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Roboquest - Winter Playtest is LIVE!

Howdy oh!

I know we’re late, but better late than sorry.

The Winter playtest is now LIVE (on Steam only) and will last for approximately two weeks based on your feedback and the issues being reported. Once finished, the Winter update will land on all platforms at once (sometimes with a few days delay based on each platform’s validation process).

Accessing the playtest: You can access the playtest by going into your game library, right-clicking Roboquest, going into ‘Properties’, heading over to the ‘Beta’ tab and opting for the ‘Roboquest Playtest’ branch.
It should download the playtest version of Roboquest (note that your progress is separated from the standard branch).
The playtest version comes with enough Wrenches to purchase all basecamp upgrades so you don’t have to grind to try out changes that would potentially be gated behind them.
If your Steam doesn’t start an update, make sure to restart it.

Find below the highlights of the changes you can experience in the playtest.



PATCH HIGHLIGHTS

[h2]New Class: the Ranger[/h2]
A new class is coming into play: the Ranger.
The ranger can stealth and throw javelins at enemies and it accumulates bonus critical damage as long as it doesn’t take damage.
It is more of a ranged-precision class.
In order to unlock the ranger, you will have to find the ‘lost javelin’ hidden in one of the levels.
Most of the perks related to Stealth have therefore been moved to the Ranger (view below for a brief explanation of that).

[h2]Recon Rework[/h2]
We moved Stealth away from the Recon and gave him a dash instead.
Stealth seemed more fitting to the Ranger after playing it for a while and a dash seemed to synergize very well with the natural strengths of the Recon (noticeably its melee and front-fighter aspects).
Therefore we added a bunch of completely new perks to tailor its new ‘Blink’ (dash) ability to your liking and we also reworked several other of its perks.

[h2]Elite enemies[/h2]
Elite enemies are powerful variants of a new enemy called ‘Elitepawn’.
There are a few variations of this enemy (with different attacks and behaviors) and we will add more variations as time goes by.
You may encounter one or several ‘elitepawns’ in each level and this number will increase based on the difficulty level you’ve chosen (starting in Heroes+1 onward).
But right now, this system is still in its very early stage and will be finalized later down the road, but its addition will help us determine exactly how the system should behave and how these elite enemies should be.
We already know that elite enemies' spawn rate will be tied to game progression in its final version but we do not have much more information to share right now.

[h2]New Boss[/h2]
‘El Moustiko’ has joined the fray!
He’s been added to the random pool of bosses for Act 1.

[h2]Energy Weapons[/h2]
For a long time, energy weapons were unable to use any of our ‘reload’ systems (such as ‘reloading grants X bonus’ for example).
But no more!
You can now press ‘reload’ with energy weapons to force them to overheat.
Every mention of ‘reloading’ in the game now applies to energy weapons as well, making them fit in much more builds than before.
In addition and consequently, we modified most of their energy metrics: they can shoot for longer periods of time (reduced energy cost) but also reduced their energy regeneration speed (it takes more time to cool down passively).
We felt like we needed to make these changes in order to make sure energy weapons have a healthy place into the different perk builds.
We also initially gave energy weapons a very low impact force. It was part of our design philosophy to make them ‘different’ than other weapons. After consideration, we realized it made them feel weaker than other weapons and we didn’t need that aspect at all. We therefore increased the impact force of all energy weapons.

[h2]Basecamp visuals[/h2]
We started to implement the final stage of the basecamp visuals and building placement.
You will still find your usual couch co-op and hoverbus starter zone but also new buildings that are yet to be activated (noticeably a ‘compendium’ building!).
Each basecamp level will improve all of the basecamp buildings, props and accessories.
For now, reaching a new basecamp level will not immediately show in the basecamp. The visuals will only be updated once you reload the basecamp.
We know there are still a few quirks and oddities in the new basecamp, especially regarding gameplay collision but we will be monitoring and addressing the issues as usual.
We hope you’ll like those new and fancy visuals!

[h2]New Content[/h2]
Finally and as usual, we’ve added a bunch of new enemies, bazaar items, perks and affixes to the game as well as a new class, new boss and new weapon.

View the complete list of changes here.

Roboquest - Winter Playtest Patch-Notes

Here is the breakdown of all the changes coming into the playtest Winter update.
View the highlights and playtest announcement here.

PATCH NOTES

• All player explosions now trigger a rocket-jump, propelling you in the direction opposed to the explosion center (some explosions such as the Pulse Blaster’s do not trigger the rocket-jump)
• Increased the requirements to reach rank A
• Reduced the requirements to reach rank C
Developers' Note: Most of you were getting rank A kind of regardless of your performance. We decided to modify that to create a more visible difference between succeeding and performing. Also, rank D really felt like a harsh punishment for players who were actually trying to do well and should only be limited to players really ignoring most enemies while still going slow.
• Increased player size and player camera height a bit
Developers' Note: This was made to clearly show how big of a height difference there is between the guardian and the other characters in the game and to better grasp the environment scale. This shouldn’t have any impact on the gameplay whatsoever.
• Armor and movement speed bonus are now clamped at 70%
• Player abilities damage scaling per level increased from 20% to 25%
Developers' Note: This should have been the case in the previous update and we missed it. That’s why the ability-centric builds seemed to be a little less viable than weapon-based builds. It should feel better in this update.
• Your brobot will automatically be rebooted after 60s if you do not reboot it yourself
Developers' Note: This makes sure you’re not soft-locked in multiplayer if your brobot dies in a spot you can’t reach (because you don’t have the proper gadget for example).
• Player stun duration increased from 1.75s to 2s
• Enemy stun duration increased from 3s to 3.5s
• Enemy freeze duration increased from 4s to 6s
• Effects increasing your damage based on your current movement speed bonus will no longer reduce your damage when you’re slowed or have movement speed reduction effects


• A new class has been added: the Ranger
[h3]Ranger (new!)[/h3]
• Unlocked by finding the lost javelin in one of the level
Javelin
• New Secondary Ability
• Throws a spear which you can then pickup on the ground to refill, has 2 charges by default
Stealth
• New Primary Ability
• Your OG’ stealth, except it reloads all of your Javelin charges
Awareness
• New Passive Ability
• Passively generates charges every second, increases critical damage per charge, some charges are lost upon taking damage
Perks
• Added all previous Stealth’s Recon perks to the Ranger (and modified a few of them)
[h3]Recon[/h3]
Blink
• New Primary Ability
• Dashes a short distance, becoming immune to damage during travel and staggering enemies at the arrival point
Laser Dagger
• Damage increased from 50.0 to 65.0
• Healing cell generation when hitting bosses increased from 1 to 3 Perks
• Added perks for its new primary ability
• Updated, reworked and moved around lots of upgrades following the addition of its new ability and the Ranger/Recon ability swap
[h3]Guardian[/h3]
Bash
• Damage increased from 35.0 to 50.0
• Impact force increased from 70.0 to 80.0
[h3]Commando[/h3]
Shorty
• Damage increased from 11.0 to 12.0
• Impact force increased from 14.0 to 15.0
[h3]Engineer[/h3]
Scrap Blaster
• Impact force increased from 60.0 to 66.0


• Increased the number of class-upgrades from 2 to 3
• Modified the metric values and effects of many different perks
• Moved some upgrades to different perks or as class-upgrades
[h3]Guardian[/h3]
Tactical Slap
• Piercing arc range increased from 1600 to 1800

Stim Bubble
• Bonus firerate increased from 30% to 50%

Quadrinity (previously Trinity)
• Next shot damage increased from 50% to 60%
• Now triggers every 4 shots instead of 3

Lucky Ammo
• Auto-critical chance bonus decreased from 30% to 25%

Lock N' Load
• Bonus firerate increased from 30% to 40%

[h3]Recon[/h3]
Dancing Blade
• Bonus damage increased from 30% to 35%

Favorite Weapon
• Bonus damage increased from 25% to 30%
• Bonus reload speed decreased from 25% to 20%

Discipline
• Duration needed to activate decreased from 1.35s to 1.25s
• Now also activates when using your primary ability

Good Fortune
• Auto-critical chance bonus decreased from 12% to 10%

[h3]Engineer[/h3]
Targeting Protocol
• Duration of drone bonus increased from 5s to 6s

[h3]Commando[/h3]
Hot Potato
• Cooldown between weapon throw increased from 3s to 4s

[h3]Ranger[/h3]
Night Shroud
• Duration increased from 6s to 9s
• Bonus armor decreased from 30% to 20%
• Bonus movement speed decreased from 20% to 15%
• Bonus damage increased from 35% to 50%


[h3]Energy Weapons[/h3]
Developers' Note: Read the highlights for more details on these changes.
• You can now press R to force your weapon to overheat
• Added new overheating animations shared by different energy weapons
• All energy weapons regenerates their energy slower
• All energy weapons energy cost has been reduced
• Increased the impact force of all energy weapons
[h3]General[/h3]
• Added a new weapon: Throwing Axe
• Reworked ‘Bubble Splasher’ shoot pattern
[h3]Affixes[/h3]
• Added 4 new affixes
• Removed ‘Trigger Tap’ from the ‘Shock Cannon’ (thanks StoutShakoForTwoRefined, it was indeed pretty useless of an affix on this weapon)
• ‘Warmup’ firerate bonus increased from 20% to 25% (affecting only the affix which can roll randomly on weapons, not the base affix some weapons inherently have)
• ‘Amplifier’ damage bonus for consecutive hits reduced from 60% to 40%
Developers' Note: The Mine Gun and the Pulse Blaster were doing exceptionally well against bosses and that was mainly due to the effects of the Amplifier base affix they both have. Reducing this affix should put them closer to other weapons in terms of efficiency against bosses in particular without hurting their other performances.
[h3]Alt-Fires[/h3]
• All alt-fires that shoots a volley of projectiles have more spread (and therefore should hit more enemies than before while still dealing the same amount of damage per enemy)
[h3]Balance Changes[/h3]
Developers' Note: You will see a lot of buffs and a few nerfs in the next section. We tried to raise a lot of weapons to the level of the average “good-performing” weapons and to tune down the few “godlike-performing” weapons a bit. We followed our statistics, your feedback and our feelings to validate those changes. We will obviously keep monitoring the balance of the game.
[h3]Dual Uzis[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Damage increased from 7.5 to 8.0

[h3]Assault SMG[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Impact force increased from 8.0 to 9.0
• Critical ratio increased from 1.25 to 1.5

[h3]Windmill Rifle[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Damage increased from 11.0 to 13.0
• Impact force increased from 11.0 to 13.0

[h3]Light Machine Gun[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Recoil pattern has been updated
• Damage increased from 13.0 to 15.0
• Impact force increased from 13.0 to 15.0

[h3]Blast SMG[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Damage increased from 10.0 to 11.0
• Impact force increased from 7.0 to 9.0
• Energy cost decreased from 2.75 to 2.25

[h3]Scratch Rifle[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Critical ratio increased from 1.25 to 1.5 Alternative Fire
• Damage increased from 60.0 to 64.0

[h3]Pumping Shotgun[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Damage increased from 12.0 to 14.0

[h3]Sawed-Offs[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Damage increased from 9.0 to 10.0

[h3]Grandma's Shotgun[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Damage increased from 12.0 to 14.0

[h3]Kramer[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Damage increased from 14.0 to 17.0
• Energy cost decreased from 4.5 to 3.0

[h3]Blunderbuss[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Damage increased from 9.0 to 10.0
• Impact force increased from 8.0 to 13.0
• Energy cost decreased from 12.0 to 10.0

[h3]Power Gloves[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Damage increased from 38.0 to 52.0
• Impact force increased from 68.0 to 76.0
• Energy cost decreased from 8.0 to 6.0

[h3]Graviton Launcher[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Damage increased from 50.0 to 52.0
• Impact force increased from 42.0 to 62.0
• Explosion radius increased from 1.0m to 1.2m
• Energy cost decreased from 14.0 to 10.0

[h3]Flare Gun[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Damage increased from 36.0 to 38.0

[h3]Torpedo Gun[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Damage decreased from 12.0 to 11.0

[h3]Mortar[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Impact force increased from 80.0 to 92.0

[h3]Missile Gatling[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Damage increased from 22.0 to 24.0
• Impact force decreased from 35.0 to 26.0

[h3]Throwing Knife[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Damage increased from 25.0 to 28.0
• Impact force increased from 10.0 to 16.0

[h3]Rifle Crossbow[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Critical ratio increased from 1.5 to 1.75

[h3]Revolver[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Critical ratio increased from 1.5 to 2.0
• Removed ‘Bullseye’ as a base affix

[h3]Dual Crossbows[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Damage increased from 30.0 to 36.0
• Impact force increased from 32.0 to 36.0
• Critical ratio decreased from 2.25 to 2.0

[h3]Scout Sniper[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Damage increased from 52.0 to 54.0
• Critical ratio increased from 2.25 to 2.5
• Removed ‘Bullseye’ as a base affix

[h3]Arquebus[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Impact force increased from 26.0 to 40.0
• Critical ratio increased from 1.75 to 2.0
• Energy cost decreased from 15.0 to 10.0

[h3]Sheriff's Carbine[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Damage increased from 53.0 to 55.0
• Impact force increased from 46.0 to 48.0

[h3]Longbow[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Damage increased from 70.0 to 72.0
• Critical ratio increased from 1.5 to 1.75

[h3]Ice Cannon[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Damage increased from 50.0 to 52.0
• Energy cost decreased from 22.0 to 12.0

[h3]Cryo Launcher[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Firerate increased from 4.54/s to 5.0/s
• Energy cost decreased from 6.0 to 3.5

[h3]Fire Gun[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Damage increased from 14.0 to 15.0
• Energy cost decreased from 6.0 to 4.0

[h3]Shock Rifle[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Energy cost decreased from 3.0 to 2.25

[h3]Shock Cannon[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Damage increased from 8.0 to 9.0
• Energy cost decreased from 4.0 to 3.0

[h3]Fire Launcher[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Damage increased from 30.0 to 36.0
• Projectile speed increased from 5600 to 6500
• Energy cost decreased from 8.0 to 7.0

[h3]Junk Beam[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Energy cost decreased from 3.5 to 2.5

[h3]Blast Rifle[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Damage increased from 9.5 to 10.0
• Impact force increased from 7.0 to 9.0

[h3]Assault Rifle[/h3]
• Ammo in clip increased from 30 to 35 Primary Fire
• Damage decreased from 11.0 to 10.0
• Impact force increased from 9.5 to 10.0
• Critical ratio increased from 1.25 to 1.5

[h3]Militia Rifle[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Damage increased from 11.0 to 13.0
• Impact force decreased from 13.0 to 12.0

[h3]Minigun[/h3]
• Ammo in clip decreased from 100 to 80 Primary Fire
• Damage decreased from 10.0 to 9.0

[h3]Blastgun[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Impact force increased from 14.0 to 18.0
• Energy cost decreased from 6.0 to 5.0

[h3]Blast Minigun[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Damage increased from 7.0 to 8.0
• Impact force increased from 5.0 to 7.0
• Energy cost decreased from 1.5 to 1.2

[h3]Dual Guns[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Impact force increased from 10.0 to 12.0
• Critical ratio increased from 1.25 to 1.5

[h3]Blast Shotgun[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Damage increased from 10.0 to 11.0
• Impact force increased from 5.0 to 10.0

[h3]Sulfator Shotgun[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Damage increased from 6.0 to 7.0
• Impact force increased from 10.0 to 11.0

[h3]Laser Saw[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Damage increased from 15.0 to 16.0
• Firerate increased from 2.5/s to 3.12/s
• Projectile speed increased from 7000 to 9000
• Energy cost decreased from 10.0 to 8.0

[h3]Barrel Cannon[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Explosion radius increased from 1.0m to 1.2m

[h3]Rocket Launcher[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Damage increased from 64.0 to 66.0

[h3]Pulse Blaster[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Impact force increased from 4.0 to 14.0
• Energy cost decreased from 3.5 to 2.5

[h3]Flak Cannon[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Damage increased from 16.0 to 18.0
• Impact force increased from 12.0 to 18.0 Alternative Fire
• Damage increased from 70.0 to 72.0
• Impact force increased from 76.0 to 82.0

[h3]Long Rifle[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Damage increased from 36.0 to 40.0
• Impact force increased from 32.0 to 36.0
• Firerate decreased from 3.03/s to 2.77/s
• Critical ratio increased from 1.5 to 2.0
• Removed ‘Bullseye’ as a base affix

[h3]Blast Sniper[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Impact force increased from 26.0 to 42.0
• Energy cost decreased from 12.0 to 10.0

[h3]Dual Blast Guns[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Damage increased from 34.0 to 42.0
• Impact force increased from 26.0 to 38.0
• Firerate increased from 3.12/s to 3.57/s
• Energy cost decreased from 8.0 to 6.0

[h3]Elite Sniper[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Damage increased from 80.0 to 86.0
• Impact force increased from 80.0 to 86.0
• Critical ratio increased from 2.0 to 2.25

[h3]Elite Crossbow[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Damage increased from 52.0 to 56.0
• Critical ratio increased from 1.5 to 1.75

[h3]Blast Palms[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Impact force increased from 15.0 to 17.0
• Energy cost decreased from 4.0 to 3.0

[h3]Assault Sentry[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Damage increased from 18.0 to 20.0

[h3]Ball Cannon[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Impact force increased from 80.0 to 96.0
• Energy cost decreased from 48.0 to 30.0

[h3]Cyclone[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Impact force increased from 32.0 to 46.0 Alternative Fire
• Impact force increased from 90.0 to 110.0

[h3]Blast Arbalest[/h3]
Primary Fire
• Damage increased from 39.0 to 48.0
• Impact force increased from 29.0 to 46.0
• Firerate increased from 2.5/s to 2.77/s
• Energy cost decreased from 10.0 to 8.0


• Added 28 new bazaar items
[h3]Balance Changes[/h3]
Boombox
• Bonus firerate decreased from 35% to 30%

Rice Cooker
• Healing-cell efficiency bonus decreased from 35% to 20%

Ugly Tie
• Bonus damage against bosses decreased from 15% to 10%

Rake
• Bonus damage against turrets decreased from 15% to 10%

Bug Net
• Bonus damage against flying enemies decreased from 15% to 10%

Credit Card
• Chance to refund ammo increased from 8% to 10%
• Ammo refunded decreased from 2 to 1
• Energy refunded decreased from 6% to 2%

Party Popper
• Chance to drop a healing cell increased from 2.25% to 3%

Olive-Oil Bottle
• Bonus reload speed increased from 7% to 10%

Claw String
• No longer reduces health
• Bonus melee damage decreased from 30% to 10%

Knight Banner
• Bonus armor increased from 10% to 15%

Atomic Radish
• Rocket-jump damage increased from 60 to 65
• Rocket-jump explosion radius decreased from 1600 to 800

Super Sandwich
• Bonus duration increased from 2s to 6s
• Bonus movement speed increased from 20% to 25%

Toy Helicopter
• Rocket-jump damage increased from 20 to 65
• Rocket-jump impact force increased from 20 to 75

Artishock
• Now has a chance to stun you when you take damage rather than when dealing shock damage
• Bonus damage decreased from 30% to 20%
• Chance to stun upon taking damage increased from 1.5% to 5%

Snow Globe
• Now always deals cryo damage to enemies attacking you
• Chance to freeze upon taking damage increased from 3% to 10%
• Freeze rate increased from 2 to 2.5 (freezes more efficiently)

Bonsaï Tree
• Bonus auto-critical chance decreased from 25% to 20%

Dragonfly Ball
• Healing-cell efficiency decreased from 100% to 40%
• Now reduces Healing cell duration by 30% instead of 50%

Hero Knee Pads
• Firing grenades no longer has a cooldown


• Added the visuals for Bazaar Bob (he’s now a polite and gentle monsieur)


• Completely overhauled the basecamp map, size, buildings visuals and placement
• Added 7 visual levels for the basecamp buildings (each have 7 different appearances based on your level and many other aspects of the basecamp will evolve alongside them)
Developers' Note: For now, you will only witness the visual evolution when going back into the map after you leveled up your basecamp through purchasing upgrades. Later down the road, you will probably get to experience it on-the-fly.
[h3]Upgrades[/h3]
• The upgrade ‘Lottery Ticket’ level 2 now grants a chance to find 2 powercells in Max’ Chests


• ‘Safety Helmet’ now grants Armor instead of Health
Developers' Note: ‘Yoyo design’, remember?

• Added several new enemies: Firepawn, Ghostpawn, Hatfly, Larvabug, Goliath Larvabug, Firepod and Elitepawn (4 variations)
• Added a new boss in the random pool of Act 1 bosses
• Updated the size of several different enemies
Developers' Note: Shouldn’t change much from a gameplay perspective aside from being just a tiny bit easier to shoot at. This change was mainly a subsequent change of the player-character height change.
• Increased ‘Bullfly’ impact resistance
• Movement prediction on enemies such as the ‘Shockpod’ (and other ground area patterns) reduced to make them easier to dodge when moving at full speed
• The ‘Shotgun’ pattern of Goliath enemies changed to more of a ‘Gatling’ pattern to reduce the number of projectiles being spawned at once (therefore reducing the performance overload)
Developers' Note: We therefore reworked the pattern a bit and it should even be a little more interesting to play around (in terms of movement skills).
[h3]Elite Enemies[/h3]
• Elite enemies are different variations of the new enemy ‘Elitepawn’
• Based on your current difficulty level, a certain number of elite enemies will spawn in each level (starting from the very beginning)
• Elite enemies won’t appear on Standard difficulty and below
Developers' Note: View the patch highlights for more details.
[h3]Bosses[/h3]
[h3]Dr. Turret[/h3]
• Laser speed rotation has been decreased
• Fire area damage reduced but now deals burn damage (I mean… like walking into a literal burning area would)
• Replaced its mortar attack by an homing missile attack
[h3]Judgeball[/h3]
• Mine hitbox detection, explosion and visual effects aligned to better reflect their actual danger zone
• Removed the shockwave from the artillery pattern
• Laser bars and laser blasts from the artillery pattern have more spread (leaving more room to move left and right)
• Reduced charge speed acceleration
• Increased preshoot timings for most attacks
[h3]Uncle Jim[/h3]
• The duration of its head-helmet protection has been reduced
• Missile attack preshoot time decreased from 1.5s to 1s


• Removed the hidden upgrade in ‘Oasis’
• Fully reworked ‘Haven-City’ and ‘Haven-City’ corrupted visuals
• Removed the dead-end containing enemies in ‘Haven-City’
• Added easier access to ‘Haven-City’ heights
• Added new railings in ‘Haven-City’ heights
Developers' Note: These 3 previous changes should make backtracking in ‘Haven-City’ less frequent and the entire level faster to travel therefore reducing the amount of time spent in ‘Haven-City’ overall.
• Reworked the corruption visuals (you know, these purplish thingy things)
• Reworked the enemy line-up of all levels (following the introduction of new enemies)
• Added 2 Goliath enemies in ‘Haven-City Corrupted’ (you don’t have to take them down to unlock the door to the boss)
• Added 1 Goliath enemy in ‘Quarry’
• Added 2 Goliath enemies in ‘Fields’
• Added ‘Larvabug’ as an enemy in ‘Oasis’ (it’s a huge enemy, but less threatening than usual Goliaths)
• Reduced the frequency of Flashflies encounter in ‘Ruins’
• Reduced the frequency of Leashbots encounter in ‘Fields’
• Reduced the enemy density in ‘Fields’ battle room
• Added new challenge rooms everywhere


• Max no longer talks through the dialogue bubble in the top-right corner (except in the tutorial level)
• Max now talks using a 3D bubble above its head when you meet her in the different levels, approaching her will pop-up the bubble and allow you to read it
• Updated all Max dialogues
Developers' Note: This is just the very first step of the integration of a more ‘final’ experience for the story elements. Do not be surprised if Max tells you about things you already know or have already completed as the new system is based on your game progression (and the dialogue system starts fresh: he considers you as a new player). We will be monitoring your feedback and reactions to this new system and update it accordingly.

• Entirely reworked the Class Selector interface
• Added an option to remove the white-flash damage indicator on enemies when dealing damage to them
• Added a colored frame to the text popping in when interacting with ingame shop
• Switched the colored frame to red when you don’t have enough powercells to interact with ingame shops
• Switched the stun interface from displaying arrows to displaying movement keys
• Updated the key design of the stun interface to also displays the movement direction
• Increased the size of the screen-space available when being flashed
• Added new elements and polished the end-level and end-game screen
Developers' Note: This is just the first step in improving these screens, we’re thinking of adding more elements and information including but not limited to the scores and figures of your run as well as detailed information regarding your build.

• Updated the attachment point of all enemy invulnerable bubbles (one by one, by hand, with love and passion for the task)
• Updated the tail indicator on enemy invulnerable bubble
• Updated enemy projectile, trails, muzzle flash and laser color
• Updated challenge rooms laser and projectiles color
• Updated ‘Flare Gun’ explosion and added elemental variations
• Improved ‘Bullfly’ preshot visual effects
• Added a pulsing shield visual effect to ‘Judgeball’ shielding pillars
• Reworked overheating visual effect for all weapons
• Added a Burn and Cryo variations of enemy explosions
• Updated explosion and trail visuals effects of the enemy homing projectiles
• Updated explosive barrels visuals in ‘Quarry’

Developers' Note: Audio has been ongoing several in-depth changes regarding spatialization (spatial recognition), attenuation (range recognition), concurrency (managing multiple instances of the same sound) and mix (the overall balance of volume between the different sounds of the game). While it should be healthier for the game in the long-run (both in terms of future implementation as well as future game experience), it also means that things might sound a bit different than before (and maybe a bit broken). We will be monitoring this and taking appropriate measures to fix and improve that.
• Reworked the importance of interface sounds within the global mix
• Modified interface sounds volume ducking depending on music volume
• Reworked the attenuation settings for all the different sound categories
• Reworked the concurrency settings of all sounds in the game
Developers' Note: This was particularly important for all older devices which are unable to render more than 32 sounds at once. Changing the concurrency settings will make sure to never reach that limit (and also prevent our ears from exploding if one sound would be spawned a dozen times at once).
• Added some missing explosion sounds for both players and enemies
• Added some missing enemy sounds regarding attack animations and shoots
• Added or tweaked enemy projectile impact and travel sounds
• Normalized interface sound volumes
• Reworked button hover sound (new one should sound way more pleasing)
• The level ambient sound now also plays during loading screen and end-game screen
• Added a “mega land” sound that plays when landing from a very high spot
• Added a sound for the triple-jump to make it sound different than the double-jump
• Updated destructible sounds
• Added some missing sounds on several perks, items and status effects


• Fixed an issue with the ‘Electro Punishment’ perk which made it trigger against Frozen enemies rather than Stunned ones
• Other numerous bug fixes


• Some languages still have missing localization

Roboquest Devblog #11 - The Winter Update

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):

[h3]Recon[/h3]
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

[h3]Sentinel[/h3]
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:

[h3]Mouse inputs not registering[/h3]
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.

[h3]CPU overheating[/h3]
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).

[h3]Loss of performance[/h3]
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!

Roboquest - Hotfix 0.11.2

Hello everyone!

We just released a new and small hotfix today.

Here's the list of changes:

Gameplay

• 'Assault Sentry' can no longer roll the 'Fragmentation' affix (which didn't have any effect on it)
• Added 'Pierce' as a base affix on the 'Cyclone' (it was already piercing but it wasn't referenced by the tooltip)

Levels

• Fixed an arena door that could be blocking you forever in Ruins

Bugfix

• Fixed an issue where bubble sentry would fail to spawn a bubble for new sentries
• Fixed an issue (another one) with basecamp upgrades failing to display the right feedback when purchasing them or preventing you from purchasing them
• Fixed a crash that could occur after choosing a perk
• Rank icon images in the difficulty selector (basecamp) are no longer distorted / low quality

And that's all for this hotfix, happy robot smashing everyone :)



Roboquest Discord - https://discord.gg/roboquest
Roboquest Website - http://www.roboquest.com/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/RoboquestGame
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/RoboquestGame/
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiusIjcrkm3HrAESaKZALYQ

If you have a question about the game, you can find the FAQ here on the Steam forums. And if your question is not answered there, make sure to ask us in the community forums or on our Discord server (where you can interact directly with us!).

Roboquest - Hotfix 0.11.1

Howdy Guardians!

We're obviously hard at work on the next update and we're also still cooking that sweat devblog some of you might be waiting for. In the meantime, we definitely needed to fix some of those pesky bugs that were hindering your gameplay experience, so here's a small hotfix for the Autumn update.

You can find the list of changes below as well as a quick note at the end regarding some of the more problematic issues you've been reporting.

Gameplay

• 'Long Rifle' can no longer roll the 'Bullseye' affix
• When 'Long Rifle' rolls the 'Explosive' affix, it now triggers every 3 shots instead of 2

Optimization

• Improved the performance cost of some materials and textures
• 'Uncle Jim' should no longer be shaking like crazy on client
• 'Uncle Jim' lava floor should now be synchronized for both the server and client players

Bugfix

• Speculative crash fixes occurring when: dropping a weapon, destroying a flying enemy, destroying a rail bot
• Fixed a crash occurring when you'd join a multiplayer game while your brobot was already riding a trail
• Fixed a bug where purchasing a basecamp upgrade while having the exact required amount of wrenches required to buy it would prevent you from purchasing it (but still update the tooltip as if you'd have purchased it)
• 'Safety Trick' protective bubble will no longer prompt the interactive text 'Reboot your Brobot' while getting close to your brobot in multiplayer
• Added several logs to several crashes and bugs we're currently tracking

Known Issues
Developers' Note: We're tracking the issues below. We know they are heavily hindering your gameplay experience (or straight up preventing you to play) and we are following your reports on that side with a lot of attention. We're sorry for the inconvenience and are working on it. But they aren't as 'easy-to-fix' as most bugs and crashes because they are sometimes tied to our game engine or to a specific combination of specs on your side (motherboard / graphic card for instance). And that requires us to expand our testing environment to figure out a way to fix them on our end.
Mouse inputs not registering (you're unable to shoot) - Make sure to run your game in Fullscreen for the time being, if the issue persists, it means it's probably an input recording bug on our end and we're currently tracking it
Loss of performance since the autumn update - We're still unsure what can be causing this since our work on the performance side of things should obviously have improved them rather than deteriorate them, we're on the hunt
High CPU temperature - This is a long-lasting issue and the more we learn about performances and the more we improve them, the closer we'll be to finding a solution to that. For the time being and even if we know it isn't convenient to follow such a workaround, you can find a temporary solution here
Missing basecamp visuals - This isn't an issue per-se but many of you have been voicing their deception when discovering the current state of the basecamp. Rest assured that this is just temporary! The 3D basecamp will be back prettier than ever! more explanations on that side in our next devblog

That's it for this hotfix, see you soon Guardians and in the meantime, happy robot bashing!



Roboquest Discord - https://discord.gg/roboquest
Roboquest Website - http://www.roboquest.com/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/RoboquestGame
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/RoboquestGame/
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiusIjcrkm3HrAESaKZALYQ

If you have a question about the game, you can find the FAQ here on the Steam forums. And if your question is not answered there, make sure to ask us in the community forums or on our Discord server (where you can interact directly with us!).