The D.R.G. Initiative
Week 2 Update
https://discord.gg/drginitiative
Hope you've all been enjoying the holiday break, have eaten too much and are looking forward to New Years :D
The Cartel.
Week 1 Update
done that? okay ....
What a week it has been! We soft-launched last week and right away we found lots of obvious things we need to do to the game, in particular around messaging to the player what's going on around matchmaking, controls etc. we'll have a new minor update soon that addresses the stuff we can fix easily and we've started up some new feature development threads to tackle them properly in the long term.
More on the details on that next week.
We have had some great games each night this week, usually 8->10pm GMT, so if you haven't had much luck with solo-queuing yet then please do join the discord and get stuck in with us around that time of day. If you're outside of European time then please DM us on here or on discord and we'll set something up. We're starting to get more US based players coming into discord so hopefully that'll all be self organising soon!
https://discord.gg/drginitiative
If you haven't picked up the game yet, please do take advantage of that juicy launch discount, price goes back up once the Steam winter sale is over.
Enjoy the holiday and see you in Discord,
The Cartel
Solo-queue matchmaking - 2 vs. 2 update
We've just pushed out a matchmaking patch to allow a party of 2 to be matchmade whilst solo-queuing, where previously the game was looking to only create a party of 3.
This means it should be much easier for new players to quickly find a game if they are the first of their Steam Friends to pick it up.
If you're still struggling to find a match, please do join our Discord and chat to some of the players on there who will be happy to get some games going anytime! https://discord.gg/drginitiative
For info here's the process behind solo-queue matchmaking:
Step 1: Look to create a party of 3 players from the same region
Step 2: Widen the region search
Step 3: If 3 players are unavailable, look to create a party of 2 players
See you in Discord
The Cartel
Early Access Release Notes - 14th Dec 2017
We wanted to put together some release notes to mark the early access lauch of the game. This is intended as a game overview for new players to read to explain what you're buying into and what our goals are for the game.
Enjoy!
P.S. If you want to find others to play against, please do join our discord here: https://discord.gg/drginitiative. There are teams on every night looking for games.
Game overview:
This game is an early access 3rd person, team based shooter. It is by no means complete, hence us launching as an early access title first.
IF YOU WANT A COMPLETE GAME, please wait for us to complete the game and launch as a full priced game.
The game you are purchasing is a competitive, PvP shooter. It is best enjoyed as part of a team of 3, but you can play as a 2 if you wish. If you do, you may find yourself up against a 3 person team, so choose so wisely 😉
The game is best of 3 rounds. Each round has various win conditions, which I will come on to later. But the best way to win - kill all of your enemies!
In addition to your opposing team there is also another threat in the game, we call them the addicted. These crazed lunatics do not care who they kill, they just want to kill! Beware!
This pack contains 2 factions, each with 4 characters to chose from. These characters have different characteristics, from loads outs, to speed, to armour values. Try and build the load that works for you and your team’s strengths.
Gameplay - Movement
All characters have roughly the same types of movement, although some do not currently have the jump ability, climb or vault, due to their size and class type (We may adjust this in the future as we see how you guys play them).
• Walk
• Run
• Crouch
• Crouch walk
• Jump
• Climb
• Vault
The climb and vault ability are functional but not optimal currently. They are a little slow and clunky. Our goal is for these to much smoother and cleaner, which will get to later in development.
We also have plans to add many more movement types, such as, but not limited to prone and crawl
Weapons
Each Character has 2 weapons apart from Elsbeth who only has 1(currently).
These consist of a main weapon and a side arm. The weapons are balanced to fit the character class.
Both teams have a troop type class with the same load. These are Gwendalin and Balam, who both have an assault rifle and a shotgun.
The Wastelanders have explosive ammo for 2 of their character types. Votan with his short-range grenade pistol and Taloc with the Grenade launcher.
Loads CANNOT be adjusted in this first build, but we have plans to allow for weapon swaps and mods in future builds.
Grenades:
All characters start each match with grenades. Some start only with defensive grenades, such as shields, Smoke and Hologram grenades.
Others start with offensive grenades, Timed (3 seconds) and impact grenades. For the timed grenade, the timer starts when you hold down the throw/shoot key and will explode after 3 seconds.
Anyone can pick up Grenades up from crates.
Combat/melee:
The game has a very basic single combat attack. This is by no means perfect. We have put our focus on the shooting aspect of the game so far and will be developing the melee attacks in the very near future. We know this isn’t great, bear with us folks!
Win conditions
To win a match you need to do 1 thing, kill the other team!
The team with the most team members alive at the end of a round will win the round. Win 2 rounds and you win the match.
You are awarded points for Addicted kills and this can, in some cases swing it in your favour! Even if you have less team members alive. But these cases are rare.
Bomb collars
All contestants are fitted with bomb collars! The shows hosts want blood and glory! They will use these bomb collars to force you to fight towards the end of the rounds!
You will hear a siren and if you look around will notice the drone net has been deployed! If you step outside the net your collar counter will tick down! If it hits zero, it EXPLODES!
You can add seconds to the timer by Killing addicted! But don’t get too close to them outside the zone! They blow up too!
Addicted
These nasty folks are the gameshows cannon fodder! Cannon fodder that fights back! They will try and kill anyone who comes within sight of them. Their arms have been removed at the elbow and replaced with blades…and they can hear you too! We will be dropping different classes of these during early access.
Their current animation is pretty basic, we will be updating it in early access as we add more addicted types to the game.
Perk/ammo crates
We have 4 types of crate in game currently.
Ammo. These are green and will refill over time.
Health. These are blue and will refill over time. Slower than ammo
Grenades. These are yellow and will refill over time.
Red edged. These are Twitch voted crates. These will open if the Twitch viewers vote on a broadcaster option. These will re-fill everything you have!
Crates that are full will emit a beep sound.
Broadcast mode
Broadcast mode is a mode designed to let a single player per match play as the TV shows games master. They can take control of the cameras, open and close parts of the level and cast votes to their twitch viewers. The viewers can vote on who gets loot drops in the build currently. You will see may more options for voting as the game progresses throughout next year and beyond!
Broadcast crates
These are crates that only twitch votes can unlock.
Road map Goals
Overview: not exhausting, we will change this to align with the needs of the players and also to make the game the best it can be before we move to a full launch.
Thanks for taking the time to read this post, let us know what you think and see you in Discord!
The Cartel
Join us on Discord to find the battle!
We'll be on from 8->9pm GMT pretty much every night, so you're guaranteed to get a game.
See you in there!
https://discord.gg/drginitiative
Exclusive to Early Access - The Pioneers Faction Pack
Check out the Pioneers Faction Pack, featuring two exclusive factions - The Knight Wardens and The Wastelanders. With 4 character classes in each, the only way to own these Factions is to get the Early Access version, available this December!