The new 1.2 version of Defender 3D has some major updates including:

• New lighting system - Enhances background and atmospheric lighting, model reflections and explosion effects. The new lighting effects also makes the game slightly brighter which makes the game a much better experience over all
  
• New AI Attack Systems - The new AI attack systems gives greater scope for the alien crafts to decide whether or not to attack. The aliens will now make decisions based on distance, other alien crafts in the area. All alien weapons have also been enhanced. These will now be more direct and influenced by your skill level.
  
• New Player Ship models - I have rebuild all of the player models making them slightly larger and more stylized. I have also repositioned the gun turrets slightly. This makes shooting the enemies more instinctive.
  
• Complete UI rebuild - I have redesigned the entire UI system to make the menus and ingame UI more attractive and intuitive.

I have just made a quick Ninja Patch live! This should fix the stuttering experienced by some players. If you have any issues please let me know asap.

The patch is live :)

Soooo.. I kinda broke the controller support without knowing it. Its back! XBOX Controller is working and back to full fitness.


If you are having any issues with the scores panels not loading please let me know! They work in game for me but when making the game they have issues.

Also if you have a jerky lag every couple of seconds please let me know! A couple of people have told me they are having this issue. I have made a repair to this and it should be fixed. If not please let me know asap.

Patch is now live :)

First up I would like to thank everyone who has purchased Defender 3D so far!

I have taken on your feedback and changed allot of the game mechanics to suit your requests.

Here is the list of major updates and new game features:

• New skill level selection system to help new players
  
• New location selection system changes lighting effects
  
• New scanner system showing close proximity alien ship locations

Allot of people have told me that for the new player the game is far too hard! I have taken this feedback on board and incorporated a new skill selection system.

When you start up the game now, you are presented with a skill slider. This will allow you choose between 5 skill levels.

If you are playing on the lower skill levels, please consider this to be the beginners and learning skill levels. This will help you get used to controls and game play and get you used to how the aliens attack you as as player. As you get better at DEFENDER 3D, you can increase the skill level to compensate for your new skills!

Or of course you can jump right up to level 5 right away and try to dominate the score boards.. ːsteamhappyː

Skill levels 1,2 and 3 do not give the player any type of reward as they are their to help you increase your skills.

You can see from the banner above, the Steam logo is Red in colour. This indicates there is no reward being given. This is also shown in the game level to remind you that you are playing in the lower levels.

Levels 4 and 5 are where you will receive all achievement awards and be included in the score boards for scores and streaks. These will be saved on Public Score boards right here on Steam. If you look at the score boards right now you will see they are already populated by previous players - you will also see the scores are quite high so dont expect an easy ride getting your name in the top 10. These scores will be staying in place as the level of play for all score achieved by these players was higher than level 4 is right now.

Level 4 will give you around 85+% score and streak rewards although all Steam achievements are accessible at this level of play. 100% rewards for score and streaks is only achievable at level 5.

At level 5, alien ship skills, attack strengths, alien health and enemy wave lengths are larger giving you much more of a challenge over all other levels but the rewards are more prestigious!

Skill Level Details
If you would like to know how the skill levels are scaled, there are details in the info panel in game. Click the Question Mark icon for details!

A feature I missed out of the original game was the Scanner. This was a major part of the original Williams Defender and has been requested by players.

The scanner is now built and part of DEFENDER 3D!

The scanner will let you see the location of alien ships as a blip on the scanner screen (see banner above). The scanner will let you see alien crafts both in front and behind you at around 200 meters outside of the viewing area (if you consider the screen width to be around 400 meters).

On the scanner, you are the yellow blip. All aliens are white. The scanner will not show locations of humans needing to be rescued or floating lava rock objects.

During play testing, I have found the scanner to be an excellent addition to the game and really enhances the over all feel of the game play. I can see some excellent new scores and more of the harder achievements being achieved with the scanner system in place!

Some players have told me that they think the game is too dark so I have added a locations selection system.

The new locations selection system will let you choose from 7 different planetary locations which all have different colour schemes and differing ambient brightness levels. I have also added a simple side scrolling star system which looks and feels more like the original Williams Defender system.

STEAM ONLY SALE!
From the 7th of January, I will be putting this major update of DEFENDER 3D live. This will also start the 2 weeks 50% off sale so grab DEFENDER at 50% off your local currency price while you can!

If you have any feedback or comments please let me know in the forum or comment below...

I have pretty much completed the final stages of Defender 3D so I am going to make the game live this week instead of on the 1st of November. I had a couple of issues with Steam achievements at the weekend but these are now fixed.

I have added 3 bosses, 4 player ships and 5 enemy types. This will give players a good challenge and let me get some feedback on what to add next to the game.

I am going to launch with a 20% discount as well so have fun and if you have any feedback please PM me or post in the forum.

Defender 3D will always be progressing so this is a soft launch. I will be looking for player and enemy ship builders for the end of November. I will also be adding the final 2 bosses from the current batch before November 1st.

Game will be live by 5pm GMT today.

I have just finished implementing the majority of the achievements for Defender 3D. These range from kill amount achievements to wave survival. Plus as you will have already seen the Steam leader boards are live and working well.

If you look at the Defender 3D page (from the left game list on Steam) you will see the full list of achievements currently implemented and what is expected to get these achievements. As the Defender 3D description says, these will not be hand outs; you need to earn them. Some of the achievements will not be completed by everyone.

I have also been working on game meta for bosses and general alien crafts to help make the game more fair to play. This will also give you the player a smoother learning curve (people where complaining the game was initially too hard when you first jump in. Not so now :) )

I have also added a new progress bar right next to the Streaks display. This will show you how far you have to go to the next Wave.

Moving forward to release on the 1st of November, I will be adding 2 brand new Bosses which will make for total of 5 Bosses on release. I will post pics and details about these in the coming weeks.

The Sentinel Mk4 is a brutal heavy mothership. Spawning fast attack orbs from its top platforms makes the Mk4 a serious enemy for even the best of pilots.

Its steady barrage of attack orbs gives the Mk4 an excellent defence while at close quarters the ship its self is very weak. While its strong defenders try to keep you at bay, dropping Smart Bombs in the right position will deal a serious blow to the Mk4.

I have now added support for the Xbox 360 controller. This should also work with the Xbox 1 controller (please feel free to test and let me know).

I have been playing with the Xbox 360 controller and the flow of the game is great!

Have fun!