Welcome back! If you’re looking for shiny new screenshots this week, I have to ask for a little patience. I’ve been deep in the backend trenches, wrestling with endless logic cycles and code. When you are building every piece of the puzzle yourself, creating the hidden foundations takes time before the paint goes on.

While there isn't much visual flair to show yet, I have a lot to share regarding what I am actually building and what you can expect from the future of Echoes of Steel.

Expanding the Horizon: Why New Modes?

The main campaign is a rich, story-driven experience that I am fully invested in. But the nature of a linear narrative is that once you’ve experienced all the surprises, you know exactly what’s coming. While I do plan to expand the campaign later with a heavier focus on player choice and less linearity, I wanted to tackle replayability right now.

Enter the new game modes. These take place prior to the main story, focusing on a completely new cast outside of our main characters. Here is what is cooking:

1. Endless Mode (Crash Landing)

Your ship has crashed on the planet's surface. The goal is simple: survive the relentless enemy waves for as long as possible until you can finally extract.

• Normal: A cumulative progression where what you earn, you keep.

• Hardcore: High stakes. If you die, you lose everything you gathered on that run.

2. Expedition Mode

This is a calculated survey and harvesting operation. You land your ship fully prepared for the hostile native environment. You will lead your squad out to excavate, gather loot and resources, and return to base to refit and produce better gear.

The choice is yours: push your luck to gather more until you are overrun, or extract safely with your haul.

Progression, Loot, and Bragging Rights

As you survive and progress through these modes, you will unlock a growing roster of Pilots and AI Cores (and eventually, new mechs).

I am also introducing new, non-basic items into these modes that roll with additional stats, giving you completely new ways to optimize your mechs and maximize your combat output.

For the competitive players: both of these modes will feature scoring systems tied directly to Steam Leaderboards. Get ready to carve your name on that wall!

The Long-Term Dream

Right now, everything is being built strictly as a single-player experience. However, the far-off dream—once this foundation is rock solid—is to eventually push this into an online environment with Co-op and PvP options.

For now, I'm heading back into the logic mines to start connecting this backend code to the frontend. In a few weeks, I hope to do a lot less writing and a lot more showing.

Thank you all!

Nir