I have been working on other projects so have not had time to fix LBA. In the past couple of weeks I have added a couple of things to LBA though that I know has probably pissed people off since I launched the game back in 2018.
So with no further ado, I am current making the build that fixes hit registration from the AI. This has plagued the game since I wrote the AI systems and I know it must piss people right off that they dont know where the AI is when they are being shot at. It makes it feel like they are shooting you from nowhere and through buildings (which is not the case I assure you. The AI I have written are amazingly good at LBA and they will fight each other and you like pros!).
I have added in a new directional hit detection. This will show you where the AI is shooting from - this makes life allot easier when fighting the AI. I have also increased the jump height (doubled it infact). This will help with evasion from your foes and makes jumping look allot better. I have changed a couple of other things with the animations as well but this was just housekeeping.
So whats next for LBA.
I am going to be scrapping the current maps and making 1 big battle arena - yes I already have 1 big map done but I never optimised it while building it so the lag and FPS situation with it is very very bad. I have tried to fix this but its a massive task so I would be better to build a new map. Before this though, I am still using an old version of Unity to build LBA and this is starting to cause issues. I need to fully remove the mutiplayer system and replace it. This is not a huge undertaking but it will take a while. I am then going to make a new large scale openworld map. I have been making a mutiplayer system for another idea I have if this works, I will be using it for the new LBA system.
According to my stats, the game is still being downloaded daily by (allot of) new players but the average play time is pretty low. I suspect this is due to the hit detection system so the new system should improve player retention.
Any way, more news coming soon. I will be streaming the new version here in the LBA page as soon as its built!
LINX BATTLE ARENA: MAJOR UPDATE RELEASED
Finally I am releasing the update for Linx Battle Arena. This update will include the new DLC, major stability updates, 24 new characters, new gun system, a complete new NPC and AI enemy system, improved multiplayer networking, a bespoke ranking and progress system, new skill based play system, achievements and a shed load of other behind the scenes improvements.
Get Your Rank and Achievements
Show off your skills to your fellow players with achievements and ranks!
Ranks can be achieved during play by killing enemies, living like a boss, not killing NPC's and general skilful play. There are currently 15 rank badges.
Achievements are now available for your hard work Weapon specific, kills and deaths, NPC slaughter and much more fun activities will help you gain the current batch of Achievements. or Be Like Dave ːsteammockingː
Skill Levels
While Linx Battle Arena does not have a big learning curve, it does require skill to master the art of killing. You can now set your skill levels to suit your play abilities and change them to suit as you get better (or worse). AI skill and tactics will change depending on your chosen skill levels. Higher ranked players choosing to play in low skill matches against AI will gain no rewards. Lower ranked players choosing to play in higher skill levels will gain higher rewards. Skill levels do NOT effect multiplayer games.
Weapon updates and improvements
Get the Goldilocks effect from a tight, diverse range of guns.
LBA now offers 6 weapon types to suit your play style.
Pick up coin crates, take your cash to the vendors and buy your gun of choice.
New in this update is the Gillan P30 Carbine This semi auto killer gives fast target acquisition and packs a punch that will see your enemies crumbling before you. The Semi Auto fire action will give you a medium to fast recharge rate.
All original LBA guns have also had an overhaul giving more predictable results across the full range.
More new guns will be added soon so keep an eye on the gun vendors!
The local residents..
The local residents in the Arenas are not there for your target practice! You need to treat these people well and NOT kill them. Granted the odd bullet might take off a head or two in the heat of battle but killing the residents of the arenas will see you being punished with reduced rank. Although there may be some benefits to the occasional killing spree. See the new achievements for more info.
Improved Multiplayer
Nothing beats inviting your friends in to the arenas and teaching them who is the real boss. Invite up to 9 of your friends for a battle to the death. Unique to LBA: Lucky Dip, Guns for Cash, Timed Rounds and Set Lives are all interchangeable so you play just the way you want.
The First New DLC - 24 Characters
Stand out from the crowd with 24 new characters to choose from.
The characters range from casual male and female characters, Swat Team and Zombie Characters. Buy them now and get them instantly activated in game. More new characters coming very soon!
Final Builds and Testing of LBA
I think there is about 2 weeks to go before I release the new version of Linx Battle Arena. I still have a few things to do but they will not take too long. I will be sending out the Testers Password and DLC keys at the start of next week.
If you want to become a tester please let me know.
Whats done:
ranking system
AI weapons done
24 new characters
Teriach Island integrated
Gun sounds fixed
UI improvements
DLC integrated and ready
Whats not done:
All achievements not finished (will be done by the end of next week!)
Teriach Island 1st mission (will be done by the end of this weekend!)
I am going to be adding missions to Teriach Island as it develops. I had these working pretty sweetly in builds I was making at the end of 2017 (open world missions where you find an ingame boss or protagonist and get a mission from them) and I am going to be adding them one at a time in the new version. I will also be adding back the cars and driving system. This will not be part of the new first builds. Driving works well in single player but there are some driving issues in multiplayer. Granted it is in the current released version but its not what I want it to be so it will not be part of the new release.
More news coming very soon.
Achievement Icons etc.. quick update
Hey all. I am adding some achievement icons to the game just now. These achievements will not be available until the new version of Linx Battle Arena is released. I am hoping to get this out in the next 4 weeks if not sooner.
LBA: MASSIVE UPDATE INCOMING!! Oh and some news :P
WALL OF TEXT AHEAD
[TL;DR]
Big updates, new stuff coming soon, check out some new pwetty pictures...
So on to the major news etc :)
Its been a long long almost 5 years since I first came up with this idea of making a third person shooter that 'I' would love to play. Well the game I wanted to make is so close I can almost smell it!
I have been working allot, and I mean ALLOT on LBA in the past few months. The game runs like butter off a hot knife, the guns feel like they should and the new AI system that I have built from absolute scratch in the past 2 months feels almost exactly how I want the AI to feel in LBA.
I have been doing a hell of allot of play testing recently just to actually play LBA and I can honestly say the result is better than I though it could be. So whats so special about this new LBA in comparison to the current version you can download from Steam right now?
Well I would consider the version I released on Steam almost a year and a half ago, which is still today the actual live version people are downloading and playing, to be an ALPHA version of the game I am about to release to the world.
I am considering this NEW BEGINNING release of LBA to be almost (95%) the game I wanted to release around 18 months ago.
Whats new in LBA:
Completely new scoring and ranking system
All scores are saved on STEAM so no need for offsite services in any way!
5 Skill levels determine your rewards and scores
Completely new AI system with variable skill engagement algorithm
Completely reworked movement system
Completely reworked aiming and target acquisition system
Reworked camera movement and character follow system
New environmental effects for a more natural look and feel
New character reaction sounds for diegetic effect
New hit indicator on hud
The 6 original LBA Characters revamped
TONS of optimisation
All of the above will be free with the new patch.
PAID DLC
24 new characters to choose from (will be paid DLC - 1 payment, get all 24!)
HUGE NEW MAP - Teriach Island is now an actual fully working map** (will be paid DLC)
** About Teriach Island
Teriach Island is a 1 mile x 1 mile island that I built for the original game. It has a back story which I wont go in to right now. The 4 maps used in LBA come from Teriach Island (this was the original name for the game) so when you get in to play the map you will see where the 4 current 'Arenas' came from. Teriach Island also has a town area, a docks/shipping area and a trailer/caravan park. Teriach Island will have its own specific rule set, challenges and rewards. More details will be announced very soon!
Reward Scheme
Want to earn exclusive item rewards in LBA like access to exclusive characters? I will be introducing a loyalty scheme soon. You will be rewarded for your loyalty patron! :) more details coming soon.
JOIN THE NEW DISCORD CHANNEL!
https://discord.gg/qZ6W9D5 The new Discord Channel is live now. Please feel free to jump on a give me your feedback. Or if your looking to play with other LBA players then this is the best place to hook up. Its a waist land right now.. every Discord channel starts like this so dont be put off.. If you post something, people will answer..
Moving forward
As we move forward in to 2019, I will be adding some fun events and challenges. I will announce these in the forum and here as announcements. LBA is being downloaded around 50 times per week. I understand that people will be put off by the current state of the game (Shit I would too. Its BROKEN!!!) but this major overhaul and new improvements are geared towards more player entertainment and fulfilment and a smoother experience all round so I am hoping that people will start to give me more feedback and help direct the progress.
Some Screenies
Here is a couple of sneak peek screenshots. You can see allot more screenies in the screenshot gallery right here on Steam.
Quick footnote. I have made no profit at all from LBA. This is pretty much a labour of love for me and I am going to continue to build and add to LBA for the foreseeable future. The money I have made from LBA from sales has been less than beer tokens but I did not start to make LBA to become some rich mega super start Game Dev.. Im sure I will sell some DLC's for the game. This may or may not help me finance the game moving forward. If it doesnt then so be it. I will still continue to work on the game and I hope the people that play it have a good time doing so. I know I have enjoyed the challenge of making the game from concept, to the first working builds to the state it is in right now and I have had some amazing times over the years playing with the game testers. I really want to give a big thanks to everyone who has helped me progress to this stage.
LBA FTW!
LBA: NEW BEGINNING RELEASE DATE - Coming very very soon...
LBA:Redux RANK ICONS: Sneek Peek
LBA: Redux's ranking system will show a rank icon next to your name in the lobby and in game. This will give you and your fellow players an indication of your skill level and in game rank.
Rank will be achieved based on a calculation of in game factors such as K/D over an undisclosed amount of games played proportional to time played over all, kill streaks over an undisclosed amount of games, vehicle kills and some other ranking factors which I will not be discussing here at this time.
Rank will go down as well as up. Rank will be calculated and applied at the end of each round.
If you would like to get in to testing the new rank system or would like to help me progress towards release of the new version of LBA, please feel free to message me here.
More news and info coming very soon..
LBA:Redux - Major updates, Mechanics and More!
First up.. silence is not golden so I need to appologise for not posting for months!
I have been working allot on LBA, building a new scoring system, progress system, removing the old server based scores and adding in Steam scores and achievements..
Ok with that out of the way, I am doing a RE-RELEASE of LBA as LBA:Redux which will be coming to Steam as a DLC in the first quarter of the new year. I will be looking for testers soon so feel free to hook me up for early access to LBA:Redux!
The game right now is free to play and I know the game as it is released right now on Steam is still broken so here is what I have done to fix and re-release LBA.
completely new AI system for playing singe player (see below)
reworked gun aiming and gun movement system
completely new (behind the scenes) gun selection system which will allow for very easy expansion of guns available in the future
reworked movement system
added new environmental effects
fixed the aiming system - now depends on area hits instead of 1 big box! Head shots hurt more than leg shots etc..
complete removal of server based authentication - all now done through Steam. This will also prevent people from being blocked from playing in countries that the server didn't allow connections from!
scoring system now provides rewards as Steam Achievements and new characters to choose in the character selection screen
new kill streaks and game wins system give quicker rank and rewards
Added (and still adding) a complete new range of characters to play with
new characters are gained through rank progression
I have also made a shed load of other behind the scenes improvements to the over all game.
NEW AI System I have a completely new AI system in place now. The old robot based system (which is still in single player right now) was clunky and horrible! The new AI system is based around the in game characters that you are able to select so when playing V the AI you are getting a much better practice session as it feels more like you are playing against human opponents. AI is only available on single player. I have no plans to add any AI yet to the Multiplayer Game. AI Scoring will add progress to your rank but it is much slower that ranking up in multiplayer.
DLC - LBA:Redux I will releasing LBA:Redux as a DLC which will be a paid upgrade to LBA. Cost is yet to be determined - it wont be huge!
Anyone who PURCHASED the original LBA will get the first DLC for FREE. Hit me up right here on Steam if you purchased the original and ill give you the DLC free of charge for supporting the game in its first stages.
More news coming very soon!
LBA IS NOW FREE TO PLAY...
I have updated the game to now be free to play.. Have fun :)
Feedback is welcome.
LBA Is free to play from Friday 22nd June at 4pm GMT
HI all. From Today (Friday 22nd June 2018), I am making LBA completely free to play.
I am still working on improvements for LBA but work commitments make progress slow!
Have fun and if you have any feedback about the game please let me know in the forum.
Free to play is almost here..
I have applied to Valve to make LBA free to play. this should be implemented in the next week or so. In the meantime I am working on a new lobby and game join system. If you have any comments please post them here or feel free to start a thread in the forum.
