Apologies for the lack of updates recently - our GPU decided enough was enough and crashed on us, taking the entire Windows OS down with it. It took us awhile to get everything back up and running again. We're working on a lot of exciting stuff for you guys, including those EA-only perks we've been talking about :) Shoutout anything you'd like to see as a perk!
Now onto the fun stuff - new beta is up for your testing pleasure! We've added an awesome new feature called chrono mode - slowmo activated by pressing shift while in the mobile gun platform. This is a limited resource designated by a blue energy bar - it will regenerate whenever not actively being used.
We've also added a perch, which will place you high over the action and allow you to survey the action below in slow motion. You can freely activate commander specials (hotkeys 1, 2, and 3) and activatable structures while perching, but shooting will disengage you from the perch.
Strategic energy usage has always been important, but it felt bad when you ran out of energy after a hard battle and couldn't even shoot. Along with some other energy changes, secondary (sniper) weapons will now fire even if out of energy. Your increased energy regeneration won't kick in until you stop firing, but this way you can shoot those little guys trying to escape instead of just staring helplessly.
Some fun graphics changes are in too! We updated the fog effect and really like how it turned out - we'll be iterating more, but give Sierras and Into the Pit a visit for the best examples. A proper entrance and exit teleporter has been added as well.
Orbital laser now has a much more visible presence - before, things could sneak by you and it wasn't always obvious when or where the creeps were getting bugzapped. Now the laser will start hitting earlier, and it clearly represented in a deluge of lava melting all creeps in its path. This functions as a bit of an alarm system as well - if you see it activating, you can quickly go over and knock out some of the creeps before the orbital laser reaches them, saving you valuable charge power.
Killstreaks have also been vastly improved - a little badge icon will now show up on every creep killed once your killstreak begins, and the bar will reset after every 10 kills, allowing you to extend your streak. The longer your streak, the more points and orbital laser charge you get, so keep an eye out for those groups and keep your killstreaks up!
Other changes:
Updated marauder stun effect
Adjusted orbital laser bar to stack on top of structure bar
Added new runner and mech animation
Smoothed energy gain display
Doubled machine gun firing speed, lowered reload time
Reduced air strike missile health
Boosted enemy health for higher difficulty levels
Adjusted cooldown, sizes and duration of specials
Decreased artillery strike damage, increased cast size so it can hit planes easier
Tuning and balancing changes
And plenty of small fixes per usual. Things are really coming together guys, let us know what you think!
For instructions on how to join the beta, click here.