A last call for all the slayers knee deep in undead!
We know you've been busy fighting back an unholy force that would chill anyone to the bone. You lost comrades along the way and hopefully gained some during your campaign. There's plenty of zombie obliteration still to do, so why not check out the freakishly great deals on the final day of the Lunar New Year Sale...
Sniper Elite: Zombie Army - 70% Sniper Elite: Zombie Army 2 - 70% Zombie Army Trilogy - 85% Zombie Army Trilogy 4 Pack - 85% Zombie Army 4: Dead War - 66% Zombie Army 4: Dead War Season Pass Two - 33% Zombie Army 4: Dead War Season Pass Three - 33% Zombie Army 4: Dead War SP2/3 Individual DLC - 33%
Don't delay, as the sale ends tomorrow (Thursday 3rd February). The creepers await your wrath!
This update took a lot of time since we were worked on several massive things: 1) New Skill system; 2) Visual performance of enemy units; 3) Final in-game movies. We did it our best but it took so much time anyway. But we almost finished them. First of all, we found a solution to make monsters look smoother without any FPS loss. We reworked all mobs of World #1. You can check and see how they look awesome.
Secondly, we are finishing last in-game movie right now. We are going to add them all in the next update. We think it will allow to understand main story more fully. After that we will send them to our mate composer to add voice and sound effects. They will be ready much later.
Finally, we made a fundament for new Skill System. We are testing it now. We are going to give access to it with first available skills in upcoming updates. So, expect a lot of new stuff in future updates.
About new mission
We added Mission 7 with New Balance. We added a small but a very cool feature. It is called BBB, Big Bone Barricade. Top path have 3 BBB. Each of them is a usual barricade but 100 times tigheter. So it can hold tons of monsters. That's why tons of monsters appear on the top path. You should imagine that. 20 Big Explosive Stegoflies appear on the last level of the level. For example, only 3 of them appeared in the previous level. So, it will a tough battle.
The bottom path introduces enemies of World #3. Green Dinos are usual mobs. Triceraptors are armored mobs. Bugs are fast and have health regeneration. Blue Birds are weak but have magic resistance and ignore damage from Stone attacks. Armadillo is a mini-boss which appear in the end of level. It is extremely tough and stuns nearby towers every 3 seconds.
Also, Mission 7 introduces a new tower. It is Axe Tower, an upgrade of Arrow Tower Level 2. It has higher damage and attack speed. It is great against unarmored enemy units. Also, it has an access to its base gold ability. It increases damage by 10% with each strike on the same enemy. So Axe Tower can boost its damage up to 300%. It works great against slow enemies. Also it works great with barricades and BBB. It is the reason why Axe Tower appears on Mission 7. Enjoy!
Other game changes
We added final version of Mission 12. You can see how it evolved on the GIF above. Also, there were a few other changes. Also, we added an Easter Egg connected with Red Alert universe.
Graphics of enemies of World #1 was reworked.
Arrow Tower Level 1 damage was increased from 9-13 to 11-14.
Arrow Tower Level 2 damage was increased from 25-31 to 29-33.
Sniper Tower Level 3 damage was increased from 79-101 to 79-111.
AxeTower Level 3 damage was increased from 57-59 to 69-71. Price was increased from 180 to 215 meat.
Fixed wrong animations of icons in the Menu mission and Movie Mission
Added smaller version of in-game cursor to prevent FPS loss.
Having the EA release at the gates, we've decided to update the demo-version of Diplomacy is Not an Option. Check it out on our steam page!
Sometimes a demo is just a demo. We did make a lot of changes there. Still, it doesn't mean that the previous demo's content was cut off from the main game. For example, the hospital upgrade, the engineer guild are there. However, we've reworked the delivery mechanics from the scratch, so porters... no more. Only one week stays between your expectations and the release date. You'll be able to get back to the endless mode (this time with save/loads) when Diplomacy is Not an Option comes to Early Access. Thank you for understanding.
Grab your binoculars and scout out the incredible deals that are a part of the Lunar New Year Sale! Lots of Sniper Elite games and content are included in the sale, so grab yourself a discount and heed the call to arms!
Greetings Everyone! The seasons are changing, the Year of the Ox has ended, and the Year of the Tiger has arrived. And we are celebrating this occasion with the Lunar New Year Sale! If you've been waiting for a chance to grab Horror Story: Hallowseed at a lower price, wait no more - it is now at an incredible 33% off, with the possibility of even higher discount if purchased through either the Dark Places or Run for your Life bundles - the additional discounts apply in full even if you already own some of the games in them!
These incredible offers are only valid for another day however, until February 3rd - so don't miss your chance and grab the game now!
And once you've played the game, please, give use feedback in form of a Steam review, in the discussions or come chat to our Discord server. It is very much appreciated and helps us make the game even better for our fans!
Hello squad! Hope your plans A came together lately.
As you know, I'm preparing the first big update of the early access. This update will focus on the in-game map editor that is used to make your own missions and share them with the rest of the community.
I've set up a "test" branch that will get all the latest juicy updates before going live on the public version. If you want to try out the upcoming features and help me test/debug them, be sure to switch to it!
Switching to the test branch
In the Steam client, right-click on the game from your library and select "Properties". Select the "BETAS" tab. Select the "test" branch listed in the dropdown menu under "Select the beta you would like to opt into".
The game then should automatically update to the test version.
To switch back to the public branch, just select "None" in the betas dropdown.
The Map Editor Update
More than 5000 new map elements have been added to the map editor: new walls, buildings, furniture, vehicles, props, etc. All of them have not been integrated in the skirmish missions and the map generation system yet, so you won't see them in the challenge, randomized and campaign missions either. I'll introduce them in the map generator incrementally as I'm improving it.
A big part of the game system had to be reworked to support all those new possibilities and the crazy ways I've seen them used in the community maps (like using walls as debris or props as walls for instance). It took me more time than I expected but it also allowed me to improve things that weren't initially planned. The most notable is the possibility to make maps with different heights for the walkable surfaces, passing under them, etc.
IMPORTANT NOTE
If you want to share your new missions with other players, please use the "hidden" visibility on mod.io until the update goes live on the public branch! If you set them to "public", the non-testers will see them when looking for new missions to play but won't be able to play them.
You can then share the "Preview URL" indicated on the mod.io website. The best place to do it is on discord, in the #tests channel.
Other important changes
I also wanted to highlight some changes unrelated to the map editor.
The first one is about the difficulty of the campaign. In your feedback and reviews, I often read that the game throws you a bit harshly from the tutorial to the campaign with a 8 characters team to handle and a bunch of new rules you didn't expect. I've actually designed the skirmish missions with increasing team size, map size and difficulty to prepare the players for the campaign. The thing is most players launch the campaign as soon as they have completed the tutorial, probably because the way the main menu as been designed incites them to do so. So I've changed the order of the different game sections and the home buttons to put the single missions before the campaign, hopefully it will change the default behavior of the new players. I could lock the campaign until you complete some (or all) the skirmishes but I suppose it would be frustrating for those who feel up to the challenge... Let me know what you think in the comments.
The second important change is about the way the timeline acts when you select a character. Right now, it will reset to the time of the character's last action. I've noticed in the different videos and streams of the game that it's often not the expected behavior. That's why I've changed it so that selecting a character doesn't change the position of the timeline. I've also added an option in the settings to switch back to the previous behavior in case you find it more convenient that way.
Full changelog
Below is an exhaustive list of the changes testable right now on the test branch. I know there's a lot to take in, so I've done my best to highlight the most important changes:
New features and content
- Added 5000+ new map elements!!! - Added primitive map elements (cube, sphere, cylinder, etc) - Implemented support for elevated grounds navigation - Added the option to reset (or not) the timeline when selecting a character (disabled by default) - Added the blood toggle option in Settings/Graphics - Added the screen shake toggle option in Settings/Graphics
Improvements
- You can now rewatch completed campaign missions (only applies to missions completed after this update) - Scroll the timeline using the mouse wheel (slowed by holding Alt, accelerated by holding Shift by default, see settings) - Automatically saves cinematic configuration (camera shots) - Display the next mission button in the game over screen of campaign missions, leading back to the chapter screen - Improved the exit mission and replan mission button icons - Increased the button backgrounds transparency - Prevented weapons and grenades to overlap each other on the weapon rack - It's now possible to rotate weapons and grenades on the weapon rack without having to drag them first - Temporarily removed the ATMs from the possible map generator props - Improved the light and material inspectors in the map editor - Walls are now split in 2 faces, you can have different visuals on each side - Doors are now separate assets, you can put different doors - Improved the main menu buttons - Updated the translations
Fixes
- Fixed delayed Steam achievements (?) - Fixed the map editor UI scaling on huge resolutions - Fixed the objective translation in tutorial missions - Fixed "Barrel_04" and "Barrel_06" props getting replaced by "Barrel_01" and "Barrel_02" when loading the map - Fixed dead characters having their plan reloaded in campaign missions - Fixed the completed campaign chapter icon resolution - Fixed the light properties set in the map editor not being properly loaded - Fixed weapons and grenades not selectable when placed too high on the weapon rack - Fixed character spawn visuals getting corrupted when unselecting an object in the map editor
