Most of you have probably seen our combat video by now. This was an early build of our combat which has taught us a lot about what is working and what isn't in the design. The biggest change that we have recently made is the following – you can now control your whole party in combat.​

We did this for a few reasons, namely to eliminate the wait for the player’s turn and to cut down on the frustration the player might feel from an ally AI’s tactical decision. With party control, you can also switch to characters that have the skills you might immediately need, which comes in handy when you want your mechanically-inclined ally to lockpick a door or your medic to prioritize a certain character’s health.​

However, we still want to make them feel like individuals. In the shelter, they very much have their own agenda and dialogue has a big impact on who they are. In combat situations, you will still have to worry about your squad panicking. We are adding more panic conditions, such as an ally worrying about a loved one if they are low on health. The presence of zombies or combat strain can still trigger a panic episode in most of your teammates. Having full control over allies, you can now try to reduce the likelihood of ally placement causing a panic episode. You still need to use your ally’s skills wisely and know what their weaknesses are.​

We've got a very early build that we’re fine-tuning, but expect to see more of full-party control in the future. We think it’s very much an improvement, and for fans of Jagged Alliance or X-Com, it’s going to offer a lot of the tactical options of those games. Our build is getting new features all the time, so we will demonstrate some of the new material when we have a more polished version of the new combat features.​