Howdy ho everyone!
We’ve been talking about it several times now and we’re finally here to share it: our new Roboquest devblog.
In this devblog, we’ll talk about a few of the incoming additions to the game and we’ll finish by touching a few words on the technical issues we’ve been facing as of late (and that you’ve been reporting).
As indicated on the roadmap, the next update will be the Winter update, we have no release date to reveal yet. It will probably be around mid-December, but as usual, we don’t want to set expectations for this date considering the development is in progress.
Shall we start then?
Corrupted Levels
We need to kick things off with a heads up regarding the corrupted levels mentioned in the roadmap.
We initially planned to include them in the Winter update. But they aren’t ready yet and won’t probably be ready in December either.
We hope it’s not too disappointing as more time to work on them means higher quality in the end. And since it’s something many of you are waiting for, we really want to do it right (like everything else in the game actually, but the other things are smaller chunks and easier to release piece by piece and rework if needed).
But… we never talked about them so you might be wondering “what the heck are those corrupted levels anyway?!”.
So let’s take some time to discuss it.
Please note that everything below (the level layout introduced by the image and the corrupted levels themselves) are still under construction and are subject to change.
The levels indicated as ? are potential new levels, considered “corrupted”.
Corrupted means they will be crawling under the weight of the weird-looking, purple-ish architecture you’ve seen in the challenge rooms and Haven City - Corrupted. But that’s not all.
We’re trying to give them uniqueness through specific objectives and new ways to complete them. They will also play a role in the final level progression system (the way to progress through the game in order to reach the final level).
If the current levels in the game can be considered the spine of the level progression, the corrupted levels are the extension of it. They will form alternate paths and provide incentive and alternative run objectives during your progression.
That’s pretty much what we can say right now, we know it’s not that much but we hope it will help make your wait worth it nonetheless. Now, let’s move on to the next topic.
Basecamp Rework
This was a recurring question after the Autumn update as well as a concern many of you shared. We probably didn’t communicate well enough on that side. The 3D visuals of the basecamp will come back! We’re just in the process of reworking how it looks.
Here’s a sneak peek of the future visuals (note that everything is subject to change, especially the position of each object relative to each other, to ensure a smooth and efficient navigation within the basecamp):
Note: We already shared that image in a previous devblog but we’re doing it again to make sure everyone is aware that we will indeed implement new 3D visuals in the basecamp and the visuals you’re currently experiencing in the game is temporary.
The basecamp will visually evolve as you unlock new upgrades, we have several levels of progression planned and almost ready to go. There will also be an array of different interactive spots in the basecamp (some of them that you already know like the difficulty or class selector but also new ones).
But we needed a more intuitive and pleasing way to unlock the basecamp upgrades hence why we reworked the way you unlock upgrades to use a 2D interface. Not only is it more convenient to use but it also neatly lays out the numerous basecamp upgrades to make you able to clearly visualize all of them.
Most of that will be available in the Winter update (aside from a few of the new interactive consoles that are tied to other game systems such as a potential Compendium).
Please note that the unlocking process will remain this way (using a 2D interface).
New Class?!
This probably will peak the interest of most of you (or at least we hope it does :p). What about the new class?
The ‘Sentinel’ is currently in the early stage of implementation in the game, which means we’re testing it and ironing out the quirks and oddities that occur during that time. For now, we feel like we’re on the right track regarding its abilities and interest compared to other classes.
In our initial design, the Sentinel had a dash as main ability and a throwing spear as a secondary ability. Throwing a spear made it stick onto the ground for a short time, and picking it up would refresh its cooldown.
But after some time and playtests, we realized the Stealth would be more fitting for the Sentinel as it would help it safely pick up the spears. Also it seemed counterintuitive to have a ranged secondary ability coupled with a “all-in” main ability like a dash.
And interestingly enough we initially planned to have a Dash ability for the Recon (but couldn’t implement it in the game due to the multiplayer movement issues that have been solved since). Also, a dash would make a lot of sense in terms of mechanics when coupled with the melee slash of the Recon. Finally, we realized a “dash” ability would have a faster cooldown than a “stealth” ability, making the “charge combo points” synergy between the main and secondary abilities of the Recon work even better than before.
So we gave it some thought and realized swapping those two abilities would make a lot of sense. And here where we’re at right now (please note that like the other sections of this devblog, most of what you can read here is a work-in-progress and subject to change):
Recon
Dash - A new ability, dash a short distance, evades projectiles along the way, short cooldown, gives some charge of Overslash
Slash - Like before
Overslash - Like before
Sentinel
Stealth - Like before, fully charges Trueshot
Spear - Throws a piercing spear at your crosshair, dealing damage on impact, can be picked up to replenish its cooldown, has two stacks
Trueshot - Charges a point every second, each point increases critical damage, taking damage makes you lose points
Obviously, most perks related to the Stealth ability have been moved to the Sentinel, but we also modified them and created new ones. And we created new perks for the Recon’s Dash ability.
Regarding classes and perks, the Winter Update will therefore focus on the implementation of the Sentinel and the polishing of the Recon’s perks, upgrades and new ability. We will obviously also be making some minor changes to other classes according to your feedback and our data.
Bonus: here’s a concept art board of the Sentinel’s spear:
Elite Enemies
We will be pushing a temporary system in the Winter Update to implement the Elite enemies in the game.
We already know what Elite enemies are: powerful and beefy enemies with multiple threatening attacks and potential crowd controls (and no, the Goliaths in Haven City aren’t Elite enemies despite them fitting this description pretty well).
Though, they are tied to other systems in the game that won’t be ready for the Winter Update. Therefore we can’t implement their final spawn system.
But rather than simply wait for these other systems to be ready, we thought we should find an easy way to inject them in the game right now. Therefore you will encounter some elite enemies during your runs, at arbitrary locations.
Not only does this solution make the elite enemies available for you sooner, it also gives us the possibility to evaluate them and listen to your feedback and our data earlier.
Here are also a few things you might want to know about the Elite enemies:
Elite enemies will be directly tied to the in-run economy (powercells)
The spawning of Elite enemies will make sure that early levels such as the Canyons remain interesting in terms of difficulty in the long-term
The spawn rate of Elite enemies will be also tied to the difficulty level (Heroes+) and your game progression overall (the more you progress, the more numerous elite enemies are)
The elite enemies and corrupted levels are closely tied to each other
So Elite enemies will make their first appearance in the game in a very simple way in the Winter update. We will be monitoring your feedback and our data and we will implement their final spawn system later down the road.
Bonus: here’s a concept art of one of the elite enemies and the first look at an early implementation in the game:
Energy Weapons
There are a few long-lasting issues with the current energy weapon system:
- It’s not connected to the reloading-effects (can’t build synergies with them)
- If we want them to feel good to use, we have to set a fast recovery rate,
- If we want them to have a real “cost”, we have to set a rather “high” energy cost
- The two assertion above makes energy weapons both heat and cool super-fast
- All of that makes it so maintaining the energy at a specific level (for example above 50%) was really hard to do (you wouldn’t spend a lot of time in that state and reaching the state would only take a few shots), therefore limiting the gameplay interest of the condition “above or below X% energy” (which is a pity considering it is an interesting effect to play around)
- Another consequence of this lack of “control” over the gauge is that you can just completely ignore the gauge and how it behaves when you play
- The final issue was that energy weapon would incentivize switching weapons way less than magazine weapons
While we identified most of these issues, we still had to find a way to fix them without losing the feeling of using a weapon that uses an energy that heats (rises) and cools (goes down) at a rate that is in rhythm with Roboquest combat pace.
To increase the “play-space” (the amount of time you can actually play with it) of the energy gauge, the first step was to reduce both the energy cost when shooting and the recovery speed. But then we found ourselves in a situation where you had to wait a lot of time for the weapon to cool down (or shoot a long time to force it to overheat).
This first change was fixing a lot of the issues mentioned above, but the issue it created felt frustrating and not in sync with the combat pace.
Hopefully, this desynchronization issue could be solved by allowing you to press “Reload” to force the overheat of the weapon. And interestingly enough, this was also fixing the issue of energy weapons not being able to benefit from the “reloading” effects.
To sum this up, here are the changes coming for the energy weapons:
- Reduced energy cost
- Reduced energy recovery speed
- You can now press R to force the weapon to overheat
Technical Issues
While we already discussed those issues in our latest hotfix, we felt like many of you might have missed those points, and we feel like they are pretty important so let us reiterate here.
The game is facing both long-lasting and new technical issues, noticeably: mouse inputs not registering, lack of performance (or recent loss of performance) and an abnormal CPU heat.
We’ve recently received numerous reports on these sides and we wanted to take some time to discuss those and the measures we’re taking to solve them.
Firstly we want to make sure you’re aware that we are concerned by these issues and are looking into them. We are not ignoring them. The fact that some of these issues were reported a while ago but weren’t fixed doesn’t mean we don’t care about them, it means we weren’t able to fix them. The fact that more people are having these issues and that we are more experienced than before (in developing games in general but more especially in improving the game’s performance) means that we are much more likely to find the cause of these issues.
We know you want to hear from us “it’s fixed”, but these are not easy fixes for us, they are important technical issues that we need to dive deep into. So apologize if it’s taking some time. We hope you will grant us that time.
Then, let’s talk about each of these issues and a few of the workarounds we and the community were able to come up with:
Mouse inputs not registering
Issue description: I click on my mouse but it doesn’t shoot with my weapons
Potential identified causes: Lack of game focus, frame-skipping the input due to the lack of input multi-threading, compatibility problems between some laptops hardware and our game.
State of the issue: We’re looking at ways to better enforce game focus and how to implement a multi-threading input system. Meanwhile we’re also trying to find a machine with a similar issue in order to run more in-depth tests. All of that while continuing to gather all the data we can from your reports.
Potential workarounds: If it’s a focus issue, switching to ‘Fullscreen’ render should alleviate if not entirely get rid of the issue. If the issue lies within the other causes, we don’t have any workaround for now (reducing the graphical settings may be of some help). In any case, we recommend setting the game to fullscreen to see if the issue persists.
CPU overheating
Issue description: My CPU heats a lot, too much and more than other games
Potential identified causes: Seems to be a recurring issue with Ryzen CPUs when running the “unlimited framerate” option, but it might not be limited to Ryzen CPUs. It might be coming from a game engine issue that needs resolving on our end. In any case, the issue might be that the game is overloading one single CPU core.
State of the issue: We’re trying to find a machine with similar specs that actually has this problem in order to run more in-depth tests directly on it. Some of us do have computers equipped with a Ryzen CPU and are playing with unlimited framerate without experiencing any issue. We’re also trying to find other correlations between that issue and specific hardware pieces.
Potential workarounds: Disabling V-Sync and limiting framerate to 144, 100 or even 60 should help (we absolutely know that it’s far from the ideal solution, it’s a “workaround” for those wishing to play but being afraid to melt their CPU in the process). Downloading RyzenController and manually limiting the CPU temperature is another workaround. Our last one would be to limit CPU usage directly in Windows (power options -> power saver plan).
Loss of performance
Issue description: The latest update made the game performances worst
Potential identified causes: We have no lead on that side, the game’s supposed to run smoother the more we optimize it (and we’re optimizing it a bit more each update).
State of the issue: We’re gathering more data on the issue (such as the specs of the people experiencing it) and are also expecting our optimization process to eventually solve that.
Potential workarounds: We don’t really have a workaround for now. Reinstalling the game might fix the issue (maybe, hopefully).
This marks the end of our eleventh devblog. We hope you liked it!
If you have any question, feedback or comment, make sure to tell us, we will be actively following the conversation here, on the Steam forums and on our Discord!
And as usual, happy robot bashing everyone!