DEVLOG #15

Thirty waves, free, in days

The Steam demo is the first thirty waves of the war, and it ends on the Inferno.

• Two operators: Soldier and Marine, each with their own weapon, special and operator cards.
• Three bosses and two Barons: the Titan at wave 10, the Warlord at 20, the Inferno at 30, and Baron Mk I and Mk II in between.
• Everything that makes a run: Field Command upgrades and weapon evolutions, the Wave Director with debut waves and ambushes, the Enemy Barrage and the Intel Dossier.
• Your progress carries over. Casings, upgrades and medals from the demo are waiting for you in the full game.

Sealed before the gates open

• The callsign screen no longer posts ANON to the leaderboard when you hold Enter or tap it twice after the ending. You see the field first.
• First launch: a trailer that refuses to load no longer leaves you on a black screen. The game moves on to the menu by itself.
• Ordnance Pack: pick up a grenade launcher and your light three-charge tube becomes the full launcher. Evolutions no longer sink into the light one.
• Kill the Inferno, then stand in his fire? The sector is held. A win can no longer turn into KILLED IN ACTION.
• Damaged save files, a dead connection, a slow server: the game recovers from all of them. Scores can no longer post twice, and the rating stars never hang on SENDING.
• Steam Cloud now carries everything, including offline scores and the briefings you have already seen.
• Small ones: Mortar Strike now says where the shells land (around you), and your screen may dim again in the menus. It stays awake only while you fight.

A fairer first thirty waves

The bot runs showed a curve that was flat, then a wall. Waves one to four did nothing, the first Baron ended a quarter of first runs, and the Commander waves before the Inferno hit harder than the Inferno itself.

• Soldier 125 → 140 HP. The operator you start with now holds up as well as the Marine.
• Your own blasts: grenades and rockets hit you for 10% of their damage, for every operator. The Marine and the Sergeant stay immune.
• Baron Mk I (wave 5): a double burst instead of a triple, and no echo. The echoed volleys start at Mk II.
• Commander debut (wave 26): three at once instead of seven, then one more each wave.
• Inferno 11,000 → 14,000 HP. The demo ends on a real fight.
• Casings: hold the sector for +50, and your first real run always pays enough for a first upgrade.
• Field Command: evolution screens always offer three cards, filled from the other weapons you carry. Operator cards no longer crowd every hand.

One call, and the red zone burns

• It no longer ends twice. Kill the Spotters and Command tells you once: "The barrage is firing blind. Stay inside, Asset-6." Before, the radio said "Barrage lifting" and then "Barrage lifted" right after, and the battery could go blind a second time.
• Last seconds: "Hang on, Asset-6. The barrage is almost over." When it lifts right after a call, you only see BARRAGE LIFTED on screen.
• The red zone is no place to stand. Every shell outside the line leaves napalm, and the battery finds you faster. Stay out there and you last about four seconds. Inside the line you are safe.

Fire burns now

Burning ground from the Inferno, Pyros and the later bosses only scratched you. Every frame of fire gave you a moment of invulnerability, so about one hit in twenty landed. It now burns in steady ticks: 6 damage per second in the Inferno's fire, 4 in a Pyro's, and overlapping patches don't stack. Step out of it.

No stutter at the start

• Menu start: the short freeze in the first second is gone. The game now prepares its icons a few at a time while you look at the menu.
• First deploy: the first map is decoded and drawn while you choose your operator.
• High Quality: heavy particle storms and the barrage draw lighter. On our test iMac, Performance mode holds 60 fps in every demo scene.