End of March Update - More Units

Hello everyone,

First off, this month was mostly spent continuing to update old artwork and replace it with new stuff to fit the new graphics system, as well as redoing most of the game's color palette files, as the previous ones were very outdated (color palettes are a very oldschool way of doing things, but they do present a huge advantage for VRAM optimization). Here's a screenshot of most of the current units lined up for size comparison. Note that this is by no means all the units, or all the planned units, just the ones that are presentable at the moment.

 
We've also updated a few Warband buildings.

 
We've got a few new units as well. Since we haven't seen much of the Collective infantry, I figured it'd be best to get a few in.

 
 
Hazard troopers are the Collective's baseline infantry, and like the basic infantry of other factions, they can be used to clear debris and will be used to build trenches.

 
Combat Pioneers are better used in close-range engagements, and can serve as a useful defensive infantry, as they can deploy automated sentry guns to better create light defensive positions (note that this logic is still being worked on).

 
We've also altered the role of the Powersuit unit. It's now a dedicated anti-tank infantry, which deals substantial damage to vehicles, and stunlocks them momentarily. It's also a solid choice against infantry as well, but is fairly expensive overall, and so not something you should over-rely on.

Also in general, Tesla weapons will now be the domain the the Collective faction, as some gameplay changes fit their playstyle better. Specifically, Tesla weapons in general will be quite powerful, but must be in range of a power generator to operate. This doesn't mean that you need to build a generator near these combat units, since Collective power generators can be packed up and repositioned. Units with Tesla weapons will also fall back on conventional weapons if they are out of range of a generator, so they aren't totally helpless.

This also doesn't mean that the Empire faction will no longer get access to the Tesla Tank. Rather, the Imperial Tesla Tank is only accessible if they capture a Collective factory, and so is now one of the game's hybrid units.

There's also this funny guy for the Warband.

 
Rather than use something basic like a bazooka, Warband anti-tank infantry are these strange fellows carrying a clutch of funny little legless mutants, who want nothing more than to end their suffering by serving as a living bomb. While otherwise defenseless, these bomb-throwers effectively carry a collection of living guided bombs.

We've also made some further optimizations. While the game still has a decent load time on startup, loading up a map - either an actual game or a map in the map editor - is now virtually instantaneous. This is obviously good but has also been a lifesaver for testing, since it makes jumping back and forth between the editor and a game very fast, so saves us a ton of time in testing.

We were also contacted by a German gaming publication, who wanted us to submit a short teaser trailer for their Find Your Next Game show, which airs from April 11th to the 13th, so if you're in Germany, you should be able to catch that.

That's all for now. Next month we should have way more units to show off, as the pipeline for creating new assets (including infantry, which were a huge pain before due to all their animations) has been hugely optimized. Thanks for the continued support.