Hi everyone,
Major Update 5 is approaching! There have been loads of changes and your thoughts will be vital in helping us make adjustments, so we’d love to get your feedback on it.
To access version 0.91.29073, you’ll need to switch to a beta branch:
- Find SENTRY in your Steam library and right-click on it, selecting “Properties”
- In the menu that pops up, choose “Betas”
- Select “Beta Branch” in the “Beta Participation” drop-down list
- In your Library you should see “[betabranch]” appended to the game name
When you play the new version, please remember that while your profile saves will carry over (i.e. all your equipment and campaigns you’ve unlocked thus far), your current escape run will not – so if you’re in the middle of a run and you don’t want to lose any new blueprints you haven’t banked, reach a gate and bank them before switching to the latest version.
It’s also generally good practice to back up your profile saves ahead of any Major Update, just in case you find an obscure bug. You can find your profile and save folder here:
C:\Users[Username]\AppData\LocalLow\Fireblade Software\SENTRY\Saves\Steam[SteamID]
If you’ve been reading our monthly Dev Transmissions, you’ll be familiar with some of the additions – however here’s a roundup of the headline changes:
Difficulty Modes
We get a broad variety of feedback regarding difficulty, with a lot of people saying the game is too easy with even more finding it too hard.
For that latter camp, one aspect of addressing this is the new start to the game which we’ll be adding soon. This is not only aiming to be a cool introduction to the world of SENTRY, but also a way for people to learn the basics in a less pressurised environment. If you’re interested in reading more on this, we’ve given previews of the prologue in the last couple of Dev Transmissions.
The other way we’re addressing this broad range of difficulty requirements is the addition of new modes that you’ll select when you start a mission.
These choices not only affect the “Threat Level” of the boarding parties you encounter, but a variety of modifiers too. These break down as follows:
- Casual has Threat Levels 1, 2 and 3 correlating to each sector. Bosses won’t carry special hazards and crew revival won’t escalate in cost.
- Normal is the default game mode and rules that you’ll be used to, with threat levels 2, 3 and 4 depending on the sector you’re in.
- Hardcore commences at threat level 3 and escalates to threat level 5. In this mode hazards will stack when a sub system gets destroyed and can be cleared when you repair that level. You won’t be able to use crew revival, so will need to rely upon crew pods and merits for new crew. Finally, previously banked blueprints can’t be built so you’ll need to rely upon Supply Beacons for expanding your equipment on the mission
If you are someone who previously found the game too easy or too hard, we'd particularly love to get your feedback on this area.
Operator Enemy Behaviour Overhaul
The “Operators” are the term we use for the three most common enemy types. The melee-weapon carrying Scrappers, alien pistol/shotgun/burst/assault rifle wielding Raiders, and the alien minigun or shield bearing Assault/Storm Wardens.
Each of these had three tier variants (i.e. the “grunt” grey ones, the “veteran” blue versions and the “elite” red ones). Previously, the main differentiator between them was health, aggressiveness and where you’d face them.
These have all had a major rework but our overall guiding principle has been to:
- Make the grunts feel like they occupy more of a cannon-fodder role with stripped-back behaviour. The Scrappers will not have ranged attacks, while the Raiders don’t throw grenades at this tier. Assault Wardens won’t move and shoot at the same time.
- Add increasing amounts of behaviour throughout the tier levels. For example an elite Raider may dive out of the way of grenades, but the lower tiers wouldn’t. An elite Scrapper will enter a rage mode when at low health and become super-aggressive. Veteran Storm Wardens will perform a shield charge, and elites perform a rallying cry that prevents nearby enemies from being staggered.
- Provide different behaviour per weapon, per tier. An example would be the pistol equipped Raider. The Elite tier is able to use a health stim, but if you kill the enemy before it is used they drop it as a pickup. An elite tier shotgun wielding Raider throws an EMP grenade that powers down nearby deployables instead of the standard grenade.
This work also includes a visual pass to further differentiate the tiers. Taking the Scrappers as an example, the most basic version now has a blunt club, the Veteran wields the scythe you’ll be accustomed to, with the Elite tier carrying dual plasma blades:
You’ll notice the Raiders also now have different heads depending on the weapon they carry, which should help in identifying their type.
There’s a lot more to discover, but we’re hoping that this helps improve two areas: firstly a gentler curve on each mission – i.e. while grunts will be ever-present, your initial battles will only be versus grunt tiers before increasing to include other tiers. Secondly, you’ll have greater combat variety as their behaviour escalates later in a campaign.
Turret Rework
Much like difficulty, we get a lot of conflicting feedback around turrets. Some people find them too weak, whereas others find them overpowered.
Learning good placement is crucial for getting the most out of turrets – and that’ll never change. Bad placement will always mean turrets underperform. However optimal placement should not allow you to AFK while they take care of an entire boarding party!
With those thoughts in our mind, we’ve made the following changes:
- If a turret is destroyed, its base plate remains in place. When the next Prep Phase occurs, the turret will rebuild with a small amount of health and become active again (as long as nothing is blocking it rebuilding).
- Turrets now have ammo. This gets replenished for free in the Prep Phase and you can manually restock individual turrets mid-combat for a scrap cost. This should put a ceiling on their power but allow you some agency to keep them in the fight if you need it.
We’ve made some other more minor changes, and this is another area we’re particularly keen to hear your feedback on so we can make appropriate adjustments.
Loadout Specialities
At the start of each mission you can now influence the equipment you get assigned by choosing a Loadout Speciality:
Once you’ve made your selection, it’ll present you with the randomly selected equipment based on your speciality choice. For example:
- Balanced is the standard choice and most like the one you’ll be used to already.
- Assault is weighted to weapons versus deployables. You’ll start with more weapon slots, fewer deployable slots, a 5-slot weapon plus 2-slot weapon, no Gear and two deployables. You’ll also commence the run with a weapon-based Tech
- Bastion is the opposite of assault, being more focused on deployables. You’ll get 4 weapon slots but start the run with 4 deployables, plus a deployable-based Tech.
- Overwatch is a speciality focused on turrets. You’ll get 5 weapon slots but only start the run with a single 2-slot weapon. You’ll get a turret plus one other deployable, along with a piece of Tech that combines with turrets.
At the start of a new profile, only the “Balanced” speciality is unlocked – as that profile banks new equipment, you’ll unlock other specialities.
What’s next?
Those are the headline changes – but there’s been absolutely loads of other smaller additions you’ll likely notice when playing, however we’ll list all of those in the patch notes that’ll accompany the MU5 release.
One major addition still to come is the Prologue. As mentioned in our last Dev Transmission, we’re now starting to put in the final art and working on the intro/outro sequences.
We’ll therefore post another Beta build that has this new opening to the game in, plus some other cool things we’re hoping to squeeze in.
Once we’ve had the chance to do that plus action your feedback, we’ll officially release Major Update 5.
Places to provide feedback
Discord or the Steam forums are the best place to provide feedback, but any of the channels listed below are welcome.
In order to not mix up beta branch feedback with the main game, there’s a dedicated area on the Steam forums to post your beta branch comments: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1252680/discussions/0/
We're looking forward to hearing what you think about the latest changes.
Oh – and if you’re yet to play SENTRY and are interested in helping us test the Prologue please drop an email to [email protected] and we’ll add you to our next private playtest session.
Thanks for the support!
