Incursion: Reforged update for 19 August 2022

Watch the new Reforged trailer, then read on!

Attention Republic soldiers,
I'm thrilled to be launching the Reforged Update as part of Incursion Early Access. It's time to kill some zombies in HD! In the last update I said "most of the things that needed to get done are now done". Well over a month later working many late nights on the game to the last minute proved me wrong.

Incursion Reforged is more than just an update, it's so much of an overhaul I decided to rename the game after it, separating it from everything that came before and everything yet to come. There's so much added, so much changed, so lets just jump right into it.

Graphics Overhaul

This update means Incursion is now running on Unity's High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP). That means in-particular big improvements to the lighting and post-processing. Its also enabled the game to support many new amazing art assets for the weapons and maps.

4 Brand New Maps

With this graphics overhaul means deprecating the old maps and adding all-new ones for you to play on. All the old maps were made using primitive level geo with textures. The big change for this update was to have all maps be made by the artist who created the assets used. This means the levels added fully utilize the artists vision and creativity, and thanks to HDRP, can display with higher graphical fidelity than before.

Oh, and every map now features a short introduction cutscene explaining why you're there.

More New Content

Reworked big parts of the main menu

It seemed good at the time but when put side-by-side to the new main menu, the old one seems so flat by comparison!

Added Dynamic Crosshairs

Crosshairs now react to player movement (Idle, Walking, Running, In-Air) to show you how these will effect your weapons accuracy.

New Level-Based Tutorial

You can now access a level-based tutorial with the main menu "How to play" button. This offers a much better way to teach you how to play the game (replacing the old text-only tutorial).

The "Last Stand" Gamemode

No building allowed. You must run around the map to find the shops, surviving enough rounds to get to evac. A faster-paced & more action-packed gamemode.

And More

Weapons have received a total overhaul with all-new weapons with all-new stats. Along with this are all-new classes (Read below about the class overhaul!). And lets not forget, the newest members of the enemy group: the crawler & the runner!

Big Changes To Gameplay

Mid-Match Progression

The Problem? With the old mid-match progression, there wasn't really any player choice. There were weapon upgrades you worked toward and would always get in the same order.
The Solution? Now there are 3 weapon shops (Light, Heavy, and Special) allowing players a larger variety of ways to play. Players can now freely choose their weapons regardless of class, to get the weapons in the order of their choosing, and unlocking the ability for players to equip primary or secondary weapons in either their first or second slot, allowing for any weapon combinations you want.

Classes Overhaul

The Problem? Classes felt repetitive.
The Solution? Make classes their abilities rather than their weapons. The big up-side to this is unlocking player choice. Players are no longer stuck having to play with the same weapons for the entire match and are instead free to create the loadout of their choosing over the course of the match. Class abilities now and in the future are also intended to be even more powerful.

Out-of-Match Progression

The Problem? A lack of meaningful goals to reach toward between matches. The idea of weapons as being solely side-grades meant that if in-theory class weapons were all just as good but different, there wasn't much incentive to try and unlock them.
The Problem? XP was earned toward the class you played so switching class meant essentially starting over all your progress.
The Solution? With classes being their abilities instead of their weapons, loadouts were removed entirely. XP is now a global value that can be earned by any class. And perks have been added which allow you to buy & equip buffs (or debuffs if you want to make the game harder on yourself) that are automatically applied once you get in-game. You can equip more perks by unlocking perk slots. Perk slots can be unlocked by completing challenges (shown on the perk shop screen).

Perk Levels

With perks being added so too a proper leveling system was added called your "Perk Level". Your perk level just represents how powerful the perks you have equipped are (and therefore, how powerful you are).

So a Damage 1 perk (10) equipped and a Silver Skin (2) perk would give me a perk level of 12.

Difficulties are now also much harder, requiring a higher perk level to pull off. For example, Veteran difficulty is recommended for perk level 30 whereas Heart Bleed recommends perk level 50 or higher. It was important for me that any leveling system like this also let you play as a lower level so that you can play with friends or others without making the game too easy for yourself or them. So to play with a friend, simply equip less perks until you're around their difficulties recommended perk level.

Weapon Changes

• Accuracy: Weapons now take into consideration movement when calculating their max spray. Standing still, walking, running, or jumping will now all effect how accurate your shots are.
• Ammo: Weapons now have stored ammo that can purchased at an ammo refill station.

Remaining Changelog

With all of the big stuff out of the way, here are some of the other changes that have been made as well.
(Not all changes are listed, just the ones I remembered to write down lol)

Added

• Added: 9 new achievements
• -> "Barely Functional Certificate!" (Complete the tutorial)
• -> "So Hardcore!" (Beat any gamemode with the hardcore perk equipped)
• -> "Time For An Upgrade" (Unlock a perk slot by completing a perk slot challenge)
• -> "Level Up" (Equip your first perk)
• -> "Advancing Ranks" (Have your total perk level be 20 or higher)
• -> "Wanted Poster" (Find the wanted poster)
• -> "Moon Vacation" (Find the Moon Base 18 Post Card)
• -> "One Small Step For Blake" (Find the Deep Space planet poster)
• -> "War Got Cancelled?!" (Find the King & Country poster)
• Added: Health bar to enemies
• Added: Difficulty XP bonus
• Added: Multiple main menu music
• Added: UI Ultrawide (21:9 aspect ratio) support
• Added: More audio volume settings (Music, Main Menu, UI)
• Added: Toggle UI on/off using F3 (experimental)

Changed

• Changed: Starting a singleplayer game no longer uses the multiplayer server/lobby UI and instead lets you select a gamemode, map, class and then start right away
• Changed: Red vignette around screen now pops in fully when taking damage
• Changed: Improved & made more minimalistic the in-game UI
• Changed: Player flashlights are now attached to your weapon
• Changed: Player flashlights are now networked so other players can see when you have it on
• Changed: Old game chat now clears when connecting to a new game

Fixed

• Fixed: Exploit where users could give the server a fake Steam ID, which just allowed them to use another player's name in-game
• Fixed: The game end screen disappearing & the "lost connection" screen appearing if the host disconnects before other players have finished looking at it
• Fixed: High ping players being sometimes unable to guarantee the "Loaded into map" status with the server. This would cause those players to always show as still loading on the waiting for players screen
• Fixed: The auto turret sometimes not detecting enemies when it should
• Fixed: Save data (player progress) sometimes not saving when exiting application (Save data is now saved when manipulated rather than on application quit)
• Fixed: Impact grenade not rewarding the player any currency when getting kills
• Fixed: Impact grenade not showing damage text

Removed

• Removed: Heartbeat sound when low on health
• Removed: Requirement that all players play a different class to start in multiplayer

Summary

Overall, the Reforged Update was a massive undertaking but well worth it. I never expected to be doing such hard work (Essentially, a reboot!) after the game had already released but it meant a lot to me that this game be closer to what I knew it could be.

I hope everyone enjoys it and sees it as a big improvement. If you ever want to play on the old version of the game you can opt into a beta branch called "classic".

As for my plans for the future, I plan on releasing within the next couple of weeks a roadmap which will be all the planned future development. Overall, I want to continue to add to & polish the game at a more sustainable rate (No more reboots lol) so that I might get it to full-release. This update was definitely a gigantic step in that direction.

If you have any comments about the update, or things I should add in the future, please let me know!

Your Commanding Officer,
Blake Gillman

(Oh, and as always) Join the Discord