The "Opening Salvo" update is named after its most noticeable change, the first pass on the new title screen for the game. It still has some polish passes left to go but it was in a good enough place to get put into the game for folks to check out. I'm really excited for what it does for the game in terms of setting the tone for people when they load in. The other visual improvement made in this release are the new borders that exist around the levels, which really go a long way to giving focus to the gameplay on screen and, like the building animations, add more character to the areas you are in.


The other changes in this update were aimed at polishing the content release in update #7. To that end I've made a bunch of small balance changes, bug fixes and added 8 new achievements to the game as well.

As always:

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. Especially right now, when the game is at the lowest price it might ever be.
   
3. If you have any things that aren't working for you, I want to hear from you. Make a forum post or use the in-game feedback button and tell you me your thoughts. People who get in touch in these ways have really helped me improve Vactics.

Thank you as always for playing Vactics and leaving feedback.

Please note: The price increase I have previously mentioned will be happening before update #9.

Cheers,
Gerard / The Lemur Conspiracy

Client Versions

Early Access: #0.400.4340
Demo: #0.400.4340

Changes

• Achievements: Added 8 new achievements to the game, 6 of those being for the new Recharge Drone and Sweeper Tech.
  
• Art: Added new border art to level tiles, with variations for the different districts in the game world.
  
• Art: Added new icon for the enemy turn order popups to indicate when an enemy has already acted that turn and is exlucded for the current order calculation.
  
• Art: Added new splash screen art to the main menu.
  
• Art: tweaking the animation speed on the tiles used in the end game district.
  
• Game Balance: Added a second trigger to unlock the Arcane Cores in the game. The cores will now be unlocked if you have completed a successful run in addition to the previous trigger of unlocking all available mech tech.
  
• Game Balance: updated logic on the bomb enemies so that they will be activated if the player places a decoy on them directly.
  
• UI: removed some unused buttons from the main menu screen.
  
• UI: tweaked some text sizings on the loadout and upgrade screens.
  
• UI: updated the achievement popup UI to show the title of the unlocked achievement only and the description if the user hovers their cursor over the popup.

Bugfixes

• Fixed bug where buffer enemies would not move after activating a shield for the first time.
  
• Fixed bug where sweeper would not face the correct direction when spawned into the level.
  
• Fixed bug where the Comeback achievement was triggering in cases where the player had not fulfilled it's requirements.
  
• Fixed bug where the counter would not update properly for some Arcane Cores when they were triggered.
  
• Fixed bug where the player would not trigger the victory condition if they were pulled onto the victory tile by a Grappling Hook enemy.
  

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