This update is now live on the Empyrean Defense Steam Playtest. Thanks to everyone who’s been testing and sending feedback, many of the updates below came directly from your reports.
✨ New Features
Added an onboarding checklist for new recruits to better familiarize them with the game menu and core mechanics
Added multiple game save slots, and the game menu quit button now provides an option to return to the main menu
Added enemy and site overlay shaders that trigger on damaging hits and abilities
Added Rank 2 Fire and Ice skill: boosts the Napalm Strike ability's damage by 25% and increases the effectiveness of the Blizzard ability's slow by 25%
🔧 Improvements
Increased initial camera rotation and movement speed slightly
The quick actions menu now reappears and highlights the site after closing site menu if the cursor is still hovering over it
Major performance enhancements to:
Military sites and enemies particle systems
Plasma Gun site
Reduced mesh counts across numerous models
Cache additional game menu resources for faster page loading
Increased dialogue font size and split up longer conversations for better readability
Moved game menu page intro dialogues to optional tutorial feature on each page
Added character popups for checklist completions and first-time game menu page visits
⚖️ Balance Changes
Removed ability requirements from some skills
🐛 Bug Fixes
Fixed an issue where mission difficulty did not scale boss subcomponents hitpoints
Fixed an issue where repair drones did not trigger on pre-built damaged sites
Fixed an issue where the last selected map mission was not focused when the active input changed and the mission panel was closed
Fixed an issue with ammo crafting which allowed players to craft ammo that ran out of resources when crafting a previous different ammo type
Fixed an issue where Night Vision goggles toggle appeared incorrectly in the abilities side menu
Fixed an issue where out of ammo edge screen notifications could persist for certain ammo types
Development is now focused on the upcoming demo, with the tenth campaign mission, Breakpoint Reservoir, planned for the next release.
Full patch notes and development details are available on the Empyrean Defense wiki: