Major Update #6 - Cyber T. Rex, Missile Truck, and Massive Improvements!

Action Figures,

To say we've been busy is an understatement. Honestly, the past few months have been non-stop. We've had our hands in many pots, doing our best to make Hypercharge be the best it can be. Remember, we're not a large team, we're five indie devs, so we sincerely appreciate your support and patience.

Right, let’s start first with what’s new in this update: We’re pleased to announce that major update 6 has arrived, and with it, an assortment of content, changes, fixes, and improvements. We’d also like to talk about a few other things we’ve been working on in the background, including moving over to a new version of the Unreal Engine, crossplay, and finally, the story campaign.

PATCH NOTES

ADDED

• Added new CyberRex Boss!
• Added new DAMBUSTER Boss! (Missile Truck)
• Added new map THE FUNDERDOME (Shed Arena)
• Added new Head, Skin and Material unlocks for the new level!
• Added new secret unlock.
• Added 5 new Music Tracks!
• Added Join Friend button to Play Menu.
• Added Invite Code to lobby screen.
• Added new Coin pickup Sounds.
• Added CyberRex and DAMBUSTER to dioramas page.

MOVED

• Moved to Unreal Engine 4.26 to take advantage of new performance gains and platform stability improvements.
• Moved to EOS for our multiplayer back-end. Servers are faster to load and instance. Dedicated server tool has also been updated to support private sessions.
• Moved Party Modes to Extras menu.

IMPROVEMENTS

• Improved handling of FX that cause motion sickness; lowered when adjusting Camera Shake or Weapon Sway scale.
• Improved Pause/Unpause for all actor sounds in the world when toggling pause.
• Improved multiplayer networking events.
• Improved performance of many actors in the game by caching more sub-components.
• Improved music track layout in certain maps/waves.
• Improved Volume Slider to use more sensible and audible values.
• Improved UI performance regarding text generation.
• Improved balance of new bosses, waves on the garden map, shed waves difficulty.
• Improved balance of game details related to health, weapons and enemies.
• Improved performance of instance meshes for debris actors.
• Improved prize machine (ATM) with new light animations and FX.
• Improved many interaction animations and particle FX.
• Improved nav and collisions around the sink in Bathroom.

FIXES

• Fixes DLC unlocks not triggering because of the ordering of engine Init.
• Fixes crash issue when travelling between levels.
• Fixes crash issue related to some commands being referenced on the render thread.
• Fixes glitch allowing clients to repair or build on a dead turret.
• Fixes options menu asking to save when nothing changed.
• Fixes build previews casting a shadow.
• Fixes game stalling and freezing issue related to camera shakes being stopped when not playing.
• Fixes being able to pick up a weapon at the same time as a bot.
• Fixes bots stealing a pickup that you are about to collect.
• Fixes accidentally buying multiple weapons and attachments when holding the purchase key.
• Fixes some sounds not stopping properly between levels.
• Fixes FOV issues for FP camera.
• Fixes some issues with pickups not being removed properly.
• Fixes camera clipping through the grass in third person.
• Fixes various muzzle flash location issues on NPC weapons.
• Fixes Controllers on desktop not always falling back to custom controller binds unless overwritten by base-players binds.
• Fixes many deprecation warnings and stability issues from the engine change.
• Fixes breakable components ignoring damage to an already broken group of break slots.
• Fixes emissive and lights being enabled on actors that die.
• Fixes motion blur not working properly.
• Fixes missing damage flashes in networking environments.
• Fixes Disable Prize Machine and Disable Charger game options.
• Fixes localisation issues in some areas.
• Fixes HUD sometimes not appearing when restarting the round.
• Fixes shield FX not reporting damage values to other FX related events.
• Fixes missed network message for disconnecting from a lobby.
• Fixes indicators being lagged by one frame when turning the camera quickly.
• Fixes players not being given stats for boss kills.
• Fixes offset on weapon and attachments pickups so they rotate correctly.
• Fixes invisible wave hud text.
• Fixes cancel find session not working properly.
• Fixes Play Menu issues and Find Game menu missing dialogs.
• Fixes Customisation menu not having focus when opening, fixed loadout menu random button causing buildables to random instead of just cosmetics.
• Fixes wave not starting when the boss is the only enemy in the list.
• Fixes in-game menu button being incorrect when in single player.
• Fixes Wave ending early if only boss is remaining.
• Fixes stages not being properly in the locked state.
• Fixes player highlight on DLC characters not working properly.
• Fixes LODs on Nebulon characters being stretched from far away.
• Fixes keys being held down when entering/exiting pause menu.
• Fixes for blurry end of round unlock previews.
• Fixes input platform not applying when changed in the options menu.
• Fixes stuck spot on Kitchen and closed the Super Secret Extractor Vent Clubhouse
• Fixes Player Lobby missing physics on DLC characters.Fixed Turret rockets knocking out batteries.
• Fixes Turrets targeting Missile Trucks and other enemies they can’t normally target.

Missile Truck

This boss appears in Garden of Evil, replacing the T. Rex. We made this decision because the T. Rex would often find itself stuck on objects, which would take away the fun and danger that we initially intended. We did our best to improve its pathfinding, but overall, it became frustrating for players, and for us. In the end, that type of enemy just wasn’t suited for that type of environment. However, this lead on to the idea of the Missile Truck!

So, how does this enemy work? Well, it’s pretty neat. And.. uh… explosive! Once activated, it will begin its launch sequence. Soon after, you will notice a beacon deployed from the sky, which will navigate its way to a random HYPER-CORE. This is where the danger really begins. You must make your way to the beacon in a hasty fashion, pick it up, and depending on how good your arm is; throw it towards the Missile Truck. The missile will follow the tracker and… boom! But, if you cannot grab it in time, well… the HYPER-CORE is in trouble!

Cyber T. Rex

Don’t worry, we didn’t remove the T. Rex from the game. Instead, we improved it! Remember when Thor fought The Hulk in Ragnarok? Well, it inspired us to create this arena (no more T. Rex getting stuck). Welcome to the Funderdome! Surrounded by Army Men who want nothing more than to witness a good chomping, it’s your job to outmaneuver and out damage the Cyber T. Rex.

But how exactly can you do that? Covered in highly durable armor designed by Major Evil himself, the Cyber T. Rex is a mighty adversary. You must destroy its armor, piece by piece, all whilst trying to evade not only its huge, plastic teeth, but also its missile launcher! As soon as you destroy its armor, rain fire and hope for the best. To earn the highest medal, you must avoid dying a specific number of times.

Unlock the latest Character Skins

Includes Two New Character Heads and Two New Skins with matching Weapons!

Story Campaign

The story is coming a long great! With that said, we’d like to clarify a few things. The story campaign is not a standalone story mode (we’re too small of a team to make that happen). We’re adding an actual story to the existing wave-based mode. For example, when you start a level, you'll be greeted with a ‘90s style visual comic with amazing narration and art. The story will be linear, meaning that with each level you complete (for example, Dawn of the Toys all the way to Garden of Evil and further), you will learn more and more about Major Evil and Max Ammo, as well as the lore of Hypercharge, and why exactly you’re defending the HYPER-CORE. Essentially, the further you progress, the more the story will fall into place. Oh, and you will eventually… face Major Evil, head to head!

We intend to add optional objectives to each level, which are completed when in the exploration/build phase. Such objectives will be simple yet rewarding, giving players another reason to further explore every nook and cranny in each level. This also means environments will feel more alive, in terms of what the player can interact with. To recap, the story/campaign is not a separate mode, it’s implemented into the current wave-based mode. We truly believe it’ll make that mode feel super polished, and be worthy of the title “story campaign”.

Major Evil In The Flesh Plastic

Every toy is at his beck and call, and every action figure knows his name. Finally, Max Ammo’s arch nemesis, Major Evil, has revealed himself to all. Cunning, fearsome, and relentless, can you stop him from obliterating the HYPER-CORE’S and put an end to his reign of chaos? Perhaps you can. Sgt. Max Ammo is depending on you. We all are.

Unreal Engine Move Over

I will give Dec the microphone and let him go through exactly why this engine move has been extremely time-consuming, and what it means for Hypercharge:

Dec Doyle (Lead Programmer)
Moving to a new version of the engine after thousands of our own custom changes to Unreal is a challenge. Hundreds of community fixes for the engine, strange merges between multiple versions of files from different engine versions is how we strung together everything we needed for Hypercharge. After enough time had passed since we started working on this game, so many new features, performance improvements, new platforms and new technology have been added to this engine that we need to take advantage of. Some of these are just general all-around improvements to performance or how the engine handles a certain job. Others are almost necessary for us to ensure Hypercharge can run efficiently on all other platforms. This is not the flashiest list of improvements for the average viewer, but for the team and the hardcore fans of Hypercharge, this will be a very welcomed update and allows us to really take this game to wherever we want it to go.So after months of hard work, we’ve moved our game to one of the latest versions of Unreal Engine, and brought with it plenty of new fixes and improvements (and some great new bugs). This all goes hand-in-hand with new content for the game, of course.

Crossplay

Crossplay is something that's constantly requested by the community, and understandly so. Moving over to the latest version of Unreal Engine has allowed us to dive deeper into cross-platform support. What was once not possible for us now is. This means Switch and PC players can defend the HYPER-CORE, together, if we get it properly working. And who knows, maybe down the line, other consoles, too? Rest assured, we’ll do our very best to make it happen!

Thanks again for your support, it means a great deal to us!
- Digital Cybercherries

Social Links
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