it´s time for another Dev blog. As you know, last week we did a poll where you could vote for new ability concepts. More than 1000 of you participated and results are very interesting! Some of the results matched our expectations but there were a few surprises for us. And now it's time to show you the results!
Self-destruct is part of GJL from beginning and it seems that you really want to go out with a bang!
Result: Approved!
This one was a surprise. Almost equal results for all three options. Well we will be thinking about this ability a little more and maybe do some changes.
Result: Back to the drawing board.
Battleships are quite slow, so the community welcomed another option how to get closer to an enemy.
Result: Approved!
This was the most popular ability! A lot of people really love shields. You’ll definitely get this one.
Result: Approved!
A common feedback for the Cruiser class is that it needs adamage boost, so this abilty can help.
Result: Maybe a little bit later.
More maneuvering options is something what you want to avoid long range fire.
Result: Approved!
With this ability the Destroyer can get more creative when sniping.
Result: Approved!
Almost a love and hate relationship here. But still “love” winning.
Result: Approved!
And that's all. Thank you everybody who voted. It has helped us a lot and gave us plenty to think about. See ya next time.
Robo “Robinson” Kazmer
Game Designer
WEEKEND SHIP SALE!
Do you fancy one or more art ships in our shop? If so, your lucky weekend starts right now! Until March 6th, 11.00 AM GMT, you'll have the chance to get all the premium ships for 50-80% off! What are you waiting for?
Patch v. 0.1.1121 – Daily Quests, Core Buff
Hello, Junkers!
As mentioned in the last changelog, we’ve decided to split this patch into two parts. v. 0.1.119 was the first one and v. 0.1.121 is the second. This patch includes basic daily quests and a hp buff to Ship Cores.
Simple daily quests have been added This is the first phase of implementation and more varied quests will be added in the future. The goal is to speed up progression and compensate for possible decreases in player earnings after the score system change.
Players now get two new daily quests per day. If a player finishes the quests, new ones are added the next day at 9:00 A.M. UTC (Greenwich time zone). If not, then the quests stay until they’re finished.
The first fixed quest is getting the first win of the day. The reward is 750 Junk.
The second quest is either playing X matches per day or gaining X Junk. The rewards are between 1000 - 1500 Junk based on the required matches or Junk.
Balance As advertised we are increasing the HP of the ship core to decrease the effectivity of core sniping. This is a temporary change until we implement the Core Shield mechanic described in the latest dev diary. The final shield may be implemented with significantly different numbers based on our internal testing.
HP for the core has been significantly increased for all classes
Rookie ship 240 -> 400
Frigate 180 -> 450
Cruiser 300 -> 750
Battleship 375 -> 937
Destroyer 240-> 600
Match flow
“Next match” and “Take a Break” buttons will be added to the after match screen. The Next Match button enters the player into match search (after he has clicked through daily quest and level up screens)
(this feature will be implemented in the course of the week and won't require a server restart)
Ability voting has ended, and the winners are ...
The voting has ended! As a thank you for all of your awesome votes, everyone who entered their nickname or player ID was rewarded with 2 free whiskeys. On top of that, these three random players received 600 space credits, as promised:
⚡️ Rapped Carrot
⚡️ True Slav
⚡️ TheDiscoPriest
PS: Those of you who voted but haven’t received your rewards, please leave us a message with your Player ID or nickname, there might have been a typo in your entry ;)
Thank you for your participation, junkers!
Vote for new abilities! [VOTING ENDED]
Hi, everyone!
You already know we're working on brand new abilities. Now we need your vote to determine which concepts are good and which ones need a bit more work. Take this survey and get a chance to be among 3 random players that'll be rewarded with 600 Space Credits!
Vote here: http://pxfd.co/abilityvote
Everyone who'll enter their correct player ID or nickname (from the game), will get 2 space whiskeys for free! Thank you for participating.
Dev Diary #25 - Player Profiles, Daily Quests, Stronger Cores
Hello, Galactic Dudes!
We’re here with another dev diary. This time we’ll talk a upcoming features. We have one major upcoming update: the player profile and rankings. At the same time we'll working on several smaller new mechanics to improve progression and game balance.
A few of these features will be implemented in the next patch coming in the beginning of next week (February 27th onwards). Others will be gradually implemented over the next few patches. Let’s get right to it.
Player Profile and Ladder
A common reaction we get from mid-core and veteran GJL players is that after playing through the middle section of the game (that is when you research all blocks) the game becomes a little stale, because there are no interesting goals to achieve. Leveling up and upgrading blocks is ok but it takes too long and doesn't offer much motivation. That’s why we’re introducing the player profile, ladders and ranking systems.
The goal of these features is to create a place where a player’s long-term achievements are noted and remembered for him/her and everyone to see, to compare with others and to compete for top ranks and honors. Eventually our vision is to create these features:
A base profile with gameplay stats (Phase 1)
A ladder of top players for various categories (Phase 2)
Time-limited ladders for events (Phase 2)
A set of ranks and “medals” the player gets to collect by achieving in-game goals (Phase 3)
Note that for now the profile will be located on the game’s website. It will be accessible by clicking an in-game button. It will be possible to look at other player profiles of course.
ETA: March 8th, for Phase 1
A visual concept for the profile.
Regenerating Core Shield
Quick summary: the best way to destroy a ship will be to damage it’s parts first before going for the core.
The goal of this mechanic is to increase ship survivability by both reducing the effectivity of core sniping and decreasing the probability of one hit kills (we still want coring to be a viable strategy, but we’d also like to create more opportunity for different approaches). How will this feature it work?
The core will get a regenerating CoreShield on top of its base HP. The maximum shield HP will be let’s say 2x the current core HP.
The Shield HP will be tied to the HP of the whole ship. If the ship loses HP then the shield capacity will be reduced proportionally.
If the core gets damaged more than the whole ship, the shield will regenerate after a short time.
Until we implement this feature, we will be temporarily buffing the core HP.
ETA: March
Ship Core Movement
The title says it all. Except that you’ll also be able to rotate the core and change it’s connecting point (default T). We’ll implement it as soon as possible.
ETA: March
Simple Daily Quests
Tired of the slow grind? Lacking motivation to play more often? We have a solution for you! With the next patch we will introduce the daily quest mechanic. Every day each player will get a simple quest to complete for additional XP and Junk. The first version of this feature will be implemented early next week and will include basic quest types like ‘play X matches’ or ‘first win of the day’. In future updates we will be increasing the variety of available quests based on the player’s played classes, weapons or abilities. The daily quest mechanic will also be used for time-limited event quests.
ETA: After February 27th
Vote for Ability Concepts
After a lot of feedback collection we’re ready to introduce concepts for abilities that will be implemented in the next major update in early April. However we’d like the community to vote on them first. On Friday Feb 24 we’ll be publishing a questionnaire, where players can express their opinions. Hope to see you there.
Anyway, that’s it for this dev diary. Let us know what you think in the FORUM.
Martin ‘Gajxo’ Gajarsky
Game Designer
Patch v. 0.1.1118 – New Scoring System, UX improvements
Hey, Junkers,
Two weeks have passed, which means we’re here with another patch.
The most significant changes you’ll notice are:
new score system,
the upgraded news screen,
builder improvements,
blueprint and shop UI improvements.
Note that on Friday Feb 24 there will be another content update with more new features and balance changes. We decided to split this week’s update into two to allow us more time to test and polish all the planned features so stay tuned for further changes.
New Scoring System The biggest change you’ll notice is the new and fairer scoring system. With this change we’d like to address complaints about unfair match-ups, where high and low level players were matched together. We’re still examining the numerical balance so please let us know, what you think about the starter version.
Score now reflects ship power in a match - Ships are now assigned a score value ranging from 60 to 240 at the start of each match based on their power rating compared to the average for the match.
Team deathmatch victory condition has been changed from having the most kills to achieving the larger score in the time limit.
Assists now matter more - Assisting in destroying a ship now rewards points proportional to the damage done to each contributing player.
You can read all the details in this Dev Diary: https://galacticjunkleague.com/?a=news.detail&id=45&n=Dev-diary---23-----A-fairer-score-system.
Matchmaking
The formula, which assigns ratings to ships has been tweaked to better reflect ship power at high levels.
The minimum size of matches has been increased from 3v3 to 4v4.
Galactic Junk News Improvements
The UI has been redesigned. It now includes one large screen and four smaller messages that scroll through it.
The shop now links to the store as well.
Builder Improvements
It is now possible to place Armor Plates on the blocks in front of missiles ( http://prnt.sc/ecd8pi ).
The game now remembers block rotation after placing.
The game now remembers the last selected skin.
Two new block colors have been added - two shades of pink.
Blueprint Screen Improvements
The blueprint mechanic and the sale of ships in the shop was introduced shortly before the Steam release and we’ve felt that the UI and UX of these features need to be made more clear and user friendly. In the near future even more changes more changes are planned for the shop and blueprint screen (i.e dynamic price of bundles and ships based, on which blocks you already own, UI improvements and a tutorial for both blueprints and the shop).
It is now possible to research blocks through the blueprint screen, if you own a ship blueprint that requires further research
It is now possible to preview classes and class blueprints before unlocking them at Rookie Ship at lvl 10
Shop Improvements
Block bundles (and ship blueprints which also include blocks) now include information about research requirements.
The flow for buying a new ship has been improved. If you have met the requirements you get sent to the new ship’s hangar slot. If you haven’t met the requirements you’ll get sent to the blueprint screen.
All purchases now have to be confirmed.
Other changes
Nickname restrictions have been introduced.
Offensive nicknames and ship designs have been changed or removed.
In the past two weeks we have started banning disruptive players.
The login screen now informs players about the status of their connection.
Bugfixes
An code error has been fixed, which caused a portion of FPS drops.
Several minor gameplay and UI bugs.
PILOT LICENSE WEEKEND!
Do you have any plans for the weekend, junkers?
Well, you better cancel them because starting today at 11:00 GMT, you're not only gonna get DOUBLE JUNK but also DOUBLE EXPERIENCE! Progress faster and make the most of the event until Monday, 11:00 GMT.
For those of you with already purchased Pilot Licenses, don't worry. These free licenses will add up to your existing license time.
Dev Diary #24: The best of Dev QnA + Ability ideas
Last week, on Friday (Feb 8th, 2017), we’ve held a Developer Townhall talk on Discord, where our players could ask our game designers Gajxo and Robinson their questions. These are the most interesting ones. Enjoy!
We’ve also started collecting ability ideas. Please post your ideas on the GAME FORUM or STEAM FORUM.
Now let’s get to the QnA according to main topics. Some answers were modified for clarity.
Upcoming and planned features
With the new scoring system, how will players get higher point ratings? It will be determined by relative ship power rating when a match is created. The exact formula is our secret :) 'Ship power' rating is our internal parameter the matchmaking uses to evaluate ships.
Thoughts on adding free block count for cosmetic items? Yes, it's already designed and will be implemented as soon as our programmers have time in their schedule :) Now they're mostly fixing bugs.
Are there any plans for adding "rotating" core? The option to move or rotate the core is already designed and will be added quite soon. We are also discussing expanding construction options for the core (having a smaller core, different dimensions, more than one core etc.)
Any ETA on the new set of blocks? Early April
What will these blocks likely be? What would you like to see? :) The new visual set as well as new abilities will be revealed soon.
Will we get more colors to choose from? Yes
When do you plan to rework the ability system? Current abilities will be polished in the next month.
How exactly will “cosmetic” ships be rewarded?
We already know, that we will be able to give out "likes" in the lobby. Yes, the most liked ships will be rewarded by XP or junk so that players who are good builders but are worse at fighting have a way to progress faster. Another stage is selling the best ships in the ingame shop, but that's not in the production schedule yet.
When will you release more maps? New maps are not a part of the roadmap for the first two months. However there is a huge discussion going on around map design even with designers from other games. We WILL be tweaking current maps in the following patches.
Balance and Gameplay
What weapons are in YOUR opinions most/least balanced? After the last patch all weapons are completely balanced :-)
But seriously, there's a lot of factors affecting the game balance like maps, matchups, construction rules, the sandbox element of the game (it's hard to predict what players will come up with), etc. We think we can only achieve balance by continually tweaking the game.
How are you going to improve TTK? Considering its so small right now. How about increasing the health of everything? We agree that a fast TTK at high levels is a problem right now. However we don't think it's because of low hp. Your battleship can already have 30000 hp, but you only need to do 1000 damage to get the core snipe.
We're discussing making coring a bit harder with several features and balance changes.
We're also thinking about reducing the effectivity of gunbeds.
You said 'we also want to limit the extremes' but you (the team) have shown little interest in that (or little progress). We’re sorry you think that. It's true that we have been focused on a lot of issues connected to the release and improving new player experience. As you know we're a small team, however it's our goal to balance out gameplay it the following 2-3 patches.
Why is grinding in the progression so long? As any game with a F2P model we have to have some sort of progression. For the release we had to spread out leveling to keep players busy for a longer time.
We plan to add more progression systems (increasing your rank, league standing etc.) to make the game more rewarding. Also as with other RPGs it's possible that we'll speed up progression once we have more content to unlock.
Have you considered launching a test server to enhance the longevity of the game? So far it hasn't been a priority, because of the time and organizational requirements. We are considering it.
Feature suggestions by the community
Will there be a healing type of class? We are very careful about adding a healer. It might create a situation where the team with more healers always wins. It's also quite opposed by a part of the community. What is more likely are new shield abilities or maaaaybe 'healing bases'.
Are You planning to implement some sort or Carrier or Drone Carrier ships? A new class is envisioned for about the first half of this year. Another one for the second half. A carrier sounds cool to us but we'll have to consider how it will expand gameplay. Anyways, make sure to post your class ideas on our forum!
Will we be able to make wings/clans with other people in the future? We'd definitely like to implement such feature, however, we're not yet sure when.
Will you add the ability to tweak weapons? For example making a thruster bigger but it will take more power and have less health in exchange etc.? You can upgrade weapon stats. But no other tweaks right now, such feature might create further balance issues.
Can you allow placing hull on armour blocks? The concept of armor is that it is a final block in construction, so probably no.
Regarding all questions about new functional blocks: we will be gradually adding new blocks that allow to create more artistic and complex designs.
Will we get the ability to spin our ship in more than one axis? No plans for this feature now.
Will you add uber missiles and uber lasers? Our focus is currently on new abilities.
Can you add the option to color all of the blocks? No plans for coloring hull blocks.
Other
Devs, will you add more party member slots? We want to but not right now. Such change could harm the matchmaking.
Any plans to create a 'free mode'? Not specifically a 'freemode' but we want to add another game mode. We already started design process, but game mode is heavy for production time and it takes weeks and weeks of work to design, code and test it properly.
Who did the voice-acting in the tutorial? It's done by our former colleague Gabe from Wisconsin. It's funny that one youtuber made fun that our voice actor is pretending to sound american :)
Are there any plans for a map editor or otherwise even more creative and customizable content? We would like to add Steam Workshop support this year, so people can create their own parts. But no map editor yet. We will see.
How about some upcoming challenges or tournaments with strong block and tech-level restriction? Yes we will be definitely doing time limited events (weekend tournaments etc.) They will be simpler at first but will get more complex and exciting over time.
How about using reddit for AMA type of Townhall for better coordination? YES! Next month: AMA at r/galacticjunkleague!
Thanks again for your questions and see you at the AMA on reddit next month!
Chat with devs on Discord
Do you like our game? Do you have any questions for our developers? Tune in to our second QnA Session with the Devs today at 5PM CET/8AM PT on our official Discord channel!
Join the conversation here: https://discord.gg/34nqpkj
