Welcome to the holiday season, alpha players! The last month have been very busy and Update #31 rolls out some of the newest developments for you to playtest.

It is hard to believe it has almost been entire year of Alpha! We've sailed over the 11 month mark and clearly there is still a lot of work to do to get the game into full fighting shape.

With the winter holiday season starting, we've decided to make Update #31 the final update for 2022 and resume updates in late January 2023. This will give us time and space to focus on some of our biggest remaining projects, system revamps, the UX rebuild and major content adds without having to wiggle around the update schedule we were trying to keep. Also, when we do resume updates in late January, we will be able to present a big package of changes and new content as a call to action to bring more Alpha players back to the table to check out the latest and greatest.

So, enjoy the last update of the year and happy holiday, however you celebrate the season!

Updated New Game

The new game screen now shows more details about your Backstory choice so that you can make a more meaningful pick for your Knight. This includes the 3 Traits you'll gain from the pick and your final Attribute stats from those Traits and Backstory bonuses.

While the earlier version of Backstory applied some randomness to your Traits, this has been removed. There will be no randomness in New Game at all, removing any desire from players to "reroll".

The current Backstory set is still shallow and not offering highly unique Trait options -- so that is something we'll keep working.

Packet Loss Delays Reactivation

A unique angle has been added to the Hacker's anti-security Talent "Packet Loss." It is now capable of targeting devices that are currently disabled and will reset their disabled duration. This allows you to spam spoofing a device and keeping it turned off without any Turns where it comes back on. So, the Hacker is capable of keeping a Camera that would find a dead body disabled forever if they were in range and had enough charges of Packet Loss.

Touchy Security

Some key security devices are now activated more than once per Turn. Previously, laser wires, motion detectors and pressure plates would only trip once per Turn and then ignore any further activity. This made them far less threatening (only one merc needed to run through and take damage on a lethal laser wire ... ) so we've adjusted the rules for these specific devices.

Laser wires, motion detectors and pressure scanners will now activate and post a security event with Tally and cause any damage they are going to cause once per character movement. This makes these devices much more effective at detecting intruders and also forces you to plan a bit more carefully with them. If you're going to trip a pressure scanner, it is best to get across the field in a single run. If you go through a laser wire to reach a loot box, coming right back through the fence will now ding you again.

Cameras and Listening Posts still only report one activation per Turn to the Security AI.

Secondary Objectives

The objectives system in the game has been expanded to fully support and display optional objectives as Secondary Objectives. Objectives shown in this category are always optional, including finding an alternate exit, or a blue key or tapping some extra reward. it's a very nice way to be able to keep track of the most gold path items and the maybe-if-we-can items.

UX Progress

This update rolls out some incremental UX progress. We've been making a lot of back-end improvements in preparation for the big UX rip which is scheduled to start next week. In the meantime, the Objectives list and Accuracy Calculation have been updated in their first pass. Neither is 100% complete to the design with some work to do on fonts, transparency and a few other items but they are nicely upgraded nonetheless.

The break from updates will allow us to do some more aggressive UX rip-and-fix, so look forward to an improved situation on our return in 2023.

XP, Credits and Face Levels

We've tightened up the curve in both money and XP granted by missions so that things and your budget don't get wildly out of hand once you're running on mission that have a few more Power Levels under their belt.

We also adjusted the rules for the Face -- who has a budding class tree -- to gain XP whenever your Knight gains XP. Their levels will be lock-step matched -- a level 22 Knight will work with a level 22 Face but how that Face is built out on their class tree will be very unique.

0.6.57 - 12/8/2022

- New Game now displays Trait, Tag and bonuses for your Backstory pick inline
- All randomness removed from Traits and Tags for new game characters
- Hacker's "Packet Loss" Talent can now target disabled devices to further delay their re-activation
- Laser fences always activate / cause damage to all characters crossing them
- Motion Detectors can activate and cause a Security Tally once per character movement
- Pressure Scanners can activate and cause Security Tally once per character movement
- Updated UX for Objectives list and Accuracy / Crit % calculations, Combat Log fonts & background
- Added support for optional Secondary objective display in HUD, updated some missions but not all yet
- Tightened up curve for mission XP and money rewards for a smoother progression
- Face gains equivalent XP whenever the Knight gains XP for completing a mission - lock step leveling
- Added objectives for Security Gauntlet playtesting levels
- Improved coloring of dialogs to make current line really pop and be more focused
- Fixed Soldier's "Run and Gun" to give +10% Assault Weapon accuracy instead of Rifle (Sniper, Railgun)
- Fixed incorrect filters in weapon store / inventory
- Reduced / Rebalanced Attributes from Backstories