Hi everyone, here’s what the team have been up to in September.
Passives becomes “Tech”!
Since the first Early Access version of SENTRY, we’ve been wrapping the original Passive Gear into other systems. The Jump Jets became a default ability, while armour became something you could spend resources on in the Crew Menu, leaving just the Bandolier behind.
This is because we’re changing Passive Gear into “Tech”, which are small memory card-like objects a SENTRY chooses at Loadout to lean into certain playstyles and do a bit of build crafting. They come in unique (purple) and stackable (blue) formats:
Tech is awarded upon combat completion regardless of whether you won or lost a level. You’ll choose the Tech you want from a selection of three (although depending on other variables, this could go higher). There’ll be additional mechanics (mentioned later) that allow you to pick more than one, or re-roll the existing selection.
We’ve implemented over 20 thus far, with plans for over 40 more that we’ll gradually work our way through. This is another one of those systems that we’re looking forward to hearing ideas from the community on too, and our Discord Playtesters (who have access to this feature) are already suggesting some cool ones.
A couple of current in-game examples we’ve recently employed: This one is great with a P9M along with a backup melee weapon:
This deals bonus weak spot damage while scoped, which also has a chance of causing enemies to become slowed. There’s Tech that grants bonus damaged to slowed enemies too. On the melee side, there’s one that gives a chance of inflicting burn damage, while another increases melee damage with each wave that passes.
Or this one focused more on Deployables:
The first two repair some health to Turrets for each wave they survive, along with granting them extra health in each new Prep Phase. There’s Tech for any automatic equipment (so weapons like the Assault Rifle along with the Auto Turret) that has a chance of causing poison, with another dealing bonus damage to poisoned enemies. Capping it off there’s one ideal for the Tesla that increases the amount of shock damage that chains between enemies.
As with previous systems, there’s been a hefty amount of work integrating these into the existing game as they touch multiple areas – the equipment menu, HUD, Loadout and the After Action report have all needed to be updated. We’re still working through those aspects, but the AA Report in particular is going to look much better as a result.
New Levels!
In August we made a new level called “Hab”, and this month we’ve made another called “Conduit”. Both of these levels are currently with our Discord Playtesters, so once we’ve watched their videos we’ll adjust the levels and hand over to Alex so she can replace all of the greybox assets (it’s more efficient to do these early tests and make changes in greybox form).
Here’s a brief glimpse of the new levels; first up is Hab:
The exit point is an open room that is hard to defend, but you can utilise doors to re-route enemies from either level extremity the long way. This means you can funnel enemies into your preferred ambush spot – mine is this area that is great for the Vortex Glove, Conveyors and Vortex Grid – but also affords some nice sniping opportunities for enemies crossing the bridge.
And here is Conduit:
My favourite area to battle in this level is by the C & D breach points, which are by a large pit that they have to cross via a bridge – many aliens have already died on this choke point!
Other Stuff!
We’ve started the design and planning work on another mechanic that complements the new “Tech” system: Optional Objectives. The idea behind these is they’ll provide some extra gameplay-related sub-mission to achieve in combat that’ll not only provide additional variety, but also grant rewards that allow you to have more choice in the Tech you’ll attain. Part of this includes the creation of a Stats system, which will also be utilised for an eventual achievements system. While Achievements is planned for the full release update, we’re planning on implementing the Optional Objectives and accompanying Stats system next for MU4.
We also upgraded our engine to take advantage of some performance improvements. This normally breaks some random things we need to patch up and the same was true of this occasion.
From the Community
Our Discord community member Jajomba had a play around with the game files to see what a wave filled with our most deadly enemy would look like:
Finally, you have to admire the dedication behind this image from Snake with a tophat (also from our Discord)
Maybe don’t stand so close if you’re employing a similar strategy :)
We love seeing all the cool things you come up with, so please keep sharing them with us!
If you’d like to chat with a fellow SENTRY or provide the team with feedback, you can do so in any of the channels below:
Thanks for your continued support!
