I wanted to tell you about many big changes that are coming to the game in its last patches before launch and how this basically changes it into a new experience. Let's go in detail:
Star Cluster Map:
In order to ditch the current linear campaign, I'm making a sort of sandbox "galaxy" map where you can choose the star systems you want to visit.
As you can see in the GIF, the interface will show you information of the neighbouring star systems like their wealth and danger, in this way you can choose the star you want to visit and map safer or riskier paths according to your current strength. This major change also allows me to add another new feature: faction reputation. The idea is that you'll gain or lose reputation with some factions depending of the missions and actions you take and this can affect stuff like market prices, mission rewards and even trigger some hostile encounters in the star systems that belong to those factions. Of course, the star systems layout and stats are procedural, which means the Star Cluster Map varies from playthrough to playthrough.
New Main Story Campaign:
I've been busy preparing a new main story campaign with bosses, lore and a lot of new dialogue.
This campaign is presented as story missions that will unlock in the Star Cluster Map so you'll be free to play them at your own pace. The final objective remains the same: find and capture The Omen but now you'll have to talk and fight to many characters, including some powerful crews that want to reach the ship first. This campaign is something I've been planning for a while not only as a way of making the game more interesting and add more content but also to deliver some of the lore of the game in an organic way. Hopefully you'll enjoy the worldbuilding, story (and twists) I'm preparing.
New Maps:
Of course, I'm always adding new content and in particular I'm preparing new encounters for some of the planets. In the GIF you can see a new map type for populated planets: an "Urban Spaceport", basically a raid mission where you'll fight in a series of interconnected rooftops against the local security forces while a megacity acts as a background. I'm also working in other minor encounters like this space minefield:
I'm planning other new maps (and enemies) but I'll have more news of that later.
These upcoming patches are BIG and so in depth that I wanted to warn you that current saves will become "deprecated" once they are out, ideally you'll start a new game to experience all the new changes but I'm also adding an internal converter just in case, in this way if you have an old save when you load it, it will warn you but it will recover stuff like your soldiers, inventory, money and ship parts so you can play with them in the new campaign.
That's it for now, see you in the next patch!
Regards, Jorge
Achievements and New Content!
Hi
In this patch I added achievements, a new map and some changes. Let's go in detail:
New Map:
Added a new volcanic map where you need to hunt a rare Crimson Xenobeast. Be wary that the planet is infested so expect constant xenobeast reinforcements.
New Xenobeasts:
I wanted to add more variety to the xenobeast enemies so I added new variants:
- Armored Xenobeast: this one is slower than the warriors but stronger and with 1 extra armor point. - Ghost Xenobeast: this one is faster and weaker than warriors. It has no Regeneration ability but compensates by having a "Cloak" ability that makes it invisible. Just like the Cloaking done by the assassins, this status ends when the unit makes an attack, receives damage or gets targeted by a Threat Detector or similar ability. - Crimson Xenobeast: this one only appears in the new map. It's evolved to survive in a volcanic world so expect your soldiers to get burned if they get hit or if they are too close when it dies.
NOTE: I also reskined the other xenobeasts to be green, I did this because these monsters are store assets and they've been appearing in many other games so I wanted to modify them to make them more unique.
Achievements:
I might add more later but for now this patch adds 13 achievements.
Fixes and Improvements:
Added an option to stop corpses from disappearing after a few seconds (Options Panel -> Game tab).
Added a status icon for when soldiers are carrying loot.
Added a merciful option when dealing with the Stowaway Random Event.
Fixed a bug where sometimes some cells would stay blocked when enemies get revealed and they move.
Fixed a minor issue where selling all valuables would make multiple items of the same type to appear as a single item in the vendor.
Fixed a bug where burned effects in some enemies would have a wrong rotation.
Fixed some unreliable highlights when targeting enemies with an Area of Effect skill.
Fixed a bug where you wouldn't get a friendly fire warning when pointing directly at a friendly.
Fixed some audio issues where sometimes music would act as a sound effect and lose volume when moving away from its source.
Fixed some minor issues where a unit or enemy can't get highlighted if its using a shield.
Fixed an issue where an explosion could affect units that are in a high or low cell despite having enough distance from origin of explosion.
Fixed plasma explosions showing a bigger range than they really have.
Other minor fixes and changes (some internal too).
That's it for now, I already started working in the biggest patch of all: the new Sandbox Campaign but since it's so big I might keep releasing some minor patches in the meantime to avoid long periods of apparent inactivity.
See you in the next patch!
Regards, Jorge
Patch Notes: 19-03-2024
In this patch I add 2 new maps and a few fixes and changes:
New Maps:
Added a new snow planet mission where you can raid a CDF outpost. Be wary that CDF soldiers are tougher than your regular security guards.
Added a new jungle planet mission where you can kill a Krell'Sha Warchief for a bounty.
Both new missions have reinforcements and tough enemies so be careful.
Fixes and Changes:
Changed the way objectives are shown during raid missions. Now it will show how many loot containers are needed to fulfill the mission and how many are in the map. It will also update if loot containers are destroyed and highlight the Retreat button when you reach a minimum of containers.
Fixed a bug that would cause sometimes enemy waves freezing in the arena.
Fixed walls blocking pathfinding only partially in the Infested Pirate Ship mission (also changed how xenobeasts patrol there).
Fixed a minor issue where evacuating a soldier doesn't end turn automatically.
Fixed a bug that made rockets stop asking for confirmation when friendly fire is possible.
I was planning to release these new maps in a patch alongside achievements and other new maps but there were a couple of critical bugs reported that I wanted to fix ASAP so I decided to make a small patch with the maps that were ready.
Achievements and extra maps will have to wait until the next patch but it shouldn't take too long, I'm already halfway there. Once that content is done I think I'll start working in the big sandbox patch.
That's it for now. See you in the next patch or dev diary.
Regards, Jorge
Patch Notes: 20-02-2024
For this week I have more fixes but also new skills for Human and Void Spawn Mercenaries:
Added new skill to Void Spawn: Suppressive Fire. Replaces Covering Fire for a barrage with a medium sized area of effect and manual aiming. Any targets inside the area will receive guaranteed minimum weapon damage and the "Suppressed" status effect. It also can destroy weak cover.
Added new skill to Human Mercenaries: Spray And Pray. Replaces covering Fire for a small area of effect with manual aiming. Any targets inside the area receive guaranteed minimum damage. Barrage can also destroy weak cover.
Added more voice lines when moving your soldiers (especially for the female ones).
Fixed a bug where using the Vortex spell would only work in empty cells, now it can also directly target cells with obstacles or enemies in them.
Added a "Forbidden" red cursor that will replace the AoE bubble (or skill cursor) when you are doing manual targeting beyond the action's range.
Added more information to the Unit Info Panel (F1): special skills like retaliation, dodge overwatch and Death's Door chance will appear there now.
Fixed a bug where special Ammo wouldn't appear in the Unit Info Panel (F1).
Added QuickShot skill (Pistol shot with no AP cost) to the Techno Sorcerer class.
Fixed a bug where an internal exception would stop some spells like Vortex and Void Detonation from triggering correctly.
Fixed a bug where an enemy unit could get selected like a player's unit when its patrol is revealed and it makes a special skill (example: a Void Witch performing Block on reveal could trigger this).
Now killing the last visible enemy will stop the combat music and go back to exploration music (at least until a new enemy patrol is revealed).
Configured a few extra props to be destructible cover.
Added a few validations on overwatch to (hopefully) fix a rare issue with overwatch causing a freeze.
Made some minor balance changes: reduced height bonus a bit, reduced FFP bonus also a bit, changed level requirements for a few skills.
NOTE: if you load an older game where you have a human mercenary that had the Covering Fire skill, you should still be able to use the skill but replaced by the new Suppressive Fire skill. It should work the same but look a bit odd because it uses animations of the Void Spawn/Heavy Weapons.
See you soon with another patch or Dev Diary.
Regards, Jorge
Patch Notes: 14-02-2024
A few fixes for this week's patch:
Fixed a bug where a soldier would get deselected after certain actions like reload.
Fixed a bug where a soldier sometimes wouldn't be able to move after certain actions (usually Cloaking).
Fixed a bug when opening the new Hangar UI that would keep the panel opened and unable to close.
Fixed rockets not doing damage to destructible props.
Fixed a bug where dron's projectiles would shoot from a different place instead of its gun.
Configured more half cover props to be destructibles (small canisters and boxes).
Fixed an issue where a soldier firing a rocket from an alien tower would slide vertically.
Fixed station music not stopping after undocking.
Fixed a small animation jitter when customizing techno sorcerers.
Fixed an issue where drone corpses would fall through the ground.
Fixed a pathing bug where sometimes enemy patrols wouldn't patrol or react to explosion noise.
Fixed a bug where patrols wouldn't be alerted when one of their members dies in a single shot.
Fixed a few corner walls from not blocking the right cells in the grid.
Fixed an issue where the camera would focus a wrong point when a pod is landing in a scenario.
Now panels in the new station UI can be closed by pressing Escape.
Fixed an issue where the last boss sometimes fails to execute its vortex spell.
EDIT: I uploaded a new small patch today that fixes a critical bug where some Krell'Sha enemies freeze (since it's only a single fix I didn't post a new article).
Regards, Jorge
New Patch: Space Station Overhaul and New Missions!
Hi,
This patch replaces the old station menus for 3D environments with NPCs. It also adds new missions in new environments, new enemies and fixes. Let's go in detail:
Space Station Overhaul:
As I mentioned in a previous dev diary, the Space Station overhaul adds a new interface where you can see rooms of the station you are visiting and interact with NPCs instead of the old menus with placeholder portraits. The basic functions remain the same but with some new mechanics.
Now you can see the recruits available in a station alongside their loadout and traits (in order to see the recruits you need to talk to the "Mercenary Agent" NPC that you'll find in a Bar):
In the "Command Center" section of a station you'll be able to talk to a NPC that will show you the missions available there. I added a few extra and some of these new missions can be started directly from this menu instead of leaving the station to find them:
In the Medbay section you can heal your soldiers like before but now you can also cure injuries and diseases, these are new negative traits that some soldiers can get during combat or random events (for example, a soldier that survives a deadly attack with the help of "Death's Door" will automatically receive an injury that will reduce their accuracy or movement):
New Missions and Content:
These new missions are accessible through the MIssions board in space stations (Cmd. Center) and include some new environments and enemies to add more variety to the game:
- Void Temple: clear this place of void cultists to safeguard the people fo this system.
- Arena: fight waves of enemy pirates in a station arena to get a cash prize.
- Crisis in a Station Lab: clear the station lab of rogue androids.
Besides new missions I also added several new enemies and some of them have a chance to deploy by a landing pod in some existing planetary missions.
The new enemies added are:
Rogue Workbot.
CDF Trooper
CDF Combat Android
CDF Combat Medic
Pirate Hunter
Alien Bounty Hunter
Alien Pirate Hunter
Void Cultist (replaces previous Void Cultist from last battle).
Void Witch.
Tamed Xenobeast Worker.
Enemy Raider.
Enemy Mercenary.
Enemy Techno Sorcerer.
Enemy Assassin.
Also the old version of Void Cultist becomes Void Trooper, with a normal version for regular missions and a veteran version for the last battle. Same goes for Void Warriors.
Besides this new content I also added a new random event "Soldiers resting".
Fixes and minor improvements:
Fixed a bug where some enemies (like xenobeasts) could get stuck performing an animation after dead.
Fixed a critical bug where some soldiers could end up with the same internal ID (which prevents them from getting properly leveled up). NOTE: if you have this issue in an old save you can fix it now just by reloading the save.
Blocked a few out-of-bounds areas in some maps that were accessible by mistake.
Added some missing voices to a few enemies (like the Necro Trooper).
Fixed a bug where the aiming gets interrupted for a soldier if the previous selected soldier was still reloading.
Fixed a bug where some causes of death weren't properly recorded in the Memorial.
Fixed an ocassional camera jitter when the player's ship is intercepted by an hostile ship.
Added some missing cover spots (wall corners) to a few maps (including the last battle).
Updated the Fog of War third-party shader to the latest version in order to fix some possible graphical issues during combat.
Fixed and smoothed a few animation/IK errors when switching from a melee weapon to a ranged one during aiming.
Added a progress bar to the Loading File panel and made a few small visual changes to it.
Added a 30 second limit to enemy turns in case there's a freeze (of course, I'm still looking to fix this last freeze bug, this is just for the moment).
Camera now focus on a soldier if it's launching a rocket.
Fixed a bug where acid spit from a xenobeast doesn't pass the corroded status effect, also increased its chances to miss a target.
Fixed a bug where the camera stops following an enemy if it uses a power or rocket.
If you are still here, thanks for reading and for supporting the project. Now I plan to focus for a few weeks in small patches with fixes and minor improvements before jumping to the last major patches which include stuff that I've been promising for a long time like dynamic rivals and the new non-linear map/sandbox campaign. Hopefully once these major features and content are done I'll have also enough fixes to consider the game stable enough to leave Early Access. Until then, I'll keep working and listening to your feedback. See you in the next patch or Dev Diary!
Regards, Jorge
Dev Diary #10: Space Station Overhaul
Hi
I'm hard at work making the next big content patch so I wanted to inform you of what's coming.
The main idea behind this long promised "space station overhaul" is to replace the current space station user interface with small 3D environments and NPCs but not just a cosmetic change, in this way the stations can be different depending of the type of system you are visiting, for example: a pirate lair not only should look differently from a corporate space station but both should offer different services and missions.
New Maps and Missions:
Speaking of missions, I'm working in a new arena map where you'll be able to fight hostile pirates and alien creatures for money and reputation.
With the overhaul, some missions like this one can be taken without leaving the station.
The arena is almost ready but I'm also working in other environment assets like space station/pirate lair interiors. Adding to that I'm working in new enemies to populate these new maps: cultists, pirates, alien fauna and others.
New Services and NPCs:
With the idea of making stations more interesting, I'm also adding new services to some of them. For example, you could "install" traits in advanced medbays, not just use them to heal your soldiers. In that sense I might add negative traits that can be removed with money (example: injuries or disease catched during combat).
Sections like bars, mercenary guilds, etc. will feature some NPCs that give me flexibility to add more station interactions like recruiting, receiving information, missions, lore, etc. Later when the sandbox mode replaces the current campaign, stuff like NPC interactions could prove useful to know about neighbouring systems that you can visit, play with faction reputation (another future feature that might replace infamy) or even to unlock hidden encounters.
As you can see, this is still work in progress but it opens a lot of possibilities for new content and interactions. Thanks for reading and see you in the next update!
Regards, Jorge
Patch Notes: 18-10-2023
Hi
This patch has some minor features and content that I'm releasing while I work in a bigger patch. Let's go in detail:
Added explosive barrels to several maps. These barrels can only be targeted if there's enemies close to them.
Added new enemy: Corporate Mercenary. This is a foot soldier equipped with an auto-shotgun and capable of retaliating against ranged attacks.
Modified list of target icons to show explosive barrels and yellow icons when a target has more than 50% chances of receiving critical damage. Target icons also show a tooltip with the hit chance now.
Raised level cap to 12.
Improved Scav Ship map, made it bigger and with more starting points.
Improved Infested Pirate Ship map, made it bigger and with more starting points and egg traps.
Improved Krell'Sha ship map, changed textures, added new Krell'Sha decorations and props, made it bigger with more starting points.
Improved Cargo ship map, changed textures, made it bigger with more starting points.
Improved Rogue Robots Lab map, changed textures, made it bigger with more starting points.
Improved XenoLab map, changed textures, made it bigger and with more starting points.
Made that detection skills and items can decloak invisible enemies (there's no enemies able to cloak in this build but there will be in the future, that's why I made this change).
Fixed a bug where armed civilians couldn't use their nano medkits on their allies.
These are just the changes I could release right now, I've been working in new enemies and maps and a long promised overhaul of the space station mechanics too. I'll have a dev diary soon detailing what I'm doing and what can you expect in the next patch.
In the meantime, thanks for your continued support!
Regards, Jorge
New Skills (and other stuff)
Hi
For this patch I have several new skills for the soldiers (and changes to some existing ones), some major fixes to combat using height and even changes to some existing maps to take advantage of these fixes.
Let's go in detail:
New Skills:
- Cloaking: with this skill, an Assassin can become invisible to enemies for a few turns or until they shoot a target or receives damage.
- Retaliation: this passive skill allows a Human Mercenary to respond with fire if they receive normal ranged fire (and there's ammo available).
- Dodge Overwatch: this skill makes any Raider (human or Krell'Sha) immune to overwatch fire. - Melee Blocking : this skill makes any Raider (human or Krell'Sha) able to block melee attacks that come from the front. The blocking skill do not work against critical hits or flanking attacks. - Charge: this passive skills adds a critical chance bonus per every cell moved when executing a melee attack (applies only to Raiders). - Quick Shot: this skill allows an Assassin to take a sidearm shot without expending action points. It does have a minor hit and crit chance debuff though. - Final Firing Position is now passive: this Assassin skill now activates automatically at the start of the turn if the Assassin is in cover.
NOTE: some of the skills have made some classes way more powerful than others but I plan to keep adding more skills to the rest too. Also if some of them are too overpowered (like the Assassin skills) I might tweak their requirements or conditions in a future patch.
Map Changes:
- Modified "Snowed Infested Settlement" with towers and a landing pad. I also added "XenoEgg Traps", these are egg clusters that react to close soldiers and spawn larvas (some of them can be inactive, this is determined by a random chance that increases with difficulty).
- Modified "Jungle Abandoned Outpost" map with new assets (now it's basically a small fort that uses more height in combat). I also added random starting positions to it and changed the skybox.
- Modified "Stranded Krell'Sha in Alien Planet" map with outpost assets. Now the mission is about Krell'Sha taking a Guild outpost and there's more random starting positions. - Modified "Desertic Settlement" map with guard towers and a landing pad. - Modified "Alien Diaspora Camp" map with some new observation towers. - Modified "Infested Pirate Ship" map by adding some XenoEgg traps.
These are the ones I managed to modify in these last few days but I also plan to improve the rest to make them more interesting.
Minor content, changes and fixes:
- Added a few beards to the male human classes (they are in the "Lower Face Accessories" list). - Added minimum distance stats to some weapons. This means that weapons like sniper rifles have a penalty when aiming at close targets but a buff when aiming at distant targets (this in turn makes pistols more useful for Assassins). - Fixed an issue where the wrong weapon stats were used in the hit and crit chance formula (especially for melee weapons). - Changed the Health bonus per level to +1 every 3 levels. - Changed height bonuses to +5 hit and crit chance per meter. - Fixed an issue where the cover of a prop could overwrite the cover of another close prop. Now both cover values are combined. - Fixed an issue where the camera would make a "jump" trying to follow an enemy that's shooting after reloading. - Now loot containers can be opened by clicking them directly (as long as a soldier is next to it) instead of just using the action button. Also added sound and an extra visual effect to it. - Tweaked jump, vault and landing animations for bipeds when leaving a high platform. - Modified some jumping animations to use with xenobeasts when they are climbing a ladder. - Added new surprise/trap spawns mechanic (for now it only works with xenoegg traps but I plan to use this mechanics to add more surprise enemies like xenobeasts that jump from vents or from underground). - Added sound effect to bodies hitting the ground. - Fixed an issue where some projectiles would have a wrong rotation or be fired from a wrong position. - Changed the way the movement range outline is drawn so the cells in a high position are drawn correctly. - Fixed an issue where a melee attack could affect a target with a different height. - Changed the way the camera follows a unit making a melee attack, now it follows from normal height instead of shoulder height. - Fixed a rare issue where enemies would get stuck in their turn if they couldn't plot a path to their target when using melee attacks. Now if they have no possible path or alternative target, they will hunker down. - Fixed an issue where the image in the Loot panel in the Star Map could be empty. - Fixed a collider issue that made hard to click the holographic buttons in doors. - Other minor changes and internal fixes.
Thanks for reading and following the project, if you want to support me further please consider leaving a review. My objective with all these patches (and the major ones I have planned) is to turn around this project even if it takes time and maybe reach more players. Hopefully hard work will pay off in the end (but if not, I plan to use what I learn with this project in future games, I have tons of ideas and I love turn based games).
Regards, Jorge
Patch Notes: 04-09-2023
Hi,
For this week I have a few extra bug fixes that couldn't wait until the next medium or big patch:
Fixed dialogue screen still active if you load a new game or go back to the Main Menu before finishing a dialogue sequence.
Fixed some internal errors that might cause occasional "freezes" during the enemy turn.
Fixed a bug that stopped a Techno Sorcerer from getting experience points by using the Vortex spell.
Fixed a minor camera bug in volcanic and hangar scenarios that made the camera make a small jump everytime you switch soldiers.
Fixed a minor issue that allowed a soldier to get experience points from causing friendly fire.
