Happy October! Doborog has been heads down hard at work on the epic final Story Mode chapter—see update on timing of that below—but we're taking a pit-stop to put out an update of some improvements we wanted to get out ASAP!
🛡 Spear and Shield Overhaul!
In response to feedback, we've decided to refresh the Spear and Shield mechanics! Many didn't like combat with the spear—to the point it was banned from fan tournaments due to flicking. We hope this update helps these weapons become a fun part of competitive play once again.
- The Spear damage area (the part that destroys voxels) has been changed to wide instead of long, making the spear more effective when it travels forward, and worse when it travels sideways.
- Spear flicking was still possible in multiplayer, so we have restricted it even more. Let us know how it feels!
- The Shield is now breakable! That's right. The shield no longer protects you forever, but takes damage whenever a weapon hits it. This makes combat more interesting, and opens up for strategies that are less about going around the shield, and more about whittling it down to get past it.
🌏 Japanese (日本語) and Korean (한국어)!
Yes! More human languages for the communication bank. The robots now support Japanese and Korean subtitles.
Beautiful!
Like with the other languages, we would love to hear your feedback to improve the quality of the translations. Let us know if something doesn't feel quite
qilsnib enough.
Quality of Life Improvements
[h2]Better Crosshair for Spear and Bow[/h2]
The crosshair on the bow and spear could previously be hard to see depending on the situation. The bow and spear now have a new crosshair that's bigger and inverts the colors behind it for maximum contrast. Let us know how it feels!
[h2]Arrow Rotation now SNAPS[/h2]
Arrow rotation now snaps instantly between vertical and horizontal mode, giving you unprecedented tactical control for how you deal damage. Hotshot Arrow-Shooting Tip: Spidertrons mainly bob up and down.
[h2]Head Damage: Not always fatal![/h2]
Has THIS ever happened to YOU: 3 decorative voxels get taken off the beautiful horn attachment of your robot head, and you fall down on the ground, dead as the day you were harvested?
Now head damage is only fatal if it damages the important cubes sitting near where your central processing unit resides (a 2x2 cube 3 voxels above the neck).
[h2]Helping Stationary Bow1s Un-stick in Twitch Mode[/h2]
In Twitch Mode bow1s now walk towards you if they're the last type of enemy in the level, which should cause fewer issues with them landing on pillars and taunting your inability to destroy them.
[h2]Fix for Armor Exploit in Last Bot Standing[/h2]
It used to be possible to acquire armor in LBS, leave and re-join the match, and continue to have that armor for zero upgrade points. No longer!
Chapter 5 - New Release Date
We are still hard at work on Chapter 5, and we're now aiming to release it early next year.
Why the delay? A few reasons combined made it a choice we hope you can appreciate:
- Scope/Quality/Time balance - As some say, pick two 😅. While we could have rushed the final chapter update out sooner, we felt that adding a bit of time lets us get closer to the updates the game deserves for its exit out of Early Access. This includes the quality of life changes in this update, and epic-ness of Chapter 5 :)
- Making a big splash with full release - We are planning a big push to share the game more widely with the full release, and (you might have noticed) the end of this year is packed with the releases of new games and consoles. We want to harvest and upload the minds of as many humans as possible into the arena at release, and we've learned choosing the date wisely is part of that. We will announce more about the release here at a later time, too!
- Console requirements - We are planning to launch on (at least) 3 different consoles! Parallel to Chapter 5, our porting team has been working tirelessly towards making sure the game has the features required by consoles.
As always, for those of you who live on the bleeding edge, you can
follow our development live on Twitch, and even try out the current (very buggy!) build in the experimental branch. While we know how it can be disappointing to have release dates slip, we hope you all can appreciate where we’re landing!
Thank you all for being amazing OG Clone Drone community members! We are so glad to have those of you who have stuck with us throughout the long development process with us during launch and beyond. 💙
