OVERVIEW

Welcome to our Alpha release of M.E.R.C. - a real-time, squad-based, strategy game. So where are we at in our development phase? The level of polish and completion of games released via Early Access varies greatly.

For M.E.R.C., we’re at Alpha. We have our core gameplay integrated, but needs refinement and additional layers of AI, both in terms of the player’s units and NPC’s behavior. Levels need to go through an additional layer of dressing and polish both visually and balancing.

We also have an introduction to the metagame, which includes Unit Management, Unit Upgrades, Equipment Upgrades and our global threat and reputation system. We have co-op multiplayer implemented so players can battle alongside each other in both story-based and side missions. The first user-experience needs further refinement and communication, in general, needs a major update. The meta-game, in particular, needs a notable amount of work, which we’re busy coding away on. So what you’re playing is a ‘work in progress’ experience - there is lots we have planned!

We’re excited with the content we’re going to be adding, both short-term and longer-term, and with the support of our community we want to shape the game into a deep and immersive real-time strategy game. Thank you for downloading M.E.R.C. and being part of our community.

BREAKDOWN OF ALPHA CONTENT:

- First 9 Story Missions (Act 1)
- Ongoing Side Missions (Massive number of procedurally generated levels)
- Co-Op Gameplay available for both Story Missions and Side Missions
- Pre and In-mission direct chat for Co-Op gameplay
- 4 Classes (Assault, Sniper, Heavy & Engineer)
- 3 Class Specialties (Medic, Commando & Tech Specialist)
- Unit Management
- Unit Upgrades
- Equipping Units with Weapons & Gear
- 5 Corporations that will provide mission objectives
- Rivalries amongst corporations

WHAT WE’RE WORKING ON:

Below is a list of what new content and features we’re working on, on top of issues that we’re fixing to improve the experience:

- Improved tactical gameplay and AI behaviour
- Additional Story Missions
- Additional Side Mission variations
- Campaigns (collection of missions that offer completion rewards)
- Campaigns to be playable in Co-Op mode
- Co-Op gameplay re-connection improvements
- New unit subclasses
- New unit special abilities
- New metagame communication updates
- Improved game performance
- Improved mission load times

NOTE: Items that are planned to be available in each future release will be presented to our community along with our planned date to go live with that release.

KNOWN ISSUES:

- Foggy Levels: We’ve had rare cases where a level will load with the fog effect covering the camera. If you do see this, you will need to exit the game and reload. Your save game file will be auto-saved. We have been testing a fix so have yet to reproduce this issue.
- Mission Fails to End: In rare cases we have also seen missions not ending properly when your units reach their extraction zone. We have been testing a fix so have yet to reproduce this issue.

TIPS & GAMEPLAY NOTES:

- COMMAND CENTER includes the following locations/functions:
- BARRACKS: All Unit Management is done here.
- MercNET: All unit hiring, purchasing of weapons & gear is done here.
- CODEX: This will be where data entries will be added when unlocked throughout the game.
- MISSION LOBBY: Used to find open co-op missions to join
- ADVANCED DAY: Moves the game world forward to the next day. This will cause units to recover, update recruits in MercNET, generate new missions and trigger news updates

GAMEPLAY:

The player’s units do not permanently die. If units ‘die’ during a mission, they will need to be healed when returning to the Command Center. This can be done via the Barracks top-level screen. Healing costs money (Credits) and takes time. Don’t Advance the Day without starting to heal your units otherwise they will remain in the ‘injured’ state. Once you start the healing process for a unit they are out of action until it completes.

Units can also gain injuries if they ‘die’ during a mission. These can be viewed in the unit’s detail screen and must be healed separately from their health.
Hiring new mercenaries from MercNET will allow you to swap fresh units into your squad for missions when someone is healing and out of action. However, you will need to balance this with your costs as every mercenary you hire needs to be paid their weekly costs even if they are not being used in missions. You can also release units from your team as you try and balance your costs.

Finding cover for your units is important in battle. Your units gain significant protection from damage when they are in cover so try to use this wisely. Cover objects will highlight when you hover over them with the mouse. Likewise, trying to pull enemies out of cover with explosions or other tactics can be useful.
Your units will only fire on enemies if you tell them a specific target to shoot at, or if an enemy shoots them first and they have no other order.

COMBAT CONTROLS

Squad Orders:

When you give orders to your units they apply only to your currently active units.

By default all of your units are selected as active, but you can also cycle between your two teams of Alpha Team and Bravo Team. This allows you to split your units into 2 teams for higher tactical control in battle. The camera will follow whatever team you have active.

- Right mouse click - give move orders for your active units
- Left mouse click - select attack target for your active units (you only need to click a target once and your units will shoot it until destroyed)
- Left mouse click will also interact with level objects such as hackable panels
- TAB - cycle your active units between your two teams (Alpha and Bravo)
- Q - select all the units in your squad again
- E - holding this makes your orders apply to the non-active team (this is useful if you don’t want to cycle teams and move the camera)

Other Combat Controls:

- Space - toggles Tactical-Time mode, slowing down time and allowing you to give out orders faster
- Hold right mouse and drag to rotate camera (A and D keys also do this)
- Use the mouse wheel to zoom in & out (W and S keys also do this)
- 1-8 - Trigger a unit special ability (each of your unit’s can have up to 2 special abilities)
- Esc - Brings up the menu to change settings, quit the mission or exit the game