Per our 2020 roadmap, the next major milestone in development will be a 1v1 fight with none other than the Captain's arch-enemy, THE HUNTRESS!
Ever since we met the "Squidgirl" stretch goal near the very start of Subverse's Kickstarter campaign, we were thrilled to be able to include our vision of a character that continuously stalks the Mary Celeste throughout the game, setting up one intense ambush after another (much like the Nemesis in the Resident Evil series, tentacles and all).
We took great care throughout development to make sure that each encounter with the Huntress would feel like an intense rivalry and require focus and good execution from the player to overcome her tactics.
Your first encounter with her is a fierce dogfight where you'll be dealing with complex attack patterns, swift movement, area denial traps AND a mechanic unique to her ship that allows the Huntress to take down her prey with puzzling efficiency.
And the gameplay's only half of the fun! Over the course of the game, you'll also bear witness to one of the most complex character arcs as the Captain and the Huntress's relationship evolves. Eventually, everything culminates in a recruitment quest that parodies an obscure yet awesome 80's sci-fi movie and sets up some seriously heartfelt dialogue alongside all the dicks and titties jokes.
Closed beta participants will be able to throw down with the Huntress upon the publishing of the September 14th Dev Diary.
Fuccbotts and Kloi and Dread Queens...OH MY
Grid combat is set to receive a huge update on September 28th.
First off, we hope you're all ready to get your hands on Cuntbeard Crimson herself as Killision makes her way to the battlefield!
While Lily filled the archetype of a support unit with ranged energy damage, Killi is a melee berserker that deals physical damage and is capable of putting a savage beating down on enemies by forcing them to fight her up close with crippling attacks. She can also take out several of them at once with her AOE ultimates.
This will be the first time you get your hands on a melee waifu, so let us know how she feels!
New Challengers Approach
Along with Killi, we'll also be adding two new factions - the Fuccbotts and the Kloi!
As you all know if you've seen the SHMUP combat, we want each faction to feel unique when you fight them. While the Pirates were a jack-of-all-trades faction that doesn't require specific tactics to fight, both of our newcomers are far more specific in design.
The Fuccbotts, just like in the SHMUP, are a swarming faction that are relatively weak alone but typically appear in large numbers. You'll need to plan out your turns carefully against them since the most common unit you'll encounter is the Suicide Squirter - a droid that furiously faps to generate an AOE electrical shock whenever they get near your units.
If you don't manage to keep these away before you kill them, you'll suffer damage from their self-destruct passive. The best way to avoid this is to keep your units at a distance and spread out, and leaving the killing blow to ranged characters whenever possible.
However, if you line up your shots just right, you can turn that self-destruct passive into a tool since it damages fellow Fuccbotts as well.
Proper movement and target selection is key to surviving an encounter with these maniacally masturbating metal misfits.
The Kloi are the obligatory glass cannon faction - they deal some of the highest damage but are quite easy to kill...that is, if you can get close enough. The majority of their units are ranged and have higher than average initiative, so expect to eat some opening salvos when facing them.
Front-loading the damage of the Kloi in a turn forces the player to immediately consider their own health as the most important resource.
The best way to fight the kloi is to get up close and take out as many of their smaller units as possible at the start of the battle, as well as cut off the potential movement options of those that manage to survive.
Since they have the ability to counter even ranged attacks, melee units are preferred against them. Physical damage is also particularly valuable since they mostly use shields for their defensive measures.
The team has already completed a variety of QOL and design improvements for the grid combat as well. The most requested features from your feedback such as range indicators and damage previews will be live in the update.
Another critical gameplay piece that received revision is the reinforcements. Units can now spawn on the map even when other enemies have not been fully cleared, which allows for far more interesting gameplay scenarios. We also removed the reinforcement method where entire waves spawn at once and get to immediately take their turn, which allowed them to totally blindside your team.
We feel grid combat is now much more consistent and fun now as a result of these changes, but please let us know if there is anything else we can improve!
Sincerely,
Mr. Kristoff
- Senior Producer