This patch marks a milestone, of a sorts. The campaign is finally complete! I will probably be tweaking missions all the way up to release, but nothing too drastic. I hope that all of you check out the final mission and let me know what you think of it.

Since I finished the bulk of the level design, I had time to do some fixes and improvements on the game. Small things that you've been asking for and were bugging me - this patch has a bunch of them

Here are the changes for version 0.79:

• Added final campaign mission
  
• Added endgame slideshow epilogue
  
• Changed Virulence mutation to send clone strike teams; renamed to "Hunters"
  
• Mutation icons are now different for each mutation
  
• Took out shield bullet reflection and ai hesitation to shoot at shields
  
• Added Terminus mode to custom skirmish
  
• Added malicious mutations mode to custom skirmish settings

• Necrophage mutation now only works on player marines
  
• Gave fusion shotguns a knockback
  
• Reworked the way knockback works slightly
  
• Made special attacks be cancelled if the mutation is disabled
  
• Made marines in protect mode counter-attack when hurt
  
• Made it harder to kill bunkers in mission 8 with scouts
  
• Added script short-circuiting to weapons tutorial
  
• Added another way to recycle (through weapon menu) to weapons tutorial
  
• Combat tutorial now has a "how to spawn marines" section
  
  
• Made the marine tab ui expandable
  
• Added item cost to its title on build menu
  
• Added exit button to main menu
  
• Added auto-login for last used profile
  
  
• Added fire puffs to burning human buildings
  
• Restored damage effects to prop structures
  
• Added blood puff impact to bullets
  
• Added blood puff velocity to create better aoe death animation
  
• Added swirling to most fire puffs

• Fixed "getting stuck in walls" issue
  
• Fixed recycle script bug in structures tutorial
  
• Fixed human path aborting if bumped into something (was breaking clone strike)
  
• Fixed some high resolution fullscreen ui issues
  
• Reworked entity shaders to use latest OpenGL standards
  
• Fixed issues if window size is different than the game asked for
  
• Made the directional formation move less sensitive

• Revised hive boss god mode
  
• Added ability to load extra lua scripts; now used for hunters mutation
  
• Updated ui text for virulence mutation to new hunters text
  
• Updated ui text for minigun and reinforcements tech
  
• Made weapon crate give more detailed info notice
  
• Changed title of shotgun class from "FUSION" to "SHOTGUN"
  
• Added "marine cost" note to that ui element
  
• Made mouse grab sensitive to window focus
  
• Added 4 more mutation spaces to the UI
  
• Made text fields in main and profile menus clear when first key is pressed
  
• Added username back to main menu and made the game title slide in
  
• Disabled profiler in release mode

This patch marks a milestone, of a sorts. The campaign is finally complete! I will probably be tweaking missions all the way up to release, but nothing too drastic. I hope that all of you check out the final mission and let me know what you think of it.

Since I finished the bulk of the level design, I had time to do some fixes and improvements on the game. Small things that you've been asking for and were bugging me - this patch has a bunch of them

Here are the changes for version 0.79:

• Added final campaign mission
  
• Added endgame slideshow epilogue
  
• Changed Virulence mutation to send clone strike teams; renamed to "Hunters"
  
• Mutation icons are now different for each mutation
  
• Took out shield bullet reflection and ai hesitation to shoot at shields
  
• Added Terminus mode to custom skirmish
  
• Added malicious mutations mode to custom skirmish settings

• Necrophage mutation now only works on player marines
  
• Gave fusion shotguns a knockback
  
• Reworked the way knockback works slightly
  
• Made special attacks be cancelled if the mutation is disabled
  
• Made marines in protect mode counter-attack when hurt
  
• Made it harder to kill bunkers in mission 8 with scouts
  
• Added script short-circuiting to weapons tutorial
  
• Added another way to recycle (through weapon menu) to weapons tutorial
  
• Combat tutorial now has a "how to spawn marines" section
  
  
• Made the marine tab ui expandable
  
• Added item cost to its title on build menu
  
• Added exit button to main menu
  
• Added auto-login for last used profile
  
  
• Added fire puffs to burning human buildings
  
• Restored damage effects to prop structures
  
• Added blood puff impact to bullets
  
• Added blood puff velocity to create better aoe death animation
  
• Added swirling to most fire puffs

• Fixed "getting stuck in walls" issue
  
• Fixed recycle script bug in structures tutorial
  
• Fixed human path aborting if bumped into something (was breaking clone strike)
  
• Fixed some high resolution fullscreen ui issues
  
• Reworked entity shaders to use latest OpenGL standards
  
• Fixed issues if window size is different than the game asked for
  
• Made the directional formation move less sensitive

• Revised hive boss god mode
  
• Added ability to load extra lua scripts; now used for hunters mutation
  
• Updated ui text for virulence mutation to new hunters text
  
• Updated ui text for minigun and reinforcements tech
  
• Made weapon crate give more detailed info notice
  
• Changed title of shotgun class from "FUSION" to "SHOTGUN"
  
• Added "marine cost" note to that ui element
  
• Made mouse grab sensitive to window focus
  
• Added 4 more mutation spaces to the UI
  
• Made text fields in main and profile menus clear when first key is pressed
  
• Added username back to main menu and made the game title slide in
  
• Disabled profiler in release mode

The second October update is larger than the previous one. I've been able to sneak in some improvements from the last mission of the campaign into the random game modes.


The campaign is almost complete and here is the next-to-last mission in it. In this one, you get to face off against someone you've seen before.

For this mission, I was inspired to ask what a MOBA would look like in Infested Planet. Both you and the aliens have 3 bunkers that are pumping out squads of marines and you have to tip the balance in your favour.

The result is a mission that feels quite different from the other ones. You're not as worried about protecting territory, because the marines can do a decent job of it themselves.


Some of you have asked for modes more difficult than The Abyss. I think that's rather insane, but who am I to argue?

I've been working on some AI for the final mission of the campaign. Normally the mutations are picked randomly. Well, I wrote something to have the aliens look at your build and pick the most evil mutations that exist for that build.

It's horrible, scary and unfair. When I plugged this mode into Abyss mode, I was able to complete half the map before the aliens stomped me. Yup, it's hard.

For those of you who think Abyss is a walk in the park, try the new Terminus difficulty. It's available after finishing Abyss or in the skirmish mode browser.


Most of the time I hear you talk about minigunners, you say that they're underpowered. I had a bit of think and I think that they could use a buff.

The first buff is that their shield allows them to survive even longer now - up to 75 seconds from 40.

The other change is that I changed the "BLAST" damage type to go through shields. This includes minigun bullets, the second part of the helicoper salvo and rockets.

This means that all of the things above can punch through the reflective shields. No more minigunners and clone minigunners standing there for half a minute shooting each other. This also means that you can nuke the clone minigunners with rockets if you have to.

• Lowered alien mine radius
  
• Added temporary shield to marines heli-dropped by "Reinforcements" tech
  
• Expanded mutation UI to handle more mutations
  
• Fixed objective typo in convoy mission
  
• Changed ammo belts not to be dropped or picked up by AI marines
  
• Made blast damage (rockets, minigun and helistrike) pierce shields
  
• Upped the resilience of minigun shields
  
• Fixed some human navigation bugs
  
• Reworked scripted marine god mode to be more reliable
  
• Blocked all tech effects for AI marines
  
• Changed marine assault mode behaviour (optimization)
  
• Changed prop building damage resistance (since it can be a target now)
  
• Fixed audio issue with lots of barriers being killed

The second October update is larger than the previous one. I've been able to sneak in some improvements from the last mission of the campaign into the random game modes.


The campaign is almost complete and here is the next-to-last mission in it. In this one, you get to face off against someone you've seen before.

For this mission, I was inspired to ask what a MOBA would look like in Infested Planet. Both you and the aliens have 3 bunkers that are pumping out squads of marines and you have to tip the balance in your favour.

The result is a mission that feels quite different from the other ones. You're not as worried about protecting territory, because the marines can do a decent job of it themselves.


Some of you have asked for modes more difficult than The Abyss. I think that's rather insane, but who am I to argue?

I've been working on some AI for the final mission of the campaign. Normally the mutations are picked randomly. Well, I wrote something to have the aliens look at your build and pick the most evil mutations that exist for that build.

It's horrible, scary and unfair. When I plugged this mode into Abyss mode, I was able to complete half the map before the aliens stomped me. Yup, it's hard.

For those of you who think Abyss is a walk in the park, try the new Terminus difficulty. It's available after finishing Abyss or in the skirmish mode browser.


Most of the time I hear you talk about minigunners, you say that they're underpowered. I had a bit of think and I think that they could use a buff.

The first buff is that their shield allows them to survive even longer now - up to 75 seconds from 40.

The other change is that I changed the "BLAST" damage type to go through shields. This includes minigun bullets, the second part of the helicoper salvo and rockets.

This means that all of the things above can punch through the reflective shields. No more minigunners and clone minigunners standing there for half a minute shooting each other. This also means that you can nuke the clone minigunners with rockets if you have to.

• Lowered alien mine radius
  
• Added temporary shield to marines heli-dropped by "Reinforcements" tech
  
• Expanded mutation UI to handle more mutations
  
• Fixed objective typo in convoy mission
  
• Changed ammo belts not to be dropped or picked up by AI marines
  
• Made blast damage (rockets, minigun and helistrike) pierce shields
  
• Upped the resilience of minigun shields
  
• Fixed some human navigation bugs
  
• Reworked scripted marine god mode to be more reliable
  
• Blocked all tech effects for AI marines
  
• Changed marine assault mode behaviour (optimization)
  
• Changed prop building damage resistance (since it can be a target now)
  
• Fixed audio issue with lots of barriers being killed

A new mission is out for Infested Planet in the first October update.


Remember how I said the last mission was the most scripting I ever did for Infested Planet? Well, Tension blows that out of the water.

This mission involves you and the aliens fighting over a pile of crates (remember the convoy mission?). I spent a lot of time programming the alien strike teams so that they would know what to do with the crates. They have to react to unexpected events, like you stealing a crate that the aliens were aiming for. I also added a new AI mode to marines that allow them to escort crate carriers.

The result is a tug of war between you and the alien team. You have to stop them from stealing your crates and tow your crates back to the base at the same time. Try the new mission out and see how you like it.


Since we are getting close to the end of the campaign, I went through the mission rewards and added some of the later technologies to the campaign missions. Previously, the only way to get them was to play the random missions, but now you'll unlock them if you finish the scripted missions as well.

A new mission is out for Infested Planet in the first October update.


Remember how I said the last mission was the most scripting I ever did for Infested Planet? Well, Tension blows that out of the water.

This mission involves you and the aliens fighting over a pile of crates (remember the convoy mission?). I spent a lot of time programming the alien strike teams so that they would know what to do with the crates. They have to react to unexpected events, like you stealing a crate that the aliens were aiming for. I also added a new AI mode to marines that allow them to escort crate carriers.

The result is a tug of war between you and the alien team. You have to stop them from stealing your crates and tow your crates back to the base at the same time. Try the new mission out and see how you like it.


Since we are getting close to the end of the campaign, I went through the mission rewards and added some of the later technologies to the campaign missions. Previously, the only way to get them was to play the random missions, but now you'll unlock them if you finish the scripted missions as well.

A new mission is out for Infested Planet in the second September update.


After the dramatic events of Memento Mori, you get to see both the Sarge and the Doctor on the battlefield in this mission.

Both of them have teams present on the map, doing their own thing. It's up to you to make sure that the aliens don't eat the characters.

This mission has been possibly the hardest to script so far, with a lot of custom code to get the AI teams to behave. Try it out and let me know what you think.

• New Icon for "Reinforcements" tech
  
• A bunch of work on another mission that wasn't finished enough to put in the patch

A new mission is out for Infested Planet in the second September update.


After the dramatic events of Memento Mori, you get to see both the Sarge and the Doctor on the battlefield in this mission.

Both of them have teams present on the map, doing their own thing. It's up to you to make sure that the aliens don't eat the characters.

This mission has been possibly the hardest to script so far, with a lot of custom code to get the AI teams to behave. Try it out and let me know what you think.

• New Icon for "Reinforcements" tech
  
• A bunch of work on another mission that wasn't finished enough to put in the patch

The first patch of September is here, bringing a new mission with it.


I'm very pleased with the newest addition to the campaign - the "Memento Mori" mission. How long can you hold out against the alien advance? Play this mission and find out.

A lot of players have asked for a survival-style mission. This mission adds something close to it, in scripted form. The experience from making and balancing it will help me to create a random survival mode, if I ever get to it.

A big thing has been finding a balance between the aliens steamrolling the player, and the marines getting a chance to counterattack. I'm pretty happy with the way it works in the new mission - dead hives drop BP crates!


I took a week to spend with people I love, so a lot of time was spent on looking adorable and silly. Still, I managed to squeeze some small, extra fixes into this patch.

• "Foundations" mission will ask you to recycle marines now. People were getting stuck on that, since the script didn't know about the new marine spawning
  
• Radial bars now fade to show gradations of progress and HP

The first patch of September is here, bringing a new mission with it.


I'm very pleased with the newest addition to the campaign - the "Memento Mori" mission. How long can you hold out against the alien advance? Play this mission and find out.

A lot of players have asked for a survival-style mission. This mission adds something close to it, in scripted form. The experience from making and balancing it will help me to create a random survival mode, if I ever get to it.

A big thing has been finding a balance between the aliens steamrolling the player, and the marines getting a chance to counterattack. I'm pretty happy with the way it works in the new mission - dead hives drop BP crates!


I took a week to spend with people I love, so a lot of time was spent on looking adorable and silly. Still, I managed to squeeze some small, extra fixes into this patch.

• "Foundations" mission will ask you to recycle marines now. People were getting stuck on that, since the script didn't know about the new marine spawning
  
• Radial bars now fade to show gradations of progress and HP