Hello fellow challengers! First of all happy new year to you! Hopefully better than 2020. After 2 months of radio silence we can finally say... it’s here ! Well, not yet... but close enough! So first of all, you want some preview, don’t you? [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/37945100/014445e7c74e2f6c138a5bb5bd2cad2ade44fe27.gif[/img] Everything is not yet perfect, but as you can see there are a lot of changes pretty much everywhere, so let’s start getting into all the details. The Hangar has been totally reworked to fit the needs of the new gameplay. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/37945100/98a873c701dde2f2af3c7f7fa109ef570bf04126.gif[/img] Create a preset, choose a pilot, edit the ship, and give it a fancy name to remember it. After that, you only have to choose the preset before playing. It allows different playstyles without needing to reselect the pilot all the time. Also, the Hangar now has an “editor” screen in which you can edit your preset by selecting each module of your ship. Every module has to be discovered, earned, or crafted through the Forge. Sadly, that screen and the Tech-tree are the last screens that still require some heavy work so we won’t show them today. Every screen has some modifications, so we can’t add a screenshot of every modification as it will be a lot to show for some “minor stuff”. Let’s focus on what changes the most! [h2]Gameplay Changes[/h2] As you can guess, we worked a lot on this new modular system, and it brings some huge changes to the gameplay. The ships now have a Hull, which gave it a health point system (HP). Now, when the ball hits your ship, the ship loses some HP and is destroyed only if the HP reaches 0. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/37945100/8d72e4f52d1149e5430c1ec5da4be44eb72d0746.gif[/img] The shield is still a feature in the game, and some ships will rely more on the hull than shields, and vice-versa. The Shield will bounce the ball, while the Hull just makes a small bump. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/37945100/b17b7f97d735ce5bdfad4b9892dc0fd009b8d183.gif[/img] Hull increase the HP of the ship, so it is more resistant to ball collisions. Every ship has a minimum of 100 HP even without a Hull. But by default ships don't have a Shield, this depends on the choice you make about which modules you are using, so let’s talk about that. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/37945100/d5ce651b506b8e965ccb6038e10843e51ea35683.gif[/img] As you can see on the screen you can add up to 6 modules, but only 4 are mandatory to make a ship valid and playable. [list] [*]Reactor: this is the core of your ship, it gives the base power and main statistics [*]Thrusters: it affects how the ship moves and the speed that it moves [*]Battery: it is what holds power generated by the reactor. It allows for better shields or projectiles. Think about this like the “mana” of your ship (kind of) [*]Weapon: this defines how the ship shoots, the fire mode, fire rate, etc.. [*]Hull (optional): the hull determines the amount of HP, with no hull your ship will have 100HP [*]Shield (optional): it works as it did before - this module determines the amount of shields, the power and can change the shape of the shields [/list] [h3]Limitations, control, meta?[/h3] To limit the power of the ships we added a “energy consumption” system (you can see it on the previous gif). Each module costs a defined amount of points. This will be used to balance the game. A ship can handle 10 points, so basically, if you want all 6 modules on your ship at the same time, you will be able to use 4 modules with a cost of 2 points, and 2 modules with a cost of 1 point. If you want a super-powerful-insane shot power (like the Aztec), you will have to use a 6 points weapon module, and dedicate the 4 points to reactor, thrusters and battery. No shield, no hull, as it was before. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/37945100/a9e7666cd1e0b2b79298f9b99b58c96d9175e71f.png[/img] Balance will be easier to handle and will mostly depend on your playstyle and skill. [h2]Ranked Mode[/h2] We know most of you asked for it - the ranked mode is still not done and that’s why we can’t release it yet. Here are the ranks icons [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/37945100/1ba4a56ca12bb19418b2e1ef30e7fc89e0cbf7b9.png[/img] And we can share with you some of the arenas we’ve created. Each rank as a different arena! [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/37945100/646e17de6b84e03eb6c3fa23b0393cd69a73fc2a.png[/img] It will work like most of the games out there - ranks are bronze, silver, gold, platinum, diamond and challenger. [h2]So, When is it Live Then?[/h2] As we need to finish some features and debug most of this new stuff, we will release the 0.3 version in a “beta-branch” on Steam. The servers of the beta-branch will be online only during streaming events held once a week, every Wednesday. If it sounds pretty harsh, and we sincerely apologize about it, we want the maximum of players at the same time, while we are working, this allows us to check the servers, bugs, and fix the maximum of things in the fastest way possible. But please don’t mind, this won't last forever. And once the game is stable, it will go live! Of course we need the maximum of players to help us stress test, crash servers, and get feedback. If everything goes as planned, this will start next Wednesday, the January 27th around 3PM GMT.