This is the first bigger update for the game since the release last Friday, please tell me if you find any issues/bugs or have any kind of feedback!
First of all, gunplay was pretty messy, bullets were slow, they felt unreliable and you never knew if you hit your opponent or not. This update is the first step towards a better shooting experience and introduces faster bullets, more reliable hit-detection and a hitmarker to give players feedback when they hit another player. When a bullet would hit something shortly after begin fired, the bullets often were not visible for other players, this is now also fixed. I made the bullet tracers grow over time and bigger overall as well, so its easier to see them and figure out where they are coming from.
The second big change in this update is the introduction of a best of 6 rounds format, after which a winning team will be announced and the teams will be shuffled. Up until now, the teams got shuffled after every round, leading to less teamplay and players having to play as a Cop for lots of rounds if they got unlucky. Now, the teams will swap sides after each round, and will only get shuffled after 6 rounds. I also added a team score, that shows how many rounds your team won in the current best-of-six round.
After each best-of-six match, the players' personal score gets reset as well now, and kills give points now, too!
Other issues were the graphics settings and keybinding options, I improved them as well, you can now input any key for example, up until now the system wouldn't register mouse buttons, the space bar, and the arrow keys.
I also fixed lots of bugs, including gaps in maps and cameras glitching through floors while crouching. I also polished the networking, to make things less laggy when playing with lots of friends.
Here is a full change list:
- added steam test branch (right-click "Perfect Heist" in steam library -> settings -> beta -> select "test-branch" to try it out)
- added current ability to UI, so you can always see which active skill your current character has if it's available, and see the cooldown of it if it has one)
- Heavys rescue helicopter signal now has a 60-second cooldown, instead of being usable only once a round
- Detectives ID Check now has a 60-second cooldown, instead of being usable only once a round
- team now don't get shuffled every round, instead, the teams will only swap sides after each round, after 6 rounds a winner gets announced (WIP), and the teams get shuffled
- added "x rounds remaining until team shuffle" to the end-of-the-round HUD
- made hit-range detection range of bullets bigger, and reduced the time between pressing Left Mouse Button and the bullet being spawned on the server, both changes should make gunplay a bit smoother until I improve it further soon
- cameras on the city bank now work correctly
- lots of bugfixes, especially regarding the new "show abilities on UI" system, and the new team shuffling/swapping system
- after 6 rounds, not the player with the most points gets displayed, but the team that won the most rounds, ties are possible
- the flying helicopter can now be called multiple times in a round, and other helicopter improvements/optimizations
- cop respawns get calculated correctly again
- reduced drone noise
- lots of networking improvements
- added team score gets reset when teams get shuffled, displayed at the scoreboard (default: "Tab")
- reworked shooting mechanics to feel better and more responsive, bullets are much faster now
- added hitmarker to give shooting players feedback when they hit something
- lots of bugfixes and other improvements
- bullet tracers now grow with time and are bigger overall, to make it easier to see bullets
- fixed a bug that made bullets invisible if they would hit a target shortly after being shot
- bound Hackers and Technicians active ability to the ability key (default: E), instead of the interaction key (default: F) so more intuitive and less confusing for newer players
- made camera hints clearer for technicians (they can hack them) and cops (they can repair them if the camera is damaged)
- redid the key input system of the keybinding menu, now accepts every key including mouse
- fixed some gaps in the floor of the "City Bank" map
- lots of networking improvements, especially when playing with lots of people, as well as bugfixes
- cop bot now takes damage correctly
- hitmarker doesnt get shown when hitting jewelry glasses anymore
- fixed camera issues when crouching, where you could glitch the camera through a floor to see people above you while standing on an ATM for example
- players personal scores now get reset after a match (6 rounds)
- kills now give personal score points, 5 for robbers and 10 for cops (since killing a robber is much more worth than killing a cop, due to no respawns for robbers)
- "instant matchmaking" is now called "quick play"
