I thought I'd start this release write up with my regular requests:

1. If you are enjoying the game, leaving a Steam review really helps me. They assist Steam as well to inform people about that Vactics is a 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. Please share widely.
   
3. I want to know if something is not quite right with the game. 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.

"Sensation" is the name of this Early Access update for Vactics. The most noticeable changes in this release are some visual updates. Athena continues to do a great job with the art in both these cases. There are some new cutscenes for the game and more improvements to existing cutscenes as well. I won't spoil them but they really improve the moments in the game where they appear. The loadout screens have also been updated and better communicate a sense of place and progression as you move through a run. .

The second set of changes this update have been to game balance. The Daily District challenge has been balanced to increase difficulty and restrict players to a single attempt. I wanted to add some more stakes to each daily run and I'm hoping this achieves that for you all. I've also begun the process of a polishing and improving the Arcane Cores feature in the game. The plan for Arcane Cores is to give them a bigger impact on runs and these are some small steps in that direction. For now, you can only equip a single core at a time and that some cores have been removed from the game for balancing reasons. There will be more changes to Arcane Cores in update #12.

Thank you as always for playing Vactics and leaving feedback.

Cheers,
Gerard / The Lemur Conspiracy

Client Versions

Early Access: #0.500.4559
Demo: #0.400.4415

### Changes

Animation - added progression animations for the mech that show between levels to indicate how far through a district the player is.

Animation - polished the movement into position of district tiles on the Campaign Map to make them feel more chunky.

Game Balance - Arcane Cores - Removed some cores from the game.

Game Balance - Arcane Cores - The mech can now only hold one core at a time. Select a new core will replace the existing assignment.

Game Balance - Daily District - Players are now restricted to a single attempt at the Daily District per day.

Game Balance - Daily District - Re-balanced random generation for the challenge to make it harder for the player.

Game Balance - Grappler Vactics now act much sooner in the turn order than other enemy types.

Story - added 3 new cutscenes that show when a run is failed.

Story - added a new story cutscene to the campaign.

Story - more polish applied to the games intro cutscene.

UI - The loadout screen now shows your current co-pilot and their available perks. This is in preparation for the future addition of other co-pilots to the game

UI - tweaked the text in cutscenes so it no longer sets the label to use italics.

UI - update the layout and art used for the mech loadout, upgrade and inventory screens with new art.

### Bugfixes

[*] Input - fixed bug where some keyboard inputs were no longer working during gameplay.