It's been less than a week since AMC was released so we wanted to get an update out to fix the most glaring issues we have seen come up.
Laser Pointer Angles - if you were using Oculus Touch controllers in SteamVR, and using the Laser Pointers, for some reason the offsets were very wrong. This affected the driection the laser pointers would aim, so instead of straight ahead or down, they faced forward/up making them borderline useless. This was an oversight on our part--we mostly tested Vive on Steam, and Touch with Oculus, and the testing we did do with SteamVR and Touch was with the virtual cursors.
Crashes - we found a very reproduceable crash that happens on a certain event related to the build UI, and while most people never saw it happen, it was defintely happening for some of you. Now that we have fixed that, further crashes will be easier to find. In general the engine is extremely stable when run on non-ancient drivers/hardware, which is about 100% of VR users. So any crashes are concerning to us and we are confident there should be no "random" crashes.
AirMech Respawn Cost - one thing completely new for the motion controller release of AMC is the AI for the AirMech when you are in command mode. We have iterated on this quite a bit, starting from the original AI which was really too good--if you do nothing, he can match his opponent perfectly. We experimented with ordering him like units, but then he was too dumb. It is an ongoing thing, and not easy to make him dumb enough that you feel like you are contributing, but smart enough that he doesn't annoy you.
While we ponder the hard part, the easy fix for now was to drop the respawn cost of the AirMech to just 25% of the current value. Hopefully this will make it a little less painful next time he decides to Leroy Jenkins that wall of Devastators....repeatedly.
Upcoming Features/Improvements
We've had a number of requests for private lobbies with friend invites. Work has started on this and it will be coming in a future update. Lots of other great suggestions have been coming in from the Steam forums related to menu improvements, better information, notifications, and all around quality of life suggestions to make the game better.
Work continues on those things but we wanted to get this first update out without delay. We read all the reviews people leave here and appreciate anyone taking the time to leave feedback, both positive and negative--there have defintely been some things that were bugs and not intentional design goofs.
AMC Build 57702 Changes
- Fixed a crash related to the build menu
- Fixed the upward direction of the laser pointers using Touch
- Updated the HUD when using Touch/Vive Controllers (can be viewed when turning either hand palm up)
- Show Motion controllers on End Game and Exit Confrimation Dialog to show which button confirms the exit action
- Reduce the credit costs by 75% for when an AirMech is respawning
- Game actions will now pause when bringing up the Pause Menu in a Solo session with Touch/Vive Controllers
- Game will now launch in Full screen mode
- Pause Menu and Menu Dialog boxes have been updated with new art
- Updates for the Robot Hand positioning when using Oculus Touch Controllers on Steam
AirMech Command videos
Have you been playing AirMech Command and streaming it or putting it on YouTube? Let us know! We love seeing those and find them invaluable for looking for bugs and take notes for how to improve the game, especially for new players.
Or do you have a bug you want to show us? Please do, video is super helpful for VR. People play the game so many different ways, from sitting to standing to having a whole room setup. Vive, Rift, even DK2 players are out there. Show and tell us what works for you and what doesn't!
Here's some videos from people playing the game recently:
MrWoodenSheep (Vive)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsCm3LO9G18
VoodooDE (german, Vive)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jx0rCIiRvw
ParadiseDecay (gamepad)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfU4CnW-5Ns
ColeusRattus (Vive)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwk1BHHzD40
PhilanthroPwn (Vive)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dur0PUyX57c
