Over the past week, the Stratus Development team has been busy, and today we're rolling out a new patch update with several new core Stratus mechanics now working in-game.
Sun Barricades can now correctly spawn Sun Beams between connected barricade units and dynamically update the beams depending on their direction and configuration.
The system also correctly handles situations where a new Sun Barricade is placed between two existing barricades that are already producing a beam, updating the connections accordingly.
The original Sun Barricade code we had developed in Unreal was ultimately rebuilt from the ground up, including how the system handles beam generation, connections, updates, and ownership assignment.
The Rain Ice Blocker Tower has also received several updates.
When destroyed, the tower now crumbles and breaks apart, leaving behind its base. The base will then slowly regenerate the tower over time.
We've also updated the behavior of the Rain Tower while it is in heal mode. Enemy structures will no longer consider the healing tower a viable target, allowing them to instead target units positioned behind it.
This behavior will continue to be adjusted and refined as we conduct further playtesting.
Our next focus will be getting the Rain Faction Venom Barricade implemented.
With each patch, more of Stratus' core mechanics are becoming functional and playable. We're steadily moving closer to having all of the major gameplay mechanics implemented and working together in-game.
As always, we welcome all feedback on the latest patch, and we'll continue debugging, refining, and improving the game as development and playtesting continue.
For those wanting to try out the latest changes, make sure to select the Testing Build from the game's download options. This will allow you to download and access the developer testing branch.
For the Storm!