Clone Drone in the Danger Zone News

[p]Hello Humans![/p][p]The Ride or Die competition is officially over![/p][hr][/hr][h2]Visit this page to vote for the winners of the Community Pick Award![/h2][p][/p][hr][/hr][p]The Doborog Team and our Community Judges will take the next week to decide on the winners. There have been over 100 entries so we’re carefully taking our time!
[/p][p]Meanwhile it’s your turn to decide who wins the Community Pick award! Because there were so many entries, this voting form is very long but please scroll through and see as many entries as possible before you click submit! You will be able to vote for all of the art that you like on the form, so don’t be afraid to pick lots of them![/p][p]Unfortunately there isn’t a way to include videos in the list. To help with this we’ve made an extra list with all the videos so you can see them, and labelled the videos in the voting form.[/p][p]Thank you for all your hard work making these entries. We can’t wait to announce the winners on Saturday 14th![/p][p][/p][p]The Doborog Team[/p][p] [/p]

[p]Hello Humans!

We're hard at work on fixing both the game and servers. Here's the list of bug fixes:[/p][p][/p][p]Game:[/p]

• [p]Invisible enemies - fixed numerous bugs that caused these and added logic to auto-kill them[/p]
• [p]Fixed placement of fire on fishing pole and picnic hammer[/p]
• [p]No longer plays an emote when customising weapons[/p]
• [p]Localised weapon text[/p]
• [p]Fixed "This is not co-op" achievement[/p]
• [p]Fixed mounts not getting cleaned up when you lose and between levels[/p]
• [p]Settings menu "Get more" \[workshop endless levels] button opens in steam overlay instead of web browser[/p]
• [p]Tracked mounts so they persist if you reload your save[/p]

[p]Servers:[/p]

• [p]Dynamic server capacity - servers will now start up and wind down based on demand[/p]
• [p]Fixed server crash related to player disconnecting while riding something[/p]

[p]Thank you for your patience! If you "see" any more invisible enemies, let us know on Discord or via email![/p][p]Team Doborog[/p]

[p]Hello Humans![/p][p]Apologies for the server connection problems lately, and thank you immensely for your patience as we work to get things resolved.[/p][p]The servers have had stability issues because right now we're trying to upgrade how they work.[/p][p]Toward the end of last year, we hired a new server engineer who’s working hard to get everything back on track. (You may have already met them; say hi to ButterOverflow in our official discord!)[/p][p]We’ve got a mix of work we’ve done, work that’s almost done, and plans to improve things in the long term.[/p][h3]What we’ve already done:[/h3]

• [p]Clearing finished matches: Fixed an issue where we weren’t properly cleaning up “old” games from our list of games to connect to. This would cause you to try to connect to a game which was no longer running, which was a major cause of failing to connect to public matches in late December/early January[/p]

• [p]Prepared for futured updates: Internally, we’ve cleaned up a bunch of issues that have been making it hard to release new updates to the game as fast as we want. Hopefully, this should make it faster and easier for us to release hotfixes to address bugs in-between our feature releases.[/p]

[h3]Coming soon (next hotfix, hopefully in the next week or two):[/h3]

• [p]Dynamic server capacity: We’ve upgraded our game server hosting to use a new system that will auto-scale our capacity. Some of our connection issues have been due to our servers being “full”; moving forward, it will automatically spin up a new game server host as needed.[/p]

• [p]Fixing Invisible Enemies: We’ve got a tentative fix for the annoying “invisible enemies” bug that is happening due to game clients getting out of sync with the game server. Alongside that fix, we’ve also added additional logging and metrics to our backend so we can track down if/when it’s still happening and have more info about what’s broken and how to fix it.[/p]

[h3]Planned future work:[/h3]

• [p]Rebuilding our “Matchmaker”: This is the program running on our servers that helps your game client find a game server to connect to whenever you play online. It’s missing a lot of features that could make it more robust and better at handling errors. And as we want to build out more features for CDDZ, we want a more solid foundation to build upon![/p]

• [p]Better Error Messages: Right now, whenever you have connection issues, the error messages we present aren’t very helpful. They’ll often give some generic troubleshooting advice like “make sure you’re on the latest game version!” even if you already are. We’re planning to make them more specific, and also to include more information on the error screens so that, when you send us a screenshot asking for help, we have more info to work with so that we can provide much better help and troubleshooting.[/p]

• [p]Better Server Metrics: (Don’t worry, we don’t mean your personal data! We’re just talking about on our servers.) We’re planning to add more logging and metrics around when server connection issues happen. That way, we can more proactively find issues that are occurring and squash those bugs. Also, this ties back into our previous point about better error messages: on our error screens, we’re hoping to include things like a “request ID” that we can use as part of our customer support to be able to look at our logs and figure out exactly what happened for you, specifically, as our player, when you run into issues. And if we notice things like a big increase in connection failures, we can jump on it right away without having to rely on players reaching out to us before we find the issues.[/p]

• [p]Upgrading Unity versions: this isn’t multiplayer-specific, but it will probably help with stability and performance in general. Right now we’re still on a rather old version (2019) and we’re looking to make the upgrade to the latest version soon.[/p]

[p]If you do see multiplayer connection issues, you can still let us know by emailing [email protected] or posting on our official discord.[/p][p]Thank you![/p][p]The Doborog Team[/p]

[p]\[Entries for this competition are closed, thank you!][/p][p][/p][p]Hello Humans!
[/p][p]To celebrate the release of the Ride or Die update we’re running an art competition! Do your friends ride and die for each other in Co-op and battle it out in Last Bot Standing? Do you try to look fashionable on top of a Rip Rider? We’re giving away skins to the winners of 4 categories of artists! If you have screenshots or art of Clone Drones then enter them into the Ride or Die competition! [/p][h2]Rules[/h2]

• [p]The competition starts now! (January 7th)[/p]
• [p]Submit your art through this form or email [email protected][/p]
• [p]All except Best Dressed accept any form of art.[/p]
  • [p]Best Dressed will only accept screenshots from the game.[/p]
  • [p]Examples of accepted art: Pencil drawings, Clone Drone screenshots, 3D renders, photos of Lego, animations and many more![/p]
• [p]New art only, if it was submitted to previous competitions, it isn’t allowed.[/p]
• [p]Art can be disqualified for any reason. [/p]
  • [p]Examples are: being offensive or being made with AI.[/p]
• [p]You can work together in groups, if a group project wins, all participants will have the option of a prize.[/p]
• [p]You can submit as many entries as you would like, you are only eligible for one prize.[/p]
• [p]The competition will end 1 month from now on February 7th at midnight UK time![/p]

[h2]Categories[/h2]

• [p]Best Dressed - A screenshot only category. Send us a picture of your favourite bot part combination![/p]

• [p]Your Ride or Dies - A group screenshot or drawing of you and your friends as clone drones!
  [/p]
• [p]Need for Speed - Clone Drones riding stuff, Riprider, Raptor, The Emperor, a hot air balloon, anything![/p]

• [p]Community Pick - All shortlisted art will be entered for this prize and the community will vote for their favourites. The top 3 with the most votes will be winners.[/p]

[h3]Judging[/h3][p]The winners will be picked by Community Judges and the Doborog Team. Entries will be judged on creativity and originality![/p][p]The judeges will take 1 week to look at all the entries and decide on winners! At the same time, the community will vote on the winners of the Community Pick category![/p][h2]Prizes[/h2]

• [p]All entrants will get the “Everyone Wins” Emote.[/p]
• [p]There will be 3 Winners in each category who will get a choice of one bot skin and one weapon skin.[/p]
• [p]The "Good Luck, Have fun" Emote.[/p]
• [p]All Winners will have their work featured on Doborog social media![/p]
• [p]If more than one person worked on a submission, they will also get the same prizes![/p]

[p]When you're ready, submit your art here![/p][p]If you have any questions or want to look for friends to work with, join us on discord: [/p][p]discord.gg/doborg[/p][p]
Good luck![/p][p]The Doborog Team[/p]

[p]This is a mega-blog full of exciting announcements, bug fixes, and our thinking about premium skins. But first, a message straight from our cold, robot hearts:[/p][p][/p][p]We’ve never been more excited about the future of Danger Zone! Thank you for supporting the Ride or Die update. New updates are in development for next year, including new multiplayer modes, a 10th Anniversary celebration, and community competitions! You’ve shown up for us, again and again over the past nine years, and we’re so grateful.[/p][p][/p][h2]Free Weapons and Quick Fixes[/h2][p]The Ride or Die update launched Danger Zone into the future, but there were some bumps in the road. Here’s what's in the latest update:[/p][p][/p][p]12 Free New Weapon Skins! A dozen new ways to obliterate your opponents! Many people pointed out that there were no weapon models you could equip without Clonebux. A bad vibe, now corrected with 12 glorious weapons. Free for all players![/p][p]
[/p][p][/p][p]Removed the 6000 Clonebux purchase option. Many people saw it and felt the large amount was a dubious ask. We agreed and removed it![/p][p][/p][p]Bug Fixes[/p]

• [p]Added a picture of the full skin when you’re buying it, to clarify you’re getting the whole skin. (Not just the head, body or legs.)[/p]
• [p]No longer possible to kick or jetpack and then get on a Rip Rider, keeping you in a kicking stance![/p]
• [p]Fixed a variety of crashes.[/p]
• [p]Fixed customization UI having text overlapping where it shouldn’t and incorrect icons.[/p]

[p]We’re still working on hunting down the rest of the stragglers. Let us know if you see any more![/p][p][/p][h2]How Do You Get the Premium Skins?[/h2][p]There have been some questions about how to get the new premium skins. [/p][p][/p][p]The way you get the new skins is with Clonebux, our currency you purchase in-game. After buying Clonebux in a pack, you can spend them to style your Human with Bot and Weapon skins! You cannot earn Clonebux in game, but keep a look out for community competitions where you can win them.[/p][p][/p][h2]Why We Added Premium Skins[/h2][p]For a while now, we have faced a difficult choice. The LBS lobbies have been sparsely populated. Sales aren’t what they used to be. Do we leave Danger Zone as finished and move on to other games? Or do we find a way to continue breathing life into it?[/p][p][/p][p]With the Ride or Die update, we chose the latter![/p][p][/p][p]Thanks to your support, we’re committing to future free updates for Danger Zone! If things continue going the way they have been this week, we should be able to keep Danger Zone alive and kick-botting for a long time. The Ride or Die update was just the start of the free content we’re now planning to make.[/p][p][/p][p]Our goal with premium cosmetics is to create an optional way for our biggest fans to support the game, fueling ongoing updates, and widening the ways in which people can express themselves (by looking like delightful mecha-horses).[/p][p][/p][p]Understandably, not everybody loved this change. We have all played microtransaction fueled games that SUCK. Our vision was to add this in a way that does NOT SUCK, and in fact, is quite fun and awesome.
[/p][p]Our Rules for Premium Cosmetics:[/p]

• [p]Clonebux will always be optional and only for cosmetics. No pay to win! We hate that, too![/p]
• [p]Core updates to Danger Zone will always be free.[/p]
• [p]No irritating upsell patterns: BUY THIS STARTER PACK!!!!! LIMITED TIME ONLY. No.[/p]
• [p]Skins will be fairly priced without the need to buy more than what you want.[/p]
• [p]Clonebux will be used to support continued development of Danger Zone and more Doborog games.
  [/p]

[h2]The Future of Danger Zone (More UPDATES!!!)[/h2][p][/p][p]Thanks to the success of this update, we can now look ahead to 2026. Here’s what we’re building for next year…
[/p][p]New Multiplayer Game Modes! We’ll be developing new ways to play Clone Drone with your friends… and meet new friends to destroy! Join us live on Twitch as we build them next year.[/p][p][/p][p]10th Anniversary Update! To celebrate a decade of human versus robot combat, we’re planning a big new update! Will we finally see the long anticipated release of this sawblade dog?[/p][p][/p][p]Endless Mode Expansion! There are enemies that only exist in challenges and not in Endless Mode. We’re planning a refresh of Endless Mode with new levels and enemies like Zombie-Bots and Rip Riders.[/p][p][/p][p]New Community Competitions! Part of what we love about this community is how creative you all are! Level editors, artists and memesters will all have their time to shine with prizes for winners.[/p][p][/p][p]More Free Cosmetics! Along with premium skins, we’ll also release more free ones next year.[/p][p][/p][p]We’re excited for the future of Danger Zone. We hope you’ll join us in the many updates to come![/p][p][/p][p]Have fun in the Danger Zone,[/p][p]The Doborog Team [/p]