Feedback: how your feedback directly impacted the game
Marines, here is how your input improved USC: Counterforce
We are grateful to everyone who played and loved our latest playtest version from June. You took the time to share really helpful comments with us, and we listened!
1/ New game mode
This new game mode was implemented in the latest playtest. You were many to report that this mode was interesting but required more solutions (larger variety of building elements, lower cost, more defensive means, balancing their resistance) to be able to succeed. The quality of life of the building process could be improved and the mode would require a tutorial.
WHAT CHANGED:
A tutorial for this new mode is already planned
New building elements will be added later on
This new mode will have balance fixes, but it is too soon to share them as they require multiple internal iterations
2/ General balance and fixes
Balancing is complex and requires a lot of adjustments based on your feedback during playtests. Some of you reported that some weapons lack sufficient power, while aliens pose a challenge to defeat due to their substantial health points and the amount of ammunition required to eliminate them. Additionally, armor has been perceived as less compelling than medicine, primarily due to the Action Point (AP) cost for movement and repair. Feedback indicates that both armor and medicine are considered costly in terms of currency and AP, as well as taking up significant space in the inventory.
WHAT CHANGED:
Overall balance fixes (including some armor & weapon changes)
Stability & UX improvements
New iterations of the player profile system to help beginner players & veterans (select the default squad, keep track of various progress in one place, etc.)
Technical improvements (UI scaling & resolution issues, for example)
Audio improvements (such as new unit sounds & movement sounds)
Visual rework of the Main Menu & item icons
Bugs fixes
A new Single Mission menu
Thank you to everyone who took the time to gather and share their thoughts via our form, social media, or Discord. Keep an eye out for future announcements! ☄️
You can continue to help us improve USC: Counterforce by joining our Discord:
https://discord.gg/vsxD6n8P8J
The USC: Counterforce Team
New playtest now!
Hello marines,
We are thrilled to announce that we are about to release a new version of our game ready to be playtested!
Fill in the form below if you're interested in taking part in this new session: https://forms.gle/5ErrwxSi7jKoNzfF6
The demo will be live from June 9th until the 19th. We're sending the keys & instructions manually so it might take some time to receive a key but we'll make sure to include as many players as possible.
We really want to hear your thoughts about any aspects of the game (likes & dislikes, ideas for improvement) so feel free to share your feedback. A form will be sent to collect your feedback, but you can also share them on Steam or on Discord: https://discord.gg/vsxD6n8P8J
For bug reports, please take screenshots and be as precise as possible so we can reproduce them and fix them!
The USC: Counterforce Team
New playtest coming soon!
Hello marines,
We are thrilled to announce that we are about to release a new version of our game ready to be playtested!
Fill in the form below if you're interested in taking part in this new session: https://forms.gle/5ErrwxSi7jKoNzfF6
The demo will be live from June 9th until the 19th. We're sending the keys & instructions manually so it might take some time to receive a key but we'll make sure to include as many players as possible.
We really want to hear your thoughts about any aspects of the game (likes & dislikes, ideas for improvement) so feel free to share your feedback. A form will be sent to collect your feedback, but you can also share them on Steam or on Discord: https://discord.gg/vsxD6n8P8J
For bug reports, please take screenshots and be as precise as possible so we can reproduce them and fix them!
The USC: Counterforce Team
Video: celebrating the 8th anniversary of the first USC!
It's been 8 years since "Ultimate Space Commando" came out and we're celebrating with a new video!
May 12, 2015. On this beautiful day, we released the game that would later become the very foundation of USC: Counterforce.
Ultimate Space Commando established in 2015 most of what makes USC: Counterforce a deeply satisfying strategy game in 2023:
Deeply configurable squads assembled by the player,
Destructible and interactive environments,
Many different weapons, tools, and items to tackle every situation in any way you want,
Blueprints and crafting mechanics to upgrade your gear,
Tense sci-fi setting inspired by Aliens,
A semi-randomized, multi-ended solo campaign,
And so on!
"USC: Counterforce is a fresh take on the first title: better, bigger, and deeper"
At the time, Aliza Wenders was the only person working on Ultimate Space Commando.
Today she still is the lead developer at Angry Cat Studios and directing USC: Counterforce, but now has new marines to help her:
Csaba Bak, who joined as a junior Game Designer and Tester
Firesquid, as a Publisher and helping with the production
With this extra help, USC: Counterforce will become this better, bigger, and deeper version of Ultimate Space Commando!
Want to try it by yourself? Our new demo is available on Steam now!
The USC: Counterforce Team
Brand-new demo for Tacticon 2023!
USC: Counterforce will be part of TactiCon 2023, the digital convention hosted on Steam celebrating strategy video games
To celebrate we prepared a brand-new demo including:
The ’Scientific data, Retrieval’ operation divided into three missions with new mechanics and three difficulty levels.
12 single missions distributed across three different map types, each of which can be played on any of the 5 available difficulty modes.
All items will be unlocked for players which will include thirteen weapon types with forty items in total to utilize.
We are also preparing a new video!
Taking place on the second day of TactiCon, lead developer Aliza Wenders will be featured in a special video exclusive to the event. Stay tuned!
Your feedback is extremely precious, it helps us make the best game possible!
Marines, learn how your feedback improved USC: Counterforce
Many of you played and enjoyed our last demo from the February Steam Next Fest and for that, we are extremely grateful. Some of you took the time to provide your deeply valuable feedback to us, and we listened!
1/ Tutorial
You were many to report that our old tutorial was not clear and accessible enough. We agreed with you and decided to completely rework the tutorial and overall onboarding.
This brand-new tutorial will make it way easier and more enjoyable to learn about the many different aspects of our game, giving you more time and a more focused experience to learn everything you need to.
WHAT CHANGED: The tutorial and overall onboarding have been entirely reworked
2/ Balance and fixes
Since balancing such a complex game require a lot of experimentation, your feedback in that regard was essential. It will greatly help us in making USC: Counterforce a great but fair and fun challenge.
WHAT CHANGED: Improved + still improving the overall balance of weapons and enemies
3/ Shoulder Camera
The shoulder camera is a beloved feature among our community and we’re really glad you loved it. However, some of you told us that the camera moved too much for your taste and that some of the smaller enemies were almost impossible to see. We think you were right and decided to make some changes that will be ready for the Early Access release.
WHAT WILL CHANGE: the shoulder camera will have better behaviour and will do contextual focuses.
4/ Key bindings - camera
For the last demo, we only had a few binding options to slide or zoom the camera. Now our game provides a lot more options to give every player access to their favorite bindings.
WHAT CHANGED: camera movement bindings added
5/ Bloom/HDR
Some of you wanted to have the option to adjust the Bloom/HDR intensity. We added several intensity settings to make the game looks good on every screen possible.
WHAT CHANGED: intermediary settings were added, instead of a simple on/off option
Thank you very much to every player who took the time to gather and share their feedback through our form, on our social medias or our Discord. Stay tuned for upcoming playtests! ☄️
Help us improve our games on Discord:
https://discord.gg/vsxD6n8P8J
The USC: Counterforce Team
Developer livestream - Discover our new game mode!
Strategy players,
We will be livestreaming on Steam to showcase a new game mode on April 5th, 8 PM CEST. This new mode is an addition to our Operations called "Scientific Data Retrieval". Learn more about it during the livestream!
Click the 'set a reminder' button not to miss the stream!
The replay will be available on Youtube shortly after the initial diffusion.
Join us on Discord, and chat with the developers: https://discord.gg/vsxD6n8P8J
The USC: Counterforce Team
The Science in "Sci-fi": interstellar travels
Science enjoyers,
When working on a Sci-Fi universe, how to properly root the fiction part into actual science?
Read more about what Aliza, Lead Programmer, has to say about it:
USC: Counterforce is set in a tense sci-fi universe depicting a controversial future for mankind, where despite our technological advances that enable interstellar travel – a dream that may never come true in reality –, not all is bright: resources on Earth are running low, and a new kind of arms race between the multi-concerns controlling what is left is now what defines politics, and consequently, civilian life. United Space Command, though not completely above corruption, is the one thing that really unites mankind in its dream of conquering the stars, and striving for a better future for all.
Wormhole representation, www.unsplash.com
When you are working with a concept like this, some major questions naturally arise. For example: [I]if interstellar travel is possible, why does it matter if Earth is dying? And you have to dig deeper and set up the causes properly to create a plausible world.
And, though USC: CF is science-fiction, I always felt that the fiction part must be properly rooted in the science part. Will technology enable feasible interstellar travel to be ever possible in reality? Even if yes, well, not for a long time. That’s the fiction part, to “invent” a technology that transcends this border. But, on the other hand, there are things in the universe that are known and well-described in science: the speed of light, or the nature of inertia and gravity – and you really shouldn’t tinker with those if you hope to create something even remotely believable in sci-fi terms.
"if interstellar travel is possible, why does it matter if Earth is dying?"
So, returning to the question of why Earth is so miserable if the whole universe has been “opened up” for us, there are answers:
First of all, if you think about how any technology has been introduced into our lives in the past, you see that the first steps are always hard and expensive. And when we’re talking about a technology that, in this instance, can bend spacetime (i.e. to a far greater and more controlled extent than how it is already bent due to mass), we shouldn’t visualize a machine that fits in a box and is produced on an assembly line for everyday use. It’s a volatile, hard-to-produce, and hard-to-maintain technology, with extreme material requirements, and a power draw so high that if it was operated on the ground, entire countries’ power grids would have to be shut down temporarily to power it.
But it is not operated on the ground. It needs to be placed on “pioneering ships” that can use it to go somewhere else (you wouldn’t want to mess with spacetime in your backyard, would you?) – so these ships need power sources so advanced, they probably cost even more than an SST-Warp drive by themselves.
Exoplanet and galaxy representation, www.pixabay.com
"Where to send your ships?"
Obviously, these ships should look for planets with extremely rich mineral compositions or other materials that are deemed invaluable, in return for the operating cost. But information is hard to come by. There’s no “magic method” that can map the galaxy for exoplanets in an instant. The speed of light is the final barrier for conventional technology; we can’t just “know” what is out there. So, the pioneering ships have to see for themselves, based on data already available to pick out the best probable star systems. And whatever they find, they also can’t just send a text message back. (That would take somewhere between 10-1000 years!) They have to come back, risk spacetime-warping again, burning up fuel and/or taxing their power source and warp-drive to their limits.
Okay, but then it’s all okay, right? Not exactly. Who or what does the mining? And if, for example, this warping technology still has to somewhat abide by general natural laws – which it does –, wouldn’t a cargo of trillions of tons of materials make warping more complicated?
And my favorite problem:
[I]"Okay, you warp to another star system. But where exactly in that system?"
Say you can’t really do it too close to planetary bodies due to their mass, or the mass of the stars somehow determines where you can “pop out”: the planets themselves could be still years, decades away when you have to travel there with conventional thrusters! So technology should also exist for “micro-warping”, or for a far better conventional traversal of space (without imposing G’s so high on the ship it breaks in half).
There are a lot of possibilities to handle these problems when we are treading more and more into the realm of the fiction part.
My take in USC: CF is that the pioneering ships when they find a star system worth exploiting, build a Relay Gate; a space station orbiting the local star. These gates are built in three separate stages:
first, they build a habitat and engineering station from materials that were in cargo;
secondly, they disassemble the pioneering ship and use its power source and warp drive for building the gate itself;
and last, when the gate is operable, and smaller ships without their own warp drives can travel there, they finish the station with all other necessary elements (more habitats, storages, laboratories, refineries, etc.)
But Relay Gates are not capable of maintaining a “tunnel” to Earth indefinitely; these gates can only warp for a fraction of a second like they were able to when being housed on the ships, and only during that split-second can other ships – prepared in advance to be relayed – can travel, and also, this is the tiny timeframe when any information can also be sent forth and back between the two star systems. After that, the gate has to be maintained, the power source recharged, and any communication is shut down for days or weeks. But hey – still better than a hundred years!
It is impossible to estimate the cost of such a venture. So, interstellar travel is possible. We figured it out. We have the technology to build sufficient power sources, to build warp drives, to build ships that can house these and survive the warping process. And in the long run, this is the future of humanity – but it really, really does cost.
And when you’ve finally found a star system with a planet abundant in a resource so much needed, so valuable, you’re not going to give it up because a few “space worms” ate some scientists. Instead, you’re going to war.
Join our Discord to chat with the developers of USC Counterforce: https://discord.gg/vsxD6n8P8J
The USC Counterforce team
Early Access release delayed
Dear players,
After internal discussions with the team, the USC: Counterforce Early Access release, initially planned for March 2023, will be postponed by a few months.
We carefully read your feedback and suggestions over the different platforms during the last weeks. We heard your voices and decided to work more on the game for the greater good. We want USC: Counterforce to be an incredible experience for all of you, right from the Early Access release.
Because we value your input and constant support, we'll continue to share news on the development process and be transparent on the evolution of the game.
Thanks for your valuable contributions and ongoing support.
The USC: Counterforce team
Steam Next Fest broadcasts
Hi players,
The Steam Next Fest is over and you have been a few thousand to try the demo. We thank you for your feedback and enthusiasm toward the game. It helps us a lot working and improving the game. If you want to share your feedback with the developers, join our Discord!
Did you miss our Steam Next Fest broadcasts? Watch them now on Youtube!
Developers stream
Aliza and Csaba play the demo and talk about the game's development. Learn more about USC: Counterforce's behind-the-scenes in this VOD.
Developer interview
Louise interviews Aliza, lead developer on USC: Counterforce, while playing the demo. Aliza shares her inspirations and what made her choose the game development career.
