Depth of Extinction - turn-based roguelike RPG set in a flooded world

[CryptRat]

This is shaping nicely.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

https://hofstudios.itch.io/doe/devlog/21239/so-about-those-character-classes

So about those Character Classes...


We’ve been planning to totally rework the classes in Depth of Extinction for a while now, and Build 38 is where you finally get to see all that work in the game. No word yet on when that will be available in First Access, but it should be soon.

So what’s changing?

• Five base classes
• Six unlockable classes (four from enemy factions)
• Weapons are reorganized and categorized into Weapon Classes (a few new ones added)
• Character Classes are specialists with particular Weapon Classes (most with just one, but a few with multiple)
• Weapons can be freely equipped, but there will be penalties for using a “non-class” weapon
• Less skills unlocked via stat point upgrades
• Class points now affect a particular stat within the game.

We've refactored the Level Up screen to better support the new classes


Base Classes

First, let’s talk about our five “base” classes. These are the classes available to you at the start of the game. This table breaks down the Skills available to those classes plus the effect upgrading the stat will have on the character.

Class

Weapon Class

Skills

Stat Effect

Deadeye

Sniper

Sentry
Vigilance
Kill Shot

Visible Range

Assault

Shotguns

Snap Shot
Hit and Run
Close Combat

Reduce shotgun damage penalty

Wildcat

SMG

Itchy Trigger
Empty Clip
Combined Arms

Extra shots on every attack

Saboteur

Rifle

Low Profile
Shadow
Sneak Attack

Reduce Detection Range

Soldier

Rifle
Shotgun
SMG

Item Master
Close One
Double Tap

???

Now, the Weapon Classes
Weapons are now categorized in a more intuitive way and as mentioned, have a penalty for equipping outside of the character’s class. In most cases, this penalty is just that reloading will end the turn, even if done on the first action. Some weapons will have additional penalties or can’t be equipped at all unless the character has the class. Because character’s of a class have particular training they are able to better utilize the weapons, though any character can equip most weapons. We think this makes logical sense, unlike other games that won’t let you equip that #%@# shotgun!

You’ll see some Weapon Classes in the table below that aren’t in the class list above. These will all be available once all classes are unlocked!



Weapon Class

Weapons

Penalty

Notes

Sniper

Rusty Sniper
Marksman Rifle
Sniper Rifle
Bone Lance
Plasma Sniper

Can’t move and use
Reload ends turn

Short range penalty

SMG

Rusty SMG
SMG
Automatic Rifle
SMG II
Plasma SMG

1 less shot (min 2)
Reload ends turn

Multiple shots

Bio

Slime Spitter
Bile Cannon
Boss Bio Weapon

Reload ends turn

Poison

Shotgun

Rusty Shotgun
Sawed off Shotgun
Tactical Shotgun
Plasma Shotgun

Reload ends turn

Scaling damage based on range

Launcher

Grenade Launcher
Stun Grenade Launcher
Plasma Launcher

Reload ends turn

Cripple
Explosive projectiles
Only hold one ammo

Rifle

Rusty Laser
Lightning Rifle
Laser Carbine
Laser Rifle
Arc Rifle
Plasma Rifle

Reload Ends Turn


Heavy

Rusty Mini Gun
Mini Gun
Rusty Heavy Laser
Heavy Laser
Heavy Plasma

Can’t be equipped

Damage area of effect
Friendly fire

Whaler

Small Harpoon
Harpoon Gun
Lance Rifle
Explosive Lance

Reload ends turn

Projectile weapons
Bleeding

What about the unlockable classes?
“Challenge missions” will become available once particular conditions are satisfied during the course of the game. If you take on one of these missions and are successful, then a new class will be unlocked. We’ll post more about that in a future update!

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

https://hofstudios.itch.io/doe/devlog/22631/build-38-character-classes-ui-and-balancing

Build 38 - Character Classes, UI and Balancing

It’s been in the works for a few months now, but the Character Class update is finally here! We wrote down some details about it and covered the initial five classes in this blog post. We’ve also brushed up the UI again for this build, as our artist Sebastien (@vakerics) has done some spiffy new icons for the character and weapon classes, plus for icons that are used in other places in the UI. This Build was pretty complex, as you can tell by the version number, as we did 7 revisions to the initial Build 38. I think that is our most ever.

Unfortunately, this update resets save data but we think it’s worth it to start over and experience the new classes! Read on for all the details

First, let’s talk about the skills that can be unlocked in these five new classes first. Each class has 3 skills that can be unlocked when the stat value for the class is upgraded to a particular level.

Class

New

Name

Level

Description

Assault

*

Snap Shot

1

Take a shot without using an action with reduced hit chance



Hit and Run

3

If moved and shot results in a kill, get another movement action



Close Combat

5

Attack on enemy within 2 tiles doesn't cost an action

Deadeye


Sentry

1

Bonus to damage and aim if firing on first action



Vigilance

3

Character will enter overwatch after moving twice


*

Kill Shot

5

If shot results in a kill then get another shot

Saboteur

*

Low Profile

1

If in cover, first attack per turn does no damage.



Shadow

3

Does not trigger overwatch when moving


*

Sneak Attack

5

Deal double damage if not spotted by enemies

Soldier


Item Master

1

Use an item one extra time per mission



Close One

3

If killed, revive once per mission with 1 health



Double Tap

5

Take two shots with aim penalty on one action

Wildcat

*

Itchy Trigger

1

Fire an extra bullet if on first Action



Bullet Hell

3

Fires all remaining bullets at random enemies in range



Combined Arms

5

Fire on enemies in range that are fired on by allies

Nobody clears a room like the Assault class

The Deadeye strikes before you even see them

The Saboteur keeps a low profile when in cover
We’ve also made some changes to the other Stat skills that can be unlocked.

Stat

Name

New

Level

Description

Awareness

Watcher


2

Can fire two overwatch shots on a turn


Vital Targeting


4

Automatic critical on flanked target

Constitution

Regen


5

Restore some health on every turn

Grit

Boost Aim


2

Increase your focus to better target vital areas


Critical Miss


4

Enemies can not land a critical hit

Reaction

Speed Loader


3

Weapon reloads do not cost an action


Return fire


5

Fire a shot at any enemy who fires on you

Speed

Flip the Field


2

Sprint twice as far on this action


Fast Mover

*

5

Reduce all cooldowns by 1

We have two more character classes and four enemy classes that can also be unlocked in the course of the game. We have these planned out but don’t want to share too much yet. Here are some high level details on the next set of classes.

Class Name

Faction

Weapon

Skills

Unlock

Warden

Friendly

Launcher

Distraction, Hunker Down, Covering Fire

YES

Wrecker

Friendly

Heavy

Big Blast, Scrap Blast, Total Mayhem

YES

Scourge

Cultists

Bio

Bio Freak, Infect, Rupture

YES

Hazard

Feral Android

Rifle

Malfunction, Power Surge, Overclock


Annihilator

Androids

Rifle

Target, Crack Shot, Thermal Imaging

YES

Butcher

Raiders

Rifle

Taunt, Mend, Enrage

YES

Swashbuckler

Pirates

Whaler

War Cry, Run and Gun, Revenant

YES

Equipment and Loot

All equipment will be grouped into tiers, which will help us show you at a glance in the UI whether an item is an improvement over the one currently equipped. There are several other behind the scenes uses for these tiers as well, for example, calculating the store prices.

Indicators now tell you if that new piece of equipment is right for your character


Another detail we mentioned in the Classes blog post are the new Weapon Classes. To sum up, each Character Class is associated to at least one weapon class. Equipping a “non class” weapon will mean a penalty. Some weapons can’t be equipped except by a member of their class but most just have a reload penalty.

Enemies now drop any “tiered” equipment (greater than tier 0) that they have plus a few credits.

Other Changes

We’ve done a bit of an mini-overhaul to the game UI. New icons for classes plus a few design refinements.

We’ve also revamped the Screen resolution settings to hopefully better support your monitor and, when in windowed mode, enforce 16x9 resolution. For you Linux players with multi-screen setups, we’re trying to improve on a bug reported recently, but you might need to switch to windowed mode. If you have issues with full screen, please submit a bug report with a screenshot and some details on your setup to help us figure this out.

Other Balancing changes

• Cost of fuel increased
• Credits as a primary Loot (in a locker, box) increased
• Cost of equipment, weapons and armor increased (pretty significantly)
• Cost of level 0, 1, 2, 3 level Mercs are the same, but level 4 and 5 are higher (when they can be recruited)
• Merc starting (default) weapons are based on their starting level
• Level 1 class weapons are the “rusty” variants
• Tougher enemies will be showing a little later than they appear currently

So what’s next?

We’ll be trying to post more regularly (at least once a week) between builds about our upcoming plans. For now, here’s a quick roadmap of what we have left to do before launch (just major items):

• Base and Objective UI’s
• Bleeding system
• Additional Class Skills (mostly testing)
• Gamepad support
• Unlocks and various other UI’s

 

[frajaq]

any reason to buy this over X-Com 2?

 

[Leitz]

any reason to buy this over X-Com 2?

Of course NOT

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

https://hofstudios.itch.io/doe/devlog/23475/the-world-opens-up-build-39-preview

The World Opens Up: Build 39 Preview

lmost from the beginning of development of Depth of Extinction, I’ve envisioned the game as an open world RPG where you can explore and find interesting and unexpected things spread out in this crazy undersea world. For the past few months, a lot of effort has gone into thinking about the right way to bring that open world aspect back to the game.

Here’s the basic outline of what we plan to implement over the next several builds to bring the game into its final state.

The first change you will notice is that the map is now broken down into “Zones” that are primarily designated by the faction that primarily controls that area. Not all zones will be accessible initially, but all will unlock as the player progresses. The first missions will be of shorter duration in the Republic zone, which should allow players to acclimate to the game and be relatively low compared to the steep jump you experience after going through a few areas currently.

Available objectives will be visible on the Zone map. When you choose an objective, then you will be taken to the Loadout screen.

Loadout is where you will decide on the launch options for your team. The total funding available at the start of an objective, which can be spent during the Loadout, is the total of your funds plus the objective start bonus.

You’ll start off with a few team members on your permanent roster, but can choose to take or leave those team members with you, or supplement with mercs that are hired for only this objective.

Subs can also be rented for use on that objective. If you find a sub out there in the wild, you can let one of your characters pilot it back to base and use it on the next mission.

There will also be the option to abort an objective in progress and return to the base. There will be some penalties for failing or aborting an objective though.

We’ll continue to iterate on these ideas over the next few weeks as we get this ready for our First Access players to try out, so if you have feedback, we’d love to hear it.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

https://hofstudios.itch.io/doe/devlog/25031/build-39-world-map-base-and-objectives

Build 39 - World Map, Base and Objectives

After choosing an objective, you will have to load out your team. Each mission has a starting bonus, which can be used to rent a sub and hire crew, and a completion bonus, which is only paid if you complete it successfully. You’ll have to rent a sub initially and though you start with two permanent team members, it’s probably a good idea to use that last 50 credits to hire a merc to help you out.

Mercs will only work for you on that one objective. They will level up like regular characters and will still be available at the base if they survive the mission. The higher the merc’s level, the more expensive it is to hire them. Mercs can also be hired at merchants and they will always be at least level one and have a class already assigned. Any equipment you assign to a merc won’t be lost when thee mission is completed, but the equipment a merc starts with can’t be removed.

You can get permanent team members by rescuing hostages on missions and freeing slaves. We’ll be working on more ways to get permanent team members (more on that below).

Moving forward, there’s a lot of territory to explore now:

• Subs - the plan is to sometimes have the team find subs on missions, that can then be piloted back to base. You’ll have to give up one of your characters to pilot the sub back, however. If they are a permanent team member, they will still be waiting for you when you get back.
• Base leveling - the level of the base determines the areas that are unlocked, the difficulty of missions (and the payouts) plus has a part in making more subs and classes available. Currently, the base levels up as you complete objectives but this might change in the future.
• Class Unlock Missions - we plan to create “challenge missions” in new areas. These will primarily put you in control of an enemy who has had a change of heart and decided to steal a sub and escape. If you can make it back to your base with the enemy character (and any other characters you pick up along the way) then you will have access to their class, they will join the permanent team and a sub will be owned.

Equipment allocation - it’s possible we will make an inventory management layer to allow you to being only certain items on the sub and limit the space available. Not sure if this will make it in the final game though.

Other stuff in Build 39:

Zoom - we’ve finally got zoom back into the game. Just scroll the mouse wheel up and down to zoom in and out. We’ve got 4 “pixel perfect” zoom levels that can be used. Hopefully this is a good change.

UI juicing work - the UI elements now have fade in and pop in effects (depending on the type of element) and sound effects. We’ll continue to build and refine these so feedback is appreciated!

Bug fixes - mostly minor stuff

Upcoming in the next few builds:

• Bleeding system - rather than dying immediately when running out of health, characters can “bleed out” and the blood points will be treated similarly to health and be upgraded via the Grit stat. This won’t be a random thing like in X-Com.
• Additional Class Skills - we still have more unlockable classes that need their skills implemented. These classes will be covered in an upcoming blog post.
• Gamepad support - we plan to support this for the Steam launch and we have an announcement about a console launch here soon.

 

[HoboForEternity]

Looks p good

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

https://hofstudios.itch.io/doe/devlog/26615/frequently-asked-questions

[
Frequently Asked Questions

We are hard at work on Build 40 of Depth of Extinction but it won't be ready until next week. Since we get asked a lot of questions about the game on our various message boards and emails, I thought it might be fun to take a look at some of the ones we get a lot. Here are some of the questions and answers (from us or others)!

What's going to be in Build 40?
(ok this is a loaded question haha)

We've completely revamped the combat mission maps so that all levels are broken down into rooms and there are doors separating each one. Before you can enter a room, you have to open the connecting door. This is only the undersea habitats of course.

We also have some all new themes for each facility. They used to be kind of generic but now we also have Medical/Hospital, Reactor/Power generation and Farm/Food Production facilities. Each one has different set pieces and and is very themed to the facility type. (see the screenshots)

How many weapons are in the game?
Currently, there are 33 different weapons in the game. Plus a few more that are only used by enemies and can't be equipped by the player characters. I could see us adding a few more but mostly we'll be focused on finished the effects for each one before release (they are not all done and some currently share effects).

We've got the weapons categorized into 8 different "weapon classes" that are then associated to character classes. A weapon can be freely equipped to any character but has penalties if the character is not of the proper class. Here are the weapon classes and descriptions:

Sniper - Specialize in long range warfare but not very useful up close
SMG - Fires multiple projectiles at close range
Bio - Weapons that make you feel all icky
Shotgun - Devastating close range weapon; less effective farther from the target
Launcher - Fires an explosive projectile at a target or area
Rifle - A versatile class of weapon that has many firing capabilities
Heavy - Requires a specialist to handle properly
Whaler - Fire projectiles that cause the target to bleed out

Is the battle system like X-com Enemy Unknown or Jagged alliance?
(this answer is from a Steam player Galp not us)
X-com, mostly because it uses the "2 actions" method instead of individual action points. I usually lean towards preferring more granular jagged alliance style but here I thought they hit the right compromise between streamlined and detailed. You feel in control throughout.

What is the music in the game?
We've got music from a few different artists currently and we may add more later on. Here are some soundcloud links and track lists for the curious:
Kim Lightyear
tracks:

Starlight Frantic Aurora
Time Is Ticking Away Under The Sea Something Behind Me
Braindead The Others Alone
Badass Wolf Shirt
tracks:
our knives are the sharpest knives
never get better/QUOTE]

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

https://hofstudios.itch.io/doe/devl...ustomization-and-more-loot?utm_source=twitter

Build 41 - UX Improvements, Character Customization and More Loot!

Hey everyone! We’ve gotten a ton of feedback over the last few months, and as you may (or may not) have seen, we have posted a final release roadmap for the game that hopefully clears the way to release to Steam in late May or early June. Very exciting but busy times for us as we get ready and try to finish up everything on that list!

So enough about the launch and the future - let's talk about the present and all the changes we have in Build 41.

Build 41 Release Notes

Tutorial Overhaul - shortened it significantly, added doors to the tutorial steps and hopefully made it a bit more interesting for new players. When playing the tutorial, you will also skip the objective screens to get you right into the action!

Icons Updated - almost every icon in the game was updated, including equipment, missions, map areas and the Republic icon is now a Kraken!

Movement Path and Hovering - A pretty big change was made to remove the need to click to draw a character movement path (except in some cases) and a redesign to how the path appears. Should make it a bit more satisfying to move around and eliminate that extra click.

Custom Cursor - When hovering over a targetable entity (enemy, cover, etc) the cursor will turn into a reticle. When hovering over something you can interact with (doors) it will turn into a hand or a hand with an “x” if you are out of range. Between this and the path changes, it seems much easier to tell where you are moving and what you are clicking on!

More Loot in Levels - in addition to the usual 2 items of loot (which we are going to mix up soon) there are between 1-5 extra items scattered around the facility. These are either credits or fuel.

Procedural Level Generation Improvements - the levels are less similar now and will be in numerous shapes. You’ll also see larger and smaller facilities mixed in all areas.

Music tied to alert levels - nine new tracks were added to the game and we have categorized them by “alert level” in the game. So now when enemies come in sight, the music transitions to a faster track!

Credits Editor on Objective Loadout - when you are prepping your team for loadout, you can now allocate any amount of credits stored in the base to take with you on the mission. Remember, this is risk/reward as the credits may help you but if the team gets wiped then they are lost!

Character Customization - a new pane is added to the character settings to let you change your unit’s name and permanent equipment if you want. Any name can be typed in or you can choose from our random name generator.

Dialog UI Redesign - the dialog has been redesigned in preparation for a future update where we will add avatars for the characters to match their currently equipped items. This should come in with the Build that introduces character dialog (looking like 43 right now).

Bug Fixes
Delay on Overwatch, Defend or End Turn - the delay between turns was sped up in the last build but it looks like we missed one more thing that was causing some noticeable delays when doing an interaction that immediately ended the turn.

Commands during Dialog Cutscenes - you could click around disrupting the camera during pirate cutscenes.

Wrong Loot Triggering Evac - if the same item was in both loot boxes, then the system didn’t know which was the “goal” item

Walking through Doors when both sides aren’t fogged

A lot of small stuff!

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

https://hofstudios.itch.io/doe/devl...ms-updated-and-the-wrecker?utm_source=twitter
https://hofstudios.itch.io/doe/devl...ms-updated-and-the-wrecker?utm_source=twitter

Build 42 Preview: Rebalancing, Items Updated and the Wrecker

ey DOE fans!

We're pretty excited about Build 42 as it introduces a few new classes (and removes another), completely revamps the items and rebalances the game. The one side effect of this rebalancing and item update is that we will be resetting save data. I think it will be worth it though!

The Wrecker

The coolest thing in Build 42 is the Wrecker class. Wreckers excel at clearing out cover and working in tight spaces. Their primary weapons are MiniGuns, which do Area Of Effect (AOE) damage. MiniGuns each have a Min and Max hit value that is the bounds for a random number of hits on targets in the AOE. The low end MiniGun has 1/3 hit and does 2/4 damage per hit, which means it will hit 1-3 times on with 2 damage (4 on a critical). There are 5 different MiniGuns to fund, each with different effects and that do increasingly more damage.

The Wrecker skills compliment this weapon really well and we will fill you in on them in the next update.

We also are introducing the Warden class and removing the Saboteur. We'll post more about those in the next update when the build is ready.

We've also reworked how SMG weapons function and given them some new effects.

Balancing
Many of you have let us know that the game difficulty just doesn't ramp up very much. We've done some analysis and determined that the main culprits were:

1. The XP amounts for each Level Up were far too low and needed to be significantly increased. Now it will take a lot longer to get later Level Ups.
2. The enemy XP amounts were much too high for later enemies. This was actually causing two problems. First, each mission has an XP cap, so not enough enemies were being spawned. Second, the character getting the kill was getting credit for too much XP

We think we've got better values in place now and the game is much harder as you move into the second and third areas. We'll be monitoring this closely and have actually made some changes to our analytics to help us collect the data to see how this balancing is going and if it is achieving the goals.

Walls as Cover
We have been working hard on improving the cover system to allow the corners of walls to function as cover and reduce the obstruction rules so that it's easier to fight in the new cramped interiors of the undersea facilities. It's working pretty well so far and we expect it to be ready in Build 42. This is a significant re-write of the cover system so we also expect there will be bugs and other weird stuff. It's always helpful to get your input on these items so please let us know your thoughts.

Items
We're adding a lot of new items to Build 42 that should give you even more options on setting up your character load outs. We are now at 49 different items that are equippable in one of the slots. We've added a few new armors to go along with the item update and our artist has designed some awesome new icons for the items. Some of them have in game representation. Here's a peak at some of the new ones:

• Molotov - as you might imagine, this grenade does fire damage
• Blood Transfusion - allows you to revive a downed character with 1 HP
• Laser Sight - Increases critical chance and draws a line between you and you target

Steam
A lot of people have been asking when we will start distributing Steam keys to our First Access buyers, and the good news is that it will be soon! Build 42 is the first time we will be testing Steam achievements so we are getting very close to being ready!

We're totally committed to making DOE be a great game that you will enjoy, more so than trying to hit a launch date. Right now, we are targeting mid-July for launch on Steam (and possibly a few other places).

Give it to me already!
So when will Build 42 be ready? Probably next week. Stay tuned until then!

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

https://hofstudios.itch.io/doe/devl...lus-the-hud-got-a-facelift?utm_source=twitter

Build 42: The Wrecker and Warden are here! Plus the HUD got a facelift.

Hey all! I know a lot of you have been waiting eagerly to try out Build 42 and it's finally here. So much new and updated stuff that I'll just dive right in.

Well, first I'll mention that we will be appearing at MomoCon in Atlanta again this year (May 24-27)! We're part of an amazing lineup of games at the Unity Atlanta User Group booths (yes, there are 2). It's an honor to be alongside some great games like TwinCop (GA Award Finalist 2018), Neon the Ninja (early access masocore platformer), Voiceball (alt.ctrl.GDC finalist) and Arbiter (co-op VR game). If you are going to the con, please stop by and say hey!

Now on the Build 42 details... but one note first... we had to reset the save data for this update so you will be forced to start a new game. So much changed that it's worth it to start over anyway!

Character Class Update
Wrecker
We covered the Wrecker in the Build 42 preview post last week but we should mention that their preferred weapon class (Heavy) has had some improvements since then to it’s effects. Updated GIF with the Shadowfury (tier 3 ballistic minigun)

Warden
Protector of the weak. The Warden is a defensive focused class whose skills are focused on providing protection and taking fire for other allies. They are a kind of variation on the tank that is probably best built with high health to be able to take a lot of punishment while others dish it out. When fully leveled, the Warden can be very dangerous by laying down covering fire to any enemy who fires on an ally.

Skills:

• Distraction - Draw enemy fire for a few turns
• Hunker Down - Automatically defend if moving on both actions
• Covering Fire - Fire on enemy that attacks an ally if in range

Remove Saboteur
We love the Saboteur class in principle but unfortunately, in game development, sometimes you have to make hard choices. The Saboteur really needed the Stealth system to be more fully realized in order to be an effective class and there is unfortunately just not time to do so before our launch. We could possibly bring them back in a post launch content update !

Rebalancing
We touched on this topic in the Build 42 preview but there are a few areas to cover in more detail.

Walls As Cover
We’ve heard the feedback: some of the interior level rooms are just not fun as there is sometimes a lack of cover. One idea we’ve been toying with for a while is to make the corners of walls function as high cover. We’ve added it into this build with the ability to “lean” around walls and fire. If this seems to play well, we’ll consider adding an additional firing animation (or something) for the lean.

Fog of war also clears around walls when you are on a corner, allowing you to safely get a look down hallways. I think this is the really interesting change and the one that has most affected my play style.

Overwatch
I also reworked overwatch as the previous implementation would take some bad shots most of the time. Now I calculate the hit chance at every waypoint (tile) on the moving character's path. I exclude the start and end and any location that is lower than a base percentage. The I choose a random value from the remaining locations. This ensures that the shot is always reasonable but sometimes really good. We will see how it plays but it seems solid so far in testing.

Trapped Containers
Another interesting change is that we now will spawn different amounts of enemies depending on the situation. One such situation is that the loot containers are sometimes booby trapped, which makes an alarm go off alerting enemies to your presence. We will continue to work on these types of situations and refining them to match with situational dialog in the encounters as well. This will be a focus for the next few builds.

HUD and UI Update

New Font
The old font that has been in use for a while (Homespun) had a really interesting cyberpunk feel to it but it just wasn’t “pixely” enough. After seeing this excellent collection of pixel fonts available on itch.io by Chevy Ray, we decided to try some of them out. I really liked Crates the best so that’s what we are going with! For this update, I also wrote a nice editor utility to swap fonts in Textmesh Pro components in Unity. Let me know if you are interested in using it in your project to try out some different fonts in your UI!

HUD Cleanup
The HUD has been redesigned a few times already but after seeing the Phoenix Point demo we had some new ideas. This delayed Build 42 by a few days but I think the change was worth it as the presentation is much cleaner overall. This will still be a work in progress so love to hear feedback or criticism!

UI Scaling Updated
While I was reworking the HUD, I also took the opportunity to re-scale the entire UI. Previously it was optimized for 720p which was a terrible choice as most people play on 1080p or on a smaller laptop screen or something. Now the elements stay a constant size on the HUD and just reposition on the screen. I tested quite a few configurations but I'm sure there is a resolution or two that will look weird, so please let me know about your experience. I made a similar change on the rest of the UI's also. Hopefully this results in the pixel art elements looking better.

New Items
Tons of new items were added in this update. We really fleshed out the medical items, adding two items that can revive downed characters and several types of nanites. Quite a few of the items have in game sprite representations now. We also have assigned each weapon to be either Ballistic (fires bullets) or Energy (lasers, plasma, lightning) and created upgrade items specific to each type.

Item Icon Sprites:

Here’s a complete item list!

Frag Grenade (Usable) - A handheld explosive. Does damage to all enemies in an area

Smoke Grenade (Usable) - Causes blindness

Molotov (Usable) - Starts fires

Stun Grenade (Usable) - It flashes and bangs. Throw it at enemies to disable them for a few turns

Frag Grenade Mk II (Usable) - An advanced, handheld explosive. Does damage to all enemies in an area

Plasma Grenade (Usable) - Hell in the palm of your hand

Status Shot (Usable) - Clear any negative status on a character

Blood Transfusion (Usable) - Revive a downed character with 1 health

Med Kit (Usable) - Can bind human or android wounds, allowing you to take a bit more damage

Trauma Kit (Usable) - Revive a downed character with 33% of health

Blitz Nanites (Usable) - Increases movement speed and gives you an extra action but reduces accuracy

Recovery Nanites (Usable) - Applies regen

Stabilizing Nanites (Item) - Automatically revive once per misson with 33% health

Kerchief (Item) - Provides a little poison and blindness protection

Filter (Item) - Reduces chance for poisoning

Gas Mask (Item) - Removes poison chance

Combat Mask (Item) - reduces poison chance and provides a little grit

Ballistic Mask (Item) - intimidates the enemy

Stylish Hat (Item) - look slick and move quick

Raider Helmet (Item) - provides some basic protection

Combat Helmet (Item) - provides some health

Assault Mask (Item) - ultimate protection for the head

Bullet Proof Vest (Item) - Increases the amount of damage you can absorb

Flack Jacket (Item) - Protects character from explosives

Armor Plating (Item) - Adds extra strength to your armor and defends against explosions

Carbon Fiber Vest (Item) - Greatly increases the amount of damage you can absorb

Inferno Ammo (Item) - does fire damage on hit (Ballistic)

Toxin Ammo (Item) - Does poison damage on hit (Ballistic)

Stunning Ammo (Item) - Chance to stun on a successful hit (Ballistic)

Damaging Ammo (Item) - Adds extra damage to a successful hit (Ballistic)

Piercing Ammo (Item) - Shoots through non armored cover and can inflict bleeding (Ballistic)

Explosive Ammo (Item) - Explodes on hit, chance to Cripple (Ballistic)

Heat Regulator (Item) - Increases heat output in energy weapons (Energy)

Throttle (Item) - Increases chance of stunning target (Energy)

Fusion Cycler (Item) - Increase energy weapon power (Energy)

Bypass Module (Item) - Doubles damage in energy weapons but fires all ammo in one shot (Energy)

Boost Regulator (Item) - Increases critical chance and damage for energy weapons (Energy)

Scope (Item) - Increases hit chance

Raider Scanner (Item) - Decreases weapon range but increases critical chance

Laser Sight (Item) - Increases critical chance

Binoculars (Item) - Increases weapon range and hit chance

Reflex Sight (Item) - Increases hit and critical chance

Scanner (Item) - Increases weapon range, hit chance and critical chance

Ruck Sack (Item) - Allows you to carry one extra of any usable item

Backpack (Item) - Allows you to carry two extras of any usable item

Medal of Honor (Item) - Bestows a little extra grit on the recipient

Medal of Rank (Item) - Accumulate extra experience

Drum Magazine (Item) - Extra ammo for ballistic weapons (Ballistic)

Dual Mag (Item) - Free reload for ballistic weapons (Ballistic)

Headphones (Item) - Protects from stunning

 

[Tom Baker's Arse]

mid-July cannot come fast enough ! This title has been on my wishlist for quite some time now

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

https://hofstudios.itch.io/doe/devlog/36806/the-end-of-first-access?utm_source=twitter

The End of First Access!

Thank You!
First of all, I want to thank all of you that participated in our First Access program on itch.io! It was a great success in terms of building a community of people that were interested in having an impact on the game's development. We received a lot of great feedback and ideas and I truly believe that the game would not be where it is today without that input.

Now we are turning our attention to the launch of the game on Steam, which means that it's time to officially end the First Access program!

We will continue selling keys through the end of the month of June, at which time we will disable updates to the itch.io version of the game. In July, we will begin distributing Steam keys to First Access buyers and all updates will be done there.

If you are interesting in helping set the final direction, trying out the game, finding and reporting bugs or just getting that Steam key early, then please feel free to buy a key while they are available. Alternatively, you can sign up for our mailing list or wishlist the game on Steam.

Release Plan
We are pushing forward toward a mid-August "final" release on Steam (and possibly other platforms as well) and are really excited to share the last few builds with our First Access buyers on Steam!

Here's what we have planned for last 2 builds before the final release:

• More Mission Scenarios
• Rewriting all Encounters
• Adding Quests and Storyline
• Updating Weapon and Sound Effects
• Lots of bug fixing and small changes with a focus on balancing

We are maintaining a post in the forum with the release plan and noting progress

Once we switch to Steam, we will have 2 separate branches you can play:

• A stable build on the main branch (this would be like the builds available on itch.io)
• A "Beta" branch where you can play the latest version of the next build (currently our internal dev QA branch)

Also in the News...
In case you missed it, we got a nice preview article in PC Gamer recently!

 

[Reapa]

any reason to buy this over X-Com 2?

while this does look kinda crappy, xcom 2 is pure shit. with spawning enemies mid fight for artificial difficulty.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

https://hofstudios.itch.io/doe/devlog/39186/build-43-preview?utm_source=twitter

Build 43 Preview


Hi everyone! I’m taking a break from working on Build 43 today to give you a sneak peak or what’s coming, talk a little about what the schedule is looking like and also make a few announcements.

Let’s start with the announcements!
A lot of people have been asking about the DRM free versions of Depth of Extinction, and we are ready to announce the sites where the game will be available at launch.

• Steam - technically the game will be DRM free on Steam since Steam DRM has to be enabled. I have heard that many of you don’t like Steam so we have explored a few more options as well. Steam version will support Achievements, Trading Cards (we are good to go already) and Cloud Saves.
• GOG - I am excited that GOG has approved DOE to launch on their site as well. The GOG version will support Achievements and Cloud Saves. I'll investigate whether First Access buyers can get a GOG key.
• Humble Store - we will sell our DRM free version on the Humble Store as well. I believe buying the DRM free copy there will also include a Steam key. The DRM free Humble version will not support achievements and cloud saves.
• Itch.io - Of course we can’t forget about our favorite PC indie store itch.io and this version (like Humble) will include a Steam key and won’t be able to support achievements and cloud saving.

Another cool announcement is that we have hired game writer Chris Krubeck to work on the story and lead the writing effort in DOE. Chris has worked on several games, notably the cool story driven adventure game Tokyo Dark. We’re very excited by the ideas he is bringing to the project and think you will be intrigued by what he has in mind.

Also, we have a few places where you can “follow” DOE to get updates on the Game:

• Reddit - I created a subreddit for DOE where I’ll post blog links and major media stuff. I’d love to see people also posting threads about the game.
• Steam Page for HOF Studios - feel free to follow us on the new Steam developer/publisher pages.
• Twitter - I’m going to make more of an effort to post stuff here regularly as we approach the launch and it’s a great place for you to help us get the word out about the game

The planned schedule
You know what they say about the best laid plans but this is what I would like to happen (and what I think is possible) but as always subject to change.

• Stop selling keys to DOE First Access on itch sometime next week (probably July 4) or when they run out (currently 20 left)
• Deliver Build 43 to itch.io in about 2-3 weeks (so between July 14-21)
• Start distributing Steam Beta keys to selected buyers after Build 43 goes live (we will probably email First Access buyers and ask you to sign up for this)
• Collect feedback and playtest data from Build 43 and make modifications
• Deliver Build 44 as “Launch Build” in mid August (planning for August 16 but may change)
• All First Access buyers will get a Steam key through itch and we will ask for preference on other platforms (i.e. GOG) if possible

Now about that Build...
It was a little slow getting started on Build 43 but a lot of progress has been made in the last 4 weeks toward realizing the final vision for the game. I took a few weeks “off” around Memorial Day, the first to do MomoCon, where we introduced “arcade mode” which might make an appearance later in a content update as a “daily mission” and leaderboard mode.

Then I actually took a week off to go to Florida so my wife could see her neurologist at University of Miami and visit with family. For those that don’t know, my wife has severe chronic migraines and part of the reason i left my previous job to “go indie” was to have flexibility so that she could see the best doctors all over the country, and for her extended treatments in the hospital every year. June is migraine awareness month so I wanted to mention that!

For Build 43, I am going back over literally every game system and making improvements based on player data and feedback. In previous builds, every Objective was just “kill a boss” regardless of the “storyline” of the objective you chose. I even turned off the objective chooser until you beat the first objective because players were somewhat confused by the initial UI. The additional Map Zones unlocked at intervals based on the number of missions completed rather than based on any particular storyline. I had always imagined a more robust system but wanted to get the tactical elements more solid before coming back to it. We’ve finally made some progress on what I want and you’ll see this theme in the details of what we are planning to deliver in Build 43.

Mission Objectives
The goal was to deliver more meaningful choices to players from the Objective screen. We’ve now added several different types of rewards (rather than just credits) for completing a mission:

• Advance Story - This reward advances the main quest line
• Unlock Sub - Find a new sub to use on missions
• Find Intel - Get intel on plasma weapon location
• Plasma Weapon - Find an advanced plasma weapon
• Merchant - Unlock a new merchant at the base
• Credits - Get credits to use on upgraded equipment
• Reduce Aggression - Lower enemy activity in the region
• Unlock Class - Unlock a new character and class

Objectives all have different “final” missions that are more in line with the narrative and provide a more interesting payoff as a result. A few examples:

• Hostage Situation - rescue a hostage from a locked room and escort them safely out of the facility
• Terrorists Strike - disarm a bomb placed in a facility by raider
• Rogue AI - hack terminal to weaken the AI so you can then disable their primary server. The AI won’t go down easily and will leverage facility defenses to repel you.

We’ve got a lot more scenarios that also will feature unique missions. Hopefully this will address the “more variety” feedback that I’ve seen from a few of you.

Story Missions
In addition to the other objectives, we are also adding in “story missions” that will advance the story. These missions will be required to unlock the next area and will be progressively more difficult. The next story mission will be immediately available when the next area is unlocked, so technically you could “finish” the story aspect of the game in only 5 objectives. I’ll see how this plays but I thought this would be interesting for those wanting a challenge or a potential speed run. Beating all 5 story missions without getting any of the optional unlocks will be a challenge for even experienced players (at least that’s the intention).

We’ve also made more improvements to the map generation algorithms and added more scenarios that can occur on any mission. One common one will be needing to disarm facility defenses before opening item containers. Not disarming the defense will be risky as you’ll have to face weapon turrets as well as enemies. The facility defenses won’t discriminate though so it could be a tactical decision to set them off and hope it slows down enemies in the area.

Encounters
We mentioned the renewed focus on writing and this applies to the random encounters on the map as well. We’ll be tying the missions scenario more to the encounter and have added a lot of interesting things that can happen as you explore. You also won’t be able to skip every encounter as you can do now with the placeholder version that’s been in the game for a while.

One change that will happen is that you will only know the “type” of facility when choosing between them (for instance medical, fuel, republic base) and won’t always get an idea about the sort of encounter that could happen there.

We’ll also be reworking how the random outcomes occur, giving some weight to them based on choices you make as well as the type of characters in your party and the sub you are traveling in (like the “blue” options in FTL) which should add some strategy to your choices.

Mission Screens UI Overhaul
Since we are making such major changes to the Objectives and Encounters, I thought it made sense to revisit the mission UI screens again. I also want to up the visual quality some and make them look more in line with the recent HUD update.

AI Improvements
Major improvements on the AI front as we’ve finally got “look ahead” optimized enough to use it which should greatly increase the AI decision making. We’ve also fixed a few bugs.

Another improvement we are working on is an “AI mode” for the player characters. This would only be used when moving around the map when enemies are not in range and would just simplify the orders required to explore or do backtracking. This would require you to only issue orders to a “leader” character and have the other characters follow suit. If the leader grabs a loot from a dead enemy, then the AI controlled characters would do that. If the leader stays in cover or moves toward a door, then AI would do the same.

This is not certain to be in Build 43 but we will see how far along it comes and decide if we want to add it experimentally.

Performance improvements
A lot of people have commented on the load times and we have known it’s a problem, especially on larger levels. We’ve made some optimizations to speed that up significantly that will be out in Build 43.

Easy Mode
Since many people get major setbacks while playing from the RNG and poor choices, I am considering adding an “easy mode” that will allow you to repeat a mission where your team got wiped out without any kind of penalty.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

https://hofstudios.itch.io/doe/devlog/42633/build-43-status-update?utm_source=twitter

Build 43 Status Update


If you’ve been following along, then you know I am a bit behind on delivering Build 43 to First Access backers. There are a few reasons for that (which I’ll get to) but I wanted to take a little time today to show you some of the progress that’s been made so far and reset expectations for the upcoming schedule.

The writing team and I have made some great progress on the encounter system, which is injecting a ton of world building flavor into the game. We’ve got a great system that lets you balance risk/reward much better than the previous system, while really delivering on an “anything can happen” tension to each individual encounter. Just trying to avoid an encounter will not guarantee no battle or negative outcome. It’s pretty exciting to see it in action.

Major progress has also been made on updating the menus in the mission screens. The screens are much more consistent in style and appearance, more polished and I’ve made liberal use the new character portraits our artist has been working on for a while (they look amazing).

I’ve also really upgraded the objective selection screens. It’s much more intuitive to navigate through them (I think) and the objective loadout screen gives a lot more info than the previous iteration.

While navigating the sub around the map, I’ve added a Mission Loadout screen between the encounter and the battle to give you a chance to see some details of the scenario and adjust your equipment or perform a level up before you start the tactical encounter. Now that this is in place, I can’t imagine why I didn’t have it before! Total miss on my part but this greatly increases the tactical options available.

Merchant screens also got an upgrade and now you can clearly see what characters would get an upgrade from a piece of equipment.

We’ve got a lot more new stuff in Build 43 but I have to save something for the next DevLog!

What’s keeping me from delivering the build today?
Mostly just bugs from changing so much of the back end encounters and objective/mission structure. I’ve also not got the story missions totally in place and am planning to change the tutorial mission. Plus a little bit more polish on various elements such as adding the portraits to the tactical HUD.

As for the schedule
It’s looking like I will split what I had planned for Build 44 into two smaller builds (44 and 45) and then push back the launch about a month. I know this is disappointing to a lot of you since we thought the game would be ready in August, but there are some good reasons to delay!

First of all, the amazing tactics game Phantom Doctrine (the follow-up to Hard West) is planning to launch on August 14 so it seems smart to not be in the same window. I've also been putting in so many hours lately that I was feeling a bit burnt out, so my wife and I took a few days off this week to recuperate. I think it's important to stay healthy and crunching to get the game out sooner doesn't seem to be the right call for us. Hopefully you all understand.

I feel pretty good about the dates below but everything in game dev always takes longer than you think! Adding that extra build gives us more opportunity to get your feedback on the game also and try to assure that the launch build is fairly solid.

• August 2-4: Deliver Build 43 to First Access buyers
• August 16-18: Deliver Build 44 to First Access buyers (details coming soon)
• September 3-5: Deliver Build 45 to First Access buyers
• September 13: Launch on Steam

(these are just estimates as usual)

Feel free to let me know your thoughts in the comments!

 

[Abu Antar]

Build 43: Portraits, Scenarios and New Objectives
Depth of Extinction » Devlog
1
22 hours ago by HOF Studios (@hofstudios)
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After a looooong wait, we finally have Build 43 ready to play! I’ll take you through what’s new!

Scenarios
The old builds had a few different scenarios that your team would have to tackle during tactical encounters, but I wanted to dramatically increase that in Build 43, and I think we succeeded. We’ve got a few more coming in 44 and 45 but here’s the current list:

• Find Item - The familiar mission from the alpha builds will have you searching a facility for an item of value.
• Hostage - similar to find the item, you’ll need to find the hostage and get them back to your sub. They will probably want to join your quest or possibly will be meet you back at the Republic HQ.
• Escape - sometimes we just don’t see a threat coming and get trapped deep in a facility. With enemies on high alert it can be a challenge to survive these missions.
• Distress Signal - trapped civilians will sometimes be able to trigger a distress signal. Enemies know this and sometimes use them to lure you into a trap. Be careful!
• Hack Terminals - when you run across a Rogue AI that has taken over a facility, you’ll need to weaken them by shutting down their secondary terminals before you can shut them down permanently. Beware though, the AI has complete control of the facility and will deploy turrets to try and stop you.
• Disarm Bombs - When terrorists rig up a facility to explode, they do it right. You’ll have to disable the smaller bomb nodes and then shut down the main bomb.
• Shut down reactors - each reactor in a facility has power nodes that must first be deactivated before the main reactor can be shut down.
• Find the Sub - in some missions, you’ll be finding a new sub type to use. You’ll have to get to the sub bay and one of your team members will have to pilot it back while the rest get back to your sub.

Raider terrorists seem to have left something for you

A rogue AI

New Tactical Concepts
We’ve got a new concept in Build 43: Intel. This determines whether you get a marker for the scenario goal on your mini map. Intel can apply to a number of mission types, including Find the Item, Find the Hostage and Distress Signal.

Another new concept is Facility Defenses. At some point in your travels, you’ll find that the facilities start to fight back. Before you can open that loot box or hack a terminal, you might need to disable the facility defenses. Not doing that can result in turrets being deployed. We’re going to continue iterating on this over the next two builds with the first change being to have an element on the HUD to show you the facility defenses status.

Encounters
The entire encounter system was overhauled in Build 43. We added a lot of complexity to the system and dramatically improved the writing. The new encounters will help you understand the lore of the DOE world a bit better and greatly improve the atmosphere of the game. Encounters can have a ton of different outcomes depending on what happens. Having the right character class in your party can also be beneficial to getting out of scrapes intact.

Objectives
The Republic is a tough place to live (but the best option we’ve got) and so there are always problems that require an experienced team to solve them. Enter the objective system. In each main area of the world, you’ll have available objectives. We’ve got several types planned for the final game (and possibly content updates) but only a few are in Build 43:

• Story Objectives - New in Build 43, you’ll get one story objective per main area of DOE. These are generally very tough missions, so you might want to take on some easier ones first to build up your team. COmpleting one of these objectives advances the main story of DOE and unlocks the next area.
• Procedural Objectives - these return from the alpha builds, but we’ve greatly improved them. There are currently 6 different base scenarios that will have some differences (characters, locations, difficulty) but be similar. These range from kidnappings, bounty hunting, distress signals to disarming bombs and stopping rogue AIs.
• Unlockables - in each main area of DOE, you will have special unlockable objectives that can give you a powerful weapon, a new class type or a new sub type. These objectives will each appear only once per game and are not in Build 43 but should be in a future build.
• Unique Objectives - these objectives are tied to the zone and tell a unique story about that Zone. They are of course optional but might be interesting to try.

As part of overhauling the objective system, the objective screens have also been given a makeover. Hopefully it’s now easier to choose your objective and set up your sub loadout.

Other Changes
Character Portraits

Our artist @vakerics has really outdone himself with the new character portraits that you’ll see sprinkled around the UI in our latest build. These work in a very similar way to the character sprites in that they are layered and each piece of (visible) equipment is represented. So when your character equips that gas mask, you’ll see it in their portrait.

We’ve also got all of our enemies represented and they look awesome! Here’s a look at every enemy in the game.

Increased Level Loading Performance

We heard you! The loading times were a bit obscene in the old builds, especially as you got into the larger facilities later in the game. We’ve made some major strides in optimization, and are happy to say it has greatly decreased the time it takes to load up a level.

Cleaned Up Level Generation

We’ve really overhauled the level generation as part of adding the new objectives. There are a lot more variations in the levels and they look much more polished. We’ve also added some new room types to the interior facilities.

Another important change that came from feedback from our First Access players was cleaning up the backgrounds to improve visibility. We’ve change a lot of the floor and wall colors to try to make it very clear what is what. We’ve made the cover shorter so it’s easier to see what is cover and what is a walkable tile. We’ve tried to make the level layouts less cluttered and make more sense.

Mission Loadout Screen

One thing that has been missing for a while was a loadout screen to let you make changes to your team or perform a level up prior to launching the tactical missions. Now that this is in the game, it seems like a glaring omission from the alpha builds.

AI Improvements

The AI system has been dramatically overhauled for Build 43, giving us options to easily tweak an enemy’s AI settings to make their attack patterns unique. Enemy grenade use is also vastly improved as they will now save them for situations when you’ve grouped your characters together, so be warned!

We’re also in progress on adding an AI follow mode to the player characters. You’ll be able to switch a character into follow mode which will let the AI perform their movements, following the closest manually controlled character. The AI character will stay in cover while moving and exit follow mode when encountering enemies. This was not quite ready for Build 43 but expect to see it in Build 44.

Many UX Improvements and Bug Fixes

So many improvements and bug fixes were made that it would be a challenge to list them all, but we’ll try to do it!

• Auto camera not panning back to active character and start drawing the path
• Manual camera doesn’t pan
• Hovering over enemies or cover brings up the “flag” showing their health, etc
• Map icons sometimes not changing after mission
• Character HUD modal redesigned
• Stats on active character weapon enlarged and relevant stats display for heavy weapons (min/max hits)
• Merchant shows characters that would get an upgrade from an item
• Money and fuel icons updated and made more consistent across all UI screens
• First level up requires choosing a class
• Fuel and credit adds/removes animation fixed to always appear above box
• Current mission objective can be toggled off and on in the HUD
• Minimap can be left open while playing and toggles with the M hotkey
• Tactical actions can be triggered by pressing hotkey twice (rather than by hotkey and space in alpha builds)
• All UI screens made in more consistent style and UX updates
• Music artist/title on pause screen
• Level up screen shows skill details for stats
• Skills icons updated
• Level up icons animated
• Lots of small bugs addressed

Known issues
We've still got a few known issues in Build 43. We'll try to get a small patch out to address them prior to Build 44.

• Turrets not always being added to a battle and the character alert level doesn't always change with them in battle so characters have the movement advantage
• Sometimes can't click to target an enemy (seems to happen rarely)
• Wrecker skill Big Blast not doing +1 damage with grenade
• MInigun not firing correctly
• Wildcat skill Bullet Hell not firing correctly
• Loading screen stutters on OSX (seems to not affect windows and linux)
• Possible Linux crashes on into and when switching areas on objective map (possibly fixed)
• Need to remove critical hits from overwatch
• Some scenarios where you can fire on an enemy that seems like they should be obstructed and vice versa

What’s Next in Build 44?
We've already talked about most of what we expect in Build 44, but here's a few more items:

• Easy Mode - basically a "retry" option on failed tactical missions. we could also do some slight rebalancing on easy, like giving more health.
• Improving ambient sound
• Fixing the drag camera
• Adding real cutscenes to story missions and dialog back into the other missions.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Listed as "coming soon" on GOG.
https://af.gog.com/game/depth_of_extinction?as=1649904300

 

[kirin]

Listed as "coming soon" on GOG.
https://af.gog.com/game/depth_of_extinction?as=1649904300

The Steam page says September release

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

https://hofstudios.itch.io/doe/devlog/48942/build-4445-almost-ready-for-launch

Build 44/45 - Almost Ready for Launch!
Depth of Extinction » Devlog
2
16 hours ago by HOF Studios (@hofstudios)
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We skipped an update for Build 44 but are going to cover that build plus 45 in this extra special “last” blog post before the final stretch run to release the game onto Steam, GOG and itch.io! We will have an announcement regarding the launch date later this week.

Before we get to the new stuff, take a second to check out our launch trailer!

Now that you've enjoyed that, on to the changes!

Enemy Dispersal
Enemies will now “disperse” when the pod wakes up. This means they will move into cover if close by or will enter overwatch. This won’t start happening until medium difficulty missions as it does add to the initial difficulty.

Follow Mode

Follow Mode is the biggest new feature we launched in these builds. It had quite the evolution over the course of the last month or so as we integrated player feedback. You choose a “point” for the team and an optional “trailer” and then control the point while the rest of the team follows you. Your point can position next to a door and then wait for the rest of the team to automatically position around him/her. Followers will also automatically reload after a fight and move to pick up loot around you. You can also configure them to be offensive or defensive (staying in cover) to fit your play style or the situation.

Enemy Pod Spawning
Enemy pods also changed a good bit in these builds. We now have three different types of pods and determine enemy “roles” to make sure that a pod has a “primary” enemy and secondary enemies.

Full pod - this will 3-4 enemies depending on the difficulty level. It has a primary enemy and 2-3 secondary enemies. Will be two of these pods spawned in the level.

Small pod - this will have 2-3 enemies depending on the difficulty level. It will not have the primary enemy. Will be two of these pods spawned in the level.

Boss pod - this will have 4-5 enemies, with the boss added to the full pod. Should only be in enemy “boss” encounters and “final” missions and will be in the level at most one time.

Speaking of bosses, now the “final” mission on objective always has a boss in the objective (loot, sub, etc) room.

Sub Unlock Objectives
We also added Sub Unlock objectives into the mix. In each zone except the Republic, there is a sub construction facility with a new “prototype” sub you can find and bring back to the base. You’ll have to get to the sub with more than one character and then have one of the characters “enter” the sub and drive it back to base. The remaining characters then must get back to the starting sub.

New subs include the Medical Sub which lets you revive a dead character after successful mission.

Finished Character class stat effects

• Deadeye - increases visual range
• Assault - reduces shotgun range penalty
• Wildcat - increases weapon range/accuracy up to +2
• Soldier - increases dodge and status defense
• Warden - increases cover use bonus
• Wrecker - increases damage dealt to cover up to +2
• Annihilator - increases visual range and dodge chance
• Butcher - increases health up to +10
• Swashbuckler - increases movement radius up to +2

Other stuff

• Turrets are now triggered in rooms by firing a weapon or opening a loot box.
• The enemy AI now uses skills.
• We’ve added even more “barks” (the text over the character heads) including custom barks for Mercs in addition to class based barks.
• Added some Cutscenes
• Camera drag is more intuitive and we’ve made several panning improvements.
• Updated background floor/wall colors and associated cover to reduce blending. Also shortened all cover so that it was easier to see the square behind it and more clear what area it “covers.” Also moved loot boxes to the front of their cover square so it was more clear where to click.
• Support 21x9 resolution and fixed resolution bugs
• Made several optimizations to make the game and AI run faster.
• We’ve updated the game logo.

Balancing Changes

• Enemies disperse starting on medium difficulty
• Turrets use overwatch on hard
• Enemies use overwatch when dispersing on impossible
• Level layouts are a little smaller except on “final” missions
• Hard and up zone maps are smaller
• XP earned for a hit lowered
• Multi shot weapons were getting extra hits
• XP earned for destroying turret lowered
• Base XP for mission completed raised
• No limit on mercs or team member
• Hostages you can’t add end up in team back at base
• If team wipes, equipment not currently equipped is available at base

 

[Darth Canoli]

Seems nice, missed this one, it's a nice surprise, we don't get many these days.

 

[Saduj]

Steam now lists the release date as September 27th.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]