Hello Robocrafters!
We have spent a few days going through all of the feedback on Steam and within our Discord to begin preparing an action plan! Very soon we’ll be assigning development tasks to our team to address many of the feedback points that players have raised. This is not going to happen overnight and some of these will take quite a long time to implement, so please be patient whilst we work on this feedback. If you want to be kept up to date with the very latest news, please join our Discord.
Here are the main areas that we will be focusing on:
[h2]“No Party System”[/h2]
This is a feature that we are actively working on and whilst we don’t have a date set for it, we assure you we want to release it as soon as it is ready. Here is a work-in-progress look at the party system within the main menu
[h2]“Not enough content”[/h2]
We’re working hard on this with Hoverblades launching first, Tank Tracks well on their way, and new maps and game modes in production. We will be doing some planning in the studio to determine if we can increase the speed of production of these elements including looking at new weapons, and biomes (like Ice, and Earth planets).
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
We’re also working on Modular tank tracks and you’ll be able to create your own designs. We can’t wait to share more of this but for now, check out this tease we shared last week:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[h2]The Tech Ladder[/h2]
We’ll be looking at reworking the Tech Ladder in its current form to make this more of a Tech Tree where you unlock functional parts and weapons for your Robocraft with branches so you can choose which parts to unlock sooner or later. We will also make this a Main Menu feature so it feels more like a key progression element of the game. We’ll also look at ways to ensure players get the build tools and do not need to unlock them on the Tech Ladder whilst ensuring that users get the info they need to be able to use them effectively.
[h2]Client performance (FPS)[/h2]
We’ll put some programmers on optimisation of the client right away. This is an ongoing thing but we hope to get some improvements to you on this quickly. Robocraft 2 is particularly CPU intensive so we’ll be focusing on that area initially.
[h2]Combat slow \ Weapons underwhelming[/h2]
Our main focus here initially will be on making changes to make the weapons feel more consistent, more satisfying to use, to provide better feedback for the damage you’re dealing. We will be discussing the specifics of how we’re going to do this with the community on our Discord server in the coming days.
[h2]On-foot pilot Gameplay[/h2]
Issues with the On-foot pilots focused mainly on the underutilization of this new mechanic within the gameplay and the difficulty of killing pilots outside of their Robocraft.
We have some plans and designs which still need development which should help both controlling and killing pilots feel more fair, as well as take full advantage of what we think could be an exciting element to the gameplay of RC2.
[h2]Reassemble Mechanic [/h2]
The ability to reassemble mid-combat has been controversial since we introduced it, especially in its current form. We absolutely recognise that it can feel both unfair and frustrating to players for their wins to go unrewarded because an enemy can suddenly rebuild their robocraft and there are a number of solutions we have planned for this.
Our aim is to keep the fundamental reassembly mechanic, but change how, when and why you can use it, alongside planned changes to on-foot pilots.
[h2]Ping/ Input lag[/h2]
We’re going to look at ways we can improve latency and ensure players get better pings on average. We also want to look at ways to give players more control over which servers they play on and more visibility into which servers they are joining.
[h2]Physics lag and imprecision on weapons[/h2]
Since we support rotating platforms and self-built weapon turrets we use physics to simulate the joints of the weapons. The physics simulation of the joints can produce some perceived ‘lag’ as the joints realistically try to accelerate and decelerate to get your gun pointing where you are aiming as well as the joints reacting to bumps in the terrain and recoil forces of the weapons. We think all of these things can contribute to a feeling of laggy aiming. Our aim is to do a bit of a deep dive into these systems to see if we can improve their responsiveness to aiming whilst retaining some of these realistic simulation elements.
[h2]Sound effects[/h2]
Some players had feedback on the overall audio quality of the game, with a few specific places to focus on. We’re going to do a pass over the game's audio design, mixing some elements differently and completely reworking others.
[h2]Announcer's voice[/h2]
The announcer has been pretty hit or miss within the Discord community but we can see quite a few players were not happy with this and would prefer something different. We plan to try some alternative options which we will run by the community on Discord to find something that works.
[h2]Lack of team comms (Text Chat, Voice Chat, Pings & Minimap)[/h2]
We are fully aware that these are quite highly requested features and are planning to include them in the future. We will raise the priority since quite a few reviews mentioned these.
[h2]Building too complex[/h2]
Whilst we have had quite a large number of players enjoy the building system, it is evident that we have seen players mention that this features a steep learning curve. There are two elements to improving the experience; polishing some of the existing UX and UI, as well as showing more information within Build Mode to help builders understand the underlying systems and how to build effective Robocraft.
[h2]Weapon CPU[/h2]
We are considering the option to have only one pool of CPU, similar to RC1, but will need to figure out if we can do this while keeping the benefits of design and balance the current system offers the game.
[h2]Undo[/h2]
It’s coming! I assure you! We already have block placing and deleting working with undo, as well as precon placing and deleting. We are working on wire placing and deleting at the moment. Then we’ll do material and colour painting as well as robocraft shifting.
[h2]Logic and Wiring[/h2]
We’ve been wanting to redesign the Logic and wiring UX for quite some time. We understand many of the criticisms of the current system and have some plans that will allow us to improve the player experience. We also have plans for improving the UX for editing Tweakable Stats on parts.
[h2]More Graphic options[/h2]
This is now also higher on our list as it was also mentioned in a few reviews and on Discord.
[h2]Stay up to date with the development[/h2]
We urge anyone who wants to stay in touch with us and wants to see how we communicate with players on a daily basis to join us on the Discord. Several members of the team regularly engage in discussion and share thoughts! It’s also a great place to pick up on some extra building tips too!
JOIN THE DISCORDA lot of these changes and improvements will take a while before they are released to you in an update. But we will make sure that we share some further plans and ideas very soon! Thank you
The Freejam Team
