Hey people, Thierry these speaking for Sabotage. Our team worked full-time for the better portion of a month on a significant completely release called Dawn of Equinox after receiving an invitation to communicate more about everything that has happened since Sea of Stars ‘ release.
But let’s dive into a summary of what’s included, specifically public updates, fight 2.0, and sofa co-op.
We added a prize pre-rendered visual cutscene to the show’s first hour, along with numerous bug fixes and minor changes, and we also added combat animation for our soldiers ‘ younger types. We unfortunately had to give up on this during production by having action right in the opening, breaking the memory structure.
Additionally, we added complete Speedrun Mode created by our community, brand-new Relics, and additional difficulty presets to make the experience more personalized. There’s some new songs, figure photographs, and animations—the listing goes in.
Sticky Combo Points and Mystery Locks are two significant changes to the combat system brought about by the release. Along with a complete controlling complete, of course.
Sticky Combo Points: The gist of this is that Combo Points then remain after a battle, giving duo moves a lot more power total, whether to open more forcefully in regular combats, or giving more options for dealing hair ‘ various types of damage.
This one primarily addresses the perception that the game does n’t offer enough variety for its players to choose from. Instead of having a long list where players pigeonhole themselves into only using their few favorites, the goal was always to give each character a small kit ( MOBA-style ), where each move has situational utility. Although the sport has around 40 unique and custom-made moves in full, the lack of Combo Points meant players rarely engaged with the majority of them, which lessens the sense that each character only has three skills per character.
Mystery Locks: This is yet another single that ought to be present. Mystery Locks, in essence, introduce a new game ring that reveals how to cast spells on enemies when they are first encountered. They are hidden, requiring the person to perform various attacks to determine what types of damage each switch will produce. This applies because the development to revealing Mystery Locks is saved in real-time, according to the army form and per magic.
The main difference between the total number of foe spells flying general and the resulting slight increase in difficulty is due to the reliance on the occurrence of more freaky enemy moves rather than the complex balance between the amount of damage done and the amount of damage received. This shift also adds a” Show” work to some of the personality skills and combos, adding more levels of technique based on whether it’s time to chart a fresh army’s magic, or to go all out with harm. Mystery Locks provides the most complete version of the Sea of Stars fight method, combined with Sticky Combo Points and trouble settings.
We knew this one would be challenging given the hundreds of cutscenes, engaging objects, camera job, puzzles, menus, NPC interactions, and many other things that had simply split in thousands of ways if more than one participant had total control over the game’s world.
However, the team’s co-op dream was still present, so we decided to go for it, manually implementing each edgecase until the full-on three-player mode was available. You can even use PS5’s Share Play feature to play online co-op with a friend ( PlayStation Plus required, here’s how to use it ).
In combat: Combat initiates when any player touches an enemy or projectile. Players in this mode choose their character’s next move at random, regardless of who has control over which overworld character.
All players can chime in to perform Team Blocks and Team Hits for even more bonus effects whenever an action occurs. For example, whenever all three players time a block properly, the damage is always zero.
Out in the world: We aimed for maximum freedom outside combat. All three players can run, swim, climb, shop, change equipment, talk to NPCs, trigger cutscenes, initiate combat, etc. We wanted to make available to everyone anything a solo player could do. There’s even 1v1 Wheels now.
A high-five mechanic, in addition to providing a friendly bubble to re-enter any strays, provides a fun little way for players to interact with one another while also gaining a quick speed boost. Oh, and we created the animation sets necessary for each character to be able to fish.
The team is now focused on the upcoming free DLC Throes of the Watchmaker, which is scheduled to be released in the spring of 2025, with the Dawn of Equinox update in the rear view.
We hope you enjoyed this behind-the-scenes look into what’s been going on at Sabotage over the past year. Once more, I appreciate you all so much for your unwavering support. We hope you will enjoy Sea of Stars in its full expression, whether it be your first time playing or a second time.
Sea of Stars: Dawn of Equinox content update is now available on PS4 and PS5. Safe travels!