It’s time to join the first-ever North America Steam Playtest! We are grateful that you have chosen to join us during this time and we hope that you have a ton of fun playing online against others!
Please make sure to check out our discord forums where a large community of experienced Robocrafters will be available to help you get started and join in on the discussion of the development.
Robocraft 2 - EU Online Multiplayer Battle Test #1
Hello Robocrafters!
It’s time to join the first-ever EU Steam Playtest! We are grateful that you have chosen to join us during this time and we hope that you have a ton of fun playing online against others!
Please make sure to check out our discord forums where a large community of experienced Robocrafters will be available to help you get started and join in on the discussion of the development.
Development Roadmap, Drilling Robocraft And Mirror Mode
Hello Robocrafters,
We wanted to share an updated development roadmap with you. Check it out below
The team are currently in the final stages of finishing off Mirror Mode! This has been a hugely requested feature from the community so we wanted to share a preview of it below:
You can toggle the mirror mode on and off by pressing the V key!
But you can also move the mirror line by tapping either of the Bracket keys.
As you can see in the gif above the mirror line increases and decreases in size. This is so that players can choose whether they want their creation to be an even or an odd number of blocks wide.
Mirror mode will work for all blocks and works really well for adding armour and detailing to an existing frame, reducing the time significantly in creating a robocraft.
Painting your machine can also be done whilst in mirror mode too! But if you turn off Mirror mode whilst painting, it will paint blocks individually.
Additionally, we have been experimenting with a new type of machine concept which uses in game blocks to inflict melee damage via a drill...
The drill is made from the world-exclusive material, Unobtanium which is far tougher than any other material! As the drill continues to spin, it will continue to inflict damage on anyone with the misfortune to get too close! This is possible in online multiplayer thanks to our server side physics! Check it out in action below:
PEW PEW PEW! Laser Penetration, CRF Colour Palettes and Main Menu Design
Hello Robocrafters!
We've been working on a number of changes to balance Robocraft 2 during our internal testing and wanted to share some progress.
Our lasers have gone from being a Hitscan to a very fast Projectile weapon. This means that instead of instantly dealing damage to whatever surface they are pointing at, the packets of laser energy will take time to travel to your target. As you can see from the video below, we've updated the VFX to suit the projectile style. Combat is going to look a lot more exciting as a result too!
Second, we have changed their damage model. Previously, damage would only be dealt to the structural integrity (i.e. connections) of the first block that was hit. Now, lasers can penetrate through thin layers of materials to hit blocks behind them. Here’s a look at how a single laser projectile behaved originally and the new penetration damage model:
Projectiles now have penetration energy. When the projectile passes through a block it loses energy. The thickness and density of the material will determine how much energy is lost when the projectile passes through. If the projectile still has energy remaining when it passes through then it will keep going, damaging more blocks until it runs out of energy.
NB: In the diagram above you can see that the angle your projectile hits the block affects how much energy is absorbed.
In the gif below you can see how different materials absorb more of the energy of the projectile:
Projectiles keep going through empty space if they pass through:
Projectiles deal damage to all connections of the block (simulating how a projectile shakes that block and weakens all its welds) proportional to how much energy is remaining when it hits the block.
The overall aim of this penetration system is to ensure that building is more intuitive and realistic, i.e. where you place thick tough material is where you will be most protected from projectiles. Placing layers will help a little also, but at a cost of increased CPU.
Plasma Cannon projectiles have been reworked to use the penetration energy system also. When a projectile lands many rays are fired out simulating small pieces of shrapnel flying out from the centre of the blast. Each piece of shrapnel does full penetration energy tests. This means explosions will seem more realistic and will allow you to protect weak interior components with tough outer shells more easily than before.
Palette Colours for CRF Robocraft
Players will be able to customise robocraft they have downloaded from the CRF! This starts with the changing of colour palettes.
Main Menu Design
We thought we'd share a first look at our redesigned main menu. this menu features a look at the banner, avatar and frame which will be customisable for each player as they unlock new cosmetic variants.
Flight, Dev Roadmap And Playtest Signups!
Hello Robocrafters!
We're beginning work on ground vs air and wanted to go over a few of our design intentions on this subject. For those of you who played Robocraft 1 you will be familiar with the challenges of ground vs. air balancing and this time round we have been thinking really hard about how to make this all work.
A couple of key principles underpin everything in Robocraft 2. One is to adhere as much as possible to realism in terms of physics simulation. A second is that “weight should matter, a LOT”.
Our aim is to balance flying components so that in general things in the air are not as tough and tanky as things on the ground. This isn’t an exclusive rule, but a general principle we’re following as this helps to balance the advantages that flying Robots have over ground Robots.
The first class of flyers you’ll see in Robocraft 2 will combine Antigravity and Thrusters. In the future, we will add other forms such as Wings and Rotors.
Antigravity Block
Here is an early look at the Antigravity block in action:
The Antigravity Block is pretty simple. It provides a force that is always directed upwards. This force is more powerful than any of the Thrusters can provide so in general it’s better to use these to lift your flying Robot as opposed to using Thrusters.
This block has a Power tweakable stat which allows you to balance its lift power. There is also an input port allowing you to wire controls to it to allow you to control ascent and descent.
Small and Standard Thruster
Two different sized Thrusters with two different max powers and CPU costs. There is a tweakable stat on the Thrusters allowing you to tweak the power to perfection. There is also an input port on each Thruster which allows you to wire them up to controls and logic as you like.
One of the new features in Robocraft 2 Thrusters is that objects that are inside their exhaust receive an equal and opposite force. This means that if you block off the exhaust your Robot can be slowed, as the forward force and exhaust force counteract each other. You can use the force for some fun tricks, even creating flaps to block them off for a possible steering option.
Aerodynamics
Long term we do plan to implement aerodynamics so that the shape of your Robot affects how it moves through the atmosphere. For the earlier days of flight we will only have a very simple and crude form of drag. Essentially, the faster you go the more of a counter force will be applied and this occurs in a non-linear way as in the real world. So, as you get faster the wind resistance force working against you is greater, and the force increases with speed following a curve:
Other things to consider
A few things we’ve noticed when building early flying Robots:
Plasma cannons have such a large kick back, if your flier is too light, it will affect its position by launching it in the opposite direction:
Adding some extra weight to your Robot can give it more inertia and that can help to reduce the kick back:
The guns weigh a lot, and as they rotate this can shift around your center of mass and cause the flier to tip from side to side as you aim around.
You can overcome this problem by building turrets with a counterbalance behind the guns:
This will lead to a more stable craft while aiming your weapons.
Map design
Designing the maps to work well with ground vs. air is also going to play a key role in balance and defining the roles that flying Robots play in battle. With this in mind we’re introducing a modular building set that can be built and edited quickly in the World Editor so we can control how air and ground can access key objectives within the battles.
Max Ceiling Block
This is a World Editor only block that allows the map creator to balance how high fliers are able to go within the atmosphere of the planet the map is being designed for. It isn't a hard barrier or limit but all physics elements that provide lift or forces upwards are affected by it. The closer you get to the 'max ceiling' the more these upwards forces are modified. You will find that vehicles that are designed to fly high (putting more CPU into upwards forces, or using tricks like catapults) can get higher than those fliers that are designed to bear weight and cruise around in the air.
Changes to the Battle Gate
We have altered the battle gate to include a force field at the top of each team's spawn. This will allow flyers to leave via the top without needing to go through the gate.
Development Roadmap
We wanted to update our development roadmap to help you all understand our plans for Robocraft 2
Steam Wishlists and Discord Members
We hit a few major milestones recently that we wanted to share!
First, we hit 5,000 discord members on our Robocraft 2 server which is a huge milestone.
On Steam we also hit 75,000 Wishlists! Wishlisting on Steam really helps us for a number of reasons in the run up to a Steam launch so if you haven’t done so already, please do consider wishlisting on Steam at:
And finally, we have been running sign-ups for the first Steam Playtest over the last three weeks and have hit 18,000 sign-ups.
We are still in the process of organising the very first Steam Playtest and will reveal more news soon.
Thanks so much for all of your support!
Robo Herald 22.03.2023
First Test Flight
Hello Robocrafters!
We've been working on our next movement parts and wanted to share our progress with you! Check it out in the video below
The buildings in this video are placeholders! These will be replaced! Here's a peek at the new modular buildings which are still untextured:
Playtest Signups For Robocraft 2
Hello Robocrafters!
We have been running a number of online tests within an internal test environment and are now at the stage where we can introduce more players to test with us!
If you visit our steam page for Robocraft 2, you can apply to be a part of the Robcraft 2 Steam Playtest by hitting the big green button!
We don’t currently have dates as to when these tests will be active, but you will receive an email alerting you if you have been accepted.
Whilst you’re applying for the closed alpha. Make sure you hit the "add to wishlist" button too!
We are very early in development for Robocraft 2 so if you are accepted into the test, consider that is still very early in development.
We record some new footage over the weekend for Robocraft 2. Check it out below!
World Editor Blocks - Unobtanium And Mover Physics Cheat Block
Hello Robocrafters!
If you didn't know...
EVERYTHING IS A BLOCK!
In Robocraft 2, every map and objective is built out of blocks using an in-game world editor. This world editor is currently locked to be used only by the development team. But we do want to allow players to use it in the future to create their own maps.
Today we wanted to show off some of the blocks that are exclusive to the world editor. Check out the video below
