Alpha Demo 0.3.0, the Reinforcements Update, is now available to download and play! This update brings with it a full balance rework of the entire game, and new tools at both you and your enemies' disposal.
Due to the extensive changes to the game's internal systems, your current run will be reset when booting 0.3.0. All other progression in your save file is unaffected.
What's new?
Reinforcement Waves
At regular time intervals, or under certain conditions, new waves of allies and/or enemies will spawn mid-mission! You'll find that missions in 0.3.0 stay packed with enemies to fight, and if you're not careful missions can snowball out of control as more and more enemies attack you at once.
Fire Support
As you earn points by destroying targets, you'll fill up a Fire Support gauge. Once this is full, you can press a button to request a strike on your current target and up to 9 nearby enemies! Any allied units can respond to these requests, from your wingmen to airships - but if you call in Fire Support on a ground target, you might see the INDF's orbital railgun satellite network respond to the request!
For existing players: the Fire Support button is an additional control binding. If you've customised your bindings, you may need to manually add this extra binding before being able to use Fire Support.
New Units
Bomber Rework
The Manticore bomber has had a full remodel, and is now able to fight back with its tail-mounted autocannon! On higher difficulties, you might also see the up-armoured and up-gunned Chimera, which carries a high-powered defense laser.
The Strigoi and Vampire
Joining the Kobold light fighter is the Strigoi multirole and its modernised variant, the Vampire! These come in two forms, the Type/F (Fighter loadout, with anti-air missiles) and the Type/A (Attacker loadout, with anti-ship rocket pods).
Allied Frigates
The INDF's laser destroyers are now joined by smaller, lighter frigates equipped with missile launchers. You can find these in the Naval Escort and Naval Battle missions, where they'll support the destroyers by defending against Strigoi/A raids.
Prototype Upgrades
You can now find and purchase Prototype Upgrades in the Upgrades menu! These are a range of extremely powerful upgrades that provide an advantage in combat, but come with dangerous drawbacks that you'll need to adjust your fighting style to handle. For example, there are Prototype Upgrades that replace your machine gun or secondary weapon entirely, or reduce your max health to make every one of your attacks explosive!
Township Revamp
The huge floating metal doughnuts in the sky have been re-engineered and given a fresh coat of paint! Destroy the infrastructure built on top of them, or break open their bulkhead doors and fly inside to take out the Callistan fleet in the dry docks.
Naval Escort Mission
You can now sortie into the new Naval Escort mission type, where instead of destroying targets, your job is to keep as many of your own units alive as possible! A column of allied frigates and destroyers will come under attack by waves of Strigoi and Vampires, and you'll need to intercept them before they can wreak havoc on the allied fleet.
Minor Improvements
- HUD kill feed now shows all recently destroyed enemies, instead of just the latest one
- The HUD target counter no longer replaces the score counter, and has a label for whether targets should be protected or destroyed
- Difficulty levels have been renamed
- All missions have been rebalanced to account for the new mechanics
- New BGM for the ICBM mission update, replacing the regular mission music
- New BGM variant for the Mission 4 briefing
- Maps are now different sizes and shapes for different missions
- Swapped the MG and shield cooldown sound effects
- Added a "magazine empty" click when attempting to fire weapons that are still reloading
- Wingmen will now return if they end up too far away from you
- Enemy aircraft will move faster when chasing targets
- Added upgrade dialogs on boot that explain some of the new changes
Bugfixes
- Fixed an issue causing ICBMs to explode instantly when hit
- Fixed a crash during the tutorial mission
- Fixed the incorrect Sell mapping glyph in the Parts menu
So what's next?
0.3.0 largely finishes the overhauls to the game's internal systems and code, leaving it in a stable state to be expanded upon and added to. And 0.4.0 will do just that with a couple of massive features:
- The second playable aircraft, the Valkyrie
- New weapons that add extra gameplay options
- Two new missions on a larger scale than anything in the game so far
We hope you enjoy playing Alpha Demo 0.3.0 and experimenting with the new Prototype Upgrades!