Our first Playtest weekend has passed, and we're still gathering impressions here. In short – it was awesome! Several thousand players got access and tried Aquatico for the first time, and we couldn't be happier with response.
The very idea of an underwater city building experience seems to resonate strongly with a lot of players out there who were really enjoying the early shown atmospherics and general mood of the game. Since this was only the alpha game version, there were bugs and issues and we're taking into account everything reported back to us. Improvements are already underway, based on feedback and data files you've sent us.
At this moment, our entire team wishes to thank all of you who participated in the Playtest. You gave us a very good idea of what things you enjoy the most, what needs improving, and where the current issues are. Thank you for this invaluable feedback, thank you for all the suggestions and thank you for your time to provide us with the data files.
What's next?
For all players who didn't get the chance to try the Playtest version, we are preparing a first demo version of Aquatico! This will already be an improved version of the Playtest build, and that version will continue to be updated as development goes ahead. Expect this demo to be available in time for the Steam Next fest. Note that this demo version will also be an incomplete game, but already one step closer to it.
And while on the subject of Steam Next Fest – yes, Aquatico will participate in this event, you'll have a chance to view livestreams of the game, grab the demo and give it a spin, and of course – throw additional feedback at us. There is still much more to come and we'll make Aquatico the best experience it can be!
Come high class in the Formal Affair update. This ritzy update comes with an array of rich content in the Party Crashers Battle Pass. Additionally, we serve up to our VIPs (you!) some quality of life improvements to features like Draft Pick(Ranked & Customs), Weapon Mastery and a minor layout update to Glacier!
PARTY CRASHERS BATTLE PASS
Our Rogues infiltrate a high society party in a familiar place as Party Crashers to gather intel on potential new leads against Jackal. In this battle pass, Rogues come glitzed out in high fashion(some outfits you may have seen before in an update show long ago) with cosmetics for Lancer, Ronin, Juke, and Trench. Lastly, this wouldn't be a party if you didn't come with your trusty +1, the Mythic SLC Mixtape weapon skin!
Battle Pass Base Bundle (1000 Rogue Bucks)
Lethal Luxury Ronin Epic Outfit
Purple Prose Rare Wingsuit
1 Hour Account Boost
20% Battle Pass Experience Boost
Battle Pass Elite Bundle (2000 Rogue Bucks)
+15 Battle Pass Levels
Lethal Luxury Ronin Epic Outfit
Purple Prose Rare Wingsuit
1 Hour Account Boost
20% Battle Pass Experience Boost
BATTLE PASS REWARDS
General Rewards
3x Reward Supply Drops
3x 30 Minute Account Boosts
3x 45 Minute Account Boosts
3x 1 Hour Account Boosts
1000 Rogue Bucks
Cosmetics
Fatal Arrangement Rare Spray
Seated for Excellence Rare Emote
The Plus One Epic Melee Wrap
Golden Sands Rare Wingsuit
Fiery Steed Rare Avatar
Treacherous Seas Rare Border
Risqué Prance Rare Emote
The Plus One Epic Primary Wrap
Belle of the Ball Epic Title
Nightfall Trench Rare Outfit
A Night Out Rare Banner
Reptilian Rare Wingsuit
Shake it up Epic Emote
The Plus One Epic Secondary Wrap
Cow Company Rare Avatar
Golden Rose Rare Border
Fashion Statement
Killer Threads Epic Title
Fashion Statement Legendary Melee Wrap
Hang Loose Rare Spray
Scaducci Juke Rare Outfit
High Roller Rare Border
Ballistic Ball Epic Banner
Fashion Statement Legendary Primary Wrap
Silk Flight Epic Hoverboard
Campfire Connoisseur Legendary Emote
Mixtape SL-C Mythic Wrap
Nine Lives Epic Avatar
Golden Shot Epic Banner
Singularity Epic Wingsuit Wrap
21 Carat Legendary Avatar
Life of the Party Legendary Title
Heist Lancer Legendary Outfit
NEW RANKED SEASON
The first new season of the new year begins today, granting last season's rewards and unlocking new ones to earn!
Year 2 Season 4 Ranked Rewards
The following rewards will be distributed based upon eligibility:
Played 30 Ranked Games: Beautiful View Epic Banner
Achieved Rogue Tier: Intervention Epic Banner
FORMAL AFFAIR LTM SCHEDULE
Week 1: Skirmish TDM
Week 2: 4v4 KOTH
Week 3: Extraction
Week 4: Battle Zone
Week 5: Wingman
Week 6: Skirmish Dodgeball
GAME UPDATES
Glacier
Glacier has received an update to help speed up rotations and minimize the vertical stacking of major combat spaces.
The stairs to the bottom of the map have been closed off. Now only provides a linear pathway to each side of the map.
New pathways have been added through the middle of the ship.
Draft Pick Improvements
Based on Player feedback, we're adjusting the allocation of picks in our ranked draft modes, as having first ban and the first two picks was too strong. As a result, the draft will now flow in a more familiar format:
Team A Bans 1 Rouge
Team B Bans 1 Rogue
Team A Picks 1 Rogue
Team B Picks 2 Rogues
Team A Picks 2 Rogues
Team B Picks 2 Rogues
Team A Picks 1 Rogue
Weapon Mastery Expanded
We've had challenges and unlocks for our secondaries and melee's since the initial release of the weapon mastery system, everything but the ultimate reward of unlocking the weapons to be used on other Rogues. It's time. Now fully mastered melee weapons and pistols can be swapped between rogues. We have also retrofitted a bunch of our newer melee weapons onto characters that we think are good fits for them, making them a bit more accessible to be mastered for those who may not own all of the newer rogues. See under Game Balance for more details on these changes.
GAME BALANCE
Rogues
Scorch
With the introduction of the Volatile and Energized increasing both the potency and frequency of Overheat, we think a slight cooldown nerf is in order.
Increased Overheat's cooldown from 45 to 60 seconds.
Trench
Base melee weapon changed to the Claymore.
Dallas
Base melee weapon changed to the Combat Knife.
Lancer
Smoke Grenade changed to Pop Smoke grenade.
Base melee weapon changed to the Katana.
Dima
Base Melee weapon changed to the Baseball Bat.
Anvil
A while ago, we changed Anvil's ability, Barricade, so that he could deploy two barricades simultaneously. We also wanted the ability to store two charges since that's how other multi-charge deployables function. Unfortunately, we could not make this change because of the "Break Glass" functionality of the Barricade. However, we think it's more worthwhile to be able to store two charges of Barricade, so we have removed the "Break Glass" functionality from the ability. You can still break the glass if you want to by shooting the small yellow canisters inside the shield. We believe this is a net buff to Barricade, so we are raising the cooldown slightly to compensate.
Removed the ability to break the glass by pressing the ability button again. Instead, you can now only break the glass by shooting the yellow canister.
Ability Cooldown is now 40 seconds (max 2 charges).
Ability can now store two charges, similar to Trench's Barbed Wire and Vy's Poison.
Base melee weapon changed to the Sledgehammer.
Dahlia
Base melee weapon changed to the Combat Knife.
The cooldown for reviving your linked target was recharging too fast and show now be recharging at the proper rate of 60 seconds.
Fixer
Base melee weapon changed to the Throwing Axe.
Runway
Base melee weapon changed to the Khukri.
Gadgets
Targeting Through Smoke
We are addressing an unintended exploit brought about by the complexities of our VFX within Unreal Engine.
Can no longer use gadget AoE targeter to see player outlines through smoke.
Perks
Gadgeteer
We wanted to err on the side of caution with the initial release of the gadgeteer perk, lest the perk be too strong and send us back to more gadget-heavy gameplay. Unfortunately, the perk has proven to be ineffective for the cost, so we are increasing its effectiveness and increasing the price of each tier slightly.
Now provides 10%/20%/30% cooldown reduction at Rare/Epic/Legendary.
Cost increased to $6000/$9000/$12000
Weapons
LR15 & Tyr
We have reintroduced Flinch to our snipers. Flinch makes your crosshair bounce to simulate your character "flinching" as they take damage from other sources. The goal here is to make snipers easier to punish when they're fighting within the effective range of AR's & SMG's.
Now have Flinch.
Game Modes
King of the Hill (KOTH)
KOTH is now multiple rounds.
BUG FIXES
Fixed an issue where players see a "Network Disconnected" after selecting a Rogue.
Fixed Dahlia's "Danger Close" cooldown partially resetting after linking with a teammate.
Fixed an issue that, when reclaiming a C4, players would drop an additional C4.
Fixed an issue where Gadget cooldowns would get reset when purchasing an upgrade.
Fixed Spending-based Contracts.
Fixed Audio issues in many locations across our maps.
Properly adjusted Juke's Rogue Role for data and contract purposes.
Gl1tch hack now appropriately affects gadgets that are "in-hand."
Fixed an issue where our Volume sliders were not completely correct.
Fixed an issue where respawning players would sometimes not be able to access the shop in - King Of The Hill.
Juke's Turret hit register was not playing the appropriate hit SFX against armored targets.
Fixed several exploit locations that Juke could access.
Fixed the MLX Mark 4 mythic VFX when respawning.
Fixed an issue where Umbra, while using spider, could get into an unintended state if hit by a reflector gadget.
Reflector Gadget kills should count properly when players knock enemies off the map.
KNOWN ISSUES
There is a potential issue of the camera resting higher than intended when you crouch+ADS.
Minor visual jittering of your primary weapon when you ADS after a dodge roll.
The Kingshunt Closed Beta Weekend will begin on Friday, September 23rd at 4 PM (GMT). The servers will be open all throughout the weekend until Monday, September 26th at 6 AM (GMT).
There’s still time to request access to the Closed Beta weekend. Head over to our Steam Store page and press the Request Access button to get the Kingshunt Playtest launcher in your library. We will be granting access to new players at regular intervals throughout the Beta, so please be patient if your access request takes a while to go through.
If you already have the Kingshunt Playtest launcher in your library, then you won’t have to do anything to secure access. In fact, you can download the game right now and launch it to go check out your builds for runes and summons and try out the combat tutorial and training grounds levels while you wait for the servers to open.
If you are a content creator, we want your support, so please join our Discord server to share your channel, schedule, and clips. Creators there will get priority in our upcoming creator program!
Below you also find our first official patch notes of this new stage of Kingshunt development!
Close Beta Weekend - September 2022 Patch Notes
As we prepare to transition from our Alpha stage to our Early Access Beta and open up Kingshunt to the community, let’s recap our main feature and the biggest changes since Alpha playtests until this point.
Conquest Mode
Your goal in Conquest is to capture objectives and destroy the enemy team’s base.
To secure a victory, your team must obtain enough tickets to place your rivals in a faltering state. Then they can no longer respawn! If you eliminate your faltered enemies, your team is victorious.
Capturing objectives, and eliminating minions and towers, grants your team tickets and resources. When your team captures an objective, they will receive tickets. Those tickets are removed from the team if you lose the objective.
When a capture point timer reaches zero, the team that owns the objective will receive tickets and resources.
Or reach and destroy the enemy team’s core for an alternative victory.
Conquest Mode changes
Main mode’s name changed to “Conquest” (from Elimination)
Conquest map optimization, with new placements, improved graphics, bug fixes, and other improvements.
Health Pickup locations have been changed since previous tests.
Health pickups now give the hero a percentage of their max HP and mana instead of a flat rate. Heroes receive 33% of their max HP and 25% of their max Mana.
Reduced the number of tickets gained from destroying lane towers by 50.
Reduced Tier 1 tower HP.
Increased Tier 2 tower HP.
Increased Core’s HP.
Rune system changes
Added an autopath system to rune builds.
Runes are automatically unlocked during the match according to a predetermined path.
The autopath is enabled by default but can be disabled from the game settings or rune menu.
You can now refund the last rune you purchased.
Reduced [Emergency Armor] armor gain to 50%.
[Aversion] rune has been temporarily removed from the game as it is undergoing a rework.
Summon changes
All summons now have a unique special ability that can be activated during the game. Special abilities need to be unlocked from the main menu before they can be used in-game. Activating summon special abilities does not cost any utility resources, but they do have a cooldown.
Increased summoned minion’s movement speed.
Improvements made to the summon's AI.
Increased Orc minion attack damage.
Increased Mage minion attack damage.
Reworked the special abilities for Orc, Breacher, and Barricade based on feedback received during the Technical Test.
Updated model for Healing Well.
Adjusted summon resource costs.
Hero changes
All
Balanced all heroes starting stats to fit their roles better.
Double-jump abilities now use up the entire stamina pool.
New alternative character skins.
Alaida
Changed name (previously known as Olette).
[Fairydust] ability reworked.
[Fairydust]’s slow amount reduced based on feedback received after the Technical Test.
Crowley
Added double-jump, which can be activated using the spacebar.
FX elements polished.
Grozny
Reduced all abilities' mana cost.
Isac
[Surge] reworked.
Reduced [Surge]’s total trigger amount by 1 based on feedback received during the Technical Test.
Jatult
Fixed the bug that allowed players to spam the [Chain Dash] ability more than intended.
Knight (Note: the Knight character model is placeholder as we work on the final model.)
[Impenetrable Shield] ability reworked.
[Leap Strike] ability reworked.
Legena
Adjusted the healing ability to connect more reliably.
Mara
Reduced the range of the [Whiplash] ability.
Increased [Whiplash] stun duration by 0.2s.
Mortan
Added the dash to the shift key and moved float to the spacebar.
Made aiming of [Writhe] ability more consistent.
Reduced the [Overflow] ability base damage.
Increased the stamina cost of floating by 25%.
Noxis
Fixed [True Colours] ability’s targeting.
Fixed Noxis getting stuck when phasing with the [Hidden Blade] ability.
Scarlet
Changed name (previously known as Claret).
Added the dash to the shift key and double jump to the spacebar.
Reduced [Scarlet Rain] ability airtime but increased the damage per arrow.
Tulikko
[Stance Switch] ability reworked.
Made slow movement possible while casting the [Blade of Dawn] ability.
Join us for Season 13 of Rocket Bot Royale to collect the full set of spooky Tanks and cosmetics we've added! We've been waiting for the fall season to showcase the first batch of creepy skins. (Granted, the spider from Season 9-Deep Woods was pretty creepy!)
Additionally, for the first time, we are also giving the winner of Season 13 the chance to work with our designer to create a PERSONALIZED TANK SKIN as a way to show off a hard-earned season victory!
Become a permanent part of Rocket Bot Royale history! Compete in Season 13 to claim the top spot on the Trophy Leaderboard, and get the chance to create your own personalized Tank skin, with help from our designer, that will be added to the game as a Legendary Skin, with your name and accomplishment attached! The Season runs from Friday September 23 - November 1st.
Good luck, and see you on the island! Join us on Discord to join the community!
Paranormal Detective: Escape from the 90's - lunabeat
We’re thrilled to be taking part in the exclusive, curated SIX festival (Seattle Indies Expo)! We are taking part in the stream event, it’s gonna be a lot of fun!
Paranormal Detective: Escape from the 90’s was selected to participate, and we’ll be doing a developer Q&A during the Twitch stream this Saturday at 2:45pm PT. Come check it out and ask us questions live! Find out more about our games, our development process, easter eggs, anything you’d like.
We’re super excited to take part in SIX this year, and hope to see you there!
*Sorry for the repeat announcement! The Q&A time changed and we were unable to change the event time on the Steam announcement so we had to make a new one.
Hello, I have a done another patch in the publicbeta branch! The main thing in this one is that I overhauled the Builder role to make the queue "global" for all your builders, let you queue up to 100 buildings of any type, and to allow multiple builders to work on the same building at a time.
I also changed the Repair role so it will just keep repairing anything instead of having to be told what to repair. And I've added a gate for picket fences, and a "Block Animals" option, so you can make a nice enclosure for your chickens without them constantly escaping.
Then there's some more translation updates of the new text from v155, many thanks to all the translators again! That's the main stuff, the rest is just a lot of small tweaks and fixes that I got from people's bug reports and from starting another playthrough myself. Here's the full list:
Updated Simplified Chinese, Korean, German, French, Hungarian and Latin American Spanish translations
Multiple people can work on the same building, and you can queue up to 100 buildings of different types
When you assign someone the Repair role they will stay in it and repair any building, not just the one you told them to
Added picket fence gate
Added Block Animals option to gates, so you can stop chickens escaping
Added a world setting for whether traders often have save tokens, turned it off in Hard mode
After going to a well or river for a drink, people will fill up their water bottle or watering can
Made some speeches from other communities less likely to show in the PiP
Show on action menu when mining or chopping wood near another community's base is classed as stealing. Stopped AI from automatically mining those areas.
Reinstated old values for assassination and choke hold strength, they were right all along
Made allies blue on minimap
Fix for exploit in food for winter quest, where you can just keep buying the food back and selling it again for double the price
Fix for infected tag not transferring when you transfer part of a stack of infected human meat
Fix for equipment policy setting for Can Feed To Animals not being saved
Fix for NPCs getting into a loop trying to bandage someone
Fix for looter barricades glitching out and never disappearing when destroyed
Fix for characters following the direct controlled player not being able to follow them through gates they opened, if the gates were set to Always Closed
Fix for stealth XP being granted for killing chickens
Fix for outhouses getting filled really quickly
Fix for meat from animals that were bitten being infected (animals don't get infected, so nor does their meat)
Fix for right-click to Buy button not working on traders
Fix for being able to exploit following to get someone to stop feuding
Fix for traders levelling up without trading with you
Fix for flickering when game is paused in multiplayer
Some fixes for character getting into loops with auto-deposit
You can't restrain someone from another community if they are fighting someone from your community (it would be seen as hostile, you have to restrain your guy)
Fix for crash in script editor when saving translated text if a translation sheet doesn't exist yet
Fix for translations in script editor not being saved if they are on newly created speeches
Reinstated mining of stone from mines if there are deposits there, and you can now see when stamping a mine which deposits are there
Made animal feeders more likely to take more than one item at a time to the trough
When you demolish a trap it will return the carrot or pipe bomb, unless the trap has been sprung
Fix for occasional crash when character injects themselves with antigen, if you already did it from the UI
EDIT - released a quick follow-up patch, v160, to fix a bug I introduced where traders were getting stone in their inventories.
What's this publicbeta thing?
v159 will be in the "publicbeta" branch for a while, before pushing it to the main game. If you want to try the latest features as they come out (and help test them!) it's a good idea to start using this branch. But keep in mind:
Because it's the bleeding edge it could be less stable
If you want to be able to play online co-op with someone you'll need to be on the same version as them
If you go back from the "publicbeta" branch to the main branch you may not be able to load savegames created on "publicbeta".
To use publicbeta, just right-click on Survivalist: Invisible Strain in your Steam library and go to Properties, then Betas and in the drop-down select "publicbeta".