Update #14 is Elite. It is an update that introduces three elite enemies into the game to challenge players as they reach the second phase of the campaign mode. Elite is also how I feel about my journey in developing Vactics, a journey I started in 2020 as a hobby project in my spare time. I'm very happy with the game that you all get to play today in 2023.
The new enemy types will start to appear in the game once players unlock the second phase of the war and increase the challenge of the game. They will also now appear in Daily District challenges for those who want to see them right away.
I've been working very hard through January on the final features of the game in preparation for the 1.0 release. It is not far away now. There are so many little changes that are in place to prepare for the release of Vactics and I am working very hard to ensure that everyone who picks up the game has a great time playing it.
I also expect this will be the last time that I will make these requests here:
If you are enjoying the game, leaving a Steam review. They really will help me. They help Steam inform people that Vactics is a game could enjoy as well. I would love to see that number go up.
Tell a friend and tell some strangers. Word of mouth is the main way people can find Vactics. Please share widely and let me know when you do too.
I always want to know what I can do to improve the game. Make a forum post or use the in-game feedback button. Players who get in touch in these ways have really helped me improve Vactics.
Thank you as always for playing Vactics, leaving feedback and coming along with me on this journey.
Cheers, Gerard / The Lemur Conspiracy
Client Versions
Early Access: #0.800.4777 Demo: #0.400.4415
### Changes <*> Achievements - Added a new achievement to the game. <*> Audio - Added a sound effect to play when Vactics reinforcements arrive. <*> Campaign Map - Updated the drop animations for new districts as they arrive on the map. <*> Content - Changed the name of the evil corporation. <*> Content - Re-wrote the content for the control tower tutorials. <*> Content - Re-wrote the content for the district escalations tutorials. <*> Content - Re-wrote the final battle tutorials to better explain the new requirement. <*> Content - Re-wrote the messages shown after the end of a successful. <*> Daily District Challenge - Players can now activate all three escalations for the daily immediately. Forcing players to unlock escalation levels took away some choice and meant that early runs were never going to be able to compete on the leaderboards. <*> Gameplay - In the final battle the mech must now have at least 20% power in order to properly activate the Vactic Cores to complete the game. <*> Gameplay - Launcher Vactics cooldown between attacks reduced by 1 turn. More grenades! <*> Gameplay - Added 3 new Elite enemy types to the game. These enemies hit harder and have new behaviours that make them more deadly in battle. They will appear in the second phase of campaign mode and in the daily district challenges. <*> Sprites - Updated some mech sprites so that they work better when combined with other mech parts. <*> UI - Added a trail effect to the game cursor. <*> UI - Added polish and layout fixes to the tech upgrade UI. <*> UI - Changed the menu flow so that players return to the main menu after a successful campaign run. <*> UI - Moved the color palette selection option into the game progress screen. It was previously located in the settings menu. <*> UI - Updated the look and feel of the game over panel to make room for bigger text elements. <*> UI - Updated the look of in-game achievements. <*> VFX - Changed the colouring of the player when they are destroyed to better highlight the event.
### Bugfixes <*> Art - Fixed a broken animation cycle on one of the residential buildings. <*> Content - Fixed missing text on the Daily District game over screen <*> Cutscenes - Fixed incorrect frame offsets during the intro cutscene. <*> Daily District Challenge - Fixed bug where player could exit out of a daily challenge after dying and it would not record their score and that the attempt had been used up. <*> Gameplay - Fixed bug when enemy reinforcements would spawn even after the player was dead. <*> Gameplay - Fixed bug where sweeper turret targets were still showing up as valid after the target was destroyed by an explosion. <*> UI - Fixed the offset for the reinforcements countdown label so that it is not cut off on some displays.
Vactics News Update
Hi all,
I hope everyone has had an enjoyable start to 2023 and you have been playing some awesome games too. This update is about my plans for Vactics moving forward.
Over my holiday break in December I was able to build out the final structure and content for Vactics. These features are still being developed to completion so I've decided that instead of trying to push them forward one at a time in order to hit a fortnightly update rate that I will release everything together in a big update that will move the game out of Early Access into 1.0. I have also resumed working full time at my day job so this decision is also to prevent me overloading on work with trying to hit those regular updates.
My current plan is for 1.0 to be coming at the end of February and some of the things to look forward to are:
New Co-pilots feature that will join you on runs.
New Elite enemies.
The custom Vactics OST by GrandPrizeBigFuzz.
I will have more to say about 1.0 soon!
I'm still on the look out for bug reports that players are making, and I will focus on resolving those with some patch updates if required before 1.0.
A reminder too that if you are enjoying the game to leave a review. These will really help me get the game in front of more folks.
Thank you for your understanding and for playing Vactics in Early Access.
Regards, Gerard / The Lemur Conspiracy
Vactics Early Access Update #13 - Phases
"Phases" is the name I've given this release. Mainly as a nod to the brand new ending cutscene for the game which hints at some future changes that I'm working on. Secondly this time of year and the holiday season means that things are entering a slightly slower phase in development. Update #13 will be final update I'll be pushing in 2022. The rest of the year will be spent preparing things for the start of 2023 and working to resolve any issues that players might raise as well. The content of this release includes some gameplay balance changes and some added polish with some new audio and updated UI in certain sections of the game.
The big addition for this update is that I've added support for custom language files for the game. This feature will allow players to copy the current localisation file for the game, and make whatever changes they wish to it. This feature is still a bit early on so I'm expecting some issues as people get their hands on it. I've made a forum post with how to use the custom language features and I'm hoping to also share any custom language files that people come up with there as well.
And now moving to some things I always ask when writing up my release notes:
If you are enjoying the game, leaving a Steam review. They really will help me. They help Steam inform people that Vactics is a game they might enjoy too.
Tell a friend and tell some strangers. Word of mouth is the main way people can find Vactics. Please share widely and let me know when you do too.
I always want to know what I can improve in the game. Make a forum post or use the in-game feedback button. Players who get in touch in these ways have really helped me improve Vactics.
Thank you as always for playing Vactics and leaving feedback.
Cheers, Gerard / The Lemur Conspiracy
Client Versions
Early Access: #0.700.4651 Demo: #0.400.4415
### Changes <*> Audio - added new sound effects that play when districts are moving and landing in the map. <*> Audio - improved the sound effects that play when installing the arcane cores onto the mech. <*> Game Balance - fog clouds will no longer be spawned on tiles that have buildings. <*> Game Balance - reduced the likelihood of the War Fog escalation showing up in early districts in the campaign. <*> Game Balance - the Teleport tech range has been reduced by 1. <*> Localization - added support for adding and loading user generated language files into the game. <*> Story - added new cutscene that plays when the player gets the first ending. <*> UI - rebuilt the UI screen that shows up when the player unlocks new slots on their mech to install tech. <*> UI - adding in more art polish and sound effects to the main menu. <*> UI - moved the location of the tutorial popup that introduces the arcane cores feature to be whhen the player is entering the loadout screen. <*> UI - when opening the upgrade screen that first salvage option is now seelcted by default.
### Bugfixes <*> Audio - fixed mistimed sound effect in the introductory cutscene.s <*> Gameplay - finally fixed a visual bug that was causing grenades to show the wrong type of sprites when they are first spawned into a level. <*> Visuals - fixed sorting order problems for the arcane core drops that was causing them to show on top of the mech when sharing the same tile position.
Vactics Early Access Update #12 - Core Values
Hi everyone, the release write up begins again with my regular requests:
If you are enjoying the game, leaving a Steam review really helps me. They assist Steam as well to inform people about that Vactics is a game they might enjoy as well.
Tell a friend and tell some strangers. Word of mouth is the main way people can find Vactics. Please share widely.
I want to know if something is not quite right with the game. Make a forum post or use the in-game feedback button and tell you me your thoughts. People who get in touch in these ways have really helped me improve Vactics.
"Core Values" contains the promised changed to the Arcane Cores upgrades in the campaign. The aim with this change was to ensure that these gameplay altering upgrades appear more often in campaign runs so that players can experiment with them more often. The Arcane Cores, once unlocked, will appear as loot drops when you defeat Control Towers and must first be picked up before they can be equipped. All these changes have been built out with new artwork and sound effects too so that the upgrades look and feel as special as I'm hoping they can be. I'm looking forward to hearing what people think of the change so please share you feedback.
Thank you as always for playing Vactics and leaving feedback.
Cheers, Gerard / The Lemur Conspiracy
Client Versions
Early Access: #0.600.4621 Demo: #0.400.4415
### Changes <*> Accessibility - Added new option to disable background level tile visuals. This can be used to ensure only gameplay relevant visuals are visible during gameplay. <*> Animation - Added some polish animations to the skulls that show up throughout the game. <*> Campaign Map - updated the jet engine sprites that fire from districts when they are moving to a new position. <*> Gameplay - New Reinforcements Escalation. The player has eight turns to clear the level before more enemies will appear. <*> Gameplay - Reworked Arcane Cores Feature. A complete change to how the cores are found and equipped in the game with new art assets, sounds and polish. <*> Main Menu - the main menu art has been further update to include some new animation. <*> UI - Rebuilt the tech unlocking screen to use updated art assets and polished animations. <*> UI - Updated the codex screen to include some new updated loadout sprites, new interaction sounds and some animations when buttons are being shown.
### Bugfixes <*> Game Balance - Buffer Vactics were targeting battery drones with their shield ability. This will no longer happen. <*> UI - fixed issue when districts on the map would sit in an incorrect offset position.
Vactics News Update
Hi all,
I’m making this post to inform everyone that the regular fortnightly update for Vactics will be delayed 1 week and is planned for release on the 6th of December. The update is looking good with some new gameplay features ready for release but I am delaying by 1 week so that I could take a much needed holiday.
Thank you for your understanding and for playing Vactics in Early Access.
Regards, Gerard / The Lemur Conspiracy
Vactics Early Access Update #11 - Sensation
I thought I'd start this release write up with my regular requests:
If you are enjoying the game, leaving a Steam review really helps me. They assist Steam as well to inform people about that Vactics is a game they might enjoy as well.
Tell a friend and tell some strangers. Word of mouth is the main way people can find Vactics. Please share widely.
I want to know if something is not quite right with the game. Make a forum post or use the in-game feedback button and tell you me your thoughts. People who get in touch in these ways have really helped me improve Vactics.
"Sensation" is the name of this Early Access update for Vactics. The most noticeable changes in this release are some visual updates. Athena continues to do a great job with the art in both these cases. There are some new cutscenes for the game and more improvements to existing cutscenes as well. I won't spoil them but they really improve the moments in the game where they appear. The loadout screens have also been updated and better communicate a sense of place and progression as you move through a run. .
The second set of changes this update have been to game balance. The Daily District challenge has been balanced to increase difficulty and restrict players to a single attempt. I wanted to add some more stakes to each daily run and I'm hoping this achieves that for you all. I've also begun the process of a polishing and improving the Arcane Cores feature in the game. The plan for Arcane Cores is to give them a bigger impact on runs and these are some small steps in that direction. For now, you can only equip a single core at a time and that some cores have been removed from the game for balancing reasons. There will be more changes to Arcane Cores in update #12.
Thank you as always for playing Vactics and leaving feedback.
Cheers, Gerard / The Lemur Conspiracy
Client Versions
Early Access: #0.500.4559 Demo: #0.400.4415
### Changes <*> Animation - added progression animations for the mech that show between levels to indicate how far through a district the player is. <*> Animation - polished the movement into position of district tiles on the Campaign Map to make them feel more chunky. <*> Game Balance - Arcane Cores - Removed some cores from the game. <*> Game Balance - Arcane Cores - The mech can now only hold one core at a time. Select a new core will replace the existing assignment. <*> Game Balance - Daily District - Players are now restricted to a single attempt at the Daily District per day. <*> Game Balance - Daily District - Re-balanced random generation for the challenge to make it harder for the player. <*> Game Balance - Grappler Vactics now act much sooner in the turn order than other enemy types. <*> Story - added 3 new cutscenes that show when a run is failed. <*> Story - added a new story cutscene to the campaign. <*> Story - more polish applied to the games intro cutscene. <*> UI - The loadout screen now shows your current co-pilot and their available perks. This is in preparation for the future addition of other co-pilots to the game <*> UI - tweaked the text in cutscenes so it no longer sets the label to use italics. <*> UI - update the layout and art used for the mech loadout, upgrade and inventory screens with new art.
### Bugfixes <*> Input - fixed bug where some keyboard inputs were no longer working during gameplay.
Vactics Early Access Update #10 - Anticipation
"Anticipation" is the name I landed on for this update as it is all about the polish that I am trying to put into the game. This changes in this release include UI animation polish added to a few screens across the game, even more video tutorials added and more VFX polish added too. The biggest change is the new in-game effects for player damage in the form of sparks and smoke. The mech now better shows you that things are not going well, and that you might need to start hitting your combos. For those who have already been playing the game you will also notice a bit of streamlining now where rather than going from the district to the map only to leave to pick your upgrades, you will go straight to the upgrades screen before returning to the map afterwards.
This is also the first update where changes will not appear in the demo for the game. I'm super proud of the fact that I've been able to keep the demo as up to date with some of the game polish as it has but moving forward I'm going to focus on making sure all the changes are working for the store version of the game as a priority as things are being added for the eventual 1.0 release. I may revisit the demo in the future to bring it up to the paid version of the game but for now it will stay as is.
As always:
If you are enjoying the game, please leave a Steam review. They are helpful for Steam to inform people about the game and for new players to see if this is the kind of game they might enjoy as well.
Tell a friend and tell some strangers. Word of mouth is the main way people can find Vactics so please share widely.
If you have any things that aren't working for you, I want to hear from you. Make a forum post or use the in-game feedback button and tell you me your thoughts. People who get in touch in these ways have really helped me improve Vactics.
Thank you as always for playing Vactics and leaving feedback.
Cheers, Gerard / The Lemur Conspiracy
Client Versions
Early Access: #0.500.4491 Demo: #0.400.4415
Changes
Audio: the game will not play the input blocked sound if a popup is preventing player input from triggering logic.
Gameplay: changed the game flow after completing a district. Players will now go straight to the salvage screen followed by the campaign map.
Story: introduction now has more polished text and finalised art with full animations.
Tutorials: updated 9 tutorials to now use gameplay video examples instead of animations.
UI: polished some elements in the daily district leaderboard panel.
UI: polished the campaign loadout panel with some new animations.
UI: polished the campaign map panel with some new animations.
UI: polished the layout and presentation of the cutscene presentations.
UI: Updated some labels in the campaign loadout panel to better show the total score multiplier you get for having them enabled.
VFX: added a new background effect to levels that triggers when a player gets a combo.
VFX: The mech will have smoke and sparks shooting out when power levels are critical. The amount of smoke and sparks will be depend on how close to failing the mech is.
Bugfixes
Gameplay - fixed bug that allowed the battery drone to be placed on top of grenades.
Gameplay - fixed bug where Bomber Vactics would show their warning state when next to a mech in the fog, even when they were not about to explode.
Gameplay - fixed visual bug where Laser Walls would stay with flipped colours after being hacked
VFX - fixed the death animation on Shielder enemies moving around when they convert themselves to another Vactic type.
Vactics Early Access Update #9 - Information
The "Information" update was given this name as it is the first showcase of some new features that will be used in the future to explain more of the game and story of Vactics. The first are tutorial popups that show off all the tech available in the game with full video. This replaces some animated popups that all much harder to build and maintain and my plan is replace all existing animated popups with these videos soon. Existing players should see popups the first time they use any tech in a campaign run. Please let me know how they are looking.
The second feature is a brand new intro cutscene, which is a test of the new story sequence system I've built. This setup will allow more cutscene content to be introduced to the game in the future and because of this I've also added a new menu to re-watch them if you wish.
Finally the a major gameplay introduction in this update is Fog. It's a new mechanic that will obscure the view of the player and enemies, and block your ability to use your skills. Fog at the moment is released when a special tile that appears in levels is activated or when the new Fog Wave escalation is active in a district. It changes some possible strategies available to the player and during my testing I sometimes felt like a mech ninja moving from cloud to cloud!
As always:
If you are enjoying the game, please leave a Steam review. They are helpful for Steam to inform people about the game and for new players to see if this is the kind of game they might enjoy as well.
Tell a friend and tell some strangers. Word of mouth is the main way people can find Vactics so please share widely.
If you have any things that aren't working for you, I want to hear from you. Make a forum post or use the in-game feedback button and tell you me your thoughts. People who get in touch in these ways have really helped me improve Vactics.
Thank you as always for playing Vactics and leaving feedback.
Cheers, Gerard / The Lemur Conspiracy
Client Versions
Early Access: #0.400.4412 Demo: #0.400.4412
Changes
Audio: Tweaked the recharge sound played when the Recharge Drone moves onto the mech.
Audio: updated button hover and press sounds to give a more keyboard button feel.
Gameplay: Added Fog tile to the game. A new special tile that can appear in levels that spawns fog clouds when activated.
Gameplay: Added new Fog mechaic to the game. Tiles with Fog clouds cannot be targeted by enemies or the player. When the mech is on a fog tile their tech cannot be used and won't recharge between turns.
Gameplay: Added new Fog Wave Escalation that causes fog to appear in all levels.
Gameplay: Updated logic so that Citywide Escalations are kept active between runs, saving the need to re-enable them each time. Thanks to the user for the feedback that led to this change.
Narrative: Added new introductory cutscene that will play the first time the player begins the campaign. This is WIP to get the story features tested and working. It will see more improvements in the future.
Tutorials: 14 new video tutorials for all tech in the game. These will play the first time the tech is used in the campaign.
UI: Addded a new Cutscene screen to allow players to re-watch previously viewed cutscenes. This will be populated with more content in future updates.
UI: Added a button to clear all active Escalations on the Citywide Escalation screen.
UI: Added a feedback button to the gameplay panel to provide users easier access to that feature.
UI: More polish added to the opening title to improve it's layout on multiple screen resolutions.
VFX: Added some additional effects that play when the player skips their turn and surrounding buildings are cleared out.
Bugfixes
Fixed bug for scenario where player could be trapped in a corner by multiple shooter vactics. Thanks to the user who let me know about the issue.
Fixed minor visual bug where enemy would revert to default colours when the player died if they happened to be frozen.
Note: Any relevant fixes and improvements will also be in the updated client for the demo version of Vactics.
Vactics Early Access Update #8 - Opening Salvo
The "Opening Salvo" update is named after its most noticeable change, the first pass on the new title screen for the game. It still has some polish passes left to go but it was in a good enough place to get put into the game for folks to check out. I'm really excited for what it does for the game in terms of setting the tone for people when they load in. The other visual improvement made in this release are the new borders that exist around the levels, which really go a long way to giving focus to the gameplay on screen and, like the building animations, add more character to the areas you are in.
The other changes in this update were aimed at polishing the content release in update #7. To that end I've made a bunch of small balance changes, bug fixes and added 8 new achievements to the game as well.
As always:
If you are enjoying the game, please leave a Steam review. They are helpful for Steam to inform people about the game and for new players to see if this is the kind of game they might enjoy as well.
Tell a friend and tell some strangers. Word of mouth is the main way I have for Vactics to find people who might enjoy the game. Especially right now, when the game is at the lowest price it might ever be.
If you have any things that aren't working for you, I want to hear from you. Make a forum post or use the in-game feedback button and tell you me your thoughts. People who get in touch in these ways have really helped me improve Vactics.
Thank you as always for playing Vactics and leaving feedback.
Please note: The price increase I have previously mentioned will be happening before update #9.
Cheers, Gerard / The Lemur Conspiracy
Client Versions
Early Access: #0.400.4340 Demo: #0.400.4340
Changes
Achievements: Added 8 new achievements to the game, 6 of those being for the new Recharge Drone and Sweeper Tech.
Art: Added new border art to level tiles, with variations for the different districts in the game world.
Art: Added new icon for the enemy turn order popups to indicate when an enemy has already acted that turn and is exlucded for the current order calculation.
Art: Added new splash screen art to the main menu.
Art: tweaking the animation speed on the tiles used in the end game district.
Game Balance: Added a second trigger to unlock the Arcane Cores in the game. The cores will now be unlocked if you have completed a successful run in addition to the previous trigger of unlocking all available mech tech.
Game Balance: updated logic on the bomb enemies so that they will be activated if the player places a decoy on them directly.
UI: removed some unused buttons from the main menu screen.
UI: tweaked some text sizings on the loadout and upgrade screens.
UI: updated the achievement popup UI to show the title of the unlocked achievement only and the description if the user hovers their cursor over the popup.
Bugfixes
Fixed bug where buffer enemies would not move after activating a shield for the first time.
Fixed bug where sweeper would not face the correct direction when spawned into the level.
Fixed bug where the Comeback achievement was triggering in cases where the player had not fulfilled it's requirements.
Fixed bug where the counter would not update properly for some Arcane Cores when they were triggered.
Fixed bug where the player would not trigger the victory condition if they were pulled onto the victory tile by a Grappling Hook enemy.
Note: Any relevant fixes and improvements will also be in the updated client for the demo version of Vactics.
Vactics Early Access Update #7 - New Era
The "New Era" update is an exciting one. It is the first release of new mech tech into the game since Vactics entered early access. The Sweeper and the Battery Drone provide the mech with new ways to fight the Vactics and survive their attacks. The new tech will immediately appear as possible tech on the Daily District challenge mech, and will appear as unlockable tech through the normal pathway in the Save the City campaign.
I'm very excited to hear how they are received by players and how you might be able to break the game using them. Some of the work for the next release will be to polish these tech abilities, fix any bugs and also add some specific achievements for their use.
Alongside these two new gameplay additions, the update contains some nice visual polish to the in-game levels including new animations for fire and whirlpool tiles and some subtle animation touches to obstacles and buildings too. I'm really happy with how they are improving the overall feel and quality of the game.
As always:
If you are enjoying the game, please leave a Steam review. They are helpful for Steam to inform people about the game and for new players to see if this is the kind of game they might enjoy as well.
Tell a friend and tell some strangers. Word of mouth is the main way I have for Vactics to find people who might enjoy the game. If you do share the game, let me know as well. I'd love to be able to answer any questions folks might have about it.
If you have any things that aren't working for you, I have many ways I can be contacted. Make a forum post or use the in-game feedback button. People who get in touch in these ways have really helped me improve Vactics.
Thank you as always for playing Vactics and leaving your feedback. I'm continuing to work at updates for you all.
Please note: I have decided not to progress with the previously announced price rise so folks who are on the fence still have time to pick up the game at it's current price. The reason for this is that I wanted to make sure the new gameplay features had at least one update worth of polish and also to give time for some new additions to the game to be completed.
Cheers, Gerard / The Lemur Conspiracy
Client Versions
Early Access: #0.400.4261 Demo: #0.400.4261
Changes
Art: Added animations to the buildings in the levels to give the areas a bit more life.
Art: Added new animations for the fire tiles.
Art: Added new animations for the whirlpool tiles.
Art: Updated the art on the laser wall tech with a new polished version.
Gameplay Balance: Hack tech cooldown reduced by 1 turn.
Gameplay Balance: Reduced the density of buildings in the CBD district in the campaign.
Gameplay: Updated logic for enemy descriptions so that their behaviour will show up if scanned on first turn of a level.
Battery Drone Tech: Created new drone can that be placed on enemies in the level and will recharge the players power supply when the mech moves into a neighbouring tile. Added support for existing tech mods and created 2 new tech mods specificed to the Battery Drone.
Sweeper Tech: Created the Creeper Tech type that allows player to spawn a turret into the levels that rotates and destroys anything around it. Added support for existing tech mods and created 2 new tech mods specific to the Sweeper.
UI: Added new custom gamepad shortcut icons to the game.
UI: tweaked the text animation speeds across the UI.
Bugfixes
Cleaned up duplicate sound plays when Decoys were spawning into levels.
Fixed a rare bug where players could show a negative score for a run on the game over screen.
Fixed bug where description wouldn't fade down properly when closing the Inventory.
Fixed bug where Transporter Control Tower would teleport enemies to the same tile.
Fixed bug with the stats tracking that was not updating the statistics for certain tech use in the game.
Fixed inaccurate description on the Time Bomb arcane core.
Note: Any relevant fixes and improvements will also be in the updated client for the demo version of Vactics.
