Update 0.4.0: Relentless Hordes introduces the much-anticipated Horde Mode as well as Player Profiles with stat tracking, the remaining items listed in Phase 2 of our Early Access roadmap! In addition to these new features, this update brings quality-of-life improvements and bug fixes to issues shared by you, our Troopers, on Discord, Steam, and other social media channels. This medium Deployment drops at 10:00 AM PT (GMT-7) on Wednesday, August 2.

Features

• New Game Mode: Horde
  • Horde Mode unlocks for Troopers at Career Rank 2.
  • Horde Mode is available at Easy, Normal, and Hard difficulty.
  • Players must defend the Mobile Headquarters (MHQ) at the base against 10 increasingly difficult waves of Bugs.
  • Each wave has two phases: Build Phase and Defend Phase.
    • During the Build Phase, Troopers will have a short amount of time to build and repair base defenses using a limited amount of ore. The MHQ itself can only be repaired with special repair canisters obtained from completing secondary objectives during the match.
    • During the Defend Phase, Troopers must fight off Bugs that spawn in finite but scaling numbers and difficulty. Build Tools cannot be used and Troopers cannot respawn during this phase – if Troopers are downed while Bugs are present, they will need to be revived by their teammates (Operator Drone and First Aid Stims also work).
  • Three types of secondary objectives that yield repair canisters for the MHQ may be available during the match: Exterminate Arachnids, Restore the Power Generators, and Secure the Signal Booster. Note, Bugs spawned from secondary objectives do not count towards Horde Mode wave counts.
  • As groups of waves are defeated, Wave Modifiers will increase Arachnid attack speed, movement, and damage.
  • If the MHQ is destroyed or all Troopers are killed, the match ends in defeat. However, if the MHQ is still standing at the end of 10 waves, victory is achieved, and a rescue dropship will be deployed!
  • Mission Mutators do not currently apply to this mode but may in future updates.
• New Feature: Player Profiles
  • Troopers can now track their in-game stats including their favorite class and weapon as well as other relevant game metrics. Note, these stats will begin being tracked as of Update 0.4.0.
    • Career Rank and XP
    • Total Hours Played
    • Total Kills
    • Total Revives
    • Total Mission Wins
    • Kill/Death Ratio
    • Win/Loss Ratio
    • Favorite Class (most hours played)
    • Favorite Weapon (most kills earned)
    • Favorite Game Mode (most hours played)
  • This information will be viewable by selecting the Stats tab on the Profile screen and will be categorized by Mission, Kills, and Weapons. The data can be filtered by Game Mode and Classes.
  • More game stats may be added as new features, modes, and content are introduced.

Gameplay

• Reduced self-damage of Twin Machine Gun Emplacement to now allow for about 35 seconds of sustained firing while not being repaired.
  • Developer Note: This allows the TMG to be more useful in Horde Mode where repairing is limited.
• Updated Trooper health regeneration for all mission difficulty levels.
  • Troopers will regain health at a higher rate on Easy Difficulty.
  • Troopers will regain health on Normal Difficulty.
  • Troopers will not regain health on Hard Difficulty.
• Canisters can now be thrown by holding down the fire button while they’re equipped.
• Pyre will now call out which cardinal direction (north, south, east, west) a base is being attacked from.

Base Building

• Reduced Twin Machine Gun Emplacement cost to 2000 ore.
  • Developer Note: This cost reduction accounts for the fact that the TMG is destroyed when placed on top of a structure that’s destroyed. Also, unlike Sentry Guns, the TMG requires a player to actively use and repair it.
• Increased the Build Tool’s unbuild speed to half of build speed.
  • Developer Note: We’ll continue to monitor for misuse of this function to sabotage base integrity and adjust accordingly.
• Updated the Build Tool interface to be more consistent and less confusing.

Quality of Life Improvements & Bug Fixes

• Set the frame rate to cap at 120 FPS by default. This can be adjusted in the Settings.
• Added Mission Mutators to the After Action Report (AAR) screen.
• Intro cutscenes now pause on the last frame until the voiceover is complete instead of going to a black screen. Also decreased the audio volume of the intro cutscene.
• Updated the in-game Discord link to point to our custom URL: https://discord.com/invite/starshiptroopersgame
• Renamed “New Mission in” to “New Mutators in” on the main screen.
• Fixed an issue with the Low Gravity Mutator where jumping could cause visual stuttering when reaching the maximum height of the jump.
• Fixed an issue with the Grenade Surplus Mutator where players would spawn in with only one grenade and must throw it to begin the restock timer.
• Fixed an issue where the Twin Machine Gun Emplacement wouldn’t respond to the Build Tool when it was pointed at the top of the turret.
• Fixed an issue where entering and exiting the Twin Machine Gun Emplacement could cause the Low Gravity Mutator to cease functioning.
• Fixed an issue where a player could get in a stuck state and unable to play after leaving a party.
• Fixed an issue where the respawn interface could become visible for a short time when first joining a match.
• Fixed an issue where the respawn interface could become visible before the player dies after beginning the bleed-out state.
• Fixed an issue where FOV scaling would break on ultrawide monitors.

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