Jul 21, 2021

Sovereign's Will - [LT] Lesich

Hello to all of you who are waiting and hoping!

We're happy to announce that we're still alive and continuing to make the game despite all the hardships of indie development.

In parallel with the development of the main version of the game we decided to update the demo as well. We would like to report on the latest changes.

We completely rethought the first exposition events. Now you can learn more about the politics and religion of the game world from a special event, neatly woven into the overall story. However, if you want to go straight into the main events and gameplay, this particular event can be skipped freely. We'll be disappointed, but we understand.
The Codex has been updated with new articles on the political structure, history and religion of the Demesne — right down to the commandments and architectural features of the temples. Yes, we're really getting into it.
We developed an innovative system that allows you to freeze the state of the game world at any chosen point in time to randomly reproduce it at the player's command. Simply put, we now have a save and load.
A lot of small interface fixes: colors, borders, interposition of elements. The Fallen One is in the details.
Made a few improvements under the hood, which will allow more efficient creation of localizations (including fanmade).
Created pages on Facebook, Twitter and VKontakte. They can now be accessed via social links in the main menu.
Other little things that we ourselves have already forgotten.

Thank you very much for your support!

Jul 21, 2021

How to kick more robot butts & make your heroes stronger

Rise of Humanity - pristinamusic

Rise of Humanity is a fun but complex game. You build separate decks for four heroes, each of them having their own specific skills and cards (the Early Access version will have 119 cards in total!). Much like in RPGs, the characters interact with each other, they can improve their skills and become stronger by completing missions and battle goals. Check out this little overview to learn more about the skill trees you can develop for your heroes.

We have four heroes in our upcoming Early Access game, each with different strengths and specific powers:

Hunter is great in close combat with his melee attacks but he also has guns and explosives to fight enemies from a distance. He can slay robots with his Ice Axe or blow them up with his famous Exploding Bunny!
Su is a badass inventor with her own walkbot. She knows how to make bots and turn them against the enemy. Thanks to her incredible technical skills, she can deploy time bombs, turrets, and mobile mines to attack the enemies with. Some of her attacks will not just damage the bots but also push them one hex away – which allows her to move without disengage cost.
Our hacker, Memory, can control Crushers, Puppies and Drones from a distance. She’s able to dazzle or immobilize them – or simply move them farther away. She uses electricity in her ranged attacks but she can also charge her own energy or use it to damage bots in her close vicinity.
With their special powers, Alex is able to heal other heroes (and themselves, too) using the Healing Spray card or deploying a Health Beacon. They can attack robots with a Pocket Gun from a couple of hexes away or corrode them with an Acid Spray when standing next to them.

When you successfully complete battle goals, your heroes will gain skill points that you can exchange in the Hideout for more powerful skills. You can choose from three possible skill trees specific to each of your characters. Each skill tree comes with three new powers that you can unlock using the skill points you’ve gathered, the first one costing 3, the second 6, and the third 9 points.

Hunter can become a Hit & Run type of character, a Gunslinger or an Explosives Expert.

Hit & Run: By choosing this skill tree you can improve Hunter’s mobility or close combat attacks. The possible skills here include gaining stamina by slaying bots or making melee attacks deal more damage.
If you’d rather have Hunter be a master of guns, you should go with the Gunslinger skill tree. Powers you can get with this one will mostly affect ranged attacks, making them more powerful or giving an additional card and energy if you kill an enemy with such a move.
Should you decide to make him an Explosives Expert, Hunter will be able to gain three possible powers related to area of effect attacks (Hand Grenades, Exploding Bunnies, etc.). With the first available skill, you can make him invincible to his own explosives and area of effect attacks from his allies (for example a hand grenade thrown by a friend, or if Memory uses her Energy Overload card in close vicinity). For 6 skill points, you can start your turn with a Mollie Cocktail in your hand but if you are willing to spend a bit more, you can increase both the damage and area of your explosives – and go out with a bigger bang!

As for the engineer, Su, you can go with the following options:

Famous for her inventions, one of the possibilities for Su is a skill tree focused on improving her Toys. Going with this one will increase the powers of her deployables: you will be able to get an additional card, more hit points or the chance to place one more ‘toy’.
By choosing to strengthen her Assault skills, she will gain extra skills in close combat situations. For example, more energy and stamina when an enemy leaves her zone of control or being able to more damage to enemies she pushes away.
You also have the option to go with the Mortar skill tree. Exchanging three skill points will make Su gain energy when she damages more than one enemy with the same card (so when she hits two bots with one stone). Another possible power you can gain here is increasing the range of her area of effect attacks, and the most expensive skill will basically demolish her enemies with half the effort!

As a hero who specializes in crowd control and hacking Crushers, Memory can become a master of Control, Energy or Decks.

With the Control skill tree, you will give extra powers to Memory’s debuff effects: they can give her an additional card, deal damage to the enemies or last for an additional turn.
Going for the Energy option: your hero will be able to ‘’supercharge’’ (she will gain additional energy at the start of her turn), gain energy when she receives damage or reduce the energy cost of a card.
Becoming a Deck Master will enable Memory to get more card-related powers. Possible skills in this tree include drawing one additional card every turn, as well as getting an additional card when she discards or plays one.

Alex can either improve their Sprays, their Combat moves or the Beacons they deploy.

The first option will give your medic’s healing or acid sprays a bunch of useful powers. For example, for 3 skill points, you will be able to draw a card whenever Alex successfully uses a spray. If you get far enough in the game, you can even increase the range of your sprays (but you will need to gather 9 skill points for this!)
Going with the Combat skills on the other hand will give you the option to increase the range of their ranged attacks when they are next to an ally – making them their bodyguard, in a way. By exchanging more skill points, you will access skills that can regenerate Alex after suffering damage or automatically heal allies when moving next to an ally.
Beacons: Choosing this skill tree can enable you to give Alex’s deployables extra charge, have their energy costs reduced or their effects increased.

Curious to learn more? Stay tuned for some more tips & tricks next week!

You can also try the free Prologue with the first two levels of the game here.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1654440/Rise_of_Humanity_Prologue/

Jul 21, 2021

Fly with the Devs!

Sky Link - tch_Bill

We've been busy with the launch of the game and our first patch, but now that this is out of the way, we are planning on resuming our Weekly Play with the Devs schedule!

For all people that joined us previously and new pilots that want to join, our Weekly Play with the Devs event allows you to fly among our ranks, fight with and against us through several matches, and experience all the big and minor details of our game. Most of our matches start at 2v2 and 3v3 and some progress into 4v4, which makes things really intense.

The event usually lasts for an hour. If you want to join, you only need the game and to be on time for when the event starts!

Jump into the Garage, select your drone and click on Battle - that's all there is to it!

We are going to let you all know within 10 minutes before each event starts on the #general channel on our Discord!

We may even hang out in the Discord voice chat, so feel free to join.

Day and time of day should not change from now on, but if it does, we'll be sure to let you know!

Our Weekly Play with the Devs schedule is as follows:

Weekly from 4pm to 5pm on Tuesday - Eastern Time - New York
Weekly from 2pm to 3pm on Wednesday - Eastern Time - New York

And remember, join us on Discord!

Jul 21, 2021

Development Update: Arsenal

Beyond The Wire - BLITZ

Welcome Soldiers!

With some big content updates on the horizon our art and animation departments have been working hard to bring more weapons of the Great War to Beyond The Wire. As we introduce new factions in Operation III and IV their new weapons and loadouts are top of the priority list, with additional firearms being developed for existing factions as well. Check out some of these weapons that are on the way to the arsenal!

Webley Self Loading pistol

A new pistol for the factions that sit underneath the British Empire. This pistol was one of the first of it’s kind which proved deadly in close quarters, with reloading times reduced along with an increase in rate of fire.

Mle 1916 smoke grenade

The french-made Grenade Incendiaire Et Fumigene Automatique Modele 1916 is modelled and will soon be seen Beyond The Wire. This grenade delivers a thick, white phosphorus smoke screen to cover repositioning infantry.

Gestreckte Ladung

The Central Powers answer to the “bangalore torpedo”. Utilising 4 Stielhandgranate strapped to wood, this improvised device will be used by German Engineer sections to clear paths through barbed wire for the infantry to advance.

C96

The German produced semi-automatic pistol will also be arriving this year, giving the Central Powers an additional side arm to use. This gun featured an integrated box magazine and wooden stock, giving it the nickname “Broomstick”. The C96 will come in two varieties, one with and one without the attached stock.

Ross MK III w/ iron sights

The iconic standard-issue rifle for the CEF on their entry to the WW1. Developed and manufactured in Canada after the British refused licensing for the Lee Enfield, this rifle will be deployed as the main weapon for Canadian Forces as they deploy to the Western Front.

No.1 MK III Impact Grenade

An impact-detonation grenade used by the British Empire, designed specifically for bunker and trench clearing. While such grenades gives the enemy no time to react, soldiers will need to be extra wary of accidentally killing friendlies!

T-Gewehr 1918

As tanks emerged on the western front armies were forced to develop new rifles capable of penetrating thick metal panels. The T-Gewehr was designed to give the German Empire a counter to the British Mark IV land ships.

Canadian Jack Knife

This small knife was a common tool used by the CEF that doubled up as personal protection, featuring multiple folding blades. While there won't be a long reach with this melee weapon the fast attack speed with quick stabs will look to compensate.

CLLE Mk.1*

Attempting to improve on the Lee-Enfield design, the British instituted a program to update them with charger guides allowing stripper clips to be used. In addition to removing the dust cover and fitting the charger guide, the front sight, rear sight, magazine, and volley sights were all updated.

BAR M1918 animations

Our development recap for June revealed the BAR M1918 is confirmed for the AEF forces and here you can see the completed animations. Stay posted for confirmation on when this new machine gun will be arriving, along with a full showcase.
BAR M1918 Animations

Stay tuned for upcoming previews and our development recap for July which will be landing at the end of the month! See you in the trenches!

Jul 21, 2021

v.17.2 Lineup Update

Sunday Rivals - 26k

In this update, I'm adding more customization options for your teams, giving you the ability to (finally) pick your punt and kick returners!

I've also added a new Lineup screen in Season mode, which lets you quickly swap players within position groups to take advantage of mismatches or just try out players in different roles.

I'm especially excited for what the Lineup functionality will bring in the future once playbooks expand (coming soon!), giving you even more options to create interesting game plans for your Season Mode opponents! More info on that in the coming months, for now check out the full list of changes in this release, including some scoring adjustments to HeadHunter, in the patch notes below:

CUSTOMIZATION

Eligible players can be assigned as kick and punt returners when editing a player

SEASON MODE

Added the Lineup screen, allowing players to be swapped within position groups between games
Kick and punt returners can be changed between games in the Lineup screen
Added player scouting reports to the Lineup screen
Sim games better utilize kick returner's ratings
'Run after catch' stat is now tracked and sortable

HEADHUNTER

'Tackle For Loss' scoring bonus renamed to 'Tackling' and includes all tackling plays, increased scoring bonus threshold to 90
'Turnovers' scoring bonus renamed to 'Pass Defense' and includes deflections and touchdowns, increased scoring bonus threshold to 25
'Points Allowed' scoring bonus threshold increased to 80
'Tackle For Loss' record category renamed to 'Total Defense' and includes all defensive stats
Cleaned up in-game HeadHunter scoring summary to remove zero-value stats

GAMEPLAY

Pressing the trigger buttons on defense will toggle controlled player in and out of 'scrape' mode
Holding down the trigger buttons on offense will no longer rapidly toggle passing mode
'Run after catch' and return 'Long' stats are accurately tracked in game now
Default rosters have been updated with new kick/punt returners

ART

Stadium art improvements