Sanctus Reach Beta Update v1.0.8

[IainMcNeil]

Hi guys,

it's been another busy week with a host of tweaks, fixes and improvements! We've put these improvements in to an open beta on Steam. This one adds some really cool new things so please do check it out and let us know your thoughts.

There are significant AI improvements, the force selection screen has been dramatically improved as have the carryover mechanics and options when purchasing. We've given you cool new camera controls, adjusted the combat mechanics to address some concerns and re-balanced a bunch of units.

Yes this is v1.0.8 - the numbering is a little odd because we had to do some rejigging for multiplayer. We've put these improvements in to a beta.

To access the beta you'll need to grab the zip from the member area downloads and unzip it on top of your build. We'll create a proper installer once this is approved. Don't worry if you're not comfortable doing this we'll get the tested patch out as soon as possible!

Note the beta version is not compatible with the release version in multiplayer so will not be able to see or play and games started on the release version. When you revert to the normal version you'll see them again. You will only be able to play people with the beta version and when you opt out of the beta you'll no longer be able to play beta MP games.
We hope you enjoy it and let us know your thoughts. The full change log is below.

Beta v1.0.8 Change List

Key changes
• Force selection - You now get a much greater choice of units on the force selection screen. You will get far more of your upgraded units and in general much more choice.
• Force selection - The list of units is now sorted by cost and type so your best units are at the top and grouped in a much more readable way making the screen much easier to navigate.
• Extreme damage variation - the combat formula was generating too many extreme results for weak units shooting at armoured targets. This has been reduced so things are now more predictable.
• AI Improvements - the AI will now move its units in to a more effective range before shooting. It also does not save shots any longer and so fires at the player much more often. These two changes significantly improve the ability of the AI.
• AI - a bug preventing the AI from charging and meleeing has been fixed.
• AI Unit selection - the AI was selecting too many of certain unit types in initial skirmishes. It now brings a much more balanced force.
• Wreck removal - Destroyed vehicles can now be shot or melee attacked to destroy them and remove blockages.
• AI - will now remove wrecks that block its path.
• Morale - AI units who had low morale, but already had a target were ignoring the morale rules and attacking their target. The bug has been fixed so AI units now behave correctly when in a low morale state.
• The Hour of the Wolf campaign has been rebalanced so that Skirmish maps produce better battles. Extremes of force size and map size have been removed making things far more balanced. We've also increased the force size in some of the later skirmishes.
• Massive Speed up - there is now an option in the settings to change the movement speed. You can turn the speed boost on which makes units move at approx 10 times normal speed. This greatly speeds up the game for players who just want to get on with it and not admire the action!
• Zoom - we've greatly increased the distance you can zoom out. To ensure it does not cause issues for slower machines we've linked this to an "Advanced Camera" option in the options. When Advanced Camera is on you can zoom out much further.
• Camera Controls - we've greatly increased the angle you can drop the camera to and you can now have an over the shoulder view point to get a really close up look at the action. To ensure it does not cause issues for slower machines we've linked this to an "Advanced Camera" option in the options. When Advanced Camera is on you can drop the camera angle right down in to the action.
• Gorkanaut & Knight - both have had their damage increased.
• Master Crafted weapons - these have been buffed as they were not powerful enough.
• Weapon Balance - Bolters & Shoota ranges all increased by 1.
• Flamers - now correctly are prevented from attacking when their morale is too low or they are stunned.
• Invincible units - a bug where units sometimes became impossible to hit has been fixed.
• Shootaboyz & Gretchin - after the other balance changes these became slightly too good so have had accuracy reduced.
• Power weapons - these have been given much less variation in damage so all power weapons are a similar level of ability.
• Deffdread - after other balance changes the Deffdread became too tough and has had armour reduced.

Other changes
• Autosaves - the game now autosaves the in mission progress to "Autosave". It was previously only saving at the campaign level. If for any reason you want to return to the last saved point in a battle just load this up.
• Campaign Autosaves - the game was incorrectly generating a campaign autosave after every battle. The intention was to generate one file and update it after each cattle. This has been fixed so you now only have one campaign autosave per game, greatly reducing the clutter in the saved game list.
• Drop Pod deployment - In mission 1 the Drop Pod is now automatically deployed. Some users were missing the fact they could land it and there was a dreadnaught in it.
• Enemy Movement feedback - the Tooltip now shows how many movement points an enemy unit has.
• UI Clean up - various pop ups and text boxes have been improved to make them cleaner and tidier.
• Version Number - the options screen now shows the version number of the game.
• XP Bug - a bug where some units were deploying with negative experience has been fixed.
• Particle Bug - A bug where particles on transport loaded units could cause the game to crash has been fixed.
• Shrapnel ammo was causing a nasty bug so was removed. Units with shrapnel ammo will have it substituted for Frag Ammo.
• Unclear objective on Sacred mountain - Capture and hold just meant capture. It now working as intended.
• UI Improvement - buttons that control window mode, screen shake etc have been changed so its clearer which option is selected.
• Advanced skirmish bug - a bug where you could set the size of the skirmish force to be bigger than what is supported has been fixed.
• Mouse zoom speed - we've added a setting in the options to allow you to control the speed of the mouse wheel. Some users experienced very slow zoom and this lets them configure it how they want.
• Level up/No Skill bug - a bug where units were not gaining abilities/skills on levelling up has been fixed.
• Units losing XP - a bug where units were sometimes losing XP has been fixed.
• Update notification - a bug where an update notification sent you to an external web page has been fixed.
• Gretchin death sound - a bug where Gretchin were sometimes playing an Ork death sound has been fixed.
• Artillery camera - a bug where the camera was not following the action on artillery strikes has been fixed.
• Smoke Grenade exploit - a bug where smoke grenades and melee attacks combined to get free attacks has been fixed.
• UI Panel hiding - a bug where the UI panel would sometimes not hide on the enemy turn has been fixed.
• Metal Frag & Tempest Ammo - stats rebalanced due to merger with Shrapnel ammo.
• Modreds Ridge - Grukk and his crew have been delayed from entering the fight to avoid overwhelming the player.
• Sky Hunt building - removed a 'floating' building from sky hunt.
• Minimap control - the J button now adjusts the size of the minimap and toggles it on/off.
• Editor - the name of the user campaign was black text on a black background... so a little hard to read.
• Wolf Priests Text - the Wolf Priests Hammer had a missing string.

[Dizzy_slith]

• Campaign Autosaves - the game was incorrectly generating a campaign autosave after every battle. The intention was to generate one file and update it after each cattle. This has been fixed so you now only have one campaign autosave per game, greatly reducing the clutter in the saved game list.

So how do we load a save from a previous map? The way it used to be I could sift thru the multiple saves and find the mission where I left off before it and replay it anytime during the campaign. Is that still possible thru an alternative save method?

[GCCRacer]

Autosaves - the game now autosaves the in mission progress to "Autosave". It was previously only saving at the campaign level. If for any reason you want to return to the last saved point in a battle just load this up.

Does this mean a save is generated every turn?

All the changes look pretty great!

[pipfromslitherine]

Yes - at the start of each player turn, though always to the same save slot.

Cheers

Pip

[Dizzy_slith]

How do I go back and play an individual mission if it overwrites my single save each and every time?

[zakblood]

each and every mission is saved separately

Untitled.jpg (93.19 KiB) Viewed 2430 times

so any of them can be replayed at will

[Dizzy_slith]

ty

[pipfromslitherine]

There was a bug in the current beta where saves were being overwritten, we are fixing.

Cheers

Pip