Dear Subverse Players!

For this dev diary we wanted to talk about some features of the next block of content.


As previously announced, this block will be the debut of Taron! Here are some spicy preview pics to introduce Taron.








Taron's content block has several new and exciting features, but the one we're most excited about is a closely guarded secret since the start of development – the DEVA system!

DEVA transforms your waifus into all-new sinfully sexy and monstrous incarnations of their original designs, giving them access to powerful abilities that will rain only the sexiest and most terrifying of tentacled destruction down upon your enemies.

We'll be providing a thorough overview of the mechanics in a later post, but we welcome you to enjoy this teaser now.






You will also be introduced to a new faction that has never been seen before, even in the closed beta – THE IMPERIUM.

That's right – you'll finally be throwing down with the intergalactic government's forces in the next update. We hope you're ready, because they will definitely challenge your unit positioning.

We've tried to give each faction featured in Subverse their own identity, like with the Fuccbotts and their self-destruction, the Kloi with their backstabbing, and now the Imperium has something you haven't faced thus far – strong AOE tactics and zoning.

The Imperium units excel at dealing damage to multiple targets at once, meaning the best way to fight them is to keep your units spread out and go for high-payoff directional damage attacks. Their damage is tuned to accommodate for this, but misplaying too often will certainly spell doom for your units.
Here's an overview of the roster:

Conscript



These guys are pseudo-artillery units that bombard you from across the map. Getting caught in the centre of their blasts will deal full damage, and targets outside the main tile will take reduced damage. Make sure you take them out before they get access to their ultimate, which will absolutely nuke half the map.

Lancer



Countering these unique DPS units will require you to not only spread out your units, but also avoid creating straight lines. They can launch their projectiles through the primary enemy and all the way across the rest of the map, dealing secondary damage to anyone caught in their path.

War Golem





One of the most unique units in the game, War Golems perfectly compliment the Imperium's zoning strategy by moving very, very slowly but dealing heavy damage when they catch your units. Lucky for you they also damage themselves when they attack, so their time is limited even if you choose not to focus them down. However, waiting too long will give them access to an ultimate attack that self-destructs and guarantees damage on all of your units.

Shocktrooper



The assassins of the Imperium, these guys can shred your units if you allow them to attack the same character multiple times. A successful attack will mark an enemy, and a second one will detonate that mark and deal additional damage. Make sure you don't give them that opportunity and take them out fast!

Lady of the Veil



The holiest of the holy, the “captain” unit of the Imperium brings a style to Subverse not seen in an enemy yet. She's a support unit that can heal her allies, but she can also deal damage yours at the same time. It is critical that you don't allow her to ult, or she will reset the damage you've done to her HP. Remember – always focus on the healer!

We can also share a few new Grid Combat maps:
















When it comes to unique mechanics, Taron's got a SHMUP mission for you like nothing else in the game. It's a true stealth mission deep into the heart of an Imperium stronghold where you'll go on a quest to retrieve her favorite toy.

Here are some preview pics of the environment:










We'll be back soon with more information on development, including some BTS content and direct reports from our programming and animation team!

Thanks for your support! Take care and stay safe!

Regards,
Tibor

Hi Everyone,

Balancing a tactics game like Mech Armada with lots of parts and monsters is not an easy task. There are some rules of thumb you can use during development to try to get things right but, at the end of the day, the proof is in the pudding. You need to look at how people are playing the game, and whether or not it matches your design and expectations. That’s what we’re doing today.

A quick note about gathering data. Yes, Mech Armada collects gameplay data. No, I’m not going to be emailing you spam: I don’t have your email address, your name or anything personal.

Ah, and I'm going to discuss some of the fights (including boss fights) and parts you need to unlock. So if you don't want spoilers come back after playing a bit more.

With that out of the way, let’s look at some data.

The most important number is how often are players winning battles. Win every battle and you’ll reach the end of the game (beating the Demon). Of course this is tightly connected to the challenge level.

Overall, 4.5% of runs end in victory at Challenge 0. If you look only at people who’ve unlocked all the parts (you’d expect those people have been playing longer and have more experience) the number goes up to 13%.

Now the highest Challenge level is 12. The game is a LOT harder. At the same time, only players who are really good at the game are typically going to try the hardest mode. The result? 10% of Challenge 12 runs end in victory. That’s higher than the base for Challenge 0 but less than the number for experienced players.

So the next question is, where are people actually dying? While there is a small chance of losing every single battle, for the most part the bosses are causing the most trouble. Here are the chances of surviving a boss fight at Challenge 0:

• 76% vs Goliath
  
• 81% vs Scourge Leader
  
• 50% vs Spider Queen
  
• 90% vs Sandworm
  
• 68% vs Demon

Clearly, the Spider Queen battle is currently a problem. Ideally the win percentage should be closer to the 80% the other battles have. The Demon being a bit lower is ok – he’s the final boss and he’s supposed to be tough. On the other hand, the Sandworm might be a bit too easy. With these numbers I can adjust the game. But first, let’s verify the numbers match what we see at other difficulty levels. Here’s Challenge 12:

• 85% vs Goliath
  
• 92% vs Scourge Leader
  
• 58% vs Spider Queen
  
• 95% vs Sandworm
  
• 90% vs Demon

Overall slightly better but quite similar percentages. This is to be expected because the global win rate is higher as we saw earlier. Interesting to see that the Demon is not as difficult. It’s possible by that point players really have a good grasp on the game…or I simply don’t have enough data and a few people got lucky.
Another piece of data that’s important is how much of “something” are players doing. This helps me make sure the game length is adequate and there is enough content.

A common stat for turn-based games is how many turns it takes to win a battle and, conversely, how long it takes to play. Typically, a battle in Mech Armada is between 3 and 6 turns, while it can last anywhere from 30 seconds up to 5 minutes or more. These numbers fall well within my design expectations.



A key element of playing Mech Armada is buying mech parts to make your team stronger. So, how many and what kind of parts are people buying in a run? Overall, here are the results:

• Transport: 1-3
  
• Body: 1-3
  
• Weapon: 1-5

It makes sense more weapons are being bought, as in a mech you can equip 2 or 3 different weapons. At the same time, these numbers are a bit misleading, because they include people who died early in their run, so they didn’t have a chance to get many parts. If we look at people who got to the last environment, the numbers go up:

• Transport: 1-3
  
• Body: 2-4
  
• Weapon: 4-8

Weapons stick out even more as what people need the most. Transport is less exciting, you start with some pretty decent options, so there is less pressure to get more. Bodies provide some benefit, so they sit in between.
Because Mech Armada presents players with a choice when they buy parts or earn expansions, I can track which ones are most popular. I prefer looking at players who’ve unlocked all parts, as they have all the options and know the game better. Here are the most and least popular parts and expansions with the percentage of times they were picked when offered:




Ideally, you want the pick rate for every part to be 50%. That would mean they are all perfectly balanced. That’s never going to happen, but I can definitely look at some outliers and figure out why people don’t like them (or like them too much!)

Some quick conclusions that can be drawn from these results:

• Players really like weapons with lots of damage, range and area-of-effect. And they hate anything support.
  
• They like big legs and they cannot lie.
  
• Some expansions need some love, but damage, armor and health are always popular.
  
• The Chain Reaction body is super popular, so a nerf is likely coming.
  
• Conversely, nobody like the Kamikaze. I get it. It’s hard to use, but can be game-breaking if used well.

Which brings me to another point. There’s another angle to the pick rates. Players pick certain parts because they think they have a better chance of winning with that part but, is this actually true? Let’s find out.
This is the trickiest number to calculate. A lot is happening in every battle and every run, and it’s not obvious how to link victory (or defeat) to a specific part. The way I extracted the data is not perfect, but will have to do for our purposes: I look at all the runs where a player picked a part and figure out how many of those ended in victory. This ignores progress made with a part that didn’t go all the way to the end, but because parts drop equally throughout the run it should be close enough. Also, I’m once again looking at players that have all parts unlocked, otherwise parts that you unlock later have better stats not because they’re better, but because only good players have access to them.

Because I simply don’t have enough data to give exact percentages for win rates, we’ll just look at which parts do better in general. Also, I’m excluding the initial parts from this list.
Already we see something interesting here. Buggy and Trike are not very popular, but do well. Walker is the opposite. Tracks and Mini Spider are both not popular and not successful, so they could use some tuning.
Again, here some bodies are well understood by players, like Eagle Eye, Ranger, Commando and Maximus (all very popular). Engineer is under-appreciated (pick rate is 35%).

At the bottom, Off-roader, Turbo and Bullseye deserve a redesign, as they don’t seem to be serving players well right now.
So much to unpack here. It seems that players want the damage-dealing weapons, but the best predictor of success is picking support parts. I’ll need to think about this. There could be an imbalance in the game where support is sort of required to succeed but it’s not attractive enough; I believe this is pretty common for this type of game. But it could also be that players who like to use support weapons are generally more skilled at the game and therefore more likely to succeed – this is always the challenge with looking at data.

Oh, and the Neutralizer is a disaster, so that needs to get fixed.
This one blows my mind a little. Salvage does really well, but I wonder if I just don’t have enough data; honestly, it doesn’t make a lot of sense. Accuracy and Protector perform as advertised, while the health-based expansions like Restore and Pristine tend to disappoint (probably because you need a specific team composition to engage a health economy).

Lastly, Initiative is a surprise. I keep hearing how game-breaking-overpowered it is, but it seems to not perform nearly as well in practice.
There’s a lot of talk of being “data driven” in the games industry. I prefer the term “data informed”. The difference is that all of these numbers are just one consideration. I look at player feedback from Discord and the Steam forums, videos on YouTube and Twitch, conversations on Twitter and my own personal experience playing the game.

And then I decide to make adjustments.

And then, the whole process starts all over again. Expect a number of tweaks based on these results. Hopefully they’ll make the game more balanced and, as a result, more fair and enjoyable.

/Sergio

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1389360/Mech_Armada

Gold decor update is now live!

Hi all-

I have a very minor update planned for this weekend of 11/12. These will only contain small cosmetic changes. Specific changes in version 0.2.5 will include:

• Improving collision to areas where the player can clip through and miss important dialogues.
  
  • Player can clip through window in Advisor's mushroom hut window, missing the kid's hint dialogue trigger.
    
  • Adding missing collider during "heaven" sequence where the player can fall off the level.
    
  • Adding collision to bottom of courtyard pools in misty water level.
• Secret book interaction in the misty water level will become a simple "touch and teleport" trigger, due to the amount of issues it was causing.
  
• Dynamic camera shakes to mansion monster stomps.
  
• New optional NPC to space level near first codex cube.
  
• Better Biscuit emotes.
  
• More optional dialogue choices to flirt with the pyramid door. You weirdos.
  
• Various minor texture updates/polish/corrections.
  
• Minor changes to end credit list.
  
• Minor improvements to various level props/widgets.
  
• General performance improvements.
  
• Addition of various new minor easter eggs.

I have another announcement that I plan on posting within the next week or so that will go over the next major patch (patch is scheduled for around mid-December), so keep an eye on the feed. As always if you have any questions feel free to pose them here or reach out to me on Twitter @sodaraptor_dev.

Until next time,
sodaraptor

Image Text:

It has come to our attention that an iceberg blocks our path - it will take us some time to make it through...

As such, Dread Hunger is expected to arrive at full release later than anticipated.

Our sincerest apologies, as we understand you had prepared for our arrival earlier. We want Dread Hunger to be the best experience for you and good things take time.

Thank you for your patience and understanding. We are so looking forward to sharing the finished game with you.

We've heard your suggestions and feedback. However, including them will take a little extra time which we believe is absolutely worth it.

In the meantime, we're cooking up something with Update 5...


See the original post here:
https://twitter.com/DreadHungerGame/status/1455957957473181698?s=20


Thank you, as always, for your support.


- The Dread Hunger Team


____________

Follow our socials!

Discord: http://discord.gg/dreadhunger
Twitter: @DreadHungerGame
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DreadHunger
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/DreadHunger/

Hello survivors!

No update today but i just wanted to let you all know what I am working on.


I am incredibly pleased with all the feedback I have received regarding the games look and world, BUT
i think we can all agree on one thing, the game needed a touch of colour.







As you can see i have done exactly that and i hope you all love the new look as much as i do. I am working hard on adding small details to make the world feel alive.


below are a list of things I am currently working on getting into The glade ASAP

* New wildlife (bears, foxes and wild boar)
* New enemy types ( spider like creatures and flying creatures)
* Ways to travel (Horse mount)
* In depth base building (Stone walls, Stairs, ladders, and much much more)
* Story (yes there is a story and an end game planned for The Glade)
* New weapons and upgrades

These are things i am actively working on right now and will be in The Glade ASAP and i have so much more planned. this is just the begging and i know this game will be great!

thank you all

Michael Schade - Developer

New update as of November 10th

Check out the full release notes here

Welcome to Brisk Square update 0.450!
This update includes game modifiers.

What's new:

1. 99 bullet modifier
   
2. No bullet modifier
   
3. No drone modifier
   
4. No heat sword modifier
   
5. Infinite speed modifier
   
6. Bullet disappearing bug fixed
   
7. Other small bug fixes
   
8. Environment changes
   
9. Asset Optimization
   
10. New leaderboard is added only for modifiers

Hello everyone !

First of all, a little point on the demo. Thank you to all those who took the trouble to try it and even more to those who seriously answered the questionnaire.

We're not going to lie to each other, I missed the demo. The big problem is that she only introduced you to the secondary gameplays of the game, not the main ones (drug trafficking, pimping, gang management). In addition, many of you have had technical problems (resolution, mouse sensitivity).

Most of these issues have been, or are in the process of being, resolved. I also reviewed all the progression so that it is faster, less redundant, and more focused on the heart of the game (drug trafficking, pimping, gang management). The city has also been lengthened to give more interest to the metro. This went from 5 to 9 stations. Stops have been moved to be more useful.

The demo will be updated soon with this new version.




I am looking for testers for the closed alpha which will start next week. It's a great way to help me finish the game faster and leave your mark on it. All participants will be able to name a gang leader in the game, and those who are more active will receive a game key for the Early Access release in Q1 2022.

If you are interested, please come and apply on the game discord

If you'd like to help translate the game into your language, don't hesitate to advertise on the discord either. The game has less than a thousand lines to translate (a sandbox game like Mount and Blade Warband has over 30,000).




Your feedback and advice is very valuable to me and I wish you as much as possible of Gangs of Rikton.

After nearly two years, CS:GO has finally crowned a new Major Champion. In front of a roaring Stockholm arena and with record breaking viewership, NAVI took the grand final from G2 in dramatic double-overtime fashion and closed out the series 2-0.

Today we're releasing player autograph capsules to celebrate the champions and other finalists from the PGL Stockholm 2021 Major. You'll find s1mple, electronic, Boombl4, b1t, and Perfecto in the Champions Autographs capsule, with autographs in paper, holo, and gold.


All of the other finalists can be found in the Finalists Autographs capsule, also with autographs in paper, holo, and gold.


Ready to show your support for these legends of CS:GO? 50% of the proceeds are shared with the players and organizations taking part in the Major.



Hot off their live performance at the Major, you can grab the Verkkar's Flashbang Dance Music Kit (featuring Counter-Strike icon Jordan 'n0thing' Gilbert). Grab a music kit and give their ears a ring!