WE HAVE A DATE! A real one! With numbers and everything!
Yes, we know a slightly better-known franchise is also launching in November… But Despot promised to return us to our families by Christmas if we finish on time.
Check out the trailer for a gameplay overview:
The core of Hull Rupture was mostly in place by the time we announced the game. Even so, it changed a lot along the way. Some changes were already planned, others came from your feedback on the playtest and demo. When something wasn’t working, we went back and tweaked it — sometimes more than once.
Thanks a lot for being honest with us. We’ll be asking you to do it again in a moment, because we've just released a major update for the demo!
This update adds two big changes to how the game works: Hull Construction and a reworked Post-Battle Shop. In our (humble and totally unbiased) opinion, the game plays much better now. Then again, we made it, so we could use a second opinion.
We’ve already talked about both systems in previous devlogs. If you want the full breakdown of this demo update, keep reading.
Architecture is the art of making my enemies take the long way to their deaths.
Hull Construction is a mode you can enter at any time while the ship is in flight. When you enter it, the flight pauses, and you can choose where to place the randomly offered block with empty module slots. The block can’t be rotated, but it can be attached to any side of the ship’s hull. You can also place it a short distance away from the hull. In that case, the new block will stand on “stilts,” creating a corridor that aliens can walk through.
Controlling the aliens’ route through the ship is one of the main reasons to think carefully about where you place each block. But placement also determines where you’ll be able to build new modules: an empty module slot becomes available for construction once there’s already a completed module next to it.
Building hull blocks costs resources: Energy at first, followed by Plasteel later in the game. If the block you’re offered doesn’t suit your plans, you can skip it, but that costs resources too. Despot believes in freedom of choice. He just doesn’t believe the choices should be free.
Victory is priceless. Unfortunately, the loot boxes are not.
Instead of individual module and turret kits, the post-battle shop now sells themed loot boxes containing modules or turrets. Modules can also drop with modifiers already installed.
First and foremost, this makes choosing what to buy much easier. If you need stronger defenses, pick a turret box. If your production chains are struggling, pick a module box. The box will then give you a selection of kits matching that theme.
We also want opening the shop after surviving a wave of enemies to feel like a proper reward, so we’ve made it much prettier. We’re not finished with it yet, though, so expect it to be a real treat by the game’s release!
Assuming you survive long enough to see it.
The more humans working in the Despot’s Chamber, the more module kits it produces. Simple as that. The kits are random and are produced fairly slowly, but they’re free. If you don’t need one, you can sell it in the post-battle shop and put the money toward a new loot box.
Let’s be honest: this feature is mainly for the Bioreactor. Converters now have a small Auto button that sends humans running to the Bioreactor without waiting for an additional command. At the moment, it sends two humans to the Bioreactor. Once only one remains in the queue, it automatically sends another. The feature is still experimental, and we’ll be watching to see how much it reduces the annoying micromanagement involved in running the Bioreactor. Whether this counts as a quality-of-life feature probably depends on whose life we’re talking about.
First, we’ve added new artifacts and modifiers, while reworking some existing ones so that they also affect turrets. For example, giving the Reproducer the Eyes modifier allows all Beam turrets to apply the Fragility debuff. Second, we’ve weakened unit-based ship defense. The Cheat Code artifact, for example, has been nerfed. We want tower defense to be the main focus of protecting your ship. The Airlock and the units stationed inside it should be your last line of defense — a safety net for anything that manages to get past the turrets.
There’s still a viable strategy based around Airlock units, we just want to make sure it isn’t the main one.
Turrets first. Meat shields second.
I never retreat. I just move the guns closer to where my victory will happen.
Yes, turrets can now be moved. Doing so is free, but it takes a veeery long time. Turrets also have a period of downtime after being moved. We added this delay to prevent one particular strategy from becoming too effective against bosses. Without it, the best approach would be to move every turret close to the boss’s spawn point, then move each one closer to the Airlock as soon as the boss passes it, allowing the same turret to shoot the boss twice.
That kind of gameplay can be fun once or twice, but on repeated runs, it turns into boring micromanagement surprisingly quickly. For now, moving turrets is mainly useful when you want to take a weak turret off a valuable spot and put it somewhere out of the way without demolishing it entirely. You can simply send the underperformer to the corner to think about its damage output.
Modules can’t be moved yet. We simply didn’t manage to finish that feature before the planned demo release date, and we decided not to delay the update.
The display cannot predict a production shortage, but I can already predict who will be punished for it.
By entering Info Mode, you can now see your per-minute income for each resource. And on certain actions, you'll see how that income might change. It’s important to understand that this number isn’t a forecast of what will happen next. It shows your current production rate.
A speedometer doesn’t know about the turn, the bump, or the tree waiting further down the road. In the same way, the income display doesn’t know that production may depend on another resource that’s constantly changing, or that you’re about to reach your production cap. It simply shows how quickly you’re producing that resource right now, displayed per minute for convenience.
Remember: the display shows you the numbers. Keeping them from collapsing is still your job.
I improved the economy. Now it’s time to convert my profits into guns.
With this demo, we wanted to make production chains easier to build and the resources you need easier to obtain, while keeping the overall difficulty at roughly the same level. That’s because although resources are easier to produce, you’ll need more of them to build a strong enough defense.
Previously, producing any Microchips at all could be difficult, let alone reaching Nanobots. Now, getting them isn’t nearly as hard, but to defeat the final boss, you’ll need a lot of good guns.
We also tuned the Endless Mode a bit. At release, it’ll become a proper separate mode rather than a continuation of Classic Mode. For now, we’ve mostly tried to make sure you can’t break it. And yes, we’re aware that some of you shouted “Is that a challenge?” right about now.
...but the kit isn't returned. It is what it is.
We’ve added new useful (and, more importantly, pretty) modifiers, text events, and artifacts.
There’s also a new Reproducer: a majestic classic returning all the way from Despotism 3k. Because some designs are simply too iconic to retire.
If you played the previous version of the demo, the no-combat mode and all previously available artifacts will already be unlocked. The tutorial will also be marked as completed.
However, the new artifacts will remain locked, and the new tutorial step explaining Hull Construction won’t activate automatically. You can enable the tutorial again in the General settings… or try to figure out the new system on your own.
Feel free to skip it. The Galactic Union appreciates your confidence.
That’s everything included in this demo update! Give it a try and let us know what you think about the new Hull Construction system, shop, balance changes, and everything else. Your feedback will be crucial in this last stretch before the Hull Rupture launches November 4th!