James is finishing up the auto-updater and the first update. We’ve fixed quite a few problems and we’re also launching the new Open Challenge system – I hope you guys will be pleased.

This week I’ve been working on the new unit (which I’ll talk about soon), but what I’ve started on today is Mutators – a medium-sized part of the DLC.

One of the things I really want to do with FS now is to subvert some of the rules and see how it impacts the play of the game as a whole. Today I’m implementing “Double Kill”, which when activated will remove the only vaguely luck-based element of the game. When two units engage eath other with *exactly* the same situation, currently a slightly arcane process chooses who dies. With the Double Kill mutator enabled both units will die.

Here are the other mutators I have planned for the DLC:

– Focus Aim – when move-aiming, if you round a corner and engage someone very close to where you set the target, you are said to be “focus aiming”, and would have a big advantage over that enemy. This would lead to less camping, as camping units would be killable by moving units if you can predict exactly where they are.

– Move-and-shoot: You continue moving on your plan while targetting and firing at the enemy.

Mutators are enabled from within the Advanced Creation editor, and if you load a game with mutators enabled you will be informed in a very clear way. They are not allowed in standard match-making. The new Open Challenge system should work really well with this functionality. Mutators will be available for AI skirmish games (no guarantees the AI will use them effectively though.)

Let me know what you think.