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RocketBear [developer] 19 Jun, 2017 @ 8:03am

New Patch - Developer Diary

Hello,

I thought that it would be good to give everyone a preview of what's coming in the next patch. For the past few months I've been improving the Planetary Campaign mode with new tweaks and units.

Keep in mind that ths is a work in progress and some of these features might get reworked / axed.

New Tech

Cloaking Upgrade - your team stays invisible if not in battle (and for a short time after starting combat). This allows you to get the first strike in on tough alien hives.
Radio Pod - hooks up to a single marine to boost their damage as long as your squad has >50% hp.
Triage Upgrade - teleports your marines to safety when they're about to die. Great for saving morale.
Toxic Bomb Upgrade - allows you to block of parts of the map with toxic clouds that hurt both you and the aliens.

Campaign Options

I'm adding advanced options to the campaign setup screen. For now, there's only one new thing there, but I'm planning to add a couple more before patch day.

The first new option is called "Constant Fog of War" and it makes it so that there is FoW on all missions, not just stronghold assaults.

The next option (and the one I'm working on right now) will be a tweak to retreats. The option will make it so that you either get all of your TAC PTS back or you do damage to the hives, but not both. You have to choose. Hopefully that takes care of retreats feeling cheesy.

Both of these campaign tweaks were proposed here on the forums, so keep the ideas coming!

Release Date

There's no projected release date yet, but I'm aiming for somewhere around fall. I want to add a few more things to the feature list and give them plenty of polish time.

Last edited by RocketBear; 19 Jun, 2017 @ 8:12am

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Showing 1-15 of 35 comments

SightlessGopher has Infested Planet

19 Jun, 2017 @ 8:21am

Yey! Good news! I am looking forward to that Triage Upgrade.

K84

20 Jun, 2017 @ 1:30am

With the constant fog of war on campaigns, will there be anything to set the strongholds apart from regular missions?

RocketBear [developer] 20 Jun, 2017 @ 11:00am

Originally posted by Kasrkin84:
With the constant fog of war on campaigns, will there be anything to set the strongholds apart from regular missions?

I want to add something like that, but I'm still thinking about what it could be. It's a lot easier to add a "fog always on" option than to create new mechanics and enemies.

For now, yes the option makes strongholds a bit less special. I might add an option to turn on dynamic mutations (from the last classic campaign level) for stongholds.

Last edited by RocketBear; 20 Jun, 2017 @ 11:03am

K84

21 Jun, 2017 @ 2:04am

How about adding in a "super hive" like from some of the campaign missions (e.g. Contact) that can only be destroyed after all others have been taken out?

RocketBear [developer] 21 Jun, 2017 @ 11:37am

Originally posted by Kasrkin84:
How about adding in a "super hive" like from some of the campaign missions (e.g. Contact) that can only be destroyed after all others have been taken out?

I thought about that. The question is how does that change the gameplay?

The classic campaign has a lot of scripting that wouldn't work for the dynamic one.

Last edited by RocketBear; 21 Jun, 2017 @ 11:38am

K84

21 Jun, 2017 @ 1:43pm

One other potential issue with that is map layout - you would need to ensure that the superhive doesn't spawn in a location where it blocks access to some of the regular hives, otherwise without the scout/teleport jump combo the mission would be unwinnable.

Gameplay-wise it would obviously depend on the map layout, mutations and available tech, but the main effect would be to force the player to defend a wider front, especially if the superhive spawns in the centre of the map.

RocketBear [developer] 21 Jun, 2017 @ 1:47pm

Originally posted by Kasrkin84:
One other potential issue with that is map layout - you would need to ensure that the superhive doesn't spawn in a location where it blocks access to some of the regular hives, otherwise without the scout/teleport jump combo the mission would be unwinnable.

Gameplay-wise it would obviously depend on the map layout, mutations and available tech, but the main effect would be to force the player to defend a wider front, especially if the superhive spawns in the centre of the map.

Interesting idea. I think that it could work.

K84

22 Jun, 2017 @ 10:43am

A thought about the "constant fog of war" thing - seems like it'll make things very difficult for people who don't have scouts unlocked. Maybe players could build Listening Posts or something similar on the campaign map that reveal the fog of war in adjacent territories (but maybe not strongholds). It could either cost tactics power or, like fortifications, morale.

RocketBear [developer] 22 Jun, 2017 @ 11:20am

Originally posted by Kasrkin84:
A thought about the "constant fog of war" thing - seems like it'll make things very difficult for people who don't have scouts unlocked. Maybe players could build Listening Posts or something similar on the campaign map that reveal the fog of war in adjacent territories (but maybe not strongholds). It could either cost tactics power or, like fortifications, morale.

It's meant to be a quirky, extra-hard difficulty option that will be off by default. Sort of like Second Wave options in X-Com.

K84

22 Jun, 2017 @ 2:01pm

Fair enough. :)

#10

tikks

1 Jul, 2017 @ 9:22am

Could there possibly be a way for fog of war in the skirmish mode, as well?

#11

RocketBear [developer] 1 Jul, 2017 @ 12:40pm

Originally posted by Surfer Tikki -)KDRv(-:
Could there possibly be a way for fog of war in the skirmish mode, as well?

I might add it to custom map mode.

#12

tikks

1 Jul, 2017 @ 3:01pm

That would be neat to play around with, for sure!

#13

Drongo

8 Jul, 2017 @ 2:55pm

The Triage option sounds great. Also, how about some options to counter fog of war, such as localised satellite scans or recon helos (could be structure based and/or cost ammo points)?

Looking forward to the patch.

#14