This is just a check-in, letting you all know what we've been working on. Coming up in December will be Version 0.3, focused on More Techs, reworking Tower Techs into something you have control over, and more. And also an update on what you should expect for Q1 2024.
But before we dive in, we have some winners to announce...
Survival Contest Winners
- Tobias - 3,456,488
- MegaRobman - 3,336,593
- Pon-Pon L'Mouton, aka "Averoes" - 2,113,024
Congratulations to our winners from the Survival Contest, and thank you to everyone that participated! Should we run this again in the future, we'll be looking into ways to improve it to make it more friendly to participate (and prevent copying existing entries).
Now, onto the previews...
Version 0.3
Releasing December 2023
Our next big update to the game is focused on More Techs, a change to Tower Techs, and more balance updates. This primarily will improve Survival, though it will of course affect Quick Play & Co-op. We'll also working on UI updates and improvements to make the gameplay experience smoother.
Below is a minor breakdown of some of the above.
Tower Techs
Currently, the way getting a Tower Tech works is, when it shows up as a reward, it gives a random tower the respective tech. Or in Survival, a random one shows up, and you choose whether to grab it at that moment or not. The problems with this system are:
- You don't get to choose when it shows up
- And when it does show up, you don't get to choose which one
- Additionally, numerous builds are reliant on certain Tower Techs to function properly.
We are addressing those problems with a more intuitive solution that puts the control in your hands. Exact details will come in the Version 0.3 Patch Preview later this month.
New Techs
The above new system for Tower Techs will remove some techs from the pool. However, we'll be supplementing it back with a bunch more new ones. This includes ones that give more purpose to your Blockers, a way to remove Obstacles, techs that empower your Overloads, and more!
Meta Techs
In Version 0.2, we added the Meta Tech Tree in Survival, which let you progress three different trees and choose some more minor powers to cater to your playstyle. For Version 0.3, we'll be adding a 4th tree.
New Maps
Once again, there'll be another set of 3 New Quickplay Maps, as well as 3 New Co-op Maps! They'll be making use of some of the new techs. We'll also be adjusting the tech rewards on existing maps, especially ones that had Tower Techs as a reward.
Survival Scaling
For those of you that have managed to "beat Wave 120" in Survival, that is not intended. On one hand, it is touted as an endless mode, one you're meant to get as far as you can in. On the other hand:
- At Wave 70, the HP Multiplier is at around x18
- At Wave 120, the HP Multiplier is at around x48
- And Wave 30 is when the amount of resources/rewards you get per wave stops going up.
Genuinely, anything capable of getting to Wave 120 is either blatantly OP or scales way too strongly. Some of it is on the mode itself, we're looking into adjusting the scaling so that the difficulty ramp goes up more steadily.
And some of this is on balance, like the Meta Tech that prevents you from losing more than 50 Lives per wave. Obviously, expect that one to be redesigned.
Balance
The previous version hit up a good number of towers and made them generally more usable. We'll be further touching up on that, hitting up some more Towers and other Defenses that are either problematic or in need of some love. Blast Cannon, for example, desperately needs something that lets it scale, especially in light of Pulseray's recent updates.
Performance
We're aware that the game runs into some serious slowdowns, especially in late-game Survival & Co-op. We've identified problems with certain towers (like Network) that should help with that, which will be coming in Version 0.3. Beyond that, we're looking into other ways to optimize the game, which may or may not make it into next version.
That's all for the early preview of Version 0.3. Expect a more in-depth preview in a few weeks! However, we also want to give you a progress update on stuff coming in Version 0.4...
Version 0.4
Releasing Q1 2024
Campaign
Since Early Access release, the Campaign has received a few minor updates. Some bug fixes and some difficulty tweaks, but that's it so far.
For the upcoming Version 0.3, it still won't be receiving updates, and that's because we are in the process of rewriting the bulk of the script. Much of the core plot points remain the same, but we're drastically expanding the lore and plot threads. We're also looking to improve it on the gameplay end. Having New Techs will help make the Tech Tree far more interesting as well.
When we're ready to talk about it and Chapter 3, we'll do a whole preview post for it.
New Towers & Axons
Also coming in the same update will be 4 New Defenses and some new Axons! They'll be filling in some roles that are currently lacking. Expect a separate preview post for it in January!
2-Player Survival
And the other big thing in that update will be 2-Player Survival! Because that mode wasn't ridiculous enough already, especially later in the game.