Hi everyone,
We’ve got a beta branch available that is focused around our new Prologue, which is a narrative sequence showing the opening Collective attack, how the SENTRY Defense Program is initiated and how the jump gates that allow future escapes become activated.
So that people can test this without losing any progress on their existing saves, we’ve made a new test branch that you’d need to sync to. This is called “Prologue Playtest”. You can access this by following these steps:
- Find SENTRY in your Steam library and right-click on it, selecting “Properties”
- In the menu that pops up, choose “Betas”
- Select the Prologue Playtest option in the “Beta Participation” drop-down list
- In your Library you should see the name of the special branch appended to the game name
Any saves for this special branch go into a separate folder, so won’t interfere with your existing saves from the default or beta branches.
In the main menu there is a “Play Prologue” option that leads to two choices: “The Listening Post” and “Operation Pilot Light”. You’ll need a profile selected to play Operation Pilot Light. You can resume an Operation Pilot Light mission by selecting the appropriate option in the “Play Prologue” sub-menu.
These missions reflect the two portions of the Prologue and we’re keen to get your feedback on them, especially if there are any places where you’re getting lost, stuck or confused. If you’re able to record a video of your playthrough of these sequences (particularly The Listening Post) and share them with us, that’d be especially helpful. Just drop the links on the Steam or Discord forums or email them to me at [email protected]
In case you’re curious as to why we’re putting such a focus on the opening of the game, there are a few reasons:
- The original opening taught the navigator-level mechanics, but wasn’t an exciting introduction to the game
- We throw a lot of combat mechanics at the player in a high-pressure environment (a countdown before enemies attacking), which meant some people were feeling the game was too hard/unwelcoming
- We wanted to bring the Prologue in line with our full release plans for the Initiate, Starfarer and missions, where we’ll be adding cinematic sequences that provide a pay-off for victory
The new prologue should greatly improve all those aspects.
Just a quick note though – some of the art assets in The Listening Post are greybox/non-final – and only one of the three cinematics are ready, we’re working on all those right now.
Here’s what you’ll do in each section:
The Listening Post
The surprise attack on Earth was swift and brutal. The few surviving military elements are engaged in a holding action above Earth, trying to buy humanity some time. The Listening Posts above the planet were secondary targets which are now under attack, and you play an engineer who has been tasked with activating the SENTRY Defense Program – a secret initiative to weaponise the civilian fleet.
To do this, you must find and deliver a Signal Relay drive containing the SDP to the control deck. In doing so, finding and equipping a weapon, SENTRY suit and Fabricator will be crucial elements of accomplishing your objective.
Here’s an image of one of the Listening Posts that the level takes place on:
As mentioned above, you’ll be dropped into the level without seeing the opening cinematic, plus we’ll end the level before you get to see the cinematic that transitions from The Listening Post to the subsequent part of the Prologue…
Operation Pilot Light
Once the SENTRY Defense Program has been initiated, this allows the civilian fleet to be utilised as part of future escapes – however before that can happen you must take out the Collective Disruptor Spire that has disabled the Jump Gates. Your mission is to battle through the sector and launch your vessel at the Spire, where the ship’s computers will detonate the core and eliminate the target. This will allow the jump gates to be activated, and the evacuation of Earth can commence.
This part of the prologue is the most similar to the original game opening, but we’ve condensed it down a bit and added a clear goal and payoff.
Here’s some concept art of the Disruptor Spire with final concept:
Places to provide feedback
Discord or the Steam forums are the best place to provide feedback, but any of the channels listed below are welcome.
In order to not mix up beta branch feedback with the main game, there’s a dedicated area on the Steam forums to post your beta branch comments: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1252680/discussions/0/
We’ve been working on some other good additions to the main game this month, and once we’ve finished those remaining cinematics, put in the final Listening Post artwork and incorporated any other Prologue feedback we’ll bring everything together for another beta branch build shortly before we release Major Update 5.
Thanks for the support!
