In about 3h30m of posting this announcement, we will have another short play-test. If you want to participate PM me for a key on discord. We'll try to also host a play-test for our friends across the pond, but this will be several hours later. Keep an eye on our discord for more information.
Experimental Changes
This build will include a ton of experimental changes to make sure we're not building on a rotten foundation. Every now and then we have to re-evaluate everything to make sure fun is the number one priority.
Game Flow
A huge focus was to remove some of the chaos that came from bad design. Panzer is fast and full of action, this we need to keep. But it needs to be clear what is happening, otherwise, Panzer will be the wrong type of chaotic.
Kill Credits
When a tank gets eliminated it's almost never purely because of one player, but the old credit system gave just the final shooter the kill for it. Now we're moving towards a more fair system where multiple players can be credited for an elimination. This is especially useful in our upcoming team modes, where other tanks might play an actual support role ( heal, give armor, shield players, etc ). So we're not purely KILL KILL KILL focused but also a little more strategy and team-work.
Changes
FFA and TDM now show the mode type to prevent confusion ( when pressing TAB )
Driving backward is a little slower, initial acceleration is the same
Improved hit detection.
Inner working of stealth is re-worked. So fewer bugs where folks stay in stealth or nameplates don't show.
Stealth cooldown increased by 1.5s
If you get hit while stealthed, stealth will be removed ( needs testing )
If you fire while stealthed, stealth will be removed ( needs testing )
Elimination system re-worked. It was a little too punishing, now if you do some damage before the victim heals, even if you don't get the kill, you'll get an elimination.
Reworked how eliminations are displayed, should be clearer
Kill-feed cleaned-up, more readable, removed stretched icons
Crosshair dot is full opacity, the circle around it is now 50%. So opacity flipped.
Crosshair circle is now animated based on recent shot.
Brought back critical hit, if you fire close to it ( 0.1s ) it will give +10% damage. Will tweak as we go.
Server optimization, not sending data to irrelevant clients about kill information.
Projectile gravity increased by 50%. It now has a clear bullet-drop effect.
Projectile trail opacity reduced, it was too distracting and gave false aim for the next shot.
Muzzle flash reduced, it was too noisy and distracting. So aiming should be cleaner now.
Update
Playtest August 1st, 2019
We've got a ton of new players wanting to join the play-test today. I'll post the latest build ~10 minutes before it starts. PM me through Discord for a key. I will be picking folks randomly.
Server Optimizations
We've been testing dedicated servers for over a week now and kept them running longer than 24h with few (now fixed) issues.
Damage System
We now keep track of damage in more detail, so we have domination message, kill-streaks, revenge, etc.
New maps
There are 4 available maps, Zone and Tunnel in two flavors (FFA and TDM)
Changelist
Added domination: After killing the same enemy a few time you will dominate that person.
Added kill-streaks: After making a few kills in a row, you'll get the special kill-streak message ( double-kill, triple kill etc ).
Assists are now worked into the kill feed, will show a green mark.
Removed notification telling you who killed you for now.
Kill Feed will now show team colors (blue = friendly, red = hostile ).
Kill Feed opacity is fixed, now will properly show as soon as a kill happened.
HUD Change: Scoreboard is a little wider now, some names didn't even fit.
Spawn Logic: Now when spawning, it will bias towards spots close to your friendlies and FAR from enemies. This won't always work out perfectly since your friendlies could simply be out of position, but it will try.
Map rotation: TDM_Zone.
Map rotation: TDM_Tunnel.
Map rotation: FFA_Zone.
Map rotation: TDM_Tunnel.
Jump-Pads are back.
Vehicle Physics: Due to the previous change of driving up slopes being better( more realistic ) we had a new issue: sliding off of ramps. This has been fixed with the addition of the handbrake system. If you drive really slow and don't press forward or backward, your tank will engage the handbrake.
Vehicle Physics: auto leveler works but needed some tweaking, now when you are high in the air, it won't be enabled. We will have an option for: 'never','close to ground' and 'always'.
Vehicle Physics: Optimized rotation replication, so the roll of tanks should be more accurate now.
Fix: 'modal widget not found' crash when closing game
ServerTime gets reset to 0 after map travel, this will prevent rounding errors if the server is online for 24h+
Player hosted servers work surprisingly well in Panzer ( even in regards to strict nat etc!), but it's good to have dedicated server support. I PROBABLY will supply the dedicated server files to anyone who wants to host ( unless some technical or financial issue gets in the way ofc )
New Mode: TDM
Team Deathmatch is a classic game-mode that we can't do without so it's now back with the new game-mode framework. It's mostly identical to FFA excep...it's with teams.
New Map: TDM_Tunnel
The good old 'Tunnel' map has been repurposed for TDM. Lighting is changed to be a little less harsh but other than that it's identical.
Playtest
This build will go live right before the playtest today at 18:00 GMT. Ask for a key on the Panzer Discord ( https://discord.gg/panzer )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNrAdKk2gP4
Changelist
Added Team Deathmatch back in. FFA was great to test the core concept of Panzer, so let's test the secondary classic: TDM!
Map: TDM_Tunnel is our TDM map at the moment, it's identical as before but just with TDM now.
Vehicle Physics: When driving up slopes, now it will cost more effort. Not a lot, but enough to make it feel a little better.
Vehicle Physics: Together with the slope change, since we're doing it a bit more physical, we now have straighter lines on slopes.
Vehicle Physics: Added Auto-Adjuster, when you're close to ground the vehicle will try and adjust to the normal of the ground below you. ( this will be an option you can disable if you wish)
Dedicated Servers are back!
FIX: Dedicated server will now be able to loop to new map when no players are present, and not get stuck.
FIX: Dedicated server freezing should not happen ( not for the same reason we had in the previous play-test at least )
Reduced FFA time from 10 minutes to 8 minutes. FFA is quite chaotic and intensive (9 other tanks gunning for you) and 10 minutes of it is EXHAUSTING.
Added damage states at the end of the match. At the moment it shows just a few bits of info, but going forward I'll add a ton more.
New: Damage types. We're tracking all the different damage types so we can show it on the HUD if someone got killed using the dash, dart, etc.
Brought back network stats, simplified it a bit. Now shows 2 numbers, upload in kb/s and download in kb/s.
FIX: When going stealth, now the trail won't show anymore.
Added 'Draw' message to go along the 'Victory' and 'Defeat'
Misc fixes: tons of invalid pointers that were thrown as a warning should be gone now.
The playtest yesterday went great, it was cool to see 16 tanks doing back-flips. We found a ton of bugs, most of which should be fixed now. The next play-test will be similar but focused on TDM instead of FFA. I will make sure to announce the date well in advance so more players can join. Join the Panzer discord and ask for a key if you want to join the play-test!
Patchnotes:
Pick-up prompts improved. They now show the ability icon and name and what button to press.
Added a fade to/from black during re-spawning. This little bit of polish helps make it clear when you're respawning.
Fixed FFA bug that would cause the mode to spawn some players in teams!
Chat won't be faded during the respawn fade.
FOV during aim-down-sight is now 75% instead of 70% ( remember: FOV is adjustable with the FOV console command atm ).
Added more spawn spots in FFA_Zone.
Improved spawn selection logic, this should fix the double spawn issue.
FFA warm-up duration increased from 30s to 60s.
Added a rotating list of tips on-screen. I noticed some of the basics of the game are not clear when first getting started.
FOV calculation is smarter. When you jump it won't change FOV abruptly.
FOV now based on boost amount + velocity, so a better sense of momentum.
Reintroducing boost sound effects, still rudimentary.
For the past months, we've been play-testing Panzer weekly ( some folks almost daily! ) and it helped us gather a ton of useful information.
The new round of playtests will start soon. Wishlist Panzer and ask for a key on our Discord to get started :)
New Mode: FFA
Free for all is a classic and a great mode to test the core concepts of Panzer in. For a long time, it was neglected but we think going forward it's a good idea to always have a functioning Free for All mode available.
New Map: The Zone
To start off FFA, we're going to be repurposing the 'The Zone' map to be compatible with Free for All. There are way more spawn points than usual and we've also placed some ability pick-ups where usually the team spawns are, near the dams.
Video: Panzer Basics
We've recorded super basic videos showing the core concepts of the game. This hopefully is a good quick introduction without bothering the player with forced tutorials.
https://youtu.be/1mI6Q3VQnGE?list=PLPBUkmLbqvd14SeiOXuft3gSbMYXx2ec6
Misc:
FFA now has a proper flow of warmup->match->winscreen->votemap.
FFA win condition changed from x-number of kills to 10 minutes match-time.
FFA has a custom scoreboard UI
FFA has custom pause UI where you can toggle from spectator to player.
Vehicle physics: While drifting, turn rate is reduced slightly, so it is a bit more skill-based now when racing around the map.
Vehicle physics: Drift value is not as rigid as before. If you start sliding it takes a little more work to get out of the drift.
