Hello Troopers! It’s time for the October Community Q&A. Thanks again for all the great submissions, as always we decided to select questions from a range of topics to answer. Rest assured if your question was not answered this month they may be answered in the future! We have one more Q&A scheduled for November and it is our goal for this community initiative to return again in the new year!

Will there be a feature change to allow us to instantly bleed out if we so choose to?
This is a great question, we will be looking at ways to improve that experience as we all understand that Troopers want to get back into the fight as fast as possible. We also need to balance that with how players revive squadmates in the field as we don’t want to diminish that gameplay element.

Are there any plans to add more optics/dot sights for the guns?
A big YES to this, as we explore our class progression 2.0 we are looking at ways to add more distinctness to our weapons through the inclusion of different mods such as sights, etc.

Do you have plans to add floodlights to the Base especially during Pitch Black?
We have a few plans to add more lighting options to matches occurring during night time or when the Pitch Black Mutator is activated. We did introduce a new light beacon device with Hive Hunt and there are plans to bring that over to the other modes. Although, we are careful not to adjust the lighting in Pitch Black too much as we want the mutator to continue to present a very ominous and scary experience to the players.

What kind of stuff will you guys implement into the game with UE5?
Now that we are using Unreal 5.0 we can look at some of the core features it brings to the game. From an art perspective we will be looking at how we can use features such as Lumen and Nanite to further enhance our existing environments and of course create brand new ones.

For example, Lumen allows for more realistic lighting and shadows, as indirect lighting plays a significant role in creating a sense of realism in a 3D environment. In Unreal Engine 5, movable lights can also allow global illumination due to Lumen. This will naturally enhance the realism and look of our product.

Please tease us with a new weapon?
We can’t say too much yet, but we definitely have our finger on the pulse of what weapons the community’s been asking for.

Do you plan to improve/add more activities to existing ARC, AAS and HORDE game modes?
Yes, we are always looking at ways to improve the core game experiences for our 16 player modes. We have some good news to share, we will be rolling out our first small batch of new side missions and objectives for our December Update!  

Is there likely to be a VR Version?
While we do enjoy VR games at the studio, there are no plans at this time for a VR version of the game

Will there be any re-balancing done to the ARC game mode itself, especially since Heroes of The Federation difficulty is no longer a part of the current roadmap?
Heroes of the Federation is still a part of the Roadmap and will be coming at a later time. As we continue through Early Access we are constantly looking for opportunities to balance our different modes. We will be doing a big balance pass across all modes for our Class progression 2.0 phase and then again closer to the official 1.0 launch.

I’m curious how ARC, AAS, and Horde fit into the final release. Will these modes still exist in the final release or are these placeholders to help you develop a more robust mode, like Galactic war?
As of right now all three will be a major part of the Galactic War experience. These modes will evolve based on community feedback also. We want to make sure each experience can stand on their own and help contribute to the overall experience we want the players to enjoy.  

Will there ever be the option to have bots to fill out a team of 16?
The short answer is yes, but it is more complex than that as we are looking at interesting ways we can use a bot trooper system to add more complex gameplay moments to the game. We already have base Trooper bots working, but it is not something we would want to ship anytime soon. More to come in the future as we get closer to announcing something.

Will there be multiple loadouts for the classes?
As we design class progression 2.0, we are looking at how we incorporate more player choice into the feature. Multiple class playstyles are on the table, but nothing is set in stone yet.

Will personal flamethrowers/turrets be a thing?
We are big fans of flamethrowers here at Offworld. No promises, but I can say it is a good bet you will see some more fire in the future!

A plan for a mini-map for the top right of the screen-HUD?
A Tac Map redesign is on our roadmap and is something we really want to get to, as right now it is not as accessible as we want it to be.

How will the story of Valaka develop further down the road?
Without spoiling anything, we are going to step away from Valaka over the next little while and focus on other parts of the galaxy. Valaka will always be the first planet in the game and one we all hold very dear to our hearts. We do have some big plans to revisit different parts of Planet Valaka in the future and tell the story through new metagame activities.

Do you have plans to add Stuff to the Steam Points Shop ?
Yes, we will look to do that post 1.0 Launch.

Any plan to expand on the Hive Hunt mode concept?
Yes, we will be continuing to add new maps and Bug challenges into the mode. With each new iteration we will look at what interesting gameplay elements we can add into them. For example, in our next set of Hive Hunt maps we will be introducing a new Bug menace.  

What do you think about procedural generation for this game?
We are always looking at interesting ways to build out our maps and levels. Once we are comfortable with the tech we will look to where it best fits into our pipelines. As of right now we are in the early stages of exploring what this type of system could look like for our game. Will it ever be a part of our game? It is too early to tell.

Thanks again for supporting Starship Troopers: Extermination!

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