Alright, alright. The April update is out now. Bad news first: This will be the last bigger updates for the upcoming weeks. For the next weeks, I’ll be fixing bugs and preparing the demo for NextFest in June. This also means that in mid-June the demo will finally be released. Stay tuned for more information regarding NextFest and the live stream.
So, what's new this time?
Power Rockets are now nuclear
To make the former power rockets more fun for the user (and more hassle for its “recipient”) they were redesigned to become nuclear projectiles. While they now fly even a bit slower than before, they now deal even more damage in an even higher perimeter. More so, they now deal contamination damage over time. A player can stop the contamination by healing. No way for healing at your disposal? Well, better find some quick.
Scifi-torpedoes
Also, a new special pickup has been added. The torpedoes don’t deal more damage than conventional rockets. Yet they fly amazingly fast and also cause a glitch in the tank they hit. This glitch will set the cooldown of one of the tanks' systems back by 50%. Thought you could heal? After a torpedo hit maybe not anymore.
More pleasant explosions and other effects
Lighting effects have been introduced. My personal favorite is the new, bigger, shinier explosions. Keep your sunglasses nearby, you might need them.
Fight at night
Now you can select between the time of day. Fights during the night make pickups and mines way harder to see. Yet you can notice incoming tanks earlier by their headlights. Wann sneak up on an opponent? Just turn them off. But don’t complain about the mines you so can only barely see.
Less self-damage
During playtesting, it became evident, that the range and timeframe for taking damage from own explosions were too large - especially for new players. Therefore they have been substantially reduced. Still, it is not recommended to fire while being really close to your targets. Remember the nuclear projectiles from above? These boys have an even higher range and timeframe for damage than the old rockets. So handle them with care.
New Medals
New medals have been added to accompany the changes. You can now kill two tanks with a single shot? If this is not worth a medal, what is? But that’s not the only new one.
New Talent
First off, the former traits are now called talents. Just sounded better to me. Also, there has been added a new one in association with the potential contamination damage.
Removed pickups
The speed-up and slowdown pickups have been removed. They just didn’t add enough fun to the game and became an afterthought.
More speed
The tanks have been made a bit faster again, to give the game a bit more juice.
Achievements are on hold
Bummer, but that’s how it is. They will probably not make it into the initial release. The plan is still, to get them in there. Yet there are more urgent things to get done before the demo release, NextFest, and the initial release of the game.
Until the next time! Chris