Hello explorers! The general concept of progression will remain the same. Equipment, missions, and some special features will gradually unlock as players increase their Security Level (SL). To increase SL, you need to complete a Top-priority mission. But before such a mission becomes available, you'll need to tackle a few simple ones. In ITR2, the way Top-priority missions unlock will change slightly. Instead of completing x missions, you'll need to accumulate x points. Different missions yield different points. This means a player can complete 5 easy missions or 2 hard ones to unlock a Top-priority mission. As SL rises, players will have more missions to choose from. The gameplay state of the Radius is also closely tied to SL progression. It's not auto-leveling per se, more so reshaping and expanding the world of the Radius as players progress. Let's dive into some examples: - An explorer with SL1 ventures into Location 1 and encounters two simple enemies. - An explorer with SL3 revisits the same spot. Apart from the previous enemies, they find a couple of mimics sitting on a roof. -- OR they stumble upon a patrol of mimics, armed with pistols and shotguns. -- OR the spot where monsters were before is now a cluster of anomalies with artifacts. Another example with anomalies: - An explorer with SL1 reaches an anomaly cluster where they can find one artifact. - An explorer with SL3 returns to the same cluster and faces new dangers, but now there are two artifacts to discover. -- OR the anomalies remain the same but are covered by a Distortion Zone (the name is a WIP, we’ll share more in the future). -- OR there is no cluster at all. The composition of enemies, anomalies, and artifacts will depend on the base difficulty of the location. You won't encounter the most dangerous enemies in the first location, except maybe very rarely and only at max SL. The same goes for loot, especially artifacts. As SL increases, loot quality goes up, but not drastically. At early locations, you might find more valuable items, but never as valuable as in later ones. We want to maintain the feeling of player progression. The deeper you venture into the Radius, the more dangerous it gets. But you can always return to earlier locations to feel big and strong ;) Additionally, we aim for more variety and diversity in the game. Returning to early locations might be easier, but you'll encounter new combinations of enemies and anomalies, keeping things interesting. At Early Access launch, this system will be present but simplified, as some elements like enemies, artifacts, and anomalies are not fully developed yet. A bit about missions themselves. We've completely revamped their structure. Now each mission consists of sequential steps, each requiring specific actions from the player - go to a location, deliver an item, activate an object, kill enemies, and so on. The complexity of a mission depends on the number of steps, and the harder it is, the more steps it’ll include. Within missions, various scripted events can occur, such as enemies and/or anomalies spawning in. Another small but important change: occasionally, in addition to “money”, you'll receive items as rewards for missions. At EA launch, there will be four types of mission steps available, from which all initial EA missions will be constructed. The number of steps will gradually increase over time. What did you think of this diary entry? What other topics would you like us to cover in the future? Be sure to let us know, and we’ll see you in the Radius! [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44777179/7d97c12fe4f9e4d836eabf8b485560119e2b010c.png[/img] [h2]Previous Diary Entries[/h2] [expand type=showmore] https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2307350/view/4177728231403944325 https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2307350/view/4181104663292221332 https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2307350/view/4193488293621894543?l=english https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2307350/view/4115799931687545740?l=english https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2307350/view/4130435365852766085?l=english https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2307350/view/4194610392076293661?l=english https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2307350/view/4059501135884135951?l=english https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2307350/view/3996449472307187236?l=english https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2307350/view/5797888151162063655?l=english https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2307350/view/3862464213256385055?l=english [/expand] [url=https://discord.gg/itr style=button]Join our Discord[/url] [url=https://www.reddit.com/r/intotheradius/ style=button]Join our Subreddit[/url] [url=https://twitter.com/intotheradius style=button]Follow on Twitter[/url]