The Council Apocalypse campaign came with lots of new bosses and spectacular attacks that were dragging down some systems' framerates. Many of these optimizations happen quite deep in the engine code so it has taken the QA team longer than usual to test.



GAME LOGIC IMPROVEMENTS

- Parallelized collision detection code.
- Overall memory usage reduction.
- Code optimizations for some FX transformations (scaling and material swaps).
- Parallelized sphere hit detection code.
- Reduced the amount of hit colliders in some common objects (shields, parrots and airships).
- Created lighter versions for the enemy prop ships flying in the background on some missions.


AI IMPROVEMENTS

- Implemented smart time limits for decision makers.
- Parallelized task assignment code.
- Removed some redundant events in enemy animations.
- Implemented variable caching for the enemy horde manager.


GAMEPLAY

Along with the many tech changes, some new "under the hood" gameplay systems have been implemented. We now have more power to tune mission difficulty server-side. In this first iteration, our focus is on low MMR matches. Low MMR matches sometimes have a very slow pace, with too few enemies around. We are increasing enemy spawn rates and lowering AI skill a little bit to bring the game a bit more action and, hopefully, not modify the difficulty curve too much in the process. Veteran players will notice these changes mostly on mentor matches.

- Increased enemy spawn rate at low difficulty levels.
- AI behaves more permissively at low difficulty levels.
- Decreased enemy damage at low difficulty levels.




MISSIONS

As we mentioned in the patch notes for 10.3, the Council Apocalypse campaign released a bit too strong. The following changes tackle problems in mission duration mostly.


IN SHOCK

- The Fifth Council now sends Elite Snipers to join the troops protecting Dr. Kuzmann's expedition.
- Kuzmann's levers now require time to activate.

THE MOUSE AND THE SNAKE

- Reduced the health of all Beholders by 15%.
- Reduced regenerating beholder's regeneration speed by 40%.
- Reduced Valeria's health by 20%.


UPSIDE DOWN

- Reduced the time required to activate the trojan by 20%.
- Reduced Dr. Kuzmann's health by 15%.
- Increased the time Dr. Kuzmann stays stunned by 10%.
- Increased enemy spawn frequency by 10% when not playing against an antagonist.


MIND OVER MATTER

- Reduced the Council's health by 10%.
- Reduced the amount of enemy kills the Council requires for examination by about 10%.



WEAPONS

SCHNEIDER

- Decreased Rain of Fire's damage by 10%.


H.I.V.E.

- Decreased Shy's damage by 10%.


DOLDREN

- Increased JK-5's damage by 10%.


HAREC

- Increased Ferox Impetus' damage by 10%.



BUG FIXES

- Fixed a bug on The Beast's Lair where the game could crash due to a memory leak.
- Fixed a bug on The Enemy Within where the game could crash for the host the first time Uras-Beherit's weak points were exposed.
- Fixed a bug where the game could crash where entering a match.
- Fixed a bug where the game could crash when healing Lycus with his shield activated.
- Fixed a bug where the menu could block after reconnecting to a game.
- Fixed a bug when receiving rewards where the menu could block.
- Fixed a bug on In Shock where some enemy ships were not reaching their destination and enemies were not been deployed. - Fixed a bug where aiming was not working property while in cover.
- Fixed a bug where Valeria's quantum projectile was not appearing correctly after a host renegotiation.
- Fixed several bugs caused by hot renegotiations.
- Fixed a bug where the AI was not selecting cover properly.
- Fixed several VFX bugs on Kuzmann's Surgeon skin.
- Fixed several FX bugs.
- Fixed several language issues.

Hi, guys!

Thank you very much for reporting this. We are deleting all the posts including spam and thinking on ways to avoid this in the future.

Calling up to all Spacelords Portuguese and Brazilian players!

We've detected an issue that can result in a locked menu screen. We're already working on the solution and should be included in a game update soon. In the meantime we recommend changing the game language to English.

Sorry for the inconveniences and thank you for your patience!

Hi LordDraco3,

Have you reported this in spacelords_support@mercurysteam.com?

Hi Skyline,

Heated debate is something that can happen in the forums, but insulting other members is not allowed so, please, consider this your first warning.

If this conduct persists, you will earn a temporal ban.

We encourage you to keep the discussion civil, as you will find the feedback you receive will be much more rewarding.

Thank you.

Independent development studio MercurySteam today revealed ground-breaking changes to their self-published shooter-brawler game. From August 23rd, Raiders of the Broken Planet is reborn as Spacelords, and becomes a totally Free to Play gaming experience.

These changes coincide with the launch of the much awaited fourth campaign, Council Apocalypse, completing the first arc of Spacelords’ epic storyline. Council Apocalypse includes four new unique missions and a new recruitable character, the cold and calculating Valeria, all of which will now be completely free. You can watch the official trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRT_tRSTqJY



“When we launched Raiders September last year, we hoped its low price point of 9.99 per campaign- would open it up to a large number of users, but it didn’t work as we planned” commented Enric Álvarez, Spacelords Director. “Our vision is to see our game enjoyed by millions of users for years to come and putting all of the game's rich content into their hands for free is the way to realize it. We’ve answered our community and hope this removal of any payment barriers will build our devoted community further”

Spacelords is not just an update to Raiders of the Broken Planet; it is a new game built on the back of Raiders. The differences in all aspects go so deep, that the best way to communicate them to players is by re-branding and inviting everyone to experience the new Spacelords by themselves this 23rd of August. Newcomers will find a huge, new Sci-Fi universe to get immersed into, while Raiders’ veterans will see their calls answered.



On the Spacelords brand, “we felt that ‘Raiders’ only focused on one specific side of the battle for the Broken Planet: The Raiders,” adds Álvarez. “But this is about the Aleph, a mythical substance from the Broken Planet, a substance everybody wants -the Raiders, the Antagonists, each of the invading human factions…- All of them know that whoever controls the Aleph, will dominate the universe as the ultimate Spacelord. So, the new brand is not going to change the game lore at all, quite the contrary. Spacelords comes to embrace all of them -Raiders and Antagonists- under one umbrella.

MercurySteam is committed to reward those players who have previously purchased one or more campaigns with exclusive, top-quality game content that won’t be available to anyone else. The studio will announce the exact nature of these rewards in the coming days.
And for those players who cannot wait until Spacelords become a Free to Play Game, two of Raiders of the Broken Planet’s most popular game features, designed with players who haven’t purchased a campaign in mind will dramatically change. From today, the free Mission of the Week becomes the Mission of the Day, accessible to all players. Similarly, the Gold price necessary for renting individual missions has been reduced significantly.



Be witness to how a game is reborn on August 23rd, when Raiders of the Broken Planet becomes Spacelords, a new and exciting Free to Play gaming experience.

Hi Shadow,

What bug are you talking about?

Hi rhammer,

I'm reporting it to our QA Team, thank you for letting us know and sorry for the inconveniences.