The new game mode for Starship Troopers: Extermination lets a team of four troopers explore a Bug hive.
Developer Offworld Industries has released a new update for its co-op shooter Starship Troopers: Extermination. The update, dubbed Hives of Valaka, brings with it a new game mode revolving around four players exploring Bug tunnels.
Alongside the addition of the new game mode, the update also brings with it a rebalancing to XP, while also now providing players a real-time XP feed in the HUD during gameplay. On the gameplay front, the update brings with it two new weapons: the Morita XXX Sniper Rifle, and the TW-2 Special Light Infantry Tactical (SP.L.I.T) Shotgun, the latter of which has tree distinct variants depending on your class.
There are also new utility items for players of all three classes, from the new Shock Field Device for Hunter players, to the Rally Beacon for Operator players. Each class also has new perks that provide bonuses like increased repair range, the ability to reinforce structures, and the automatic bug scans.
Check out the complete changelog for the Starship Troopers: Extermination – Hives of Valaka update. The game is currently available as an early access title on PC.
UPDATE NOTES:
New Gameplay
Weapons:
- Morita XXX Sniper Rifle: a powerful sniper rifle for Hunters
- TW-2 Special Light Infantry Tactical (SP.L.I.T) Shotgun with 3 variants:
- Operator: Standard Pump-action Buckshot
- Hunter: Pump-action Slug
- Bastion: Full Auto Slug
Structures/Base Building:
- Ammo Stockpile: Provides 15 deliverable ammo boxes for weaponized structures.
- Ammo boxes can be picked up from the Stockpile, and inserted into weaponized emplacements (Twin MG and Sentry) using the interaction key (default E).
- Ammo boxes can be thrown by holding down the attack button.
New Utilities:
- Shock Field Device (Hunter): Deploys an electric field in a circular pattern that shocks arachnids
- Speed Stim Dispenser (Operator): Deployable station that Troopers can use to grab single use Speed Stim injectors
- Guardian UAV (Operator): Defensive flying robot with a machine gun that shoots at Arachnids near the user. Can be toggled between Guard/Follow modes, or be remote controlled
- Rally Beacon (Operator): A high power transmitter that creates a fixed beacon for Troopers to redeploy on
- Deployable Shield (Bastion): A small deployable shield called the Wartime Adversary Limiter (W.A.L) that can be deployed to provide quick low-level cover
- Overcharge Module (Bastion): Boosts effectiveness of offensive structures for 30s, at the cost of structural integrity over time
- Sentry Turret (Bastion): Placeable automated machine gun that automatically shoots at Arachnids from a fixed position. Best suited for point defense
New Perks:
- Mobile Training (Hunter): Increases climbing speed, enemy melee attacks don’t stop your sprint
- Watkins Trigger (Hunter, Bastion): Make your sacrifice mean something! Your explosives trigger upon death
- Running Start (Hunter): Get some extra height when you sprint and jump at the same time
- Spotter Training (Hunter): Automatically scans bugs when they are pinged
- On Your Feet (Operator): The ability to revive troopers at a distance
- Refined (Operator): Repairing a running refinery while it’s at maximum health speeds up the ore extraction process
- Long Range Repairs (Bastion): Increases repair range
- Reinforced Repairs (Bastion): Structures can be repaired past 100% to give them extra durability
Balancing/gameplay changes
- Full audit of our XP sources, outlined in above tables
- Morita Mk1: Increased damage output slightly
- Morita Carbine: Increased damage output slightly
- Chi-Hong Grenade Launcher: Blast radius decreased by 50%
- Recruit (Easy) difficulty: Reduced the extra health given to Troopers
- Recruit (Easy) difficulty: Reduce health regeneration by roughly 20%
- Recruit (Easy) difficulty: Magazine size is no longer increased on Recruit
- ARC mode: ‘Gather Ore’ objective now has to be completed before the ‘Gather Gas’ objective
- Increased the damage output of the Sentry MG structure, to compensate for it needing Ammo
- Increased the health of the Sentry MG structure
- Twin MG and automated Sentry MG now require ammunition
- Twin MG no longer degrades while firing
Quality of Life and Other Changes
Accessibility
- Added Accessibility section under Settings
- Added Color Blindness options under Accessibility
- Added Brightness setting under Accessibility
- Moved Screen Shake options under Accessibility
Miscellaneous changes
- Class selection now shows what other players have picked
- New unlocks are now highlighted in the Loadout menu with exclamation marks
- Improved matchmaking times by 10 seconds on average
- Quick Play Button removed – Quick Play is being redesigned as a part of our transition to the Galactic War in the new year.
- Hero of the Federation difficulty tier “coming soon” tease was removed, as it will still be coming to the game around the 1.0 launch window with a top secret experience codenamed “Regimented Assassinate Insect Deployment”
Engine Upgrade
- Updated to Unreal Engine 5.2.1, from the previous engine 4.27. We will be taking advantage of the new features in UE5 over time, where possible. Please be aware that tentpole UE5 features like Lumen and Nanite are not a part of this release. As we get more comfortable with the engine we will look to explore these and other UE5 features in the future.
- New Trooper Models: We’ve updated our engine to Unreal Engine 5.2.1. With this, each of the three classes have been updated with a new Trooper model with significantly more detail
Bug Fixes & Known Issues
Notable bug fixes
- Matchmaking: Fixed a rare issue where a player could end up in a different game mode than they selected
- Settings: Fixed an issue where changing a setting would cause other settings to be re-applied
- Settings: Fixed a crash when changing video settings
- Weapons: Improved Field of View handling with scoped weapons
- Audio: Fixed several crashes related to weapon audio, by upgrading to UE5’s metasounds system
- Crashes: Fixed a rare crash when a player was incapacitated
Known Issues
- A major engine upgrade may always cause unforeseen issues with various hardware combinations. We will be monitoring for crashes and fixing issues in future patches.
- The Watkins Trigger Perk is currently unusable in Horde and Hive Hunt game modes, since players do not have a bleed out timer. This will be fixed in a post-update patch
- Some UI graphics still need to be updated with the new Trooper model
- Rendering: The Hive Hunt maps may appear somewhat darker on Low/Medium Effects quality setting, as this setting affects lighting and fog rendering
