This update was a bit smaller than the previous releases due to me losing the first week of this fortnight to resting while I had COVID-19. I'm still very happy with the improvements and changes to the game and I hope they are helping to make the game enjoyable for more players.

The biggest changes in this release include giving the player the ability to view and modify the generation seed for the run. I also made improvements to UI screens to improve clarity and give players more information. Finally a pass on the late game sequence has improved the flow of it all and better communicate that the game does support endless play if you choose to destroy the victory tiles.

Once again, if you are playing Vactics and have spare time I have a couple of requests:

1. Tell your friends and also tell some strangers. Word of mouth is the main way that I have for Vactics to find people who might enjoy the game.
   
2. If you are enjoying the game, leave a review. These are really helpful for letting Steam inform other players that Vactics is cool as well.
   
3. If you have any things that aren't working for you, make a post on the forum or use the in-game feedback button. These pathways have helped me make big improvements and fix some bugs this release so I do keep an eye on them.
   

As always thanks to everyone who has been playing, giving feedback, reporting bugs and leaving reviews. I really do appreciate it.

Cheers,
Gerard / The Lemur Conspiracy

Client Versions

Early Access: #0.300.3827
Demo: #0.300.3827

Changes

• Achievements: Added a new achievement.
  
• Gameplay Balance: updated the behaviour of dash and ranged enemies when targeted by the Hack tech. They now will only be valid hack targets if they are able to attack another enemy rather than previous behaviour that allowed random attack directions as well.
  
• Gameplay: added ability to view and modify the seed being used for generation in the campaign in the loadout screen
  
• Gameplay: added the ability to scan mainframe tiles in levels to learn more about how they work.
  
• Gameplay: added the ability to scan specials tiles in levels to learn more about how they work.
  
• Gameplay: changed the gameplay flow for the Victory condition for the game. Destroying all enemies in a level which has a mainframe / victory tile will no cause the level to be "completed" allowing the player the option to choose to enter the mainframe tile or destroy it to start endless mode.
  
• Score: if above zero, the mech power level is now added to the final score for campaign and daily runs.
  
• Tutorials: added a new tutorial popup for the mainframe tiles that explains how they work in the context of them actually showing up in a level.
  
• Tutorials: improved the wording of the tutorial popups that describe the end of the run and victory conditions.
  
• UI: added new achievement popup that shows when the player gains their achievements. This replaces the achievements shown on the game over sequence and hopefully gives better context to when they are gained by the player.
  
• UI: added research progress bar to the loadout screen for campaign runs.
  
• UI: refreshed a number of screens and moved some input shortcuts to positions that related better to the area of the UI they were related to.
  
• UI: removed mech animation that would run when backing out of the Daily District loadout screen.
  
• UI: updated cooldown message logic so that a different message will show for Control Towers that is less confusing.
  
• UI: updated the messages shown on the game over screen to increase their variety from run to run.
  
• Writing: re-wrote descriptions for some tech, tech mods and cores to better describe their behaviours.

Bugfixes

• Fixed issue on some special tiles that would flash them a solid colour during an explosion.
  
• Fixed issue where enemy behaviour was not consistent when a decoy was in their line of sight. Now they should always attack the decoy instead of the player if possible.
  
• Fixed issue where the ranged enemy bullets would not be cleaned up at the right time if a defence mode effect was being activated.
  
• Fixed issue where the ranged enemy would be showing the attack warning visuals when the player was in an adjacent tile and an attack was not going to happen.
  
• Fixed rare issue with grenades that would cause a small delay after they were thrown before the turn would progress.

Note: Any relevant fixes and improvements will also be in the updated client for the demo version of Vactics.