Thanks, testers!
Last year we made early builds available to our community, and have received a lot of feedback about the game. We also gather feedback at every public demo we do, such as GDC and PAX. We’ve gotten feedback from former team members of the Twisted Metal series and Vigilante-8. Recently we got a useful round of feedback from a very successful mainstream game studio.
Thank you for talking to us about Auto Age: Standoff. We appreciate your time and are glad to get your input.
Since opening the game to tester feedback, we have made many changes and improvements to the game, and will continue to do so. One of the most interesting aspects of gathering feedback is the diversity in opinion about the game’s features and areas of improvement. It is definitely a challenge to balance arcade and simulation physics--on top of this there are pretty hard limits as to what our physics can actually do.
Our game has a high learning curve. We’re looking at strategies to help new players understand better what they can expect from the game, particularly when it’s so different from hit games like Rocket League. We will try to come up with a better tagline than “It’s not Rocket League!”
As always, we are available via our Steam forum, Discord channel, Twitter, Facebook and now Instagram if you have a better tagline idea :)
Discord https://discord.gg/2s3nz2A
Twitter @phantomcompass https://twitter.com/phantomcompass
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/wemakegames/
Instagram @phantomcompass https://www.instagram.com/phantomcompass/
Beta v0.167
We’re up to beta v0.167 this week, and have gotten a lot of work done since our last public build.
Here’s a summary of the changes and additions:
Gameplay Updates
- Autogun and Cannon weapon DPS increased.
- Health bars now replace previous percentage values in HUD pips.
- Base Assault Mode: Audio and visual cues added for objective capturing and controlling.
- Loadout system partially implemented: You can view preset loadouts but stats and chassis model not visible yet.
- Your player name now highlighted in Status view and Game Over view.
Map Updates
- NEW Core Sample deathmatch map added. It’s a tiny experimental map, use at your own risk.
- NEW Aerie deathmatch map added. It’s a tiny experimental map, use at your own risk.
- Eagle’s Nest size reduced, minor art changes and additions. Driving surfaces smoothed for better handling. Energite hazard added.
- Ghost Town downsized to half its original size, new art added. More refinements coming. Map boundaries not enforced (will fix).
- Crossroads map driving surfaces smoothed for better handling.
- Hot Dam driving surfaces smoothed for better handling.
As always, our Readme page and Steam forum contains full changelog notes.
Big Map Changes
Eagle’s Nest
We downsized the Eagle’s Nest map, used in Deathmatch and Base Assault modes. The previous version was unnecessarily large. The size reduction helps focus play to the most used parts of the map.
Along with the size reduction, we added a few specific pieces of art to help give this map more character.
Further refinements will be made as we continue to test this new version.
Ghost Town
Once our largest map, Ghost Town has been chopped in half. It’s now a comfortable size for as few as eight players -- nobody has trouble finding other players anymore.
We did an art refinement pass on this map to give it more character and also to help with wayfinding. One half of the map has neon blue accents and the other half has neon pink accents, so it’s much easier to tell what side of the map you’re on.
Further refinements will be made as we continue to test this new version.
NEW: Aerie
We’ve added an experimental map. It’s very tiny, suitable for 2 - 4 players. We are testing game play in small maps as we consider a potential Sumo mode.
NEW: Core Sample
Another experimental, tiny map. This one is even smaller than Aerie, suitable for 2 - 4 players.
UNDER CONSTRUCTION: Welcome Center
We are still designing and developing the SAIGE Welcome Center map, where we hope to stage our Story Mode (tutorial) and Base Assault matches.
New vehicles coming!
As discussed in previous posts, we’re working on new vehicles for the game.
The Hotrodz faction is aligned with Dark Jaw.
Our game’s Story Mode (short tutorial) features Valentina Vega’s damaged “jalopy” muscle car and a new hotness version. We may make these available as additional M-Type vehicles or as a special hero type, not sure yet.
Lastly, we have Longhorns in our concept and design queue. They are a cowboy style faction aligned with Val Vega and SAIGE.
Beta closure
Our team is approaching game launch (no specific date announced yet). We have gathered a ton of feedback from our existing test group as well as industry folks and now are in full implementation mode. Maybe even “crunch” mode. We’re going to close up our beta for now. Might reopen it closer to launch, but until then, stay tuned to our Steam group for the next developer diary!