The Special Campaign Beta is NOW AVAILABLE – New Game Plus meets Randomizer!
Selaco · published
The new Special Campaign mode is available in Beta for everyone who owns Selaco.
This is Selaco's answer to New Game Plus, albeit with a slightly different approach, hence the different name. Something akin to this has been frequently requested, and after playing around with the idea long enough, we figured we would do this now and not wait until v1.0 arrives.
This mode allows players to replay the campaign with unique endgame content and randomization, including new enemy types, a weapon rarity and trait system, random encounter mechanics, and more.
Our goal here is to make Selaco infinitely more replayable!
You can play the Beta Build right now! However, we highly recommend finishing a Standard Campaign first before playing this.
Once the beta has ended and Special Campaign becomes available in the Default build, this mode will have to be unlocked by beating the Early Access campaign.
You can enter the Beta by activating the Public Beta branch.
- Right click 'Selaco' on the Library Page
- Click 'Properties'
- Click 'Betas'
- On the dropdown menu, select 'publicbetabranch'
- Wait for the Download to finish
While the Special Campaign is the meat and potatoes of this Beta, it also runs on a newer version of the game that is filled to the brim with improvements to the core gameplay. We will be launching a full changelog around November, as these changes are outside the scope of the Beta. For now, we are mainly interested in letting players experience the Special Game and getting your input!
Later during the Beta, we will be applying a major engine update that adds roughly 3 years' worth of engine progress. We expect that this will not only improve performance but also improve the general feel of the game. Technical changes invite technical problems, so please keep an eye out for anything unusual once this happens. We’ll let you know both here and in-game when this update has launched.
Clicking on 'New Campaign' will now open a brand new menu where you can select the type of campaign you want to play.
Click on Special Campaign if you want to help us test the new game mode. At the difficulty selection screen, make sure you click on Configure Randomizer if you want to tailor the experience to your liking. Keeping everything at 'Default' will result in the most balanced experience.
For this Beta test, we are interested in all kinds of feedback. The most important ones for us are bug reports and knowing whether or not you think the Special Campaign is fun and has potential.
Additionally, we are open to ideas and suggestions on how to improve it further, as we plan to support Special Campaign for the long haul.
You can post feedback on our Steam Forum page. Additionally, you can also find us on Reddit and Discord.
Upon entering the Special Campaign menu, you are given the option to tweak parameters before beginning the campaign.
The following options are available in New Game Special:
- Add Random Encounters
- Weaken Random Encounter Enemies
Random Spawns
Spawns additional stuff while the level is being loaded.
The follow options have 6 settings. 'None', 'Less', 'Normal', 'More', 'Way More' and 'Ridiculous' - Additional Enemies
- Additional Traps
- Additional VAC-Bots
- Additional Item Crates
- Additional Hazards
- Additional Ammo and Items
- Additional Health and Armor
- Additional Clutter Objects
- Spawn Mystery Boxes
- Spawn Allied NPC's (Locked until Chapter 2)
Additional Spawns
- Allow Squad Leader Spawns
- Allow Zombie Spawns
- Allow Robot Spawns
- (Exclusive) Allow Nailgunners
- (Exclusive) Allow Stinger Soldiers
- (Exclusive) Allow Crawler Queen
Weapons
- Weapon Spawn Style
- Allow Heavy Weapons (Locked until Chapter 2)
Events
- Allow Zombie Invasions
- Allow Crawler Mine Ambushes
- Allow Saw Drone Ambushes
Tier-Based Spawns
Adds Action-RPG Style Rarity Colors to both Enemies and Weapons. Higher rarity types are less frequent but are more powerful. - Enabled Tiered Weapons
- Enable Tiered Enemies
- Tiered Progression
Additional Settings
- Randomize Food Items
- Randomize Enemy Types
- Randomize Enemy Locations
- Randomize Pickup Amounts
- Shuffle Item Pickup Locations
- Start with all Tech Modules
- Earthquakes
- Skip Opening Scene
Random Encounters
Spawns additional new enemies in real-time
Changed your mind during the campaign? Most of these settings can be tweaked during gameplay and will take effect when loading the next level.
Q: How long will the Beta Period be?
A: The Beta lasts until we think it’s ready enough to be updated to the default client of the game. We are targeting the end of November, but if we aren’t satisfied with the enjoyment factor or the amount of bugs, we’ll briefly delay it to make tweaks. The Beta will stay available during this period.
Q: Why do I have to download this separately?
A: Too risky to be forcing everyone into this new build for now. There's a solid chance everything will work fine, but when it involves a public rollout, we'd rather be safe than sorry. Until all planned features are ready to go and the Beta has proven to be stable, we’ll keep it separate.
Q: How feature-complete is it?
A: The fundamentals are all here. Weapon traits exist, enemies can have rarities now, randomization is fully functional, and more. There are a few bugs we still want to iron out, and I want to experiment with improved randomization for weapon traits to make them more interesting.
Q: Once the Beta ends, does that mean Special Campaign is final?
A: Far from it! Selaco is still in Early Access, so two whole chapters are missing. New chapters add new potential layers of randomization to the game that we can utilize with Special Campaign.
It will likely stay in Beta—albeit very polished—until we launch in v1.0!
Q: What is the updated engine about?
A: Selaco runs on a modified version of GZDoom that started development roughly three years ago. Our version of the engine is made specifically for Selaco’s needs to improve performance and address some quirks. It’s one of the reasons why Selaco can have so many objects in a level without draining performance too much.
While we were working on this new engine, GZDoom continued development with updates we could never use due to compatibility with our own changes. We have started working on applying all the updates to our own engine, and it works but is rather unstable. We want to iron out some stability issues first before testing it publicly!
Q: Will the Special Campaign remain unlocked even if I haven't beaten the campaign?
A: For Beta purposes, everyone gets access to the Special Campaign regardless of campaign completion. After the Beta ends, it will require players to beat the Early Access campaign before gaining access.
Once a new chapter launches, the Special Campaign becomes unavailable again until the new chapter is beaten. While that is a bit awkward, it's unfortunately a necessary evil during the Early Access period.
Q: It crashes when I load the Beta, help!
A: It might be caused by the mods you are using. You might be using a mod that isn't yet compatible with this build. If that doesn't work, reach out to us so we can take a look!
We originally intended to call this 'Randomizer Mode,' but as we developed it, we realized that the feature set went far beyond the scope of just randomization. So instead, we started designing it as a different type of New Game Plus mode and made some additions.
We wanted to launch this in full today, but because of how much the scope has changed, we had to delay things.
However, we did not want to delay the feature entirely because we did promise to have something new in October. So rather than a delay, we instead settled with a Beta. That way, players still get to enjoy the new mode, and we get the opportunity to gain feedback and make things better. After all, that's what Early Access is for!
We hope you enjoy the Special Campaign. We strongly believe that this will have a positive effect on the lasting power and value of Selaco.
If you have any questions, I'll be available in the comments below.
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!
- Nexxtic