Hey there Robocrafters!
Earlier in the week we challenged you to create some new starter Robots for us as we felt the current roster of Robots that new players receive when they first create a Robocraft account were fun to look at but not that great in a battle scenario. What we really wanted was Robots that were both FUN and FUNctional. So the challenge was set!

You accepted the challenge as we were inundated with some really cool and crazy looking Robots. You can see all the submissions by searching for "SB01" in the Factory. We were only looking for five and these will be added to the game on Monday, December 3rd, replacing the current starter Robots.

So, without further ado and in no particular order, here are the five our judging panel selected:


SB01 Robot by Addrion


SB01 ARMORED CRAY by Smilemachine


SB01 T-34 by FacuSQ


SB01 Blue Falcon by Accorlei


SB01 Vanguard by Meme_Turtle

Congratulations to all the winners and thanks to everyone that participated in the competition. If you enjoyed this and would like us to do more of them, please let us know in the comments below. Also, do you have a favourite? Again, let us know in the comments.

To see all submitted Robots, simply search for "SB01" in the Factory in-game.

Planned Maintenance:



In order for us to add these to Robocraft, we will need to take the game offline for a brief period in order to update the game. We will have maintenance at 10:00 (UTC) on Monday, December 3rd for a period of two hours. We don't expect the game to be offline that long, but just in case we hit any snags when deploying the update.

Thanks and happy gaming!

Dear Robocraft Community,
First off, thank you to everyone that recently re-joined the community and all newcomers since we released the Infinity update. We’re really pleased that, on the whole, you liked the new direction.

We have something really special lined up for Christmas; another really huge update with loads of new content and some awesome new features. We will release details about it in a week or so, so keep an eye on the blog for more info on that.

Many of you in the community have given us feedback since the Infinity Update and we have been gathering this feedback and wanted to let you know of some plans.

Boosts are a game mechanic in Robocraft; they are a set of percentages that are applied to a Robot's health, speed, and damage when building. Some new players don't find the Boost system as intuitive as we'd like and a majority of the community seem to want us to remove the Boosts, as they encourage min/max build behavior such as 'block spamming' and so we have decided that next week we will release an update with both Damage and Health Boosts removed. Speed Boost will remain (under the hood only) as adding more Thrusters will still make you go faster. The Boosts HUD will be removed from the game as it will no longer be needed. We will also rebalance both weapon damage and Nano healing to compensate for the removal of Boosts; we'll let you know in advance as to what these changes will be.

Something we’d like to introduce in future but haven’t yet planned in is CPU progression akin to previous versions of Robocraft. Here’s how it might work:

• New players will start with a max CPU of 750
  
• Players earn 25 CPU each time they Level Up
  
• Players reach the max CPU of 2000 by Level 50
  
• Tier 1 will have a CPU cap of 1000, so any Robot larger than that will be Tier 2
  
• Tier 2 will have a cap of 1250, Tier 3, 1500 and Tier 4 1750
  
• The CPU caps are there to prevent new users having to fight Robots much bigger than they can build themselves and to provide a level playing field for competitive play

Please give us your thoughts and feedback on this.

CPU progression will provide some diversity with each Tier feeling quite different to the next, with Robots getting bigger as you go up the Tiers; but we’d love to provide more diversity in future by adding some more realistic physics into the game.

Here’s the idea: F=ma

F = ma, Newton's famous second law of motion denotes that heavy things accelerate and decelerate more slowly, which reduces their ability to change direction.

We’d like to inject some more realistic physics into the game by making Mass (and the way you distribute that mass) much more important. Weapons and hardware tend to be heavy too, so Robots packing a bigger punch will tend to be less agile. Robots packing lots of health will be less agile also. Smaller, lighter, more nimble Robots may emerge, unable to defend a point but be very good in many other roles. Essentially we want to push diversity by making physics matter more in your builds.

Adding this comes at a cost though - time and resource. This work will take a long time so we’re mentioning this early on to get an understanding from you in the community as to how important to Robocraft you think this is. Based on your feedback, we can put more devs on it if it's something that you feel is more important than more game modes for example. Please jump on the forums, on our social media spaces (Facebook / Twitter) if you like (or hate) this idea and then we’ll get an idea of how much dev time we should spend making it happen versus doing other things.

Thanks for listening!

If you're a regular visitor to the Robocraft Hub here on Steam, you will have seen that with the recent Infinity Update, we updated the Robocraft branding too; replacing the old orange branding with a cooler looking blue hue and exciting new key art. One thing we didn't do though was update the game screenshots on the Steam page. With the art team currently focused on creating awesome new things that are coming to Robocraft soon™, we don't have the bandwidth to capture new screenshots. So, we thought we'd call on you, our wonderful and incredibly creative community to assist in updating our assets.

Simply upload your best Robocraft screenshots to Steam; we'll pick our favourites and use them to promote the game right here on the Steam Store. In recognition for your hard work, we're also going to add the Robocrafter's name to any of the images we select.



What are we looking for?
Here are a few bullets to give you an idea as to the kind of screenshots we're looking for.

• Exciting battle scenes with lots of action
  
• Examples of Robots being built in Edit Mode
  
• Robots in Garage Bays
  
• Custom Mothership bays being used

Submission Criteria:
There are a few 'rules' that you must adhere to or your images may not be selected.

• Uploaded screenshots must be 1920 x 1080 in dimension
  
• No photoshopping permitted
  
• Game graphics settings must be 'Fantastic' - there's no point in capturing images if they aren't the best they can be

There's no set deadline, so keep the cool screenshots coming and we'll regularly dip in and update the Store Page with ones we like.

You can check out the most recent screenshots that have been uploaded here. Don't forget to hit the thumbs-up on any screenshots you love.

How to submit your screenshots
If you're unsure how to upload screenshots to Steam, check out this handy guide.

What about the trailer?
Now I know there will be some of you saying "What about the trailer? That needs updating too!" You're right it does and it has been. The amazing RoboCrew Community worked on a new version of the trailer that completely blew us away. We were so impressed with their work that we asked them if we could adopt it as our official one; they said yes! We'll be adding the new trailer to the game in a future update and we will be using it here on Steam, the official Robocraft website and on our YouTube channel - so keep an eye out for that.

Hey there Robocrafters,
It's been ages since we hosted a Robocraft Artbot competition and there are many of you out there in the community who love a design-based challenge. So, how do you fancy designing some new Starter Robots for Robocraft? These are the Robots that new players receive when creating a new account.

We know that the current starter Robots look like they're fun to play, but they're not as competitive as some of the opponents they go up against. What's the point in having a cool looking Robot if it gets destroyed within seconds? So we want to update them with some community-created Robots?

We're looking for five fabulous looking Robots that also play well in battle - this competition is about putting the FUN in Function.

If you to participate in the competition, you haven't got long as the competition ends at 23:59 (UTC) on Wednesday, November 28th. So get busy building and uploading your creations to the Factory!

• Design a Robot that you believe new players coming to Robocraft would have fun with in battle
  
• The Robots must have form AND function - we want lovely looking Robots that can withstand a barrage of plasma or a well-placed rail
  
• Diversity - we want a range of different movement and weapon types - we're not looking for 5 mech or 5 wheeled vehicles
  
• Starter parts only - Robots with only T0 and T1 parts will be accepted (so no cosmetics or special parts)
  
• Tier 1 only - Submitted Robots should fit within the Tier 1 band
  
• Robots must be uploaded to the Factory in-game
  
• The names of the uploaded Robots must start with "SB01" - so we can filter the search results quickly and find all submissions
  
• All robots must be uploaded by 23:59 (UTC) on Wednesday 28th November 2018
  
• Winners will be announced on social media after the competition has closed

• We will pick 5 winners
  
• The winning Robots will be added to Robocraft as Starter Robots for new players
  
• We will add the creator's name to the Robot (we reserve the right to chose a different name if required)

• Fixed a bug which failed to display the inventory of some base and cosmetic parts even though they were unlocked on the Tech Tree
  
• T2 Laser health has been corrected to 15,795
  
• Pilot Seat description has been updated
  
• Corrected text on some flag descriptions
  
• Corrected energy consumption tooltip information on T3 (110) and T4 (175) Nano Weapons
  
• Gold chaingun tooltip has been updated to match the base part variant

• Filtering by Tier in the Factory will now display Robots uploaded prior to the Infinity Update

• We have introduced CPU banding by Tier for all AI-controlled Robots to avoid new players being matched against high CPU 'blockspam' Robots

• Today's hotfix was to improve the early game experience for new players. We have adjusted the XP rewards to ensure that XP is always rewarded when actively participating in a battle.

• Fixed a bug that prevented XP from being earned in build mode

Grab a deep discount on Lifetime Premium in our Autumn Sale. For a limited time, the price of Lifetime Premium has fall(en) by 30%.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/570960/Robocraft__Premium_for_Life_Pack/
Why buy Lifetime Premium at a discounted rate?

• Doubles the amount of experience (XP) earned from matches
  
• Allows all paint colours for use in the Editor than the standard colours
  
• Additional Cosmetic CPU
  
• Upload your own personal avatar picture

Sale prices:
Lifetime Premium - WAS: £31.99 / $44.99 / €37.99
Lifetime Premium - NOW: £22.40 / $31.49 / €26.59

The sale prices in your country’s currency can be found on the Robocraft Steam Store page or via the in-game shop.

Remember, this will end at 17:00PM (UTC) on Tuesday 27th November. Don’t miss out!

• Mortar placement fixed - they can no longer be placed on the side or below a Robot
  
• Fixed some incorrect/missing text strings
  
• T5 Lasers and variants now have the correct health
  
• In-air Rail weapon crosshair accuracy corrected
  
• Fixed an issue with 21:9 aspect ratio displays not seeing the 'continue' button on the battle summary screen
  
• Cosmetic wing/rudder parts weight now match their base part
  
• Fixed a bug which caused the clan list to be cut short if it was opened while in the lobby queue
  
• Bubble Blower render limit decreased in-battle to prevent possible lag/clash exploiting by players

• Updated the images on all bundles in the Item Shop to show all parts in the bundle
  
• New robots uploaded to the CRF will now be available for 24 months instead of 6 months

• T4 Chaingun energy consumption is now 2,350 per second from 1,882.5
  
• T4 Chaingun cooldown between shots is now 0.1 from 0.08333
  
• T5 Chaingun energy consumption is now 2450 per second from 1882.5
  
• T5 Chaingun cooldown between shots is now 0.085 from 0.07142

We have introduced some Tier banding to matchmaking in order to improve queue times.

• Players level 75 and above may be matched with players whose Robot Tier is either 1 greater or 1 less than their selected Robot Tier.
  
• Players up to level 75 may be matched with players whose Robot Tier is up to 2 greater or 2 less than their selected Robot Tier.
  
• We have decreased the wait time before AI-controlled robots start to populate Tier 1 battles

As stated, all of these changes have been designed to reduce the time spent waiting to battle. We will monitor queue times, and player feedback and may make further changes to improve the playing experience.

Please note, maintenance was not required for these changes to be applied.

This hotfix addressed an issue that was preventing some players on IPv6 from logging into the game.

• Infinity Cube System - once you unlock a part on the Tech Tree or purchase a cosmetic, you can use it as many times as you like
  
• Tiers have returned to Robocraft
  
• New Tier 3 and Tier 4 Campaigns
  
• New Custom mothership skins (purchasable from the Item Shop when in rotation)
  
• More colors for all players - Premium players have 32 colors; free players have 10
  
• New Ops room Tab
  
• New Quickplay system - opt in or out of TDM and Battle Arena game modes
  
• New Item Shop for cosmetic items and custom mothership skins
  
• New Robot Ranking system tied to Tiers
  
• Infinity Factory (CRF)
  
• New Strut parts added to the game
  
• New weapon projectile effects
  
• New weapon projectile hit effects
  
• Edit mode HUD updated to display shortcut commands
  
• Robot voting system at the end of the battle
  
• New 'incomplete parts' system that alerts a player when they only have the left version of something so they are less confused when using the mirror function in edit mode
  
• HUD can be turned off in mothership and edit mode with ‘=’ button
  
• New Feedback/Support/FAQ buttons
  
• Improvements to matchmaking - players now matched by Robot Tier

Read the full patch notes here


Please note: As previously mentioned, the Infinity Update is Robocraft’s single biggest update. As such, players should expect some issues. By working with us and reporting issues and bugs through our support system, we can fix them as quickly as possible. You can report issues by contacting our support team at: https://support.freejamgames.com/hc/en-us

UPDATE 5: We're sorry for the radio silence. The team are hard at work on fixing tech tree/missing parts issues. We don't have an ETA on when the game will be back online. It'll be back up ASAP and not before. Thanks for hanging in there.

UPDATE 4: The game is currently in maintenance mode to address some new issues. Please bear with us as devs are fixing the problem ASAP. We apologize for the inconvenience.

UPDATE 3: Hey Robocrafters, thank you for your continued patience and support while we address the launch blocker. We're testing a new build and if all goes well, Steam players will be able to login in about an hour. Sorry for the downtime, but as you will have seen from the patch notes, this is a major update for Robocraft and sometimes issues don't show their heads until we test in a live environment.

Thanks again for your support and dedication to the game.

We will keep you updated.

UPDATE 2: Due to an issue with custom Avatars which is preventing the game from working, we are unable to exit maintenance at this time. In order to investigate and fix the issue, we need to extend maintenance by a further two hours.

We sincerely apologise for this delay.

UPDATE: Due to unforeseen issues when deploying the update, we have extended maintenance by one hour. We apologise for this inconvenience and delay.

Hey there Robocrafters,
Please note that we’ll be taking the game offline from 09:00 (UTC) on Wednesday, November 14th for a period of four hours in order to add the Infinity Update to the game.

Please be aware that although the maintenance is expected to take up to four hours, if we hit any issues it may take longer.

Thank you for your patience while we update the game.

Read our recent announcement post that details some of the exciting things coming to Robocraft with this update.

Below are the full patch notes for the Infinity Update; to find out more information about some of the new features and content, please read the accompanying post here.

• Infinity Cube System - once you unlock a part on the Tech Tree or purchase a cosmetic, you can use it as many times as you like
  
• Tiers return to Robocraft
  
• New Tier 3 and Tier 4 Campaigns
  
• New Custom mothership skins (purchasable from the Item Shop when in rotation)
  
• More colors for all players - Premium players have 32 colors; free players have 10
  
• New Ops room Tab containing the Tech Tree, Daily Quests and Tier overview screen (to see your Tier progress)
  
• New Quickplay system - opt in or out of TDM and Battle Arena game modes
  
• New Item Shop for cosmetic items and custom mothership skins
  
• New Robot Ranking system tied to the new Tiers
  
• Infinity Factory (CRF) - If you have the parts unlocked you can download Robots freely
  
• New Strut parts added to the game
  
• New Tech tree layout to accommodate changes and new parts
  
• Tech Point unlock costs reworked in line with item part Tier placement
  
• All Tier 0 and Tier 1 parts unlocked on the Tech Tree for new players. Existing players can unlock them at zero Tech Point cost
  
• New weapon projectile effects
  
• New weapon projectile hit effects
  
• Edit mode HUD updated to display shortcut commands
  
• Robot voting system at the end of battle - vote on the best robot from the top 5 scorers
  
• New 'incomplete parts' system that alerts a player when they only have the left version of something so they are less confused when using the mirror function in edit mode
  
• HUD can be turned off in mothership and edit mode with ‘=’ button
  
• Feedback/Support/FAQ buttons in the Home screen
  
• Players matchmade by Robot Tier eg. Tier 3 Robots matched against Tier 3 Robots
  
• All party members must play with the same Robot Tier
  
• New Play menu layout
  
• New loading screens for Home/Test
  
• New battle loading screen
  
• New Lobby screen while waiting for battle
  
• New Login screen layout
  
• AI-controlled robots will fill empty seats if players are queuing for battle for an extended period of time

• All players now have improved bay visuals
  
• The game checks a Robot has functional cubes (movement + weapons) before allowing it to enter battle
  
• Updated settings screen with tabs for Visual/Audio etc.
  
• Profanity filter enabled for all players and can no longer be switched off
  
• Players existing League Rank converted to new Tier 5 Rank
  
• Updated the Altimeter and Speedometer models to remove any units from the texture (ft/m & mph/kph)
  
• Updated old orange Robocraft branding to new blue Robocraft branding
  
• Updated the branding across the official Robocraft website, forums and social spaces
  
• Updated the minimum specification requirements on Steam Store
  
• Electroplates have been reorganised so there are three per Tier (T2, T3, T4 and T5)
  
• General lighting improvements on a number of maps
  
• Controls can be edited via the Pause Menu when in battle
  
• Settings can be edited via the Pause Menu when in battle
  
• Improved visual fades between game screens
  
• In-game user-interface now supports dynamic scaling to support higher monitor resolutions
  
• Improvements to the battle kill feed above the mini-map to make it easier to read
  
• Tooltips added to a number of buttons in-game to assist new players
  
• Improvements to Factory search filters (part of a series of planned improvements)
  
• Updated in-game buttons to 'Save and Test' and 'Save and Exit' to make it clearer for players when saving a Robot in edit mode
  
• General improvements to menu layouts in the game
  
• Building Gun model in Edit mode no longer displays selected cube quantity
  
• Paint Gun model updated in Edit mode to accommodate additional colors
  
• XP is earned more appropriately to the infinity unlocking system
  
• Forge and Recycle functionality removed as it is no longer required with players having infinite inventory
  
• League Arena mode removed - both TDM and BA game modes are now competitive and contribute to your Tier ranking. Players cannot drop rank any lower than their highest rank badge in each tier i.e. if you reach silver, you will never drop below silver but you can fluctuate between silver and gold
  
• General improvements to Campaign Mode
  
• Award Golden variants of the legendary weapon and movement parts to players who have 25+ of their regular version in their inventory prior to the Infinity Update
  
• Main menu screen improvements including a split screen showing the player's Robot on the right-hand side
  
• Windows XP no longer supported
  
• Hurt Locker achievement changed to Win a Campaign

• The Gold Laser, Top 100 Holoflag, Gold Silver and Bronze badges are now displayed right at the bottom of the player's inventory rather than being grouped together
  
• Fixed a bug which caused jagged shading on the Cardboard Ion particle effects
  
• Campaign localisations further updated
  
• Fixed some missing localised language text in Campaign mode
  
• Fixed a bug which caused the wrong error message to appear when attempting to enter a Campaign with a zero CPU Robot bay
  
• Fixed a bug which caused the wrong voice-over to play at the start of a Campaign
  
• Fixed a bug which caused the music to clip in Test Mode
  
• Cardboard ION and Wheel parts now darken when damaged in-battle
  
• Fixed an issue with 'click focus' on the custom avatar image select pop-up
  
• Fixed a bug which sometimes caused AI weapons to fire through solid objects
  
• Fixed a collision issue on the Carbon 6 variant of T5 Plasma weapon

• Robots that are uploaded by ‘new players' will not appear in search results when filtering by username
  
• Chat channel tags ([Clan] etc.) may overflow onto another line if they are long enough
  
• On the Battle Summary screen the get premium button displays even if you have premium
  
• The get Premium button on the Battle Summary screen will not open the Store
  
• Factory downloaded robots are defaulting to Keyboard Controls
  
• If a player with a custom avatar but no active premium clicks on their avatar, it will reset to a default image
  
• Some of the tooltip text for the T5 Chaingun (gold variant) is incorrect - please note that the actual data is correct
  
• An active ghost module will deactivate when any player dies in battle

With today's update, an issue came to light that affects some players. Any player that copied their Robots prior to dismantling the original and recycling ALL of the parts before the Infinity Update may have broken Robots in their bays due to part data not being found. Unfortunately, it isn't possible to recover this data and fix any broken Robots. We apologise unreservedly for this error and for any time lost in building/rebuilding Robots. We will ensure that steps are in place to ensure issues like this do not happen again.