Hello Experimenters,
A ‘Preview’ (work in progress) build of our latest features and changes is now available. Details on how to get the Preview version are given below. Please read all of the patch notes before downloading it.
New Scale
We’ve received feedback over the last couple of months from users in the community on how difficult it is to make smaller builds. We’ve had the blocks and parts to allow users to create gigantic machines and objects, but there were limits on how compact you could make things when making complex stuff like claw machines or pinball machines etc. RCX is all about creative freedom, so we have decided to work on a scaling feature that will allow you to build with blocks and functional parts that are at any size you choose, from the size of a small cardboard box to the size of a house (yes you will be able to have house-sized Wheels and Motors if you wish).
Ahead of that change we need to make a change to the smallest block size otherwise it would not have been possible to allow you to make things that are more compact and higher fidelity than they are at present. Therefore, ahead of the introduction of the new ‘uber scaling’ feature mentioned above we have reduced the smallest block size to 1/3rd of the size when compared to the current live version.
IMPORTANT: Don’t forget, in a few weeks time you’ll be able to set the scale to any size you like using CTRL + Mouse Wheel and will be able to interchange between scales in a single creation.
Here’s a screenshot showing Leo stood in front of some blocks at the new smallest size:
Pilot Seat, Passenger Seat and Command Console
We’ve been teasing these parts for a while and they’re available in this Preview version. The Pilot Seat and Control Console both allow you to configure parts to be controlled by keyboard and mouse when Leo is sat in them.
To configure parts to be controlled by a seat, you simply add a seat to your machine on a conductive cluster of blocks. Then, on functional parts like Motors, Servos, Pneumatics and Steppers you’ll find some new signal channels that you can assign:
- Forward/Backwards - assigns to W & S by default
- Left/Right - assigns to A & D by default
- Jump - Space
- Crouch - Shift
- Run - CTRL
- Fire/User - LMB
- Alt-Fire/Use - RMB
- Cycle - Mouse Wheel
- Sit - these is a special channel that allows you to make things happen when someone is sat in the seat
NB: We decided to assign player actions to controls as opposed to ‘specific keys’ so that your creations will work for all users even when they have different keyboards (like the French AZERTY) and when users have reconfigured their controls in future via an options screen.
These new channels can be found at the end of the signal list (after channel 99). Pro tip: Scrolling backwards from the default channel of ‘?’ will bring you right to them in an instant.
To sit in a seat when the simulation is running (aka Play Mode) you just click on it with LMB. LMB in RCX is the way you will ‘Use’ everything that is interactive in game.
Once sat in the seat you need to push ‘E’ to exit (this allows LMB to be assigned to machine controls when you’re in a seat.
PRO CREATOR TIPS:
- When in a seat you can also interact with other controls that are nearby (like Levers) when in First Person
- Multiple seats on a single creation will average their signals (like Levers), so keep this in mind
- Passenger Seats do not send any signals
- If you want multiple seats on a single machine controlling different things, separate them out using ‘conductivity’
- When in a seat the First Person camera will match the orientation of the character sat in the seat (i.e. as if you’re looking out from his eyes), so if the seat is upside down the world will also appear upside down
- Pilot and Passengers seats allow the third person camera to move outside a vehicle even when Leo is inside a cockpit (aka vehicle cam in Robocraft)
- Control Panel keeps the character in view when using the third person camera so will move forwards if there is an object between the camera and Leo
- Alt + Mouse Wheel can enter and exit third person at any time even when sat in a seat
Multiple Saves
The Preview version lets you get a first look and play with the new ‘My Games’ screen. It is from this screen that you will be able to view and edit all the games you have created and are working on. It is also from here that in a few weeks time you’ll be able to self-publish your finished creations for others in the community to play.
To save, just push ESC, bring up the Pause Menu and select ‘Save’. There are also ‘Save and Quit’ and ‘Quit without Saving’ options on the Pause Menu.
NB: The saving options are disabled when you are running the simulation in Play Mode. You can only save from Build Mode.
When you save you’ll be asked to give your game a Title (you can change this at any time) and a screenshot (which you can also update and change at any time).
The Screenshot Taker is a feature built into the game which allows you to fly the camera around and get a good shot of your creation for a save thumbnail image (it’ll also be used when you self-publish your games in the future).
PRO TIP:
- If you’re in First Person when you save, Leo will be hidden from view. If you’re in Third Person he will be visible in your screenshot where you left him. Great for certain screenshots where you want him in the composition.
IMPORTANT: This new save method replaces the old autosave system, so please be aware that the game will no longer autosave (we didn’t want to overwrite your saves if you didn’t want to save). We may bring this back in the future as a kind of backup autosave. If you’d like to see that feature let us know.
IMPORTANT: Save File Changes
As we prepare the game for the move from being called Robocraft to Gamecraft, any files saved in the Preview version will be saved to a new location on your HD:
“C:\Users\[USER]\\AppData\\LocalLow\\Freejam\\GamecraftPreview\\Games”
NB: When we move from Preview to Live the location will be the same but without the word ‘Preview’ in the ‘Gamecraft’ folder name. This system will allow us to have concurrent Preview and Live branches going forwards.
We have also changed the file extension of save data files from .RCX to .GC (the stuff inside is the same, it’s just the file extension that has changed).
If you want to load an old save in the Preview version you need to move it to the new folder and rename it from .RCX to .GC and then you’ll be able to load it.
Future Proofing
A lot of the changes in this version will break many existing creations. We made a decision that we needed to get all of these known game breaking changes out of the way now as we’re working hard to integrate Steam Workshop which will allow you to self-publish your game creations. We felt that if we got all the major known game breaking changes out of the way in one go now then you would benefit from knowing that anything you created wasn’t likely to get broken in a significant way in the future*, so you could begin working on larger projects with less fear that we’d introduce a change that would destroy them.
*as we improve the game and introduce new features you may need to update your games, but our aim would generally be that you only need a quick update or tweak as opposed to it being completely destroyed
Landscape Changes
In RobocraftX we want you to be able to build games of all kinds from outdoor adventures to indoor arenas and deep space battles. This means that you will want to customize the landscape, or even remove it altogether depending on your game idea.
We experimented with various methods of landscaping and the one that just felt right for RCX was a block based system, so that everything in the games are created with a single powerful unified block building engine.
We’re working on new (concave) shapes and (material and colour painting) features that will allow you to build landscapes of all kinds and plan to release them in just a few weeks time. The uber block scaling feature (mentioned earlier) will also work hand in hand with landscaping to let you create large landscapes from blocks quickly (also coming in a few weeks time). We’ll add landscape props like Trees and Rocks so you can place them too.
So, as we develop these new features we have taken the step to finally remove the temporary landscape [we’d been using since the first prototype of RCX] in this Preview version. We didn’t want to keep two completely different types of landscape systems long term and we were aware that we would break all games created on the old landscape when the new landscape system was finally live so felt it better that any games you built now you would know would be fine when we have completed all the current planned work ahead of full self-publishing.
With this Preview build we’ve added a Grass and Dirt block set as a start. In a few weeks time we hope to support concave shapes so you can landscape properly as well as more landscape material types.
Engine Changes
We have integrated the very latest release of Unity’s DOTS Physics Engine which provides much more precise collision testing. We noticed that some of your games relied on objects to be able to pass through other objects in order to work and this stuff doesn’t happen so easily now so it’s worth noting.
These changes have allowed us to increase the performance and improve the rigidity of joints, which many of you have requested.
We have integrated the latest version of Unity Burst and Unity Engine also which includes many bug fixes and improvements.
Servos, Pistons, Pneumatic, Stepper and Spring Changes
We had quite a few users show us how easy it was to get objects to glitch through one another with Servos, Pistons, Pneumatics and Steppers. When we dug into fixing this we were forced to rework the way these parts worked so that their collision detection was more precise and robust by applying the forces in a way more in tune with the laws of physics. We have also reworked the Damped Spring so it feels more realistic. These changes are pretty big and will affect how some of your previous creations work.
Again, we wanted to get all these major overhauls out of the way in one go so the things you build now will all still work when we enable self-publishing.
Polarity changes
One change we made with the Piston and Servo work is to fix the polarity of motorised parts. In a lot of cases, this shouldn’t impact your builds, but in certain rotations, Motors, Servos, Steppers and Pneumatics may now work “in reverse”.
All Pistons now extend when they receive a positive signal, rather than a negative. Motors will rotate clockwise when they receive a positive signal and anti-clockwise with a negative signal. Motorised Axles will work in the same way. Motorised Hinges will turn towards the display on negative signals and away from it on positive signals.
New and Updated Parts
Dirt Blocks & Grass Blocks
These new parts are going to accomplish two things: Replacing Infinitum as a ‘static’ block, that can be used as an anchor point and to replace the terrain. Dirt and Grass can be placed exactly the same as any other block and will be grid aligned. For now, only the standard cube shapes will be available but we’ll be supporting more in the future.
Why remove Infinitum?: We felt it was more logical that objects would be anchored and not fall from the sky or fall over when they were joined to landscape (like Grass and Dirt). If you love the old red metal panelling of the Infinitum, don’t worry, it’ll be coming back when we bring in the full material editing and painting system in a few weeks time (see below).
Infinitum -> Iron
Infinitum is being repurposed as “Iron”. A heavy, conductive but non-static material.The biggest change here is that these parts will now fall if they are not anchored, but they will now work as a heavier alternative to Aluminium.
Oily -> Oiled Steel
Oily cubes are now conductive and made of metal so have been renamed to Oiled Steel.
Hemisphere
A new shape.
Trees and Rocks
These new props accompany the Dirt and Grass blocks in the new terrain system. Trees can be grid aligned, or placed freely in the sky and will fall if they are not attached. These parts cannot be scaled at this stage, but will be when Uniform Scaling is added.
Rocks will be completely free from the grid (like Spheres) and will also fall or be pushed around if you hit them. These parts can be freely scaled as well!
New Wheels
We’re offering up two types of wheel as of this experiment. The standard wheel remains the same size, but now has an extra connection point on the outside as it was so widely requested!. You’ll be able to scale it up in the future as well. The new small wheel is a 1x1x1 version (with a slightly larger radius) that also has connection points on both sides.
Both will be scalable from the new small block size up to 27x27x27 when the functional block scaling system goes in.
Battery
The Battery S has also been changed to be two blocks tall, much like a real AAA Battery.
The Future of Parts, Materials and Color
Next week we will begin work to overhaul the Inventory to allow all parts and shapes to be set to any material type and any colour. Here’s a mockup which will hopefully explain how it’ll work:
Infinite Parts
We’re finally doing away with the 99k block count in the Inventory! We really want to be able to offer truly infinite building capabilities so we’re working hard to achieve this. With the removal of the part count, you’ll be able to place parts that have been scaled to incredible sizes as well as simply being able to place more parts overall.
A caveat of this change is that we still have some hard limits in place that we need to work through to make building fully infinite. As of this experiment, you’ll be able to place up to 5000 instances of a single part type. This means that you can have 5000 Aluminium Edge pieces present, scaled to any size you wish, so you could have 5000 Edges made up of millions of parts when scaled. We’ll be working to remove this cap as soon as we can as well.
Other Changes
Lever Interaction Range
We’ve reduced the range at which Leo can grab Levers. With the introduction of the Pilot Seats we felt that we should bring these in line and make the interactions a bit more realistic. It also looked very odd in multiplayer tests when a player could be observed to be moving a Lever across the other side of the room to where they were standing. Leo can now grab Levers (and enter Pilot Seats) from roughly 6 blocks away.
Block Deletion Tweaking
We’ve made a minor change to the block deletion timer that we added in Experiment 08. Now, any single part, or part that has been scaled up to 10 units will be deleted instantly. Anything larger than 10 units in size will now take 0.2 seconds to delete, scaling up to a total of 3 seconds depending on the size of the block being deleted. This change should make clearing section of builds a little smoother and quicker, whilst still preventing the accidental deletion of larger parts.
Border Added to Labels
We’ve added a small drop shadow to the hotbar and the text that appears when scaling a part to make it easier to read on lighter backgrounds. We can make this a bit more pronounced if this is still causing issues.
How do I get the Preview Version Now?
To access the Preview Build, follow these steps:
- Open the Library tab on Steam
- Right-Click on RobocraftX
- Click on “Properties”
- Click on the “Betas” tab
- Enter the code “FreedomIsKey” and click on the “Check Code” button
- Click on the dropdown and select the “Preview” branch
- Give this a minute to download
- Make sure the game appears as “RobocraftX [preview]” in the Library
- Click Play and enjoy!
The switch may not always be smooth so if the application fails to launch, or launches the old version, please try verifying the game files via the "Local Files" tab and try again.
N.B Some of the branding is in the process of being updated, so you’ll start to see “Gamecraft” being used in some places but not others.
Bug Fixes
- Users that were receiving an error dialogue relating to “Prefab Manager” before reaching the main menu should no longer get this error. We believe that this was due some users having PC’s that did not meet the min spec requirements. We have enabled a dialogue error which checks a users PC is compatible and gives a message if it is not to help users know when this is the case.
- Crash when entering Creative Mode or Community Games on certain CPU lines should now be resolved. Please get in contact with us to confirm/let us know whether this issue has been resolved for you.
- Fixed an issue with collisions vanishing on certain scaled parts.
Known Issues
We have a couple of outstanding issues that we need to resolve but these shouldn’t have a major impact on the rest of the update so we’ll be putting the Preview Build live with the following known issues:
- New Seats have a “force Field” texture at all times - These should only be present in Build Mode to help you see where the collision actually extends to and should disappear in Play Mode
- If you are attempting to place cubes during the transition to simulation, these parts may not connect correctly. If this happens, delete and place the part again, waiting a second or two before entering simulation again
- The screenshot taker has some visual issues with the Sky when it is first opened. We'll be working on a fix for this
Current State of Existing Games
As we’ve mentioned, these changes are pretty massive and have impacted almost every game that has been submitted to us over the last few months. For now, we’ve temporarily removed all games from the Community Games screen but we’ll be working hard to rebuild as many levels as we can in the new scale, with the new physics changes and parts to reintroduce them when we can.
Any Level Creators that want to rebuild levels on their own and resubmit are more than welcome to do so and we’ll reintroduce them over time.
Reminder on Name and Price Change
On October 17th 2019 Our plan is to shift the game over to $5 Premium (i.e. pay up front) along with the brand name change.
ANYONE WHO ALREADY HAS A COPY OF THE GAME WILL KEEP THEIR COPY, FOR FREE, FOREVER.
ANYONE WHO HAS THE GAME IN THEIR STEAM LIBRARY BETWEEN NOW AND THE 17th WILL ALSO KEEP THEIR COPY, FOR FREE, FOREVER.
SO - TELL YOUR FRIENDS OR ANYONE YOU THINK MAY BE INTERESTED TO OWN THE GAME IN FUTURE, THAT RIGHT NOW IS THE LOWEST PRICE THE GAME WILL EVER BE (i.e. FREE!) AND TO GET IT NOW.
The Robocraft X Team