Happy Easter, my dear Electricians!
Today I bring you a chocolate egg full of info on our next playtest.
April Playtest begins Friday April 25th, 14:00 CET / 08:00 ET
We aim to run the servers for 44 hours, with the end time being Sunday at 10:00 CET.
Servers located in NA and EU will be available.
We will begin granting access to players April 24th (for those still waiting in the Steam Playtest queue).
If you already have access to the game since the last playtest, just update the game and jump in when matchmaking starts!
If you apply after the playtest started, we will try to let you in periodically.
You'll get an email from Steam letting you know that you are in!
IF YOU WANNA PLAY WITH YOUR FRIENDS, HAVE THEM REQUEST ACCESS ON OUR STEAM PAGE!
What's New / Changed?
Hero changes for:
- Rickshaw Now has much more Health than the rest of the cast (about double) to make up for his size. New Passive: You revive downed allies 50% faster and doing so grants you Shield chunks. New Primary ability: Shoots a grappling arm that pulls enemies or allies to you. - Koji New Passive: Respawns 5 seconds faster. Changed Primary ability: Now acts like an impact grenade and leaves a pool of flames on the ground that deals damage over time. Changed Ultimate: Now launches a fireball in a straight line that gradually slows down. Press Ultimate button again to active the fireball, stopping it in mid-air and exploding it after a brief charge period. - Crow Changed Ultimate: No longer forms a dome of crows - AoE radius is smaller but more damage is dealt over a shorter amount of time. - Jazz New Passive: Jazz now has increased mantling height, making her able to reach ledges and vault up in places other characters can't. Primary ability buffs: Flatlining an enemy refreshes 1 charge of her Dash. Ultimate buffs: The invisibility is now more effective, activates faster, gives Jazz a movement speed boost and lasts several seconds longer. - Ava Changed Primary ability: Harpoons no longer deal damage to Health, only Shields. - Prodigy Ultimate nerfs: Players now have more time to escape the Disco area before the irresistable urge to dance kicks in. The Disco ball now has a hurtbox and healthbar, meaning it can be shot and destroyed to end the Ultimate early.New character shader applied to heroes
Gunplay has been tweaked and balanced
Bullet speed and effective weapon ranges have been increased. Bullet drop has been reduced across the board. Lower movement penalties and improved general accuracy (including hit reg calculated by the netcode). Some well-deserved buffs to Sandman and Stingray. TTK balancing pass across all combat ranges. All of this should make the gunplay feel ~crisp~ and appropriate for our high-movement, arcade-y game!Movement and magnet tweaked
Inertia is now properly preserved while moving and sliding.Assignments have been removed
NEW Arena Center: Aztec
City and Moon Arena Centers have been updated
Big chests (now called Armory) has been moved from team bases into the center
The Armory chests now contain tons of loot and are more impactful in turning the tide of a match, meaning the decision to fight for one should not be made lightly.Small chests have been removed
Magnet points and metal objects have a new shader.
We heard a lot of feedback that magnet points were difficult to see, so they are now much more blue and have this grid-like texture over them to help stand out from the rest of the map.Updated wayfinding and notification UI
You will see more icons on the screen pointing you towards Hearts and Armory objectives. Bigger text notifications will appear whenever a game event like a Heart spawn or a Heart plant happens as well.Energy system tweaking and balancing
The Energy economy has been further tweaked to make the match flow better. Plant zones now have a visual cooldown after being used before a Heart can be planted there again.Removed AI voices and implemented real VO for heroes
Voice acting loving supplied by various dev team members (we are not professionals but we had a lot of fun doing it ːsteamhappyː)Updated VFX on hero abilities, Heart plant and the final showdown Dome
Updated animation on hero abilities and character movement
Updated audio for notifications, menu navigation and character movement
Updated sky visuals
Changes to pickups
Flatlined enemies will sometimes drop ammo. The highest ranking team will now have a chance of dropping Super Shields when flatlined. Energy essence is now automatically picked up when walking close to it.New advantages for the team in the lead
Burglar Alarm - be alerted when people are in your base. Zipline from your spawn room into the Pancake.Reworked shields - now shield strength is tied to team rank.
Loadout Mods have been strengthened.
We've been hard at work balancing weapons and mods, so if you've played with us before, make sure you re-evaluate your loadouts when first jumping in.Known Issues
Heart pickup UI can disappear occasionally, but Heart can still be picked up with the assigned button.
Some rare crashes with specific GPUs still occur - if you crash, please reach out for support in our Discord.
Looking forward to seeing everyone on the field! Make sure to join our Discord to stay updated on all the latest /Groove, Community