"Dear Presidents,
Thank you for gathering here today. I am pleased to present to you the latest developments in our strategic project, ICBM: Escalation. This discussion will highlight the significant advancements our dedicated team of developers has made since our previous feedback session. Their relentless efforts have not only addressed past concerns but have also introduced innovative features that elevate the project to new heights. Following this introduction, our developers will provide a detailed account of the evolution and enhancements of ICBM: Escalation, underscoring our commitment to excellence and progress."
Now that the beta test has had a few more waves and it’s picking up some momentum, it’s a good time to show off how it’s been going!
As always with beta tests, hunting down and squashing bugs has been at the forefront, and we’ve been hard at work making that happen. Of course, if all we tell you is “thanks to so and so, we know the game crashes if you do this thing and now it doesn’t” then that’s not really much of a conversation piece. So, what about some of the cooler stuff that’s come out of the beta?
Well, thanks to the balancing efforts of our testers, army divisions have been closing in on something of a happy medium, where they’re deadly in a conventional conflict, dangerous enough to not be underestimated in a nuclear war, and yet also overshadowed by a horde of thermonuclear warheads coming for your cities. Similarly, ABMs and SAMs have gotten a boost to a point where they’re worthwhile, but not so strong that you can just spam them with impunity like in ICBM 1. There have been lots of nice little tweaks to push everything in the right direction, but there’s also been some not-so-little tweaks as well…
Not only are armies better overall, but the AI is also better at using them. Watch your borders…
For those who remember the dev diary we did on Air Power, you’ll remember that a line of high-speed bombers was implemented for players who wanted some extra air power at their disposal. Well, thanks to testing, we now know that that particular pedigree gets a little bit anemic late into the game, so, by popular demand, we’re introducing a final late-game upgrade for high-speed bombers that’s faster, meaner, harder to kill, and would give Leonid Brezhnev nightmares if he was still around. If you want a good laugh, you can read up on his theory that the space shuttle was secretly a nuclear bomber. If you’re more interested in destruction, then you’ll probably be happy to know that there’s a sub-orbital bomber at the end of the tech tree. The culmination of a hypothetical world where the XB-70 made it into service, and somebody decided that hypersonic flight could have made it better. And, with Project Mayhem in the works, perhaps not too far off from the truth…
For when you need to take off and nuke the entire site from near-orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.
Now, one of the common complaints from the beta that we have yet to address is the pace of the game. Since conquest mode is the default, games can last for a long time, and since nuclear wars have a tendency to cut things short, players don’t always make it to the end of the tech tree. We don’t necessarily consider this a bad thing - lots of people were expecting nuclear war in the 1960s, so why not keep it as a possibility? But, with that being said, soon we’ll be working on the new game modes, which should allow players to fight a faster-paced game and even start later in the tech tree. But, before we can do that, we need to finish the new strike planner. Assuming we’re still calling it that, it’s gotten quite the makeover. But, we’ll leave that for another time…
Look at this button. What does it mean? What does it do? What is it capable of? Can we even fathom what lies within?
There’s plenty of other things going on under the hood, but that’s all we’ve got for this update. Hopefully it’s piqued your interest, regardless of if you’re in the beta or not… But, as always, we’ll see you next time!