The Close Assault order captures all the action of close-quarters firefights, but, more than that, it is an invaluable tool for forcing hard-to-rout formations (like dug-in infantry) off objectives.

Key to the addition of Close Assault was the full implementation of Suppression from the up-coming 6mm Exodus Wars tabletop game, including the Routing mechanics. You can now force formations to break and run — not likely so far as to remove them from the battle completely, but far enough to enable you to secure the objective for those oh-so-valuable victory conditions.

In our now-regular Tuesday Topic post to the FracturedEmpire.net forums, we outline our thinking about the just-released Alpha build’s implementation of Close Assault and solicit feedback from the community.

Thanks for reading! Hope to see your around the forums!

Linux users please note: If you’re having trouble with the patcher, make sure you have bsdiff and bspatch installed. You can install these components using:

    sudo apt-get install bsdiff

Patch Notes:

• New Features:
  • Added Routing and Regrouping Tests
  • Added Falling back (i.e. automatic movement when routed)
  • Added Close Assault, complete with interlocking fire
• Changes:
  • Reduced order ring text size and text appears N/S for movement, E/W for shooting/assault
• Bug Fixes:
  • Aborted movement commands do not affect stationary shooting ranges
• Known Issues
  • Battle Squires do not animate
  • Victory Points (VPs) are not updated in the Battle Status window
  • Selecting an enemy target will sometimes display their movement rings

Fractured Empire puts gamers in control at a Brigade level, manoeuvring Infantry and Armoured companies, as well as massive super-vehicles, upon the futuristic battlefields of the Exodus Wars sci-fi universe. It tells the story of a brutal civil war fought between the Guild and the Royal Empire of Man.

For the Guild, the fight is to remain free and independent of the ruthless Imperial regime. For the Empire, it is to crush a dangerous rebellion that could well be the catalyst to its demise.

Features available in the current Alpha build

• An engaging and fully realised sci-fi universe set in a period of interstellar civil war — play your part in the Exodus Wars.
• The Royal Empire of Man against the Guild Legions — each faction has an extensive roster of units, from infantry and medium armour up to the Empire’s Baron small behemoth and the Guild’s Elektra and Enforcer heavy tanks, and with more units being added all the time.
• Deep strategy via army building — what you bring to the battle is every bit as important as the tactics you employ.
• Manoeuvre warfare — gameplay that rewards solid tactics.
• Easy-to-learn, difficult to master — the intuitive user interface enhances the game’s depth and balance.
• Interleaving activations-based play enables quick play — give your formations orders and see these executed on the battlefield; no long waits like you find in typical “You Go, I Go” games.
• Cover — use cover to reduce your opponent’s effectiveness.
• Overwatch — achieve superior positioning and control the battlefield.
• First campaign scenario — take command of a Guild strike force tasked with taking an enemy-held position.
• Pitched-battle scenario — a balanced skirmish-style map featuring multiple victory conditions each side seeks to achieve.
• Single-player or challenge a friend — hot-seat multiplayer today, online real-time and asynchronous multi-player in the near future.
• High replayability — given the large array of units and near-unlimited combinations possible via the Army Builder interface, not to mention the multiple tactical options available for inflicting your will upon your opponent, every battle offers new challenges and experiences.

Freedom comes at a cost
One of the game’s designers Mark Sheppard said, “As a parallel for the American War of Independence, I think Exodus Wars tells a fantastic story. It’s a sci-fi universe that gamers will immediately recognise and resonate with, given its inclusion of sci-fi staples like your Starship Troopers-esque space marines and your various alien races, but it’s a far more grounded reality than most genre universes. There are alien races, sure, and there are powerful units on all sides, but there no god-like beings here — the Exodus Wars universe is a story about men and women fighting and dying for what they believe in, fighting for their freedom. It’s tragic and compelling stuff, and we can’t wait to tell stories within this incredible universe.”

Gamers may remember Fractured Empire from its Indiegogo crowd funding campaign back in June and July last year. During the Indiegogo campaign, prominent entertainment website Cinema Blend wrote “I love the look and art-design”, while IndieGameMagazine wrote about “the extremely impressive sense of scale that Exodus Wars clearly champions, not to mention its marvellously hand-crafted art style”.

The team has now embarked on a pre-order alphafunding campaign as a means of extending the game’s funding and potentially even speeding up development if enough pre-orders are received.

Gamers can also play the Alpha in multi-player; currently hot-seat only, but with online and asynchronous multi-player support targeted for release in a near-future update.

During the Alphafunding campaign, gamers can support the team by pre-ordering on Desura for just US$9.99 — more than 66% off the final release price of US$29.99. Pre-order customers also get to play the current Alpha build of Fractured Empire immediately and have the ability to contribute to the game’s design via the developer’s forums.

Linux users please note: If you’re having trouble with the patcher, make sure you have bsdiff and bspatch installed. You can install these components using:

    sudo apt-get install bsdiff

Patch Notes:

• Bug Fixes:
  • [Linux] Fixed fatal abort when running the Linux patcher
• Changes:
  • Main menu buttons now reflect the currently selected option
• Known Issues
  • Battle Squires do not animate
  • Victory Points (VPs) are not updated in the Battle Status window
  • Selecting an enemy target will sometimes display their movement rings

Patch Notes:

• Notes:
  • This release is intended as a baseline for OSX/Linux patchers to properly execute off of
• Changes:
  • Renamed executable from ‘Fractued Empire’ to ‘FracturedEmpire’ for better desura support.
  • Added Linux support for the Patcher
• Bug Fixes:
  • Fixed the OSX Patcher
  • Fixed issue of ‘black screen’ for multi-monitor Linux installations
  • Removed the ‘black pixels’ in the center of the in-game UI
• Known Issues:
  • Battle Squires do not animate
  • Victory Points (VPs) are not updated in the Battle Status window
  • Selecting an enemy target will sometimes display their movement rings

Army Builder, Deployment, Revised UI and New Guild Units!

If you haven’t already seen the new features that were added recently, you have some great additions to look forward to.

Army Builder and Deployment added to the Skirmish mode
Build 35 saw the release of the Army Builder and Deployment interfaces. These enable you to choose the forces you bring to the battle and how you deploy them before the game begins. The strategy behind what you bring to the battle is nearly as important as how you manoeuvre them upon the field, so the Army Builder and Deployment interfaces are significant.

These interface additions brings Exodus Wars: Fractured Empire a lot closer to our vision for the game as it adds virtually unlimited replayability, especially as new units are added to the game. We can’t tell you how excited we are to have finally reached this major milestone, and we hope you get a lot of enjoyment out of playing the game with your own tailored force lists.

First major revision of the user interface
With this latest release, we began the process of revising our user interface (UI) to bring it up to a professional standard. Gone are the old standard, placeholder UI elements, in favour of a far more appropriate interface with a hot new look-and-feel.

Introducing new Guild units: the Enforcer and Elektra heavy tanks and the Trident tank hunter
The Enforcer Urban Pacification Vehicle (or, as it is commonly known, the Enforcer heavy tank) is considerably better armoured than its smaller brother, the Achilles MBT, and carries a 200mm Gauss Cannon capable of penetrating the armour of any foe on the battlefield, albeit less effectively than its anti-armour specialist sibling, the Elektra heavy tank. Its supporting armament of smaller calibre weapons designed to automatically track and target enemy troops give it a terrifying presence in close assaults.

A behemoth killer, the Elektra is designed to hunt in packs against enemy behemoths. The Elektra’s main gun is capable of tearing through any armour like it was paper mache, and so the Elektra is greatly feared by the Royal Empire’s nobles as, due to its low profile, it can often catch them unawares and inflict crippling damage before a behemoth’s crew can respond. While based on the same hull as the Enforcer, the Elektra has had to replace its defensive sponsons with reinforced power couplings, generators and heat sinks in order to power the devastating might of its main gun, and so it is ineffectual in close assaults.

A deadly countermeasure to enemy armour, the Trident sacrifices the versatility of the Achilles in order to mount a single large hull-mounted 90mm L202 Gauss Cannon. Its armament is ill-suited to tracking enemy infantry, but it really comes into its own against enemy vehicles. It is an excellent low-cost counter to enemy armour.

Thanks for reading!

If you haven’t already, we hope you will vote for us on Steam Greenlight and consider pre-ordering via FracturedEmpire.net or Desura.

Thank you for your support.

Patch Notes:

• Bug Fixes:
  • Skirmish map now has deployment enabled (oops!)
• Known Issues:
  • Battle Squires do not animate
  • Victory Points (VPs) are not updated in the Battle Status window
  • Selecting an enemy target will sometimes display their movement rings

Patch Notes:

• Bug Fixes:
  • Scenario map combat now works correctly
  • Hot Seat Multiplayer on the Skirmish map no longer hangs during deployment
  • Commit/Cancel pop-up panel now prevents clicks on the world map behind/through it
  • Exiting or and starting a new game (or restarting a game) now works correctly
• Known Issues:
  • Battle Squires do not animate
  • Victory Points (VPs) are not updated in the Battle Status window
  • Selecting an enemy target will sometimes display their movement rings

• New Features:
  • Added Deployment to Desert (Skirmish) scenario
  • Added first revision of the User Interface
  • Added ‘Remember Me’ to Login screen
  • Added Army Builder for Skirmish scenario
• New Formations:
  • Guild Legion – Trident Tank Hunter
  • Guild Legion – Elektra
  • Guild Legion – Enforcer
• Game Balance:
  • Battle Squire Light Pyrocannon reduced to P(8+) [was P(6+)]
  • Battle Squire Formation size changed to 8 [was 4]
• Updates:
  • Guild Achillies Battle Tank updated with new model and texture
  • Gutter (edge of screen) scrolling is now 3x as fast
• Bug Fixes:
  • Pressing enter on the password input field will now log in properly
• Known Issues:
  • Battle Squires do not animate
  • Victory Points (VPs) are not updated in the Battle Status window

We’ve added an Alpha-version, as-yet-unnamed desert map. This map features a skirmish (balanced forces) scenario.

Introducing the Battle Squire
The new build also heralds the arrival of a new unit for the Imperial forces: the Battle Squire heavy mech! The Battle Squires of the Royal Empire of Man come in a variety of shapes and sizes. A heavy tank in mech form, they are extremely tough and highly versatile armoured units.

Battle Squires average in size from 20 to 25 feet tall and carry a variety of weapons and munitions. The real strength of a Battle Squire over conventional heavy armour, however, is its mech form, which gives it the ability to more easily traverse difficult terrain than can a tracked or wheeled vehicle.

NOTE: You may experience a bug where the Battle Squire unit does not animate correctly. This appears to be a Unity bug — we are currently liaising with the Unity team to resolve the issue. Please bear with us.

Conscript Heavy Weapon Formation
The new scenario on the Alpha desert map introduces a new formation type for the Royal Empire conscript troops: the Heavy Weapon formation. Unlike the Standard troop formation, which includes 8 Conscript units as a screen to its 4 Heavy Weapons units, the Heavy Weapon formation features 6 Heavy Weapons units only, which means 50% more boom-boom at range, but offers no conscript “meat shield” protection—use of cover is recommended.

Camera Zooming Bug
The camera should now behave correctly when zooming in/out to desired distance. Please let us know in the forums if you continue to experience this bug (or any other bugs, of course) in the new build.

Updated Visual Effects
We have begun updating explosion and weapon fire effects. Also, shadows are now enabled on both the Alpha maps (desert and snow) on the Fantastic quality setting.

Steam Greenlight
You may have seen that we have launched a Steam Greenlight campaign. The response has been amazing—but we can always use more votes!

If you are a Steam gamer, we hope you will login at our Greenlight campaign page and vote for us!