Our dear supporters and community,
A long time ago we decided to avoid releasing smaller updates and just focus on finishing the game as a whole, thinking it wouldn't take us that long. We reconned it would be more efficient to have one release instead of countless cycles of building, testing, announcements, bug fixing and so on.
We knew the game was in a good spot with plenty of content and gameplay, including the RMG and workshop*. (there's currently over 7500 maps in the 'Shop).
The bad news you've already seen: NO updates in a year!
The good news is that with so many new additions we worked in the meantime, it will feel like a new game once released.
Bottom line is development hasn't stopped, let us cook a bit more and you will be rewarded with a great game.
Here's some of the things we've done since the last update:
CAMPAIGN MODE
Of course we've added Campaigns - in fact there's now 2 Separate Campaign Types - Tour of Duty and Operation.
The game will ship with 6 campaigns in total:
- 2 Tour of Duty Options
- 4 Operations
In general, we recommend playing these with Veteran Squads. Don't rush into campaigns!
What is a Tour of Duty?
- randomly generated campaign, unlimited gameplay
- uses a much enhanced version of the RMG
- actual missions, layout, enemies generated depend on the chosen Area
- 2 Tour of Duty Areas are included but more will come
- each day brings new random* missions but you pick the single one to play that day
- a ToD lasts at least a week, but up to you how long
- mission rewards vary from mission to mission
- Dead is Dead but you can choose to Iron Man it (or not)
- Reinforcements do come, but husband your troops carefully
- Wounds carry over and heal over time
*can be modded to include handcrafted missions
What is an Operation?
- a set of custom handcrafted missions, forming a story
- missions are inter connected in a branching structure with multiple phases
- there may be mandatory and optional missions
- troops used in a mission suffer fatigue penalties if used again in same phase
- Wounds, Dead is Dead as above
- Doctrine changes are blocked while in Operations
- Sorry, no Reinforcements, things happen too fast
Both Campaign Types can be modded, and custom missions can be used to create your own Custom Campaigns. We expect Operations will be the popular with some mission designers (Hi DrSqua! Hi IP! Hi Pilz!)
Exclusively in Campaigns comes a new currency: Battle Honors. You gain BH by winning campaigns or through random events in the Tour of Duty mode.
Battle Honors belong to the squad and can be used to unlock exclusive equipment or upgrade individual troops:
DOCTRINES
Doctrines are back, as expected, and give you a chance to upgrade and customize each squad to a playing style. Each Unit has its own doctrine tree, but Squads of the same Unit can have different Doctrine setups.
Doctrines dictate if your squad uses full auto and burst fire, or keeps to single fire - and how effective they are. Its your choice, no longer ours.
Unlike Door Kickers 1, though, you won't be able to Max Out the entire Doctrine Tree. Pick and Choose, folks - there's only so much time each squad has for training.
NEW MAPS & MUCH IMPROVED MAPGEN
The game will ship with at least 90 Single Missions (we have 90 now and a couple extra in the works that might make it if they're good enough by release day). The Map & Mission Generator was also significantly improved, especially for the Tour of Duty campaigns. Now it can generate night maps, locked doors and more layout and enemy variations.
You can expect some of the old missions you've already seen to be changed in smaller or larger fashion. Don't fret, with the upcoming game reset, you won't miss a thing!
NEW ENEMIES AND EQUIPMENT
The Enemy Factions in the game (Rabble, Insurgents, Blackheads, Forbidden Tree, Private Security) each gained new troop types, but more enemy groups have been added. Enter the SSI Special Ops from Neighbouristan, the Irregulars Militia from the Capital's Slum District and their more elite House Guard faction-mates.
The stakes are now higher, enemies more ruthless, but there's also more variation at all enemy tiers, as Insurgents are not a homogenous bunch, but a ragtag group of fighters. And some enemies boost their friends nearby, so make sure to prioritize the Elites first!
MODDING & EDITOR
Full modding support, via Steam Workshop, will be integrated into the game, allowing for download/upload directly from within the game. To be clear, this includes all mod types, no longer restricted to maps!
Some modders have already gotten access to an internal build, in order to adapt their mods to the upcoming release ahead of time. We know our players love their mods, so everyone is preparing to transition to 1.0 smoothly.
The editor was also improved, adding more options for dynamic gameplay: moving elements, new types of triggers, custom scenario-ending conditions and more.
OTHER PLATFORMS
Mac: the game will be released with native Mac support. This is currently in a finished state.
Steamdeck: custom controls have been added, allowing for full control via touchscreen and many other improvements.
OTHERS
- over 80 achievements have already been added and implemented. You won't be able to complete them without the 1.0 release, though.
- new music tracks!
- new equipment, controls, tweaks and tunings
WHAT REMAINS TO BE DONE
The new content is mostly finished, what remains is mostly tweaks, recording new voices and translating the game to other languages.
We can't commit in advance to a certain release date - quality is paramount so it will be done when it will be done, but we're definitely not far now!
Now back to work for us, and we'll be back to this space.
Your Devs @ KHG
P.S. We tend to be active and responsive to player requests over on Discord: https://discord.gg/doorkickers . Come over, don't be strangers!
