Hey racers,
Last month, we ran the 4th closed beta and had a ton of fun watching others check out the new track: Estate. We have gone through the numbers and gone through the feedback, and now I can share what we learned.
Estate
First off let's go with the new track in the Beta. It had players racing alongside a cliff wall before trespassing into a yard with a massive, decrepit mansion looming over the horizon. Racers head into the abandoned mansion and beat each other senseless in the tight corridors and hallways.
This track was full of experimental features, some of which players loved, and some that players didn’t love so much.
First off, our door puzzle was met with mixed feels. Our goal here was to add a new type of competitive-cooperative encounter to the game, but many players found themselves confused about how to move forward. Some folks felt the door had too much health, some found ways to bypass the door, and some found it more effective to farm other players during this encounter. We’re going to continue experimenting with this section to find something that the community loves, and we’re excited to see what you think of our changes!
The bush section was also a point of contention for a lot of players. We had a few reports that it was hard to follow and had too much visual clutter to tell what was an obstacle and what way the track was going when This is another area that we are taking a look into.
One thing that we found people did like about the Estate is the horses! I saw some people hanging out with the horses trying to interact with them.
Weapons
Weapons are arguably one of the most important things to nail down when developing a vehicular combat game. You could have the best tracks, best tricks, best vehicles, etc. but if the weapons don’t feel balanced or feel good to use then the game may lose interest and could be boring.
We had one weapon stand out as people’s favorite weapon. Out of all the weapons, 39.1% of people voted this weapon as their favorite. An overwhelming amount, can you guess which weapon it was? It is probably my favorite weapon as well. It’s the traffic sign. There just isn’t anything better than impaling someone with that thing after a big boost.
There was one weapon for the second beta in a row voted least favorite: The SMG. No surprise there, I’d probably say the same thing. It doesn’t have a high rate of damage and there isn’t a lot of feedback to show if you actually hit someone or not. Some felt like they weren’t doing any damage with the weapon and that it was very difficult to get kills. This will be one that we revisit in the future.
The SMG wasn’t the only weapon that you guys pointed out that didn’t have good feedback or good visuals when using them. I’ll name another one pointed out: The sledgehammer to many felt clunky at times to use as the timing wasn’t always clear.
We saw more weapon kills AND more weapon kills per minute in this beta. Estate is a map that has more direct player-to-player interaction, since there are fewer of the long breakways to create a gap between you and other players. Also, we think you guys are just getting more and more bloodthirsty every beta.
Airframes
And now time for the vehicles themselves. Throughout the beta, all airframes have about the same pick rate. The bluntnose has the highest pick rate at around 50%. This might seem like it is overpowered and needs a nerf but to us, this is a good number. The Bluntnose is an all-rounder that should satisfy most players.
Both the Vector and Hopper sit at just under 20% with the Hopper at a slight edge. The least picked airframe is the poor cruiser sitting at about 11%. Here are the exact percentages if you would like to know.
Bluntnose: 51.4%
Hopper: 19.4%
Vector: 18.1%
Cruiser: 11.2%
What is New?
If you read this far, first off thank you and for your reward, I will share some new things already being worked on.
I know this was highly requested and I’m super glad to share this screenshot with you. I’ll let the screenshot speak.
Now this is a very very early version of this setup and can change but this is for sure something we want to hone in on.
I also want to share another new option that we’re looking into. Screen Mode where you can swap from fullscreen to borderless to windowed! Josh is also cooking some changes for audio settings, blood toggling, screenshake toggling, and is exploring other options to improve accessibility.
Community Corner
I saw some amazing art pieces and videos coming out for the beta, and while I would love to share them all, I don’t think the cops are going to let me stand around in one place for too long (Yes, we got your feedback about them, too.)
Art
Klleh on Discord
Kocao on Discord
Notmacrowave on Discord
Not_a_bot60 on Discord
Clips/videos
What would Airframe Ultra be like with Team Fortress 2 sounds? Well Thingamagic answers that question with this video.
If you missed beta 4 but wanted to get a good look at Estate, then NotSoGoodGamer 2 shares a match in the new map!
Rule number 1 of fight club: Don’t talk about fight club. The police are listening
Rule number 2 of fight club: No Airframes. No Weapons. No place to hide.
There were even people trying to skateboard and do tricks with their airframes! Sniffles shows that off in this video!
How about a wonderfully put together 10 minute montage with Nautillo!
A Word from the Developer
I spoke with Josh on what they thought about the beta and what they are working on for Airframe Ultra!
Hello airframers! This is Josh, one of the engineers/designers on the project. Since the last beta, we've been focusing on the design and functionality of some of the game's core systems. By that, I'm referring to things like settings, gameplay loop, and progression. These are all super high level things, so let's break them down a little, one by one! Settings We've kept the settings pretty light for previous betas for two reasons: limited dev bandwidth, and to see what things the community would speak up about most. We're pleased to say that since adding some more content to the game and getting it feeling decently polished, we've had some more bandwidth to tackle settings! Y'all have spoken up most about some things we've had on the roadmap for quite a while. The new settings menu features plenty of quality-of-life and accessibility features such as[/p]
fullscreen/borderless/windowed toggle
screenshake on/off slider
blood on/off toggle
more granular audio controls
rebinding!
If there are any other accessibility settings you would like us to include, don't hesitate to let us know! The settings menu is still super early and we plan to make some changes to it, similar to the head's up display, to get it consistent with the style of the rest of the game. Gameplay Loop We've made some intense changes to the core loop of the game! Rather than being booted to the main menu to find or create a new match after finishing a game, we decided to make a circuit system. After each match, players are returned to the warehouse to see which player won that match. Players are then able to vote on what the next map will be. After three matches, the circuit concludes, and the winners are given a podium finish and some other surprises we've been cooking up. When the circuit is over, players can start another circuit in the same lobby, or they can wrap up their play session! This system is still super early, so we'd love your input and thoughts on what you'd like to see from it. Progression We're also working on a progression system! The design is nailed down pretty well, but we're still fine tuning the scalars to make sure players are given reasonable rewards for both performance and participation. The TLDR is that completing circuits will net you some big XP gains, playing well will increase those gains, and playing with a higher star level (voluntary setbacks) will provide a multiplier to further increase your XP gains. That XP will let you level up and unlock some cosmetics! That said, let us know if there are any medals you'd like to earn in game to get big XP boosts, or if you could have any one cosmetic in game, what would that be? (Other than cat ears pls)
If you would like to keep tabs on any future event, like maybe another beta, then join the Airframe Ultra Discord!
-riv otter