Greetings, citizens of Haven!
We are very excited to be back after two months of hard work, as we have a lot of new updates around SunderBound! We received a ton of insights from the first playtest, and we are bringing substantial changes to the game, starting with a combat overhaul.
We took a look at our old combat system and found a few key issues:
Players were overwhelmed by constant waves of enemies.
Players had little time to strategize, restock ammo, and heal.
The rapid combat pace leaves little room for tactical variety.
We noticed that players would often become overwhelmed by the constant waves of enemies, leaving very little time to breathe between fights and little opportunities to restock ammo and health. In many cases this also encouraged them to ‘shoot on sight’ rather than look for strategic targets. Most of you resorted to the same moves of kiting mobs and shooting the nearest target, which gets repetitive after a while.
Even that strategy had its limits. The longer the fights took, the more enemies piled up, and the less space players would have to move around. We attempted to remedy these issues with smaller updates like the ammo and portable cover systems, but it became clear we needed a bigger overhaul.
Our solution is to revise our approach to combat, keep what works, but move in a more tactical direction. In short:
We’re slowing down combat to allow for more tactics in gameplay.
Enemies will hit slower, but harder.
Most enemies will be tougher, fewer, and smarter.
The limited ammo and cover systems have been rebalanced.
Players will be given more time to approach their foes, opening up more options for preparation, tactics, and ability use. On the other hand, enemies' attacks will be slower and better telegraphed, but will also hurt a lot more. This makes timely reactions still crucial.
Do not fret! Swarms of weaker enemies are still in SunderBound. Players will still encounter them from time to time, but the staple enemies will be tougher and fewer, and they move smarter to create space for players to maneuver. We've also rebalanced the existing limited ammo and cover systems to fit this new tactical focus.
This is only the beginning. Stay tuned, as in the next few weeks, we will be releasing more info on Mission changes, a demo release date, and a brand new gameplay element that we’re very excited about. Join our Discord community for early sneak peeks!
We'll be back with more news very soon!
- Kipi Interactive