The February 7th update includes many small changes aimed at improving the experience for new and returning players. Thank you to everyone who has played the demo at Next Fest and given feedback! A lot of these changes are for y'all.
Rebalancing Tanks
One consistent area of feedback was "Dancer is too weak and Rocket is too strong." Dancer has been slightly buffed and Rocket has been nerfed.
Weight Changes
Every tank has a weight assigned to it that determines how far it travels after being hit or rammed. Dancer's weight has been increased and Rocket's has been decreased. The result is that it is easier for Dancer to recover from being hit and Rocket is easier to knock out of the arena.
Explosion Duration Reduced
Previously, explosions would damage tanks even if only a little smoke was on screen. This led to weird behavior where it looked like tanks were knocked back by nothing. Explosions now only damage tanks immediately after they explode. This slightly nerfs Rocket.
Shell Size Increase
Shells are now 15% larger. This may sound like a small change, but it makes it noticeably easier to aim and to shoot down incoming shells. This change indirectly nerfs Rocket, since its signature rocket shell is easier to shoot down now.
Preventing AI Stalemates
Previously, when 2 AI would face off in Arena Mode, they would often end up in an unending stalemate, forcing the player pause and take over one of the tanks or exit to the main menu. There have been several changes to the Arena Mode AI that now prevent stalemates. The two most notable changes are that AIs now move around the arena more and vary the angle of their shots. The end result is that the AI now takes risks that break stalemates.
That all being said, AI matches on certain maps can sometimes still take awhile to finish. The new behavior makes them more entertaining to watch and they will end, but future updates will be improving this further.
Randomized Arena Starting Point
Previously, tanks would start in the same location every round. Now, the starting points change every round. This should bring more variety to matches and prevent one player from having an unfair starting advantage.
Other Changes
There are several more minor changes:
- A new campaign level has been added as an easier match between the 2nd and old 3rd matches. This brings the total number of levels in the demo to an even 30.
- Further Campaign Mode rebalancing to reduce difficulty spikes.
- Pool now has smaller walls, making it easier to knock tanks out.
- The preview for Pillar is now smaller, better reflecting the actual size of the arena.
- After purchasing the final upgrade in the campaign, an indicator now appears, telling you to drive off.
- Control mapping nickname lengths have been increased from 5 characters to 7. This is the name that displays when a control is selected (e.g., "KB+M" for keyboard and mouse).
- Steam avatars now appear next to the cursors for online players.
- The controls for online players are now displayed as "Online" instead of "Network."
- Fixed an intermittent crash when disconnecting an in-use controller while playing online.
- Fixed an online desync that occurred if a player joined during upgrade selection after a tank had been replaced with a CPU.