Hey Marines,
A new major update is live now! Spring approaches and the sun shines a little longer to fill your marines with hope as we bring a fair share of new gear and mechanics to fight back the alien threat! Enjoy the Steam Spring Sale, the game is discounted (40% off) from today to March 21!
Special delivery for your marines (signed with your feedback)! This major update brings two new weapons, a new mechanic, UI improvements, and more unlockable items with the Gear Tokens.
New weapons
We organized a vote on Discord and Twitter to let you choose the next weapon you’ll experiment with, and you chose the Energy Rifle! The arsenal of the USC commandos has received yet another significant upgrade with this weapon and a new shield!
- Energy Rifle: A marvel of high-tech engineering designed to give your marines the upper hand on the battlefield. This expensive and "electrifying" small arm, available without unlocking, is a powerful weapon. It deals a lot of damage and can set aliens on fire. This weapon comes with two attack modes:
- "Controlled impulse", a single-target attack in a star pattern with a low AP cost and significant damage potential.
- "Discharge", a 3x3 area with a free pattern attack, capable of inflicting substantial damage.
- This weapon doesn't deal electric damage (because this damage type doesn't exist in the game), but rather Tranquilization and Fire damage! So fear not, you can fire at will even in flooded areas of the Hydroponics environment!
- Energy Shield: A more expensive alternative to the Riot shield, with added benefits: better protection from Shadow damage and better defensive values.
This Energy Rifle relies on Energy Charge ammunition. With these two new additions to your gear, you'll be prepared to exterminate even the toughest of aliens!
See? No problem zapping aliens around in the flooded areas!
Community-based features and balance
Thanks to your suggestions, we designed and added a new mechanic using a set of small arms with a shield. This mechanic is called "Close Quarters Weapon" (CQW).
- It allows your marines to wield a small arm while holding a shield. They will now benefit from defensive bonuses even when not in melee attack mode.
- The CQW weapons are the following: Self-Defense Pistol, Bulleteer, Shotgun, and QuadSeeker. All the weapons that are classified as CQW have a "pistol" icon (they are still considered "small arm" weapons).
Make the most of this new mechanic to adapt your strategy and operate differently on the battlefield!
To continue expanding the possibility of unlocking gear with Gear Tokens, you can now also obtain crafting recipes. However, they have a considerable cost, since these are end-game progression items for non-Campaign modes.
As a reminder, Gear Tokens can be obtained by completing a game in any non-Campaign mode, and the amount received depends on the difficulty level. You can still acquire items by completing the corresponding challenges and also obtaining Gear Tokens.
The Defend the Base! mode has been reworked and balanced, with aliens now being more aggressive towards structures, creating shortcuts, and destroying crucial objects to hinder your objectives. The initial design of the first AI wave has been reintroduced with balance tweaks, with aliens attacking again during the AI first turn. AI can skip turns on arrival, reducing movement AP costs by 1 for one turn. More aliens will arrive during the first turn of each wave, and turrets are slightly more expensive. Structure and object value amortization rates per wave have been increased, as has their return cost.
UI improvements
The UI has also undergone improvements, and we designed a new in-mission feature:
- The Squad Overview Panel. It provides a comprehensive view of all active (alive) units across multiple squads, allowing for better coordination and resource management during missions.
- We have also added the possibility to change to hotkeys for the UI and information display of this new panel and other tactical view markers and outlines in the Settings > Interface and Settings > Misc. menus, respectively. Customize and adapt the interface to suit your playstyle!
Read the full patch notes here.
Get the game at a 40% discount from today at 7 PM (CET +1) to March 21 at 7 PM (CET +1)! Upgrade your marines' gear with the Energy Rifle, use a shield with a Close Quarters Weapon, and customize the UI!
All clear for now! Keep your eyes peeled for further updates on USC: Counterforce and the challenges that lie ahead!
The USC: Counterforce team
