Greetings once again!
I got a new update for you all, and this time around my main focus has been on reworking and fleshing out the difficulty options in the game, as it seems to still be the main issue players have with the game.
New Difficulty Options:
So the main thing I changed with the difficulty options, is that I added two more options to choose from.
You now got Beginner, Novice, Veteran and Expert.
Novice is a reworked version of the old Easy difficulty setting, and Veteran is exactly the same as the old Standard difficulty option.
Beginner is of course a even easier option than Novice (formerly Easy), to help along new players. And Expert is the new hardest option in the game, and is only recommended for experienced RC players looking for a challenge.
If you want to read about the exact details of these difficulty options, then you can do so in the in-game manual under the "Choose your Army" entry.
New Medals:
I also added new medals to represent each difficulty setting.
Beginner
Novice (formerly Easy)
Veteran (formerly Standard)
Expert
Fill Medals option:
Another addition I made is that I added the option to "fill in" missing medals for an army.
So what this means is that if you have a army that say you have only beaten the campaign with once on the veteran difficulty setting. Then, if you select that army you will get the option to fill in all the missing medals for it of a lesser rank, which in this examples case would be the Novice and Beginner difficulty medals.
But what is important to note, is that this is purely a aesthetic option and will not award you any points to unlock new armies with. It is only an option for all the completionists out there who wants nice looking brackets without having to complete the campaign a million times over, with the same army on every difficulty setting.
New Achievements:
I also added new achievements for beating the campaign on Expert difficulty, and reworked the old achievements for beating the campaign "X number of times", so that they are awarded for completing the campaign on any difficulty instead of only on the Standard difficulty (new Veteran).
So that is all regarding the new difficulty options.
If you have any complaints or requests regarding this new difficulty settings, then as always I am more than happy to take any feedback.
Also if there are any bugs that occur because of these changes, like if your progress isn't transferred properly with this new update, then please let me know and I will do all I can to try and amend it.
Other Changes and Additions:
Minor Additions and Improvements:
Made some minor UI tweaks
Changed it from "press" any key to "hold" any key to skip the cinematic when you complete the campaign
This so you don't accidentally skip my magnificent work of art.
You can now move the camera by placing the cursor at the edge of the screen.
This option is also disableable in the settings in the main menu
Reworked AI
Added some new tiles to give the map a bit more variety in colours.
These are some of the new tiles I added.
Balance Changes:
Increased the amount of Shock damage Combat Engineers do from 25 to 30.
This change I made because I have always felt they weren't as effective on the offense I intended them to be.
Decreased the cost of the "Reinforce unit" action from 1% of the units value for each point of strength you reinforce, to 0,8%.
Just to make this option a bit cheaper and slightly more viable.
Bug Fixes:
Fixed bug where the enemy unit movement range highlight wouldn't disappear if you clicked the "switch to tile info" button
Fixed it so that the effects animation player no longer plays behind certain elements
Fixed bug where Recon Unit's upgrades didn't work properly on the new combat preview window
Units using the "APC" transport now get their full sight range upon disembarking
Fixed bug where the music that plays during a mission, would sometimes continue play during the enemy turn or when returning to the main menu
Tooltips on the settings window during a mission would not disappear when closing the window using a hotkey
Fixed bug where when using the "rest unit" action via the hotkey, it wouldn't properly cancel the units "toggleable" action, if it was using such
Other News:
So that is all I have for you this time.
I know these updates have been few and far in between, but the reason for that being as I've already mentioned many times before, is the continued poor sales of the game.
But I still hold hope that the game will one day pick up in sales, which is why I continue putting out these updates anyway. And I am still in talks with a publisher, which if it all goes well with I hope will help bring more attention to the game.
And even though my next game is my main focus right now and where most of my working hours are spent. It is nice to take a break from it sometimes and return to RC, and to take into account the feedback I have gotten since the last update and to try to improved the game.
Because even though it might not be the wisest decision, it is hard for me to just leave the game behind and ignore the complaints and feedback, even if there isn't a lot of it.
For now though I don't know what the future of the game holds. Every time I finish one of these updates for the game, I tell myself this is the last one. But then, as time goes by I start getting an urge to return to the game and make improvements to it.
So what will happen this time I don't know, but if I were to guess then I would say that the plan is to wait and see how it goes with the publisher talks, while I in the meantime continue to collect feedback on the game. And then in the future when I know more, I will make a decision on what my next move regarding RC will be.
I know I teased some DLC in a previous update, and I have it designed on paper now, but if I will actually go ahead and make it depends entirely upon if the game manages to find some sort of financial success in the future. So as I said, we will have to wait and see.
But even though I don't know if there will be any major updates to the game like this one, I will as always help take care of any bugs or any other issues people have with the game. So as always feel free to report them to me in the steam forums and Discord, which I still check "almost" daily.
I will also be putting up a sticky thread in the Steam forums for bug reports, which is something I probably should have done a long time ago.
Best regards, Frans Wikman