Hello everyone! Another month, another set of updates. Tonight's one includes another 4 new maps, bringing that total up to 21 playable. Our goal was to hit 20 so we're in good shape there. About half of them still need some minor reworking, and a few are short on set dressing but they're all playable and in pretty good shape. If there's time we'd like to squeeze in another couple of maps but for now we're switching to full production on the campaign missions. You'll notice that there's some new structures on the maps, and a nasty surprise on some when the alarm is sounded. We finally have the new 'panic walls' in engine and partially implemented on the maps. These retractable walls are passable by enemy units but remain closed for the player, so it's possible to put yourself in a real deathtrap, especially if you're not specced to deal environment damage. The only way to drop them back down is by destroying all power substations on a map. Most times they'll be clustered together but not always... Additionally, destroying all radio stations will dramatically increase the time required for enemy units to spot the player and sound the alarm (currently we don't have any indicators for either of these on the HUD but we'll get those in soon). We're hoping these new elements will help make the decision-making during missions more interesting, and to provide the player with more challenging but entertaining situations when things inevitably go wrong.
(a radio substation surrounded by panic walls) I've removed the "Tears of the Ancestors" mission for now, partly because we learned what we needed from it and partly because my current overhaul of the Corvids means that the balance on that mission was completely out of wack. My hope is to have a playable draft of *all* Corvid vehicles by next wednesday, at which point we'll swap them out for the Loyalists as the enemy faction in 'Free Mode'. While I'm overhauling the Loyalist units we'll start building Corvid based missions, and once I've finished the Loyalist refit we'll bring them back into the 'Free Mode' rotation and start building the Loyalist missions as well. Ditto for the Spacers after the Loyalists. New sound is still a ways out-- there's a lot of ground work that has to be laid and things are made more difficult for the audio guys because of how much we're still changing elements in the game. All the puzzle pieces are fast coming together though so you should see an explosion of new content starting soon. However, that major optimization I mentioned before is now in, and should noticeably improve performance, particularly on older machines. We're hoping to still do some more optimizations down the road but for now this is a big step. The plan going forward is to finalize combat elements and get the skeleton of the campaign in place. Personally I'm shooting to have a playable draft of all enemy units and weapons completed by the end of this month, and we also hope to have a skeleton of the campaign in place by then as well. From there it's getting money / unlocks / metagame sorted out, and fleshing out more of the fun parts like pilots and playable vehicles. We're getting closer and closer to the end, and we really appreciate you all sticking with us. As always, let us know what you think about new changes in the forums, and please tell your friends about Brigador if you like it! Thanks!