Content Update 07 - Out Now!

Greetings Mercs!

It's time to gear up for another major content update to Dead Grid. Update 7 is packed with exciting new toys, so let's break it all down!

DEAD GRID - BUILD 0.9.0

NEW WEAPON MECHANIC: FLAMETHROWER

• Flamethrowers are designed for mid to late game enemies with high health pools, dealing damage to the percent of total HP instead of a flat number.
• Flamethrowers set enemies on fire, offering a defensive layer by blinding the enemy.
• Flamethrowers use a new ammo type, called Fuel.
• Just like other firearms, flamethrowers can be further trained in or upgraded in the Armory.
• Flamethrowers come in multiple unique variants with special abilities.
  
  
  
  

NEW UPGRADE CONDITION: PRISTINE

• A new item condition (color) has been added to allow upgrades beyond Exceptional (purple).
• Pristine items can be upgraded in the Armory, but unique items are still excluded.
• The upgrade path of the 6 conditions is as follows:
  DEGRADED -> STANDARD -> IMPROVED -> FINE-TUNED -> EXCEPTIONAL -> PRISTINE
  

NEW SKILL TOOL TIPS

• Many skills now have additional tool tips to further explain the associated mechanics.
• These extra tool tips can be disabled in Game Settings, under the Camp tab.
  

SKILL CHANGES

• LEADER - Combat Medic: Now removes poisoned.
• LEADER - Replenishment: Now removes bleeding.
• COMMANDO - Flanking Maneuver: Increased the trigger chance by 5% for all ranks.
• COMMANDO - Grenadier: all new skill, replacing Viper.
• ENFORCER - Closure: Increased the trigger chance by 5% for all ranks.
• TACTICIAN - Recalibration: Reworked to offer improved benefits on failed Recalibraiton procs.
• TACTICIAN - Lead Them Away: Slightly reworked the original skill to offer multiple benefits.
• TACTICIAN - Weak Point: Reworked the secondary mechanics of the skill, it can now also stack.
• TACTICIAN - Dynamite: reduced turns to explode from 2 to 1.
• TACTICIAN - Inferno: completely reworked the skill mechanic.
• TACTICIAN - Flare Gun: reworked draw and noise mechanics.
• TACTICIAN - Jenny: all new skill, replacing Meat Decoy.
• TACTICIAN - Firebug: new skill, replacing Siphoned Petrol
• TACTICIAN - Lure: completely reworked the skill mechanic (no change to achievements).
• TACTICIAN - Observer (reworked old skill Quick Learner) now remembers the last drawn skill from a a past encounter allowing for an early combo setup.
  
  
  
  

ARMORY

• Added 2 new sections for Revenant and Flamethrower weapons.
• Added all new weapon icons for a cleaner look.
• Armory upgrade points no longer drop a static value of +5, +10, +15, etc.
• Points are now generated with a range, based on the rarity of the armory drop.
  
  

GEAR MANAGEMENT

• Added a new SELL ALL AMMO button, above the SELL VALUABLES button.
• Trader always resets cards to the BUY list when changing between tabs with SELL or BUY BACK selected. This was a frequently requested feature in feedback.
• Last selected gear sorting option is now restored when returning to camp from a mission, another frequent feedback item.
• Added an additional option to change the upgrade animation to help players who are not aware this
  option exists in Game Settings.
• All mercs now have a variety of different idle animations, depending on the gear.
  
  

NEW SURVIVOR GREETINGS

All survivors joining your camp come with a short greeting message.

NEW ASSIGNMENT PROGRESSION

• Assignments progression has been completely reworked.
• Survivors no longer offer the same assignments twice, but assignments cost reputation to start.
• Survivors offer a chained sequence of assignments with appropriate rewards.
• A new Personal Log has been added to show the lore of completed assignments for each survivor.
• All previously completed assignments (on older saves) have been reset to take advantage of the new progression.
  
  

NEW MISSION CONTENT

• New Mission: Bunker of Rot with 2 new boss enemies.
• Existing saves can unlock this mission by completing Roadblock.
• New enemy type - zombie clowns with multiple variations.
  
  
  

BOSS LOOT

• Eliminated boss enemies no longer auto-drop rewards, drawn into hand.
• Bosses with rolled loot become lootable containers with a selection of rewards.
• This change makes it easier to spot dropped rewards when the hand is full of cards or the player needs to pick up a unique item for an assignment.

REVENANT BALANCE CHANGES AND PERKS

• Added 8 Elite Perks for the Revenant class.
• Increased base HP at rank 1 from 80 to 100.
• Increased HP per rank from 30 to 50.
• Increased noise made by Revenants at the end of turn from 22 to 25.
• Renamed FITNESS skill attribute to PRESERVATION for the Revenant class.
• Increased the HP bonuses of all PRESERVATION nodes by about 80%. This is only for the Revenant class nodes.
• Reworked durability scaling of all Revenant weapons, offering higher values across upgrades.

TURN ALERT

• Added a new alert when ending a turn with mercs pending attacks.
• Mercs skipping a first turn to prepare Total Focus/Aimed Shot are not covered by this alert.
• The alert can be disabled in Game Settings, under the Combat tab.
  

VICTORY SCREEN - COMBAT STATS

• A new combat stats UI is available on the mission victory screen.
• This is an additional dialog toggled by the STATS button, not replacing the original victory screen,
• I'm experimenting with this feature and may expand on it further in 1.0.
  

FAME

* Added 15 new achievements for a total of 332.
* Many minor wording tweaks and fixes to existing achievements.

COMBAT TRAINING

• A new card modifier has been added to every merc, called Prior Training.
• Each merc now comes with a set of Prior Training points in different weapon types.
• Max training points for each weapon have been increased from 30 to 35.
• Improved UI and font scaling with all new icons and larger tool tips.
  

NEW OPTIONS WHEN STARTING A NEW GAME

• Hovering over cards in character create shows additional merc details.
• Added a new UI step for selecting lab progression when starting a new game.
• Shared lab continues to work the way it did before this update, shraing progression for all replays.
• Fresh lab allows you to start collecting lab progression from the start.
• Points earned with a fresh lab are also collected by the shared lab and can used in your other saves.
  
  

BALANCE: PISTOLS

• Base damage increased by 8%.
• Dev notes: Pistols are already powerful when upgraded to multiple shots, especially on the Leader class. I will continue to look for ways to make pistols more attractive through bonus abilities, but for now they received a minor damage boost.

BALANCE: SHOTGUNS

• Base damage increased by 5%.
• Dev note: Shotguns are in a decent spot at the moment, benefiting greatly from the Pump Action skill to fire multiple shots. In addition, they offer a chance to stun, making them useful for setting up stun related combos. They also recently got a major accuracy buff in CU06.

BALANCE: SNIPER RIFLES, BOWS, CROSSBOWS

• A new weapon mechanic has been added to all bows, called Overdraw, emulating the scopes of sniper rifles for a chance to deal 2x damage on every shot.
• All crossbows now come with a scope for a chance to deal 2x damage.
• All non-scope crossbows had their 3D models modified to show the attached scopes.
• Bows and crossbows no longer have a chance to cripple (their previous advantage).
• Rebalanced base damage scaling across the different conditions (colors) and item levels wich should significantly raise the damage of sniper rifles, bows and crossbows to make them comparable to the other firearms, while also factoring in the single shot and scope mechanics.
  

AIMED SHOT REWORK

• Aimed Shot mechanic has been reworked due to the many new ways to distract the enemy, allowing you to crit very often.
• Damage scaling is now improved through item condition (color) and item level upgrades.
• Aimed Shot damage is now a rolled value from a stat range on the weapon.
• The HV Sniper Rounds gadget has been reworked to increase the base damage of Aimed Shots on sniper rifles.
• The Quiver accessory is now a gadget, increasing the base damage of Aimed Shots for bows and crossbows.
• Tactician skill Recalibration now also boosts the base damage of Aimed Shot.

SHIELD DAMAGE REFLECT

• Completely reworked the shield damage reflect mechanic.
• Spiked shields now have a chance to reflect all melee damage back to the attacker, on every hit.
• The chance goes up with item quality (color) upgrades.
• Crit damage is now also reflected.
• WARNING:
  The warehouse boss Chunk also benefits from this change, so watch those melee strikes.
  Attacking Chunk with a shield slam will reflect the damage back to your shield.

NEW WEAPONS AND GADGETS

• Blunt weapon: Monkey Wrench
• 5 unique variants of Monkey Wrench
• Brain Juice: new gadget to support the Lure rework.
• Extra Flares: reworked to compliment the new Flare Gun mechanics.
  

EXPLOSION DAMAGE REWORK

• Points spent in explosion training now grant +2% damage per point instead of +1%.
• Mercs no longer have a separate class-passive bonus to explosion damage. This is now consolidated into the Prior Training system, introduced in this update. Mercs offer slightly different pre-trained explosives for a more dynamic squad assembly.
• Previously, skills dealing explosion damage would not show the correct scaled damage from mercs in squad and their training in explosives. This has been adjusted and will change as you add/remove mercs from the squad. In addition, the total consolidated bonus is now seen in the Squad Power tool tip while in camp.
• During combat, explosion damage boost goes up after mercs get played on board.
  

ENEMY FRENZY BALANCE CHANGES

• EASY: no change
• NORMAL: no change
• VETERAN: chance increased by 5%
• APOCALYPSE: chance increased by 10%
• EXTINCTION: chance increased by 20%

RANDOM EVENTS

• New random event, Relentless Pursuit - All enemies cannot be distracted for 5 turns.
• Old Tactician skill Meat Decoy is now a random event.
• Old Commando skill Viper is now a random event.
• 5 older random events were removed from the shuffle in CU06 and have been added back.

COMBAT TUNING

• Many performance optimization of damage particle effects shown on cards when firing rapid automatic weapons, such as machine guns or SMGs.
• Added a new blood impact animation with 20 variations, shown on cards taking damage. The new impact animations should be more efficient.

MUSIC

• Added 2 more camp music tracks for a total of 14.
• Remastered a couple of existing tracks to sound more crisp.

GENERAL BUG FIXES

• Music restarts when toggling the challenges dialog on the title screen.
• Loading message for combat encounters (grid cells) is not showing on slower computers.
• Ramon plays his greeting emote when visiting the Recruit gear tab before Ramon is discovered.
• Mission Logbook gadget is missing the gadget icon in card details, making it harder to spot.
• 5 new random events added in CU06 are not being included in the random shuffle.
• Fixes to multiple achievements, spelling, wrong icons.
• Fixed a rare game error caused by explosions while removing particle effects.
• Respeccing training points with controller is spending points instead.
• ESC button does not close assignment deatils, opens Game Settings instead.
• Sorting ranged weapons by damage is not factoring in the number of shots.
• Revenant weapon cards load incorrect melee weapon backgrounds, when viewed in camp.
• Revenant spawn with left hand modification (weapon) only when using the same weapon name and color in both hands.
• Revenant auto-consumes repair item when using a single weapon equipped in left hand only.
• Enforcer class trait is not repairing durability of weapons equipped on Revenant's left hand/
• Armory point upgrade cards dropped from kills are brought back to camp and incorrectly show up as consumables.
• Various spelling fixes, reported in Discord and Steam forums.

WHAT'S NEXT?

I'm now working on the final push to finish the campaign and all the remaining assignments. The final 2 survivors are also part of this effort as they are tied to the new assignments and the region victory screen.

Thanks to everyone for the recent feedback and all the bug reports!
Please continue to post issues and suggestions in Discord or the forums.

See you in Pine Valley!

--Paul