The aim of this update was to bring in some quality of life improvements and fixes for bugs to the game. These have been driven mainly by feedback and comments during the launch week of the game. I've been really pleased with the reaction from folks so far and I will be working hard to keep adding more content and improving the overall experience for everyone.
If you are playing Vactics and have a spare bit of time:
- Tell a friend and tell a stranger. Word of mouth is the main way that I have for Vactics to find people who might enjoy the game.
- If you are enjoying the game, leave a review. I've been told these are really helpful for letting Steam inform other players that Vactics is cool as well.
- If you have any things that aren't working for you, make a post on the forum or use the in-game feedback button. I'm keeping an eye on these and will try to help if you are having any difficulty.
I'm working hard on a few different things now for the game and my hope moving forward is to push out an update every 2 weeks. If there are urgent issues / bugs I can release patch updates to handle those too.
Cheers,
Gerard / The Lemur Conspiracy
Client Versions
Early Access: #0.200.3681
Demo: #0.200.3681
Changes
- Gameplay [Control Towers]: Changed how Control Towers are spawned into levels to place them in the same time as the rest of the Vactics. This is to remove frustrating moments for the player when towers would appear in ways that could end a run.
- Balance: Updated some of the unlocking costs downwards for the meta progression levels.
- Balance: Updated the size of city districts in the campaign so they all default to 3 levels. This is to reduce times that campaign runs are slowed down / lose momentum as the player gets further in.
- Feedback: Updated logic so that enemies that cannot attack because they are caught in a magnet have the appropriate attack area shown when they are scanned.
- Gameplay [Grappler Vactics]: When the player activates Hack on the Grappler Vactics it will now preferentially target other Vactics with it's grappling hook. Before it could only be hacked if the player could be pulled.
- Gameplay [Laser Walls]: The Laser Walls now behave in a more consistent way allowing systems in the game to push things onto them for damage.
- Gameplay [New Escalation]: Added the Increased Cooldowns Escalation Protocol to the game to replace Recharge Limits. When active it will add +2 to all tech cooldowns.
- Gameplay [Recharge Limits Escalation]: This escalation protocol has been removed as it was messy to explain and understand as it was operating.
- Gameplay [Teleport Control Tower]: When the tower teleports an enemy they no longer get to take an action that turn. This is to remove cases where the player gets attacked / damaged by those enemies and could not have prevented it.
- Input: The skip turn system is only available when the player is cannot make any other action but this was not always clear. I've clarified how the skip input works by updating the description in the controls panel and providing feedback on what it is not being activated if the player attempts to skip a turn when it is not available.
- Map: Updated Vactics information tab for district to better show when a district has been completed.
- UI: Refined some tutorial text that introduces the combo system.
- UI: Tech cooldowns are now shown in the initial loadout and upgrade panels to help with player decision making.
- VFX: Added small feedback effect on tiles as an explosion triggers to better message what things are taking damage.
Bugfixes
- UI: fixed bug in settings where switching between Windowed and Full screen modes would revert the selected display resolution.
- UI: fixed instance in gameplay panel where text color was not being updated after player selected a new color palette.
- UI: fixed issue in Daily Leaderboard screen where gamepad shortcuts would be showing when the Mouse and Keyboard control scheme was active.
- UI: fixed issue on the game over panel where buttons could sometimes be interacted with when a tutorial popup was showing.
- UI: fixed issue with the district information tabs on the map where some input shortcuts would show at incorrect times.
- UI: fixed major issue with Daily Leaderboard screen where it would not load any scores properly.
- Visuals: fixed issue where grenade sprites were not being updated when the player targets them with the Hack tech.
Note: Any relevant fixes and improvements will also be in the updated client for the demo version of Vactics.