PTR Phase 2 is live!

17 Oct 2020Developer post

Source: Steam Community (opens in a new tab)

We're kicking off phase 2 of the Super Animal Royale v0.96 PTR with big updates to the new game mode based on your feedback from PTR 1, as well as continuing our work on overhauling the game's menus and UI.

This post will only be covering what is new in PTR 2 (v0.96.1) so for the full scope of changes you can read our previous posts:

https://steamcommunity.com/games/843380/announcements/detail/2921105984693369530

How to Join the PTR

Phase 2: Friday, October 16th at 6pm PDT to Wednesday, October 21st at 11:59pm PDT

To switch your SAR to the PTR beta branch:

Right click on SAR in Steam Library list
Select "Properties"
Go to the "Betas" tab
In the dropdown selector, choose the ”ptr0.96.0” branch
The game will update to the PTR version.
Start the game and hit Play!

Note: the PTR is only available for players who own SAR (Super Free Edition / Demo users are not able to use Steam betas). You can switch between the PTR and the live version of SAR at any time by following the same steps and changing the dropdown in the “Betas” tab to the version you’d like to play.

If you don't see the PTR in your Betas tab immediately, you might need to restart your Steam client (including fully exiting it in your system tray if you're on Windows). The PTR only has one mode available (the new S.A.W. vs Rebellion 32v32 mode).

For this test we’ll also be rotating through regional servers each day, so you can all get a chance at trying the new mode with low ping. Here's the schedule:

NA: 3pm - 11pm PDT
AS: 3pm - 11pm UTC+9 (Japan/Korea time)
EU: 3pm - 11pm UTC+1 (15:00 - 23:00 UK time)

So without further ado, let's get into all the changes in phase 2 of the PTR:

S.A.W. vs Rebellion (32v32) Mode Changes

Game design changes:

There are now 4 flags to capture (up from 3) arranged in a diamond shape.
The match can be won by holding onto 3 flags for 60s. Capturing the 4th flag will halve the timer. If flags are lost (ie drop to less than 3) then the timer is canceled and reset.
The victory timer is shown below the main gas timer as well as on the map screen.
Lowered XP per flag held, but increased XP for winning.
Players start with a bit of each ammo, 1 super tape, and 50 health juice.
Flags owned will now increase your team's move speed while downed (in addition to the out of combat healing). Also added an icon on the HUD to denote this buff (with info text if the player opens inventory).

Additional Improvements:

Added an indicator arrow on teammates.
New character animation for capturing a flag.
Larger map icons for teammates and they will show if a player is knocked down.
Larger map flag icons and changed their layering to be below players & markers.
Changed end-game "YOU PLACED #2" text to be "YOU WERE ELIMINATED" if you're eliminated before the end of the match. In the case of winning, it will say "YOUR TEAM HAS WON!".
Bug with enemy flight path being broken should be fixed.
Fixed incorrect warning text when leaving a Saw vs Rebellion match after your squad was dead.

Menu and UI Overhaul Continues

New main menu scene, set at Giant Eagleport (GEP), Super Animal World’s main (and only) international airport.
Originally designed for Super Animal World guests, GEP is now the place where Giant Eagles launch, carrying battle royale contestants.
New NPCs join Cackling Carl and Ms. Macawsome in the menus.
Katie O’Prey attends the gate on the home screen of the main menu for her employer, Giant Eagle Airlines (GEA). As with all GEA employees, Katie is a Super Bird of prey, whose uniform is as sharp as her beak.
Doctor Jennifer Dogna, who many of you will already know as the most renowned of the renowned Lab-Labs, is now on hand to help players navigate the Research Lab screen, and turn their hard-earned DNA into new critters.
Your player Super Animal now displays while on the Milestones tab, and will preview whichever item you have selected.
Weekly challenges are now the same for all players each week.

Additional PTR 0.96.1 Changes

Downed players no longer have collisions.
Reduced overall player collisions size and movement speed while colliding changed from 25% to 30% of normal.
Reverted the change to make rarity apply to weapon recoil (i.e. rarity no longer affects recoil as of this patch).
Max carried grenades set to 4.
Removed movement slow after firing the Sniper.
Bunny hop mechanic reverted to old style (100ms timing and no buildup).
"Armor Pierce" renamed to "Armor Break" in tooltips for English.
Adjusted some automatic weapon recoil patterns, and increased AK spawn rate slightly.
Added (A) controller icons beside more main menu buttons (such as Discord, Feedback, and Leave Party buttons).
"TOP OF THE FOOD CHAIN!" no longer displays if you did not win but were present at the end of a match.
Fixed blank names for people using angle brackets (ie rich text).
Fixed being able to change main menu tabs while unlocking an animal.
Fixed bug where maximum Sparrow ammo was 30 (should be 35 now).
Fixed a bug where non-looping emotes on Animal Pass, Store, and Milestones wouldn't go back to idle after animation finished.
Improved server performance that was causing crashes in the previous PTR.

Changes Made During Previous PTR

We also made some changes while the previous PTR was live, which we posted as comments on the previous patch notes. We'll be continuing to make changes throughout this PTR as well, so you can check the comments of this post to see those changes. For convenience I've collected all of the changes made in between the previous PTR patch notes and these patch notes here.

Client Patch:

Animal Pass screen has a new design and background.
Adjusted the price label location to be more clear.
Animal Pass level on main menu is clickable to open the pass itself.
Page dots are clickable on the Animal Pass screen.
Fixed a double-click issue on the S.A.W. Tickets screen.
Added translations for some of the main menu and Animal Pass.
Creep zoom no longer works while capturing a flag.
Fixed "Sparrow hits in one match" displaying the wrong numbers on the milestones page.
Updated the sound for the enemy's flag capture to have less accordion.
Teammates' help/danger/gogo pings in Saw vs Rebels will play a sound now (in addition to showing up on the map as it already does). There is an anti-spam period too to prevent sound overload.

Server Patch:

First set of mole crates in S.A.W. vs Rebellion will avoid spawning at far edges of the map.
Mole crates will spawn more ammo for each weapon they dropped.
Rebel caches will spawn more ammo with their weapon.
First capture of a flag will now include 2 super tape and 1 large health juice (in addition to the 2 legendary weapons).
Subsequent captures of flags will drop 3 super tapes, 3 large health juices, and an assortment of ammo.
Slicing grass in S.A.W. vs Rebellion has 2x normal item drop rate.
Breaking boxes in S.A.W. vs Rebellion has 1.5x normal item drop rate.
Added some lag checks for downed players who are trying to shoot still.

Feedback

The PTR is all about getting your feedback on the changes we’re making, so once you’ve spent some time in the PTR, we’d very much appreciate it if you use the feedback button in the game’s main menu, or visit our Discord server and leave feedback in the #sar-ptr-feedback channel! We’ve set the new channel to slow mode so you can gather all your thoughts and not worry about them being bumped by conversation.