The "New Era" update is an exciting one. It is the first release of new mech tech into the game since Vactics entered early access. The Sweeper and the Battery Drone provide the mech with new ways to fight the Vactics and survive their attacks. The new tech will immediately appear as possible tech on the Daily District challenge mech, and will appear as unlockable tech through the normal pathway in the Save the City campaign.

I'm very excited to hear how they are received by players and how you might be able to break the game using them. Some of the work for the next release will be to polish these tech abilities, fix any bugs and also add some specific achievements for their use.

Alongside these two new gameplay additions, the update contains some nice visual polish to the in-game levels including new animations for fire and whirlpool tiles and some subtle animation touches to obstacles and buildings too. I'm really happy with how they are improving the overall feel and quality of the game.

As always:

• 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.

• 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.

• If you have any things that aren't working for you, I have many ways I can be contacted. Make a forum post 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 continuing to work at updates for you all.

Please note: I have decided not to progress with the previously announced price rise so folks who are on the fence still have time to pick up the game at it's current price. The reason for this is that I wanted to make sure the new gameplay features had at least one update worth of polish and also to give time for some new additions to the game to be completed.

Cheers,
Gerard / The Lemur Conspiracy

Client Versions

Early Access: #0.400.4261
Demo: #0.400.4261

Changes

• Art: Added animations to the buildings in the levels to give the areas a bit more life.

• Art: Added new animations for the fire tiles.

• Art: Added new animations for the whirlpool tiles.

• Art: Updated the art on the laser wall tech with a new polished version.

• Gameplay Balance: Hack tech cooldown reduced by 1 turn.

• Gameplay Balance: Reduced the density of buildings in the CBD district in the campaign.

• Gameplay: Updated logic for enemy descriptions so that their behaviour will show up if scanned on first turn of a level.

• Battery Drone Tech: Created new drone can that be placed on enemies in the level and will recharge the players power supply when the mech moves into a neighbouring tile. Added support for existing tech mods and created 2 new tech mods specificed to the Battery Drone.

• Sweeper Tech: Created the Creeper Tech type that allows player to spawn a turret into the levels that rotates and destroys anything around it. Added support for existing tech mods and created 2 new tech mods specific to the Sweeper.

• UI: Added new custom gamepad shortcut icons to the game.

• UI: tweaked the text animation speeds across the UI.

Bugfixes

• Cleaned up duplicate sound plays when Decoys were spawning into levels.

• Fixed a rare bug where players could show a negative score for a run on the game over screen.

• Fixed bug where description wouldn't fade down properly when closing the Inventory.

• Fixed bug where Transporter Control Tower would teleport enemies to the same tile.

• Fixed bug with the stats tracking that was not updating the statistics for certain tech use in the game.

• Fixed inaccurate description on the Time Bomb arcane core.

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