This update contains a big polish pass on the visuals of the Control Tower enemies in the game. The towers are now bigger, more imposing and now have custom attack animations when they activate to emphasise their effect on the battle. I also updated some of the audio to better align with the new animations. They all now more interesting names, that align with their attack style in gameplay.

In terms of the gameplay, this update introduces a new Control Tower, the Terraformer. This towers when it activates adds new special tiles around the player, forcing you into more difficult choices and encouraging faster play to avoid the hazards it is creating. I've also added a new cooldown mod that is installable on all tech, First Kill Recharge. This mod will reduce the cooldown of the assign tech after the first kill you make every turn. Some changes I've made have been to buff all cooldown mods so they reduce cooldowns by larger amounts when activates.

More broadly on the project I'm continuing to work on the co-pilots feature behind the scenes as well as some more gameplay additions for the next update (including some new tech!).

My regular update request for players of Vactics are:

1. If you are enjoying the game, please leave a Steam review. They are helpful for Steam to inform people about the game and for new players to see if this is the kind of game they might enjoy as well.
   
2. Tell a friend and tell some strangers. Word of mouth is the main way I have for Vactics to find people who might enjoy the game. If you do share the game, let me know as well. I'd love to be able to answer any questions folks might have about it.
   
3. If you have any things that aren't working for you, please make a post on the forum or use the in-game feedback button. People who get in touch in these ways have really helped me improve Vactics.

Thank you as always for playing Vactics and leaving your feedback. I'm really enjoying being able to regularly improve the game with new updates for you all.

Finally, please note: I'll be raising the purchase price of the game with the release of the next update to reflect all the improvements to the game that have been made. This will be the last two week period to pick up that game at its current Early Access price.

Cheers,
Gerard / The Lemur Conspiracy

Client Versions

Early Access: #0.400.4156
Demo: #0.400.4156

Changes

• Achievements: updated 7 achievements with new custom icons.
  
• Art: Cloner Enemy - added updated versions of the depleted art frames.
  
• Art: Magnet - added updated idle and activation frames to the in-game magnet.
  
• Art: updated the cooldown frames on all enemies to use more passive coloring.
  
• Audio: added custom spawning sounds when Buffer enemy changes into an aggressive enemy.
  
• Audio: added new audio for the magnet to match updated art.
  
• Audio: added some new audio to the control towers to match the updated animations.
  
• Control Towers - full change of their visuals and animations to make them more imposing and have custom animations when they are activated during gameplay.
  
• Control Towers - updated the names of all the towers to be more impressive to match their updated art.
  
• FX: added some polish to mech and enemy dash moves.
  
• Gameplay Balance: buffed all the cooldown mods increasing the number of turns restored when they activate.
  
• Gameplay Balance: the permanent hack skill now no longer affects magnets, laser walls and grenades.
  
• Gameplay: Added new Control Tower to the game - tower introduces special tiles to the level around the mech.
  
• Gameplay: added new tech mod First Kill Recharge that reduces the assigned tech cooldown after the first player kill each turn.
  
• UI: refreshed all tutorial and intro popups to use new enemy art.
  
• UI: updated close button and arrow UI elements with new custom sprites.

Bugfixes

• Fixed assorted color swapping issues in the game UI.
  
• Fixed issue where hover popups would show while animations were running on the campaign map.
  
• Fixed issue where you could open the City wide escalation menu while the loadout panel was still animating.
  
• Gameplay: fixed problem where scanning a special tile when a tech is active does not clear the map overlay elements.

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