Happy Steam Summer Sale! The June 27th update is a collection of small-to-medium quality of life changes that center around making the game more "clear" to new players. Hence, it is nicknamed the "Clarity Update." This update is not as exciting as new content, but I hope these changes help new players learn the game and help current players become experts.
These changes apply to both the demo and full game.
Dashing Rework
While most of the changes are purely UI, there is one big gameplay change: dashing now slides along walls. Previously, running into a wall would prematurely end a dash. Now, if you hit a wall, you will slide along it until the dash ends normally. It's like wall running in other games. However, if you hit a wall head on, you will still bounce off it. Check it out the before and after below!
Before
After
Campaign Mode Improvements
Enemy tanks are now color-coded and have a line of sight cone when searching for your tank.
Color-Coding
Enemy tanks in campaign mode are divided into three colors based on their behavior:
Orange: A tank that does not dash.
Red: A tank that dashes to avoid edges, making it harder to ring out.
Black: The black belt of Sumo Tanks. It both dashes to avoid edges and to ram players out of the arena.
Line of Sight
In the early campaign levels, there are many tanks that will not attack until they see you. These "scanning" tanks now have a cone that shows where they are currently looking, helping you avoid their line of sight and sneak up behind them. However, beware, once you hit these tanks they will notice you.
Controller Numbering
Controllers are now numbered, and this number appears both on menu cursors and above player-controlled (i.e., not CPU, not online) tanks before a match starts. Some players reported losing track of themselves in-game or in-menus when playing with 4+ people. More work will be done to prevent that, but this is a first step to address the issue in the short-term. In menus, numbering allow players to know which cursor is theirs. In game, The numbering and new indicator above human-controlled tanks helps players quickly see where they are.
Tank Selection Improvements
There are now tooltips to describe each tank and what "Simplify Controls" does, and there is a new animation once you lock in your choice.
Tooltips
Ever want to know what a tank does without trying it out? When you're selecting your tank, you can now hover over it to see an explanation of what makes it special. Likewise, hovering over "Simplify Controls" now shows an explanation of what it does (force your tank to always shoots in the direction it is facing). I hope these small changes empower players to setup their tanks in the way that works best and is the most fun for them.
New "Ready" Graphic
Previously, when locking in on the tank select menu, the "player banner" would be greyed out. That wasn't exciting, so there is now a banner that falls over your selection after you press "Ready." This banner is loosely based on the kensho (懸賞) banners that are displayed before real-world sumo matches. In the real world, these banners represent the sponsors that are providing the prize money for the match. They have some really cool designs, so look up "kensho sumo banner" if you're interested!
Target Improvements: Show Time Limit
When breaking targets, it was hard to know how much time you had until the level started. The following changes have been made to fix that:
- On bonus levels in Campaign Mode, the time limit is shown before players ready up.
- On target practice levels, the player's best time or the developer's time-to-beat is shown before players ready up.
Smaller Changes
- Fixed the tutorial text blocking the "back to menu" button on some monitors.
- Made the lobby join code input larger.
- Replaced incorrect shadow texture for the Boulder tank.
- Adjusted the Boulder tank's head to make the front and back more distinct.
- When adding a player with teams enabled, the new player's team now matches the side it was added on.