Hey racer, Airframe Ultra releases November 5th! We are stashing the weapons and fuel to prepare for the launch. Deperada, Bandit 99, Nuclear Them, Jackrabbit, and your friends will be there ready to kill everyone in their way. Be quick or be dead– either way, be there. -riv otte
We are stashing the weapons and fuel to prepare for the launch. Deperada, Bandit 99, Nuclear Them, Jackrabbit, and your friends will be there ready to kill everyone in their way. Be quick or be dead– either way, be there.
Hey racers, Beta 5: Desperada is now live! Grab your helmets and start your engine! The servers are running and the playtest button is live on the Airframe Ultra store page! Go click it and download the build and join the playtest! View game page This beta will include a new prog
Grab your helmets and start your engine! The servers are running and the playtest button is live on the Airframe Ultra store page! Go click it and download the build and join the playtest!
This beta will include a new progression system, shops, and bike building!
Desperada
Takes a lot of jet fuel to run a city of billions and down in Baja, Desperada makes sure there’s plenty flowing into the ultra circuit racing of Megacity West. Some say she’s an insider, a JP-8 broker who uses her connections to smuggle fuel on the cheap. Some say she’s the daughter of a fuel baron, trying to right her father’s wrongs. Some say she’s just a badass who takes what she wants and doesn’t give two shits about the rest. Whoever she is, thank you the next time you drop a boost on Night Ride and slip into first.
Feedback
We would love to hear from you if you have any feedback for the playtest! Join us in the Airframe Ultra Discord where I have opened up a feedback and bugs channel.
Bugs
If you experience any bugs while playing, please report it in our bug portal! The developers will be watching there for bugs and there is the easiest way to send bugs up to them for them to see.
I can’t wait to see your heads rolling on the track while I drive off into the distance.
Hey Racers, Next month we are kicking off our 10 year anniversary and we are celebrating with our first annual Akupara Direct, hosted by Alpha Beta Gamer , where we are announcing some news for Airframe Ultra! The Akupara Direct will showcase plenty of games from our library, rev
Hey Racers,
Next month we are kicking off our 10 year anniversary and we are celebrating with our first annual Akupara Direct, hosted by Alpha Beta Gamer, where we are announcing some news for Airframe Ultra!
The Akupara Direct will showcase plenty of games from our library, revealing all kinds of news, especially something new for Rain World!
I’ve been asked to set up something real fun that I think you all will enjoy. Some behind the scenes stuff that has yet to see the public eye. Also, did I mention that there is some Airframe Ultra news appearing in this Direct? You don’t want to miss it– like my boss any time he tries to kill me in the game.
We will be streaming the event on the Akupara Twitch! Hope to see you there on September 6th at noon PST!
Hey Racers, In the Airframe Ultra Discord , we opened up a channel for players to ask questions and voted on which questions to send to Josh, one of the developers on Airframe Ultra ! What is the purpose and goal of the playtests? These pre-release playtests help us gauge what is
Hey Racers,
In the Airframe Ultra Discord, we opened up a channel for players to ask questions and voted on which questions to send to Josh, one of the developers on Airframe Ultra!
What is the purpose and goal of the playtests?
These pre-release playtests help us gauge what is and isn’t working with the design, balance, and flow of the game. They also help us get more eyes on the game to spot potential problems that we can fix before launch! Certain improvements we’ve already made have included bike and weapon balance, the addition of circuits, and input device improvements.
Will old maps be revisited/updated by the time of 1.0 or later?
We plan to take a polish pass at our older maps before 1.0, and to keep an eye on how the community feels about any high or low points in the maps following release.
Will there be some kind of official way of making custom maps?
This isn’t on the roadmap, but is an interesting idea!
How are the developers looking at balance right now? Is it something that is not on the priority list right now, or is the current balance deemed good / okay?
While we track weapon and bike performance, and we’ve gotten some great insights through analytics and player feedback, we’ve been focusing on finishing all of the game’s features and content before getting balance super dialed in. Since Airframe Ultra is a live game, we plan to issue buffs and nerfs where they’re needed, when they’re needed.
Will there be more in depth game settings? What's the current priority for adding accessibility settings?
More in-depth settings are currently in the works! Accessibility settings are also on the roadmap, and we’d love to hear what features are most important to the community.
Will current players lose their cosmetics after EXP and leveling are introduced?
Yes. Players who participated in the beta will earn access to beta racer cosmetics, and players will be able to quickly earn cosmetics by playing the game and leveling up their racer. Flashier cosmetics will come with bragging rights, and our new system will help players customize their racers in more ways than ever before. More details to come!
What does the future of modding support look like?
We’re keeping modders in mind while doing what we can to stop mods from negatively impacting matchmade online matches.
Is it likely that new game modes will be added in the future?
It’s a possibility! We’ve been rebuilt how online/local, matchmade/custom, and public/private matches work, and we’ll see what the future holds!
Will there be community-made Garments?
We don’t have plans to officially support community-made garments, but this project has seen stranger things. So who knows!
The servers are up! The cops have been bribed. Download the Airframe Ultra Playtest and get started! View game page We will be streaming Airframe Ultra at 10am PST today and 10am PST on Monday where you can beat up Buddy, our publishing lead and leave me alone because I am a C-ti
The servers are up! The cops have been bribed. Download the Airframe Ultra Playtest and get started!
We will be streaming Airframe Ultra at 10am PST today and 10am PST on Monday where you can beat up Buddy, our publishing lead and leave me alone because I am a C-tier racer.
Well, well, well, looks like we're puttin' the servers back online. The Airframe Ultra Megacity Open is live ALL WEEKEND starting Friday at 9AM PT and we're bookending it with streams on the Akupara Twitch Friday and Monday. Plenty of murder and mayhem to be had on the circuit. A
Well, well, well, looks like we're puttin' the servers back online.
The Airframe Ultra Megacity Open is live ALL WEEKEND starting Friday at 9AM PT and we're bookending it with streams on the Akupara Twitch Friday and Monday. Plenty of murder and mayhem to be had on the circuit.
And if you wanna see what the devs are cooking for the NEXT beta (coming later this summer), put eyes on the stream on Monday. You know where to find us.
Hey racers, Slower traffic stays to the right. We will stream Airframe Ultra on April 17th 10am PST and show you how it’s really done. View game page -riv otter
Hey racers,
Slower traffic stays to the right.
We will stream Airframe Ultra on April 17th 10am PST and show you how it’s really done.
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
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.
Circuits
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.
Voting System
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!
The Hopper
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
Host Controls + Moderation Tools
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.
Fun Stats
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.
Airframe
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.
Melee Weapons
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.
Range Weapons
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.
Special Weapons
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.
Community Corner
Alright. Time for my favorite part of the devlog. Let's share some of the amazing things people from the community made.
Art
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.
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?
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!
Hey Racers, The open beta is now over. Thank you all who took the time to try out the open beta. We still have a lot to do and I'll write a dev log communicating on this open beta, what we learned about it, and more once I get the data on it. I hope you enjoyed the beta and if yo
Hey Racers,
The open beta is now over. Thank you all who took the time to try out the open beta.
We still have a lot to do and I'll write a dev log communicating on this open beta, what we learned about it, and more once I get the data on it.
I hope you enjoyed the beta and if you did, please consider giving us a wishlist!
Hey Racers, I hope you have been enjoying the open beta and Steam Next Fest. In the Airframe Ultra Discord , we asked the community for clips of gameplay of any of the betas and demo that they played. Thank you all who submitted their clips! Open beta ends Monday morning so be su
Hey Racers,
I hope you have been enjoying the open beta and Steam Next Fest.
In the Airframe Ultra Discord, we asked the community for clips of gameplay of any of the betas and demo that they played. Thank you all who submitted their clips!
Open beta ends Monday morning so be sure to check it out before it is too late! Download the Airframe Ultra demo to play the beta and destroy the competition. View game page
Hey Racers, New patch for the open beta! Please update your game or you may experience an error! Here are the full patch notes Fixed Audio issue of music cutting out intermittently Fixed mechanical issues with Hopper Fixed tutorial messages Updated rooms list info and sorting to
Hey Racers,
New patch for the open beta!
Please update your game or you may experience an error! Here are the full patch notes
Fixed Audio issue of music cutting out intermittently
Fixed mechanical issues with Hopper
Fixed tutorial messages
Updated rooms list info and sorting to be more reasonable and accurate
The host is now able to postpone a vote even if it has already started
Reduced Kick stun by a little bit
Show which match within a circuit you're on when entering a room
If you experience any issues please report them here!
Airframe Ultra is looking to be the good kind of multiplayer game: No engagement hacking or battle passes—you pay once, but it has lasting value and, depending on its success at launch, dev support. There's no ranked play, but it's still a game with competitive depth and mechani
Airframe Ultra is looking to be the good kind of multiplayer game: No engagement hacking or battle passes—you pay once, but it has lasting value and, depending on its success at launch, dev support. There's no ranked play, but it's still a game with competitive depth and mechanics to master... Read more.
Hey, Racers! Open beta starts now! All you have to do is download the Airframe Ultra demo to play! No sign ups. No forms. No fuss. Just download the demo and play! View game page Let’s get some FAQ out of the way: How long will the beta run for? The beta will run for a week endin
Hey, Racers!
Open beta starts now! All you have to do is download the Airframe Ultra demo to play! No sign ups. No forms. No fuss. Just download the demo and play!
The beta will run for a week ending on March 2nd at 9am PST.
What tracks are available for the beta?
All of the tracks from the previous betas!
Oceandrive
Chasm
Nightride
Stormdrain
Quarry
Estate
I experienced a bug, where should I post it?
If you find a bug, please report it in the bug report forum! That will be the easiest place for developers to locate and track the bugs you report!
Wait, where is the local play option? Where's the private rooms options? Are you removing it?
Don’t worry it will come back! We aren’t removing it. Some of the changes made didn’t work in local play or private rooms so we removed it for the time being. It will be back in the future.
EDIT: We heard you guys like Private Rooms, so we've re-enabled them! To make Private Rooms work, tick "Private Room" option when creating. The name of the room is the password!
So what actually changed since the last beta?
Alright, alright, time to get to the MEAT of this dev log. What actually changed since the last beta? There are quite a few changes from some more QOL features, a new voting system, and more!
Quality of Life
This was probably asked for from the very first closed beta we ran, but I am happy to finally get to get this in your testing hands. Rebindable keys are in this beta!
Voting System
Alright, so this is probably one of the biggest changes you’ll quickly realize is the new voting system in between races. When you open a room you’ll immediately start in Warehouse instead of the lobby UI screen. When the host starts the voting or when the time runs out in the lobby, you can vote on two randomly chosen tracks.
You can vote on which track you want to play by entering the highlighted zone in front of the board. The one with the most votes will be the next track you race on. If there is a tie in the voting, it will be randomly chosen between the two tracks.
Circuits
In this playtest, you will play in circuits! 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!
If you win you can stand over the competition with a new cutscene. I would show it but as you can see I took second place in this circuit and am still salty over it. I won’t show me in second place. If you take the top 3 in the circuit, you do get a… “weapon?” that you can use to fire at your rivals and friends to really rub it in their faces. I’ll leave that for you to discover as well.
Host Controls
Since you spawn in Warehouse when you start a room, you don’t have the normal menu for you to set up games. So the developers have added a new room or two for the host to enter and change the settings for the races.
If you aren’t the host I would be careful trying to enter the room. We have the highest defense weapons bought from the underground black market to protect the rooms from any unwanted visitors.
There are some settings that a host can control directly:
Max Players
Max Lives
Max Kills
Cops on or off
Numbers for Lives and kills are:
Low: 5 Kills
Med: 10 Kills
High: 20 Kills
Some of you may find the golden revolver in the lobby with the host controls. If there is anyone that you don't want in your lobby, give them a little shot with that and that will disconnect them from the lobby.
Who’s the Coolest Racer in Megacity West?
I’ve got one more piece of news for you! This week, we’re going to learn, well… you read this section’s header.
In the Airframe Ultra Discord, we’re going to be anointing one player as the Coolest in Megacity West! Every day, players will share something from the game and the community will vote on their favorites! The player who gets the most reactions to their post wins The Coolest (an actual role I added to the Discord.)
At 12PM Noon, 9AM Eastern, Buddy will be getting the devs from AFU together in a big livestream to show off some gameplay and answer YOUR questions. Have you ever wanted to know Bandit99’s backstory? Why did we change the Vector? Who wins most in the internal playtests?
It’ll also be where we debut the promised Community Teaser, so keep an eye out for your clips!
All your questions and more will be answered live– before we open up lobbies and play with the community! There’s an event in the Discord to sign up for! Check it out!
If you do enjoy playing the beta, then please give us a wishlist. Every wishlist helps tremendously. I will also write a big write up after the beta detailing what we have learned from the beta, highlight community made content from the beta, and talk with Josh, one of the developers in Airframe Ultra to give some insight about what they are planning for the next step of the game.
Hey racers, The cops have been trying to silence us for too long. The punk band in Dead Pets have agreed to play the song Quarry by James Primate to get our word out and stand up against the injustice of the world. Struggling punk rock band, Dead Pets , are looking for their big
Hey racers,
The cops have been trying to silence us for too long. The punk band in Dead Pets have agreed to play the song Quarry by James Primate to get our word out and stand up against the injustice of the world.
Struggling punk rock band, Dead Pets, are looking for their big break. Play rhythm games at band practice, work a diner shift, converse with characters and manage Gordy’s life. Dead Pets Unleashed is a feminist, slice-of-life, management-lite, minigame-heavy story; unleash your inner demon!
Hey racers, Last month, we ran the 4th closed beta and had a ton of fun watching others check out the new track: Estate. We have gone through the numbers and gone through the feedback, and now I can share what we learned. Estate First off let's go with the new track in the Beta.
Hey racers,
Last month, we ran the 4th closed beta and had a ton of fun watching others check out the new track: Estate. We have gone through the numbers and gone through the feedback, and now I can share what we learned.
Estate
First off let's go with the new track in the Beta. It had players racing alongside a cliff wall before trespassing into a yard with a massive, decrepit mansion looming over the horizon. Racers head into the abandoned mansion and beat each other senseless in the tight corridors and hallways.
This track was full of experimental features, some of which players loved, and some that players didn’t love so much.
First off, our door puzzle was met with mixed feels. Our goal here was to add a new type of competitive-cooperative encounter to the game, but many players found themselves confused about how to move forward. Some folks felt the door had too much health, some found ways to bypass the door, and some found it more effective to farm other players during this encounter. We’re going to continue experimenting with this section to find something that the community loves, and we’re excited to see what you think of our changes!
The bush section was also a point of contention for a lot of players. We had a few reports that it was hard to follow and had too much visual clutter to tell what was an obstacle and what way the track was going when This is another area that we are taking a look into.
One thing that we found people did like about the Estate is the horses! I saw some people hanging out with the horses trying to interact with them.
Weapons
Weapons are arguably one of the most important things to nail down when developing a vehicular combat game. You could have the best tracks, best tricks, best vehicles, etc. but if the weapons don’t feel balanced or feel good to use then the game may lose interest and could be boring.
We had one weapon stand out as people’s favorite weapon. Out of all the weapons, 39.1% of people voted this weapon as their favorite. An overwhelming amount, can you guess which weapon it was? It is probably my favorite weapon as well. It’s the traffic sign. There just isn’t anything better than impaling someone with that thing after a big boost.
There was one weapon for the second beta in a row voted least favorite: The SMG. No surprise there, I’d probably say the same thing. It doesn’t have a high rate of damage and there isn’t a lot of feedback to show if you actually hit someone or not. Some felt like they weren’t doing any damage with the weapon and that it was very difficult to get kills. This will be one that we revisit in the future.
The SMG wasn’t the only weapon that you guys pointed out that didn’t have good feedback or good visuals when using them. I’ll name another one pointed out: The sledgehammer to many felt clunky at times to use as the timing wasn’t always clear.
We saw more weapon kills AND more weapon kills per minute in this beta. Estate is a map that has more direct player-to-player interaction, since there are fewer of the long breakways to create a gap between you and other players. Also, we think you guys are just getting more and more bloodthirsty every beta.
Airframes
And now time for the vehicles themselves. Throughout the beta, all airframes have about the same pick rate. The bluntnose has the highest pick rate at around 50%. This might seem like it is overpowered and needs a nerf but to us, this is a good number. The Bluntnose is an all-rounder that should satisfy most players.
Both the Vector and Hopper sit at just under 20% with the Hopper at a slight edge. The least picked airframe is the poor cruiser sitting at about 11%. Here are the exact percentages if you would like to know.
Bluntnose: 51.4%
Hopper: 19.4%
Vector: 18.1%
Cruiser: 11.2%
What is New?
If you read this far, first off thank you and for your reward, I will share some new things already being worked on.
I know this was highly requested and I’m super glad to share this screenshot with you. I’ll let the screenshot speak.
Now this is a very very early version of this setup and can change but this is for sure something we want to hone in on.
I also want to share another new option that we’re looking into. Screen Mode where you can swap from fullscreen to borderless to windowed! Josh is also cooking some changes for audio settings, blood toggling, screenshake toggling, and is exploring other options to improve accessibility.
Community Corner
I saw some amazing art pieces and videos coming out for the beta, and while I would love to share them all, I don’t think the cops are going to let me stand around in one place for too long (Yes, we got your feedback about them, too.)
Art
Klleh on Discord
Kocao on Discord
Notmacrowave on Discord
Not_a_bot60 on Discord
Clips/videos
What would Airframe Ultra be like with Team Fortress 2 sounds? Well Thingamagic answers that question with this video.
I spoke with Josh on what they thought about the beta and what they are working on for Airframe Ultra!
Hello airframers! This is Josh, one of the engineers/designers on the project. Since the last beta, we've been focusing on the design and functionality of some of the game's core systems. By that, I'm referring to things like settings, gameplay loop, and progression. These are all super high level things, so let's break them down a little, one by one!
Settings
We've kept the settings pretty light for previous betas for two reasons: limited dev bandwidth, and to see what things the community would speak up about most. We're pleased to say that since adding some more content to the game and getting it feeling decently polished, we've had some more bandwidth to tackle settings! Y'all have spoken up most about some things we've had on the roadmap for quite a while. The new settings menu features plenty of quality-of-life and accessibility features such as[/p]
fullscreen/borderless/windowed toggle
screenshake on/off slider
blood on/off toggle
more granular audio controls
rebinding!
If there are any other accessibility settings you would like us to include, don't hesitate to let us know! The settings menu is still super early and we plan to make some changes to it, similar to the head's up display, to get it consistent with the style of the rest of the game.
Gameplay Loop
We've made some intense changes to the core loop of the game! Rather than being booted to the main menu to find or create a new match after finishing a game, we decided to make a circuit system. After each match, players are returned to the warehouse to see which player won that match. Players are then able to vote on what the next map will be. After three matches, the circuit concludes, and the winners are given a podium finish and some other surprises we've been cooking up. When the circuit is over, players can start another circuit in the same lobby, or they can wrap up their play session! This system is still super early, so we'd love your input and thoughts on what you'd like to see from it.
Progression
We're also working on a progression system! The design is nailed down pretty well, but we're still fine tuning the scalars to make sure players are given reasonable rewards for both performance and participation. The TLDR is that completing circuits will net you some big XP gains, playing well will increase those gains, and playing with a higher star level (voluntary setbacks) will provide a multiplier to further increase your XP gains. That XP will let you level up and unlock some cosmetics! That said, let us know if there are any medals you'd like to earn in game to get big XP boosts, or if you could have any one cosmetic in game, what would that be? (Other than cat ears pls)
If you would like to keep tabs on any future event, like maybe another beta, then join the Airframe Ultra Discord!
Hey Racers, It’s time for you all to take the streets! Beta 4 will include many new changes that will shake up the competition from a new map, new UI, and more! How about I dive into them just a bit? Save those pipes for the racing. Estate Many of the maps battle over asphalt and
Beta 4 will include many new changes that will shake up the competition from a new map, new UI, and more! How about I dive into them just a bit? Save those pipes for the racing.
Estate
Many of the maps battle over asphalt and concrete but Estate challenges that by fighting in the front maze of the manor. Starting at the edge of the property, you will race on top of the man-made cliffside before diving into the labyrinth of towering bushes. If you didn’t fall off into the dry trash ocean, you will drive upon a greenhouse where your first arena is. With bars blocking off the entrance you must be good at your foot combat in order to survive and not give away too many points.
In the greenhouse you will find a mix of melee, guns, and throwables. The greenhouse gives nice sightlines for people who pick up guns however there is plenty of cover for those with melee weapons to hide behind and sneak up on unsuspecting players to close the distance.
After the fighting you race back into the jungle of bushes where after you stuff your airframe into the mouth of a narrow tunnel, the track opens up to a long wide open straight away. No barriers between you and the finish line to the next arena so if you aren’t fast then people with guns will shoot you down or with faster Airframes will fly past you. I’m sure no one will kick you as they’re driving by right? Right?
I’ll leave the last part of the track for you to discover. I will say though that you may or may not enter the Estate. Oh yeah for some developer backend secrets. This is Jerry. Used for scaling the world around the size of the player! Everyone say hi to Jerry!
New UI
Josh, a developer of Airframe Ultra, has been fiddling with UI changes. These are not final but here is a sneak peek at what they have been cooking there.
Balance Changes
For the next balance change we decided to make it a complete even playing field by removing all airframes. That’s right the cops put a tire boot on your airframes. How does that work when airframes don’t have wheels you ask? Um………………………..
Let’s just say we’ve made a few small tweaks to the airframes and certain weapons. People are still going to break the maps with the Vector. I see you!!
One more thing. While not technically a balance change per se, Josh is also implementing some input fixes as well.
If you are excited to check out the new changes for Beta 4 and want to participate, then join the Airframe Ultra Discord. This is also the best place to receive updates and news for Airframe Ultra.
Hey Racers, First off, I want to thank everyone who took the time to participate in the third beta. We had over 1,600 people sign up for the Beta! I hope you enjoyed beating up your friends on Ocean Drive. I’m sure you all loved watching me get beaten up on stream! I also want to
Hey Racers,
First off, I want to thank everyone who took the time to participate in the third beta. We had over 1,600 people sign up for the Beta! I hope you enjoyed beating up your friends on Ocean Drive. I’m sure you all loved watching me get beaten up on stream! I also want to extend a special thank you to everyone who made clips or memes for the beta– we’re talking about them constantly, let me tell you. But the team is taking things seriously too, reviewing the feedback, bug reports, and data gathered from the beta.
Maps
Something that always surprises me with each beta is how quickly people go into “How Can I Break This Map” mode. I sat in on the call in the Airframe Ultra Discord right at the start of the beta with other players as they did everything they can to break Ocean Drive. Which, as someone who did some Quality Assurance for Akupara Game before becoming Community Manager, is a mode that I fully understand and support. It put a big smile on my face to see the maps broken with shortcuts finessing the out-of-bounds barrier and getting their airframes in unintended areas. Pushing the boundaries of Airframe Ultra is always what the betas are for.
Ocean Drive
In case you were busy over the weekend, Ocean Drive was the new map we released for Beta 3. Players got to race along a massive megashipyard on the narrow highway roads populated by other drivers and then dropped down to the coastline. Some people were wondering if they could shoot down the innocent parashooter just minding their own business over the water. I see you!
Check out this match posted by a community member on the map Ocean Drive!
Some people have learned that if you surrender the quick fight over the water and time it well, you can get a major head start. In fact, if you drive up the wall and time it right you can drive under the map and win the next race for an easy 3 points.
A huge highlight for us with this map was asking the community to contribute to the big wall alongside Ocean Drive! There were over 500 submissions and that wall got populated by tons of graffiti from the community. Just to take a second to highlight a few:
Hiphyro on Discord
Mimic24 on Discord
Supremedorian on Discord
There’s a ton of art and I wish I could highlight them all but Steam might be mad at me if I make a dev log with so many beautiful art pieces so let's move on to Storm Drain before I get lost.
Storm Drain
Storm Drain is the first track that came back to the beta– it was actually the very first map produced for the game! People who played the first beta may remember the very first version of Storm Drain. Well, this version is different! New Storm Drain features a rain mechanic that affects visibility and the water level throughout the map. This is a feature we’ve been looking to test for a while– what happens when the maps are dynamic? When they change from lap to lap? Thankfully, you guys seemed to really love it! There was an area in one arena however that players easily got stuck in because of the water. People who fell in know the spot. Sorry!
Here is a full match from the community on Storm Drain if you would like to see it!
Yet again, players found amazing skips and tricks to break the track. Don’t tell the developers, but I think these are amazing and maybe I will need to use them against my co-workers on stream.
OK, let’s be real, can I talk about Warehouse without talking about Fight Club? Look, Warehouse is in here as a testing ground– where you go when you want to see how the changes have manifested. But you guys just love the club! It started in the second beta by the community and has continued on to the third beta. Fight Club is when people go to Warehouse and only fight in hand to hand combat. No weapons, no airframes, and no where to hide. Just you versus the person in front of you.
They do movement tech that I didn’t even know was in the game. Seriously, I’m pretty sure if I ever dared set foot in one, I’d lose five times before I even land a punch. But I do wanna say for any curious racers out there: They are very supportive to new players coming in and I’m sure they will be there for the next beta and launch.
While some people were getting off their Airframe to go into hand-to-hand combat, there were others who were using their Airframe to lap around the map as fast as they could. Here is a person who completed it on the Vector in 49.26.
Next up, I spoke with Josh, one of the gameplay developers working on Airframe Ultra, about some of the behind the scenes in development.
Hello racers and a heartfelt thank you to everyone that's taken the time to play Airframe Ultra so far! I'm Josh, one of the gameplay developers at Akupara Games. From weapon balance to airframe gameplay and from map design to random bugs, just about all of your feedback gets routed through me, and I do my best to act on it. It's been a blast helping Joar and James bring the world of Airframe Ultra to life, and a huge thank you to them for their patience and dedication, as well as just being fantastic folks to work with!
Let's talk balance.
We seriously appreciate the thoughts y'all have shared with us about certain weapons, and we're taking steps to give every weapon a fighting chance while allowing them all to maintain a unique identity and power fantasy. Two of the most instrumental metrics we're keeping an eye on to keep weapons balanced are total time held and total kills. Through these two numbers, we can deduce how many kills weapons are earning per minute they're held by players (with a million caveats of course, but hear me out). This has helped us quantify how certain weapons are overperforming or underperforming. For instance, during beta 2, we saw all weapons net an average of 0.82 kills per minute. Great! What can we learn from this? Well, we saw that ranged weapons got 0.96 kpm, with the least effective ranged weapon being the rebar fastener at 0.46 kpm and the most effective weapon overall being the plasma pistol at a whopping 2.01 kpm.
That's all good and groovy, but how do we rebalance these weapons? While we're no stranger to tuning damage values, fire rates, magazine sizes, and reload speeds to adjust weapon uptime and time to kill values, we've got an interest in helping each weapon keep its own aesthetic and functional identity. To satisfy that goal, we lean away from big number changes in favor of tuning more abstract properties of the weapons. These changes help the weapons fulfill the roles they play in the universe by buffing along strengths and nerfing along weaknesses.
In the case of the plasma pistol, it was killing players in one shot in betas 1 and 2. To turn this weapon into less of a free kill printer, we decided to discourage players from spraying one-shot-kill fire everywhere by introducing an overheat mechanic as well as quickly degrading precision the longer the trigger is held. We also adjusted the way the weapon's fire works so that it should kill most players in 2 shots rather than one -- but only if those shots keep their target ignited for a short duration. This keeps the weapon feeling super unique and strong while giving other players a fighting chance against it.
In the case of the rebar fastener, we took a similar-but-opposite approach. Rather than tuning the damage of the weapon against players, we aimed to satisfy its power fantasy of the weapon being heavy-duty piece of construction equipment. It turns out that airframes really don't like being impaled by rebar, so we improved their damage against vehicles! The projectiles should also feel heavy and destructive, so we buffed them to cause serious knockback and camera movement on those who find themselves on the action end of the rebar fastener.
And these are just two examples of adjustments we've made between beta 2 and 3! We've taken a similar approach to helping every bike shine in its own area, keeping melee weapons competitive, and dialing in the impact of body type on movement tech. We'll continue tuning these values in the future, and we hope to dial things in just right as we approach launch. I'm sure we'll have more to share about bikes and our design process in the coming weeks!
Thanks!
Once again, thanks to everyone in the Airframe Ultra community who has made these betas possible! I can't wait for y'all to see what we have in store for the future. Don't hesitate to say hey in the Discord!
-Josh
Art
I always want to wrap up any dev log with art from the community. I do appreciate the hard work these artists have put into drawing fan art and I do show what I can to developers of Airframe Ultra who love every single art piece drawn. I will share just a few but there are other amazing art pieces posted in the Airframe Ultra Discord.
The community has created a shared public canvas for Airframe Ultra. The link is pinned in the Discord but here is the progress so far with so many artists adding to it already!
Here are some individual art to highlight as well! Again there are so many art pieces to choose from that I can’t get everyone.
Brkojquag on Discord
Thingamagic_and_co on Discord
Oscarriaq on Discord
Another end to an eventful Beta. The team is still going through the data, numbers, feedback, and bug reports you have submitted over the weekend. Thank you for checking out the beta over the weekend. Without you guys, Airframe Ultra wouldn’t have been developing so well without your feedback and input.
Hey racers, The 3rd beta for Airframe Ultra starting this Friday the 25th! Today, I’m going to give you a plane-in-chasm eye view on what you can expect in the new beta. If you haven’t already, sign up for the beta with this Google Form ! I’d also recommend joining the Airframe U
Hey racers,
The 3rd beta for Airframe Ultra starting this Friday the 25th! Today, I’m going to give you a plane-in-chasm eye view on what you can expect in the new beta. If you haven’t already, sign up for the beta with this Google Form! I’d also recommend joining the Airframe Ultra Discord to keep up with the news for the Beta.
Beta 3 Overview
Alright, now it’s time for the meat and potatoes. What is coming up in Beta 3 and what has changed from Beta 2? First, some quick and easy things to list. We took the time to look at some data and read through your feedback to tune some bikes and weapons. I’ll be curious on what you think and what will be this beta’s “meta”.
There are also some new sound effects and music coming to Airframe Ultra! Those of you who played in the very first beta may remember that our first test had no music at all– that’s how early in the development cycle we wanted players to test! Last time, there was some positive feedback from the community since we started adding them in Beta 2 and the master of sound design, James has whipped up some great tunes for this one.
Maps
In this beta, there will be three maps that you can play with– which means three maps to find all the shortcuts to your heart’s content. It’s OK. The devs understand. I honestly find it pretty funny and we are happy that people are having fun with the maps. If you want to see the different shortcuts and tricks the community has found in past betas, they have been recording them in the Tech and Skips Wiki! (Unfortunately, some of these are now patched out– sorry, racers.)
For fans of Fight Club and hanging out on the couch, Warehouse is one of the maps that will be staying in the map pool! As a simple, straightforward testing ground, this one will remain in all our betas going forward. Plus, we know how much the community loves hanging out on this map and we couldn’t take that away from you. Have fun at the Warehouse.
Storm Drain makes a return from the first beta and it has a new look! The devs have been toiling with some new ideas for the map and revamped it a bit. I won’t get into any details into what has changed, I’ll leave that up to you to discover.
That last and final map is our newest addition to the roster, Ocean Drive. Starting high up alongside a massive megashipyard, you’ll drive along the coastline on the narrow highway roads populated by other drivers. But this track takes you down to the water level too, through a shantytown, up drainage sluices and even out on the waves themselves. That’s all I’ll mention of the new track, I can feel James behind me readying his metal pipe if I say more.
Jackrabbit
Jackrabbit has entered the race and you have no chance to keep up. Working as a mechanic on their own airframe deep in the Megashipyards of Slabtown, she has optimised everything from aerodynamics to boosts to give herself the most speed. She knows how to use the track around her to stay ahead of the competition and leaves the fighting to the less intelligent.
Join the beta for the exclusive Jackrabbbit skin!
Ready your Airframes and get your metal pipes, Beta 3 is right around the corner. And as another sneak peak– our crew will face off against racers like you in our Friday livestream! Tune in to View game page and see if you can beat me, Fae and a few other folks from the team when we roll up on the new map!
Hey Racers, It’s time… Airframe Ultra Beta 3 is available for sign ups Jackrabbit… By day, she works on her Airframe and by night, she outsmarts the competition along Ocean Drive. Good luck trying to keep up; Ocean Drive is her home turf. Join the Airframe Ultra Discord and fill
Hey Racers,
It’s time…
Airframe Ultra Beta 3 is available for sign ups
Jackrabbit… By day, she works on her Airframe and by night, she outsmarts the competition along Ocean Drive.
Good luck trying to keep up; Ocean Drive is her home turf.
Hey racers, The underground race organizers have updated some of the rules in the demo with new music and sound effects, updated UI elements and menus, and more. Here are the full patch notes Updated UI elements and menus New music and sound effects Added a new bug reporting syst
Hey racers,
The underground race organizers have updated some of the rules in the demo with new music and sound effects, updated UI elements and menus, and more.
Here are the full patch notes
Updated UI elements and menus
New music and sound effects
Added a new bug reporting system
Added support for Bluetooth input
Various bugfixes
Also I want to let you know that we have changed how to report bugs for Airframe Ultra. You’ll be able to report bugs here which will be sent up to the developers directly! The new bug reporting system in game will also lead to this link as well! https://bugs.akuparagames.com/airframe-ultra/bugs
Kylorenty on Discord
Fl.oof on Discord
Astelis_ on Discord
Strangeodd on Discord
Maxdubstep on Discord
Kocao on Discord
Notmacrowave on Discord
Not_a_bot60 on Discord
