Thank you all for your feedback. We are listening and have made some significant changes to the game based on it. Most notably we redid the entire game progression to be smoother. That requires redoing all the maps so we couldn't release new missions as they wouldn't fit in with the old system.
The big change is that we will no longer tie unlocks to score. Instead new towers and orbital abilities will be unlocked by completing missions. This offers us a few advantages.
Features
- New Progression System- Tower/orbital unlocks are no longer tied to score. Instead they are unlocked by completing missions. Because of this unlocked tower/orbital popups will no longer interrupt game play and we can have more score variety (it was difficult to balance people unlocking towers in time if someone got a lot less points than a another player because they were playing on a lower difficulty level).
- Chronoshift- This replaces the pause mechanic. Pausing now puts the game into "bullet-time" or "matrix" mode where the player can slow down the action to make decisions. But this is a limited resource to keep the pressure on game play. On easier difficult levels we are generous with the time given, but on higher difficulty levels it will be tougher.
- Outposts- Some maps have Outposts. These are buildings with no military value, but they give a big score bonus if they survive the mission. It's up to you if you want to spend resources defending them or not.
- New Mission: Dule. A large map with multiple choke points and a defensible colony, and hard to defend outposts.
- New Mission: Ascent. A mountain with the colony on top and winding paths going higher and higher until they reach the top.
Balance
- There are now 9 difficulty levels.
- Trainee- -90% Score, +60% tower damages, +100 metal,/n Infinite Chronoshift
- Beginner- -75% Score, +50% tower damage, +50 metal,/n Chronoshift depletes 75% slower
- Novice- -50% Score, +40% tower damage,/n Chronoshift depletes 50% slower
- Easy- -25% Score, +20% tower damage
- Normal- No Score Modifier, Normal hit points
- Challenging- +25% Score, +30% enemy hit points
- Hard- +50% Score, +60% enemy hit points,/n Chronoshift replenishes 50% slower
- Unyielding- +75% Score, +100% enemy hit points,/n Chronoshift replenishes 75% slower
- Nightmare- +100% Score, +150% enemy hit points,/n Chronoshift never replenishes
- Decoy no longer lasts forever.
- Increased the cost of drone bays.
- Rail Gun delay between firing increased slightly.
UI
- Minimaps give an audio and visual queue whenever a new wave starts, telling you exactly where they are coming from.
- Buildings with hit points (metal refineries, fission reactors, etc) now show their hit points when selected.
- Towers and orbitals now have a highlight ring if they are available.
- UI Animates when a mission starts.
- New splash screens images, new campaign screen image.
- Replaced all the unit and tower selection images.
- New/updated sfx.
Fixes
- Fixed an issue where a tower can stick to a lower tier unit when there is a better target in range.
- Fixed an issue where Scarabs couldn't attack.
- Fixed an issue where Punishers smoked when undamaged instead of when they were damaged.
