Hey Racers,
Alright, now time for the big, cruiser-sized part of the dev log. What we learned from the open beta.
During Steam Next Fest, we hosted an open beta for Airframe Ultra for the week, where racers could beat each other into a puddle along the different race tracks while testing the new circuit system. Everyone had a ton of fun and are already asking for a beta 6– which means I’m already losing track of what beta version we are on. I’m glad the community is keeping up with it.
The new circuit system was the big change that we showcased in this beta. Circuits are 3 races where your points carry over and the person with the most points after all three races win. Now, there is a caveat to this, you must have won at least one race. So, you may be 50 points ahead of everyone but still lose the circuit because you didn’t win the race. The podium is for winners!
It seems overall that people did enjoy this change, however there were a few reports that people were leaving before the end of the circuit so near the end, there would only be a couple people left. There wasn’t much incentive for people to stick around if they were just so far behind in the third race. This is something on our minds and we do have a few ideas for incentives, so rest assured that the issue is well in hand.
I also noticed some people wanted to do single races or only had time to do one race and that this beta didn’t have an option to play only one track. We wanted to focus the feedback and playtesting on the circuit itself so that is why single races were removed from this beta. You won’t need to worry– single races and lobbies will return for launch.
Also in this beta we introduced a new voting system that players can use to vote on one of two randomly different tracks.
The community loved to vote on which track they play although the biggest feedback I saw with this is that it would be nice to have a menu for people to vote from. If you are on the other side of the warehouse and voting starts there was no way you’ll make it to the voting pads to cast your vote. Great feedback!
Guys, I promise. I heard you. The hopper was so bad in this beta. This was actually the first thing in my notes to tell the team. You made sure I knew that and that I told the team. I banged that note like a drum, believe me
In the warehouse, we also added a room for host controls. So instead of waiting in the menus for the host to start, people can hang out in the warehouse while the host changes the settings in the control room.
While this had many positives we noticed that it did take 30 seconds to a minute for the host to walk up to the controls to start the vote each time. While this might be okay for setup and stuff as you do more and more races, that becomes more and more time just waiting for the host to start the vote. Overall, this was a sticking point for a lot of players who really dove into the beta and played many, many circuits and races. We have a few ideas for this like giving the host a menu they can use instead of traveling up to the control room each time or spawn the host in the control room instead of with the other players. I’m still discussing this with the team but believe me, we’ll have a solution for this soon.
Now, for moderation tools. There were people that were joining or creating lobbies with some unfriendly names to say the least. There is a filter in the game to prevent certain names and usernames however this is something we are reviewing to improve on.
Also this patch we introduced the golden gun for the host to kick people from the lobby. However, this was the only way to kick people out of the lobby and if the troublemaker hid behind someone then you may accidentally kick an innocent person. Or if they immediately ran or drove away then the host would need to chase them to kick them stalling and wasting more time in the group. There wasn’t a way to kick people during the race if they joined mid race. This is another point of contention for us to review.
Alright and now time for the fun stats that we learned from the beta. Now, we don’t make choices and decisions based only on stats but these are just fun and interesting to look over.
The Bluntnose continues to dominate the most played Airframe being played over 60% of the time. The Hopper and Vector both took a hit in this beta. We do expect and want the bluntnose to have a higher usage rate as it is the starting airframe but 60% might be a bit too high for the team’s liking. We are reviewing these numbers closely.
Now time for the melee. Can you guess the top 4 most grabbed melee weapons in the Beta? I’ll even spoil the answers so you can try to guess before.
1st Bat - 891,730 seconds held
2nd Pipe - 609,570 seconds
3rd Machete - 539,530 seconds
4th Crowbar - 518,810 seconds
Here is the time spent holding each of the Melee Weapon.
Alright, who is ready for some guns? Again can you guess the top 4 most grabbed range weapons in the beta?
1st Blaster - 1,393,540 seconds
2nd Shotgun - 1,169,100 seconds
3rd SMG - 780,900 seconds
4th Rebar Gun - 765,660 seconds
Here is the time spent holding each of the ranged weapons.
Something we did notice is that Blasters carried 22% total kills and shotguns carried 27%. The rest don’t even reach 10% so there might be some fine tuning in the range weapons like possibly buffing SMG.
One of my favorite weapons to use is a special weapon, the traffic sign. In fact, there are 5 weapons listed as special weapons: Laser Ranged, Sledgehammer, Chainsaw, Traffic Sign, and the Chain. Here are the special weapons in order of how much they were grabbed.
1st Chain - 905,310 seconds
2nd Traffic Sign - 672,200 seconds
3rd Sledgehammer - 663,150 seconds
4th Chainsaw - 470,000 seconds
5th Laser Ranged - 71,910 seconds
And last here is the final graph for time spent holding special weapons.
Alright. Time for my favorite part of the devlog. Let's share some of the amazing things people from the community made.
Kylorenty on Discord
Fl.oof on Discord
Astelis_ on Discord
Strangeodd on Discord
Maxdubstep on Discord
There was a ton of new art that I wish I could have shared here. For now though lets move onto videos.
Thingamagic_and_co on Discord is taking a deep dive into each of the tracks talking about what is good and what isn’t; breaking down every arena, bump, turn, etc. She started off with Storm Drain.
bitchdogbitch on Discord is trying to make it through the 2nd chasm race (or atleast get as far as possible) on foot without touching the ground. How far do you think you can make it?
Hanchalupi proved that the kicks are much stronger than walking.
Brkojquag on Discord, posted this amazing video montage about the open beta!
Klehrik shared some of the community shenanigans throughout the different betas. It makes me so happy to see the community enjoying things outside of racing and fighting.
Josh is back to give a behind the scenes look at what the developers are thinking.
Hello airframers, long time no devlog!
Beta 5
With Beta 5, we took a crack at a major gameplay overhaul with the circuit system. Our goals here are to keep gameplay sessions engaging, rewarding, and impactful. By engaging, I mean that players should have a variety of challenges in Airframe Ultra. If someone's favorite bike is the best for their favorite map, we want to encourage them to explore the game outside of playing with that one bike on that one map in online lobbies. We feel that this levels the playing field for folks with different bikes and skill levels and helps make the game more fun overall, rather than just for that top 0.1% of players who likes driving circles around lobbies for breakfast. By rewarding, I mean that players should feel the benefits of sticking around for an entire circuit. Players who do play entire circuits will se greater and greater rewards toward some sweet, sweet cosmetics. And by impactful, I mean that games shouldn't last forever. We've got plans to add match time limits so that a circuit won't last so long that they get boring. More on that in future updates! :eyes:
Balance
We're feeling good about how weapons and frames are balancing out, but we're not quite done making some adjustments. The minigun and plasma pistol aren't quite living up to their ridiculous former glory, and the SMG has fallen by the wayside in favor of the shotgun's close range dominance. While the stats we have on weapon performance are a bit skewed downward due to the influx of new players, we're keeping an eye on how many kills each weapon is getting per minute held in order to keep things fun and (somewhat) fair.
Looking Forward
We have a few fun additions on the horizon as well -- we have an overhaul of the game's menus on the way, and we're exploring ways to help new players have an easier time getting up to speed. We've been pouring a ton of love into the game's audio as well, so the airframes should sound and feel better than ever.
-Josh, Gameplay Programmer
If you would like to join the Airframe Ultra community, then join the Airframe Ultra Discord!