We are finally here! After months of intense development, testing, playtesting, eager anticipation, the moment has finally arrived — the first official Chaos Agents Alpha version 1.9.3.1 is LIVE and ready for action!
v1.9.3.1 is packed with exciting new features — highlights are below.
We want your help in polishing the build before we bring in 1000+ new players into the fold. Please jump into Quick Matches, Trials, and try to find and report bugs and hidden easter eggs. Every minute you spend with Chaos Agents helps us learn and make the game better. If you’re not already there, come join us on Discord - we’re always happy to answer questions and discuss the game.
Also, we are releasing folks from their NDAs as we expand the audience for Alpha. If you are a creator or want to stream Chaos Agents, reach out to us for additional guidance and creator resources!
1: Round-the-clock Matches and Trials: A major goal of the Alpha launch was to automate matchmaking so that matches and Trials (the new name for Tournaments) happen regularly for our players across the globe. With v1.9.3.1, that dream is a reality. You can now sign up and jump into Iron and Bronze Trials on a regular basis or join the public matches available in the multiplayer lobby. So go out there and earn your Silver and Gold Tickets!
2: Agent Trades: Our second major goal was to implement the first version of Agent trading. You can visit the Agent Index page and check out the new Agent Market to see available agents for trade. You’ll have three ways to trade for agents:
1: Trade one of your current agents + 1000 BC for an agent
2: Trade one of your current agents + 1 Agent Trade Token(ATT) for an agent
3: Trade 1 Agent Contract Token(ACT) + 1 empty slot for an agent
As part of this feature we’ll be reclaiming Agents that were previously on loan and putting in place the tutorial mission to reward you with your first permanently owned agent. If you log in and wonder where your agent has gone, head over to the Tutorial mission campaign to earn your first account-bound agent.
3: New Missions and Campaigns: Lastly, we’re done an overhaul of our missions and added in a few new campaigns. Most importantly though, we’ve moved to deliver you your first permanent Agent as part of the tutorial flow. You’ll need to win Survivalist in the third Mission pack of the tutorial to get awarded a random Agent.
We’ve also added in a Practice campaign where you’ll have missions that you can complete in Easy/Medium/Hard practice matches and earn some rep rewards!
What’s next? Despite these exciting features, we are far from done with the Alpha release, and need your help during this critical period as we grow our playerbase from a couple of hundred to over 1k (and eventually to 5k Alpha seats.)
Over the next few weeks, we plan to stress test the new Alpha build, as well as release hotfixes to address high-priority issues that players find.
1: Hotfix Patches: In these hotfixes, will also ship several improvements to the game’s content, including updated training and tutorial features. This includes features to help players who are not on Discord learn the game and join matches and Trials on-demand, so we will have an increasing number of live players joining games starting next week.
2: Phase 3 Alpha Invites: We will start rolling out invites and Steam keys to Phase 3 Alpha players (1000+), with an emphasis on ensuring that their onboarding into Chaos Agents is as smooth as possible.
3: v1.9.4 Launch and Second World Championship: In late January, we will ship v1.9.4, which will bring a host of additional features and fixes to get us ready for the Second Chaos World Invitational Championship!
The Popularium team has put in a tremendous amount of effort to bring version 1.9.3.1 to life, and we’re beyond excited for you to experience it. Thank you for being part of this incredible journey, we are thrilled to have you along for the ride.
See you in the Firmament!
Let Chaos Reign and Happy New Year! - Richard (Pheldagriff), Arka (Schumaniac), Jon (Draknab) and the Chaos Agents team
v1.9.3 Feature Highlights
Servers on Demand v0: We now spin up dedicated servers for each match, which should increase stability and dramatically decrease crashes and matches becoming inaccessible. It’s still early in our implementation for this feature, so there may be occasional instances of slower performance, but it’s a massive step forward for our infrastructure.
Additional Resolutions: We’ve added the option to play Chaos Agents in a floating window at either 1920x1080 or 2560x1440. This should allow people to play the game on ultra-widescreen monitors!
Battle Map Update: Also with the new release comes new Map Improvements! We’re breathing new life into the map with exciting updates!
New Jungle Biome: Added to the lower-left map, this area is in its early stages of art-ification. Expect further expansion as we refine the design and gather feedback.
Trees with Collision: Scattered tree copses and a major forest now populate the southeast. We’re tweaking size, foliage, and saturation—let us know your thoughts!
The Arena: A relic of the planet’s past, this fabled amphitheater in the west is now a battleground in the Shard economy.
There are also plenty of other updates and hidden surprises—explore and see if you can find the hidden eggs!
New Third-Person Camera w/ Beam Down & Zoom: Enhanced beam-down visuals with a new third-person over-the-shoulder zoom. It’s an early feature with plenty of improvements to come, but you can see the potential of the third-person camera already in enhancing the player and spectator experience. You can now scroll to zoom all the way from a bird’s eye view down to an up-close and personal view of your Agent and their rivals. We are excited to hear your feedback on this.
Mega-Minimap: Hit ‘M’ for a full screen map (has a known bug for Mac users). Pairs well with the third-person camera for a dynamic experience.
Quick Matches: If you only have time for a single match, this is the new way to quickly and easily jump into a game. Anyone can jump into the same match, so grab your friends or ping Discord if you’re looking to join a match with other people.
Automated Trials: We’re super excited for automated Trials, which is the new name we’re using for Tournaments. We want to make your path to the Gold Trial easier, so we’re adding many more opportunities to earn those Bronze, Silver, and Gold Tickets! We’ve set Trials to automatically fire at regular intervals, so sign up and rise through the ranks toward the Gold finals. Iron and Bronze Trials will fire periodically throughout the day and Silver Trials will happen throughout the week.
Championship Tracker: You can easily sign up for Trials and follow your progress in the current Championship towards the next Gold Trial. We now also have support for multiple Championships, so keep your eyes peeled for special one-off Championships coming soon.
New Campaigns and Mission Packs: New Mission Packs just dropped! We’ve just released two new Campaigns with a total of six new Mission Packs — they’re designed for new players, but that won’t stop veterans from grabbing the REP as well. Your previous Mission progress carries over in the Challenges from Chaos Legends Campaign that will offer various achievements in the form of challenges from Firmament superstars such as Dusana and Valon.
Practice Matches: If you want some single-player goodness or a lab to test out that hot new Agent you just landed, head over to the “Practice” tab for matches against the Xandrians (ie. Bots) of various challenge levels — Easy, Medium, or Hard. A great way to crunch through some of those Missions!
Tutorial Matches Overhaul: Titus leads revamped Tutorial matches, with a focus on better guidance and iteration for new players. But again, there are no rules against veterans doing a bit of smurfing for some REP and good times with ol’ Titus!
Audio Upgrades: Improved battle sounds and added new effects like beam-down audio.
Leaderboard & Max Level: New highlights to track progress and a max level indicator for brokers.
In-game Trades with the Market: You can now trade your Agents with the Market (previously called the ‘Bench’) — swap out an existing Agent you have using some fresh BC or a Trade Token, or, even more exciting, fill an empty Agent Slot with a brand new Agent using those coveted ACTs!
Balance Changes:
Base melee damage increased by 2 to 14 Base ranged damage increased by 2 to 9
Known Issues
As we’re still in Alpha, your feedback is invaluable to us. If you encounter any bugs or have suggestions for improvement, please don’t hesitate to let us know. Your input helps shape the future of Chaos Agents!
All Platforms
Sometimes during a deploy the client will get out of sync and render some Elements unclickable until you draw that element again. Workaround (credit to Wheeto the legend): use your arrow keys to switch to a different Agent (while camera locked) and back to your Agent. This should reset the Element and make it clickable.
Agents will sometimes clip through solid geometry and terrain, most visibly around the border of the Arena.
The health bar and damage readouts for Agents cover a large portion of the screen when fully zoomed in, these will be resized.
Win conditions on the leaderboards for newer Agents and Brokers are reported incorrectly. We’ll release a leaderboard update in the future to correctly reflect the actually-achieved win conditions.
Mac
The “M” key megamap doesn’t display correctly on Mac (the background is transparent.)