Hello prospectors!
First and foremost, thanks to everyone who has played and provided feedback during Alien Frontier's early access launch period!
We've received a tonne of feedback from players, and we believe in listening carefully and updating often! As such, just under two weeks from the Early Access launch, we're rolling out the very first major update: Towns and Mission Flow.
There are a few bugfixes, but the update focuses on two major components.
Reworked Mission Flow
We've received a lot of information regarding the flow and structure of the game, especially how it feels a bit too open. What's the point of killing enemies? What do clots do? What am I supposed to focus on?
To provide more clarity to the flow, players now must clear out a certain number of enemy locations before receiving resource mining objectives. Additionally, when players mine these objectives, the reward chests are now free. Clots gained from killing enemies are now exclusively used for opening world chests.
The new flow is such:
- Clear out enemies
- Mine a resource
- Clear out more enemies
- Mine another resource
This flow is more focused, which we feel is a good solution to the previous method, which, while open and non-linear, was perhaps too open. Players reported feeling directionless and unfocused with the way objectives were allocated.
More World Density
The other most common piece of feedback was how the world felt too empty. Therefore, we've tweaked the density of chests, enemies, and most importantly, secrets! Let us know how it feels!
Additionally, this leads into another big change...
The Outpost is Available in Day 1
Another common piece of feedback was the lack of perceivable roguelite mechanics. The outpost, which is available in-game during the second day, was meant to provide progression mechanics.
The problem is that it provides very little for Day 1, and since you have to wait a day for new upgrades to kick in, it can take a while for these to be impactful for players. We don't want you waiting to use all the good stuff, so the outpost can now be seen in-game during all times of your run. This allows players to uses more of their resources and purchase items and upgrades, which should help the economy and character building feel more immediate and impactful.
That's all for now, but keep your eyes peeled on future updates!