Our internal noisemarines are getting ready for the next full "branch" patch - where difference is between that and a hotfix - is that you get a lot of bugfixes, performance improvements, iterations on some systems, balancing, map optimizations, toilets as well as other brand new stuff. And while the keybindings won't bring the noise, the Meltagun, now in final internal testing and seems to be going to pass through Quality Assurance is just ... I .... it brings it. Holy Emperor, false or not.
We had some hiccups with client/server mismatch this weekend that was quickly taken care of. We were preparing for this weeks patch and sometimes things go wrong. Like Accidentally Slaanesh. The bad news, our map for this week just isn't ready yet. But it's one of the most hardcore looking grim dark 40K map to date. So peg that in for next week. Some say, this maps mother was ... no, wrong television show and we don't have the Stig ... but some say, this is really fun map.
Looks like our server profiling has been going well. 20 vs 20 is better suited for the maps out there, easier to play with friends but we also found a lot of exponentially worse culprits which we're hammering out. For example, just passing 24vs24 exponentially messed up Tanks causing horrible performance. Nothing unsolvable but good to see our profiling pick that up.
The maps are also big so they can handle these tests but it's all in preparation for the Fortress, where the notion of a sequence of events, such as capturing X outposts on the persistent world territory map, and campaigns with private, public and group achievements, unlock a Fortress. This is just an Early Access version of those mechanics but it should give you an idea that the "lobby shooter" is just an EA thing.
What we changed and announced a year ago is all accessible on our website, they are called the State of the Crusade and gives you insight into the last year. The basic change?
We went from one-global-universe-shooter-in-open-world-like-skyrim-with-thousand-player-battles to becoming our own massive online shooter, that focuses on a great shooter with global objectives. Well, that and the technology we bought to even try the former just isn't ready yet.
I'll have more patch information for you tomorrow, hopefully confirming Keybindings and the Meltagun along with all the other sexy stuff such as a bunch or perfomance improvements.
As always, thank you for your support, feedback and direction, it helps us a lot.
Team Noisebringers