Release 2.0.0 - The Big drop
What started as an effort to improve the terrain textures expanded out into nothing less than a major overhaul. Taking player feedback as well as a list of bugs and improvements over the last few months, I've put together a fairly comprehensive list of updates.
The most visible changes have been to the maps and the player's HUD. Over May I had a breakthrough in how I generated map terrain. Gone are the clunky, low res yet high-memory models. I've replaced them with map geometry and used the map compiler to generate the texture mapping. A judicious use of cross-blend shaders and hand-painting has resulted in some very crisp looking terrain.
The other fantastic benefit of this new method is a smaller game install size. The bulk of the original memory space was for terrain textures, where each terrain had a unique texture applied to it. Veteran players will notice the giant drop in harddrive space consumption.
The HUD has been reworked as well. Detailed armor diagrams are now used for all unit types, making target-identification a lot easier. Radar get's a circle panel which is in line with most other games. Finally, icons have replaced most of the game labels, again for faster readability.
And lastly, a slightly personal note - this effort culminates a journey I started back in mid-2016 when I first set upon developing this game. For 5 years, I've worked solo to bring this game into existence, and with this release I can say I am satisfied. The energy cost required to continue working on this project has now outreached what I can physically provide. Going forward, unless there's a fatal issue that stops gameplay, this is the 'final form' of battleMETAL as developed solely by me.
Hopefully every new player gets as much enjoyment out of this punk little mech game as I did in building it.
I cannot thank enough those early players who purchased this game at-launch and then gave critical feedback.
You can read all of the changes in the list below:
Updates
HUD
- Armor Diagrams now 2D images with details
- Icons added for main systems - Energy, Shield, ram charge.
- Reticle graphics slimmed down to increase view space.
- Radar panel updated.
- Target mech diagram will flash on parts the player has successfully hit.
- Third person camera hud cleaned up.
- Infobox messages moved to right-side of HUD, no longer blocking view.
- Weapon Grouping panel now accessible during gameplay, allowing rebinding of weapons without needing to restart game.
- Allied unit names appear below their unit just like target names now.
- Removed red-colored shield-regen-delay bar from targets, this was confusing many players.
- Weapon Icons will fade if the player's target is out of that weapon's range.
Gameplay
- lock-on time removed, now lock-on simply requires target-acuired and facing target.
- Slope friction added for players and AI, units will move slower uphill.
- Ram-shock speed slightly increased for all player METALS.
- Ram-shock downforce reduced, increasing possible air-time when ramping.
- Player can skip cutscene frames by pressing space or left-mouse-button.
- Energy regen moved start of server frame, equalizing regen values for all players regardless of entity update order.
- Training maps broken down into 3 shorter segments that explain directly how to play the game -> Move, Shoot, Menus.
- No longer disable player guns on successful mission.
Graphics
- Completely new terrain texturing process for all maps in the game which increases texture fidelity.
- New shader effects for things like shield hits and explosions.
- Shield-breaker weapons now show a red-colored shield explosion when breaking a target's shields.
- Adjusted Light Autocannon trace effect to not clip through everything.
UI
- ARMING: Rollover now works for hardpoints.
- ARMING: Weapon List will now mark what weapons are available for a hardpoint.
- In-Mission briefing: added navigation arrows to the nav bar to indicate click order.
- In-Mission briefing: fixed issue where launch validation wasn't catching '0 weapon groups set'.
- Training maps moved to their own section off the Main Menu.
- DEPLOY: increased color of Deploy Points for visibility.
Maps
- Terrain for almost every map adjusted to flow better during gameplay and reduce areas for units to get stuck.
Bug Fixes
- Map tag "ignoreSave" was not working and would overwrite save file 0.
- fixed shield-hit playback timing for players.
- fixed small warning about 'unknown effect from server'
- Options/Graphics fixed crash-to-desktop issue.
- added default values to TDM/DM match hosting menu.
- ARMING - fixed bug in weapon grouping panel input.
- ARMING - fixed deep bug with saving/loading weapon groups from a mech config file.
- DEPLOY - fixed issue of catching player click input on prev/next point buttons when mouse is NOT over them.
- HUD - fixed issue with 'hud highlight' behavior.
- HUD - fixed player facing arrow on the tactical map.
- HUD - fixed icon draw positions on the tactical map.
- HUD - fixed gameplay clocks, they now accurately show time elapsed.
- fixed hard-crash error when double clicking keybinds in Options/Controls.
- fixed bad bug where player unlocks during the campaign were not merging correctly (or at all) with their save file data.
- fixed bug where Shield Break effect plays even thought target unit had 0 shields at the time.
Balance Tweaks
Light Autocannon
- fixed issue where printed damage against armor was not accurate.
- Fire Rate now automatic for Players, 0.28s
- Damage adjusted from 10 to 5 (because weapon is fully auto now).
Missile - Active Radar
- Reload time decrease 8s -> 5s
- Removed 'lock-on' requirement.
- Total damage increase 99 -> 150
Rotary Plasma
- Reload time increase 0.45s -> 0.55s
Ion Coil
- Now deals 10% damage per shot on targets WITHOUT shields.
EMP Cannon
- Now deals 10% damage per shot on targets WITHOUT shields.
Quantum Rifle
- Removed self-damage from splash radius.
Made it to the end of the list, eh? hm, let me check my notes....
The game is open-source, and I'm not opposed to considering future updates provided by contributors. I do have some ideas around releasing an SDK of sorts within the next several months.
The discord is also active and I'll always be keeping an eye on it and the forum.