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Devlog #6: the First Watch Tournament, speedrun mode and moving defenses (demo v0.1.9)

The demo moves to version 0.1.9 right before the First Watch Tournament (October 26 to December 13): SPEEDRUN MODE arrives, you can now move your defenses between waves, and the Archer and the Arcane Mage get a new speed upgrade.

The demo moves to version 0.1.9. It’s the First Watch Tournament version, which starts on Monday, October 26 and closes on December 13: it brings everything you need to compete, plus something a lot of players asked for: moving your defenses.

The First Watch Tournament

Two tables, seven weeks and prizes for the best. The SCORE table goes to the best demo watch, on any difficulty. The SPEEDRUN table goes to whoever beats the demo fastest starting from scratch. Every Monday we post the standings on Discord. Dates, prizes and rules are on the tournament page.

In the game:

  • A new strip on the main menu with the countdown and four illustrated cards showing where the tournament stands. Clicking it opens the tournament page.
  • The ranking’s TOURNAMENT tab shows up when it starts: both tables on a parchment nailed to the palisade, with an illustrated podium for each prize. Until then, the ranking tells you when it begins.
  • HOW IT WORKS: the tournament guide lives inside the game (both tables, the speedrun step by step, how to check your watches and how to claim a prize). It opens on its own the first time you visit the tab.

SPEEDRUN MODE

From RANKING → TOURNAMENT you start a run with an empty Workshop and no BLOOD. You play on THE LONG WATCH: if you lose, you buy upgrades with what you earned and head out again, until you win. The clock adds up the time of all your watches. Every watch that ends, won or lost, counts. If you abandon one, it doesn’t count as a watch and you can redo it, but its time still adds up. BLOOD bonuses are counted from the start of the run, so everyone starts on equal terms. When you leave the mode, your usual Workshop comes back with its BLOOD.

  • Did my watch arrive? After each watch of the run, the end screen shows a light-blue band with the total time and whether the server recorded it. SEE MY WATCHES shows the whole run, watch by watch, with a VERIFY button that resends anything pending.
  • SPEEDRUN TIMER (Settings → GAME): shows the time next to the WAVE medallion and, as each wave closes, whether you’re ahead of or behind your best win. During a speedrun-mode run it shows up on its own and keeps the total time.

Moving defenses

Between waves, hold the click on a defense: in half a second it’s picked up, a click drops it on another cell and a right-click puts it back where it was. It’s free, and the defense keeps its level, experience, doctrine, ammo and priorities. Now you can keep up with the growing ground using the defenses you already have.

There are rules: nothing moves while a wave is on, and neither does a defense under the mist (light its torch first). On DEAD OF NIGHT you can only move them in the pause after waves 5, 10 and 15; the difficulty picker says so and the game lets you know when that pause opens.

A faster Archer and Arcane Mage

  • The Archer’s Speed upgrade was rebuilt: levels I and II add much more, and level III is new, CADENCE: each arrow in a row at the same enemy fires 10% faster, up to 50%. Switching targets while the previous one is alive breaks the rhythm. Pairs well with UNTIL DEAD in the priorities panel. With all three levels, the Archer goes from 1.5 to more than 3 shots per second.
  • The Arcane Mage gets the same CADENCE with its beams, going from 0.8 to more than 1.6 shots per second with all three levels.
  • STATISTICS shows how much damage Cadence added.

So nothing slips by

Watching demo playthroughs, we noticed things players were missing, so now the game shows them:

  • New enemies are introduced even with the tutorial off: the first time an enemy, a boss or a champion shows up, you see it with its portrait. Once you’ve seen it, it won’t appear again.
  • BURN your first champion: the first time you kill one, when the wave ends the camera travels to the body and the Torchbearer, visibly disgusted, asks you to burn it. Its loot is worth it.
  • The FRAGILE priority only shows up when you have something that makes enemies fragile, and the first time the game points it out.
  • Ammo cards now make it clear that each defense loads one ammo at a time and you pick it in its panel.

Improvements and fixes

  • THE WORKSHOP: each upgrade’s sheet shows the whole defense, bigger (you could only see the Mage’s head), and the Workshop runs lighter on modest computers.
  • Stillwater’s lights (and the beacons of the other events) now float right above their island: before they looked shifted and seemed to sit over the path.
  • The demo’s ending looks clean: the HUD and map buttons hide during the cutscene.
  • The ranking is now its own screen, and the armorer no longer repeats his line every time you open a section of the end screen.
  • Changing language in the middle of a watch no longer breaks the HUD.

That’s 0.1.9. If something breaks or you have an idea, use Report a problem in the pause menu: it comes straight to us. And if you haven’t tried it yet, the demo is free on Steam. See you on the palisade, and in the tournament.

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