Changes and New Features

Base Changes

• Changed the Mech Customization and Inventory UI
  • The entire layout of the screen has been redone to gain extra space. With all that extra space we can show way more stats than before!
  • Unit information is now always visible at the top of the screen, and changes when comparing new equipment with currently equipped parts.
  • Equipment rarity, damage types, attack duration, optimal intervals and more are visible per part and are more easily compared than before.
  • 🦾 You can now rotate the camera freely while customizing your mech by using WASD controls!
  • Surfaced part manufacturer icons and flavour tooltips
• Changed the Livery Customization UI and function
  • Livery is now accessed in the top left corner of customization UI
  • The display of each livery is much more compact and easy to navigate, and also displays the type of material the livery will use (shiny vs not shiny)
  • You can now rightclick a livery to favourite it, which will change its icon and pin it to the top of the list for easy access.
  • Livery hierarchy (apply to all parts vs specific part) has been reworked and is easier to navigate and understand.
• Changed the order of equipment in the customization screen – weapons now come first, followed by all other parts.
• Changed the pilot screen
  • See your pilots in the crawler, with different animations depending on personality
  • Added more pilot visual customization options
  • You can now also update your pilot’s bio easily from the customization screen
• Added visual mech frame under parts – now you can see the frame of each unit as it’s being equipped.
• Changed the way unit health is handled
  • Unit health used to be based on each individual part. Thus, you could not unequip damaged parts and put them in your inventory
  • Unit health per part is now recorded on each mech, meaning you can change parts on a mech without needing to repair to full health
• Added additional tiers to many base upgrades

Combat Changes

• Changed the Timeline UI in combat
  • 🦾 Improved the look of the unit tabs above the timeline, and made it clear which unit is currently selected. All tabs now also have tooltips describing the unit.
  • Unit factions (enemy, player and homeguard) are grouped into separate tab groups and colours.
  • Units that are unable to act in combat are hidden from their tab groups.
• Changed targeting UI widgets
  • It’s now communicated if your unit is at optimal range for the attack they are making, and if the shot will be blocked in any way
• Changed multiple elements of combat UI
  • 🦾 Optimal Range Circle is now more visible
  • Weapon ranges are displayed when hovering over the Action Bar of any unit
  • 🦾Weapon range and effectiveness is now displayed when hovering over Actions in the timeline
  • Number display on unit damage has been updated to be more readable, including both the amount and type of damage done
  • All damage types now have distinct icons and colours to help distinguish between them (this is also visible when customizing mechs)
  • The UI widget when hovering over a unit has been updated to be more readable, display current pilot health, and display the percentage of damage done last turn per type of damage
  • Hit markers are different now for Integrity Damage and Barrier Damage, as well as for optimal range hits and suboptimal range hits
• 🦾 Added playable area borders to all combat maps
• Changed the level of zoom-out possible on combat maps – you can now see the whole map easily when zoomed out to maximum distance.
• Added animation polish that we’ve been wanting to add for a while to several different animations, to make them smoother
• Optimized some VFX in replay
• Added hit react VFX to pilot cams when taking damage
• Changed trees to no longer destroy bullets – instead they deflects bullets slightly.

Salvage Screen Changes

• Added additional visuals for Salvage view
  • All parts are now visually previewed when in the Salvage screen
  • Salvage view now has an adaptive camera that adjusts to the part being viewed
• 🦾 Added some new UI to indicate when a part you’re salvaging is new, a higher rarity, or a higher level than the items in your inventory! You can see this UI when you hover on any part in salvage view.
• Changed the way selecting and hovering works in the salvage screen – clicking on a part and then hovering on a different part will no longer compare the two

New and Changed Content

• Changed the Capital Battle, and added some new functionality
  • The Capital Battle is now two back to back scenarios, with new goals and a much higher difficulty
• Added some new events
  • Runaway – Rumors of a glitchy prediction AI that sends pilots to their deaths in combat have been running wild in your squad.
  • Blackbirds – A pilot spots a flock of blackbirds, prompting a discussion on superstitions and rituals for warding off bad luck.
  • Volunteer – A pilot asks to stay behind in their home province or the current location due to either witnessing severe destruction in the area.
  • Loss – The first major loss of your squad is a sobering reminder of war.
  • Stunt Pilot – One of your pilots used to be a stunt pilot, and is showing off their tricks.
  • Family Redeemer – A captive enemy soldier on your base recognizes one of your pilots, and not for good reasons.
  • Aspiring Home Guard – One of your pilots is really interested in joining the Home Guard, even though they were rejected previously.
  • Brostlander – You visit the home province of a pilot in your crew.
• Added new types of subsystems for weapons
• Changed subsystem generation on equipment
  • Equipment now always generates with subsystems that are always effective
• Added tutorialization for Workshop and Base Upgrades
  • These tutorials can be accessed by visiting either tab after they unlock post-liberation of the tutorial province
• Added Achievements
• Added Difficulty Options
  • These options are accessible when you first start your campaign, and at any time after that via the pause menu
  • Customize your experience via a variety of sliders to make the game harder or easier

Saves and Load

• World Reset
  • Inventory, supplies, base upgrades, pilots, and units will be maintained (though perks on weapons will be rerolled)
  • The mobile base will be moved back to the Hedmark (first province)
  • Any fully-captured provinces will remain captured. Partially captured provinces will be reverted to the enemy and every entity will be hostile again.
  • Any ongoing overworld actions (except for workshop builds) will be cancelled
  • If your save file was mid-tutorial, the game will load as if you had completed the tutorial. If you would like to replay the tutorial it’s suggested to start a new game.
• Changed – saves are now limited to a maximum of 50 for cloud save purposes
• Added – saves now have a suggested name based on the current state of the game
• Added – autosave names are updated to be more readable and remove underscores

• SAVE FILE FOLDER LOCATION HAS BEEN CHANGED

  • This was to fix a conflict issue with file backup software such as OneDrive
  • If you would like to use your existing saves, you will have to copy the saves folder to this location:
    • C:/Users/[username]/AppData/Local/PhantomBrigade
    • Old save location was at:
    • C:/Users/[username]/Documents/My Games/Phantom Brigade

Options

• Added Key Rebinding
  • Keyboard & Mouse buttons can now be reassigned in the options menu
  • Information about current context’s keybinds is available in the pause menu
• Added auto-detection of native resolution on start up. This takes effect as long as options are not already declared by the user.
• 🦾 Added several accessibility options that have been requested for a while
  • You can now disable the movement of the base and main menu backgrounds
  • You can now disable the overworld glitch effect

Miscellaneous Changes and Additions

• 🦾 Changed the options menu to be available before starting the tutorial
• Changed all in-game cutscenes to be pre-rendered video mp4s instead of in-engine
• Added localization! Please visit our store page for a full list of languages.

Balance Changes

• ▼ Heatsink subsystems are less effective
• ▲ Thrusters use less heat
• ⮂ Melee weapons have been rebalanced
• ▼ Railguns have been made slightly less effective
• 🦾 Players and enemies now start further away from each other in combat
• ▲ Enemy strength meter is dealt more damage when an entity in a contested province is defeated
• ⮂ Rebalanced all base upgrade costs
• ▼ Reduced the number of Home Guard units that appear when reinforcements are called
• ▼ All melee weapons generate slightly more heat
• ⮂ Rebalanced the second province experience to have a bigger variety of units

Fixes

• Fixed bullets being vertically offset from their intended target for certain weapons (Ultraheavy)
• Fixed some retreat zone placements that extended outside of the playable area
• Fixed multiple different map pathing issues (inaccessible areas that should have been pathable, preventing units from walking through level geometry, etc)
• Fixed some missing text issues with a couple of events
• Fixed typos in various events
• Fixed an exploit where the workshop level could be raised exponentially by losing a fight against higher level enemies
• Fixed some unit groups being unable to find a weapon to equip, causing them to spawn without weapons
• Fixed subsystems affecting the level of the parts to which they are equipped
• Fixed convoys outside of a contested province being designated as objectives
• 🦾 Fixed the overworld stuttering when framerate exceeded 120fps
• 🦾 Fixed OneDrive overwriting files and screwing the game up in all kinds of ways
• 🦾 Fixed an issue with patrols not spawning
• 🦾 Fixed Actions being able to be overlapped by dragging them under actions currently being placed
• Fixed some of the workshop project names being incorrect/misleading
• Fixed patrols stopping chasing the crawler too quickly
• 🦾 Fixed issues with the arrows used to switch between units in unit editing
• Fixed framerate tanking while renaming saves
• Fixed a rare case where home guard tanks could drop with no weapons
• 🦾 Fixed some UI interactions being broken at 4:3 aspect ratios
• Fixed layered smoke VFX popping in/out of other smoke VFX when rotating the camera
• Fixed rain being visible in the virtual environment while editing mechs
• Fixed rain being frozen in time during briefing
• Fixed rain being frozen in time on the overworld
• Fixed subtitles being desynced in the Mother cutscene
• Fixed the capital battle flythrough cutscene sometimes being underground
• Fixed an exception occurring after loading a save during the capital battle after reinforcements have arrived
• Fixed capital battle not loading correctly in some circumstances
• Fixed the ending cutscene after the capital battle not playing
• Fixed sorting for subsystems in the inventory menu not working correctly
• Fixed certain weapons being able to generate with incompatible perks
• Cleaned up pilot animations
• 🦾 Fixed incorrect comms messages occurring in battle when units ejected
• Fixed satellite scan VFX on the overworld getting stuck if the base was entered while it was playing
• 🦾 Fixed a number of scenarios not ending correctly when scenario objectives were filled
• Fixed a number of event bugs where events could not be completed correctly or were not working as intended
• Fixed some events triggering too frequently
• Fixed a number of animation bugs
• Fixed dash being placeable in the next turn and becoming un-cancellable, preventing all movement for the current turn
• Fixed an exploit with rest and resupply giving free units when it shouldn’t
• Fixed issues with stuck mech parts on the salvage screen if certain buttons were pressed
• Fixed some comms not having a faction listed
• Fixed actions being allowed to overlap on the timeline
• 🦾 Fixed escape key not working in new unit customization UI
• Fixed a text display issue causing text to look blurry and unreadable when scaled
• Fixed issues with workshop projects not appearing in player inventory after finishing construction, or creating the wrong project
• Fixed crashing units appearing as concussed in their pilot information panel
• Fixed multiple pilot generation issues
• Fixed a regression in the shadow system – shadows now look much better
• Fixed upgrades to the mobile base not taking effect until the game was saved and loaded
• Fixed alternative controls and gamepads taking input priority, preventing players with those controllers from using mouse and keyboard
• Fixed a lot of edge cases in the tutorial province
• 🦾 Fixed cutscene audio not being controlled by master audio slider (if they are too loud, adjust it there!)
• Fixed loot not dropping on multiple entities/scenarios that should have provided it
• Fixed a bunch of usability issues with scroll bars
• 🦾 Fixed a visual issue with beams in replay
• Fixed some destruction volumes not correctly covering their buildings

Known Issues

• Entering and exiting replay mode with a beam weapon on screen causes the beam to visually change direction during planning
• Destroyed buildings are not being correctly reloaded when loading the precombat save
• Tooltips can flow off the sides of the screen in some circumstances
• Occasionally UI can be carried from one context to another by accident
• Occasionally destroyed mechs are flung around the map after viewing replay mode
• Screenshake on pilot cams in combat can cause the camera position to offset
• Game does not prevent camera movement while editing text fields
• On launch, it seems audio is occasionally not playing on the main menu and in gameplay except for cutscenes. If you do encounter this please relaunch your game
• If hit a specific angle with a melee, sometimes tanks can be pushed underground, preventing completion of the combat scenario
• There is a change of the province liberation event being interrupted by other post combat events, meaning the opportunity to participate in the parade is not given to the player when the province is won