With the release of 5.0 getting very close I wanted to detail some of the things that it will be adding to Siberian Dawn, and also cover the 3 big content highlights of this update in a series of Final Approach news posts. So in this first part I will be giving some more information about the V Missions.
Brightness and Rounds
Before getting on to the V Missions I want to first mention a couple of global features that will be added with 5.0 that might be of interest.
In the Options menu under Graphics you will find with 5.0 a new setting for Brightness control. If you found the game too dark or even too light you can now adjust it to your taste with a few simple clicks. 0 is the current setting but you will have 5 steps up and 5 down that can be used and this is a combined Brightness and Contrast adjustment to bring a bit more punch to the visuals of the game if required.
The other global addition that 5.0 will bring is the display of Rounds. Currently when we finish a mission and get the breakdown of our performance and how many stars we earned you may have seen how many rounds we took to complete the mission. The game will reward us a Star if we completed the mission 10 Rounds less than the average for that mission but we were not told what the average was and we could also not see during a mission what round we was on.
With 5.0 each mission briefing screen on the Mission Menu will now display the average number of Rounds to complete that mission, which will also help us see how long that mission will normally take to play, and show us what we need to aim for the get that time Star.
When playing a mission the current Round will be displayed on the Data Display at the start of each Phase and will also be shown at the top of the Data Display when no items are resolving or are selected, when we normally get the screen prompt text. At the end of a Round we will also get a message about Round X is complete. With 5.0 we will now always be able to see what the current Round is and the greater importance of this will become clearer when we cover Skirmish mode in the Final Approach Part 2.
The V Missions
Now we move onto the main focus of this update the V Missions. With 5.0 the base game will be getting 3 new full missions comparable in size and complexity to the missions found in the 2 Mission Packs of Chapter 1. These 3 V Missions are a narrative prologue to Chapter 1 and presents the story of an attack on the research base of a Union scientific advisor and the following mission to discover who was behind it.
As with the missions in Chapter 1 each mission here will have its own unique set of objectives and challenges to give us a full set of missions that will require us to think about what we are doing and how we are going to handle the various stages of the story. And completing Mission V-3 on any skill level will also unlock the ARK, but more on that in the Final Approach Part 3.
The hostile units we will be going up against in these mission will be of 2 types. Firstly we have the familiar Vbots of the Training missions, now with the addition of a VBot Mob, which will also be added to the Training missions. And then we have the new corrupted units, who are familiar Union units that we have been using in the game now controlled by the VBot technology and turned against us.
These new corrupted units will have similar abilities to their Union originals but when they are killed we are freeing them of their VBot control and we will gain the Union version of that card. This is a new way to gain these Union units in the game but also provides us with the problem of getting rid of these cards if we don’t want to deploy them, so this gives a new resource management twist to these missions.
With the new corrupted hostile units and the other challenges presented in the V Missions these 3 missions will provide a fresh set of missions to the base game and help to show what Chapter 1 has to offer if you haven’t ventured beyond the Training Missions yet. They are not missions designed to be easier than those in Chapter 1 but are of an equal standing.
And so we have come to the end of part 1 of the Final Approach, I am currently very deep into adding content to the ARK, but in part 2 of the Final Approach we will be seeing what Skirmish mode is all about and what it will add to the base game.
In late August we shared our plan on how future Rundowns in GTFO will work – the previous ones are coming back and we will be keeping all new content as it is added. We are kicking it off where it all started, by granting access to ALT://Rundown 1.0 Deviation in a couple of weeks. All six maps in this first set of expeditions are returning, alongside old favorite weapons, but some things have changed…
ALT://Rundown 1.0 Deviation deepens the mystery of The Complex even further. Prepare to enter a new dimension of terror, where the past is reborn with sharper teeth and tougher challenges. You must remaster your skills and hone your teamwork if you are to survive this new, but familiar, nightmare.
For many prisoners, these expeditions are new horrors and we want to give you ample time to prepare for Rundown 8, which will now release after the previous ones are revisited.
With this second phase of our plan for GTFO we are committed to continuing to add on the available expeditions at any given time. While at the same time shining new light on the dark parts of The Complex, giving you even more extreme challenges.
Hi all! Today, we have released Beautiful Mystic Survivors to Steam Early Access!
This version features more characters and weapons than the Demo. We've also implemented many changes that players have suggested and we hope you'll enjoy it!
We'd like to continue hearing from players about how the game can be improved, so we've added an in-game survey, which can also be accessed from the link below. Please feel free to leave any comments, suggestions, or critique for Beautiful Survivors on our survey.
We’re happy to finally share with you this major update for Chapter 1 of Project Warlock II.
In this Level Patch (game version 0.2.7.51), we took the original six levels, split them, and rebuilt them into twelve completely revamped ones. They’re more streamlined, easier to navigate, and full of challenges. This wouldn’t be possible without your comments and feedback after playing the Early Access version and participating in our closed playtesting sessions.
This patch also marks a major shift in the direction in which we want to take Project Warlock II.
Your feedback made it clear that there are some areas from the original Project Warlock that you miss quite a lot. This convinced us to not only look for new solutions but also try to bring back and expand the mechanics that we all enjoyed in the previous game.
For example, we’re currently hard at work ironing out a perk system that will allow for bigger customization of your gameplay. These changes will have a significant impact on our roadmap and previously announced updates like reworking the weapons system. We’ll share an updated roadmap along with the next patch as it’s still under construction.
Work in progress look at the new Perk Shop
While Luke and Jerry are reworking, extending, and modifying the music to make it fit the new levels, we've already updated some tracks in this patch and added some new, unused tracks for you to listen to and make your play more fun. We're aiming at a tasteful combination of ambient and melody within each level's score. Please note that a major music rework update is yet to come!
For now, let’s get back to the Level Patch and have a look at the list of levels in Chapter 1:
E1M1 - Siege of Palmer's Castle E1M2 - The Obliterated Dungeons E1M3 - Outskirts of the Munville Forest E1M4 - The Fall of Darkville E1M5 - Wretched Ruins of Templepass E1M6 - Obelisks of Torment E1M7 - Circle Of Life and Death E1M8 - Deathly Halls of Undergate E1M9 - The Depths of Longforgotten E1M10 - The Titan Apex E1M11 - Wicked Castle Remains E1M12 - The Ethereal Abyss
New intro graphics for the levels
12 levels now become our new standard and you can expect similar numbers in the upcoming Urd’s Redemption campaign and the yet untitled Chapter 3.
One more disclaimer is needed here. The original Level 5 didn’t meet your expectations and continuously underperformed in our internal playtests. It resulted in a decision to remove it from the game completely. We’ll yet to see if it returns in some shape or form in the future.
Please note that due to the changes to the structure of levels in the game, all previous game saves became incompatible with this and future versions of Project Warlock II Early Access!
Below please find the full changelog of the Level Patch:
GLOBAL CHANGES
Split the existing levels into 12 levels
Removed level 5 completely
Overall navigation improvements
Simplified level flow with a more linear level progress path
More items spawn in every level
Miniboss encounters are now much more frequent
More big monster encounters
Removed some of the monster spawners spawning behind the player but NOT ALL as it's a design choice in some places
Enlarged a lot of areas to make the movement easier when fighting monsters
Improved various particle effects
Changed and added more music tracks
ADDITIONS
Added new bestiary entries for elite monsters (Turbo Knight, Skeletron, Hogdaddy, Ubershambler)
Added new secret cameos
Added new entering graphics for each level
Added new Lava Shader
Added new Water Shader
Added new Goo Shader
Added new glowing material to destructible goo elements
Added new 3D explosion effects and particles
BALANCE
Improved Necrogirls resurrection logic - they will now run toward the resurrected monster
Increased Skeletron projectile speed from 30m/s to 40m/s
BUGFIXES
Fixed monster landing animation issues
KNOW ISSUES (yet to be fixed)
Ghouls at the tops of the pillars in E1M11 can get stuck even after aggroing the Player
Minimap highlights blocked areas as reachable by the Player
Projectiles of Laser Rifle's Railgun upgrade may be missaligned with the crosshair/gun model
Monsters can be counted incorrectly in the intermission screen on some levels (up and down)
Human NPC kills can count towards total monster kills counter
Go and check the new and updated levels for yourself and be sure to share your thoughts on the forum and our official Discord! All feedback is welcome and most helpful in improving the game.
Please leave a Steam review if you enjoy the game as it helps us in reaching new players.
Also, don't miss our special Boomer Shooter Friends Forever live stream on Tuesday, October 18, at 12 PM PDT / 3 PM EDT / 9 PM CEST. Kuba Cisło, the creator of Project Warlock, YouTuber GmanLives, and host Jared R. Bair will talk about their favorite classic and modern shooters, the boomer shooter renaissance, and more. You'll also have a chance to win the limited edition Project Warlock PC Big Box!
