Happy Friday!
We're pleased to announce that the Shmupdate, a fundamental revamp of our enemies and single player missions, is LIVE!
This is our first major update with Early Access, and with it comes a slew of changes that make the game way better. A lot of this feedback is a direct result of what YOU have told us! Here's a detailed breakdown.
General Changes
- Single player missions reworked to be more fluid
- Dialogue no longer pauses the game
- Camera control no longer taken from the player
- Emphasized story to be more focused on the briefings rather than in-level conversations (though those still happen)
- Revamped enemies from the ground up (details in next section)
- Minor minion adjustments to have more distinct counters to updated enemies
- Molotok bullets now spin around perimeter of armada once after initial explosion
- Various performance tweaks
- Lots and lots of small things that overall make the game much better
Enemy Changes
The old enemies you know are gone, except for the models. Each of the new enemy types are listed below!
Swarmer
- Attacks in great swarms. Weak alone, but challenging in numbers!
Kamikaze
- Heavily armored foe that charges into the player and instantly explodes upon impact, causing great damage.
Broadsider
- A quick-moving ship that encircles the player, firing upon them while moving quickly.
Closer
- Enemy that aggressively closes on the player, shooting a powerful -- but inaccurate -- shot.
Bombarder
- Fires a solid beam of energy that deals damage every half-second.
Gunner
- Fires constant shots at the player to attempt to distract them from heavier or more deadly targets.
Grenadier
- Shoots an exploding projectile that can be deadly to large armadas!
Carrier Ship
- A large, heavily armed ship that can spawn smaller ships (such as the Swarmer).
Here's a glimpse of a test scene filled with Swarmers and Bombarders, with a Carrier Ship in the background.
They may not seem very tough...
... but then BOOM!
With this update, we've accomplished many things. Primarily, 1) we're more confident in our storytelling methods, and 2) we're more pleased with how enemies work and how minions counter them.
We'll continue updating the game with small bug fixes until our next big update: Those three other missions in hub world 1!
We hope you enjoy Close Order even more than before with this big update. Early Access has been a lot of fun so far, and we have even more exciting things to come! Stay tuned, but for now... go be badass! :)
- The Raconteur Team