Hello there!
The Autumn Update (v0.2.0) is now live![h3]Roboquest will be on sale for the Steam Autumn Sales (starting 11/25/2020, 10am Pacific Time).[/h3]Before we dive into the highlights of the patch, we wanted to thank you for the huge amount of feedback we received. While we might not always be answering them, we’re reading everything, whether that’d be on Discord, on Steam or through the F10 built-in report system. So keep it coming!
Also, a special thanks to all the playtesters who dived into the playtest branch with dedication and an incredibly good mood, it really motivated and helped us.
Now, here are the highlights of the changes coming into this update:
Patch Highlights
[h2]Guardian & Commando[/h2]
Two “new” loadouts come into play: one is a reworked Guardian (new ability) and the other is a Commando inheriting the previous Guardian ability and a brand new melee attack.
[h2]Quarry[/h2]
The Quarry is a new level reachable in Act 1.
[h2]Aqua Station[/h2]
The Aqua Station is a new level reachable in Act 2.
[h2]Gameplay Changes[/h2]
Numerous changes regarding health, cooperation and weapon abilities but not only.
And that’s it for the highlights, you can find below a comprehensive list of changes for the Autumn update:
Patch Notes 0.2.0
🍉
Community Requests & Suggestions[h2]Localization[/h2]
• Fixed many Portugese Brazilian and Russian typos and over-extended text
🍉 Added new Cyrillic font for stylized texts and titles
• The Italian translation is missing several terms, the community members in charge of those languages are working towards getting them ready as soon as possible.
• As usual but not to forget, we thank Awneeon, Bandicoot, Filippo, Flo, Luciifero, Ria and Tryyton for their translation work!
[h2]Interface[/h2]
• We removed the “Estimated Time before Update” in the landing menu. Not only was it creating unnecessary pressure on our side, it was creating false expectations on yours and made us unable to modulate our schedule
• Clicking off the window in Borderless and Windowed display mode will no longer minimize the game
[h2]Levels[/h2]
[h3]Quarry (New!)[/h3]
• New Level: Quarry added with its own roster of enemies including new unique ones
• The Quarry is an alternative road in the Act 1
[h3]Aqua Station (New!)[/h3]
• New Level: Aqua Station added with its own roster of enemies including new unique ones
• The Aqua Station is an alternative road in the Act 2
[h3]Platform Challenge (New!)[/h3]
• Several platform challenges have been added to the game (overall with bigger scale than before)
[h2]General Gameplay[/h2]
Developer’s note: With the major changes regarding the health system and enemy metrics, the game should feel more challenging than before and health will be a more important resource.
[h3]Health (Reworked)[/h3]
• Enemy damage has been increased
• You no longer loot health pickups on enemies when low on health
• Now, a part of the health you lose when taking damage is stored in a “damage bar”
• Looting cells restores a part of the health stored within your “damage bar”
• The “damage bar” decreases over time
• You will always be able to heal up to a certain threshold of your health
Developer’s note: We felt like health and experience pickups were kind of overlapping and we read several comments going in that same direction. Therefore we decided to rework the health system to promote forward combat more than before and to unify health and experience pickups.
[h3]Shield (New)[/h3]
• Various perks and effects grant you “Shield”
• When taking damage, shield is removed in priority over health
• Shield doesn’t regenerate by itself, each effect granting shield has a condition of replenishment (for instance: using the Repair-o-bot)
[h3]Choose One Rewards[/h3]
• Rewards in platform challenges are now “choose one” rewards, meaning you can only pick one of each type and the rest will disappear
[h3]Attribute Changes[/h3]
• Assault and Technology secondary bonus have been modified
• Assault now increases Explosion size instead of Melee damage
• Technology now increases Elemental damage instead of Explosion size
[h3]Key & Door Feedback[/h3]
• Locked doors now have a visual representation of the key they require
• The keys you can pick up have been made more noticeable
[h3]Tutorial Update[/h3]
🍉 Added a “choose your crosshair” panel (choosing from lowered to centered)
[h3]Gamefeel[/h3]
Critical Spots• All enemies’ critical spots have been updated and should feel easier to hit
Aim Sensitivity• Sensitivity values and curve settings have been modified and should be easier to setup and feel more logical
Gamepad
Developer’s note: The gamepad is something we didn’t tweak much, this update brings a few improvements but rest assured that we plan to tweak it more further down the line.
🍉 Various improvements have been made regarding projectile registering and sensitivity modulation
• Sensitivity magnet strength is modulated based on your current velocity
• Mouse acceleration is toggled based on your current velocity
• We plan to add: haptics, mouse acceleration modulation, magnet slider setting, anti big miss system and better sensitivity curves for low-end gamepads
[h2]Bosses[/h2]
• Bosses no longer loot cells when taking damage, instead they loot a lot at the end of the combat
Developer’s note: That mechanic was previously necessary to reload your ability, but it’s no longer the case. In addition, it was necessary to remove that mechanic because of the healing potential. Finally, it feels way better to loot many cells in the end of the combat rather than a few here and there.
[h3]Sir Catercoaster (Removed)[/h3]
• For the time being, you will no longer encounter Sir Catercoaster at the end of the Energy Center
Developer’s note: We tried to rework him for this update but unfortunately we felt like he was still not fun enough and we prefer to polish him more before showing it to you.
[h3]Dr. Turret (New!)[/h3]
• Instead of Sir Catercoaster, you can meet Dr. Turret as the new contender of the Energy Center
[h2]Loadouts[/h2]
[h3]Guardian (Reworked)[/h3]
• The “Guardian” base loadout has been modified and features a different ability (he keeps his melee attack)
Developer’s note: Remember that we plan to add a “Loadout Creator” in the future to mix and match the different abilities and melee attacks, so you’ll get to relive the old Guardian fashion!
Barrier (Ability)
• Hold and release to spawn an energy barrier blocking all incoming projectiles
Perks• Added new Barrier related perks to the Guardian perk pool
• Removed old Rocket related perks from the Guardian perk pool
[h3]Commando (New!)[/h3]
• The “Commando” is a new unlockable base loadout
• You have to destroy 1000 enemy robots to unlock it
Rocket (Ability)• The Commando naturally inherits the “Rocket” ability from the old Guardian (their identities were too overlapping and this was mainly due to the Rocket)
Shorty (Melee)
• Unlike other melee attacks, the Shorty is a quick shotgun blast with a short cooldown. We will continue to diversify the “melee attacks” following that direction
• The shorty does bullet damage and has a shotgun-like spread with a short range
Perks• Added old Rocket related perks to the Commando perk pool
• Added new Shorty related perks to the Commando perk pool
[h3]Melee Attacks[/h3]
• Most melee attacks have received tweaks to their metrics to follow the global system changes
[h3]Perks (General)[/h3]
• Many perks have been removed from the game
• Many perks have been added to the game
Developer’s Note: Perks are something we’re always monitoring and trying to improve. Expect continuous changes and improvements to them.
[h3]Reroll Token[/h3]
• You can now purchase a meta reward granting you “reroll tokens” at the beginning of each run
• You can use these tokens to reroll your perk choices
[h2]Weapons[/h2]
[h3]Weapon Abilities[/h3]
• Weapons no longer have a secondary fire with limited ammunition, instead they have an ability with a fixed amount of charges and a cooldown
• Ammo pickups have been removed from the game
• Tweaked various weapon abilities metrics
Developer’s note: The pace at which we were able to use the weapon abilities was pretty intense when full of ammunition and scarce when not, which did not feel great. In addition, balancing the amount of ammo recovered “per pickup, per weapon” was close to impossible for weapons as different as the assault sentry and the rebel rifle. Limited ammunition regeneration was also an issue when it came to boss fights. Transforming this system into a cooldown and stack based one not only feels better to use and fixes the boss issues, it also harmonizes the loadout and weapon ability systems (which now both use a time-based cooldown).
[h3]New / Reworked Weapons[/h3]
Cryo Launcher
• The Cryo Launcher has received its model and animation set
• In addition, its primary fire has been redesigned to feel better to use and to better suit its visual design
Unreal Gun• The Unreal Gun is now a Technology / Precision weapon
• Its primary fire has been slightly modified to reflect this change (slower firerate, high crit. bonus and flat damage)
• Its ability (secondary fire) has been rebalanced to shift back some of its power towards triggering the explosion of the ability with the primary fire
[h3]Cooling Weapons[/h3]
• The heat cost of most weapon primary fires have been reduced
• Weapon abilities no longer have a heat cost
• It takes longer to cool down your weapons
Developer’s note: These changes should make cooling weapons feel better to use overall but especially when trying to remain at certain heat levels (it gives more “range” to play).
[h3]Affixes[/h3]
Heavy• New affix: “Heavy: Reduces movement speed while shooting”
Developer’s note: Several weapons have “Heavy” by default, it felt “right” for these weapons to slow the player down and it made us able to ramp-up their damage in a way that felt more satisfying and logical for such weapons (the Rocket Launcher for example).
System Changes• Weapons are less likely to have affixes
• Average and maximum amount of affixes on the same weapon reduced
Affix Pool Changes• Several affixes have been removed from the affix pool (they were either outdated due to system changes or felt too simple, not exciting enough)
• Several affixes have been added to the affix pool
[h3]Weapon Rebalance[/h3]
• Most weapons have received tweaks to their metrics to follow the global system changes
[h2]Cooperation[/h2]
Developer’s note: The game should no longer be as easy as it was in 2-p cooperation.
[h3]Local Loot[/h3]
• Except for cells, all rewards (chests and other interactive objects) are now local, meaning they are all your “own” and you can no longer “steal” them from your brobot (even unintentionally)
• You can drop weapons for your brobot
• You can’t drop cores for your brobot
[h3]Enemies[/h3]
• There are more enemies
• Enemies have a bit less health and their scaling ratios seem more logical (small enemies scale less than big ones)
[h3]Revive Rework[/h3]
🍉 Revive no longer removes a part of both characters’ maximum health, instead it removes half of the current health
• Revive is now called “Reboot” :)
[h2]Basecamp[/h2]
• Basecamp and wrenches have not been reset, if you experience any issue, please reset your account and report it to us
[h3]Basecamp Level[/h3]
• You now have a basecamp level depending on how many wrenches you invested in persistent upgrades
• The basecamp level is now the requirement of several upgrades and grants access to the Engineer loadout (at level 4)
[h3]Layout[/h3]
• The overall layout of the interactive object in the basecamp have changed and should be quicker to navigate
Developer’s note: We plan to do a major overhaul of the basecamp further down the road and this is just a temporary fix.
[h3]Wrench Cost[/h3]
• The wrench cost of most upgrades have increased to tend towards unlocking 1 or 2 upgrades per run and not 3 or 4, effectively increasing the game lifespan but also the pleasure to unlock and experience each upgrade
• The speed at which you collect wrenches at Act 1 has been increased and reduced at Act 2
[h3]New Rewards[/h3]
• Weapon affix rewards have been slightly modified and an additional level is available
• A new “Reroll Token” upgrade is available with 3 levels
[h2]Audio[/h2]
[h3]New Sounds[/h3]
• Many new sounds have been imported (for bosses, enemies, weapons, player movement…)
• Many missing sounds have been fixed (noticeably when dealing damage or destroying enemies using elemental weapons)
• You will notice that numerous game elements are missing sounds for this update, they will be added in the next one
[h3]Cooling Weapon Pitch[/h3]
🍉 Most cooling weapons now properly have their sound pitch more and more as they heat
[h3]Juice (Critical, Kill, Xp, Hit)[/h3]
• Destroying an enemy robot now triggers a specific “frag” sound, fragging several enemies in a row will pitch that sound further
• The sound triggered when collecting cells has been slightly modified to feel a little bit more rewarding
• Hit and Critical Hit sounds have been slightly modified
[h3]Improvements[/h3]
General Mix• The overall mix has been modified
🍉 Music volume slightly reduced and fade in added in landing and loading screens
Spatialization• Implemented various missing systems to better determine how sounds should be spatialized, this includes but not limited to: your brobot sounds, your own sounds, projectile impacts and enemy sounds in general
• Non-gameplay elements and non-critical gameplay elements should be less present and important ones should be more perceivable
Concurrencies• Implemented a better concurrency system to prevent the same sound to play multiple times at the same frame, effectively doubling (or sometimes tripling) its volume
[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]
• Killing a boss in the same time he kills you will no longer result in a draw, locking you in the boss room in the process. You are declared winner instead now :D
• Fixed an issue that would prevent you from earning Wrenches at the end of the game
• Shooting through the Barrier will no longer make your projectiles pass through the ground if you selected the “Tactical Window” perk
• Battle rooms should no longer lock themselves (with you inside)
• Water slopes in challenge rooms get properly cleansed when you validated the challenge
• The Toybox no longer resets your weapon level
• You should no longer hear a second reload sound when dropping a weapon you just reloaded
• Diggy Mole should no longer leave the arena when going underground
• Critical calculation are now additive instead of multiplicative
