With another month almost over, it is finally time for the monthly update. As announced, this one is a bit smaller, but still comes with a total of 17 noteworthy (and some smaller) changes. A friendly reminder: I am still looking for playtesters who would like to test the full version. The details can still be found here: https://thumbtanks.com/playtesters-wanted.
Crit Damage, Crit Showdown and the mood system
Tanks can now do critical damage with a low probability. The mood system ensures that this probability of critical damage improves when things are going badly for a player. Although critical damage and the mood system should slightly favour weaker players, no major changes to the balancing are expected. To make the end of rounds more exciting, in the Deathmatch game mode all rounds will end in "Final Frenzy", a phase of 15 seconds in which every shot will do critical damage.
Adjustments to the user interface
During the game, each player is now shown when his talent is currently active and what effect it has. In order to free up the necessary space in the interface, the display of the currently available special weapons has been combined and simplified.
Settings now available from the pause menu
From now on, settings such as the display of the buttons and the volume can be changed from the pause menu during a round. The pause menu has also been adapted so that it is now hardly possible to end the game by mistake.
Various changes to the balancing
A number of adjustments were made based on tester feedback. For one thing, the camera is now zoomed out a little further during the round so that you can see more of the playing field. The award boxes have been removed completely (and will be replaced with something hopefully better in one of the next updates). Contamination now does a little less damage, some talents have been adjusted. In addition, the number of mountains on the map has been slightly reduced.
It is also worth mentioning that the behaviour of Theodore's Drone has been adjusted. It can now be shot down, has its own health and becomes less efficient the more damage it takes.
What comes next?
At the moment, I would like to wait and see how the situation around Unity develops. That's why I expect a somewhat smaller update in October.
The big to-dos, apart from some rare but annoying bugs, are still a new special for Serwa. More orders (and adjustments to the existing ones) and changes to the draft are also planned.
The biggest change, insofar as it makes it into the October update, will be an adjustment to the draft. New pick-ups will give players more options in the future.