Hi all,

sorry for the delay but i have the first Build 52 beta build up for anyone who is interested in taking a look. There are a LOT of changes in this one, some even to the core elements of the game. It's all around feedback that I've been given here and on Steam, plus what's come from alpha testers I have let play it over the last few months. I'll warn you that it will work best to start a new game right now. Before i make it live, I'll clean up a few of the details that make an old save have some minor issues. Your old save should play fine if you want but any active objective might be a little flaky.

I'll get another post out with a complete list of changes and gifs showing things in action but for now I'll just list out the major changes and bug fixes that are in Build 52:

Major changes:
- Added a Stealth mechanic to the game . Enemies have a lower visible range to allow for positioning your troops before waking up a pod. Any characters on overwatch should take shots at dispersing enemies.
- Added the Saboteur class. Their primary skill is Sneak Attack which does extra damage if alert level is low. They are fun to play with if stealth is interesting to you.
- You can freely switch between characters and in most cases, the character should have their turns together.
- The encounters on the map now show more details about what type of encounter it may be so you can better plan your route through the area. We also added many new encounter scripts.
- When in Follow Mode, the followers will by default teleport to their location rather than having to walk
- Completely rebuilt the tutorial to better reflect the actual game. It's no longer on rails but you have to finish each room to unlock the next one.
- Very large overhaul to balancing and difficulty. I'll be making a few more changes before i make it live to everyone.
- The game is much shorter. I thinking you could easily finish the 5 main story objectives in around 10 hrs. This used to be more like 20. The maps are linear (so you have less choices) and a lot smaller (especially in late game) so it takes less time to get to the objective destinations.
- Stop movement and refund actions if an enemy spotted even if on first ("green") action (previously only on second "orange" action)
- Many other small details and polish have been added

Bug fixes
- Soft lock if choosing a dead team member to be the point
- Save slot edge cases resulting in objectives not loading when you try to save an unsaved game in a new slot
- Sometimes an inventory item would disappear when you clicked on it
- Enemies wouldn't always use doors
- Enemies occasionally would try to move to the same space as a player character and just walk in place for a few seconds
- Last player was not saying their lines in a cutscene if you had more than 3 characters on the team
- multiple wall tilesets would display on "final" mission for objective
- Bypass module is using up ammo but not doubling damage
- Could get extra characters on a sub by choosing a transport sub, adding characters and then changing to a lower capacity sub
- Weird "bonus actions" you would sometimes get when walking have been fixed
- Health dots on character display in map UI not lit at beginning in standard/casual mode
- Could not defend if using a sniper rifle out of class and had moved
- Boost Aim (or other no action skills) were counting as moves for sniper rifle out of class
- Sometimes smoke or stun grenades would not throw but would be marked as used

How to switch to the beta on GOG

Open the Galaxy client
go to the game page for DOE
Click "More"
Click "Settings"
in the "Channel" dropdown, select "Beta"

The update should install. you can always back out. Saves should be backward compatible if you want back out.

thanks. good to know. i've not tried 2.0 yet!

thanks! glad to hear you are liking it. it's definitely better balanced now than it has been but far from perfect i know.

thanks for cross posting that. i was about to do it :D I actually changed this in 52.9.7 so that ambushes are possible from the beginning. your units in overwatch will fire when enemies activate. didn't update this anywhere yet.

I posted this on STeam, so I'll go ahead and post it here too though not much content has changed. update in 52.9.7

- ambushes are possible at any time. your units in overwatch will fire when enemies activate.
- reworked some merchant screens and stat displays
- opening text crawl appears letter by letter
- more bug fixes

Looking like I'll make this live on Tuesday (mar 31) or Wednesday (apr 1) of next week to everyone.

I intended the final area to have a difficulty jump but looks like i went too far. Thanks for letting me know!

Do you mind starting a mission and submitting a bug report in game? That way i can get your save and take a look at the exact scenario and make some adjustments. Probably i need to adjust the pods.

So i found a save of mine that is overall a little lower level than your team so i can check this out a bit better. I have Assault (10), Wildcat (8), Wrecker (7), Soldier (6), Butcher (5)

Great feedback. I have done a couple of things:
- made the Cultists enemy pods a bit tougher on the higher difficulties (I'll go playtest them some too)
- took off the Rebuild skill from the Destroyers that revived them. Having to kill each one twice is pretty difficult.
- reduced the number of Mech Destroyers on highest difficulty (most missions had 4 and now it's 2)
- increased the number of regular mechs (i still want these to be hard)

I'm going to playtest a few rounds with this to decide if i want to keep it this way or if it seems too easy.

so i'm still playtesting, but here's the strategies i'm using against them with my team:
- Assault with flip the field and free reload can usually get in position to take 3 shots in one turn. Great for taking out a Destroyer quickly (assuming you can survive a couple of his hits with Return Fire)
- Wrecker with Stun Ammo seems to have some success with them also
- Soldier with a shotgun I think would be effective also with Double Barrell. I have a Lightning Rifle 2 with stun ammo on my guy and that's ok for setting up stuns but doesn't do much damage.

With this team i was able to take out 3 of them at once but i lost 2 guys so not ideal but I'm guessing with the balancing changes it still might be too easy if you have a few stun ammos. I'll probably have to make Destroyers resist status effects to counter that strategy.

I think i can get 52.9.8 out in a few hours with some of these changes.