Hi @everyone!

Update 9 is now available on App Lab and Steam!

This update is HUGE and packed with many exciting stuff :)

NEW OFFICIAL MAP:
- New official map! Zephyr Temple, featuring the new Conquer game mode!
- This game mode was already introduced in beta in U8, and now it is officially released! It’s the most challenging game mode, because you have to destroy all the aliens' nests while they also try to expand and destroy your base. Who will win ?



CONQUER IMPROVEMENTS AND CHANGES:
- Added random warpgate start locations (from predefined possible locations).
- Fixed sentinels and enemies spawning inside rocks.
- Added a cap limit to the number of enemies and bosses.
- The Intercom now shows the remaining number of spawners.
- The overmind will now send a percentage of units to attack the player every time the overmind spawns a defensive wave
- In normal and higher difficulties, the aliens start with 2 spawners.
- Difficulty adjustments: In easy there are no sentinels, in normal only the level2 spawner has sentinels, and on hard and insane there are sentinels in each spawner.

NEW STUFF:
- Main Menu UI revamp: We moved general settings and loadout buttons to the user panel, added a direct access to the avatar configuration, and added new experience and achievements panels.
- Experience Panel: Some units and structures are now unlocked with experience.
- New research panel to improve your weapons, units and guardian capabilities so you can become the best Guardian of the Galaxy! This is just the first version and we would love to hear your feedback. We plan to add more items if you like them, for now we have:
o Weapons: Rocket Launcher upgrades > Automatic reload after 60s (lvl1) and 45s (lvl2).
o Units: Mech upgrades > Possibility fire missiles (lvl1) and make all mechs drivable without the armory (lvl2)
o Player: Ability to do small jumps when pressing double-click jump.
o To research an upgrade, you will usually have to unlock it first (e.g. complete all maps in a particular planet) and then buy the upgrade with minerals.
- New alert system, that will show an alert when you have new unlocks available.
- New galaxy conquer (BETA): Now you can conquer the galaxy! playing all the official and the best selection of community maps to get special rewards. More coming soon :)
- New Protect game modes (BETA): Two new protect game modes are available at the editor:
o Escort: In this mode you have to escort and protect the miner while it is moving across the map but the aliens will attack you as you move along the path.
o Payload: You need to carry a bomb from warpgate to warpgate before it explodes. While the player carries the bomb he can’t use the shield and the jetpack.
- The deathmatch and team deathmatch have been re-enabled on the official maps.
- Added a new global notification system to show important information to players (e.g. a new update is coming soon).
- Added a maximum limit of respawns in PvP games. You will now win the game if you destroy the other team’s base or kill 10 times the other player.
- Localization: the UI is now available in English, Spanish, Japanese, Korean and Chinese. More are coming very soon.
- Community maps completion is now stored locally and shows the stars in the community map selector
- Added the ability to play favourite community maps while offline
- Mech improvements :
o You can now move the mech in all directions.
o Added a damage visualization to the cabin.
o You can change your weapons and fire missiles (Tech upgrade Lvl1).
o You can select smooth or snap turn while you are inside the mech.
o A new message “EJECT” appears when the health of the Mech is low
o The player is now also killed if the Mech is destroyed and the player is still inside
o The weapons in your arms are dropped when teleporting inside the Mech
- New (handsome) avatar: The “Alien Guardian” - Available after you complete all Planet Titan maps.
- Added switch to disable the points that show up when you kill an enemy (Show kill points in the gameplay menu)
- Community Map multiple difficulties: Define the main difficulty and let the game automatically generate the rest, or go in full control mode and define all levels by yourself. Pro tip: you can pin the UI in the air for extra comfort and copy difficulties from other configurations. (e.g. copy Normal to Hard)
- Added full support for BHaptics: vest, arms and head
- When you reinstall the game, we will check if there's a previous savegame and ask you if you want to restore.

CHANGES AND IMPROVEMENTS:
- Changed the third official map (Desert Outpost) to Domination gamemode, as a training for new users, with 2 gates to defend
- Removed some steps in the tutorial to make it simple and faster for new users
- Tutorial is now mandatory to play single player and co-op games
- All progress is now saved to the cloud each time you open the game, so you’ll not lose your progress or achievements when you have to factory reset your headset.
- Added a new button in the mini-map to select all the structures.
- The zoom of the sniper’s scope now changes pressing the joystick (not moving it up as before)
- Increased the HP of the Armory to 400
- Limited the maximum number of given minerals for coop and single player games to 10000.
- The armory explodes when it is destroyed.
- The armory now rotates its antenna while researching
- The intercom now shows game time in Conquer mode
- Scorpios now make a sound when they spawn in Titan maps (test)
- The Sniper now has a negative 50% damage bonus against spawners.
- After completing the campaign, the game will open in Galaxy mode by default when selecting Single Player
- Added possibility to modify the galaxy layout without a new build
- Added a popup message after you restore a saved game explaining that it is necessary to restart the game for some changes to take full effect
- Improved Protect level graphics
- Improved Outpost level graphics
- Improved Nebula Mounatins level graphics

PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS:
- Fixed a performance issue with the Mineral Extractor where placing several extractors would greatly degrade the game framerate. You can now place as many as you want.
- Performance improvements in several parts of the game:
o Giving orders to units
o Weapons
o Network code and voice over code
o Player UI LOD
- Performance and visual improvements in several official maps :
o Desert PvP map (Fortress)
o Desert Nebula
o Desert Outpost
- Reduced memory footprint in the Map Editor and Community maps
- Optimized the models, textures and general performance of several assets:
o Optimized the Sentinel
o Optimized the Spanwer level 1 and 2
o Optimized the Sentinel strike
o Optimized the Warpgate
o Optimized the Mineral Extractor
o Optimized the Teleport point
- Improved intercom performance
- Optimized main menu, lobby and tutorial assets and prepared them for the editor

FIXES:
- Fixed the arms were still stuck to the Mech when you were killed inside the Mech
- Fixed the sound of the armory was not correct when it was attacked
- Fixed grenades were not exploding when hitting a flying enemy
- Fixed balls from scorpios were sometimes stuck in its tail on clients
- Fixed sometimes the player would catapult outside the map when reloading the shotgun while using the jetpack
- Fixed the scorpios were not damaging the armory
- Fixed the Containers were not removing the navmesh inside them
- Fixed better control of collision when using the jetpack, to avoid falling inside the rocks, especially on community maps.
- Fixed left handed smooth turn and sensitivity not working
- Fixed sniper was sometimes showing the other players’ scope.
- Fixed the sentinels were not disappearing sometimes when killed.
- Fixed the game eventually crashed if you teleported at the exact moment that your Mech was destroyed and you were inside
- Fixed being possible to research in other players’ armory
- Fixed the sentinel was detecting the player when it was invisible
- Fixed the message “Incoming Enemies” was shown in a domination or conquer map
- Fixed the sound of the jetpack was still active when respawned
- Fixed the shield of a Level2 spawner was sometimes not disappearing after destroying them.
- Fixed scorpions were walking below the terrain in the last stage of Snow Protect map
- Fixed an issue that allowed another player to join a private game
- Fixed the robots were not attacking the sentinels or were usually obstructed
- Fixed the you were able to upgrade the cannon tower without researching it
- Fixed the armory was not working in the training area
- Fixed scroll of community maps was not working well and sometimes and it crashed the game
- Fixed that after upgrading to drivable mech, canons of your own team shoot at your drivable mech
- Fixed sometimes only the legs of the Mech was shown and a invisible cabin
- Fixed the player was able to activate the button by shooting at the warpgate in a Domination map instead of actually pushing the button.
- Fixed the option to swap the joysticks of the controller was sometimes not saved after playing a game
- Fixed some researches were not checking if player had enough minerals
- Fixed some rock colliders in Outpost Domination
- Fixed warpgates not generating navmesh when floating in the air
- Fixed Forcefields can be destroyed before starting the game.
- Fixed Forcefields would extend beyond limits depending on rotation.
- Fixed The scrolling bug in the favorites section
- Fixed not being able to restore a save game twice
- Fixed some colliders in Protect.
- Fixed completing the tutorial in pancake mode would not register
- Fixed pause button not working on Oculus Quest
- Fixed sometimes was not possible to reload the AK5
- Fixed not being able to damage the mech in pvp the first time a player ride it.
- Fixed being able to damage a player inside the mech.
- Fixed the first time the game was installed the user name would show up empty in the main panel.
- Fixed community maps would not show the correct number of stars when completing them.
- Improved other players position when walking (leaning is not as pronounced now)
- Fixed being able to teleport through force fields
- Fixed respawn limit not working correctly in community maps and on clients

MAP EDITOR:
- Added a new Protect game mode selector: Protect, Escort and Payload
- Added a new respawn limit property: You can now limit how many lives the player has.
- Added new Conquer mode editor parameters:
o Number of Player possible starting points
o Aliens mineral collection rate
o Larva spawn period (s)
o % counter attack on defense: determines the number of enemies that will be sent to attack the player every time the overmind spawns a defensive wave
o Max-Min attack periods: determine how aggressive is the overmind sending waves to the player
- Added a new Destructible energy wall asset. It works like the energy shields of the spawners but this one won’t allow any units or players to go through.
- Added theme selector to filter structures. There are now 4 themes: Bright, Dark,SciFi, Ancient
- Added new versions of the common assets to Dark and Scifi themes
- Added the new Temple map assets (Gate, pillar, pillarSmall, pillarSection, platform) - Ancient theme
- Added Trapezium and Triangles assets
- Added fern and twig to the desert biome
- Added scifi Light post asset
- Added Stairs without railings asset
- Added 4 color crates (yellow, green, red, and blue)
- Added 3 new box sections
- Added 3 static bugs (bug, artho, insect)
- Improved stairs with railings colliders

MAP EDITOR FIXES:
- Fixed Teleport pad polycount value
- Fixed Dropship box polycount value
- Fixed Teleport pads assigned to side A or B were changed to neutral when playing.
- Fix: Editor - PvP Maps in the editor switch teams
- Fixed the player spawn points were sometimes lost when a map was cloned and changed the map type
- Fixed the editor was showing the Stage tab in the wave configuration of a Conquer and Domination maps

A very special and huge thank you to all the beta testers and map makers that contributed their maps to the galaxy conquest, especially Ard_Akuma and DethByGuiness.

Cheers!
VirtualAge Team

Cheers!