Hello everyone! I hope you are all enjoying v0.2 and everything new it has to offer. Well there's certainly some rough edges with the patch, I think it's still been a major success and is setting us up nicely for the next year of development, which is going to be a lot more action packed then Year 1! Speaking of, this post is aimed at covering what we accomplished in Year 1, what the immediate priorities are moving into Year 2, and how the rest of this year is shaping up. So let's get into it!

Year 1 | A slow, but very important start

The first year of development has been quite slow, with only 2 major updates during this time...

v0.1.4 (Power Rework)

The first major update was back in December, which was v0.1.4 (Power Rework) and was aimed at remedying some of the initial feedback from launch. Main Features:

• Complete refactor of the power and heat system.
• New generator mechanics, making them require resources to produce power.
• Removed collection mode and collector drones from the game
• Multiple hotbars, and the ability to quick scroll through them using left-control.
• Refactored gamemode handling to run everything through a central main scene.
• New backend stat system for handling entity stats
• Multiple refactors and updates to many of the manager scripts

Read more: https://steamcommunity.com/games/2082350/announcements/detail/3870345047346075562 This update was received relatively well, but also received some very fair criticisms which mainly revolved around the continued state of inconsistent stability and poor performance. These have since both been improved in v0.2, but clearly with still a lot more work to be done.

v0.2.0 (The Big One)

The second major update was just released last week at the tail end of Year 1, which was the long-awaited v0.2. This is, and likely always will be the single most important update to the game from a foundational standpoint, laying the ground work for what will come next in Year 2 and beyond. Main Features:

• Multiplayer, join forces with friends on a shared world with up to 10 other players.
• New region, Phantom Plains, with an entirely new tech tree.
• Control schemes. with dedicated control modes. Supports click to drag camera movement.
• Strategic outpost mechanics, including internal simulations for each outpost.
• Variety of new resources with more complex recipes, requiring efficient drone networks.
• New settings menu, with many more settings to tweak the game to your liking.
• 50+ new stat modifiers to adjust, and a few new modifier presets to try and tackle.
• Drone route connection previewing, showing the specific route a drone will take.
• Predictive aiming for turrets, letting them lead shots to be far more accurate on moving targets.
• Defenses that require ammunition in order to fire. Used on stronger defenses.
• Resource x-ray utility, allowing you to see the resources stored in each building at a glance.

Foundational Work:

• 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.
• 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.

Read more: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2082350/view/4355629296426465953 While it's still a bit too early to tell, the reception to this update seems positive, with the main concern still being on the continued poor stability in game. This is something that I am well aware of on my end, and will be my main focus leading into Year 2. Speaking of concerns, let's discuss refund data!

Learning from reviews & refunds

Below I have compiled a ranked list of the most frequent feedback & complaints in reviews and refunds, including some notes from myself on what steps I'll be taking to remedy them... 1. Bugs and Technical Issues

• Prioritize bug fixing, especially ones introduced in v0.2 relating to multiplayer
• Optimize rendering performance and reduce draw-calls
• Reduce load times when getting into a world
• Continue to iterate on general gameplay stability

2. Complicated Gameplay / Steep Learning Curve

• Streamline core mechanics and introduce them more gradually
• Add more context & information to the game (i.e. resource info)
• Redo the tutorial system, as many people find the current one frustrating

3. Unmet Expectations

• Clarify game description and marketing materials to illustrate differences from Classic
• Do a better job highlighting unique features that differentiate it from similar games

4. Lack of Content / Early Access State

• Communicate more clearly the current state of early access and what the planned features are
• Regularly update the game, instead of having these huge gaps between updates

5. Missing Multiplayer

• Done!

6. Repetitive or Boring Gameplay

• Introduce more variety in gameplay element, especially when it comes to logistics.
• Consider adding challenges or more bite-sized objectives to maintain engagement

7. Lack of Guidance

• Clearly define goal posts for the player to work towards
• Add more tooltips and general information to the game to help aid newer players

8. Visual Issues

• Offer more color palette options or a colorblind mode
• Do additional research on more accessibility options for the game

9. Control Scheme

• Continue to iterate on the control scheme for the game, making it more user-friendly
• Add more ways to customize the control scheme to the players liking

10. Balance and Difficulty Issues

• Fine-tune game balance, especially when it comes to heat vs. power scaling
• Implement more difficulty settings that can help players adjust the game to their liking

To me this indicates three main points of interest to improve upon immediately going into Year 2, which are Stability, Guidance, and Balance. That's why for the next few weeks I will be fully dedicated to fixing bugs, iterating on game balance, adding more contextual information, and redoing the tutorial. I'll have more details to follow on this soon, but that leads us into the main point of this post...

Year 2 | What's the plan?

Right now I am still laying out the general roadmap for this year, which includes what I want to achieve by the end of this year (that being, this time next year) and where I hope we will be.

What do you want to see first?

However, It's important that I involve you, the community, in this decision. You guys are the ones that play the game, and that means I want to deliver the content & features you're most interested in. As such, below I've linked a poll which you can vote on for what you want to see first. Poll: https://strawpoll.com/7rnzVmKMdnO
For those that wish to view this list here before voting, or simply not vote, these features are...

• Modular Gunships: Design, deploy, and direct your own fleet of hand-crafted gunships.
• Cargo Freighters: Adding new types of long-range transportation methods to the mix.
• Building Animations: Creating animations that will make your base feel more alive.
• Decorations & Colors: More decoration blocks and the color-brush utility tool.
• Logistics V2: An overhaul of the logistics system, with more tools & unique challenges.
• Enemies V2: Improving the enemy AI logic and implementing enemy outpost construction.
• Frigid Fields: The next region, which brings temperature management & obstacles.
• Phantom Plains V2: Updating the plains region with more content & FOW-based challenges.
• World Gen V3: The worlds are still missing little details that will make exploration more rewarding, and I believe one more iteration on this system will remedy that.
• Upgrade System: Adding the ability to upgrade buildings & defenses with different modules.
• Turret Labs: The new challenge-based game mode, something different from adventure.
• Cosmetics / Skins: New unlockable drip for your buildings and units.

This list is by no means inclusive of everything I want to achieve this year, but this is the general outline I will be following for delivering new content & features. I believe these will all drastically enhance the overall gameplay experience, and build on the foundational work done in Year 1. Note: The goal is to deliver ALL of these features, the poll is meant for you to choose which features are more important to you and that you'd like to see first!

So what's next?

The immediate priority is bug fixing. In order for these features to hit and be enjoyed upon their arrival, the game needs to, well... function. So over the next few weeks you can expect continuous patches and hotfixes to a lot of the current stability issues on live, as well as balance changes & additional UI info. If anyone would like to discuss any of these planned features further, please don't hesitate to reach out to me below or on our Discord, Like always, I try to read every message, even if I don't respond! Discord: https://discord.gg/vectorio Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a lovely rest of your summer :) ~ Ben