As you may or may not know, the game has been out for a while now and after an initial set of patches (seven, to be precise) aiming to fix and balance different aspects of the game, comms went a little silent. For us this was a period of quiet diligence, preparing the game for its console premiere while improving multiple of its many facets. So now, with great pleasure, the time has come to preview the upcoming 1.09 patch release, which includes many requested features and updates, as well as a wider set of fixes.
One of the features most requested by players was the ability to issue commands while the game is paused, AKA Tactical Pause. With this patch we’ll be introducing a Tactical Pause feature which is available after enabling it in the gameplay options menu. Once enabled, players can stop time and issue commands to their units without worrying about advancing enemies. We understand that quite a few players wanted to experience The Valiant with this level of flexibility in controlling the pace of gameplay, and though it took a bit to work out all the kinks, we’re glad we’ve been able to add this feature to enrich the game for all types of players.
While previous updates addressed balance and pacing issues around the first few maps of the campaign, we know there were quite a few players still concerned with the difficulty curve and gameplay experience of the final mission. While we don’t want to spoil anything for players who haven’t reached the ending yet, this patch includes a significant rework to the mechanics of the final fight. This is not just balance updates, but feature adjustments to more organically incorporate the player’s progression accumulated during the campaign, both in terms of unlocked skills and gear. We believe the updates we’ve made are much more in line with what players expected at the culmination of their journey compared to how the fight worked previously.
We’re very excited to announce that a multiplayer demo of The Valiant will be released simultaneously alongside update 1.09. We’ve invested a significant amount of effort towards smoothing out the multiplayer experience and improving the networking implementation for better online experiences for everyone. Due to platform limitations with how invites work between demo and full games, we also added a manual invitation system so friends can play together regardless of which version they have. Demo and Full players can simply share an invitation key and join lobbies directly so the fun can be shared with all. This is in addition to the original invites system that will work the same as before for players on the same version.
The release of a console version naturally led to an improved gamepad control scheme in both the menus and during gameplay, as well as countless usability improvements and fixes. For those who enjoy playing on gamepad, this will be a much better experience.
It may go without saying, but we’ve also included countless fixed and balance improvements across the whole game experience. We’re excited for you to check out v1.09 soon, and hope you’ll have a great time playing the updates as well as jumping into MP with a new batch of demo players!
We would like to thank you all for your continued support and wish everyone a great time playing the latest Valiant patch when it releases.
