Greetings mercenaries,
We've been hard at work preparing for the upcoming demo launch on July 9th. The playtest provided a wealth of incredible ideas and feedback, and we're working down a ceiling-high pile of improvements to get everything ready. The ambitious goal is to include full Specializations (more on this below), world events with emergent stories, the beginning of the much-requested character customization, performance optimizations, maybe streamer support, and many QOL improvements.
We're a small 3-person indie team, so implementing all of these in a month will be a challenge. We can't guarantee every one of these elements will be ready on July 9th, but we're pushing hard to give the demo as much depth as possible. What doesn't make it to the demo will be added in the following weeks.
To help get everything ready, a new build has just rolled out on Discord. This update adds/expands on unit background, initial customization, and a major rework to how classes function, turning them into Specializations.
If you want to jump into the build right now and help refine it, stop by the Discord channel to grab a key.
Previously classes were structured similarly to XCOM - each class had three skill branches that revolved around a playstyle. For example, the Paladin had branches for buffing and tanking, the Ranger was split between up-close fighting and AoE damage, while the Spearman could specialize in standing still or using puncture to hit multiple targets.
While this sounded good on paper, the practical result was that building units felt bland. The structure encouraged players to pick a single branch and stick with it all the way through, which isn't particularly interesting.
We realized that if each of those branches represents a different element of tactical gameplay, it would be much better to let players mix and match them to discover interesting combinations. And while we're at it, because we've seen players enjoy Reactions, let's have each specialization offer a different Reaction.
This opens up the possibility of building unique units like a Paladin-Pyromancer-Bounty Hunter, or a Necromancer-Berserker.
Today's build introduces/expands on 9 specializations: Leader, Wraithblade, Bounty Hunter, Bulwark, Provoker, Sentinel, Assassin, Protector, and Pyromancer.
6 backgrounds have also become available: Farmer, Shepherd, Stablehand, Thief, Thug, and Poacher.
More specializations will be added soon, and as the discussion evolves on Discord it seems Berserker and maybe Necromancer are up next.