Evolvation
Upcoming official release
Since 23 August 2016 Evolvation has been available on steam as an early access game. The last couple of months we made a lot of improvements to the original game such as bots, controller support, stability improvements and many more!
Due to these changes the game is now in good state which is stable and most importantly fun to play! That is why we have decided to release the game on the 6th of February. The final release will add some highly desired features from our community to the game, so stay tuned! Note that we will keep improving the game to improve stability, fix bugs and more.
Fly safe!
Kind regards,
Jacob Kooijman
On behalf of the HyperReuts team
Improved stability and Linux support!
The last few weeks we have been busy adding support for Linux and improving the overall stability of the game.
We always wanted to support Linux, since we think that Linux users are still a very relevant user group and should be able to play this game. We did test our Linux build quite extensively, but there could be issues regarding Linux that wouldn't occur on a Windows environment, please report them on our bug report forum if you encounter any!
During playtesting we noticed some big issues for users with mediocre internet connections, hence we tried to improve the network performance of the game. For technical enthousiasts it might be interesting how we actually did that, otherwise simply skip the next alinea.
We first started using a network lag simulation tool which can easily simulate high latency situations or situations where a lot of packets are dropped. This enabled us to simulate clients that have mediocre internet connections without much trouble and easily see how far we could push it. In the end we managed to bring down our network use by about 50% by using a networking profiler to trace which communications used the most bandwidth. Afterwards we went further, since we noticed that in case of high packet loss situations some data was not send correctly between host and clients. In the current state we can easily deal with 5% packet loss in combination with a ping of about 200, although it is of course noticable during gameplay. The game starts to react slower and the position of your enemies is not completely up to date in those situations.
We also noticed that our controller support was not completely stable. We improved this and we now really have 100% controller support. If you still find issues regarding this, please let us know on our forums!
Kind regards and happy flying!
Jacob Kooijman
On behalf of the HyperReuts team
Critical bugs fixed!
We are most sorry for the inconvenience any bugs have caused. But we are happy to announce most of them are now fixed and the game is fully playable!
For instance, the initial data was not enough to buy a Spaceship. Due to a fault within our data model new players were not able to play at all:Explosion_Blast:. This issue has come to us by the player Anti-Ant. We are most thankful for his help and would like to thank him very very much for reporting this issue.
Also, most replication issues are now fixed and games can be joined and hosted without any problem (Nearly always). A good tip: If you are hosting a game, do not stream 2K video’s in the meantime :P This will saturate your network and the game would be unplayable.
Besides that, the videos within the tutorial menu were not working. This is now fixed!
If you find any other issues. Please do not hesitate to contact us! You can do this via the community hub. Or add me to your contact list and contact me personally.
With the kindest regards and happy flying!:Spaceship_Ride:
Eric Ruts
On behalf of the HyperReuts team
Update and critical issues
Some very important issues:Explosion_Blast: are fixed in an incremental update.
However, some other very critical issues are present regarding our host/client model. Untill the next update, we advise you not to join any games, only host them.
Happy flying:Spaceship_Ride: and with the kindest regards,
Eric Ruts
On behalf of the HyperReuts team
PS. Don't forget to make a configuration in your hangar environment! If you do not know how, please see:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZAX5xWNQKo&t
Evolvation 1.0.3 is here: Class abilities, Tutorials
Hi there Pilots!
Another major update for Evolvation! Version 1.0.3 is here and includes lots of improvements! For instance, the community gave us feedback about that the controls could be hard to learn and asked for a tutorial. We are happy to announce that the requested tutorial is present within this version! The tutorial includes the basics of flying up to how to configure your own spaceship.
Furthermore, all the class abilities are now present! Each spaceship has a primary and a secondary class ability. The class abilities are:
Tank
Primary: A Powershield which decreases incoming damage.
Secondary: Dropping a mine which explodes when an enemy is near with a large explosion radius.
Support
Primary: Dropping a support package which contains primary and secondary ammo, health, energy, data, and flares. In the game mode Free for all the package will be directly assigned to itself.
Secondary: A “Support sphere”. If a teammate (and of course yourself) is within this sphere, they will be healed for a certain amount. However, if it is an enemy, they will receive some damage.
Stealth
Primary: Invisibility
Secondary: Dropping an electrical web. If an enemy flies through it, the energy will shut down for a couple of seconds which causes the spaceship to be uncontrollable.
Fighter
Primary: Damage bonus
Secondary: Normally, when locking an enemy, you will have to wait until the target is completely locked. With this ability you are able to fire three rockets to your enemy even though you only have started to lock your target.
Highspeed
Primary: A short power boost which enables the ship to make some special maneuvers
Secondary: A warp boost which will bring your spaceship to the end of the level in a matter of seconds.
Also, within this update, start-up times and issues are improved. However, if this causes problems for existing users they should delete the appdata of Evolvation which is stored at a windows computer at: %appdata%/../Local/EvolvationFinal
This folder should be completely deleted to prevent some start-up issues.
Of course a lot more is improved, added and fixed! Check out the game and let us know what you think!
Happy flying!:Spaceship_Ride:
Eric Ruts
On behalf of the HyperReuts team
Development update: Tutorials, joystick support and many more
Hereby we would like to inform you with our current developments! We are working hard towards Evolvation 1.0.3.
We have nearly finished our full joystick support, and steam controller support. When we release the new update, Evolvation is compatible with keyboard, mouse, Xbox controller, Steam controller and joystick (Hotas)! So everyone is able to play with their own controller preference!
We are also nearly done with the reconfigurable controls. The controls were reconfigurable, but contained some bugs. These are now fixed. For instance, configuring inverted controls is now quite easy. Besides that, presets for the controls are nearly done. Including the new controllers! At the new update, you will also be able to configure and save your own customized preset.
Currently, Evolvation is missing a tutorial. We have created some videos to give you a little head start, but now we are busy creating an extensive in-game tutorial. These tutorials aim to make you completely prepared for conquering the galaxy and you will be able to follow them at your own pace and select your own tutorial subject. For this tutorial, a special environment is developed with new shaders. View a preview of the test environment for the tutorials here:
We hope we informed you sufficiently with our development progress. Of course, a lot more is going on, and these points are just some of the highlights.
Happy flying!
Kind regards,
Eric Ruts
On behalf of the HyperReuts team
Release notes Evolvation 1.0.2
Check out this huge update!
New features/improvements
- AI released with many options including:
- Possibility to setup the difficulty of the AI (easy, medium, hard or auto)
- Different AI classes with random configurations for each AI
- The AI uses all possible in game actions such as flares, locking, boost and class abilities
- Each AI has a different and unique name
- The XP bonus and data bonus from AI’s depends on the difficulty of the AI
- Possibility to setup the difficulty of the AI (easy, medium, hard or auto)
- Overhaul of the scoreboard at the end of the game to display the top players and give information about the next map
- Pickups now are attracted to the player when nearby to make it easier to take pickups
- The default key bind to chat has been changed from the C key to T key to prevent accidently entering the chat while playing
- Several presets for key binds are now provided to make it easier to change key binds for several standard configurations, including a mouse preset
- Several FX (special effects) improvements such as: The engine trail, distortion waves, explosions and level boundaries and much more!
- When leaving the level boundaries an green indicator named ‘map’ appears to guide the player back to the map
- Removed several unused features from the game to prevent confusion
- Map designs improvements such as: better spawn locations for team based gameplay and object placement
- New game mode: Capture the Hyperdrive! (The game mode works similar to the familiar game mode Capture the flag, but now in space!)
Bug fixes
- You are now not able to join a game without configuration; the exception here is joining via invite, which requires going back to the menu.
- The number of remaining flares on a ship is now correctly shown and calculated
- The loading screen now always displays the correct map name
- Killing streaks now correctly resets when switching maps
- The countdown when flying out of the level bounds now shows the correct values
- If all sounds are disabled the engine sound is now correctly disabled as well
- Lighting distortion on some objects is fixed
- Homing missiles are now correctly rotated in the direction they are flying
Known issues
- AI in capture the HyperDrive is not working correctly
It is hard to understand the first steps of the game without a tutorial
Crosshair is not the specific aim point for forward thrust in third person - Mouse controls do not work as required
- At respawn, the game freezes sometimes on particular systems
- Start-up can take a couple of minutes with black screen. This typically occurs only the first few times.
- In the hangar, some weapons go through the ground.
- Kill achievements do not work properly
- Focus issues in menu, such as the pop-up at first startup
- If a second screen is connected, resolution bugs can occur. This can result in no control of your spaceship. Workaround: Change resolution in game and apply settings.
- Switching teams in lobby is unclear and can result into bugs such as the same player present in both teams
- If chatting in the lobby, focus issues might appear.
- All servers in the server list have a ping of 9999
- The engine of the stealth ships are still in stealth mode after the stealth is finished.
- Class abilities stats are not present
- If an achievement is reached and the game is over, the achievement is shown behind the end-game screen.
- Collision problems, hitbox of spaceship seems incorrect in some cases.
- Sometimes after being eliminated, the locking indicator is still active
- Class ability of the Highspeed does not increase the max speed
- If the scoreboard is toggled to show while loading the next map it is impossible to hide the scoreboard (until the next game)
What’s next?
- Clan support such as clan names
- You should be able to distinguish yourself as a member of a clan. Join games together, and enter tournaments. Add new members to your clan in a convenient clan hangar, and hang out together. It is more fun to play with friends!
- Joystick support (Hotas)
- Everyone should be able to use the controller of their choice. A joystick will provide alternative controls, perfect for another gaming experience of Evolvation.
- Maps
More maps allow everyone to show out their skills and will challenge the player to adopt to the diverse environments. - Spaceships
- We aim to develop more ships to let everyone pick one of their choice. It is undefined to which class the ships will belong.
- Gamemodes
- More gamemodes need to be created particularly to enhance multiplayer gameplay. The gamemodes should let all the maps and space ship abilities come together to make a challenging game.
- Matchmaking
- More control in the host screen will let you set up a match which has restrictions for the players that can join.
- Quickmatch
- Features such as automatic pooling should be implemented in the quickmatch, to let players land in games which are both challenging and enjoyable.
- Fairness indicator
- Games in the serverlist should have an indication how experienced the players are to enable you to decide which game you want to join.
- Steam achievements
- Steam achievement incorporation will allow you and other players to keep track of your achievements.
- Dedicated servers
- Kick player from game
- Inactive players or those who are ruining the gameplay of Evolvation can be voted for to get kicked out of the match. Use and abuse of this function will be tracked to ensure the best gameplay possible.
- Voting system next map
- Players should have the freedom to skip a map.
- Linux build
- Extended support of more platforms will allow more people to play Evolvation.
- Mouse control improvements
- Currently Evolvation supports but is not optimized for mouse control.
- Improvements will make the mouse feel like a familiar and conventional addition to the game controls.
- Steam controller support
- The steam controller is not yet supported but we aim to provide this option.
- Customizable spaceships e.g. colour selection, decal placement.
- Features such as customizable colours of your ship will make it distinguishable and to your liking.
- Extra weapons
- A range of weapons will allow you to pick a weapon that suits your playing style.
- Stability improvements
- Achievements overview improvement
- The overview should be clear and structured
- Class abilities improvement
- It may be difficult to understand and use the class abilities to their maximum.
- Stat balance improvement such as damage, health, bonuses from upgrades etc.
- Tutorial
A clear tutorial is needed to introduce players to the game. Guiding players through the process of buying and configuring their first spaceship to let them started to get the most out of Evolvation. - Resolution improvements, some items are not aligned properly in the UI.
Improve the structure of the complete GUI - Small single player mode
- Private team message
Implement a private chat to discuss everything you don’t want to share with your enemy. - Ability to select default configuration
- In the lobby or when joining in game the default configuration should be selected to provide a faster start of the game.
- Lobby redesign
- Improve the lobby design to be more intuitive and provide more settings such as switching teams.
- Server list redesign
- Improve the server list to include filters and make the list sortable
- Host screen redesign
- Improve the server list to include filters and make the list sortable
- Improve menu background (Flying spaceships)
- The background should be more interesting and have a more personalised feeling
- In game stats menu improvements
- You should be able to quickly look up your statistics in a clear and concise overview
Note: It is possible that some features, improvements, todos or bugs are missing. Please let us know if you miss something important!
We hope you enjoy this version!
Firstlook Festival summary
This weekend we were at the firstlook festival, the largest game event in the Benelux. The days just before the festival we finished one highly anticipated feature, bots! Armed with the bots we went to the event with a lot of energy (and coffee).
Many people were amazed by the quality we provide with our small team. For us it felt very rewarding to talk to you all and we hope you enjoyed it as well! Pictures say much more than words, so enjoy! Ps. If you talked to us at firstlook, feel free to comment below with your experiences about the game! Also, the version which was available to play at the festival will be available today!
Kind regards,
Eric Ruts
On behalf of the HyperReuts team
AI preview
Evolvation is currently in early access and heavily in development. Today, we want to show you the progress of the AI within Evolvation.
Evolvation is an online multiplayer game. Multiplayer games require a major playerbase in order to get the best experience out of a game. Our Steam community gave us feedback on this matter. So to fill this gap, we have decided to develop an AI!
Our lead developer opened a development blog about the progress of the AI. A lot of progress is made since, and we would love to show you the current state of our AI! Enjoy!
Watch the video here
With this AI, you are able to have instant action! The AI is multiplayer based. This means that you are able to play with your friends together with the AI! In the host options you can define yourself the amount of bots you would like and let the game fill up dynamically regarding real players.
We aim to release an update for the game real soon! In this update, you will be able to play with the bots!
Reminder: 7, 8, and 9 October you are able to visit us at our boot on the Firstlook Festival! We hope to see you there!
Feel free to leave comments, feedback, start a discussion and/or leave other thoughts! Also, join the discussion on our Steam community!
Kind regards,
Eric Ruts
On Behalf of the HyperReuts Team
Evolvation on Firstlook Festival
We are proud to announce that we have a bootspace at the Firstlook festival! Firstlook Festival is the largest game event of the Benelux and is full of the newest games, gadgets, hardware, comics, cosplay, eSports, merchandise and more! http://firstlookfestival.nl/
At 7, 8 and 9 October you are able to visit us at the Jaarbeurs Utrecht.
We hope to see you there!:Explosion_Blast:
Kind regards,
Eric Ruts
On behalf of the HyperReuts team