Our apologies this monthly update has run a little late due to some team travel. April was a massively productive month with the entire team at work adding content, balancing, tuning and working hard on spreading the new UX across the game. We're getting closer to our big Alpha v2 return every day. Another big month with lots of progress toward the next major milestone, Early Access release! So, let's check out some highlights from April!

Twitchy and Blendy!

Our animator has been hard at work improving and polishing the games animation as well as catching up on animation areas where we have been lacking. Three big categories that needed work were idle twitch, getting hit and dodging animations, which have now both been added to the game during April. For idle animations, were excited to see how much it helps the natural feeling of all the turn-based actors in a level to have them looking around, checking their weapons and checking their corners.
For both hit and dodge, weve used a mix of additive animation layers which give us the ability to add the animation on top of any other animation. Characters or enemies running through overwatch fields can react to taking hits mid-stride or those who dodge can duck low and throw their hand up a defensive posture while sprinting across the field. In addition, for animations like taking hits were blending between 8 different animations depending on the exact direction of the hit to give the best-looking results.

Exciting Class / Talent Updates

In the latest iteration of the alpha, we had just 40 Talents spread across 5 classes. When we come back online, were aiming to have rewritten and added a total of 60 Talents to massively expand your build options and create more and more excellent options in your kit. The current plan for Early Access launch includes 6 classes and 90 Talents, averaging 15 killer abilities each. Here are some highlights we worked on in April -- A Knight can now spike the quantum countermeasure signal from their spinal rider to create an Atomic Stutter and stop a human or drone target in their tracks at range for a few seconds. This burst signal cant be repeated rapidly but the Stunning effect at range is a powerful piece in the Knights kit. In the case that your Vanguard is spotted by security, their passive Overdrive Talent will kick in to boost their Initiative. With a major Initiative boost, youll be the first to take action on the next Turn or if youre slated to act later in the Turn you may jump the line and become first in the Initiative timeline and immediately its your turn to act. Surprise! Soldiers are hardened leaders on the battlefield, and their Roll With It passive Talent allows them to automatically reduce incoming damage from a hit before it is applied to their armor. With extra level points dedicated to build up Roll With It, you can train this Talent to the point of negating a ranged hit completely. There are multiple ways to cut IC when hacking the matrix but one of them is just to unleash devastating attacks, spinning out scripted mayhem in an all-out assault on the enemy network. Hackers who take this aggressive approach can now buy themselves some momentary cover from spiking Quantum Security Tally by using training up their passive Scapegoat Talent which allows them to reroute and cancel out some of the incoming Tally.

AI Testing and Simulation Tools

This month, weve been building out some additional simulation tools that let us play with the AIs decision making and choice trees outside of the regular game context. This lets us test and iterate faster on these important decision points and also to drop these simulation tools into any level at any stage of production-- from basic block out to fully decorated and completed -- to see how the AI would react to different areas and scenarios. This is key as it allows us to embed the AI thinking into very complex 3D scenarios and understand what it might to do to both better tweak the decision making process or the level itself. One such simulation tool just shows the sight range rules for any given position within a map.
Another simulation tool calculates how an AI will consider flanking depending, given its position and player position.
Another simulation plans an AI's hunting routine, the process by which it will approach a security event (looking for a dead guard, heard something suspicious, was that gunfire?) and how they will path back and forth across the area in question seeking enemy contact for a number of turns.

Reward and Stretch Goal Progress

For completeness, we include the progress bar infographic in each and every update. If you have any questions about rewards or stretch goals, check out the graphic or reach out to us. Were continuing to work on and refine the design of the Digital Artbook pages and push this reward toward completion. We are also working on the Lore Book and finding ways that more of its content can end up in the games Journal screens.