Finally back from my self-imposed holidays! Well, to be honest that was a while ago, but I've been too lazy to post my compiled changes (what a surprise)...

Unlike previous times, nothing too impressive here, just a lot of smoothing, tightening of certain screws, fat trimming, and whatnot. And by that I mean polishing, major fixes, and the trimming of certain dialogue to make the tutorial a bit less overwhelming, and at the time faster to convey important info (as details are already covered by our recently added Guide Menu).

CHANGES

• Brand new Intro Screen!

  

• Major Bugfixes - Of all kinds really (list would be too long to include here), most of them visual/non-game-breaking, but a few rare crashes were fixed nonetheless (especially regarding the multithreading)... All known memory leaks are now gone as well.

• Text Improvements - Tons of rewrites, trimming, and more... Mostly to dialogue, but also to a few UI components.

• Improvements to the Latest Features - Guide, Unit Modifiers, and much much more. They're now officially 100% finished!

• Art Reworks - Shields (small and big variants now), Stat Icons, UI art improvements, etc.

• New SFX - To the Corruptor Enemy, Crimson Moon, Ascension Core/mechanic, and Capture mechanic.

• Pause Info Improvements (and fixes) - New info conveyed on pause menu (based on user feedback): Waves until Airdrops. Plus major reworks/fixes to other existing counters (which has also lead me to rework day/night cycle in-game logic for certain quite specific interactions).

• Optimizations - To Saving, Multithreading, visuals, ...

• Major AI Improvements - To Territorial Units (mostly Apex Enemies, but exclusive to them)... They're a lot more efficient at wandering around while hunting for Units now.

• Countless UX & Balance Improvements!

As stated previously, all features are in! So it's just polish now indeed. I'm still addressing suggestions and feedback as always though, so feel free to give your thoughts down below!

As always, most of the feedback gathered and addressed from our Reddit.

Feedback Form[forms.gle]

Discord Server (Dev Updates)[discord.gg]

- the_procrastinator

Due to some annoying real-life stuff, I'm late again (sorry). But on the other hand, this is likely the biggest recent Update mechanics-wise! After getting a bit of a new wave of feedback these last weeks, I've been able to pinpoint and better examine many of the cruxes that've been making the early UX of Endless Tactics "boring", or not engaging enough to keep players hooked.

... To start with, many balance adjustments have been made to give further emphasis on the "tactics" part of the experience - tougher choices, and more impactful decisions from the getgo; besides that, I've also added a brand new mechanic, Unit Modifiers (which is also a core part of the early game btw), and I'll expand upon it right below:

CHANGES

• UNIT MODIFIERS - And finally, a brand new core-gameplay-mechanic (been a while since the last of these)! Unit Modifiers are essentially "rolls" for Units. Both for Player's (via Airdrops), and Enemies' (odds increased by Escalation). Whenever a Unit gets blessed (or not) by the RNG, it'll have ONE of its Stats permutated with another - such trade will occur to varying degrees (classified by a "rarities"-like system), whereas one Stat will be benefited, and the other will be detracted from (with dynamic weights and values to each). For example, a Unit with the \[ EXTRA CHARGED ] title will be granted more Damage in tradeoff say Health (+3 Damage, -3 Health, for example). As a bonus, Units affected by this will also have entirely unique (and dynamic) visuals!

  

• GUIDE - As (hopefully) the final nail into the tutorial-stage of Endless Tactics, the Guide is a mini-encyclopedia that retains ALL crucial data and info displayed through the very first Dialogue blocks of the Trial Run (plus certain one-shot Dialogue to explain mechanics like Weather Events and alike). There you'll be able to browser through every single aspect of the game, and even get hints to certain secret interactions. Whenever seeing a tutorial Dialogue for the first time, you'll be prompted to check its Guide entry, and you'll be also able to reset said Dialogue over there (aka trigger it again on next playthrough)... All of this directly answering a good deal of player-feedback I've been getting the last months, so I tried to make it as integrated and as encapsulating as possible to the current beginner UX. Viewable both in the Main and Pause menu, for your convenience.

  

• NEW UPGRADES/ARTIFACTS - Plenty of new Artifacts related to the recently added mechanics, and an Upgrade that controls how many Airdrop Slots with Unit Modifiers you'll get at every Reroll! (by default, only 1 Airdrops Slot is granted to pop up with a Unit Modifier).

• ITCH.IO RELEASE - As we've just reached Pre-Release status (as can be seen above), the Itch.io version is finally in! HERE IT IS[dead-battery-games.itch.io] - Will be constantly updated, just like the Steam version, and will also come with a free BETA TEST key (that grants you permanent access to the game) so you can also play the Steam full version right now if you buy it!

• NEW ART - New Icons, Shield sprites, and more!

• TONS OF BUGFIXES! - Crash fixes, dialogue-related fixes, UI-related fixes, etc...

• MAJOR QOL - New more intuitive way to skip Trial Run (aka tutorial-run), new Assist Option related to Unit Modifiers, better scroll-bars, WIP Language prompts, etc...

• MAJOR BALANCE CHANGES - Tons of Enemy Scaling and Stats related changes, alongside the inclusion of Unit Modifiers for Enemies as stated above. Operations should be a lot more intense from the getgo, but not unfairly so, as both this and other patches have been giving the Player a lot more tools and options to efficiently dispose of them... So this was mostly just me evening out the playing field.

• DIALOGUE CHANGES - Several improvements/fixes to previous Dialogue text, and a few new entries added as well.

• And much more!

We also just wrapped up our Artifact Anomalies giveaway contest a while ago, by the way (Suggest your Artifact Anomaly! (earn Steam Keys for the first 50 suggestions!) :: Endless Tactics Events & Announcements). Couldn't be more satisfied with just how many of you participated, and thanks for the input, everyone! Will surely be doing more contests like this in the near future, so stay tuned!

As always, most of the feedback gathered and addressed from our Reddit.

Feedback Form[forms.gle]

Discord Server (Dev Updates)[discord.gg]

- the_procrastinator