Kickstarter
The Kickstarter pre-launch page for SCAVENGER ZERO is live now.
If you're interested in supporting the game, please go follow the Kickstarter page. There will be tiers as low as $5 CAD, with any pledges over $15 CAD getting access to the game's Beta. (Weekly in-development builds that will be released leading up to version 1.0.)
The Kickstarter campaign itself will be launching on October 5th, alongside the game's updated demo.
Company Upgrades
A couple company upgrade paths have been implemented!
I think I've talked about company upgrades before in the past, but in case I haven't; in 0.7.0 you'll be able to invest scrap and marks into upgrading the Lavender Company building.
These upgrades change the look of the hub world, and also give you buffs.
As you can see here, there's 10 upgrades so far spread across two upgrade paths; the Break Room and the Repair Bay.
There are three more paths (15 upgrades) that will be implemented before the demo releases. I'm putting in a lot of effort to make sure each upgrade is useful in some way.
More Achievements
I'm working on expanding the game's achievements a bit. Achievements will not be in the game's demo, but they will be in the full game and the beta.
I'm trying to improve how varied the achievements are. Instead of just having a dozen "kill X amount of enemy" type achievements, I'm implementing some achievements for doing funny item/weapon combos, or just completing a difficult challenge. A few examples;
Gaming Laptop Simulator: Use Incendiary Ammo attachment on the Fleet Rifle and overheat yourself.
Mastermind: Successfully kill another pilot by sending one of your mercenaries after them.
Overkill: Deal 50,000 damage or more in a single hit.
Lavender Company Does Not Have Health Insurance: Get served 10 medical bills in a single run.
Big Catch: Have every single fish in your inventory at the same time.
Some of these might sound simple on paper. Health insurance? Just die 10 times, right? But... medical bills increase every time you die. The challenge of an achievement like that comes from finding a way to manipulate the economy enough to be able to get 10 medical bills without a game over.
In total, I have about 58 achievements planned so far and I'm going to aim to double that number by the time 1.0 is finished. Although I also don't want to bloat the achievements list with super obvious / generic things that anyone playing the game would do if I can avoid it.
Weapon Customization
And now for something new...
Weapon customization is being added to SCAVENGER ZERO. The player can attach sights, suppressors, chokes, stocks, and more onto their guns! Some of these attachments can completely change how the gun feels for better or for worse.
On top of attachments, the player can also attach charms to their weapon now. Charms are unlocked by reaching certain milestones on your save file.
If you defeat enough of a specific enemy type, you can unlock a charm of that enemy. If you work for a specific faction enough, you might unlock a charm of that faction's logo.
And of course, if you don't like how the charms look you can just unequip them. They are completely cosmetic, so you won't be missing out on anything.
Mech Parts Rebalance
This was inevitable.
So for anyone who played the NextFest Demo (versions 0.6.X), you might've noticed that the balancing for mech parts was... off, to say the least. There were Lightweight sets with higher hull and shield than Heavyweight sets. There were sets referred to as Lightweight in text that were actually Mediumweight...
Basically, there was no consistency for how parts were balanced. At the time of writing 39/47 sets (145 total parts) have been rebalanced for 0.7.0, with quite a few also receiving visual updates. I've enforced some hard number caps based on the set's weight class, and have been applying more logic to how stats are distributed across parts. The end result is that a lot of sets have received major buffs in terms of hull and shield points.
With over 200 parts in the game I don't think the balance will be perfect. But I want it to at least make a bit more sense and avoid situations where customization might be discouraged. (ie. Having one set that is just objectively stronger than everything else...)
Drones
A new shoulder weapon; the Autocannon Dock.
The Autocannon Dock holds three drones that orbit the player and fire at the closest target. They use a unique ammo system instead of a regular cooldown. You can toggle them on and off with the press of a button.
I'm going to be adding a few variants of these; a laser version, an explosive version, and some kind of melee version to cover all damage types.
Enhanced Records Menu
I've reworked the records menu to include the entries of unique pilots (bosses, allies, etc.)
In 0.5.X and 0.6.X, entries for these pilots didn't exist and I think that was a bit of a missed opportunity. In 0.7.0 you'll be able to obtain records from these pilots through various means, getting a bit more backstory out of the boss mechs in the process.
Anyway, that's enough from me for now. I've still got a lot to do to make sure the updated demo is ready to go in October. You can probably expect a new trailer for the game to release at some point later this month as well.
I'm going to try to be doing daily posts on socials leading up to and during the Kickstarter, so follow the game on Twitter, Bluesky, or YouTube if you're interested.