Vactics 1.0 Release Notes

Hi all,

I've put together a list of all the changes that were put into the game to bring it to 1.0. Some items are small and detail a specific change made to the game to improve it while others are major new features that contain lots of additions and changes made along the way.

Either way it contains a mountain of work I put in and as well as some of the major contributions made by my collaborators to really help made the art shine and to bring in a fully custom soundtrack for the game (available now on Steam)

Thank you as well to all those new players who are trying the game with the 1.0 release. Please feel free to leave feedback and if you are enjoying the game it would really help if you left Vactics a review as well. Please tell a friend or a stranger about Vactics, it really helps to get the word out about my game.

Cheers, Gerard / The Lemur Conspiracy

Update #1.000.5228

Changes

• Accessibility - added feature to present important options to players the first time they play Vactics.

• Achievements - added new achievements to the game that relate the new endings, pilots and arcane cores. Total achievement count is now 75.

• Achievements - polish pass on text for all achievements in the game.

• Animations - polished the attack animation of the Elite Melee to better communicate that it can reach you from further away.

• Arcane Cores - Armored Core now also increases tech cooldowns when equipped.

• Arcane Cores - Fusion Reactor core now also causes enemies to deal more damage to the player when equipped.

• Art - added new variations to the district scenery art in between levels.

• Art - re-worked how the Great Beyond tiles are presented on the campaign map.

• Audio - added new sounds throughout the game to better.

• Audio - new custom sound effects for each Lost Pilot

• Audio - new sound effects created for each Control Tower

• Audio - updated audio balance when tutorials and popups are showing to allow their content to be more clearly presented.

• Campaign Map - updated generation logic so that the border of the great beyond region is different from run to run.

• Colors - added 6 new color palettes to unlock in the game, bringing the total to 24

• Credits - updated credits to ensure all contributors to the game are mentioned.

• Daily District - changed the gameplay flow of the mode so that players must select their escalations up front and then commit to the run from that point.

• Extra Move Tech - this tech now supports all the range related modifiers being equipped.

• Feedback - added better information and messaging during the final battle about what the player needs to do.

• Game Balance - balance pass on the chances of Elites spawning in both Campaign and Daily District levels.

• Game Balance - Decoy tech can now always target tiles with enemies on them, previously this tech required the enemy targeting mod to be installed to do so.

• Game Balance - Elite Ranged enemies will now teleport away from Decoys as if they were the mech.

• Game Balance - In campaign active citywide escalations will be removed from the pool of possible escalations active in levelled up districts.

• Game Balance - modified the logic that is used to determine if a Control Tower will appear at the end of a district. Control Towers will now appear sooner in the campaign and more often.

• Game Balance - nerfed the Laser Wall tech by increasing the cooldown and reducing the range it can be placed at.

• Game Balance - reduced the amount of Vactics added by the "More Vactics" escalation.

• Game Balance - reinforcements will now spawn 1 turn sooner than before when the Reinforcements Escalation is active.

• Game Balance - tweaked the turn order priority for Elite Vactics for balance.

• Game Over screen - added more fanfare when the player unlocks new tech in the game.

• Gameplay - Elite Dash enemies re-designed to spawn copies of themselves when attacking instead of having a link to another enemy in the level.

• Input - ensure all parts of the game can be played using a gamepad alone

• Music - replaced existing placeholder music with all songs from the Vactics Original Soundtrack by GrandPrizeBigFuzz.

• New Arcane Core - when you equip this new Arcane core, you will have all your tech cooldowns reduced but will die to a single hit from the enemies.

• New Feature - added the true ending to the game and changed how the final battle is played to better integrate into how that ending is reached.

• New Feature - fully implemented the Lost Pilots into the game, these pilots can be unlocked by completing various tasks in the campaign and upgraded. Each pilot will contribute different starting perks to your mech and when unlocked will appear and help with the final battle.

• Story - full pass on all game text to improve the story, tutorials and feedback for the player.

• UI - added feedback to the gameplay panel to show player if tech has been upgraded since it was last used.

• UI - added new sprites for highlighting buttons in the UI

• UI - added some tech frames to UI screens across the project

• UI - Codex rebuilt with new high quality enemy sprites, layout and changes to how it is navigated

• UI - updated the input shortcuts to incorporate the currently selected color palette.

• VFX - added custom effects and feedback for all the Arcane Cores in the game to better indicate when they are triggering and affecting gameplay.

• VFX - polished the effects that play on enemies during the final battle sequence.

Bugfixes

• Gameplay - fixed bug where mech landing on enemies when using the Drop and Go modifier was not killing the enemy targeted.

• Gameplay - fixed bug that was allowing buildings to persist when they were pushed onto Vactic Mainframe tiles.

• Gameplay - fixed bug where a battery drone would still affect level tiles after it had been collected.

• Gameplay - fixed bug where trail tiles were incorrectly being left on the Vactic Mainframe tiles in the final level.

• Gameplay - fixed bug where whirlpool tile would move a building onto an already occupied tile.

• Gameplay - fixed bug where you could quit at the end of the final level and continue playing another district when you resume that savegame.

• Text - fixed some text in the game that didn't have correct punctuation.

• UI - fixed bug where current active core description text would continually fade away in the gameplay screen.

• UI - fixed bug where feedback button would not show up in the pause menu.

• UI - fixed bug where inventory overlay scrolling position would not be reset when selecting a different piece of tech.

• UI - fixed bug where the current district name and level progress would disappear or show the wrong information right after you complete a level.

• UI - fixed layout bug in the inventory screen where tech descriptions would not align properly.

• Visual - fixed bug were explosions would show their visuals correctly if they were created as the player is killed.

• Visual - fixed shields being offset incorrectly on Elite Melee enemies.