[2020] February Update

: You can find the details for this event on the announcement page [url=https://steamcommunity.com/ogg/929490/announcements/detail/1693852890356872571]here[/url].

Dear friends!

We promised to keep you updated on the game development, but the last time we published the news more than a month ago. Let us fix it! A list of what has already hit the game server production, you could see in the patch notes for updates in {LINK REMOVED}our Discord channel. Today, therefore, we've decided once again to share what is now directly in the work and run internal tests, our plans and further steps.

The main news: over the past couple of months, we've accumulated quite a lot of unpublished changes, before publishing which we had to conduct a lot of tests, preparatory work, bug fixes and the like. This for the most part occupied the bulk of published updates. That's why in February we plan to make cumulatively accumulated changes and open access to the game without invitations and Early Access Packs.

We understand that the game is still raw, and this is not a release. It's rather an early Open Beta. This decision is mainly due to the fact that we haven't yet been able to gain enough online players for PvP mechanics to work properly. With this step we would like to provide a comfortable waiting time for PvP battles opponents. After that we'll plan to launch the Early Access in STEAM.

This is a rough list of what we plan to add to the game in February, in large strokes:

1. Recently we've accelerated the movement of units on the map and animations of turns, squats, etc., to increase the game dynamics . We were satisfied with the result and continue to work in this direction. Another important revision on this subject is in line: we plan to make it so that after the opponents detected each other and the turn-based battle begins, the operatives no longer go a slow step further than 3 cells. That is, if you send the operative even to 1 AP, but further than 3 cells, he would go this way in a run. After playtests, perhaps we'll take this functionality to a separate button (when moving to 1 AP, you could choose to make it run or step). But we're not sure of that.

2. At the finish line the next change in the economy. In short, the rewards for the missions would become larger, the game would become more comfortable. In our more distant plans there are additional rewards for side actions in missions, for level-ups, for achievements, etc.

3. As the play tests showed, we obviously overdone it with the first missions difficulty. Therefore, in the next update we are planning to nerf bots in the first three missions and make the entry to the game more friendly to newcomers.

4. Some balance adjustments would come into force, designed, first of all, to make such tactics unprofitable: "I am sitting with my 4 leveled up snipers at the beginning of the PvP battle and put them in overwatch, as soon as the enemy enters the firing zone, he loses at least one operative".
In particular, the "overwatch range" parameter would be introduced, i.e. overwatch mode would work only at a certain range, depending on the type of weapon selected. If the situation doesn't improve, there are a number of additional measures that we plan to introduce gradually until we achieve the desired result.

5. In February, we plan the first major patches to optimize the game. Besides the fact that we expect a noticeable increase in FPS, these fixes should also seriously improve the quality of rendering certain moments in high graphics modes, such as: self-shadowing objects, character's hair, and the like.

6. Next in line are new storyline missions and related opponents: aliens and their robots. We don't know yet how many of the new opponents we could manage to test and add in February, but at least the first alien should appear in game by the end of the month.

7. Some changes to UI are being prepared for publication, both in battle and in the lobby. For example, a new mission results window, in which we introduced several changes on users feedback: added level and experience of the player's account progress, quality marks of items dropped in loot, operative classes icons, etc.

8. We have completely redesigned the game launcher, which will help to avoid some technical problems for some users. Whoever comes across them knows what we are talking about.

9. Several new PvP maps.

10. Changing the cameras operation in order to reduce the time spent on the player's move by looking at how the camera takes the desired angle or slowly moves from point to point.

11. As well as many smaller changes, bug fixes, tuning animations and sound.

Below is a list of what we would really like to do in February, but most likely this would be included in later updates:

12. Reset character skills. The need for this feature in the game is obvious. We plan to embed this functionality in the character's window and make it possible a free single reset for any operative, and reset the leveling of a previously retrained character for a game currency or with a large cooldown to avoid abuse of this function.

13. Choice of operative class upon reaching the rank. Yes, now the operative receives one of the random subclasses without alternative. During the Early Access we realized that this is very bad. And that something needs to be done with this. That's why we decided to give players choice of several conditionally random options. That is, when a character reaches the rank where he gets another subclass, the player would be able to choose from several available options.
This doesn't mean that all possible subclasses would participate in the selection, but it would be possible to avoid obviously unsuccessful builds.

14. Ratings, clans, customization, achievements, remaining subclasses (including Elite ones). This is all in our plans for the next three months.

15. Changing the mechanics of shooting calculations in order to avoid situations when the character clearly had to logically hit the target, for example, when shooting from a shotgun point-blank, but due to the random chance of a hit, a miss occurs. It infuriates us too! :) How exactly the mechanics would change, we are not yet ready to say. There are several ideas that we are working on.

P.S. We thank the participants of the Early Access for a huge amount of useful feedback. We listen to your opinion and try to realize everything that most of you would like to see in the game. Unfortunately, we don't have time to do this instantly, because the game is in active development and often there are higher priority tasks that are already in testing or require immediate implementation, as they are tied to the following tasks in the plan.
Thank you for your patience! Have a good game!