We are ready for the final round of Worbital beta 2. This week, we are testing Chaos matches and Custom matches. Apart from that, we are bringing fixes for some weapon graphics and UI. You can see the full list of changes in the changelog below.
Worbital Beta 2-12, 0.99.3909_Beta2-12 - October 26th, 2018
Features
Custom Games Enabled
Fixes
Added missing Dreadnought audio
Various fixes to Dreadnought missile targeting lines
Removed the ability to remove structure ruins by using sell mode
Fixed gameplay music not resetting correctly if exiting by pausemenu
Fixed Dreadnought shields not showing
Adjustments
Visual tweaks to Sun Explosion
Visual tweaks to explosions
Attack Ship UI tweaks
Attack Ship and Dreadnought now auto-eject when fuel is depleted
Cataclysm volcano's lava now has new graphics.
Emotes can now be sent after the match is over
Upgrade, Repair and Sell tools can now be disabled by right clicking
Added slight lifetime variation to Dreadnought projectiles and Defense Orbs
Added critical core hit and loop audio
Balance
Cataclysm's volcano now expels an initial volley at great velocity.
Cataclysm's volcano now shoots more lava per volley.
Cataclysm's volcano now shoots significantly more often.
Cataclysm's volcano now shoots its lava in a more chaotic fashion.
Dreadnought missiles now target an area around the target planet's core with more spread
Introduced a little bit of spread to Dreadnought machine gun
Made it easier for a lot of early game weapons to hit buildings
Made Singularity not have a ready charge after building
Removed Homing Missile planet pushback
Slightly decreased Dreadnought machine gun soil and core damage
Decreased Seismic Blast build cost
Decreased smaller uninhabited planet mass
Increased Homing Missile cooldown
Increased Cataclysm cooldown
Increased Singularity cooldown
Increased Nuclear Plant charge boost
Increased the damage tier 1 and 2 weapons deal to Dreadnought shield
Increased Colonizer terraforming speed
Increased Seismic Blast damage
After the beta closes on Wednesday, don’t rush off the server. We will have some juicy announcements for you next week, so stay tuned.
The launch is not so far ahead now, so let’s have this last weekend of beta-testing fun. One for the road. Happy Blasting!
Worbital Beta Patch, 0.98.3764_Beta2-11
We have a quick patch out with some fixes.
See the changelog:
Worbital Beta 2-11, 0.98.3764_Beta2-11 - October 19th, 2018
<*>Features
Discord Integration
Shows when you’re playing Worbital Disabled by default, since some anti-virus programs have reported a false-positive when using the feature
To enable it, right click on “Worbital Beta” on your Steam Library and select “Properties”. Click “Set Launch Options…” and write in the parameter “-discord”
<*>Adjustments
Added extra surface visuals for planets (mountains)
Beta's Back!
The wait is over—Worbital beta is back to spread its explosive cheer. Let’s take another look at what you can expect from Worbital Beta 2.
We’ve already explained the general drift of the new beta in our Tuesday announcement. Here’s the announcement briefly:
Beta 2 Weekends: October 19th-22nd, October 26th-29th
Keys available October 19th-29th
Limited game modes, but new features and weapons
Play Beta 2 at least once to be eligible for a small bonus in the release version
Today we also start giving out beta keys. If you already have a beta key, it will give you access for Beta 2 as well. If you don’t have a key yet: post a request in the #wrb_request-beta-key chat on our Discord server, and we’ll get back to you in a direct message, as soon as possible. Please mind that on weekdays we’ll only give out keys during our office hours (roughly 8am - 5pm EEST). If you post a request and don’t get a reply, there’s no need to post multiple requests. Moderators will get back to you as soon as they are available.
As mentioned earlier, Beta 2 will have fewer game modes available. During the first weekend, you can play Tutorial, Chaos and AI Chaos. During the second one—only Tutorial and Custom Matches. For both weekends, we include UI fixes and some funky new weapons: Dreadnought, Cataclysm, Singularity, and Orbit Destabilizer. Some of them we’ve already teased on our Discord and Twitter.
The beta will close completely on October 29th. After that, it’s just the final stretch before the full launch of Worbital on Steam. Upon the closing of the beta, we will have some juicy announcements and surprises, so, please, don’t leave the server just because beta is ending! Keep your eyes on the announcement chat.
The first weekend of Beta 2 will close for a break on Monday, October 22nd, at 14:00 EEST/ 07:00 EDT.
Worbital Beta 2-11, 0.98.3756_Beta2-11 - October 19th, 2018
Planet UI can now be controlled with keyboard commands
Hotbar
An additional way to control planet actions
Planet Interaction UI Overhaul
All the essential information has been added around the player planet. Structures can be constructed and activated by clicking on it, in addition to the Planet View on the top-left corner
HP Bars
Structures now reveal their HP bars when hit, making it easier to see the amount of damage that was caused
Resource Gain Values
You can now see the amount of Funds you gain when firing at enemy planets
Refinery and Mining Probe values also shown
Info Corner Overhaul
Visuals overhauled
Added Upgrade, Repair and Sell tools. This lets you quickly click through structures and apply the desired effect
Fixes
Fixed a visual bug in the end screen that sometimes caused red splotches on defeated player icons
Restored the feature that causes asteroids to split into smaller ones when destroyed
Asteroids can no longer destroy planets without triggering critical core status
Lasers no longer collide with the Black Hole
Laser Blade boost direction fixed
Various small fixes
Adjustments
Added new mouse cursors
Added a targeting overlay when in targeting mode, showing the name of the weapon and its charge status
Added crosshairs to indicate enemy planets when in targeting mode
Added additional large planet fragments when a planet is destroyed
Fireworks targeting line improved to more clearly show the point where the projectile will explode
Evacuator now shows a skull icon on your planet, when it’s been armed
Evacuator can now be activated mid-flight for direct control of the projectile
Evacuator now grabs some of the buildings from the planet it was launched from and quickly restores them on the new colonized planet. The more evacuators on the previous planet, the more structures it takes with it
Evacuator now only fires one projectile, regardless of the amount of evacuators built on the planet
Homing Missile now targets Attack Ships and Dreadnoughts
Adjusted Refinery fund generation mechanics slightly
Added UI for derailed planets that indicates the amount and direction of the speed boost they receive from different weapons and boosters
Added more information to Advisor Messages
Added in-world highlights on events referred to in Advisor Messages
Tutorial adjusted to take into account upcoming onboarding features
Clouds are now visible on planets when zoomed in close
Moved Projectile Actions keys to F1-F4 to give way for planet hotkeys
Coilgun and Railgun visuals swapped
Some weapon names adjusted
Weapon description texts rewritten
Network optimization
Balance
Solaronite Gun target line now shows the trajectory through the sun
Increased Solaronite Gun charge time and build duration
Slightly increased Solaronite Gun soil damage on level 1, but decreased on levels 2 & 3
Slightly decreased Solaronite Gun structure aoe
Gravity’s effect on derailed planets has been slightly increased
Mining Probe now generates more Funds, but has a limited lifespan
Laser Blade angle increased
Made Laser Blade give less boost to a derailed planet
Gravimetric Shield uptime slightly decreased
The amount of Defense Orbs generated is now dependent on the amount of Defense Orbs structures on the planet
Defense Orbs now fire their orbs further on higher upgrade levels
Slightly reduced Tax Gun’s (Poacher) Fund steal amount
Increased Spreadcannon (Defense Spreader) and Shotcannon (Defense Burster) damage against projectiles
Reduced Attack Ship fund gain on planet hit
Uninhabited planets’ soil endurance increased
Slightly reduced small planet fragment damage
Made Spreadcannon (Defense Spreader), Shotcannon (Defense Burster), and Gatling Cannon (Autocannon) better at steering a derailed planet
Increased Plasma Cannon HP
Increased Attack Ship fuel amount on levels 2 and 3
Slightly reduced Attack Ship damage
Slightly increased Attack Ship size
Gear up for a weekend of cosmic destruction!
Worbital Beta Reopens October 19th
Hey, folks! Missed us? Fret no more, because Worbital beta is coming back this week, starting October 19th.
The second round of beta will be arranged differently from the first. For one thing, it will be significantly shorter and more focused, available during the next two weekends only. The first beta weekend will take place on October 19th-22nd, the second on October 26th-29th.
We are now gearing up for the full release, hence the more limited beta time and features. The point of this beta for us is testing the network and the new UI features and we want as many people as possible playing simultaneously. Because of this, some game modes we had in the previous beta won’t be available now. To keep things fun, we decided to throw in some awesome new guns for you!
As we announced earlier, your keys will be valid for the second beta—just update the game on Steam and you’ll be able to play again. And you should! We are planning a little something special for the beta testers in the full game version. To get access to that special thing, you need to check out the second beta, at least once.
For those of you who don’t have a beta key yet: you post a request in the #wrb_request-beta-key chat on our Discord server, and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible. We’ll start giving out new keys this Friday, October 19th. Even though the beta will not be playable during weekdays, October 23rd-25th, you can still request keys on those days.
TL;DR:
Beta 2 Weekends: October 19th-22nd, October 26th-29th
Keys available October 19th-29th
Limited game modes, but new features and weapons
Play Beta 2 at least once to be eligible for a small bonus in the release version
Bring your friends, call your neighbours—let’s rock this!
Beta Takes a Break
Worbital beta has been running for over 2 months now, enlisting thousands of testers, getting tons of great feedback and helping us take Worbital closer to the final release. It’s been a long and intense period of testing, so now is a good time for a maintenance break.
Next Monday, September 24th at 12pm EEST/5am EDT, Worbital beta will be closing for a couple of weeks. For these next weeks the game will be disabled for everyone. However, YOUR BETA KEY WILL REMAIN VALID, and the next round of beta will be available to you automatically. We will not be giving out new keys during the break. Tomorrow, September 21st, about 4pm EEST/9 am EDT we will close the application form. The keys distribution will continue during the beta stage 2.
Beta stage 2 will be open after a couple of weeks. We can’t give an exact date for the reopening, but keep your eyes on the server chats and our social media channels—we will announce the date in advance. Meanwhile, we’ll continue hanging out on Discord to answer your questions and just chat about stuff. Stick around!
While the beta is on the break, you can still help Worbital—by spreading the word about it! Tell your friends and neighbours, and follow us on Twitter and Facebook. But until then, let’s rock the last weekend of beta stage 1!
TL;DR: Worbital beta closes down for a break starting Monday, September 24th 12pm EEST/5am EDT. It will reopen after a couple of weeks.
Blast you later!
Worbital Beta Update #10 - Match Rules
Beta update #10 is here. It’s a neat, round number and it will totally spice up your Worbital action. This week, we introduce Match Rules.
We get comments from testers asking to change different values -- HP of buildings, size of planets, etc. Of course, one can’t please everyone, so it’s best to just let the players choose what they want for any given match. Match Rules let you adjust a whole variety of settings for your Custom matches. You can change the size of planets, their orbit movement speed and rotation. It’s also possible to manipulate the sun, the asteroids and pretty much everything around you that affects gameplay. Some features, like colonization and derailing, can be turned off completely. A bunch of building-related settings, like their HP, cooldown and upgrading speeds, can also be adjusted to your convenience. You can now try all of those and mane more in the Custom Matches menu.
Worbital Beta Update, 0.97.3404_Beta10 - September 19th, 2018
Features
Match Rules
Allows you to adjust various game rules in Custom Matches, including Solar System Size, Core HP, Sun Destruction Timer, Charge Speeds and Feature Bans
Fixes
Fixed Solar Plants and Nuclear Plants to only affect the charge speed of structures on the same planet
Added Solaronite Gun audio variations
Adjustments
Added new faction banners
Balance
Laser Blade can now be used to steer the planet while derailed
Increased Gravimetric Shield cooldown
Increased the charge boost of Solar Plant and Nuclear Plant
Also, we are joining for some Worbital matches online tomorrow, September 20th. Come to play with us at 5pm EEST/10am EDT. For matchmaking, join the official TJR Discord server.
That’s it for today’s update. Don’t forget to give us feedback in the new feedback form.
Blast you later!
Worbital beta Patch, 0.96.3364_Beta9 - Fixes
Here's a new patch, with some fixes and balance changes for weapons, including yesterday's newcomer - Solaronite Gun.
Worbital Beta Patch, 0.96.3364_Beta9 - September 13th, 2018
Fixes
Fixed the Solaronite Gun’s collider
Added Solaronite Gun audio
Adjustments
The ping value in the loading screen should no longer overlap with other UI elements in some cases
Balance
Attack Ships are slightly easier to control
Attack Ship now launches at a lower velocity
Reduced the amount of time it takes to eject from controllable projectiles
Increased Solaronite Gun’s main projectile damage substantially
Increased Solaronite Gun’s overall damage
Terrene Solaronite Gun is now comparatively stronger against structures, while Celestials Solaronite Gun is stronger against planet soil
Reduced Solaronite Gun projectile’s HP to be the same across all levels
Worbital Beta Update #9 - Solaronite Gun
It’s update 9 from outer space! This week, we introduce a weapon to harness the power of the sun itself. Get ready for… Solaronite Gun.
This weapon lets you shoot solaronite waves (a.k.a. Solar flares) at enemy planets. When you shoot the Solarontie Gun at the sun, a pack of flares comes out the directly opposite side of the sun and head for any planet they can hit. The trick here is aiming your initial projectile at just the right angle for the flares to hit the enemy on the other side. Of course, if your planet is derailed, you can pretty much position yourself any way you want.
Unlike the legendary weapon from Plan 9 from Outer Space, Worbital Solaronite doesn’t destroy the entire universe -- it’s more precise and, hence, even more advanced. Also, our apologies to all the Lucid fans out there. We know, the faction haven’t got new weapons over the last few updates, but it will all be balanced out in the end.
A more technical update: we have moved Worbital to the new, 2018 version of Unity. This doesn’t change anything specific in game, but some unexpected problems might arise. They will all be fixed in time, but for now we apologize for possible inconvenience.
See the full changelog for the update below.
Worbital Beta Update, 0.95.3351_Beta9 - September 12th, 2018
Features
New Weapon: Solaronite Gun
Available for Terrene and Celestials (sorry Lucid…)
Updated Unity Engine to version 2018.2.7f1
This may cause unexpected issues (but hopefully improvements too)
Fixes
Fixed AI avatar randomization to disallow duplicates
Removed “Friendly Fire” advisor event when shotting yourself
Fixed “Friendly Planet Destroyed” event trigger
Fixed AI-replacement popup from appearing when player is not actually replaced
Fixed host receiving popups that notified AI players’ Structure Tier unlocks
Adjustments
Added player names and Factions to pre-match loading screen
Various AI improvements
Balance
Rebalanced Fragmenters, so that Terrene's isn't strictly better at level 3
Increased Attack Ship soil damage slightly
As usual, we are coming to play Worbital online with you this Thursday, September 13th. We start at 5pm EEST/10am EDT. To arrange a match with us, join the official TJR Discord server.
Beta update #8 has arrived! After a few weeks of more feature-focused updates, we are finally adding another new weapon. Something that will get you close to the enemy...
You might already be familiar with Attack Ship from our earlier blog post. Now you can actually get to maneuver it yourself. Attach Ship is a steerable spaceship that shoots short-range projectiles. You can navigate the vessel with the WASD keys or D-pad/analog stick on your controller. It’s excellent for hitting precise targets or getting on your opponent’s nerves and it’s now available for Terrene and Celestials. Lucid are too sensible for this silly stuff, you know.
Other changes this week include minor fixes and adjustments.
Worbital Beta Update, 0.94.3292_Beta8 - September 5th, 2018
Features
Added a new structure: Attack Ship
Available for Terrene and Celestials
Fixes
Railgun now spawns its fragments more consistently, and only does it once
Adjustments
Adjusted the Duel Solar Systems to have more variance in their size
Some matches now have bigger solar systems with more planets
AI is now better at flying Nuclear Missiles
Adjusted the Impossible AI to be more difficult
Balance
Increased Coilgun fragment soil damage to make splitting more viable
Increased Gun Magnet's activated effect duration
In other news: as usual, we come to play Worbital online with you tomorrow, Thursday 6th of September. Join us on our Discord server at 5pm EEST/10am EDT.
Enjoy the update and remember to fill out the updated feedback survey.
Blast you later!
Worbital Beta Patch, 0.93.3229_Beta7 - Fixes
We’ve just put out a new patch including some fixes for weapons and the AI.
Worbital Beta Patch, 0.93.3229_Beta7 - August 30th, 2018
Fixes
The Chaos queue should no longer occasionally get stuck in the loading screen if AIs are added to the game
Wave Cannon audio no longer gets stuck if an AI Wave Cannon is destroyed mid-charge in an online game
Adjustments
AI should shoot the Wave Cannon more consistently
AI should avoid obstacles more when controlling a Remote Missile
Balance
Increased Defense Spreader’s planet steering force
Increased Defense Burster’s planet steering force
Increased Autocannon’s planet steering force
Glacier is now considered a gravity-based Energy weapon
Can no longer be blocked by Defense Spreader and Defense Burster
Can still be blocked by Laser Blade, Defense Orbs, Magnet weaponry and Gravimetric Shields
