Commanders, lock and load - this update gives you an Arsenal of weapons!Update 0.9.11, codename "Arsenal", gives you
complete control over the action:
equip EVERY Commander clone with a weapon of your choice,
take aim, and fire!Mark enemies for your Mercs to direct their fire, create defensive perimeters, and break out of tight situations with deadly force - or not-so-deadly abilities.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Airstrike and SMG weapons do not fully work as intended, this will be fixed in an upcoming hotfix patch!
Read on for all the details, but first...
[hr][/hr]
[h2][color]⚠ SAVEGAME WARNING ⚠[/color][/h2]
This Major Update changes various core systems around abilities, and brings adjustments to Bunker Rooms, Traits, Level-ups & Skill Trees, balancing, and meta-progression.
We RECOMMEND you reset your savegame with this update.The first time you start the game after the update, you will get a popup message that asks you to reset your savegame. If you do reset, you will start fresh and a backup of your last savegame is created in your local game folder.
You CAN continue with your old savegame. Our tests did NOT show any issues. But the game is still in development, so bugs may occur, hence the recommendation to start over.
You can find a guide on how to restore savegames from older game versions here:
How to access & restore savegame backups (Steam Forums)[hr][/hr]
Let's get into the details of Update 0.9.11 "Arsenal":
[h3]Active Commander Weapons[/h3]
Every Commander clone can now wield a weapon you can actively control.
Go to the Genome Lab, clone your next Commander, and choose your loadout from an arsenal of starting weapons, independent of Traits or other variables - for now.
The weapons are built in a classic
twin-stick shooter fashion: aim & fire with your mouse or controller.
Each of the new starting weapons has a unique profile, behavior, and individual synergies with various stats. Some weapons evolved from Traits that used to give you an active weapon.
Weapons exist in parallel to your Dash, so you can combine them in creative ways with your Mercs, Traits, and Gear items.
With the new active Commander Weapons we separate Dash, Traits, and Weapons into distinct systems to prevent confusion and enable more fun squad build strategies.
The Dash is your default active ability based on your current movement direction.
Any other ability you can actively aim and trigger is now a Weapon.
From now on, Talent Traits will grant you passive abilities, or modify your Dash or Weapons by adding, removing, or changing effects and rules for those.
All Weapons are currently available immediately from the start:
- Leafblower - swoop enemies out of your way and mark them for a short while
- Marksman Rifle - fire high-powered projectiles to mark enemies for extended periods
- Riot Shield - block projectiles and enemies and clear a path with your shield bash attack
- Crippling Mines - drop multiple mines to damage and slow down enemies
- Melter Beam - decay armor and mark your targets for a short period
- Singularity Launcher - create black holes that pull enemies in and mark them
- Quaker Hammer - deal melee AoE damage and knock enemies away
- SMG - fire bursts that can punch through armor
- Airstrike - cut a swath through the horde
Traits that formerly enabled active weapons are now giving
passive abilities or modifying your
Dash, e.g. the
Defender Talent modifies your Dash to shatter enemy projectiles into shrapnel.
[h3]New Effects & Emergent Synergies[/h3]
The primary purpose of Commander Weapons is NOT damage but giving you ways to
control your Mercs and manage the horde more effectively. The Weapons scale various parameters with different stats and partially use the new "marked" status effect.
Your Mercs stick to their individual movement & targeting behavior until a "marked" enemy comes into range - then they are focusing on the marked target.
The new "marked" effect and stat-scaling on the Commander Weapons add to the options to create Emergent Synergies. Our goal is to not only to create systems to stack & scale stats, but provide fun ways to control the frantic action.
We're exploring more ways to combine procs & status effects with active & passive abilities and rule modifiers, so please leave us your feedback and show us how you use the new weapons.
[h3]Level-up & Merc Skill Specialization Improvements[/h3]
Update 0.9.10 "Bootcamp" introduced a new level-up system. This update adds refinement and
adjusts the Merc's skill trees and specializations to have a more pronounced impact on your squad builds.
Mercs now use a
unified structure for their Skill Trees, offering
1 base lane and
2-3 specialization lanes. The spec lanes are exclusive to one another, offer one additional choice for refinement, and result in an Elite Skill as the final upgrade.
The
default choices for each level-up are now the Generic Upgrades. Every few level-up rolls will give you the option to pick an upgrade for your Commander Weapon, Mercs, or Gear items.
In turn, the upgrades for Mercs, Weapons, and Gear are more impactful and need fewer level-ups to max them out in total.
One of our main initiatives is building a more intuitive & accessible structure for the various game mechanics and systems.
The data and insights we gained from your player feedback shows that we over-complicated certain things in the game unnecessarily. This update is another step into building a cleaner mental model so you can focus on the action and your squad build strategies instead of digging through and remembering too many different variables.
We started work on two new Mercs since we removed specializations from a few existing Mercs where they weren't providing a competitive alternative to the other skill lanes. The new Mercs are meant to synergize much better with your squad and weapons with a unique profile.
[h3]Additional Languages & Community Translations[/h3]
The game is now available in these languages, in addition to English, German, and Chinese:
- French
- Spanish
- Italian
- Brazilian Portuguese
- Polish
- Turkish
- Korean
- Japanese
- Ukranian
- Russian
These new languages are available as a work-in-progess and aren't fully proof-read. We want to invite you to support us and are planning to offer the translation files publicly as part of a
Community Translations Project.
You will receive
exclusive access to that project via
our Discord server to improve translations or add completely new languages to the game. In turn you will receive exclusive benefits, e.g. access to playtest versions and a direct channel to our dev team.
We are sharing more details soon![h2]More Additions, Fixes, Adjustments, Improvements & Details[/h2]
- The Gym & Armor Workshop rooms grant multiplier bonuses instead of flat increases to HP and Armor. In turn, various Traits provide flat bonuses to Armor & HP instead of multipliers.
- Fixed an instance where pressing Esc just at the right moment before a screen animation started was locking up the game.
- Fixed aiming indicator snapping back to default position when releasing the input (e.g. on controllers), instead it remembers your last aiming direction.
- Fixed some rare instances where upgrades did not show the stats they affected.
- Fixed an issue where Charger enemies were leaving an invisible knockback zone behind after dying.
- PhenX should no longer clip out of its arena or push you through the walls when dashing around.
- GriftLift shrapnel projectiles can be blocked.
- Mammoth should collide with environment objects and Commander correctly.
- All enemies should show VFX for currently active status effects correctly.
- Scorch's flamethrower uses a more robust system to damage enemies and apply status effects & DoT correctly.
- Added "Radar" generic upgrade to increase View Range and Objective Reveal Range.
- Rooms have new build & upgrade animations alongside some idle animations.
- Info popups for Traits in the Clone Bay should show immediately.
- Fixed an issue where right-clicks could prevent other inputs for a few seconds in various circumstances.
- Fixed an issue where "missions" (unlock conditions) were resetting unexpectedly.
- Added a first iteration of the new dialogue screens with high-fidelity illustrations of Conduit.
- Improved performance in various UI elements and the shader for rendering the Commander in UI.
- Fixed various instances of VFX clipping with the ground.
- Fixed various typos and inconsistencies with UI texts in all languages.
- Adjusted the button UI sounds to be less annoying.
[h3]Known Issues[/h3]
- Airstrike weapon does not fire multiple bombs as intended.
- The game's performance can potentially degrade heavily when playing at very high screen resolutions (UHD+), please lower the resolution to a maximum of 1440p if you encounter this. We are still trying to find the root cause of this problem.
- Menus may sometimes scroll erratically when the game falsely selects a UI element at the top or bottom, e.g. in the Bunker menu or the Awards room (anywhere you have scrolling lists). We already identified the root cause within the automatic input device detection and fixed some cases of that, but few occasions remain erratic.
- Automatic input recognition is still causing some nuisance with the mouse cursor sometimes interfering with controller input and vice-versa.
- Gear items sometimes show the same "utility" icon twice. They also don't show any damage type icon that may be affected negatively, e.g. Napalm buffing fire but nerfing other damage types.
[hr][/hr]
[h2]Requesting Support![/h2]
[color]Commanders, we need your feedback![/color]Although we test and adjust the game balancing constantly, you have proven more than once that you are the GOAT when it comes to finding OP squad builds and exploits.
Please share your findings with us. Help us spot where something is hopelessly underpowered or breaks the game in the not-fun way.
[hr][/hr]
[h2]Moving Forward[/h2]
"Arsenal" marks our
5th major Early Access update for Survivor Mercs.
There is much more to come, so "Follow" the game to be notified when the next Early Access Roadmap Update drops Soon™.
Our plans for the next updates include:
⏩ More emergent synergies and squad-build options between Commander, Weapons, Mercs, and Gear, specifically:
- additional proc effects, e.g. things that happen when combining different status effects
- adjustments to dashes, projectiles, or attacks to behave differently
⏩ Map & Operations overhaul to provide more varied challenges, new Objectives, and better tactical and strategic squad-building
⏩ a visual overhaul to improve UI, readability of the action, and immersion in the game, including high-fidelity illustrations for more characters
⏩ Story missions framing your operations and fight against the M.E.G.A. Corp. goons, and other narrative elements to highlight the Mercs' personalities.
⏩ Better performance and settings for input mapping and other accessibility options.
And, of course, we're always looking into adding new maps & bosses, enemies, Mercs, and other content as they fit in with future updates.
[hr][/hr]
Commanders, we are really grateful for every one of you who is supporting us with input and feedback during Early Access.
[color]Please don't forget that the game is still under development. All your feedback helps us make a better game![/color] Even after this update there will be rough edges and bugs here and there. The balancing is a constantly ongoing process, and will change more over time.
We hope this update proves once more our dedication to listening to you and building Survivor Mercs into an outstanding game. Please, help us grow the community
with a positive review and participate in the development by leaving your feedback, insights, and ideas
on our Discord server.
Let's make a great game, together ❤
Lock, load, and loot, Commanders!
