Generals!
Hold onto your helmets, as today the team take a huge step forward on our roadmap, and unleashes “Vanguard Logistics” - a comprehensive array of customisation options, improvements and overall quality of life features that the team is excited to be finally releasing.
As part of this update, some customisation features will be available for players to experiment with. This framework has been built to facilitate the addition of unlockable customisation features and elements, where in future, players will be able to continue adding to their personalisation options that will steadily expand, giving players greater control over their personal visual preferences and how they present themselves to other players.
With our focus on making the Vanguard Exiles’ community a part of the game's journey, player agency has remained a key consideration throughout the development of these elements, where in future, players can expect a continuously growing collection of rewards/options to unlock and further personalise their experience.
Player Hub
Players will now see a hub on the top left of the main game screen, with various menu options they can interact with, based on their progression and customisation elements they have unlocked. Players will be able to use their hub to access their Medals, Squads and Personalisation menus.
As mentioned earlier, your customisation options will expand in line with your game progress and rewards associated with the relevant achievements and milestones in the future, so players can certainly expect that as time passes, those options will only continue to grow!
This update also marks the introductory point of the long awaited Player Ratings, which will give Generals the ability to proudly show off their overall rating.
Personalisation
Profile
The Profile tab is where players can see their player ratings (also seen in lobbies), as well as customize their Avatar, choosing to show their current Squad heraldry, or a custom Avatar using either an in-game acquired image or their Steam profile picture, select the Frame displayed around their Avatar and adjust the housing for their UI interface.
Card
Arguably one of the most impactful aesthetic customisation options, this tab allows players to change the frame around their cards. This affects not only the appearance of cards in their hand (visible to both spectators and opponents), but also how they are displayed at the Barracks and on the new Squad roll/reroll screen!
Emotes
This tab allows players to customize which emotes appear on each of their Emote wheels, whether for general gameplay or while spectating.
New Mode…Chaos Clash!
The definitive test of a General's mettle! Players go into a match with randomly generated Squad, either against other players or the AI, to see who is the ultimate General! Players will need to act fast and think faster for their chance for victory in this mode! Like some of our other game modes, Chaos Clash will also have its own leaderboards, centred around vs AI and vs other players respectively.
Squad Menu Revamp
Squad Management
Players will now be able to organise their Squads in the order they like, with more elements for Squad management coming in future as layers are added. Squad management has been removed from game modes to mitigate disrupting the gameplay experience, so this screen will become key for having your troops in order before engaging in skirmishes.
Squad Recruitment
Gone are the days where players accrue a limited number of reroll tokens to use across all their Squads. Instead, each Squad now has its own unique disband countdown, giving players the agency to disband and recruit a new Squad in its place once the countdown is complete.
While recruiting, whether players opt for the new Squad or choose to keep the existing one, the countdown resets without affecting the countdowns of any other Squad.
In addition to this, playing a Squad which has an active countdown will reduce the amount of time before it can be disbanded (requiring the completion of a full game), with wins yielding a more accelerated effect on this functionality. We want players to see the value in any Squad presented to them, regardless of the number of rares, uncommons etc., so this functionality was put in place to encourage players to find and explore synergies and possibilities unique to the Squad (through actual gameplay experience) before deciding to replace it.
Squad Recruitment Reveal
One of the more striking features is the way cards are now revealed when recruiting a new Squad. We wanted players to experience a more tactile and cerebral feeling when “handling” their cards, so this new screen leans into this by creating a more dynamic auditory and visual effect as cards move. Players can also filter the cards in various ways, allowing them to drill down into exactly what they want to see and evaluate when reviewing their Squads.
Game Modifiers
Game Modifiers for Skirmish and Hotseat Modes have come to Vanguard Exiles! Maps in these two modes may have modifiers applied, where before going into a match, players will be able to see what effects those modifiers will have on the game to better inform them of what to expect, potentially influencing the choice of Squad to use.
In some instances, these modifiers add an additional challenge to certain Units/Factions or the game as a whole, giving players an additional obstacle to navigate. In other instances, certain modifiers will have a beneficial/balancing effect, where drawbacks on some Units/Factions could be mitigated, or even leveraged positively. For Public/Private Skirmish Modes, these modifiers rotate on a weekly basis, whereas in Hotseat Skirmish Mode, the modifiers are rolled as desired.
Wrapping it all up
All of the aforementioned features are just a few of the elements built to support the eagerly anticipated Campaign Mode. Designed with a focus on the game unfolding naturally as players progress, these features aim to deliver the excitement of discovery while introducing more elements that become a meaningful and lasting part of a player's overall (and ongoing) experience.
Let us not forget that amongst the explosion of features we’ve released, we also have a host of mechanical changes, balancing, bug fixes, optimisation and array of quality of life features that have also been deployed in this build, so you can check out details in the Changelog link (pdf) beneath the sign off.
Until next time…keep smiling and keep on skirmishing.
Cheers!
Tinbeard
