Alright! We're looking at posting another update this upcoming Saturday night. And Doomers? What an update it is going to be!
First of all, we've been doing a lot more balance work. I, myself, in particular, have been going over ammo and weapon-placement strategies with a very careful eye toward play balance and challenge. I have also carefully reconsidered monster placements, to better manage what kinds of ammo are dropped and how much. In several cases, it has completely changed the challenge level of some encounter groups as well. In one example, in Map 4, the Fuel Refinery, I changed out many of the Former Sergeants and Chaingunners for Imps and Former Humans. This combination completely changes the dynamic of the encounters and it - just as importantly - doesn't drop just a glut of shotguns and bullet ammo for the player to pickup.
In all, ammo is significantly more scarce than it used to be, across all of the maps; which simultaneously encourages more careful exploration, better planning for encounters and more focus on seeking out and using asset resources, such as turrets, bots and drones. It makes for a better overall dynamic, more challenging play, and hopefully, a more enjoyable experience.
Secondly, and very possibly just as importantly, DarynS and I have been working on changing out the Voodoo-Doll-Implementation mechanic. Which will have a two-fold benefit. First, will be our ability to make Cooperative play available in the maps. Secondly, it will permit the use of a greater range of Mods. Since there will not be Player-One starts to be accidentally killed by powerful weapon usage, it will enable players to use mods which feature them, without that worry. Yep, I'm looking at you, you Russian Overtkill fans. ;)
We've also been focusing a lot of energy and thought on making the maps themselves better. For one, we have replaced the Plasma Turret model with a whole new model. It now looks like a turret, and a very agreeably sci-fi-themed one. We've also inserted a few new decoration sprites. When you play through Map 5, in particular, you will notice some of these right away. In short, prepare to have your mind pleasantly blown when you see them. ;)
All of that said, there's a lot more to look forward to in this update, too. When we do our upload, we will be updating our changelog as well, so be sure to give that look, when you snag the update for yourself.
Thanks for reading! And thanks for being fans of Dragon Sector!
