We wanted to thank everyone who played the demo and added the game to their wishlist over the last few days! We've had an opportunity to really stress test our server before the Snteam Next Fest in one week's time.
We wanted to share with you an updated Roadmap which details some of our imminent plans. Check it out below
Remember to add the game to your wishlist and download the demo from our Steam page below:
DEMO NOW LIVE - NEXT FEST ISLAND COMING SOON! ADD TO WISHLIST NOW
Hello Robocrafters!
Can you believe over 150,000 robocrafters have hit that wishlist button on Steam already!? A massive thank you to everyone who has done so. Every single wishlist is like a turbo-boost to the spirits of the entire dev team and it REALLY does help us on so many levels. If you haven't done so, please do add the game to your wishlist on the Steam Page. Thank you!
We recently recorded a trailer with several members of our community, so check that out here:
DEMO AVAILABLE NOW! DOWNLOAD IT! So download that demo right now! It is quite extensive and you can lose hours of your time constructing your very own robocraft out of blocks. The servers will be up 24 hours a day for all regions
There are a ton of content and features planned for the future including new parts, better optimization and improved graphic fidelity. We’ll be revealing a new Roadmap pretty soon that will detail our upcoming plans.
Demo Progress is transferred to the full-game If you’re playing via the demo, your progress, saves and any unlocked cosmetic items will transfer over to the full game!
Earn XP To Level Up and get Tech Points Every battle you complete will give you robits and XP. When you earn enough XP you’ll level up and earn a number of Tech Points for each level. Tech Points are spent on unlocking cosmetics on the Battle Matrix. The level cap is currently 63 but on October 9th, we’re increasing that cap to 73 as we release the NEXT FEST ISLAND!
NEXT FEST ISLAND COMING SOON This island will feature a bunch of cosmetic items for you to unlock for free! You will need to use Tech Points to unlock these items, so enter battles now so you have enough tech points to earn them when they unlock!
We hope you enjoy this demo and look forward to seeing your feedback!
Robo Herald - Servers Up All Weekend For Playtests -
Hello Robocrafters!
The Robo Herald is here! Dig through THE LORE and decipher what may be coming as part of the games next update!
Additionally, we’re going to have the servers running ALL WEEKEND! We will be inviting thousands of Steam players who registered for the playtest. These invites are sent out randomly by Steam, but you will receive an email if you are successful.
Invites will start going out on Friday and throughout the weekend.
The servers will be active from 16:00 UTC on Friday 25th of August to 12:00 UTC Monday 28th of August
Yellow Arrow Indicators Whilst Building
One of the requested features players have been asking for is indicators which allow you to see what way a particular part is able to turn. These have existed in Robocraft 1 for a little while and were something we have been wanting to add to Robocraft 2. Here’s how it looked in Robocraft 1:
In Robocraft 1, these indicators were active at all times while building. This didn’t look great and made it very difficult for players to get a good screenshot of their machine in the build bay. In Robocraft 2, we have decided to only show the yellow indicators whilst you are looking at that particular part.
This change will be especially useful for players who like to take great-looking photos of their robocraft in the building bay!
These yellow arrows are also a way to teach players about the various parts of the game and how they will function when bringing them into battle. It’s actually quite easy now to check if you’ve mistakenly put non-steering wheels on your robot!
But one of the major improvements that these indicators assist with is creating custom gun rigs! The red arrows need to point towards the front of your robocraft to aim where your crosshairs are facing.
They will be coming as part of the next update and will be visible for the following parts
Wheels
Jets
All powered joints
All passive joints
Aim servos
All-In-One Turrets
Make sure to add Robocraft 2 to your wishlist and register for the Playtest if you want to join us in a couple of weeks to play the next big update!
Today we're revealing a major onboarding feature in our next update which is the…
THE TECH LADDER
This is a HUGE part of our onboarding process and will mean that we’ll be making some major changes to how new players start the game and what blocks and functionality they will begin with.
Here are a few key points of the Tech Ladder:
A new user progression system
Unlock functionality and blocks as you progress
New features that we add will be added to the Tech Ladder
21+ tutorial videos to unlock with voice-over and localised subtitles (English for now, other languages coming!)
New editable starter robocraft unlocked with many of the ladder hexes.
The Tech Ladder can be brought up at any time by pressing L while building and looks like this.
There are a lot of subjects on the Tech ladder. Each step will open up a new block (or a group of blocks), part, new functionality or even a Robocraft
Each step has its own video and description and you can browse all of them at any time
Most of the videos in the Tech Ladder are very short and are about 20-30 seconds long. But some of the more complex parts and functionality can be up to 60 seconds long. Some of these tutorials will walk you through step by step to show you how these parts are used, others will offer just a general overview.
If you want to unlock new parts and functionality to use, you will need to do so by starting at the top and progressing down to unlock each step at a time.
You unlock each step with Robits which are earned by battling online. During this time when online battles are at set times, we have included a time based unlock system where the next step can be unlocked 60 minutes after the previous step has been unlocked. This allows players to experiment with the part or functionality before unlocking the next step.
You can use Robits earned in battle to ignore the wait time and unlock the next step if you are ready. Anyone with an account created up to the release of the next update will have all the Tech Ladder steps unlocked but you’ll still be able to read through the descriptions and watch the onboarding videos.
You will unlock the following in this order by progressing through the Tech Ladder:
Plasma All-In-One Turrets
Material Mode
Free Cursor Mode
Configuration Mode
Build Your Own Turrets
Cosmetic Lamps
Anti Grav and Thrusters
Arc Discharger
Powered Joints
Passive Joints
Plates
Orientation Tool
Cylinders and Posts
3rd Grid Placement
Railgun
Logic And Maths
State Blocks
Sensors
Nameplates
Frames, Quarter Pyramids and Flipping
Precon Mode
Anyone who creates an account after this update will need to progress through the Tech Ladder. We are planning to invite a large number of Steam players shortly after launch and are looking forward to how these players respond to the new onboarding process.
It’s important to note that you can still use ANY robot on the CRF, regardless if you have unlocked that part in the Tech Ladder or not.
Any new parts or functionality in the future will need to be unlocked via the Tech Ladder for all players!
New Player Onboarding
After this update, any new players will be given access to a small number of parts to help ease them in on the powerful tools that Robocraft 2 building has to offer.
Our plan was to provide them with shapes and parts that RC1 players are familiar with. So new players begin with the following inventory of blocks.
They also have access to the following functionality whilst building.
Block Mode
Colour Mode
Save Machine
Shift Machine
Rotate
Mirror Mode
New builders will be able to construct a functional robocraft from these blocks and even enter online matches. The only new piece of functionality that players will need to learn at this stage is block scaling and we hope a limited inventory will allow them to get used to the benefits that block scaling offers.
But when they are ready to dive into the new parts and functionality, they will do by progressing through the Tech Ladder
We believe that this new onboarding system should slowly introduce players to many of Robocraft 2’s new features over time and ultimately encourage more players to become builders.
This whole feature was created after a lengthy discussion with our community on Discord about RC2’s complexity. If you want to share your thoughts, consider joining our Discord!
Mascot Robocraft, Map Objectives Display, Landscape Improvements And Deseating
Hello Robocrafters!
We're planning to run a Steam Playtest on the 1st of August and are planning to invite a number of players to come and join us! This is a pretty big update for us as we are working on providing greater onboarding to help players understand the game and its building systems.
MASCOT ROBOCRAFT
Do you have a robot that you worked really hard on and you want your friends to see? We’re making a lot of changes to the main menu in preparation for parties and one of the things we’re doing is allowing you to customise your main menu. If you’ve unlocked various skins and profile options, you’d have seen these all shown on your character already. But in the background, there is a single switch plate which is empty.
NOT ANYMORE! Here’s what it looks like with a banana kart on the plate!
You can add a number of different types of Robocraft on this switch plate, they don’t all have to be banana themed!
So how do you set your mascot? Simply enter build mode and press the Mascot button as shown by the arrow in the image below!
What robot will be your Robocraft Mascot?! Let us know!
MAP OBJECTIVES DISPLAY
We’ve had a lot of moments where players were not entirely clear about what they needed to do to win a game and would sometimes even spot new players attacking their own base as they thought they were attacking the core objective!
We wanted to help provide more info by including a description of the map objectives in the matchmaking screen. Each time you play online, you'll be loaded into a random map and will be given information about the map name and its objectives while matchmaking. You can then make some decisions regarding what kind of robocraft you want to begin with when you eventually get into a game
These objectives are visible also mid-game while waiting to respawn.
LANDSCAPE AND ROAD CHANGES
We’ve made a number of improvements to the Mars Cliffs and roads so they look more natural!
the ground is now a little more uneven instead of a flat surface and the collision has been updated to make it feel more like an offroad driving experience. We've also updated the cliffs so they no longer look so uniform and the peaks are more natural.
DESEATING
We had reports from players that being deseated from your machine when you took significant damage to the pilot seat caused them to be confused as it wasn’t clear that this is what happened
Additionally, because players would place their seat deep inside their robocraft the camera would sometimes cause some conflict with nearby blocks and make it very difficult to see and disorient players.
There are a few ways that we have addressed these issues. This will now happen when you are defeated:
Text will appear on screen reading “DESEATED”
Audio will confirm that you have been deseated
The screen edge effect will be coloured Cyan
A spherical explosion will play around the area of the seat to remove nearby blocks
Here’s how it looks in action
Make sure to add Robocraft 2 to your wishlist and register for the Playtest if you want to join us in a couple of weeks to play the next big update!
Big Update Coming - Register For Steam Playtest NOW
Hello Robocrafters
There will be an update within the next two weeks which will feature a whole assortment of new content including a new weapon, more cosmetic items and better onboarding to help teach players about the game and the build mechanics.
When this update launches and we’re happy with it, we will send out a large number of invitations via the Steam Playtest so you can get involved in the game and help provide us with feedback! Anyone who has been accepted previously into any past Playtests will automatically be granted access.
We recently unveiled a new map which features 3CP game mode, this was called Ma'adim Terminus. Here's a quick look at this map:
During internal tests with members of the community, a few of them had some opinions about a particular feature of this map!
We made some significant adjustments to this map following player suggestions which included of course opening up the bridge and providing ground-based units more cover from air.
This was all done pretty quickly with our internal world editing tools. If we had to make the same change in RC1 this would have taken much longer, but as we're using an in-game map editor where all parts and logic are built using the same system as constructing your robocraft, it was easy to make these changes!
Make sure to add Robocraft 2 to your wishlist and register for the Playtest if you want to join us in a couple of weeks to play the next BIG update!
We've been working on a number of new features for Robocraft 2, the first of which is a Zoom feature. this is a new input that can be found in all weapons. By default, it is hooked up to Right mouse button, but you can activate it by assigning it to another output or logic if you so desired!
Here’s how it looks in use with the All In One turrets
Additionally, the laser projectiles are given a speed increase. Lasers are designed to currently combat airborne robocraft which is why their zoom is quite generous.
Plasma weapons have a much shorter zoom range in comparison because they are designed to fight ground units at relatively close range.
Alongside this new feature are a number of other changes to the Plasma Explosive, which is now called the Arc Discharger.
This particular block previously had a 45-second cooldown before it could be used and was particularly weak. We made some changes to buff its strength but due to the damage model we used, it caused catastrophic damage to other players, ignoring armour.
Check out these clips captured by our community:
We have since made major changes to this explosive block which include of course the rename we mentioned earlier to Arc Disruptor.
The blocks no longer take 45 seconds to re-arm, instead they work a little differently, requiring a charge time.
When you press the fire button, the explosives will be detonated 6 seconds later. This 6 second charge is accompanied by VFX and audio which will act as a warning to other players who are close by.
