Based on the feedback we received from our community, we worked very hard in the previous weeks and were able to make numerous improvements and bug fixes for the game. You can see a quick overview here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9xjm4Z8EuE&feature=youtu.be
Our main objectives with this patch were the following:
1. Improving the controls and the UI to help players manage their fleets more easily.
2. Better explain the unique game mechanics that differentiate Conflicks from traditional RTS’s and how to use battlefield elements such as bumping, asteroids and gravity to your advantage.
3. Smooth the learning curve a bit.
4. Make it easier to play outside of the Solo Campaign mode, either against human or AI players.
5. Improve the AI skill, optimize the game performances and fix as many bugs as possible.
We really want to thank you, Conflicks players, who really are the pioneers of a new genre of physics-based RTS. Your precious feedback helped us make Conflicks an even better game! Also know that we plan to work as hard as we can in the following weeks to continue to improve it, so don’t stop giving us your feedback!
Here is a more detailed list of what we changed/added/improved for this patch:
- MacOS support! Linux is coming…
- New Competitive Battles mode. This mode gives the opportunity for a player to acquire achievements and gain Glory Points and climb up the leaderboards even if you’re playing alone against 3 AI opponents. It also does a better job at matching human players together compared to the previous Friendly and Competitive Multiplayer modes. Think of the new Competitive Battles mode as if we merged together the Friendly and Competitive Multiplayer modes. We might reintroduce these modes later.
- AI opponents in Competitive Battles are no more “generic”. They are actual characters from the Campaign Mode and each of them has their skill level, ranging from “Normal” to “Insane”. Each time you win a Competitive Battle, the average level of you AI opponents will increase slightly to give you a proper challenge.
- Camera drag default button now moved to right-click. This change was made in an effort to ease miss-clicks and prevent a player from inadvertently moving the camera. However, you can put it back to left-click in the Options menu if you prefer.
- Added the Asteroid Ricochet indicator to help players throw asteroids at their opponents using torpedoes.
- To make them easier to spot, resupply stations are now highlighted when they are inside the flicking range of a ship.
- Ships now benefit from resupply stations as soon as half their radius is on top of them. This makes resupply easier to aim at.
- Removed the side bar showing how many ships you had of each type. Replaced it with “Conflict” icons. Conflict icons appear when one of your ships receive damage. You can simply click on its Conflict icon to center the camera on it. This is very useful to manage multiple battle fronts at once. If multiple ships of the same type are attacked, clicking on the corresponding Conflict icon will cycle through each of them.
- Added mouse-over popups that show the amount of metamatter units a player has harvested. This helps understand where metamatter comes from, especially the metamatter produced by the onboard henhouse of your Flagship.
- Added mouse-over popups that show Victory Points awarded during competitive battles.
- Added mouse-over popups when the cursor hover over a ship. If the ship is yours, it displays the ship type and its state (for example, if it is ready to be flicked or still recharging). If the ship belongs to an enemy, it displays the enemy’s name and, in the case of a Competitive Battle, the amount of Victory Points this ship will award you if you destroy it. This is particularly useful to better understand how Competitive Battles are won since the Victory Point awards for each ship vary according to the relative ranks of each players. For example, if you’re in third place, ships from the player in fourth position will be worth much less than ships from the player in first position.
- Added a mouse-over popup for the Progression Bar in Competitive Battles. This gives you the precise Victory Point scores for each player in the game.
- In order to help players notice more easily when their Flagship is attacked, we now tint the screen in red. The more damage your Flagship received, the more red the screen becomes.
- Added an option to zoom on the cursor instead of zooming on the center of the screen using the mouse wheel. The default mode is still to zoom on the center of the screen.
- Added an option to control the zoom speed in the Options menu.
- Removed a lot of notification messages by default (when your Flagship receives damage, when you lose a planet, etc.). Added an option in the Options menu to control the amount of notification message you want to receive.
- Changes to most missions of the solo campaign. We now better explain the use of special actions for most ships.
- Completely redesigned the final mission of the solo campaign.
- Simplified Antonio’s behavior in mission XI and XII so he now only gets enraged after 15 minutes. When he gets enraged, you cannot stop him. You have to win the battle before your brother gets destroyed. It should be less frustrating and easier to understand.
- Corrected Shield Points UI issue with Antonio’s ship on mission X, XI and XII. It’s now a lot easier to see how many Shield Points Antonio still has.
- Minor corrections on the text of the logbooks.
- Added new tips.
- Improved AI pathfinding and logic.
- Reduced the requirements to receive some Achievements. Also adjusted the effect of some Achievements.
- Fixed some Steam Achievements issues (some Achievements had an erroneous description, some other were not unlocked properly).
- Changed Redemption, the special action of the Sacred Alliance torpedo ship, so that it now automatically triggers when the ship is destroyed. This way, if you activated the Redemption power, you will automatically get a “second life” when your torpedo ship is destroyed.
- Modified ship aggro to take enemy radius into account, instead of checking the center of ships to determine which enemies are closer.
- Various bug fixes and performance optimizations.
