So regardless of what happens with the project, this is the year I'll be releasing Panzer in some shape or form. I've identified the minimum set of features I think a first version should have and will be working on those in the coming months. I'm also considering releasing a demo of some kind soon so that more people can give it ago.
New Map
TEAM_ConcreteRiver is a new 1v1 map that is very much work in progress but will serve as an experiment for smaller maps. The map has a single health pick-up and a single stealth pick-up in the center.
Map updates
Both TEAM_Oasis and FFA_Lavabowl have been changed a bit. Oasis now actually features an oasis in the center and lava bowl is much smaller. It basically lost its bottom layer. Not sure if it's big enough for 6 players, but we'll see. The previous one was a little boring on the bottom layer. Oasis also features a new water shader.
Loadouts Simplified
I've simplified load-outs immensely! Before you had to do almost 6 button presses before you could play with a different weapon. In the new version simply press B and select a new weapon from the menu. The same will apply to abilities. It's also now possible to change your load-out during the round count-down period. So no longer do you have to feel like you have to play a full round with the wrong weapon, just because you were too late to click. I've removed the ability to save favorite load-outs, this might come back later in a better form.
Weapon Classes
Along with the new way load-outs are set-up, I've also changed how weapons work. There are now 2 types of weapons; primary and secondary. You can't put a primary weapon in a secondary slot. Secondary weapons are basically weaker versions of the ones we already had. So now you have to choose a primary that you love to play with and a weaker secondary. My personal favorite: Rifle in primary and a shotgun pistol in the secondary.
Polish and network optimizations
I've managed to polish a lot of the systems such as projectiles and skin-loading to make it all be snappier and more fun to play. A few examples: the game will pre-load the correct vehicle skin before a match is started so there should be no hitches regarding that. Also, the prediction of the darts should be more accurate, they take into account the initial network delay when requested to be spawned, so they should sync up much better now.
Changes
Fixed bug where you could heal yourself
Increased time before traveling to next map from 10 to 30s
Healshot uses the same projectile physics as nade launcher
Optimized animation usage (don't tick when not visible etc )
Moved a lot of BP code to C++, so expect things to run faster.
Fixed bug with vehicle jittering due to motion blur setting being off per bone on the tank skeletal mesh
Interpolation is not as aggresive anymore on clients (this was tuned for listen servers previously and never touched )
Fixed bug where you could potentially do a triple jump.
Now I'm actually replicating velocity as well as location etc. This should yield much smoother results on clients.
Fixed bug where sometimes input stayed in 'block' mode after exiting the 'waiting for players' game state.
Fixed bug where nade launchers projectile would not collide with the tanks.
Fixed bug where players could potentially join an outdated version of a match.
Tweaked nade launcher damage, easier to control and design for now.
Server browser will show 'wrong version' or 'server full' message on the same line.
When trying to join a full server or wrong version, you'll received a pop-up notifying what went wrong.
Removed a ton of work that does not need to happen on dedicated servers ( audio and fx )
Tiger tank now has proper AO maps.
Added a small delay after doing a dash where collision is disabled, to avoid bugs where you'd push away other tanks due to physics being inside each other.
Potential fix for invisible health-pick-ups and a few other 'invisible' bugs. This was due to incorrect calculation of player eye POV on server.
Score counting and visuals updated to look neater.
Fixed bug where no camera shakes would play.
Fixed bug where ammo count was not serialized properly and thus could be abused by quik swapping weapons to get a full clip.
Stealth visuals reworked, simplified and optimized. Now it looks like the predator effect. You will be able to see an invisible player if you pay attention. This effect can be tweaked.
Shotgun tweaked, more damge up close, lower damage far away. Needs proper testing.
Added 'entry' state for every map, including the initial map the game loads. This entry state will display some welcome message and/or game mode rules.
Added a fake shadow for the tanks, this helps them feel grounded.
Grenades now always explode on the third bounce. Skilled players can use this to their advantage.
Explosions will now play a global camera shake to players nearby.
Your own nades won't collide with your own vehicle anymore.
Life-drain does not instantly damage upon spawning. It starts to do its first bit of damage after 1s.
Fixed tiger tank to have a more precise alignment of turret and body. It was slightly off center.
Big change to how weapons are handled. There are primary weapons and secondary weapons. You can't put a primary weapon in a secondary slot. Secondary weapons are smaller/weaker guns.
Added UI to show which weapon you have equipped.
Fixed darts not exploding at the exact right time/location on clients.
Update vUpdate v5195
Dedicated Servers
I've done some more work on dedicated servers in this update. Deploying the servers now happens fully automatic ( using Steamworks ) and the server exist as an APP on steam ( hidden, requires a key ). This makes it easy to keep a set of servers updated and live any time I make a new build. Hopefully, we can do some proper tests and figure out how many instances we can run on a single machine, etc.
Match Flow
This version brings a newly updated match-flow. When a server starts it will enter the 'waiting for players' state. This can last up to 5 minutes. If no one has joined in those 5 minutes, the server changes the map. If someone DOES join, the state switches to 'warmup' which lasts 60 seconds. If at any point in the match, there aren't enough players, the server switches back to the 'waiting for players' state and repeats.
New Map
The new map is called FFA_Lavabowl, at the moment as the name implies, only available in the FFA mode. This might change in the future. This map is literally a bowl filled with lava and is a 3 layered king of the hill type shape. I'll be experimenting with a proper king-of-the-hill game mode on this map soon. For now, enjoy it in FFA!
Win Conditions
In previous versions, we had the possibility of a match or round ending in a tie. This caused an issue where technically, a match could go on forever. I changed this to not be the case anymore. We now have tie-breaks in the form of overtime. When the timer of the round hits 0, overtime kicks in. During over-time a battle-royale like a circle will appear and shrink, forcing the remaining players to fight it out and forcing a winner. [previewyoutube="28dAVvINJ0Q;full"]
Changes
Larger replication range enabled for tanks ( previously 30000 now 50000 )
Fixed a few edge cases with replicating the movement of tanks.
Added logging in case there's old data being sent to the client from the server in regards to transforms.
Reworked how projectiles work ( needs testing ).
Grenades can be affected by push and jump pad etc.
Added 'B' to change/select loadout. This is also bindable
Changed 'sniper' to 'rifle'.
Added new map FFA_LavaBowl.
Stealth ability duration increased from 2.5s to 3.0s.
Reworked how loadout selection is done. When the loadout UI is shown( either press B or go through options ) you then can only do 1 action: select a loadout.
Once you select one, there you can confirm or edit.
Added a small notification when certain things happen. Atm only used for 'new loadout selected' message and loadout modified.
Changed resolution settings include 144 instead of 120, and 240+, etc.
Suicide will reduce the score by 1.
Changing teams while alive counts as suicide.
Suicide will reset killstreak.
Loadout information gets sent to the server in a smarter and more efficient way.
Added 'Garage' option when in the main menu.
When changing loadout in the main menu, you will instantly respawn with the new loadout.
Searching for the session will return both dedicated and player hosted sessions now instead of one or the other.
Fixed logic for who wins and loses in FFA. If 2 players have the same score at the end, they draw, the rest 'loses' Will do this differently in the future. ( will count other stats ).
Optimized camera replication, won't send your own data back to you to save on bandwidth.
Reworked how stealth works internally, might have some quirks, please report if you find something odd.
When you are stealthed, and stand on a stealth pick-up, you won't pick it up instantly. But once your stealth is gone, you WILL automatically pick up the pick-up stealth. Previously you had to drive over it again.
Projectiles fired from REALLY up close could sometimes 'miss' because they did not register their location yet. Fixed, so fewer cases of odd misses up close now.
Added 'entering map' state. After map-load, every game mode can have a mode-specific UI. For example, Select team, or select load-out, or simply confirm, etc.
The rifle weapon now has 5 shots before requiring a reload. This brings it more in-line with other guns ( not being able to spam, and having to think/time shots). Plus now we don't have to make guns too weak, we can tweak them with ammo/reload, etc.
Added UI widget to show the user that they will be respawning soon.
Changed the look of 'ROUND LOSS' UI.
Changed the look of team-only chat.
Changed TEAM mode to not have any rounds that can tie.
Changed TEAM mode to be FIRST TO 6. No more ties, someone wins.
If the round timer hits 0, the round goes in OVERTIME, which spawns a shrinking circle ala Battle Royales, forcing the remaining players to fight it out, and thus eventually someone will win. No more ties. This makes the mode more robust and gives a better execution of duration. This is important for this game because folks might want to play just for 2-3 matches and leave.
The match cycle is changed to have a slightly better flow. Every match starts in the 'waiting for players' mode, this can take up to 5 minutes. If players have joined, it instantly switches to 'warmup'. This lasts 60 seconds only. If at any point in the match, the players leave, the server goes into 'waiting for players' ( which takes up to 5 minutes). If no one joins, the server changes the map and the same cycle starts.
Update v5094
New Weapon
There is a new weapon in this build: the grenade launcher. It has 6 grenades that will be lobbed in an arch based on your pitch. It will explode upon impact with a hostile or if it stops bouncing. It's not in any default load-outs so if you want to try it, edit one of your loadouts. [previewyoutube="AzTSqX0uKR0;full"]
Map Transistions
Traveling from map to map was a little jarring. It would instantly pop and the camera would be in an awkward position in the world ( usually 0,0,0 ). I've changed this to include a fade from black and small smooth camera animation. Each map has it's own camera location so it shows off the map a little bit. [previewyoutube="_-8wbCLv-lQ;full"]
Loadout System
The loadout system has been polished a bit more. It now saves your current equipped loadout as well as all of its contents. You can edit as much as you like, but there are only 3 slots. I'm not sure if I'll keep it like this ( being able to edit as much as you want ). Perhaps it's better to have pre-defined classes so we can balance weapons/abilities a bit more.
Network Optimizations
I've put some more work in optimizing the network replication, especially for the dash. The dash takes only a fraction of a second to complete so if there is lag, it's super hard to do any kind of corrections. The biggest improvement in this build is that it won't fly backward for a single frame anymore, so it looks a little better. The other network optimizations are regarding how accurate the input is on non-owning clients, so you should see much smoother friendlies/enemies. [previewyoutube="ci55KmpO9qY;full"]
Community Challenge
Some folks in the Panzer community have come up with some random challenges mostly involving some tank parkour. Here is a clip of 'HTS Firebird' jumping over the full tunnel. If you can do this, you've probably played Panzer for more than a few hours.. [previewyoutube="hW3iXzxv6JE;full"]
Changes
Added camera/audio fades when traveling from/to maps
Session selection should not create multiple bugged sessions
TEAM mode should properly travel and cycle through the playlist maps
Added camera animation when entering a map.
Fixed not being able to bind anything to the mouse.
Limited player name size to 16 ( maybe need more, we'll see )
Polished entrance camera and spectator logic
Fixed issues where not everyone could participate on warmups
Moved change team and go to spectate to its own sub-menu so it's not possible to accidentally change team.
Number of rounds needed to win 6
Fixed some odd conditions for winning
Moved yellow ribbon showing who you're spectating to the left so it doesn't cover important bits of the screen
Now showing team score in clearer colors
Showing objective and/or match state during the game
Fetching both high and low res version of steam avatars and showing the right one int he right context ( avoids pixelation when showing big one in small sizes )
Removed the in-world damage indicators. They were hard to read, were being rendered behind nameplates and did not give a good idea of how much damage you did.
Added static on-screen damage number information. As you do damage, the number increases to show your total recent damage.
The training bots now respond to dart ( just a basic jump atm )
Spawn spots swap after every round now.
Reworked timing of victory/defeat etc message.
Abilities are now part of the loadout! For now, just like the weapons, it's something I just pre-set, but you'll be able to create your own soon.
When selecting abilities, you have to confirm it, this is necessary in order for it to work right.
Fixed buttons not triggering the click event if clicked on the edge.
The shotgun spread is now consistent, 1 in the middle, the other shells spread in a radius based on the spread.
Fixed long-standing bug where input would not be 100% accurate (very low level). Now every little bit of input is sent across the network instantly.
Dashing under lag ( 100ms+) is now smoother, it does not have a weird teleport/pullback effect anymore.
Fixed spectator camera, sending more updates, so it's more accurate.
The spectator camera has better smoothing, so it looks more natural.
The spectator now includes same camera shake as the player being viewed (previously it lacked camera effects )
Experimental:
Aiming now respects the limits of the tank in terms of barrel pitch. Before, you could hit some very odd angles ( flying straight up, yet shooting forward through your belly). This is now gone, if your barrel can't see it ( with some extra room to keep it loose ) you won't be able to hit it. So you have to keep in mind where your barrel is pointing a little bit more than before.
The same goes for turret rotation before it rotated REALLY fast, so you could do a 180 with ease, now the rotation is still fast but your shots WILL miss if you shoot before the turret has aligned with your target. This makes instant 180's not possible. It's still pretty fast( ~0.2 ) but not instant. Unlike the barrel rotation, I'm on the fence on this one. Playtests will show
Training Bots will respawn if they fall out of the world.
Boosting will not force your nose down
Enabled ability to edit loadout both in-game and through the customization UI in the main menu.
When double-clicking on a loadout it will auto-confirm it.
When editing a loadout, it will focus on the right one when going out of that UI.
Health pick-ups give 50hp instead of 100hp
Weapon trace calculations improved. Fewer cases where your if your barrel is in a wall it fires into a random odd direction.
Enabled FFA playlist.
Updated Unreal Engine version, expect some odd bugs, hopefully just a few.
Loadouts will automatically be saved to file and loaded back up.
The last equipped loadout is saved as well.
Scoreboard cleaned-up and has a little bit more info.
Broadcast message reworked, cleaner and more clear.
New weapon! Grenade Launcher. JunkRat/Demoman style.
All weapons now can have ammo/reload functionality. This means we have more tools to balance weapons. So we can have more powerful guns.
Reworked heal-shot projectile to work more physics-based (like the grenade launcher ). Before it would always hit where you aim, IMO this is lame. You also couldn't lob them over obstacles at all like that.
Optimized dart projectiles, impulse dart flight speed reduced 20%. It was crazy fast!
Update v5005
Loadouts
Before this update, you started off with 4(!) guns and had to switch between them with 1-4 or scroll. This obviously was for testing purposes only and therefor has been changed. Now you can only hold 2 weapons at the same time. Which ones depen on your loadout. You will be able to create your own custom loadout where you define which weapon, ability and cosmetics you want to have equipped. At the moment there are 3 pre-defined load-outs to make sure we iron out any basic bugs it might have.
Gamepad Support
The game works pretty well with mouse and keyboard but translating it to gamepad was a little tricky. This version includes full gamepad support. As soon as the game launcher, you won't need a mouse nor a keyboard. You can navigate all menus with the gamepad and also of course play the actual game. I'm still testing different basic layouts for the buttons but it's getting there. The main difference compared to mouse and keyboard is that you don't have a dedicated boost button, instead it's an automatic context based boost. The driving happens with the left stick and if you're pressing it all the way forward, it will engage boost.
UI Overhaul
Yes, another one. This time it was mainly to accomodate the gamepad and thus I thought it was a good moment to rewrite some of the underlying systems. While there will be a few new bugs, you should notice a much better experience in terms of look and feel but also actual flow of the different UI screens.
Playlists and voting
When you create a custom match, you now will have to select a playlist to play instead of an invidual map. The playlists are hand curated for now so that we can test specific stuff. Because of this, there won't be any voting for now. The game will cycle through all the maps in the play-list.
Changes
Incomplete list due to data loss. Thankfully I only lost the changelist description and no actual game data.
Tweaked burst rifle to have less of a drop, so slightly increased it's effective range
Shotgun spread is a little bigger ( was too precice in previous play-test )
Shotgun has 5 shells in the clip. Every 2 second it auto-reloads 1 shell. If you fire all 5, it will have to reload them all which takes 3s.
Potential fix for only turret having outline
Fix: cooldown override with the sniper rifle
Fix: decals won't be drawn on the tank turret anymore
Fix: enabled DFAO on the tank body again
Reduced assist damage treshold from 80 to 40. ( Now that tanks can heal much faster, the treshold to get an assist should be lower imo)
Fixed voice chat volume buttons not working properly
Fixed spawning in a rock in FFA_Zone
Fixed turret not pointing exactly where the aim location is.
Fixed inconsistent color glow on hit impact/dash etc.
Added new weapon: HealShot, will heal friendlies in a radius of the projectile impact location. Fires with an arc, so has a specific feel to it.
Pitching Up has more force behind it now than pitching down. This is so that you have more control when trying to dash up etc.
New map: Oasis, small 2v2 map. Disabled all the other maps ( temporarily ofc ).
Reduced healing shot amount from 50 to 30
Added map bounds to TEAM_Oasis ( it will show you the bounds when you get close to them, I dare anyone to try and get out ( if you do show me how lol ))
Healing numbers not visible to hostiles
Update v4905
Network Optimizations
I've reworked a lot of elements of Panzer in order to make it a smoother experience. A lot of the small jitter that could occur before at high-speed, should be reduced by a lot. Picking up items should be responsive as well.
Vehicle Rendering Overhaul
Before this update, the tank was just that, a tank. This made it hard to let the user select skins or do any kind of customization that was not identical to a 'tank'. In this new version, the whole system of rendering a vehicle is overhauled. Now it's possible to drive as any kind of vehicle or object ( how about a fez with a turret? ). This new system also makes it much easier to let folks mod the game potentially. [previewyoutube="15Yt15zTVdw;full"] [previewyoutube="KcsOKwD7wC0;full"]
PVE
Seeing as I'm developing Panzer Arena mostly alone, I won't have the resource to do a ton of marketing and thus get millions of players in. Therefor perhaps it's good to have a PvE mode that you can play alone or with up to 3 friends. It's still in the prototype stage, but I think it could be a lot of fun! [previewyoutube="A6xdsqYSyPQ;full"]
Changes
More tweaks to spawn selection. ( Won't select the best option always, but rather a random of the top 3 best positions, so should be more random )
Experimental: When aiming down sight, MAX speed reduced by 10%. Your normal non boost speed won't be affected so in general you'll be as fast, but if you're boosting and press RMB, it will cap the max speed to 90%.
Updated the old sand on TheZone map.
Removed gray meshes from TheZone map.
Need 40% damage before you get assist instead of 10%
Dash damage check was happening 10x per second, now 30, let's hope this is enough to not miss any.
Fixed depenetration value on tanks, so should not be able to drive through each other as easily.
Added a new menu when clicking 'quit' while in-game that asks if you're sure ( to avoid accidental clicks when wanting to click options )
Burst rifle interval increased from 0.85 to 1.0
Improved networking ( better interpolation ) so should see less jitter when connection is shitty and diong crazy jumps etc.
BugFix: when spectating, the yellow banner would not show up showing the name of the player.
Picking up objects networking improved, even with lag it should be better now.
Shotgun slightly more accurate up close
Added frame-rate limiter options in the graphics settings.
BugFix: LifeDrain now will spawn as part of the abilities in the world.
Added mouse wheel as weapon selector, scroll up and down to select whatever is in your inventory.
Added the 'sniper' ( the classic Panzer weapon ) as the third slot. Use mouse-wheel or '3' on your keyboard to select it.
Burst rifle accuracy regain is a little slower, so if you spam it too much your accuracy will go down.
BugFix: Impulse dart would explode on-hit when hitting certain pick-ups.
Some input re-work, MAKE SURE TO CHECK IF YOUR KEYS NEED REBINDING!!!!
Experimental: health-regen kicks in after 3 seconds! (prev 5, we also tested 7 at some point, so I'm testing the whole range )
Damage numbers now won't spawn on top of each other (as often)
Damage numbers will now fly off and drop on the floor
Damage numbers are rendered slightly more clear, this should help with knowing what you did.
BugFix: Fresh install should have proper default value for FOV (needs testing)
Lifedrain won't go away after owner dies.
Crosshair always has a visible dot now
Session will refresh every 3 minutes ( test to avoid getting stale and thus not joinable )
Debug command 'debugsuicide' will kill yourself
Rework of the visual mesh for the vehicles, this was the last puzzle piece before we can do any skin you can think of. I expect a few weird bugs, please report them if you find them :)
Redone the base generic weapon we have, it also has a fire animation now.
Converted turret part to skeletal mesh with sockets, and potential animations if required.
Converted weapon barrel part to skeletal mesh with sockets etc.
Added debug command 'ToggleHUD' that...toggles the hud. Useful for screenshots etc.
Added screen effect when you get healed
VoiceChat should be enabled in-game. Needs a ton of testing, some have issues with volume etc.( V by default )
Update v4843
Spring Clean-Up
A lot of systems in panzer were put together very quickly and in Blueprints. This was great for prototyping but now it's time to solidify a lot of the design of Panzer. This update was a big overhaul of a lot of the low-level systems. This means that from now on, adding new abilities, new maps, new tanks, and new modes will be a lot easier. This also means that Panzer won't change a whole ton in terms of core-gameplay.
Optimizations
Before this update, an average view would render 4 million triangles. Now, this number has been brought down to 500k, so 8x improvement. Most of this was implementing reasonable limits for foliage rendering and implementing LODs for most of the meshes.
Visuals
This update has removed a ton of place-holder visuals and includes a bunch of new ones instead. Not everything has been replaced but it's slowly getting there. This includes new camera shakes, new particle effects, new crosshairs, new boost trails, and improved landscape textures.
New Settings UI
The old settings UI did its job but it was quite limited. In this new version you can now change FOV, change global audio level, key binds and mouse sensitivity. Resolution and window mode is better too ( requires an 'apply' button instead of just forcing it instantly ). The new options should help but it's definitely not complete yet. I'll be adding a ton more in the coming weeks.
Bots!
There is a map that includes very basic bots. At the moment they are not the smartest or the most fun, but it should give you an idea of what they potentially could be like in a PvE mode if there ever will be one. You can access it by typing 'open devmap' in the console.
[previewyoutube="8THCyfz1-78;full"]
Changes
Impulse dart has a bigger radius for the owner when it hits the ground. Meaning if you deploy an impulse dart, it should be easier to drive over it now.
LifeDrain will now keep track of damage properly ( so can get assists from it )
New crosshair for the burst-rifle. It's basically a classic cross, also has a thin black outline so it's better visible against sky and sand backgrounds.
Every weapon now has it's own FOV when aiming down sights. So we can make snipers zoom in more than a shotgun etc.
MASSIVE clean-up of code/assets.
New cleaner spark impact effects
Compiling in 'testing' mode. This mode is more optimized.
Camera shake overhaul ( needs tweaking ofc )
Incoming damage now has a new camera shake. Should be a bit clearer you are getting pounded. The shaking intensity is based on damage amount.
Every weapon has it's own firing camera shake.
Trail effects have a wispy smoke effect to them now
Boost ability leaves behind a heat-haze effect trail
Boost trail has a little bit of heat haze as well
New hit-marker, previous one was super ugly and blurry, the new one is crisp and does not have a global animation on it, but every piece moves on its own. So not blurry anymore.
Shell casing effect will now bounce twice before freezing instead of just freezing.
Shell casing model added.
Extra landscape texture layer added, dry/hard sand, a little darker so the map does not blind everyone by brightness, and it helps with a variation. More layers will follow.
New boulder models, more realistic colors, simpler to read shapes and flat tops to drive on.
Foliage system LOD enabled and tweaked (needs more tweaking ofc). Grass/rocks/cacti will fade out at a certain distance( grass sooner than cactus ofc ) so this should give a perf boost.
LOD for most of the models implemented ( average 4 mil triangles rendered before, now 500k average)
New look for the pause menu
New look for the keybindings menu
Set effects quality now works in the options menu
Resolution settings now will have an 'apply' button so you can select the res first then click it.
Added mouse invert option
Added mouse sensitivity option ( can increase/decrease by 0.1, can slide it like a normal slider and can also type in your own values)
Added audio settings, atm only master volume slider. The range is from 0 to 1 like usual but the default is 0.5 so it doesn't start crazy loud.
Added FOV slider, it's VERTICAL FOV, so the usual FOV90 is 74 in Panzer. Vertical is much better than Horizontal IMO because it scales well with wide-screen.
When UI is visible the camera won't rotate anymore.
When dead, won't show the crosshair
Fixed bug with damage indicator after death
Update v4782
New Weapon
This week I've added a new weapon: the burst rifle. As the name implies it fires in bursts of 3. Damage is ~20 per round and there is damage falloff based on distance. It does not care about armor thickness.
New Effects
I've been preparing for skins(!) and in order to do that, I have to re-do some of the existing systems to be modular. The first one of these systems is the effects, so you will notice shell ejects, better tracer rounds, and a brand new boost trail. Don't worry if you don't like this particular trail, you'll be able to select many different ones eventually! [previewyoutube="Qvf5N2hUP_I;full"]
Ping Location
You can now ping locations to team-mates by pressing middle mouse button ( you can rebind this to any other key of course ) [previewyoutube="PwVlwB-oKS8;full"]
AP damage tweaks, total damage reduced to 80 from 100 (but with critical hit its 20% more ). Damage to the front is increased a little bit more.
Improved network prediction interpolation, should be less jittery in bad lag situation's
Removed explosive dart to be reworked and brought back later
LifeDrain is back! It has changed to be static, so it won't be attached to the owning tank, but instead will be stationary at spawn location.
Fixed explosion audio having infinite range.
Push/Overcharge damage blocking ability duration is shorter ( from 1.25s to 0.5s) the visuals did not match the actual blocking ability, which was confusing and OP.
Teams mode now will randomize teams as we've talked about trying it out for a while, the rules are:
Teams get scrambled every round (pure random atm, maybe later based on the score?)
Score and elimination are separate values ( elimination you get by destroying tanks, score by winning rounds )
If your team wins the round, you get +2 score.
If your team ties the round, you get +1 score.
If your team loses the round, you get nothing.
Player who gets to 10 points first wins ( 10 is just randomly picked, we'll see how quick this happens and adjust accordingly )
A lot of experimental values and I can't test this alone so expect some weird bugs.
Perhaps we can alter the scoring some more? Perhaps eliminations should also add to score somehow?
Added new burst fire weapon
It fires 3 rounds with a delay of 0.1s between each round.
It does not care about armor facing but does have damage falloff over distance
Has tons of things that need to be added ( keep pressed to keep firing, atm you have to keep releasing button )
Updated tracer mesh for shotgun and burst rifle (will also update for AP )
Added new particle effects for shell eject
Added new particle effects for the boost trail ( and new system, so we can soon select different ones )
Added new particle effects for the tracer impacts
Added new mechanic: ping location. You can now ping a location to your team-mates! ( should also be rebindable )
Update v4747
Name Change
Panzer has been renamed to Panzer Arena. Having a single (german) word is really hard in terms of discoverability. On top of that, having two words will be easier to make our own. Out of all the possible options for the second term, Arena is fitting the game the best. The game can be most compared to the old school arena shooters everyone is familiar with.
Shotguns!
I've finally started adding new weapons and the first one is the shotgun! It's been surprisingly fun, in fact, it's so much fun that it might become the MAIN gun in Panzer. The community has been discussing it and some very good ideas came forward. Look forward to some fun changes soon ( and new weapons! ) [previewyoutube="y_Mej0IfXUo;full"]
Static Item Dispensers
I've started working on adding static item dispensers to the map. Static because this way you can start to learn the map and plan your route. There are two items that you can pick-up at the moment: health and stealth. So when you're in combat it's good to keep an eye on your path, plan ahead and lure your enemies to certain corners where you know you can replenish your health or make a quick escape using the stealth. We need to work more on map-based game mechanics so that the matches are not only dictated by a single variable ( weapons ) and thus add a bit more variation and 'texture' to the gameplay.
Playtest
The next playtest is today! So we'll be testing everything mentioned above (especially the shotgun). Join the Panzer discord and ask me for a key if you want to participate!
Changes
Fixed getting assists on team-mates
Session should respect the max number of players indicator
Fixed collision on explosive dart ( does not respond on owner )
Fixed audio for pick-ups
Team Mode: Rules changed to 'whichever team gets 8 points first, wins'.
Stealth duration increased from 2.5s to 3s
Added jump pads to tunnel map
Added health pick-ups, they give 100hp, always the same location ( so you can learn the map )
Added stealth dispenser, these are found in a fixed location of the map
When you drive over it, it gives you 6 seconds of stealth ( only interrupted by you firing a shot )
Can't pick up stealth pick-up if you already are stealthed
Reduced number of stealth pickups in Tunnel
When enabling the dome, your stealth will be disabled
When going into stealth while having a dome, the dome will be removed
Increase the pick-up radius from 150 to 200
Removed some health pick-up spots from Tunnel
Respawn delay for pickups increased from 15s to 20s
The name of the game on steam etc has now officially been changed to Panzer Arena
Static stealth ( not ability ) duration decreased to 4 from 6s
Abilities that you can pick-up range increased from 300 to 500, should make it easier to pick them up
Added FFA back to map rotation
TEAM_Tunnel number of players increased from 4 to 6
Added static pick-ups to ZONE map
Added shotguns!!
Added key-rebind for EquipSlotOne and EquipSlotTwo
Reduced time from 120 to 90 for TEAMS mode
Updated TUNNEL map to have slightly lower platforms for the pick-ups
Updated TUNNEL map to have 2 more jump-pads
HealthRegen kicks in after 7s instead of 5
Health pick-up will cancel stealth
Added equip duration ( 0.75s atm for all guns ). During this time you can't fire.
During equip duration, the crosshair will be 20% opacity, when equip completed, 100%
Added equip sound effects, basic stand-ins atm
Exaggerated the ability cool-down effect, will grow much larger and flash white, so it's more noticeable when an ability is cooled down.
Added shell eject particle effect for the shotgun
Update v4706
Back to play-testing
Now that I'm back from my trip we can continue the play-test sessions. The focus will be on polishing up existing features and testing all the different modes we've talked about on Discord.
New Mode: Team Elimination
Another basic mode to experiment with. This is the first version, eventually, we'll do some weird experiments on top of this. As it stands the rules are simple:
2v2 only atm.
Two teams that play 10 rounds.
Team with most points wins
Round ends when one team fully eliminates the other or if the time runs out
Round duration is 120s, if this runs out, the round is a draw and no one gets any points
Spawns are normal, not randmized.
The rule-set is a little flawed, but it's only iteration 1, so stay tuned for updates!
Changes
Dedicated server is gone for now. Every player can now host whenever they want.
The screen effect for impulse dart is toned down
The inaccuracy based on velocity is toned down
Reduced slow-down when you get damaged
Fixed number of players when you click host
Made the projectile fire faster and drop less when fully charged
Reworked how turrets get spawned, might have fixed the ghost turret bug ( or created several new ones, this is why we playtest :D )
Removed LifeSteal from the potential spawnable list
New Mode: Team Elimination (see explanation above)
Charge duration reduced from 1.5s to 1.25s, please let me know how this feels!
Reworked pick-ups, there might be a few bugs with it now, but this change opens the door to many new styles of pick-ups.
Brought back the old crosshair!
Fixed spectate mode not showing crosshair/vitals/abilities etc.
Previously the weapon system was hard-coded to be the one gun we had. I've rewritten the whole system from the ground-up and it is completely modular. This lets us have not only different visually looking guns, but also gameplay-wise. We can go as crazy as we want. Stay tuned for some interesting new guns to be introduced!
Visual Clarity
Panzer is a fast game so it's important that there is no visual clutter during combat. This update includes a ton of features to help identify friends from foes and to know what to do. Enemies are always displayed in red and friendlies are always blue. This works when spectating someone and when watching back replays.
Changelist
BugFix: When you did a ton of damage but died, and someone else got the kill, you sometimes wouldn't get any points for it.
BugFix: Dedicated server now has a real limit of number of players.
BugFix: Dedicated server warning spam about materials. Servers should not create any ever.
UI: Incoming damage is now displayed closer to your crosshair so it's easier to see the incoming direction. It also scales based on damage amount.
Visuals: Team-colors are not more consistent, you and friendlies are always blue and enemies are red. Spectators are gray.
Visuals: When friendlies are behind walls, you will see their outlines.
New: Weapon system overhaul. Before the main gun was hard-coded and this was of course very limiting. It's now rewritten from scratch and let's us implement any crazy gun we want.
Crosshairs can change per gun or per player. You'll have the option to use a default basic crosshair if you don't like the weapon-specific one.
BugFix: Explosive dart now has a trail and it's colored red'ish.
BugFix: You won't be able to hear hit-notifications after death.
Spectating: In team-based modes, you can only spectate players of your own team.
Stealth: Incoming damage won't kick you out of stealth anymore.
Gameplay: Removed friendly fire completely, it was already very low damage, so now it's a lot clearer if it simply doesn't exist.
Minimum damage to get included in elimination is 20.
Kill-Streak and Domination count indirect elimination as well, so it's more often now that you will get double-kill and triple kills.
BugFix: You won't be able to see other players name-plates for a brief moment when re-spawning. They fade out.
