Hello mercs!

The latest content update to Dead Grid is now live!

The main focus of this update was to add controller, Steam Deck and new resolutions support. Exciting new gameplay features have also been added to spice things up for the returning players.

Just in case you've missed the preview post, let's cover the main changes. Full patch notes are listed at the bottom.

SUPPORT FOR MORE RESOLUTIONS

Since the last major update to the game, I've been receiving a lot of feedback to offer support for additional resolutions, especially covering the 16:10 aspect ratio. Changing to these new resolutions in Game Settings should now properly scale the game.

CONTROLLER AND STEAM DECK SUPPORT

The game can now be played using an XBOX style controller or on the Steam Deck. Launching the game on Steam Deck should automatically detect and configure recommended settings which you could manually adjust later.



A number of new Game Setting options have been added to configure and tune your controller.

Please keep in mind, I'm still fixing a few controller and Steam Deck related bugs and will be monitoring bug reports you may post.

There are also a few elements, such as tool tips, renaming mercs and creating custom undead which still require the mouse and keyboard. I'll be looking into these in future patches.

ACCESSIBILITY AND LARGER UI

Another common feedback request was to allow larger text options, so I'm happy to offer additional accessibility options in Game Settings.


A new Large UI option to increase the size of many tool tips, skill details and various game dialogs. This is useful when playing on a small screen or when simply increasing the size of important text.



This also covers skill details which were reported as hard to read by some players.



An option to view a larger version of card details in Gear Management, toggled by a key.



Card details shown in combat can now be configured to display on the side of the screen or floating next to a card, as it was originally. In addition, the details panel can be resized to display much bigger fonts useful on smaller screens. Since the card details can now go out of bounded vertically, you're able to use the mouse wheel or gamepad to scroll the panel up or down. The placement and size of in-combat card details can be toggled in Game Settings - Combat.

NEW FEATURE: CHALLENGE MODES

A new game feature has been added to the main menu of the game, called Challenges. Challenge modes are a way to replay the existing content in the regular game with modified rules and a much greater difficulty. All challenge modes can be finished by completing a specified mission.



Complete a challenge to unlock a higher rank of the same challenge with an increased bonus to your next score and more difficult rules.



Score is earned while playing any challenge which is submitted to a leaderboard on Steam. Your leaderboard ranking can be viewed directly from the game. Each challenge has its own associated leaderboard.

You can opt out from submitting your score in Game Settings.

NEW FEATURE: KILLING SPREE

Performing consecutive kills from a single or multiple attacks in a row starts a Killing Spree.

Active Killing Spree is shown at the bottom left corner of the play board.

Further consecutive kills add more stacks to the Killing Spree for a maximum of 5 stacks (skulls).

Failing to land a killing blow decreases the current stack of Killing Spree by 1.

The maximum number of stacks can be increased through newly added events or region modifiers.

Each kill from a melee or ranged attack grants an additional +1 XP per stack.

The bonus stack XP can also be increased from newly added events or region modifiers.

For example, 8 stacks of Killing Spree with an increased XP bonus of 2XP per stack would
grant each merc a +16 XP bonus to all their consecutive kills.

Unlock new achievements from landing killing blows while on a Killing Spree.

NEW TACTICIAN CHARACTER

A new Tactician merc, voiced by our regular contributor Immortal George.

This merc is selected on the bonus character selection screen.

There are now 3 playable Tactician mercs in the game.

Immortal George's YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@ImmortalGeorgeGaming

NEW WEAPONS

New unique weapons for you to find.

NEW REVENANT ACCESSORY TYPE

Road sign shields can now be converted to an new Revenant accessory through the regular card upgrade interface.



The new accessories are visible while equipped on Revenant mercs. A total of 25 new road sign shield accessories were added.

NEW GADGET - RESTING MERCS GAIN XP!

A very frequent request in 2022 was to allow resting mercs (not in mission squad) to continue gaining XP. A new gadget has been added to use on mercs you decide to leave in camp.

50 SAVE SLOTS

The manual save slot limit has been increased from 10 to 50 slots, now displayed on 5 pages.

SYSTEM INDEPENDENT SETTINGS

Game settings are now tied to individual computers and should no longer overwrite from Steam Cloud.
This does not affect your saved games which are still backed up to Steam Cloud. This is useful if you play Dead Grid on multiple computers with different resolutions and audio settings.

FULL PATCH NOTES - EA 0.4.47

GAME SETTINGS - HARDWARE SUPPORT

Additional support for new resolutions including 16:10 and 21:9 aspect ratios.

Added controller support.

Added support for Steam Deck.

Added a 40 FPS option, recommended for slower GPUs, try this before dropping to 30fps.

GAME SETTINGS - QUALITY OF LIFE OPTIONS

Increased UI size, useful when running the game on smaller screens.

In-combat card details can be positioned next to the hovered over card or statically on the side of the screen.

In-combat card details can now be vertically re-positioned using the mouse wheel or controller.

In-combat card details can now be configured to display in different sizes.

In-combat card details no longer show 2 different views of stats, a single page lists everything.

Mouse button 4 (side button) can be disabled from ending turn.

Mouse wheel button can be used to toggle in-combat card details.

Mouse double-left click can be used to toggle weapons, useful for touch devices with no right click.

Mouse double-left click can be used to auto-attack the the lowest HP enemy or remove a random corpse.

Mouse single click on enemy, followed by a click on target can be used to attack without dragging.

Keyboard hotkey 'w' to attack a lowest hp enemy or remove body without dragging to attack.

Improved keyboard hotkey reference, displayed in Game Settings.

GAME SETTINGS - SAVE OPTIONS

Game settings are now tied to individual computers and should not be overwritten by Steam Cloud.

Expanded the number custom save slots from 10 to 50, appearing across 5 pages.

CAMP - GENERAL

Added a new way to select available missions, displayed on a list while using a controller.

Improved the region title screen (hover over at the top of the region map).

CAMP - GEAR MANAGEMENT

Added a sort by 'Item Level' option.

Added a sort by 'Damage' option.

Removed sort by 'Type' which displayed incorrect results.

Added a larger view of card details, toggled by keyboard key 'C' or controller butting 'Y'.

Added a minor visual effect when changing focus between cards and gear slots.

GAME BALANCE AND SKILL CHANGES

Rebalanced Tactician's skill Pyrology to deal +15% burn damage (from +10%) and increase chance to explode from 20% to 30% HP.

Greatly increased the HP of boss minions on the Apocalypse difficulty, by about 2x. This decision was based on frequently gathered feedback from Apocalypse mode players. There are still many ways to deal with these enemies and I'll be closely monitoring the feedback.

Reduced the cost of stashing any card in hand to 1 AP.

The first tutorial mission now teaches the player how to draw picked up ammo into hand.

NEW CARDS

New gadget 'Target Practice' to allow non-Revenant mercs to gain XP while resting in camp. This gadget drops from mission rewards or sold by the trader and contains up grades.

Road side shields can be upgraded into a Revenant specific accessory through the Gear Upgrade interface.

25 new shield accessories for the Revenant class, crafted from the roadsign shields.

16 new assault rifles

5 new sniper rifles

NEW FEATURE - CHALLENGES

Challenges are accessed from the main menu of the game.

Challenges require you to start a new game, bypassing the first tutorial mission.

Each challenge comes with different rules and can be repeated with higher difficulty.

Content update 04 launches with 3 challenge modes with more to be added in a later patch.

NEW FEATURE - LEADERBOARDS

Each completed challenge submits a score to a challenge associated leaderboard.

Leaderboard ranking and scores can be viewed from any challenge.

Submitting score to the leaderboard can be disabled in Game Settings

Game

NEW FEATURE - KILLING SPREE

Performing consecutive kills from a single or multiple attacks in a row starts a Killing Spree.

Active Killing Spree is shown at the bottom left corner of the play board.

Further consecutive kills add more stacks to the Killing Spree for a maximum of 5 stacks (skulls).

Failing to land a killing blow decreases the current stack of Killing Spree by 1.

The maximum number of stacks can be increased through newly added events or region modifiers.

Each kill from a melee or ranged attack grants an additional +1 XP per stack.

The bonus stack XP can also be increased from newly added events or region modifiers.

For example, 8 stacks of Killing Spree with an increased XP bonus of 2XP per stack would grant each merc a +16 XP bonus to all their consecutive kills.

Unlock new achievements from landing killing blows while on a Killing Spree.

NEW TACTICIAN MERC

Added a new bonus Tactician merc, voiced by a regular contributor Immortal George.

FAME

Added 30 new Steam achievements.

BUG FIXES

Accessory Swat Helmet can be upgraded from Exceptional to Unique. This was not intentional, so the upgrade option is removed. Previously upgraded due to this bug items have been converted to Exceptional.

Completing missions sometimes did not reduce the difficulty of its indicated near-by location.

Revenant Left/Right hand training options were reversed.

Accessory Walkie Talkie equipped on a Revenant merc is not reducing card AP to 0 when drawn in hand. Note: This only affected Revenant mercs.

Fixed INVALID CARD MOD error on area object Sad Ending, found at location PVS Express.

Fixed camp trader buy and sell greeting messages being reversed.

Fixed long merc names overlapping when shown in Skills interface.

Fixed incorrect merc emote when getting a food item buff while already full on HP.

Fixed various achievement (Fame) typos, reported by players.

Minion hp occasionally goes over their max HP.

Fixed sound of targeting cards in combat, should be different from regular hover over sound.

Enemy minions occasionally spawn after the area is cleared, usually triggered by the Rise Again status.

Renamed unique heavy pipe Tremor due to a name conflict.

Fine-tuned MG upgrades to a unique should be exceptional (purple).

[*] All upgraded accessory Wrist Watch cards show incorrect XP bonus.


Please post your issues and suggestions in Discord or the forums. Thank you!

--Paul

Dead Grid Discord