Jolt: Super Robot Racer
Latest Update
Jolt Update August!
Update Info
This update itself shouldn’t have broken single player, nor local multiplayer if you spot anything which isn’t ‘quite right’ then let us know!
So the current state of online is as follows;
You can join 1 of 4 pre-set rooms, up to a maximum of 4 players, upon 4 players joining the room or if the game stats the room will lock, 1 round is played then you can either play again, or you can quit back to the lobby, where you can join another room. If all 4 of the rooms are full you can make your own by entering its name on the right. This isn’t broadcast to anyone and as such could be seen as a private room to play with your friends. One point to note, the lobby requires a mouse for the time being, as the game evolves the HUD and Menus are likely to change so that hasn’t been completed yet.
What you can expect from the online experience? You should be able to join a room, customise a character and then progress into a level. Inside this level you will be able to race against the other players within that room. What you may notice is occasionally the other player’s may seemingly vanish, or they may ‘jump’. This is due to latency and is being improved upon each update. So with that said, if you notice the other player going off screen and the round doesn’t end, chances are it’s the latency. When you or someone else dies a message is sent out informing the other clients of your demise.
What we are working on
Online multiplayer is still where the focus has shifted, there were a few hurdles which had to be overcome, as well as a few oversights so although we had previously had the character builder ‘working’ there was underlying issues which needed fixing as well as a whole load of HUD to link up. While fixing that we noticed a big glaring issue with the character builder in general (was memory leaking badly under certain circumstances which was then exacerbated with the online) which further sapped time, that’s all mostly under control now (let us know of any crashes obviously)
So with that said, the main aims currently is to improve the auto prediction, the latency issues. The team here feel it is playable as is, but it isn’t where we want it to be so the main focus over the coming weeks is to improve this and obviously fix any bugs we come across.
We also need to add in the players steam name rather than player 1, 2, 3, 4 as well as the ability to unlock the robot parts after defeating someone in the online environment.
We also require either some HUD changes or a voting type system to vote on the rounds/ game mode, and I suspect the level (although that is currently controlled by player one)
Known issues
There is also a random bug whereby the character model isn’t displaying so you may occasionally end up in that predicament… If you could find a way to replicate it for us that would be wonderful! We think it is fixed but are not 100%
There is also another random bug whereby the checkpoints do not 100% work. You may notice the person in first place loses, it doesn’t happen all that often, at least it hasn’t for us but again if you can find a way to replicate it each time, please let us know. This can also happen during start, just press continue the race from the game over screen if this happens.
Within sandy times as well, the pillars may look slightly dodgy when starting, this is as they are being synced with each of the clients.
These are the only issues we’re aware of at the moment, some are a pain, but mostly it shouldn’t impede your game that much.
Apart from that, have fun. And if you read this far, well done!
As said single player is still the same as before really (minus some bug fixes / tweaks). And the online should work enough for you to play with others.
Have a wonderful weekend!
April / May Update
Sorry for the delay, we had hoped to get this out last month but, certain things came up resulting in us being slightly behind, rest assured we are still actively working on it.
As is usual if you have any queries, any features you'd like added or even removed or altered please let us know, you can contact us here, on Twitter, or through out website.
New Stuff
Not a lot new this update unfortunately, its been a heavy bug fix and tweaking update, you will notice REZ is in this version(the 4th smaller robot) he is new as in you would not have seen him before, but ultimately he was supposed to arrive when the larger robots got added, REZ himself had some major issues which our QA did not pick up(as he wasn't actually visible for them to test).
Bug/Features
There has been so many little things adjusted it will be hard to list, however;
- Altered the AI so they are better at wall jumping [ Note please look out for any AI issues and let us know ]
- Altered some of the checkpoints so they made more sense
- Altered the landscape in Echo Mountain to stop a quick win exploit
- Increased some framerate's throughout, mainly due to not caching some variables.
- Increased the button sensitivity on the menu's, some of our players were having issues getting into game(which is understandable as we were using == on floats, which is a big nono)
- REZ was actually in the game as an AI Personality, however his parts were incorrect, so they are now fixed.
- Material issues on some of the robots in random circumstances
- Improved the spawning(see note at the bottom)
- Removed issue on Humdinger and Big Pits where the draw calls were almost twice as much as they needed to(our blocking mesh system changed after these levels were properly done)
- Adjusted every level slightly, whether it be AI or checkpoints, or moving/adding blocks.
- There is more but this is the jist of it, they have all been similar to this.
A note about both the AI changes and the Player Spawning update, this was a rather large update, but it needed doing. What we ask from you players is that you let us know if you spot anything which isn't behaving quite right, now that could be you spawning not in the right place(we have hoped to have fixed this with the changes) or if the AI gets stuck or anything else...please let us know!
The future months
Unless any major bugs make an appearance it looks that our main focus is going to be on the online multiplayer(no eta still), we have of course been doing this since the early dev but as major single player issues cropped up the fixes have broken some of the online config. So currently(although very much alpha) we are able to build a robot(4 original ones as the scene needs fixing for the newest ones), then race within a game(only sandy times at the moment as that is one of the more complex levels to sync). So as you can see there is still lots to do.
Just to reiterate, if you have any queries, concerns, features or if you just want to talk, drop us a line either on here, or on twitter(twitter is checked obsessively so if you want a fast response go there).
March Update
The keen among you will notice we have updated the trailer to better reflect how Jolt currently stands.
Oh...and as of today...you should be able to unlock the trading cards. Don't quite know how that one slipped under the radar.
So currently, our list of things to alter/change is high, we are slowly working our way through the online multiplayer as well, but no ETA on that at this precise moment.
Things ToDo
For transparency's sake here is a list of changes and or fixes which are currently outstanding;
- Graphical issue when jolting into death trigger on Tutorial.
- A few instances of == on float values(whoopsie), so if you notice your controller isn't working all the time on the menu's..that'll be it.
- Some optimization is required on humdinger, most PC's will be fine but there are unnecessary draw calls here, the blocking mesh we developed for the level still has a renderer so around half the level is almost doubled.
- Sticky void, jump does not release(it does release after time though)
- Volume slider isn't accurate, it'll switch off on 3/10.
- Tutorial conveyor is automatically changing whenever a player walks onto it.
- We need to add in REZ, he's another smaller robot who was partially added but got omitted from the last release.
- Some check pointing issues as well.
- Alter Echo Mountain to drop some bridges at the start
There are others and some of the above have other strings attached but they will only make sense to the dev team really.
We have fixed a whole load more, between the AI not understanding what to do in certain situations and the check pointing system refusing to detect a player...so expect an update fairly soon.
If you have any bugs, or features which we have not mentioned, please let us know it would be good to get these fixed and prioritized.
Oh, and as always you can follow us on Twitter @jolt_game if you are a twitter person(there must be some sort of terminology for that), otherwise you can always send us a message on here.
Thanks for your continued support!
Jolt Super Robot Racer Update February
This month’s update is our largest since release, we have continued to squash those bugs while adding lots of new and interesting features. Unlike last month this update went to plan as the hurdles of adding newer ‘family’s had already been done. If you are like us and not overly fond of reading there is a tl;dr at the bottom…for clarity.
New Stuff
We have added another class/family of robots for your to play, by default the first is already unlocked for you, there are 3 ‘heads’ in this class with various different appendages, as before you will need to race the AI in order to unlock these parts…although we have added a void mode which will also help there.
As mentioned above we have added a whole bunch of new void modes, we have noticed that many of you are not utilising It for its purpose, so we will better explain what each mode does in a future post, and hopefully try and explain how to use the void. For clarity in this update we have added;
Void Double Jolt – Doubles the recharge speed of all Active Joltable Robots, which is great as it speeds them up, but it also increases the chance of burning out.
Void Time Delay – Quite simple it slows the time down(by half actually), this means that all active robots need to time their jumps and jolts better while it is active, of course once it deactivates it returns back to normal which has resulted in a few accidental deaths during testing…which Is great!
Void Life Steal – This one was an interesting one to get working, it is also a fairly rare void mode due to its nature. Activating this will allow you, at random to take control of another players robot, this forces the other player into the void and you back into the game…you can then choose to try and win, thus gaining the score for winning or you can take revenge by simply killing the robot meaning you will still come out on top of the character you stole…fun with friends this one!
Void Minify – Again, fairly self-explanatory it reduces the physical size of the robot resulting in the robot seemingly moving faster and forcing you to focus on the race more.
Void Glue – This was the last one which was added so although it has undergone testing we are unsure on if it is too overpowered. It is a glue like substance which spawns at the players feet, this stops ANY movement on the horizontal axis, you can jump (10 times will free you, or you can wait for the timer on the void to end) , or you can Jolt and that will move you in that direction. It is very useful on vertical paths, upon using it the robots end up falling to their doom unless the person is quick enough to spot it, let us know if you feel this is too overpowered and we shall tweak it.
Void Part Collector - As mentioned earlier this void mode will only activate if Player One is dead, this is due to the part data being held for Player One. If Player One manages to enter in the correct combination then a part at random from the pool of parts will be unlocked, if the AI or another player manages to do it quicker then no part is unlocked, this is a very rare void mode.
We have also managed to slap in a new level, we have called this Jungle Heat. It is vastly different to the other levels and has a bunch of new features. Firstly there is a swinging platform around the central point of the level, if you miss the swing you will fall into the grinder below, there is also a bunch of boulders which fall from above, these are intended to slow you down, you can jump over or Jolt through them. If you land on top of them you partially stuck rolling with the boulder until you fall back off it, the rest of the level as the same as before, minus the obvious lava death below.
Ghost AI
We have sneakily added in a way to allow you to finish a race without needing to do the full race yourself. As a scenario, you have just started racing, you get the famous call ‘FOOD IS READY’ or the alternative ping of the microwave we all know and love, you are now able to select pause, select ghost ai, this will then change your character to AI allowing you to finish the race. This is quite useful when you don’t wish to stop a game forcibly pausing it and forcing your friends to wait while you quickly run to the toilet, on the plus side if the robot then loses, you can blame the AI it’s a win win!
The Ghost AI, like much of the game is under active development though, so if you do spot anything which doesn’t seem quite right, please let us know!
We have also revamped the way the time trial/single player works, previously we used the single player mode to allow you to train and find the quickest way around the levels…which is ideal but sadly wasn’t really used by us, nor anyone else. So as a rethink we came up with a Time Attack/Time Trial like system. It’s quite simple, you start the level as usual and run around as fast as possible, once you reach the starting line again your round is over and the times are calculated, if you are then fast enough you may have earned a bronze, silver or gold medal. It would be really good to see how fast you are all getting around these levels, it will allow us to better adjust them if you do manage to seriously beat the gold, or it’ll allow the developers some bragging rights as they can still get around the levels the fastest.
For those of you who don’t use controllers we have also added P and J as Jolt buttons, to test and play we all use controllers, although after a day without one E is far too close to WASD to utilise it for the Jolt so we have allowed your other hand to do some of the work. In the final version we are aiming to rebind the controls, or at least allow you to do it. So if you are struggling with keyboard, attempt it with a controller and see if it feels smoother.
We think that’s everything new that has been added…if you spot anything else which is new please let us know ːsteammockingː
Bug Fixes
- Resolved an issue whereby 2 AI with the same name, parts etc could happen.
- Fixed an AI blocking issue in Humdinger
- Updated the mini level to use the correct level assets (it was using the old, not actually ever been seen before by anyone apart from developers assets)
- Resolved a checkpoint issue on Echo Mountain
- Resolved a checkpoint issue on drippy drains, the keen will notice the shortcut at the end of the level is now gone, this was due to single player and the fact we could utilise it to win within seconds.
- Resolved an issue with the void whereby it wasn’t resetting.
- Fixed some paintwork issues with all the robots
- Tweaked some textures slightly to help alleviate some graphical issues.
- Resolved a respawn issue on Cold Out. If you hit checkpoint 12, checkpoint 12 was not known to the spawning system, resulting in you spawning at (0,0,0) or in the landscape as the case was.
- Resolved a null ref on the character select screen, you wouldn’t have noticed anything but it was spamming logs up a fair bit if you cycled through all of the characters.
- Bug whereby you couldn’t pause if it was just the AI left, you could skip and then continue the round and pause/exit but that shouldn’t be required
- Part unlocked was showing above the press A menu (we also removed the border from part unlocked)
- Conveyor in the tutorial level wasn’t working
- Minor text issues depending on resolution of screen
tl;dr
More Robots, another level, improved single player, more void modes, Ghost Ai mode, less bugs.
Jungle Heat In Game
Jolt: Super Robot Racer Update January
The latest update (apart from the miscellaneous bug fixes) adds a new family of robots, a smaller variety!
The update itself is overdue as our implementation for the robots changed, which doesn't change anything to you as users, but it required a fair bit of unforeseen work, if you follow our twitter you might have picked up on the smaller robots not behaving.
New Stuff
<*>We have added a new family of robots, this should contain 4 robots built up of various pieces we have unlocked the first one for you, the others you'll need to race the AI until you unlock the parts. The main difference is they have no legs (which helped with them taking so long to get working).
Small Robot Samples
Bug Fixes
- Resolved some further AI specific bugs, there were instances in various levels where the flip of the controls by the void caused issues. Please let us know if you spot any more of these.
- Resolved an issue with the person in first place registering as last place on Echo Mountain, again please let us know if you spot anything similar to this in any of the other levels.
- Fixed some strange audio issues, this was down to the SFX volume slider not respecting the values of various SFX tracks, the entire tutorial level for example didn’t respond to any of the volume changes. We think we have found all of these, but please let us know!
What’s Next?
As usual we have some bugs to work through as well as a few features.
The next iteration should hopefully contain either a new level or a new batch of robots (heavy robots) both are being worked on currently so it’s a race to see which one progresses the furthest, the newest level is known as Jungle Heat and it’s a different take on the other levels, its smaller and more compact, but has some objects to help slow things down.
We're also hoping to add more AI personality’s to increase the chance of newer parts being dropped as well as this is a fairly simple process...if anyone has any name idea's please let us know as well.
As always, if you spot ANYTHING that you feel isn’t quite right, or something you’d like added/changed please let us know!
In Game Example
Jolt: Super Robot Racer Update
New Stuff
Bug Fixes
Whats Next?
We have a few other small bugs which we have been made aware of(SFX volume not being respected on some SFX elements).
However, we were hoping to either add in another level or maybe finalize and fix the smaller family of robots so they are fully integrated into the game, we did share a screenshot a while back on Twitter showing off one of them but the setup is slightly different to that of the medium robots.
Feedback
As always we are looking forward to feedback from people, whether its bugs or features we want to know, nothing you suggest is ever not considered, the team here want to build a game they enjoy and a game you'll enjoy so if you want something specific let us know!
