Hello, Galactic Dudes!
We’re here with another dev diary. This time we’ll talk a upcoming features. We have one major upcoming update: the player profile and rankings. At the same time we'll working on several smaller new mechanics to improve progression and game balance.
A few of these features will be implemented in the next patch coming in the beginning of next week (February 27th onwards). Others will be gradually implemented over the next few patches. Let’s get right to it.
Player Profile and Ladder
A common reaction we get from mid-core and veteran GJL players is that after playing through the middle section of the game (that is when you research all blocks) the game becomes a little stale, because there are no interesting goals to achieve. Leveling up and upgrading blocks is ok but it takes too long and doesn't offer much motivation. That’s why we’re introducing the player profile, ladders and ranking systems.
The goal of these features is to create a place where a player’s long-term achievements are noted and remembered for him/her and everyone to see, to compare with others and to compete for top ranks and honors. Eventually our vision is to create these features:
- A base profile with gameplay stats (Phase 1)
- A ladder of top players for various categories (Phase 2)
- Time-limited ladders for events (Phase 2)
- A set of ranks and “medals” the player gets to collect by achieving in-game goals (Phase 3)
Note that for now the profile will be located on the game’s website. It will be accessible by clicking an in-game button. It will be possible to look at other player profiles of course.
ETA: March 8th, for Phase 1
A visual concept for the profile.
Regenerating Core Shield
Quick summary: the best way to destroy a ship will be to damage it’s parts first before going for the core.
The goal of this mechanic is to increase ship survivability by both reducing the effectivity of core sniping and decreasing the probability of one hit kills (we still want coring to be a viable strategy, but we’d also like to create more opportunity for different approaches). How will this feature it work?
- The core will get a regenerating CoreShield on top of its base HP. The maximum shield HP will be let’s say 2x the current core HP.
- The Shield HP will be tied to the HP of the whole ship. If the ship loses HP then the shield capacity will be reduced proportionally.
- If the core gets damaged more than the whole ship, the shield will regenerate after a short time.
Until we implement this feature, we will be temporarily buffing the core HP.
ETA: March
Ship Core Movement
The title says it all. Except that you’ll also be able to rotate the core and change it’s connecting point (default T). We’ll implement it as soon as possible.
ETA: March
Simple Daily Quests
Tired of the slow grind? Lacking motivation to play more often? We have a solution for you! With the next patch we will introduce the daily quest mechanic. Every day each player will get a simple quest to complete for additional XP and Junk. The first version of this feature will be implemented early next week and will include basic quest types like ‘play X matches’ or ‘first win of the day’. In future updates we will be increasing the variety of available quests based on the player’s played classes, weapons or abilities. The daily quest mechanic will also be used for time-limited event quests.
ETA: After February 27th
Vote for Ability Concepts
After a lot of feedback collection we’re ready to introduce concepts for abilities that will be implemented in the next major update in early April. However we’d like the community to vote on them first. On Friday Feb 24 we’ll be publishing a questionnaire, where players can express their opinions. Hope to see you there.
Anyway, that’s it for this dev diary. Let us know what you think in the FORUM.
Martin ‘Gajxo’ Gajarsky
Game Designer