alien exterminators! We’re really excited to announce the next update for Rogue Continuum. This is a pretty big update that has taken a little longer than expected, but we’ve been hard at work adding a lot to the game, and feel the extra time taken was well worth it (we hope you agree too!)
In this Conquer the Galaxy update, we have a new Conquest Mode that goes alongside the original Rogue Mode. We’ve also added new weapons for all characters as well as continual bug fixes and balancing tweaks.
CONQUEST MODE Conquest Mode came out of player requests to have an arena-like level where hero upgrades happen more frequently, with more enemies on the battlefield too. Well, we’ve taken that concept and added quite a bit more to it. Conquest Mode puts your heroes in a battlefield where you get the activate turrets and barracks, call down dropships of reinforcements, and upgrade base defenses, all while pushing out to destroy the enemies’ encampments.
As the name suggests, we hope that Conquest Mode gives players the feeling of being part of a battlefield, fighting alongside your fellow soldiers and taking on scores of enemies. So, while Rogue Mode feels like you’re part of a surgical strike team, Conquest Mode feels like you’re fighting big battles with heavy artillery and reinforcements.
It’s still at a relatively early stage so we’d love to hear your feedback on this new gameplay style. We’ll be adding more conquest mode levels for launch and making changes to the existing levels throughout early access.
NEW WEAPONS In addition to conquest mode, we’ve promised players new weapons (hence the many weapon crates that have been lying around the map, if you all are wondering). So, in this build we have 2 additional weapons for each hero. Each weapon still has to be unlocked by finding its blueprint, but we’ve set it up such that you should be able to find a new blueprint with each 1-2 runs or so.
Smackdown Sam
The Freedom-X Grenadier has a slow rate of fire but spits out a powerful grenade that splinters into multiple shots on impact, making it ideal for taking down groups of aliens who get in Sam’s way.
The IronMaiden Rapidstrike has reduced firepower but a more rapid fire rate and greater range and accuracy than Sam’s standard issue Assault Rifle.
Ownage Olga
Olga’s EAFL Particle Accelerator emits a powerful laser beam that focus fires on enemies whilst cooking them from the inside out. Its only limitation is the rapid drain of its batteries, with the risk of leaving Olga vulnerable whilst it recharges.
The Freedom-X 360 No-Scope was created to showcase Olga’s awesome shooting skills. No sniper scope/laser sight on this rifle, but it makes up for that with more damage and range.
Rampage Rufus
The Smithton FT-02 Napalm Cannon and the Freedom-B Fire Spitter are two different flamethrowers, giving Rufus a semi-ranged option and have the benefit of setting targeted enemies on fire, dealing continuous damage. They lack the bullet-stopping power of Rufus’ melee weapons and suffer from the same over-heating issues as the chainsaw, though.
Destructobot
Ironmaiden Twinlasers trade reduced damage for the ability to shoot right through the alien scum.
The Armes S20 Buccaneer shoots out explosive cannonballs that have limited range but do tons of damage to aliens (and miraculously, like all other weapons, leave humans unscathed)
ROGUE MODE INTERPLANETARY TRAVEL For those of you who had been asking “why do I always have to start from New Philadelphia”, well, we felt that way too. So, with this new build, once a new planet is unlocked (e.g. the Thorium Mines), you can choose to start your Rogue Mode run from that planet. You’ll still have to complete New Philadelphia, and the enemies there will be a bit tougher since it’s further in the Rogue Run. New planets get unlocked after you beat all existing unlocked planets.
WHAT’S NEXT We know that online multiplayer is still everyone’s number one request and is currently our top priority. We’d have loved to have added online to this update, but will need more work before it’s released. We’re already progressing on online multiplayer; it’ll be the focus of the next major update to the game, which we hope to drop in mid-December.
COME MEET US AT PSX - 5 & 6 DECEMBER We’ve also started initial work on the console versions of the game and will be showing off the PS4 version at PSX in San Francisco from 5-6 December. We’ll be sharing the Surprise Attack Games booth alongside Samurai Punk with their game, Screencheat (published by Surprise Attack Games too). We’d love to meet you in person if you’re in town, so please drop by to meet the team, as well as our friends at Surprise Attack and Samurai Punk!
-William Tan, Rocktastic Games
FULL CHANGELOG
Conquest Mode
Introduced new “Conquest Mode” (details in main update post above)
There are 4 kinds of intergalactic merchants in Conquest Mode: (1) The General merchant sells all items randomly. (2) The Basic Hero Upgrades merchant sells upgrades such as damage+, defense+, speed+ etc. (3) The Drones and Healthkits merchant sells the Laser Drone, Attack Orb and healthkits. (4) The Base Upgrades merchant sells upgrades for turrets and infantry.
Planet selection for Rogue Mode\
The player can now choose the order of planets to run through, in Rogue Mode
Hero Weapons
2 new weapons for each Hero (details in main update post above)
Hero Balancing
Increased Rampage Rufus’ “Combust” special ability’s AOE radius by about 200%. Also included an indicator to show what the AOE radius will be
Increased Smackdown Sam’s machine gun and shotgun base damage by about 20%
Reduced Rampage Rufus’s Chainsaw damage by about 10% (from 50 to 45)
Reduced Rampage Rufus’ Brosword damage by about 35% (from 350 to 228)
Reduced Rufus' chance for auto-block from 20% to 5%
Rogue Mode levels
Intergalactic Merchants in Rogue Mode will now replenish their inventory as the player buys items.
Thorium Mines of Varda Prime: The cave roof is now unstable and will drop pieces of rock from time to time. Well,
sometimes* it will drop pieces of rock from time to time (it’s a roguelike, after all). The pieces of rocks will hurt both heroes and enemies.
Kepler-B Arcturan Training Jungle: Now has land mines on the map, which trigger when heroes get too close. When they detonate, they hurt heroes as well as enemies.
New Philadelphia on Korus-III: The Arcturan Bomber’s bombs now hurt both enemies as well as heroes.
Graphics and Sound
All sound is now positional sound (so you’ll hear where the enemy shots and hits are coming from)
Graphics upgrades for bullets, missiles textures
Korus-III planet has new graphic.
Smackdown Sam has a new voiceover.
Item Selection
Health replenishment now comes in two flavors: The regular HealthKit (replenishes 40% of max HP) and the Health Patch (replenishes 25% of max HP)
Bug fixes and Game Balancing
<*>Various smaller bug fixes and game balancing changes implemented in this release
Major Update Coming This Week - Doubles The Size Of The Game!
Hello everyone,
Later this week, Rocktastic Games is dropping the biggest update yet for Rogue Continuum. Conquer The Galaxy will double the size of the game, adding in an entirely new game mode, and a bunch of other cool additions.
Conquest Mode adds multiple single-level challenges for each planet in the game. You will need to fortify you position, collect resources, upgrade your hero, and then take the fight to various alien bases to destroy them. It's fast, it's frantic, and it's going to test even the best Rogue Continuum players out there.
There's also going to be some new weapons for all four characters when the update drops, including a flamethrower for Rampage Rufus. Now you won't have to get so close and personal when playing this monocled maniac, and it makes for a completely new dynamic. There's a new weapon got each other character too, but we don't want to spoil all the fun before the update drops.
So stay tuned for the update later this week, with full patch notes as always. Keep the feedback coming guys, your support during Early Access has been amazing.
Steve - Community Manager
It's here! The "Bullet-Eater" update patch
Hello everybody! Today we’re happy to announce a much-awaited update build E1.09 for Rogue Continuum.
First and foremost: Rampage Rufus. We’ve gotten a lot of feedback that he has a really tough time in the game because he’s melee, while his foes are ranged. Well, that’s all changed now: Rufus now has the ability to nullify enemy bullets with his sword or chainsaw. This really pumps up his survivability in the game, and we feel he’s now much better equipped to handle the many bullets thrown his way. Check out the screenshot GIF above, or better yet, give him a try!
Next up is Destructobot. We felt that not only did Destructobot’s shield make him a little overpowered compared to the other characters, but his slow-charging shield also made him a bit slower, because players had to wait for it to recharge. So, we modified how his shield works, by reducing his shield’s full capacity by half, but also increasing the recharge rate by 50%. We think this makes Destructobot a bit faster-paced than before. We also bumped his base (un-upgraded) starting HP down slightly, from 1100HP to 900HP. Overall he’s a bit more challenging to play now, but also moves through maps quicker than before due to faster shield recharging.
In addition, we noticed that the completely random chance of medkit spawns sometimes seemed a bit frustrating – players would occasionally get a couple of medkit drops even when they were at full health, and when health was low, medkits sometimes seemed to NEVER appear. That’s fixed too – now, the probability of getting a medkit increases with decreasing hero health. You’re pretty much guaranteed not to get a medkit while at full or near-full health (so you get to pick up a powerup instead *fist pump*), and when your health is low, you’ll have a significantly higher chance of getting a medkit.
The full changelog is below. It contains other balancing notes too and many much-requested changes (like better boss-kill drops, for example) so be sure to check it out :)
Hero changes: Rampage Rufus - Rufus' chainsaw and sword can now nullify enemy bullets
- Rufus' chainsaw has a much faster temperature increase and decrease speed. Also displays "overheated" when the chainsaw is overheated.
- Overheating the chainsaw renders the chainsaw unusable for 1.5 seconds (reduced from previous duration of 3.0s). Note: no change in the sword - the sword is not prone to overheating.
- Rufus base HP reduced from 1000HP to 800HP since his survivability is significantly increased due to being able to nullify enemy bullets
- A speed-line image of a chainsaw now shows on top of Rufus' chainsaw when it's engaged.
Hero changes: Smackdown Sam - Reduced base reload time for machine gun by 20%
Hero changes: Ownage Olga - if Olga shoots a critical shot, indicator text will show up on top of Olga.
Hero changes: Destructobot - Destructobot base HP reduced from 1100HP to 900HP.
- Reduced Destructobot full shield capacity by 50%.
- Increased Destructobot base shield recharge rate by 50%.
- Fixed shield behavior so that if damage taken by Destructobot is more than remaining shield points, damage will first be absorbed by remaining shield points before being deducted from hitpoints.
- Reduced Destructobot's "Missile Barrage" Special Attack's base number of missiles from 9 to 8.
- Increased Destructobot's Missile Pod weapon's base direct damage from 80 to 105; reduced the weapon's splash damage from 20% to 8% of direct damage.
Item balancing - Chance of getting a medkit increases when heroes are low on health. At full health, no medkits will appear.
Enemy Balancing - Enemy bosses now have an approximately 50% chance of dropping a powerup when killed (exact percentage depends on which enemy boss)
- Increased enemy boss kill reward money significantly. Now, if the enemy boss does not drop a powerup, it will drop between 18-25 credits when killed.
- Tweaked some boss behaviors (tweaks are not listed here in order to prevent spoilers)
- Reduced hitpoints of Spartilian Carrier Slugs by 40%
- Reduced damage of Arcturan Cloaking Sniper by 20%
Level length - Reduced level sizes slightly. Map path length reduced by about 15% for most missions. Exact distance to level destination is still varied since maps are procedurally generated.
Bug fixes - Fixed bug where game incorrectly calculates incremental hitpoints increase when player gets multiple HealthUp powerups
Other updates - Updated burning visual effect for enemy corpses
-William, Rocktastic Games Dev Team
Linux build is ready
Good morning everyone! We've added Linux to the list of supported platforms, and the Linux build is ready for download now.
Some updates: Mac build is ready; PC controller issue fixed.
Hey everyone,
I just wanted everyone to know how happy we are to see the Steam community playing the game. We’re really grateful for the support we’ve seen - we’re going through the feedback (and bug reports) that you have sent us, and are working hard to make this a great Early Access where we polish and improve the game, add content and all kinds of other crazy weapons, powerups and enemies!
Platform update: We just released the Mac version of Rogue Continuum. Now Mac users too can lay waste to alien worlds in the name of humanity. We’re also working on finalizing the Linux port; we have a working version in-house, and are running some final tests on it. So it should be out very shortly.
Along with the mac build, we’ve also fixed one issue that affected both PC and Mac versions, where gamepad controllers were sometimes not usable under specific situations; one being if PS3/PS4 and Xbox controllers were both plugged into the same machine. Well that issue is resolved now, so for those of you who couldn’t get your Xbox 360/Xbox One/PS3/PS4 controller to work earlier, it should work now.
As to what we're working on right now, besides finalizing the Linux build. Some of you have reported bugs on the thread, which we're working to resolve as we speak. As always, we're doing some balancing on the heroes. We've gone through quite a few playthrough videos, as well as been playing the game a lot ourselves, and have some great ideas on how to improve the balance for single-player while keeping the balance for multiplayer. Speaking of multiplayer: yes, online multiplayer is one of our main focuses now - we're working hard to get that out as soon as we can. We'll have an announcement on that later, so please stay tuned for that!
