Hello Hunters new and old!
Thank you everyone who took part in our Beta Weekend and Clutch Performance Event! We were overwhelmed by the turnout and thought that we had set up our community event to be completed on Saturday. The fact that you managed to blow it out of the water in under 12 hours was incredible to see and we are thrilled to witness your enthusiasm for Steel Hunters! A big congratulations from the whole team as well to the winners of the Leaderboard Contest! GG!Over the course of the weekend we received an immense amount of feedback through our survey Discord and other socials. It was especially great to interact with you our community through our daily Twitch streams. Thank you for that! "With the introduction of language specific streams we want to make sure to address each dedicated community member. It furthermore allows us to have a more personal conversation with individual members while simultaneously providing more stream content overall. We hope you guys are looking forward to more as much as we do!" - CM SaPure The team is taking it all into consideration when deciding future steps. We wouldn't be able to do what we do without you! I for one thoroughly enjoyed playing matches with the community and enjoyed being part of the record breaking highs we reached over the weekend! I even managed to break out Fenris with the extra constructs from the Bonus Mission! I hope you all show off your Clutch Performance Trenchwalker skin in the future!
The Big Man in the Room
We were glad to see that so many players enjoy the Colossus rework! Through your feedback we have a better idea of how it fits in the game. Many of you pointed out the same strengths and weaknesses that we were aiming to convey which we were happy to see! Colossus should be a powerhouse in combat but does have notable weaknesses. Due to its mobility constraints a strategic retreat until the 1 minute timer expires is effective if you have the terrain to play around. Knowing when to activate the Colossus is almost as important as how much firepower it brings to the team! Using it to change the balance of power at a contested extraction or baiting an enemy team into an ambush are some of the shortest ways to a well-earned victory!As this was just the initial introduction of the rework you can be sure that we'll be keeping an eye on our large friend and continuing to shift them towards a strong but not overwhelming endgame piece. While the Colossus Kit might have felt common during the Beta Weekend this was in part due to how it was implemented for the streamlined Starfall Harvest. In the future we intend for it to be a bit rarer like during the World Premiere playtest so it isn't a threat that you have to consider in every battle.
Slow but Faster
We were interested in how the changes to our dash and jump cooldown in v0.39 would be received especially after your initial feedback from the World Premiere and boy did you deliver! Steel Hunters is meant to be a slower more tactical style of shooter and it's good to see that the changes were on the whole welcomed. We even had replies telling us that we shouldn't make it any faster!We have the next round of experimentation coming in v0.40 which will serve to speed up the collection of Enhancement Cores Energy Cells and Ammo Crates by making the "Hold E" requirement nearly instant! This will reduce downtime outside of combat without ruining our core tactical feeling. In team testing these have felt really good so we're very excited to get it into your hands too! We have some other experimentation on the horizon involving our Ammo Recharge mechanic so keep an eye out for that!Bootcamp
"The onboarding rework is a clear testament that feedback is being heard and that the developers are actively listening to the community. Introducing such an intense Leaderboard event on top of that was the perfect way to reward our most dedicated players while also giving the community an exciting glimpse of what’s to come in the future." - CM Kikibrik Version 0.39 saw the debut of our new tutorials featuring Hunter Training and Battle Training. We were very pleased to see that it improved the New Player experience for most of you taking your first steps in the Beta Weekend! We've heard your feedback on the elements it was lacking like an introduction to using abilities and are happy to announce that we'll be improving it in the very near future to better flesh out our introduction to Steel Hunters.We've also heard you that you want more lore! Us too! While we are producing content for our website and socials we are looking for more in-game avenues to help welcome you to the exciting world of Steel Hunters. Our planned BattlePasses will exist to carry the story onward but we agree that there is space for more of an introduction to our universe's colorful cast. Steve the Hangar Tech lore article when?There are other ideas you shared that we already have in the kitchen but you'll have to wait to see what's cooking!
(Ever wonder what Trench sees?) Starfall Harvested
For Version 0.39 we decided to streamline our main game mode Starfall Harvest to gather feedback on how a slightly less complex version would be received by our audience. This was especially directed at our newer players who voiced concerns during our World Premiere playtest that dropping straight in to the full suite of towers was a bit overwhelming. Thank you for your honest feedback! We agree that it could use a bit more time in the oven but are glad that you also see the potential in it and it's ability to add a huge amount of battle-to-battle variety and replayability to Steel Hunters. For Version 0.40 we will be temporarily replacing Starfall Harvest with our original game mode Last Stand while we iterate on the next exciting version. Last Stand is similar to Starfall Harvest but leans more into a traditional shooter style. Don't worry! While it doesn't have towers it still has fun bonus objectives that will keep the battles feeling varied from match to match.
A Bright Future
As you might've heard we'll be moving into Early Access in the near future and so we look forward to everyone getting to experience v0.40 on permanently live servers! We'll make sure that all the skins you earned from Alpha and Beta Testing Events are given to your accounts so you'll be able to show off your well-earned flair in the Hunting Grounds. We look forward to seeing everyone there and thank you for joining us on this journey! I for one can't wait to hunt with you all again.All the best RaegnimLive Ops' Resident Cat with Human Ears