Hey guys! I figure we can start with talking about some of the biggest changes we're doing with the new version; we previously talked about moving away from "dark souls" style combat, as well as moving away from competitive "SC2"-esque RTS gameplay. We hope that this Scroll provides a bit more context to those statements!
-cazeoj
Splitting ARPG with RTS
Initial Design
At its heart; the initial gameplay design of The Rebellion was to merge traditional RTS elements with a soulslike third person combat system. With these tools as a base, we would try to create scenarios where the player can do complex interactions like create equipment for their forces, trade with other players, set up resource harvesting networks, etc. There were also plans for more complex hero and combat interactions, including abilities and interactable environment pieces.
Current State
Complex interactions with your town like loadout creation and equipment crafting are tedious and APM intensive
When you play in Third Person, it feels like you will lose the RTS game because you aren't macroing your town
The minimap is absolutely a chore to control and read
Camera controls in general are clunky and difficult to work with
Hero combat doesn't feel compelling; although statting out your hero is one of the more enjoyable aspects in game, the core gameplay lacks variety outside of weapon selection
RTS controls have all the things that make traditional RTS intimidating and unapproachable, while not retaining ANY of the precision that makes it desirable
The soulslike combat does not have much skill expression at all, attacks aren't telegraphed clearly, there is no means to dodge outside of base movement, and the feedback for attacking is lacking outside of poise break.
Unfortunately, I feel like we've failed to deliver on a lot of these gameplay elements. A lot of these systems were in development pre launch, and then failed to get revisited after a slew of new problems with our game became apparent.
The game does have an identity and a somewhat fun core loop, despite the problems it faces. I also don't think the initial design is an impossible thing to fix; however I do think we can make a better game if we somewhat change our perspective and allow for a more immersive and enjoyable experience that blends the macro (RTS) and micro (ARPG) systems in a compelling way, as opposed to having them fight against each other.
A New Perspective
These are probably the biggest changes we'll ever make to The Rebellion, and I think they'll be the most controversial as well (at least so far).
The Big Changes
We're going to primarily develop the ARPG elements as First Person instead of Third Person.
No more minimap in RTS mode; instead there will be a battle camera and dynamic zoom options
We're vastly changing the way "fog of war" works
Combat will get huge changes with a focus on realism/physicality, aiming, and skill expression
Town and unit management will be automated as much as possible, while still retaining player control when desired
The Hero will have more options to control the army around him
A general slower pace to gameplay, with more focus on survival and taking advantage of your situation in the level
I understand that with this in mind, and in conjunction with the extraction mechanics we talked about, that this update is starting to sound like a different game entirely. I would like to think that because we never reached what our initial vision was to begin with, we feel comfortable making sweeping changes to the game in order to try and hit our mark. It's early access, and unfortunately in development sometimes projects have to be restarted with a better approach.
The little things...
We still have a lot of love for this current version of The Rebellion. At certain times, like seeing your town at night, moving forward with your armies into a ruin; there is a certain feeling and magic that we want to convey, however it's just a fledgling of what it could be. We intend to transform that shell of a town into a bustling, living village by version 1.0.
Combat, First Person, Hitboxes, Armor
Current Hero Gameplay Experience
The world feels stale when in third person; there is hardly anything to interact with, and the combat itself is very janky. NPC's and enemies beeline toward each other unnaturally, and it feels jarring and out of place in third person.
At the moment, combat is pretty simple; you left click or right click to awkwardly attack in front of you; there is no aiming up or down. You can press shift to block, however it doesn't feel particularly rewarding. Attacks will roll against an armor rating, and depending on the weapon type and the force of the weapon, multiplied by your strength, your attack will do anything from deflect off armor to knock the target over. There are fun moments to be had, but it lacks depth and feels incomplete (because it is).
First Person and What It Means
The big question is, how will first person effect gameplay? Well, quite simply, the idea started primarily from an attempt to bring complexity to the original Rebellion combat : Aiming.
We had planned to add aiming into The Rebellion in order to add more diversity into the combat, however the problem of perspective kept coming up. As it turns out, it's pretty difficult to see where you are swinging a sword in third person; predicting the arc of a swing to land a head shot feels awkward at best, inaccurate at worst. Long story short, First Person let's us simplify the aiming question, gives us a clear perspective to work with, and will let us have interactions with crouching (and potentially jumping) that will feel more natural to control.
General First Person Rules
We aren't throwing out the idea of having Third Person be toggleable; this will take more dev time, but if enough people ask for it we can deliver. Might help with things like mounted combat as well.
We are going to try and use the change in perspective as an opportunity to add detail to the world on a small level; expect the realism of the sim to increase
We will have to recreate animations; and how these animations fit in with our NPCs will be determined. It may very well be the case that units will have separate animation sets from the player; since we can control the movement of NPCs a bit better, these could be more elaborate
I hope that this change doesn't seem too drastic, and that you guys can understand the benefits of the switch. I know that this basically will do away with any last inkling the soulslike style we initially had in mind; however I think the spirit of that style applies more than the style itself.
The Nuts and Bolts of It
Getting down to it, what do we want to enable with the new perspective? Simply put, we want the melee combat to feel rewarding and more natural. We want to create a combat system that treats armor, weaponry, and footing in a unique way that goes beyond "% damage reduction" or "stun" debuffs.
Going Out on a Limb
The first thing we're excited to introduce is limb sensitive hitboxes, along with completely new hit detection for combat. Because you will now have the ability to aim your swings, there should be a reward in hitting targets where you want to hit them; there also should be partial effect when clipping arms, legs, or other pieces of equipment.
General Mechanics
Hits on the head will now deal bonus damage, but will deal less force
Hits to the body will deal normal damage and force
Hits to the Legs will deal bonus force, but less damage
Hits to the arms will deal less damage and force, but could interrupt actions based on force
Mi Armor
Armor will no longer be weighed toward a total value; individual pieces of armor worn will be rolled against upon impact of the limb. If you have full armor on, but no helmet, you had better hope you don't get slammed in the head as you'll likely die. However, if you have on a heavy breastplate and helm while keep your legs exposed, you may be knocked over from a hammer to the knees.
Weaponry Touchup
The weapons will retain a lot of their original soul, however we'll try to enhance the gameplay and make certain types more performant.
1H/2H Swords - Swords are in a weird spot currently where if you have not enough strength, they feel horrible. But once you hit a strength breakpoint, they become death machines. We're going to make swords have a guaranteed "skim" mechanic where strikes will not fully deflect until after hitting more than one target.
Think of it this way : Currently if you swing your sword and recoil on the first hit, you recoil. With the new system, even if you completely deflect off the first target, your sword will glide off the surface of the armor and continue on to the next target, where it will do another hit check.
Maces and Hammers - I feel like the blunt weapons are some of the only weapons that hit their mark in The Rebellion. They knock people over, they hurt, and they're a little slow. The mace/hammer will retain this style, essentially in the exact same form translated to first person.
One of the few systems we really felt worked out was the poise/knockdown system; this felt fulfilling when played around, and I think with some work we can make it a much more complete system moving forward.
Spear - Spears never really found a good niche; a defensive weapon but the game lacks complementary defensive options to go with it. Underwhelming damage, not much AoE, and little to no force made the spear a tough choice.
The spear will become a precision weapon; with aiming I can imagine it becoming significantly more deadly. We also will add the ability to use the spear when blocking.
Bows - Bows felt underwhelming when used by the Hero; we'd likely need abilities to play around it, as well as making it feel more impactful.
New Weaponry - We want to add in new weapon types; such as daggers or halberds, when development allows.
Closing
This Scroll ended being a lot longer than anticipated (old version was at 2500 words and incomplete) so we're going to save the information on RTS mechanics for next update. Stay tuned, and thanks for reading!
The Friday Scroll #1 - The Gameplay Loop Revamp
Welcome to the first Friday Scroll for The Rebellion; we'll be posting these to give updates on development, to key you guys in on some things that we think are pretty solid, and when we get further along, to show progress of the game. Friday scrolls will also will be great spots to receive suggestions/feedback on what we're working on, so we'd love to hear more from you guys!
-cazeoj
The Gameplay Loop Revamp
Initial Design
The Rebellion was conceived primarily with the Rebel and Empire players in mind; the intention of the Commoners was to be a "human resource" faction that the two warring factions would leverage in order to defeat the other and achieve victory. As you probably noticed; the lore presence of these two factions is in game, however we have not implemented any wartime factions yet, so the gameplay loop is incomplete. I think that was one of our biggest failings; being unable to provide this initial experience.
Current Problems
At the moment, The Rebellion struggles to find a compelling gameplay loop; especially in the case of long term fulfillment. There is really only one avenue forward; which is to craft items and attack your opponent, or to defend against AI attackers in the case of wave defense. The micro of the game is nonexistent, third person gameplay is stale, and the macro aspect is poorly paced with little meaning in player choice. There is nothing of interest on the map outside of outposts, which hardly provide any respite besides a small encampment to produce units, items, or resources. There is no stat tracking outside of the game; once you leave a skirmish, there is little incentive to keep playing; and little incentive for improvement or progression.
The Goal
The idea of the gameplay revamp is to provide a more meaningful experience to the game, both inside and outside the battlefield. We want to create interesting gameplay interactions naturally, allow for meaningful choices, and provide more activities for players to entertain themselves with in game. All of this should have a mutually beneficial relationship with a long term, non linear progression system that will enhance the enjoyment of the game, and provide incentive for players to come back.
Solution : Long Term Progression
The biggest change in design philosophy is a light extraction mechanic that will allow you to take items, resources, equipment, and most importantly, gold back with you into a persistent and safe "base camp".
I know what it sounds like, but I'm very confident that if pulled off well, it can make this game something that can provide experiences you won't find anywhere else. This won't be like typical extraction shooters, where killing everyone in the lobby is nearly always the best option; and those who do do this won't go unpunished.
We want to promote cooperative elements and neutral player interaction in order to create more casual/industrious routes for players. The wartime Rebel and Empire factions would still be sworn enemies, and those who want a more dangerous lifestyle will have their options as well. We want complete player freedom, but we also will have ingame systems that can make things more challenging if you are a player with bad intentions.
There will be stat tracking and online dedicated server play. We've come a long way developing certain aspects of a new backend to do this, and I believe that we can perform it in a very cost effective manner until player counts rise (in which case, we have a good problem) and we need a more comprehensive solution
You guys still deserve the ability to just play single player. A lot of these awesome games out there have these intense multiplayer experiences, but are online only with no learning tools so players get intimidated or never try it at all. We will take time to have aspects like the inventory, map generation, and performance hybridized to work in a persistent online environment or locally on your PC.
Escaping the map will be as simple as leaving off the edge, at one of several locations. Players can create or buy caravans to take more loot with them as well; we will put safeguards in place to make sure caravans take effort/time to obtain so that large transfers can't happen too quickly.
When returned to your base camp, crafted equipment, base resources, and other typical ingame only designated objects would no longer have the ability to be brought back. These items instead could be stashed, sold, or used in special interactions to generate new gear.
Certain objects will also be qualified as returnable items, these could be special creature parts you use in alchemy or loadout items you have to enhance a unit type.
If you end up losing your base and hero ingame, you will lose the items you bring in. Likewise, with consumables used ingame. Other players can loot you, however there will be systems in place to make sure that this is an interesting mechanic with potential consequences over a simple trade.
We have a lot on itemization and extraction to talk about; so we're gonna save that for another blog. Our intention is to maintain the integrity and balance of the gameplay loop, while still creating interesting playstyle options through obtained gear. With this new system, we are intending to solve a long term progression problem that would have appeared in The Rebellion regardless; while remaining true to some of our initial concepts created over 5 years ago now.
In Game Loop Changes
In game we will have new systems and content additions to help move towards the meaningful long term progression goal. We're going to fill the levels with more interactable objects, promoting interesting activities and more "up time" in the gameplay loop. As a Commoner player, we want to join the game and have multiple avenues of success; you could trade and attempt to make money off of conflict, you could hunt creeps and try to achieve wealth/items through PVE objectives, or you could raid other players and take what they have received.
Extraction and the "Zone"
Typically, in an extraction type game, there will be a zone that applies pressure to the players and controls the pace of the game. The Rebellion will not have a "zone" mechanic; however there will be factors that will function to fulfill that role, albeit in a more fitting and interesting way. We want a fun sandbox environment, but we also understand the need of controlling the pace of a game to a certain extent. Finding the happy balance is the goal.
Villagers
We are developing a system to have several hundred villagers with procedural behavior all around the game world. The player would interact with these villagers in various ways; they will have desires, wants, and allegiances to a certain extent and will move to towns that meet their desires properly. These towns could be neutral NPC towns, or your own town as a commoner.
There are many, many cool interactions and possibilities with this system but for now we're going to keep our ideas to ourselves until we're ready to show.
Food and Happiness
Food will no longer just be a gate behind production; we are changing food to be required by active units and villagers in your town. Units away from food for too long may need to stop at a neutral town and feed up; or perhaps you bring a cart with your traveling forces that keeps them fed.
Farming will also be expanded upon, so that a farmer player is valued for their ability to produce large amounts of quality food. Ultimately, there may be ingame mechanics that make food more difficult to receive/grow over time.
Happiness would be tracked by things like health, temperature, hunger, quality of life, entertainment, etc. When low on happiness, certain interactions occur with the NPC. A villager might defect and move to another town if his happiness is low; a mercenary in your warband who is unhappy might attempt to take your head.
PVE Objectives
We want to breath a bit more life into the world of The Rebellion, and we can help do that through NPCs, creeps, creatures, and wildlife. These will drop anything from gold and gear to powerful reagents used in recipes; depending on the creature or character.
There will be large "dungeons" in each level which will be very challenging and treacherous environments that contain tough boss encounters. The meat of valuable items will come from these locations; however they are meant to be tackled with multiple players or with significant gear.
NPCs could travel from off the map and change up the gameplay; sometimes it could be a humble traveling merchant; other times it might be a posse of bandits looking for trouble.
Closing
There is a lot more to talk about, and we hope to show you more soon! We'll be posting a friday again soon with more information (likely about how we're changing the base mechanics like combat and the RTS camera). Thanks for your support, and we can't wait to get this over to you guys.
Moving Forward
Hey guys, been quite a while! We've been taking a bit of a break; due to work pressures and other life circumstances, it's been hard to work on the Rebellion for the past several months. To be honest, there has been a hole in my heart where this development usually sits, and I plan on filling it again in the very near future. We're really sorry that development has been so slow, and we appreciate the support that you guys have shown despite this!
A New Direction
If it hasn't become obvious yet, we're going in a different direction with the Rebellion now. We posted about some "really cool stuff we were working on" around February of last year; at this point we silently transitioned into a fresh UE5.2 project, and began developing Rebellion again on a clean slate in an attempt to fix a lot of our problems.
The reality of The Rebellion, at least in it's current 0.25 state, is that the time it would take to produce a 1.0 version we are proud of with the current build would be longer and less effective than starting from scratch. My knowledge as a developer has increased to the point where I actually look back and laugh at some of my initial code for the Rebellion, and my brother's skill as an artist has increased similarly.
What does this mean for you guys?
Game price will remain the same, we will not be releasing any new games until we feel The Rebellion is in a state that we are proud of. Updates are free of course.
The current game in Version 0.25, will be kept as an alternate steam branch so anyone can play it if they want to
It's going to be a significant amount of time before the next update
What will change?
We never really got the chance to meet our original vision for The Rebellion; the crux of which is the actual uprising and the effect it has on the game world. Commoner players are attempting to make the best of a chaotic situation; sometimes you can succeed by allying yourself with one of the warring factions, sometimes by making profit by being an arms dealer, sometimes just by surviving. When we get to the point of adding in the Empire and Rebel factions, we want to have an established economy and gameplay loop for them to interact with as well. We'll go in depth with how this will work in future blogs.
We're stepping away from a more hardcore, fast paced RTS style like Starcraft, and trying to minimize the time the player feels the need to be in RTS camera
We're moving a bit away from the "Soulslike" type combat that initially inspired the game, and moving towards more "nuts and bolts" medieval and first person combat. Combat system is getting a revamp to be more meaningful, interactive, responsive, and understandable (hopefully)
We want to change the focus from PVP, to a focus on survival in the game world and environment with the element of player interaction thrown in. The goal is to leave the level with a caravan of resources, treasure, or equipment you find in the level
We are going to focus on making several new commoner factions that will have completely different playstyles, we want to create a mesh of crossed industries that can depend on eachother in order to forge interesting player interactions (especially when Empire and Rebel factions come out)
We are developing a Villager system that lets us have hundreds of neutral commonsfolk in the world at a time, and we have some cool systems in mind to work with these new villagers
We're making the process of running your town and units more automated; we want players to spend more time making meaningful decisions, and minimal time micromanaging
The world will be further fleshed out, creatures, flora, neutral towns
Across the board the idea is to give players more replayability, more nonlinear progression systems, more fun interactions in the world, and a little more attention to detail to little things that make a game feel meaningful
Ok, so what now? When can we expect more?
I could probably write for days going into detail about each of these changes (I have, in the design documentation 🤣 ) however I'd rather just show you guys as development proceeds.
At the moment, we do have a timeline where returning to development would work for us. If life is kind, then development will pick back up later this month; we will likely have some stuff to show in October.
Thanks for sticking with us, and we can't wait to show you what we're working on!
Version 0.25
Changes
Interim update before we move over to Unreal Engine 5.1. Big changes include the new and improved health bars, fixes for some nasty bugs, and visual improvements to towns and other objects in the world.
New Healthbars
The New, Sleek Health Bars In Action
The biggest change you'll notice in this update is our new and improved health bars. We've updated this UI with new art and effects to make hitting enemies (and getting hit) feel a lot more responsive.
In addition to the improved visuals, under the hood we've optimized the code behind health bars to be a lot more efficient. This has fixed a variety of bugs, and is a small part of our efforts to improve performance.
Visual Improvements
Changed Barracks, Better Foundation Blending with the Terrain
We've taken the time to make some of our commoner structures more consistent, we've added in a few new props, and we've updated some older assets (like the palisade) to be a bit closer to our standard for visuals.
Balance Changes
We've changed the way health regen works. Beforehand, units would regenerate a VERY small amount (6 health per minute) over time constantly. Units will now regenerate something closer to 1 health a second, but only 30 seconds after combat has stopped will they regenerate.
We've made the Overlord boss have significantly less Agility, causing him to attack slower especially when he has more powerful armor sets like the Slayer Armor.
Blocking has been improved! The block rating on a shield/weapon is now twice as effective, however the recoil rate of weapons hitting a blocking unit remains the same. Basically, units will absorb twice the amount of damage with shields as before.
Bug Fixes
The New Palisade
-You can no longer heal your hero by leveling up strength or equipping items with strength on them -You will no longer lock on to enemies that attack you when in third person, unless you use the middle mouse button -Health bars will now properly clear when switching camera mode -Fixed a bug where when playing as client, your target wouldn't clear after it dies
Version 0.245 : Performance, small changes
Changes
In this update you'll find our two new maps we've been working on, the Abandoned Hamlet and River Ford. We've also fixed a couple of persistent bugs that have plagued the game for a while.
Abandoned Hamlet
The Rebel Interlopers Town
In this small 2v2 map you explore the aftermath of the siege enacted upon the Empire Hamlet; traces of the rebel invaders and their foothold still live on.
River Ford
The Fort of the Ford
The River ford is a mid sized 2v2 map with a valuable fortress rich in Agacite, Bromnium, and Gold located at the center. Fight your enemies over this strategic point!
Bug Fixes
Battle at River Ford!
-Fixed a bug where combat music would reset and spam -Fixed a visual bug where it would get way too dark in the early morning -Fixed a bug where the host would hear client "Call to Arms" sound effects
Version 0.245 : Abandoned Hamlet and River Ford Maps
Changes
In this update you'll find our two new maps we've been working on, the Abandoned Hamlet and River Ford. We've also fixed a couple of persistent bugs that have plagued the game for a while.
Abandoned Hamlet
The Rebel Interlopers Town
In this small 2v2 map you explore the aftermath of the siege enacted upon the Empire Hamlet; traces of the rebel invaders and their foothold still live on.
River Ford
The Fort of the Ford
The River ford is a mid sized 2v2 map with a valuable fortress rich in Agacite, Bromnium, and Gold located at the center. Fight your enemies over this strategic point!
Bug Fixes
Battle at River Ford!
-Fixed a bug where combat music would reset and spam -Fixed a visual bug where it would get way too dark in the early morning -Fixed a bug where the host would hear client "Call to Arms" sound effects
Version 0.24 : Structure Addons, Tech Requirements
Changes
Happy new year everyone! This first major update of 2022 is only the start of the many big changes and additions we have planned for The Rebellion this year, and we hope that version .24 gives you guys an idea of the direction we want to take the game. We want to focus on adding in essential systems that make the game flow better (as an example in this update, requirements), finishing up and polishing the gameplay elements we do have (Like the skirmish AI), and refining our code to make sure the game runs smoother. We'll be putting in new content as we go, however making the core of the game meet a certain standard is above all else!
Structure Addons
Building an Addon!
You can now expand certain structures with addons! Structures will have a certain amount of slots, indicated over their selection widget, which you can fill with addons. While building an addon, the structure is locked out of other activities like training, crafting, or processing resources; however the reward is worth the investment! From processing a lot more resources with a superheated forge, to building an armory for your peasants to arm themselves at, structure addons will add a ton of variety to the game.
Call to Arms!!!
Structure addons are something that we've had on the backlog for a while, however we just didn't know the right time to implement them. A big factor into adding them in now was the state of the tech tree and balance of the game before this update. Generally speaking, two strategies were insanely powerful; rushing Sergeants, and rushing heavy iron equipment. Since beforehand you could just select these options from the get go, it really made the basic iron equipment and the Guardsman feel almost pointless. Now, everything flows a lot better and there is a logical progression of the tech tree that leads up into better equipment and units.
Requirements
The Sergeant is now a bit needier
So, on a slightly less exciting but equally as important (perhaps more important!) note, we've added in requirements to the game. Requirements are one of those systems that you don't typically think of as essential to an RTS, however almost every RTS has some form of them and they tend to define the core gameplay loop; especially in regards to base/techtree management.
This was one of those systems that really should have been in the game since the start; however now that it is in it'll make content development a lot easier later on. Abilities, items, units, and structures now all have the potential to require something; for instance, the Sergeant needs an expansion on the barracks to be trained, or the peasant needs the armory to be finished to use Call to Arms.
New Voice Acting
We've added a bunch of new voice lines to the game! The Overseer now is fully voice acted, and the peasant has a ton of new lines. Every time a structure or add on is finished, the peasant will (mostly) let you know with a few unique lines for each object! This is mostly a polish thing, but for me it really helps make base building and the RTS experience come to life.
We've also taken the time to re-record a lot of the older voice lines in the game. There are a few stragglers, which we'll replace in the very near future, however we think you guys will like the new ones a lot better! Primarily the quality and clarity of the audio has improved, and we've added in new lines for the few that were a bit repetitive.
UI Polish
Better looking tooltips!
It's a long road to a fully polished UI experience, however when we can we try to make things look and function better. We've improved the way tooltips look across the board, adding in new minimalistic assets and doing things like refining what the borders look like.
We've also finally added in a way to see how resource refining works; if you have a resource processing structure selected and hover over the new button displaying the types of resources generated, it will give you information about the rate and efficiency of resource processing.
Other Changes
We've done a lot of balance changes, and fixed some crashes as well. I'll try and give as many details as possible here!
Weaponry Changes
Maces were very dominant, especially in the early game. They still might be too strong, we'll likely be moving them around for a while until we feel like they are balanced.
-Increased base stamina cost of the Mace swing to 28 from 22 -Increased base stamina cost of the Mace slam to 32 from 26
-Increased base stamina cost of the Hammer swing to 30 from 20 -Increased base stamina cost of the Hammer slam to 35 from 28
-Increased the weight of the Iron Mace to 25 from 23
-Increased the damage multiplier of the two handed sword stab to 140% from 120%
Structure Changes
We felt like the lumber cost of structures was a little harsh early on; and with the addition of addons it just makes sense to lower the cost of structures across the board.
-Reduced the Lumber cost of the Home to 175 from 250 -Reduced the Lumber cost of the Sawmill to 350 from 400 -Reduced the Lumber cost of the Refinery to 400 from 500 -Reduced the Lumber cost of the Barracks to 350 from 400 -Reduced the Lumber cost of the Granary to 400 from 500
-Reduced the Iron cost of the Blacksmith to 150 from 200
Other
-Added some variety into the Skirmish AI builds
-Increased the amount of wood trees provide on the Hidden Ruins map to 3000 each from 1000
-Fixed a crash with the construction ghost not properly being referenced -Fixed a crash when sitting on a victory or defeat screen for too long -Changed the lighting to be a bit less dark in the very early morning -Fixed some ore rocks that were unreachable on Hidden Ruins
1v1 New Year's Tournament
We are proud to announce our first 1v1 tournament for The Rebellion! The official dates are still to be announced, but more updates will follow after we get a head count. First place wins $20 cash and all those who place will receive a prize! The games will be held on the 1v1 Ruins map and will be spectated by a moderator.
Our next update is going to contain a ton of changes to how the game is played, so be sure to familiarize yourself with the changes before participating! Please join our discord to enter the tournament: simply express interest to one of our moderators or devs and they will add you to the list!
Thank you and see you online!
Sincerely, Caz Team
Version 0.23 : Performance, small changes
Changes
Small update this time. Primarily focused on back end optimization of units.
Loadout Clarity
Added some better visualization regarding what loadouts are selected; now you can see what loadout is active when training a unit, and the active loadout will properly load when changing loadouts.
Some loadout UI
Other Changes
-Fixed up the ore rocks that wouldn't be harvestable on Hamlet -Fixed visual bugs regarding foundations and the highlight not displaying properly over the object -Optimized the unit class, removing a lot of redundant or bloating code
Version 0.22 : First Performance Update, Wave Defense Polish
Changes
The first of our performance updates! This one focuses on trying to optimize units and armor. We also made some fun changes to our Wave Defense mode.
Armor Changes
We've revisited how we handle armor so that the only information replicated or created is the meshes themselves, along with the added stats. This is going to make it so each unit has 3 less actors associated with it, which should noticeably impact performance.
Wave Defense Polish
Lightning! Well really we're just showing the new Widget in the top right
We've made some changes to Wave Defense that should make it a better experience overall. Firstly, we've made a UI widget to track the progress of what Battalion you are currently on. We've also changed the way spawning a new battalion works; the timer for a new Battalion will now start upon the death of the previous Battalion's boss. This should give more breathing room to prepare for new waves of enemies, as opposed to the borderline impossible assault that happened before. We've also added a boss health bar that will appear when the Battalion boss spawns, which will show under the Battalion widget we talked about previously.
Other Changes
The Infernal Bludgeon
-Added a new weapon to Wave Defense, called the Infernal Bludgeon -Fixed a crash that would happen at the start of a game related to the Post Processing settings in multiplayer. We are still investigating this -Made some balance changes to weaponry, generally improved the weaker basic iron and full iron -Fixed some ore spawns in Wave Defense that would bug out harvesting workers
