The Beta 2 Update is the next milestone in the development of USC. Though the very much anticipated new game modes (Campaign and Scenario) are still not being introduced, core mechanics, rules, accessibility options, GUI functions and engine stability are now considered a final release candidate. Base rules are very unlikely to further change in the future, so from this moment on, all tactics you experiment with should be considered as "live".
In the past month, my main focus was developing the Campaign. It's a very serious commitment. The Campaign will be much, much more than a series of single missions. There will be a ton of scripted, semi-randomized events that give more life to the missions, lore to the story, dialogues that make your squad members feel like real persons, player story choices, a non-linear mission roster that takes your previous choices and available resources into account and determines the fate of the Campaign on a global scale, multi-map missions, research possibilities, and more. An all-capable custom script system must be created and integrated into the engine, and then the story elements, mission layouts and actual scripts, etc., must be also written. I also added a very detailed, interaction-wise tutorial into the game. I can confirm that a few Scenarios will be available before the Final Release arrives, and that the release date of the Campaign will not be delayed further than late May or early June, tops!
But, as always, while creating the new content, I stumbled into bugs, minor inconveniences, new ideas regarding some combat rules, and so on, and now these changes are made available as Beta 2. You can read the full change log in the downloads section, but I'd like to highlight the most important and awesome changes here in detail:
Rules:
-- Armor for USC units (and only for them!) now also means a percentage of Damage Resistance, not only a Damage Threshold. E.g. with an Armor of 25 and an attack of 50 damage you previously suffered 25 damage; now you will suffer (50-25)*0.75 = 19 damage.
-- Melee USC weapons (i.e. any melee mode of any weapon) now have a significantly increased chance of hit. You should no longer "perma-miss" lesser targets with the katana or the chainsaw.
-- Doorlocks on safety lockdown can now be re-activated for 5 Action Points and you can retry the hacking procedure or use a circuit cracker.
Aliens:
-- A new set of 10 "war breed" affixes (skills) are now added to the game; aliens will have these based on mission difficulty. These units are distinguished with a vivid green color and a green, pulsing energy animation. The new skills do not make the aliens much stronger; instead, they mostly add more varied behavior and combat abilities: they jump away on being hit or knock you back really hard, deliberately attack your weakened units, cause bleeding wounds, perform slow, but always hitting attacks, have an incendiary or tranquilizing attack, etc. A single alien can have only one of these, but even Alphas can be bred for war!
-- Reaper Mothers now have the ability to lay eggs. These tend to hatch very quickly, so watch out!
GUI:
-- The complete, detailed information sheet for weapons can be now seen in-game, on the Squad Assembly screen.
-- Mousehover info about aliens will now show detailed description of their actual abilities.
A ton of fixes and optimizations have been also applied (see change log). Enjoy the hunt, and keep your eyes open for the next update!
