Worbital Beta Update #7 - Emotes, Build Limits & More
Let’s go, beta update #7! This time we attempt to make things more social in Worbital and also to limit weapon spamming. Let us take a look.
Last week we added AI bots, so you could avoid playing with humans. But now it’s time to get more social. Worbital now has emotes! Emotes are scripted messages you can send to your playmates through your advisor character. You might not be able to share elaborate strategy plans, but you can have fun taunting. Or, you can apologize to your teammate for shooting them. This is a neat way for quick communication between players—simple enough to get a basic message across, but not so distracting as to pull you out of the heat of the game.
Another issue we tackle in this update is weapons spamming. It is a common strategy to build one’s entire arsenal of just one weapon. Autocannon, Railgun, Nuclear Missile… This understandably can be frustrating to other players, but it’s been a legit strategy until now. Starting with this update, we have a structure limit imposed. It allows only a certain number of one weapon to be built at the same time. For instance, you can’t have more than 3 Lasers on your planet at once. Or more than 1 nuke… After testing this internally, we saw that the limit prompted more creative strategies and also made matches more dynamic.
Lastly, the robot invasion is expanding! It is now possible to add AI bots to Custom matches. Other additions include fixes and polish.
Worbital Beta Update, 0.92.3221_Beta7 - August 29th, 2018
Features
Emote System
You can now communicate with your allies and enemies by sending them pre-set messages through your advisor characters
Build Limit
The amount of same structure types on a single planet is now limited to a preset number
AI Bots added to Custom Games
Fixes
AI players now properly use varying loadouts in AI Duel and AI Chaos matches
AI no longer causes a "Not enough charges to shoot" popup to appear
Enabled loadout menu controller prompts
Fixed a bug that caused sub structure (terraformer, mining probe) upgrade levels to not correspond with their parent structure
Removed charge icons from structures without charge mechanic
Disconnecting players are no longer converted to AI if the player has already been defeated
Fixed some Advisor Messages that were triggered incorrectly
Adjustments
Adjusted colonized planet selector UI visuals
Made colonized planet selector visible even if player only has one planet
Added an option to adjust the amount of Advisor Messages received during a match
Added new Advisor Messages
Adjusted Advisor Message texts
Adjusted loadout name box to fit longer names properly
Added a pen icon to the loadout name box to indicate it can be interacted with
Clicking on a colonized planet now shows it on the Info Corner
Advisor animations adjusted
Adjusted Pause Menu player list to a vertical format
Added ping icons to Pause Menu player list
Adjusted the planet core hit sound
Balance
Increased Refinery fund generation on levels 2 & 3
Decreased Orbit Boost power when on orbit
Impossible AI made a bit more impossible
Planet shards no longer collide with energy projectiles
It’s happening, people: the robots are here. They are overtaking the game! In today’s update, we introduce Worbital AI and more.
With update #6, you will be able to play single matches against AI, as well as add AI bots to Quickplay matches if you lack players. The bots are not yet available for Custom matches. AI-players will also be replacing human players if those disconnect from a match. Enjoy the company of our new robotic overlords!
Worbital Beta Update, 0.91.3122_Beta6 - August 22th, 2018
Features
AI Bots
AI can be now played against in single player quickplay modes. It can also be added in quickplay online matches. Currently unavailable in custom games.
AI Replace
Disconnected players are now replaced with an AI
Vote to Start Match
Added the ability to vote for a queued match to start with less than the maximum number of people. This sets AI players for the empty slots.
Quickplay: Chaos (previously called Supremacy)
Removed Alliance (team play) from quickplay and brought back free-for-all, now rebranded as “Chaos”
The Worbital Beta is now available for Macs!
The Mac version should still be considered unstable
Loadouts can now be renamed in the Loadout Edit-menu.
The UI for renaming will be improved in coming updates.
Fixes
Camera no longer shift focus to new planet if currently viewed planet is destroyed while flying controllable projectiles
Fixed disappearing repair icons on Planet Minimap
Fixed sector information and planet highlight getting stuck when pressing repair button
Fixed the “Shortest Time to Win”-Lifetime Statistic
Adjustments
Adjusted team colors so that the player always sees their team as blue and the opponent as red
Added an announcer warning for shooting at an ally planet and destroying an ally planet
Reduced the amount of simultaneously visible announcer messages to 3
Balance
Decreased Defense Spreader and Defense Burster structure damage
We've just put out a patch for the Worbital beta, containing a few minor fixes.
Worbital Beta Patch, 0.90.2989_Beta5 - August 16th, 2018
Fixes
Removed the “Add AI” teaser (read: glitch) button from custom games
Adjusted some team play relevant announcer texts to be shorter and clearer
Also, reminder: today, at 5pm EEST/ 10am EDT, we are coming to play Worbital online. Come join us through our Discord server: https://discord.gg/kYYcrQu
Worbital Beta Update #5 - Sun Derailing and Alliance Quickplay
We are now at our fifth beta update! This week, we introduce sun derailing, Alliance Quickplay mode, and the triumphant return of *drum roll*... asteroids!
With the World Rammer, you can derail planets off their orbit, But why stop there? Now you can derail the sun itself! Anything is possible, if you rammer long enough…
Another addition is the quickplay mode “Alliance” replacing “Supremacy”. We noted that many people enjoy playing in teams, as team play has always been available in custom matches, so we decided to see what would happen with the game and the community if we highlighted teamplay as the default game mode. Alliance has been added to the Quickplay menu, and the regular Supremacy has been temporarily removed. Now, when you enter the Alliance queue, the game will put you in a team automatically. Worbital: promoting teamwork among random strangers since 2018. But fear not, you can still play the chaotic free-for-all matches from the Custom Game-menu.
Aside from the new features, we have made requested balance changes to some of the weapons, including Shield Defense and Orbit Boost.
Last but not least: THEY ARE BACK. The asteroids have returned to the game after about a week of absence. Though, for now it’s not possible to break them into fragments. We’re working on bringing that feature back.
Worbital Beta Update, 0.90.2982_Beta5 - August 15th, 2018
Features
Quickplay: Alliance
Temporarily replaced “Supremacy” (free-for-all) in the Quickplay menu with “Alliance” (team play). Free-for-all is still available in Custom Game menu.
Sun Derail
If you try hard enough with World Rammers…
The lost Asteroids have been found and appear in games again!
New Music: Black Hole Theme
Fixes
Fixed an issue that caused a moon to crash to the parent planet when Orbit Boosting
Terraformers of disconnected players are now properly destroyed and no longer make the planet uncolonizable
Made it less likely for planets to glitch through the asteroid field
Fixed planet sector selection losing its selected sector after an action, when using gamepad
Targeting cones (Defense Spread, Autocannon etc.) and laser targeting lines now change color depending on weapon charge status
Added a missing firing sound to Mining Probe
Added missing sounds to Defense Orbs
Added missing sounds to Gravimetric Shield
Minor text fixes
Adjustments
Made allied planets easier to recognize by giving them similar colors
Adjusted planet sector actions to be invoked on button down, instead of button up, making it much less likely to miss the desired sector
Made Loadout name visible in the Loadout Edit-menu
Balance
Wave Cannon is now available to Lucid as well as Celestials
Increased the downtime of short activations of Orbit Boost
Orbit Boost now scales more consistently between different orbits
Compared to before, Orbit Boost is now faster in inner orbits and slower in outer orbits
Plasma Cannon now has variety between the two factions
Terrene Plasma Cannon now focuses on planet soil damage at the cost of structure damage
Lucid Plasma Cannon now focuses on structure damage at the cost of planet soil damage
Increased the downtime of short activations of Shield Defense
Gun Magnet now collides with energy projectiles
Decreased Gun Magnet’s damages to match Magnet Gun’s
Increased Evacuator terraforming speed
Increased Evacuator projectile traveling speed
Increased Evacuator HP
Decreased Wave Cannon’s structure damage AoE
Decreased Wave Cannon’s fund generation slightly
Planet Anchor no longer steers derailed planets
Planet Anchor now anchors derailed planets
Enjoy the new update and remember to fill in the new tester survey.
Blast you later!
Worbital Beta Patch, 0.89.2902_Beta4 - Fixes
We've just put out a patch with a few fixes.
Worbital Beta Patch, 0.89.2902_Beta4 - August 9th, 2018
Features
You can now view the network latency in the pause menu during a match
Fixes
Colliding planets should now bounce away more consistently
Non-host players take damage again from colliding with the Asteroid Field
Wave Cannon sounds no longer get stuck occasionally
Wave Cannon sounds now work over the network
Reduced the amount of time it takes for the game to shut down
Adjustments
Increased Wave Cannon and Plasma Cannon Funds gains
Lowered the volume of Magnet Gun and Gravimetric Shield audio slightly
Worbital Beta Update #4 - Gravity Magnets and Non-Gravity Plasma
In this week’s beta update, we are adding several new weapons. Some of those affect gravity of objects around them, while others ignore gravity completely…
The main stars of this update are Magnet Gun and Gun Magnet. Both weapons shoot magnetic projectiles, which can mess with enemy projectiles when activated. Magnet Gun attracts projectiles, as expected. Gun Magnet, with its reversed polarity, repels projectiles.
Another gravity offender in this update is Gravimetric Shield - a defense structure that, basically, places a giant magnet on your planet’s surface, which repels all projectiles shot at that area.
And then there are those who don’t care much about gravity. Plasma Cannon fires a powerful shot of pure plasma. As we all know, plasma isn't affected by gravity and moves very slowly, so hitting your enemy with it is tricky, but worth it. You also can't adjust the shot's angle, same as with lasers, so the timing is everything.
Wave Cannon fires shockwaves, also unaffected by gravity. You can hold down the fire button to charge the shot and make it more powerful.
Worbital Beta Update, 0.88.2882_Beta4 - August 8th, 2018
Once a planet’s soil is damaged enough to reach the core, the soil that covers the core explodes away, revealing the core. This has no effect on the gameplay, but it looks cool and makes things clearer.
Fixes
Fixed a bug that occasionally caused the UI to stop responding when interacting with the Planet UI
Disabled the ability to zoom in by double clicking on planets, as it wasn’t useful and mostly just caused accidental zooms
Clarified some weapon descriptions
Adjustments
Asteroid Field now shows a red border when approached with a planet or a steerable weapon, to indicate where the collision will happen
Made weapon fund generation cooldown-dependent, so that similar weapons would be roughly equal
Increased Terrene Homing Missile's building damage aoe
Increased Glacier's soil damage
Reduced Glacier's cooldown and build duration
Reduced Planet Anchor's charge time, especially on the 2nd charge
Reduced Terrene Homing Missile's build duration
For the last week, we have been using a new system for distributing beta keys. It does take some time for us to go through applications and to select the testers. We understand it can be frustrating to wait for a few days and possibly not even get a key. Thank you for your patience!
As our server gets more crowded, it gets harder for us to reply to all questions, bug reports and suggestions. Rest assured that we do read all of them. Your feedback is what helps us make Worbital a better game! Thank you for testing and for reporting.
Blast you later!
Worbital Beta Patch, 0.87.2835_Beta3 - Fixing Disconnects and FPS-drops
Another Worbital patch has just been set live!
Over the last few days we have received many reports of game disconnects and FPS-drops during matches—the main point of this patch is to fix those. At the moment it looks like the main culprits are asteroids, which had been added to the game last week. We temporarily take them out of the game, while we figure out how to solve the issue. But don't worry! The asteroids will be back in the game as soon as we figure this out.
We understand that this might've ruined a Worbital weekend for some players and we thank you for your patience and for reporting! After all, this is what helps us improve the game.
Worbital Beta Patch, 0.87.2835_Beta3 - August 6th, 2018
Worbital Beta Patch, 0.86.2810_Beta3 - New Music and Fixes
We've just put out a fresh patch for the Worbital beta. The newest version includes a new music track, as well as some fixes.
Worbital Beta Patch, 0.86.2810_Beta3 - August 2nd, 2018
Features
New gameplay music track
Fixes
The Supremacy queue no longer occasionally gets stuck when the match has enough players to start
Matches now start properly when a player disconnects during the loading screen
The UI no longer gets stuck when using the shortcut for purchasing a Boost, and stopping it mid-way
The Asteroids that got lost have now been found and will show up in matches consistently
Increased Sun damage and explosion sound volume
Adjustments
Reduced the rate at which the Black Hole eats soil from planets that have already taken soil damage
Reduced the planet soil damage of Autocannons
Worbital Beta Update #3, 0.85.2781_Beta3 - Asteroids and Sun Destruction
Here we are, the third beta update. This week, the solar system itself is getting more hostile, with asteroids and destructible sun…
Perhaps, things have been easy for you in Worbital. You master the resource management, all your shots are on target, your defenses always work on time. No challenge. Well, what if the solar system itself started bombarding you with massive rocks? With the new beta update, it inevitably will. Say hello to asteroids! As a match progresses, the asteroids will start moving from the asteroid belt surrounding the solar system towards its center, crashing into anything on their way. But if you keep an eye out, you can shield yourself against the asteroids or shoot them down - that will give you some bonus funds.
If that alone doesn’t spice things up for you, we are finally making it possible to destroy the sun. The sun can now be damaged by projectiles, asteroids, planetary collisions and such. Because of all the stray shots and an ever-increasing amount of asteroids in the solar system, the sun will eventually accumulate a lot of damage, and when it does, say goodbye to your soil and get ready for some cosmic whirlpool action!
Aside from asteroids and the black hole, we’ve also made some adjustments to the structure upgrade UI. Hopefully, those will make it easier for newcomers to figure things out. We also added a few fixes based on Discord community feedback.
Worbital Beta Update #3, 0.85.2781_Beta3 - July 31th, 2018
Features
Sun Destruction
The sun can now be damaged - cause too much damage and…
Asteroids
Asteroids now drift into the Solar System from the outer Asteroid Field to cause mayhem - the number of asteroids increases rapidly as the game progresses
You can now select the server region from Quickplay and Custom Match
Fixes
The Custom Match screen no longer occasionally stays open when backing away to the Main Menu
Custom Matches no longer freeze if a player presses the ready button while the host is attempting to start the game
Planet fragments no longer occasionally freeze in space when a planet is destroyed
Removed the mysterious dead pixels in the background during a match
The Tutorial enemy’s faction is now correctly shown as Terrene
Adjustments
Structure Tier unlocks can now be purchased without opening the structure building menu using a new UI element in the upper left corner
The upgrading system has been revised and boosting a structure type is now more apparent
You can now purchase a boost by holding down the upgrade button
Player’s own color and faction are now visible in the upper left corner during a match
Planets should now bounce further when colliding with other planets, the Sun or the Asteroid Field to prevent repeated collisions
Funds gained from shooting planets now increases with weapon upgrade level
Lasers now have a warm-up period before they start dealing damage
Earthshakers now properly damage all structures on a planet
Railguns, Coilguns, Multiguns, Fragmenters, Big Shots and Earthshakers are now better at steering derailed planets
Autocannon now longer has a full charge when built
Decreased Autocannon’s HP
Decreased Autocannon’s maximum activation duration
Colonizator now highlights planets that are valid colonization targets
Decreased Nuclear Missile’s projectile lifespan
Increased World Rammer’s build cost
Decreased Terrene Autocannon’s accuracy
Forcefield can now be used to prevent damage from collisions to planets, the Sun and the Asteroid Field and causes the shielded planet to bounce to safety
Forcefields can now collide to other Forcefields and will bounce away harmlessly
Forcefield now deals damage to any structure, planet or core it collides with
Decreased Lucid Autocannon’s projectile HP and projectile damage
Decreased Glacier’s build cost
Enjoy the update! And, please, remember to give us your opinion in the tester survey.
Blast you later!
Worbital Beta Update #2 ,0.84.2696_Beta2 - World Rammer, USA Servers and More
Phewh. Whaaat, another week went by already? It looks like the time has come for our next update. This week we are adding some interesting weapons you might’ve been waiting for…
The star of today’s update is, of course, World Rammer. We showed it in our beta trailer, and there were a lot of questions about it in the Discord community. So, here comes! As you might guess from the name, World Rammer is a superweapon that allows to ram planets off their orbits. This is the pillar of the cosmic chaos Worbital aims to spread! World Rammer is now available to Lucid and Celestials. Another new weapon this week is Earthshaker, added for Terrene and Celestials. Earthshaker deals damage to all the structures on the planet’s surface. A nice way to finish off a few enemy buildings in dire need of repair.
In addition, we are including some important fixes, that were initially included in last Friday’s reverted patch, as well as some new ones. They should make the game more stable and fix some bugs reported on Discord.
Also, we no longer limit all players to the same EU server. Game lag has been an issue for some players in North America, so now we have a US server open to avoid that. The default server for everyone is still in EU, but you can now easily change that. In the game Options menu, select Network and pick either of the two available network regions - USA or EU.
Worbital Beta Update #2 ,0.84.2696_Beta2 - July 24th, 2018
Features
Added new structures for each faction
Terrene : Earthshaker
Celestial: Earthshaker, World Rammer
Lucid: World Rammer
Added USA server - Changeable through Options -> Network
Fixes
Nuclear Missiles and Steer Missiles being piloted when the player’s planet is destroyed should no longer cause the game to never end
Fixed syncing error when starting to boost with Orbit boost
Nuclear Missiles should now always leave a nuclear cloud when destroyed
Nuclear Missiles should no longer create gas clouds when hit, but not destroyed by projectile
Made some error popups clearer
The game shouldn’t get stuck when joining a non-existing room.
Right clicking multiple sectors on planet surface should no longer result in an error when building
Adjustments
Audio adjustments
Increased the build duration of Refineries
Increased the charge time of Nuclear Missiles
Increased the soil damage of Coilgun, Railgun, and Multigun on tech levels 1 and 2
