Greetings fellow Thorn members! We are excited to announce that our 5th playtest, "The One with Character Progression" is officially live! As the name suggests, this playtest brings a new skill tree to the game which allows you to customize your experience in an entirely new way. Hop in starting RIGHT NOW through to 1PM EDT on July 27th. Full patch notes are below! --------- [h3]Skill Tree System Added[/h3] [list] [*] A skill tree has been added to the game. You can access it by pressing K when not in combat. [*] Currently, only Vivian has a skill tree, and not all skills are implemented for the demo. [*] You are given 20 Skill Points to allocate to the tiers of the various skills available. Not all skills will be available in one run, but we’d love to hear about the paths & choices you make with Vivian! [*] Skills on the skill tree fall into Passive, Active and Reflex categories. [*] Passive skills increase the Thorn’s base statistics in various ways [*] Active skills improve the Thorn’s unique Special Abilities, in Vivian’s case it is her Hologram [*] Reflex skills improve the Thorn’s Reflex Actions, such as Overwatch or Kill Assist for Vivian. [/list] [h3]The following skills and tiers are available in the skill tree for the demo:[/h3] [list] [*] Motivated: (5 tiers) Base Action point count increased by 2 AP [*] Nerves of Steel: (3 tiers) Accuracy while suppressed improves by 4% [*] Health Insurance: (5 tiers) Maximum health increases by 50 HP [*] Protective Layer: (5 tiers) The Thorn is given shields at base strength [*] Throwing Arm: (5 tiers) Cost for tossing Holograms decreases by 1 AP [*] Bullet Sponge: (5 tiers) The Hologram’s maximum health increases by 50 HP. [*] Critical Mass: (5 tiers) Chance of critical damage during Kill Assist increased by 20% [*] Eagle Eyed: (5 tiers) Cost for laying down an Overwatch decreases by 1 AP [*] Trigger Happy: (5 tiers) Ability to shoot during Kill Assist increased by 30% [*] Stay On Target: (5 tiers) Ability to shoot during an Overwatch increases by 30% [*] Killer Instinct: (1 tier) Vivian becomes efficient at sensing when enemies are weakened, triggering her Kill Assist reflex before they become critically injured. [/list] [h3]Reflex System Overhaul[/h3] [list] [*] The Reflex system has been overhauled to be more user-friendly. [*] When triggering a reflex action such as Scramble, Kill Assist, Covering Fire, or Proximity Punch, the game will now pause and present a UI with the option to confirm or cancel the Reflex action. [*] When accepting the Reflex action, the camera will bring you straight to the Thorn initiating the action. [*] After accepting the action, you have a second opportunity to opt out of it by pressing spacebar to preserve the Thorn’s Reflex Token of another situation. [/list] [h3]Other Changes/Additions:[/h3] [list] [*] A button to skip cutscenes has been added. Hold the spacebar to skip cutscenes. [*] Aim view has been remapped to right click by default. Spacebar now cancels actions. [*] The scroll wheel now changes floors, rather than adjusting camera pitch. [*] Thorns now Revive automatically outside of combat. [*] Audio occlusion updates - sounds should now reflect the character’s location in the map & inside buildings more accurately, especially in third person view. [/list] [h3]Known Issues:[/h3] [list] [*] Holding the middle mouse button to move the camera when a cinematic begins can cause the cursor to behave erratically. Click the middle mouse button again once back in gameplay to fix the cursor. [*] Dylan’s Taunt ability doesn’t currently taunt enemies as intended, and they will still attack other units. [*] Canceling movement with the spacebar is not currently working as expected. Movement actions can be canceled easily by entering/exiting aim view. [*] Enemies can sometimes still display as their red “last known position” visual when they should be within player line of sight. [*] There is a rare chance of a crash during loading or restarting missions on lower end hardware. Usually if attempted a second time the game will load correctly. [*] There is a rare chance of a soft-lock when triggering multiple reflex actions close together. This is likely to happen when a proximity punch is triggered at the same time as a kill assist. [*] Thorns currently have a hard time following the leader in out of combat mode. This can lead to rare cases where one of the Thorns does not follow you into the combat zone & you won’t be able to split up your units to set up for the fight. As a work-around, you can return to their location & then re-enter the combat zone. [*] Throwing items can be finicky and might not always work as intended, especially when the Thorn is close to obstacles. [*] Vivian’s Kill Assist can trigger from enemies that are not in her line of sight. [*] Proximity Punch can trigger from enemies traversing ladders causing time dilation before they can be targeted. [/list]