Hello Commanders! It's been a busy week. We hit 3000 units sold during the steam autumn fest, which is a great milestone. The roadmap is going as planned. @2a3d is working on the Art for the 2nd faction, and I will discuss new original music with @phbarralis soon.
New Terrain System
We have a new terrain system, nicknamed "realistic terrain", that brings good looking cliffs to Powerplay. I am mentally and physically relieved to not have to look at those low poly cliffs. I had to let go of my desire to implement procedural terrains, and accept using pre-built modular blocks, which look great, are made by a professional artist, and don't look repetitive.
In the unlikely case that you are a lowpoly terrain enjoyer, the game still supports it, but please spare us and try use the realistic terrain! In addition the editor now supports multiple brush types. Create a new map to try it out. I can't wait to see what lands on the Workshop!
Note: All campaign, skirmish and learn-to-play maps have been auto-converted to the new system. I heard reports of some missing cliffs in some maps, I fixed everything in skirmish, and I still need to do a pass over the campaign. Please bare with me.
Unit Formations
The long awaited formation feature is here. When you order a group of units to move, they will order themselves by rows of unit types, ordered by toughest to weaked. An exception is made for long range units like the artillery and mlrs, for units that don't attack, so they are kept in the back. And while the group is moving, the units will slow themselves to match the speed of the slowest unit, in an effort to maintain the formation.
The job is not done, as many players will want new formation types. Or the ability to orient the formation in a specific direction. Or to disable formations. For now, you can go in the settings menu, in the input tab, to disable formations. But we will probably add an easier way to interact with this system from the HUD.
Skirmish Recap Screen
FINALLY! We have a recap screen with statistics at the end of skirmish games. Sorry it took this long. I've put pushing it down because I want to revamp the UI at some point and didn't want to have to re-do it but I think it's time to have it now, so I can get feedback on it at least.
More accurate Bombers
Bombers are now much more precise and take terrain elevation into account, which matters a lot more now with the new terrain. Their rally point also shows in red in attack mode and follows ground level, so you can see exactly where your bombers are headed.
Other Improvements
Health bars in the selection panel now update live
Damage is now calculated with proper decimals instead of being rounded down, so some units may hit slightly harder than before
The Steam Workshop shows progress while games are being fetched
The research panel no longer hides production rates
Fixed allied gates not opening for the player
Fixed transports trying to steal units from nearby transports
Fixed enemy conveyors being visible through the fog
Many more bug and crash fixes
What's Next
The 2nd faction is on track for the Winter Sale on December 17th. I think it's time to give some love to the Skirmish AI, so expect a good challenge in the next update.
As always, if you run into anything, come say hi on the Powerplay Discord.
See you soon Commanders!
-Amine