👆 This here (WIP) is a glimpse of where I'd like to take the game: a "somewhat curated" (short) campaign progression around structures/objectives (and not just a random progression of different biomes) but keep the roguelike elements for enemy wave composition and upgrades.
Problem is that this kind of stuff can take a lot of time and that is the reason for the lack of updates recently, which I apologize for.
The plan at the moment would be to prototype a couple such missions and start testing them out along an updated version of the current operations.
Let me know what you think and thank you for your patience 🫡
v0.97 - 'Streamlined'
⚠️ Last time that some achievements will be reset, I promise
What changed
'First Strike' simplified and locked once completed: will be further tweaked to become the tutorial operation
'Hostile Territory' is the new 'random' operation which gets unlocked by completing 'First Strike'
'Endurance' got longer (12 waves) and more difficult in the end: it gets unlocked permanently when 'Hostile Territory' is completed for the first time
Removed 'Blitz':game works better when you build your aircraft from the ground up. Also it was an annoying (daily) gate to 'Endurance'
Tweakings
'Iceman' renamed to 'Adrenaline': slow-motion (less than before) + mobility boost during target locking (when the view is zoomed-in)
'Scavenger': in addition to better scraps attraction there is also an increase in the "scraps to tech" conversion rate
Some waves will now have a specific name to better identify (at a glance) their composition
Some tweaking to biomes
That's it! 🫡
v0.96 - 'Reroll'
⚠️ Some stats and achievements will be reset
Apologies for the long update: once again things got flipped around but I'm pretty sure this is the last major change to the game structure.
With this one the game rolls back a little to how it used to be before the endless/operations updates: with more randomization and a simpler progression. Let me know what you think!
New Campaign Structure
3 operations: more might be added later depending on feedback
'First Strike' is randomized per run: stage/wave composition and upgrade choice will be different for each new run
The others are randomized per day: stage/wave composition and upgrade choice will stay the same throughout the day and reset the next day
'Blitz' operations are short, intense and start with pre-installed upgrades: currently there's only 'Valkyrie' (which is not very different from v0.95's) but more will be added later to the random pool
You now start with 2 lives instead of 3
Rerolls & Upgrades Tweaking
You now get 3 (upgrade choice) rerolls per operation
Tech leveling has been tweaked to allow quicker upgrading: runs will usually end at tech 6-8
Buffed 'GAU-30'
Added 'Premium+': unlocked with achievement 'Fox Two'
Changed 'Armored': max hull increase + extra life
Other Changes & General Tweaking
Increased Frigate jump time
Reduced invulnerability windows for Rogues and Wing Leaders
Removed Valkyrie sliding on surfaces
Restored triangle icon for Elite Vipers
Changed missile/drone icons to diamond shape
That's it! 🫡
v0.95 - 'Operations'
⚠️ Some stats and achievements will be reset
Sorry about the stats reset! Was not an easy decision but I managed to limit it to stats related to the new operations system, all the upgrade unlocks and kill stats are intact.
Operations
There are currently 4 operations: some of which are unlocked at start and each with something special. I'm eager to hear your thoughts for making making new operations and/or tweak the current ones
Completing an operation will make it go up one tier (currently up to max 3): the idea is to increase the difficulty each tier and make all operations a viable choice regarding the score/challenge you can get from them
Leaderboard entries will show which operation was run and if completed (otherwise last wave number is displayed)
Main Changes & Tweaking
Replaced endless looping with operations system
Added Space Station enemy, first pass: destruction effects are not finished and its fight mechanics might be changed later
Frigates cannot jump if you destroy their engine
Wing Leaders got a bit more aggressive
Rogues can be killed with 1 normal/swarm missile: makes fighter class (triangle icon) more consistent
Bumped a little base scraps attraction force
GAU-30 damage tweaked
Armor cap restored at 250% (was 200%)
Fixed some inconsistencies with bullets raycasting
Vector: restored normal paint
Valkyrie: comes in black and can now "slide" on surfaces 👀
Achievements
Achievements page: merged stats into achievements
Added ‘Stronger Dog’ achievement
Added ‘Rabid Dog’ achievement
Added ‘Daily Dog’ achievement
Changed ‘Sky Dog’ achievement: now you have to successfully take an extra life from the Sky Tower
Changed ‘Elite Dog’ achievement: reach 1,000 total kills
What's Next?
Tweaking & balancing for the new operations system
Input system refactoring to support multiple devices and possibily a better input binding menu
First player experience: some kind of quick tutorial in the first operation
That's it! 🫡
SITREP #6 - Update & 'Operations' Preview
⚠️ v0.92 ETA: Saturday 11th (18th at the latest)
What's happening
As you can see from the thumbnail, a new enemy is getting ready and as you probably gathered from last update we are going back to a finite number of waves and shorter runs. Your response on last update was very useful and made the decision to switch much easier, Thanks!
Operations
We are going back to short and challenging runs, where TD really shine but this time you will be able to run different 'Operations': each with a different distribution of enemies, difficulty and some special features (such as bonus upgrade at start, more upgrade choices, etc.).
There will be no changes to the daily leaderboard, except for showing on which operation the score was obtained.
*work in progress: the details shown will probably change, as well as the operations (there will probably be 6 of them)
That's it! 🫡
v0.91d
No more tech limits for upgrades: not fun and uncessary nerfing
Mechanic+ upgrade is back: same as above
Getting Premium upgrade in the middile of a stage will sped up the current reload (if in progress) or do an insta-refill
For new players: all upgrades are unlocked during the very first operation
v0.91 - 'Elites & Tweaks'
Focus of this update has been on tweaking the enemies/difficulty for later waves to avoid the session going on forever. But also got to put a
Which brings us to a very important first poll I'd like to make about endless: what do you like about endless?
The previous version with 10 waves was definitely too short and difficulty was not ramping up enough towards the final waves, current version does a better job up to the 20th wave, for those of you that go beyond that: at which point do you think the game gets hard enough to be satisfied with the run? (better to check out v0.91 first to answer this)
The reason I'm asking is because I'm thinking of going back to a finite amount of waves/stages, the more answers I get the more informed the final decision will be 🙏
All The Things
Viper Elites got their own icon and special (pew pew) gun
Frigates: main gun tweaking + new mini-jump behaviour
Wing Leaders: gun/damage tweaking
Adjusted tech progression and introduced tech limits for some upgrades, example: Valkyrie appears only from level 6 onwards
Missiles tweaking: more damage for Standard and Swarm (2 hits for aces and elites, 1 hit for Vipers and Rogues) + tweaking clip size
Combo system reworked to better account for missiles usage
Armor capped at max 200% (was 250%)
Removed Mechanic+
Finished Valkyrie model
Some new stats added to the Achievements page
That's it! 🫡
v0.90 - 'Endless'
Here it is: the endless mechanic is finally in with a bunch of new stuff and lots of tweaking all around.
I've tried a lot of different things for this one, major one was to have a random selection of stages (even from the start) but it didn't feel quite right. The current implementation has mostly fixed stages but wave composition and upgrade choices is always randomized.
Balancing probably got broken here and there, so bear with me until we do some more testing and I hope you will enjoy the new stuff! 👇
Major Stuff
Added endless mechanic and reworked stage/wave progression
Upgrade system: now showing only unlocked upgrades + all choices (in case of branching)
Added 'Valkyrie' plane upgrade: Vector + Supersonic + Mecha legs
Added 'PRTDR-4' upgrade (missiles)
'IR-4' replaced by 'SWRM-6' (missiles)
Added 'AC-30': unlocked from the start and now necessary to obtain 'GAU-30' or 'AC-60'
Frigates no longer give free scraps: you get only what you kill
No more collisions with Frigates and Towers small wreckage
Default missiles: better target tracking
AC-60: damage increase + worse accuracy when overheating
GAU-20: renamed 'GAU-30' + damage increase
Added 'Show Less Players' button to Leaderboards
Showing some stats in the achievements page
Fixed stage freezing when enemies get in the ground (rareish)
That's it! 🫡
SITREP #5 - 'Going Endless'
What's happening
Plans changed a bit from the last update, many of you have called for an endless mode and so I've been working on that: it wont be a separate mode but part of the main mode. If you are familiar with Nuclear Throne looping you get the idea.
I think I need one or two more weeks to make it good enough for a first pass in v0.86: it will provide more fun daily runs while I finally work on new content.
Speaking of which, some sketching for new capital ships 👇
And some progress on the 'Ultimate' plane upgrade (= Vector + Supersonic) 👇
That's it! 🫡
v0.85 - 'Lean & Mean'
With this update all mechanics are more or less final: it took a while because I've spent some time testing a few solutions (of varying complexity) for target locking and upgrade selection but ended up streamlining those and not making major changes.
Focus will now switch to content creation: enemy types (3-6 more), waves variation, player upgrades (at least 4 more) and polishing.
Game progression/session length is also quite final: 10 waves seem to be the right number but I'm considering adding a difficulty selection at the start of the run that will make the game more challenging for veteran players. What do you think?
Score combo tweaking: less emphasis on aggressive play, combo decay is now affected by time and gun use
Disabled collisions with enemy fighters and aces
Upgrade selection streamlined: less waiting after a wave clear and bonus upgrade on last wave
IR-4 upgrade improved: ammo + maneuverability increase
Wing Leaders and Rogues invulnerability time tweaking: 30% decrease
AI sticks more to map center: this will lessen the problem of reaching map limits. I consider this one pretty much resolved except for maybe some HUD warnings approaching the limits at a later date
HUD flashing on hits: target icons and menus are no more affected by it
