Update 20: Get in the Mech, Pilot

PATCH HIGHLIGHTS:

EXTREME MAKEOVER: Pilot portraits, animations, and health systems are totally revamped!
PROTEC AND ATTAC: New protection and destruction combat scenarios!
SMOOTH OPERATOR: Lots of optimizations!
AND MORE!

Phantom Brigade is in Early Access, which means we are actively updating and adding new content based on our roadmap and your wonderful feedback. As we will be skipping September’s update in preparation for some more big changes, you can expect the next Tactical Tuesday update on October 18th, 2022 at 11:00AM PST. See the full patch notes below!

EDIT: The next Tactical Tuesday update has been pushed to November 1st, 2022 at 11:00AM PST

New Features

🦾 indicates changes due to community feedback!

• Pilot Visuals
  • Pilots are more than just a picture now!
    • Six different pilot personalities, with different mech idle animations both in and out of combat.
    • Pilot personalities can change depending on how they’re used in battle.
    • A view of the pilot in the cockpit
• Pilot Customization
  • You can customize the look of your pilots!
    • You can choose from different body types, skin colors, face shapes, hair types, hair colors, and accessories!
• 🦾 Pilot HP
  • Pilot Fatigue has been reworked into Pilot HP!
    • Pilots will receive a random max HP value on game generation.
    • If a pilot reaches 0 HP, they will die and be removed from the roster.
    • Pilots regain HP slowly on the overworld.
    • Every pilot is also given a concussion threshold
      • This is a consistent number of HP that the pilot will need to lose in a battle in order to be concussed.
      • The pilot cannot lose any more HP after being concussed, unless the cockpit is destroyed.
      • Pilots will start a battle with whatever HP value they’re at when you enter, and the concussion threshold will always be that consistent number below their current HP.
  • Concussion damage has been reworked into Pilot HP damage.
• Building Protection/Destruction Scenarios!
  • New battle scenarios that involve the destruction of, or protection of certain buildings in the map!
    • Every town/city/village scenario has certain buildings to protect.
    • Hope will increase if you protect the buildings, but the rewards will start decreasing if they start getting destroyed.
    • The Radio event combat scenario has a building to destroy now!
• Salvaging Mech Frames
  • You can now salvage mech frames after battle!
    • They cost 80 salvage points, and you can’t salvage any other parts from that mech if you do salvage the frame.
    • Enemy mech frames can be salvaged only if the mech isn’t completely destroyed
    • Player mech frames will only have to be salvaged if the mech is completely destroyed.
• Quicksave
  • F8 will make a quicksave, and F9 will load that save.
• New Overworld Events
  • Box Event: You might get a box after liberating an entity. What’s inside? You won’t know until you open it!
  • Bomb Event: You might find yourself with a bomb! If it’s deactivated you can keep it and use it in some scenarios. If it’s live though…
  • Booze Event: Some booze can really take the edge off after a battle. But if you save it for a bigger celebration, it can help your pilots even more.
  • Mail Event: You’ve found some mail. You can deliver it if you’d like, and you might just get a reward for it.
  • Codes Event: You might be able to intercept some enemy intel. You can choose to shut it down, or you can listen in for some information.
  • Spies Event: There are some spies in some locations, and if you can handle the combat correctly, you might be able to get them onto the crawler.
  • Electrical Event: A storm has shorted out some electrical equipment. It needs to be repaired. I wonder if we could get someone on board that could do it faster…
  • Paint Event: Someone has vandalized the crawler because there is not much hope left.
  • New Steps in the Black Market event

Changes

• 🦾 Pilot Fatigue in all events has been updated to Pilot HP.
• You can now contest provinces immediately, without having to raise the escalation level first.
• Site Liberation
  • When you liberate entities, they will become empty of any military faction. When the province is liberated, they become liberated and belong to the brigade.
• 🦾 Redesigned the Unit Combat/Timeline UI
  • New design to account for Pilot HP
  • More additions, including the mech name, speed, a focus camera button, and a new unit symbol that you can set in the unit editing view.
  • Added a color indicator to the unit tabs above the timeline
• Updated the Combat Objectives UI Visuals
  • Objectives now look more refined and easier to read/understand.
• Balance Changes
  • Decreased damage output on the MS-M Arcturus weapon
  • Increased patrol count in warring provinces by 1
  • Decreased frequency of battlesites, and decreased their timer length
  • Changed some weapons’ concussion damage to account for the pilot HP changes.
• Workshop Balance Changes
  • Lowered the level of the workshop at the start by 1
  • Increased number of required supplies to build mech parts and frames
• Optimization
  • Significant performance increases in a lot of areas of the game.
• Updated Anti-aliasing!
  • TAA has been updated to look smoother and better than before!

Fixes

• Fixed Fence Debris teleporting to a random location and spinning rapidly
• 🦾 Fixed Mech Arms/Weapons/Shields disappearing on the first turn of combat if they were destroyed in the previous battle
• 🦾 Fixed the Bug Reporter buttons sometimes not functioning correctly when the timeline is in replay mode
• 🦾 Fixed Mech Repair Slots sometimes not getting freed up after being fully repaired
• Fixed Overworld UI being visible on the main menu if you quit to the main menu during the salvage screen
• Fixed game performance tanking when a unit is ejecting
• Fixed unsaved changes to unit names not clearing completely when cancelled
• Fixed problems with planning movement actions near the combat map borders
• Fixed enemies not being targetable when overlapping with a hologram
• 🦾 Fixed the power line event being triggered from previously liberated entities
• 🦾 Fixed number of parts in the inventory screen not updating until switching categories
• Fixed province description panels rendering underneath other province names
• Fixed mechs’ left arm twitching before shooting certain 2-handed weapons
• 🦾 Fixed the Hydraulics subsystem having no quality options
• Fixed rounding errors with the HP bars
• Fixed overworld war UI being visible in combat
• 🦾 Fixed mechs crumpling to the ground if they touch other units as they land while spawning
  • This should fix the situations with mechs running around while crumpled up!
• Fixed a border outpost in Balekin being impossible to interact with
• Fixed the cat event having a blank description in the actions list
• Fixed Music stopping after loading a save during an event screen
• Fixed mechs having awkward arm poses when firing secondary handguns
• Fixed being able to place commands while the pause menu is open
• Fixed the captive delivery event not ending if you give the captive to a different location than the target
• Fixed memory flags not updating correctly when loading older saves
• Fixed the Locked Cache event not triggering correctly
• Fixed the Factory Booze event from happening on non-factory entities
• Fixed an exception occurring if a patrol spawns out of the map boundary
• Fixed mech footsteps and some destruction debris flickering/swapping places
• Fixed the captive not getting added to the base during the Tree event
• Fixed shot accuracy being displayed incorrectly when placing an attack action when it overlaps with a dash action.
• Fixed province liberation splash screen appearing before the salvage screen
• Fixed sfx for clicking a locked base upgrade playing when you release click
• Fixed sfx for hovering over base upgrades not playing
• Multiple typo fixes and text updates

Fixes since the Experimental build

• 🦾 Fixed Mech HP bars in unit editing view being incorrect
• 🦾 Fixed newly recruited pilots not showing a portrait during briefing
• 🦾 Fixed the pilot portrait in pilot editing view overlapping the bug reporter
• 🦾 Fixed pilot portraits during briefing being incorrect if you change a pilot’s appearance before briefing

YOU CAN FIND THE FULL LIST OF KNOWN ISSUES HERE.