Ship of Heroes has just released an article and accompanything video about their one-of-a-kind system for players to augment their superpowers. This feature allows players to enhance their abilities using a variety of augments, ranging from magical enhancements to technological upgrades, and even ‘new skills and memories’.
Ship of Heroes has been speeding along in their development with the original intent to release onto Steam with an Early Access release by the end of 2023. Following their Steam Next Fest demo, the team has continued to work on their feature set, and has now provided an in-depth blog post detailing how future heroes will go about augmenting their powers.
Accessed via a dedicated button in the general powers menu, players can drag and drop augments onto their powers as they wish. Each power has slots for these augments, and as characters progress, they gain more slots which can be assigned to any power. The system sounds similar to the power slots system that Cryptic’s titular hero game, City of Heroes used and what Ship of Heroes has used as inspiration for their game. However, it seems that the augments system will go further than what City of Heroes has done, with far greater possibilities in the way you augment your powers.
Heroic Games has also stated that, in Ship of Heroes, there's no penalty for stacking multiple augments of the same type on a power, offering players complete freedom in their customization choices. While you can get drops for augments by defeating enemies, it sounds like the team wants to make this system as accessible as possible with most augments available for purchase from vendors. The augments stack additively with buff powers and infusions, meant to influence the game's combat mechanics significantly. The Ship of Heroes team currently has plans for powers to gain one slot every ten levels, and a maximum of seven slots per power.
Looking forward, the team plans to introduce special augment sets designed for individual powers. These sets will provide additional bonuses when used together, surpassing the benefits of basic augments, though there has been no word of when players can expect these new augment sets to hit the game, the team is still hoping the community will provide suggestions on the system as it continues to evolve.
As we near the end of the year, anticipation for Ship of Heroes should be building to a crescendo of Early Access hype, as our earlier coverage highlighted its presence on Steam and its projected late 2023 launch. However, the exact release date remains uncertain, with the developers’ release date page still stating that the team is planning to decide after the “next public event” and the decision to release will also be “based on player feedback”. This approach is certainly in their best interest as they continue refining the game experience, but it may also see Ship of Heroes Early Access pushed out of 2023 entirely. With only a month away, we look forward to seeing what happens.
