Well, the biggest news first I guess... New lobby skin! Thanks to Ikinz for helping me get this going. It's not perfect but it is pretty nice, so I'm a fan!
New Lobby Skin
The new lobby skin is a bit more functional. No longer are there options that don't do anything, and everything on the front page is geared to be helpful to new players. The "Help" menu item still needs a ton of work, but we'll get there. In the meantime, this should be much more useful to new players.
The Wiki has been Updated!
The wiki has been updated with a lot of very desperately needed information, and in addition, it has also been updated with tutorial videos as well, all geared towards helping new players learn how to play. These have replaced the old and outdated tutorial vids that I made forever ago. Here is the playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/irQlZzQxfBQ?list=PLokb2HIhhrYVhkt4KuBt1ZSY5fUH9PIK8
New Maps added to the "Official" map pool!
So to explain this a little bit better... For newbies, I always want them to start out with a pool of maps that is tailored specifically to fit the game. As you have no doubt noticed, these fit a particular style. Well, there have been other maps made by members of the spring community that fit within the mold as well, so I am adding those maps gradually, as they can be playtested, which takes time. Of course, by simply switching the server maplist to popular or all, you can access any map, but specifically for newbies, we want them to have a very specific sort of first experience/impression, and a very well curated maplist accomplishes that nicely. Suffice it to say, over time you will see more and more maps being added to the rotation of the dedicated hosts.
New Overseer Morphs
In one of the most interesting developments lately... Overseer Morphs are now a thing. Currently there are 5 types.
Shield Overseer
Loses stun ability, gains a large area 5k hitpoint shield that doesn't cost energy to recharge.
Cloak Overseer
Loses stun ability, gains a large (free) area cloaking shield that also cloaks the overseer.
Factory Overseer
Loses stun ability, gains the ability to build Raider and Riot units from all tech trees anywhere on the map.
Builder Overseer
Loses stun ability, gains x2 buildpower and +50% buildrange.
Battle Overseer
Retains stun ability, gains a high damage machine gun that shreds light units.
Of course, these are all subject to change, but that's what we have so far, and so far they have been a lot of fun to play with.
Gaming Get-Together this weekend!
Years ago, we used to have a weekly event where we would all get together and play some games of Evolution RTS, 1v1, 2v2, 3v3 even 4v4 sometimes. FFAs on Black Star were always a pretty big hit, as well as playing on multi-level lava maps where the lava rises and kills your base and units if they happen to be in the way. In addition, I stream the event live over youtube. We used to use twitch, but youtube has proven to be a far better platform and has cut down the amount of post-processing work tremendously.
The event is at 8:00am PST (3:00pm GMT) on Saturday the 3rd of September. Here is a google calendar event for it so that you can see the event for your timezone:
View the Event on Google Calendar
Make sure to join us on Discord! Make sure that your microphone is working properly! During the stream we all join the General Voice channel and I stream our conversation during the game as well. We will meet up in discord and play on Dedicated Host 1.
Hope to see you there!