New build: https://wiki.arcengames.com/index.php?title=HotM:After_NextFest#0.557_Filtering_And_Lensing
This is based on more feedback from NextFest, and it's another large one.
What's New
- The lenses on the radial menu have been expanded notably, and unified between the map view and main view.
- The investigation, StreetSense, and Contemplation abilities are gone from the android ability bar, and are now converted to being Lenses only.
- Investigations now work a lot more smoothly in a lot of ways detailed in the release notes.
- StreetSense works entirely differently, and is dramatically easier to use. It's also no longer different per-android.
- There are now "Lens Filters" next to the radial menu, and these allow you to customize what you see as part of the various lenses. This has let me actually combine three lenses (Navigation, Beacons, and POIs) into a single one (Navigation), and it allows for you to do a lot of filtering-out of information that you might not need in the Forces lens, without it being completely inaccessible.
- The prologue has had a number of updates to it to reflect the new changes, plus other things that people found confusing. It also doesn't make you do any equipment management, as that is more naturally introduced later.
- There are now keybinds for jumping straight to specific lenses!
Other Items
- Snipers hit less hard.
- MilStyle armor now also hides the identity of Predators and similar.
- Armor has been extended quite a bit in general, and more unit types have more options. The Nickelbot is steadily gaining in usefulness.
- Lots and and lots of writing edits courtesy of my wife Kara. She's been focusing on making sure that text flows better and causes less fatigue.
- Employment and housing balance has been notably updated, so that unemployment rates are now in the appropriate ranges.
- Because of the removal of so many abilities (that are now Lenses), the ability bar for all units has been rearranged to a notable degree. This is likely to cause some muscle memory issues, but I think that the new order makes sense if you look past that. Details in the notes. Discussion welcome if it doesn't seem to be the case.
- Employment and housing balance has been notably updated, so that unemployment rates are now in the appropriate ranges.
- Many various other smaller changes, fixes, and so on. This is actually three large releases in one since the last build outside of the playtest branch.
Next Things
There's still a few things for the prologue that need adding. The UI tour, and some adjustments based on the theming of attacking the detectives. Those are way less surgery than all of these other elements were, though.
There are some reports that people are wanting related to quickly being able to see what is going on with certain resources, and those are also going to be a focus. An improved technology window also.
Then I should be good to go to finish chapter one. For the demo, there will be a few more features added in chapter one, but the really big reveals will not be on the demo branch for quite a while. Apologies on that; but the playtest is open for anyone interested.
Testing Group Reminder
If you'd like to sign up to be a tester beyond the demo period, feel free to sign up here: https://forms.gle/nNwEnzRyVPMS7bYg6
Make sure that you list your discord username and are a part of Arcen's discord, since that's where coordination is through.
Thank you again for all the support and feedback!
Cheers,
Chris