Hello everyone! I hope you are all doing well heading into the summer season :) Over the past few weeks since the multiplayer test, I have been gearing the update up for the live release coming in July. This includes applying the various tech improvements to the actual game now that we've been able to fully test them, and prepping the content portion of this update. Now with most of that prep work done, I'm able to announce the release date for this update. It will be released on July 26th, alongside the Steam Tower Defense festival. Thank you to everyone who has waited patiently these last 6 months and allowed me to make this update properly. It is pretty much an entire overhaul of the game now, with a plethora of improvements and new content additions across the board, all building on the amazing feedback you've provided. Below is a list that outlines what is making it into this update. While this is not at all an exhaustive list, it should hopefully paint a picture of just how big this update truly is...

Gameplay Enhancements (new to live release):

A list of some of the gameplay enhancements coming in this update. These are changes or additions to the game you'll notice and interact with directly. (the below list is new to the live release)

• New region, Phantom Plains, with an entirely new tech tree. Challenge of this region mainly revolves around scanning, as there's a thick haze covering the region making the enemies in it hidden.
• Steam achievements, with cosmetic unlocks tied to them in-game. (see below)
• Decoration tiles and a new color brush utility, letting you add more personality to your base.
• New strategic outpost mechanics, including internal simulations for each outpost. (for example, attacking the resource supply chain to it's generator array will shut the outpost offline)
• New offensive gunship units to aid in attacking outposts. Can be commanded or controlled.
• New logistical units to aid in long-range high-throughput resource distribution.
• Variety of new resources with more interesting logistical challenges associated with them.
• New unique defense mechanics, including turrets that can stun, push, and even convert enemies.
• New miscellaneous buildings to help with designing your base, such as beacons and signs.
• A plethora of balance changes across the board, altering pretty much all building stats and costs.
• New settings menu, with many more settings to tweak the game to your liking.

Gameplay Enhancements (previously mentioned):

A list of some of the gameplay enhancements coming in this update. These are changes or additions to the game you'll notice and interact with directly. (the below list has been mentioned previously)

• Multiplayer, join forces with friends on a shared world with up to 10 other players.
• New control scheme with dedicated control modes. Supports click to drag camera movement.
• Improved drone logic, with better conditional checks and far more logical decision making.
• Drone route connection previewing, showing the specific route a drone will take.
• Redesigns on most of the UI, for better clarity & more intuitive navigation.
• Predictive aiming for turrets, letting them lead shots to be far more accurate on moving targets.
• Refactor of the resource storage & management system, removing resource restrictions in place of a locally shared repositories, as well as removing resource tier restrictions.
• New defenses that require ammunition in order to fire. Used on stronger defenses.
• Numerous shader improvements that will help overall clarity, notably on regional boosters.
• Variety of new sound effects to give your base more life (i.e. drone ports opening & closing)
• New resource x-ray utility, allowing you to see the resources stored in each building at a glance.
• And a variety of other smaller improvements, too many to list!

Technical Enhancements:

A list of all the technical enhancements to the back end of the game. These won't be directly visible, but will be felt through general performance improvements and a far better development stream.

• New database & library system, replacing the old clunky library system. Whilst the old library system had it's benefits, it was very prone to errors and very inefficient.
• Component refactor; a complete overhaul to how entity logic is defined and applied. Will speed up the development of new content exponentially, and offer extensive modding support in the future.
• Vastly improved entity simulation, with the removal of the dynamic update rate in place of much more aggressive logic culling on certain entities. Reduces the active entity count substantially.
• New metadata system, which can capture entity metadata globally or locally. This will be useful when producing entity clusters (i.e. outposts) and be used heavily in the copy + paste utility.
• Update save system with better save-state capturing, storing entity conditions which were not previously stored in the old system (i.e. drone positions & action state)
• New sound system, creating more localized sound instances & interactivity by utilizing a simulated 3D environment based on spatial blending.
• New model animation system, for defining animation groups which can be interacted with from each entities script. Currently used by turrets, and will be expanded on in upcoming versions.
• Pretty much all reported bugs on the v0.1 branch have been fixed, either by addressing them directly or fixing them indirectly through other technical improvements.
• Upgraded engine from 2021 LTS to 2022 LTS. This was mainly done as Unity has dropped support for 2021 LTS, and I plan to continue supporting Vectorio well into the future, even after full release.

If you have any questions or concerns, please do let me know. Once this update is out, further updates will come out at a much more reasonable pace now that most of the tech debt behind the game has been paid off. It took much longer than anticipated, but I firmly believe will pay off in the long run. I'm super excited to see everyone get their hands on this update, it's truly a beast in of itself and has turned Vectorio into something much bigger then I think anyone originally expected! ~ Ben P.S. You can grab Vectorio for 20% off right now during the Summer Sale! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2082350/Vectorio/