[img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38753232/0941a0a5e70e57233c5c71835e31f49b35faa6a6.jpg[/img] [h1]Public Demo[/h1] [b]The public demo is almost here![/b] Hostile Mars is excited to participate in the Steam Tower Defense Festival, featuring our latest demo! The festival kicks off on July 29th, but you can dive into the action early with [b]the public demo going live on July 26th[/b]. Get ready to defend Home Base! If you experienced our last public demo, prepare for a whole new adventure! This demo has been completely overhauled from top to bottom, with revamped game mechanics, enhanced enemy behaviors, and a host of new features. Get ready to dive into an even more thrilling and immersive Martian battlefield! Let's take a look at the things we've been working on for the past month: [h1]The Ripper[/h1] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38753232/6c7db7c3c5ae26674e33a04679571a33895e833f.gif[/img] We've been crafting a weapon that truly captures the essence of Hostile Mars. With our focus on battling massive waves of enemies and physics-based interactions, we've created "The Ripper." The game kicks off with The Ripper as your primary utility weapon. Originally designed for repairing and debugging live robots, this versatile tool can disassemble bots into pieces for inspection. It also throws scraps too heavy to move manually into storage or recycling bins. But here's the twist: The Ripper can be easily modified to pull enemies in close, tear them apart, and hurl the pieces at other bots! Upgrades allow The Ripper to pull in more enemies and shoot more scraps per shot. It's an incredibly satisfying weapon to wield, and we're continually refining it to ensure it feels fantastic and scales seamlessly with the increasing waves of enemies. Get ready to rip through the robotic hordes with style! [h1]Attack Token Changes[/h1] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38753232/1ff82d6ffea5b8fb6a7123fb3b4ed035c06319e2.gif[/img] We've enhanced the attack token system, which balances combat by limiting simultaneous enemy attacks. Previously, all enemies shared a global token budget, making it hard for all enemy types to get a chance to attack in large groups. Now, each enemy type has its own attack group with a private budget, ensuring more balanced and engaging combat. Enemies can still use the shared budget, but if depleted, they rely on their group's budget. This update allows for fine-tuning the number of attacks from each enemy type, making battles with mixed enemy groups more dynamic and exciting. [h1]Aggro Changes[/h1] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38753232/7ef47066d4d8c583e2439d47c6c25b693be31559.gif[/img] Up until recently, the enemies would aggro the player whenever they were in range, no matter what. This meant the player could easily stop the entire wave from progressing by standing in range of the path as enemies would try to reach the player instead of going for the core. And this worked even when hundreds of enemies were around. We've changed the aggro behavior to limit how many enemies will take the aggro at once, using the attack token system described above. This resulted in much better interactions when getting too close to the swarm, most of it will continue going for the core as some enemies stay behind to take care of any pesky player bothering them ! [h1]Management Mode[/h1] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38753232/8e7066a2d14eecfa09df52b755a74149e16fd98a.gif[/img] We've revamped Build Mode, now called Management Mode, with a cleaner UI. The interface has moved from a vertical stack to a bottom row, freeing up screen space. Category tabs are smaller with clearer icons, and material costs are shown only when hovering over items. This is our first pass, with more improvements to come based on feedback. [h1]Home Base Designs[/h1] We are building out home base to fit with the wave structure of the game and this is the central power generator! [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38753232/9c9dea4eb54afa0c3e50aab2d606c5b8cc8e901f.jpg[/img] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38753232/e8a5f561f8204cf83fdb30d2851ab227f3ed4aee.jpg[/img] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38753232/6df4df7d1dccaebceb82bc0b121952bd5c014d08.jpg[/img] [h1]More Art[/h1] Mahines, Turrets, and Crates. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38753232/23118be89e3a3dc8422179afbcbd826d9cf15ffe.jpg[/img] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38753232/0737500cdb154aed59f885f3bd039587acaeaf18.jpg[/img] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38753232/792f0f58e59855728b65f631e9a939df9fd726a9.jpg[/img] [h1]Building Health[/h1] Health for structures has been implemented more robustly and now shows on the prompt when viewing an object's cursor prompt. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38753232/a6d581ebb25f92406d81617abcd21a229b5246f2.gif[/img] [h2]Refining the Machines and Crafting System[/h2] We've been hard at work tuning our machines and crafting system to seamlessly integrate with Hostile Mars' intense gameplay. Each type of enemy scrap can be used towards smelting two different metal types, giving you the freedom to choose which resource to extract from each enemy. Additionally, certain traps can yield both resources from each enemy type, emphasizing the importance of home base design and strategic resource collection. The better you design your base, the more resources you'll harvest from each wave, enabling you to build and upgrade with even higher efficiency. Get ready to optimize your base and turn enemy scraps into Martian treasures! [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38753232/d8735a6bae25614eea803a49f2aaa78ee12593e1.gif[/img] That's it for this dev log. If you want to keep up with development, join us on Discord: https://discord.gg/Xd88eF8Teg Take Care, -HM Team