"Anticipation" is the name I landed on for this update as it is all about the polish that I am trying to put into the game. This changes in this release include UI animation polish added to a few screens across the game, even more video tutorials added and more VFX polish added too. The biggest change is the new in-game effects for player damage in the form of sparks and smoke. The mech now better shows you that things are not going well, and that you might need to start hitting your combos. For those who have already been playing the game you will also notice a bit of streamlining now where rather than going from the district to the map only to leave to pick your upgrades, you will go straight to the upgrades screen before returning to the map afterwards.

This is also the first update where changes will not appear in the demo for the game. I'm super proud of the fact that I've been able to keep the demo as up to date with some of the game polish as it has but moving forward I'm going to focus on making sure all the changes are working for the store version of the game as a priority as things are being added for the eventual 1.0 release. I may revisit the demo in the future to bring it up to the paid version of the game but for now it will stay as is.

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 people can find Vactics so please share widely.
   
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.

Cheers,
Gerard / The Lemur Conspiracy

Client Versions

Early Access: #0.500.4491
Demo: #0.400.4415

Changes

• Audio: the game will not play the input blocked sound if a popup is preventing player input from triggering logic.
  
• Gameplay: changed the game flow after completing a district. Players will now go straight to the salvage screen followed by the campaign map.
  
• Story: introduction now has more polished text and finalised art with full animations.
  
• Tutorials: updated 9 tutorials to now use gameplay video examples instead of animations.
  
• UI: polished some elements in the daily district leaderboard panel.
  
• UI: polished the campaign loadout panel with some new animations.
  
• UI: polished the campaign map panel with some new animations.
  
• UI: polished the layout and presentation of the cutscene presentations.
  
• UI: Updated some labels in the campaign loadout panel to better show the total score multiplier you get for having them enabled.
  
• VFX: added a new background effect to levels that triggers when a player gets a combo.
  
• VFX: The mech will have smoke and sparks shooting out when power levels are critical. The amount of smoke and sparks will be depend on how close to failing the mech is.

Bugfixes

• Gameplay - fixed bug that allowed the battery drone to be placed on top of grenades.
  
• Gameplay - fixed bug where Bomber Vactics would show their warning state when next to a mech in the fog, even when they were not about to explode.
  
• Gameplay - fixed visual bug where Laser Walls would stay with flipped colours after being hacked
  
• VFX - fixed the death animation on Shielder enemies moving around when they convert themselves to another Vactic type.