Invasion UPDATE Part 1 Arrives

It’s time to deck the headquarter halls with grenade garlands, digestor choirs, and adorably adorned aliens! That’s right, Part 1 of our Alien Hominid Invasion update has finally arrived! Part 1 is now live on Steam, with consoles to follow soon.

Along with plenty of bug squishing that we were able to implement thanks to YOU sending us your feedback, this update is loaded with alien gifts for all! Update Part 1 will be focusing on adding 23 new achievements, a more interesting map algorithm that forces harder choices, giving players larger pools of starter equipment for more interesting re-plays, boss tuning and a good number of bug fixes. And this is all LIVE NOW!  Go get those new achievements and show us what you’re made of! 

Coming soon… Update Part 2 will be the largest update we’ve had yet, focusing on variety and player feedback that will make level-to-level gameplay more different – featuring new hazards, vehicle usage, adjustments to objectives, some new enemies, and more dropping next year.

Happy Holidays, from our team to yours!

More Achievements, Cosmetics, and CHOICES

1. 23 New Achievements

A whole new set of achievements have arrived! Time to show us what you’ve got. Again.

2. Updated Map Algorithm

What’s that you say? You like making more meaningful decisions in your invasion paths? We have great news for you, then!

There are more deliberate pathways in the generated mission maps, making it more common to have hard choices! Uh oh! Overall Danger-Per-Level added per block has been lowered to compensate for the longer pathways that can appear.

3. Mutations Galore?

When you defeat a boss at their HQ, you can now select from a wider initial pool of Mutations, increasing randomness and making playthroughs more curious!

4. New November AND Winter Seasonal Attire

The aliens have observed us and increased the discoverable alien head pool with November-esque and Winter cosmetics!

Balance Pass

1. Alien Irradiator

This weapon now takes 0.3 seconds longer to reach ultra-white-hot-melting on targets.

2. Enemy Danger Level Behavior

We’ve tuned the Agency’s scaling to work differently. In later Danger Levels, enemies won’t fire bullets with as much boosted velocity as before, meaning the cloud of green death will approach you a bit slower and give you a better chance to dodge!

3. Agency Grunt Standard Issue Blaster

Grunts are massacring invaders, and still will, though their damage per-bullet output has been lowered, along with a longer time to reach maximum velocity for more of a “tell.”

4. Agency Mini-Mech Attack

Damage per-bullet output is lowered when Agents are operating the Mini-Mech. They don’t know how to use them as effectively as you!

5. Installball 2.0, Spinner of Fists

Installball’s Megaflight ability now tracks players better – “Injustice rains from above!” Stationary tantrums hurt less, because stationary tantrums shouldn’t hurt that much.

6. Lozenge Man Attack

Damage per-bullet output lowered for Lozenge Man, whose main job is supposed to be more “slowing aliens down” and less “mowing aliens down like he’s holding four blasters at once.”

7. Hunterbot Attack

Speed, range, and follow time on the Hunterbot’s projectiles have been slightly reduced, but their homing has been increased. Hunterbot attacks should still be spooky, but are now a bit more satisfying to dodge.

Other Changes

1. Update to Maximum # of Enemies, Part 2

Previously, we lowered the number of enemies that spawned per player. Now, we’ve tweaked the solo experience as well. The overall number of enemies should look less like a flood and more like a… slightly smaller flood.

2. Update to Objective Placement

Objective objects (fishbowls, ice cream, etc.) now have a greater chance of spawning lower in the level. Aliens are great climbers (and flyers!), but repeatedly needing to get to the tops of tall buildings could be especially rough on new invaders.

Bug Fixes

Steam
  • Compat – Fixed a bug where setting the max framerate caused issues on high framerate monitors
  • Input – fixed several analogue issues with Pro Controllers
  • Input – fixed button icon orientation for Joy-Cons when Steam Input is enabled
  • Input – added additional controller configurations
  • UI – Fixed bug where Claim All was awarding additional loot
  • Gameplay – Dispatcher aliens now inherit damage boost
  • Gameplay – Fixed bug where enemies were spawning inside the jungle gym frog
  • Level – Fixed various art sorting bugs
  • Level – Fixed bug where quickly moving through the Pre-HQ doorway affected guard animations
  • Level – Fixed camera bug with the 3rd Pre-HQ doorman
  • Enemies – Fixed bug with Installball_b getting stuck on objects
  • Enemies – W.A.S.P. and Hunters now take damage from deflected turret bullets
  • Checkpoint – Fixed bug where 2 keys would sometimes appear during Checkpoint levels
  • Online – Fixed a visual delay that occurred when changing pigments in the hideout
  • Online – Fixed bug where Hunter death particle effects were sometimes missing for clients
  • Online – Fixed a desync that occurred when a player enters the hideout while a mutation is already activated
  • General – Various Local and Online QOL bug fixes

Part 2 Coming Soon…

Alien Hominid Invasion Demo Mothership Data Report

Greetings, invaders! Next Fest has come and gone, meaning it’s time to share some top-secret intel about the Mothership Data you all gathered for us last week. We’d like to thank each of you for helping us with the Invasion by sharing your thoughts and silly gameplay moments – we value your time and input more than you know!

Now, what you’ve all been waiting for. Drumroll, please…

To explain the intel in a little more detail:

The keyboard warriors win again! But wait, didn’t the Mothership suggest using a controller at the start? Since the demo was on Steam only, I suppose this makes sense in the grand scheme of things.

As for the most challenging foe, it seems the Hunters gave our invaders the most trouble, dealing 7% of all incoming damage toward all aliens. Don’t worry, your time for revenge will come. Surely.

Alien mission failure rate was pretty high at 71.9%, with most invaders losing on the third city block. I wonder what types of enemies you all were encountering then…

Invader kill to death ratio was at 44.8%, with over 6 million invader kills and 135,613 deaths. Great job to all our valiant alien friends for fighting the good fight!

For favorite cosmetics, it was no surprise to see one of our epic Vtuber heads as one of your most chosen items. Sarah has really started a trend here, eh? Honorable mention to the giraffe-like head, and the most popular weapons of course – Energy Knife, Dual Lasers, and the Combustor (what stylish weapons you all chose)!

Total invader playtime was at 21,274 hours – you all spent 2.4 years in a span of a week invading Earth! The Mothership is truly proud.

Once again, thanks to all the earthlings who took the time to try our game and share your thoughts about it! We couldn’t do it without you. Now that it’s all said and done, we’ll keep reviewing our Mothership Data and use it wisely to polish up the game. See you next time~