Feb 18, 2021

Fault: Elder Orb - Ryan Red

Welcome!

Hello Fault family,‍

We have decided to start weekly community update posts! These updates will be quick informational posts containing what we are working towards each week, and may even contain potential teasers on upcoming content.

Our first weekly update is very large in order to cover our work from the past few weeks, it contains information on the next patch to hit Fault and some of the features included within it. Patch 13.0 will be the largest update the game has seen since release. This patch will include code changes which work towards creating a stable and strong foundation for the game for us to build upon, along with a large dose of new content.

We will post a full Dev blog going into all the details of every feature listed here closer to the release of the patch.

‍Some features listed may not make it to patch 0.13.0 if we feel they need more work before releasing and still wish to push the update.
We do not have a set public date for patch 0.13.0, but we can state that everything mentioned here is already well underway and close to final testing.

VFX/SFX system rework

This is a large step towards a quicker hero creation pipeline, it is a full technical pass on how the VFX and SFX runs but also a re-design of the tools used for that purpose. It is also part of our efforts in creating systems that will stand the test of time as the game grows in the coming years.

The rework will provide the infrastructure to add many features in coming updates such as :

Centralized VFX/SFX codebase allowing for better maintainability for years to come.
Allow to prepare better tools for our artists to be more involved in the process of applying their VFX/SFX to the heroes.
Allow for T3-T4 skins to have different VFX/SFX for their abilities, as well as improvements on hero VFX in general.
and more.

Even though this rework is mostly technical and won't immediately show results (They will rather incrementally show up throughout future updates), it has also given us the opportunity to do a remaster of hero VFX used throughout the game. So you will still notice minor or major improvements per-hero like adding more VFX where it's lacking or fixing sync problems between gameplay and VFX/SFX.

This is separate from :

Our full animation overhaul.
New sound packs for old heroes.
A more immersive sound system.

All of which are different features in the plans that are still being actively worked on.

‍

Client side prediction system

We have completely reworked our projectile system and ability system to contain far more client predictions to allow for a smoother experience overall on all ping levels. The major feature of this rework is new client prediction code that allows the server and client to be in sync as much as possible. For projectiles, this will hopefully fix false positive hits such as Narbash thunk bug. Furthermore, it will allow for perfect vfx spawn locations that are in sync on all clients (such as on hit vfx) which should make the game feel smoother and consistent overall. For aiming abilities, this will allow the client and server to be 100% in sync as to where you are aiming when you confirm the ability. Also, a lot more gameplay effects will be predicted on the client to create a smoother experience with as little delay/lag as possible.
‍

Ability casting system rework

The new casting system will affect many aspects of gameplay like the way stuns effect players and opposing heroes abilities/cooldowns, how/when mana is consumed, and much more. The main purpose of this rework is to improve smoothness and immersion during fights and, along with our new client prediction systems, it should drastically improve how the game feels overall.

‍

Input buffering

Players should be able to buffer ability commands, meaning subsequent abilities and commands can be queued to automatically occur. Activating an ability (including LMB) or item during another ability or item's cast and recovery duration will queue the ability or item to occur immediately after the current cast and recovery duration is over.

River objectives

We will be introducing 'Shrines' into the jungle of Fault. These objectives will provide new buffs when taken, along with special effects when in the process of taking them.

‍

The HUD

The HUD is a major feature the team has been wanting to update for some time now, if you are new to Fault check out our dev blog explaining our decision to create it in-house and some of our plans for it here.

‍The HUD contains many new features and systems that are being worked on and tested daily by the SMS staff. The new HUD is more then just changing the visual aesthetic of the display itself, but also changing how all information is presented to the player. this includes buff/debuff timers, new ping systems, animations, sound effects, status icons, and more.

We will provide a full list of everything changing with the HUD in the next Dev blog, but for now, we would like to reveal one of these new features and animations.
‍

Faults new death recap system:

New damage pop ups:

These teasers are just a small portion of everything coming with the HUD, and everything is subject to change during/after implementation.
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Conclusion

These weekly updates may be brief, but as stated above any major items that are mentioned in these updates will be followed up with a full Dev blog containing information and comments directly from the Devs that worked on them. We feel these posts are a much needed form of communication with our community and we are happy to implement them.

As always, stay tuned Fault fam, and thank you again for joining us on this journey to full release.

‍

— Strange Matter Team

Feb 18, 2021

Development Update 2021-02-18

Antipaint - NinjaKyat

Greetings, Prospective Painters!

It's time for another Antipaint development update. Here's what I've been working on.

Camera Zoom

Just after posting the previous development update, TheDane from our discord server suggested a neat little feature - the ability to zoom out to see the whole painting. So I implemented it. Cool!

Boss Fights

Antipaint needed a big baddie battle. So I began experimenting with a boss design. I want the final game to feature several different bosses, all with their own unique quirks. This one is a bit simple, he charges at you, then turns around and does it again. If you hit it enough, it will start spawning minions and moving faster. Simple, but effective.

Scaredy Enemies

In order to shake things up a bit I've added an enemy that runs away from you instead of running towards you. With this groundbreaking design it becomes a bit easier to paint something you want as you can guide these little fellas to where you want them to be. Or you can just splat them.

Symmetry

I've toyed around with the idea of symmetry and I am really liking the results. It allows me to create very different and neat-looking paintings. It also adds some complexity into the game as it's a bit harder to spot the enemies as there are several moving lines on screen that do not contain enemies. Neat!

Demo Build

I've recently released a demo build on itch.io to gather some feedback. You can check it out here. Please hop on the discord server afterwards and share your thoughts!

Other Things

I've also been spending some time on refining and optimizing the UI and getting things to work with a controller. These tasks aren't as fun or glamorous, but you've got to do them. Apart from that I've also tweaked some animations, added some neat little camera bobbing, changed up a few sprites and fixed various issues.

It's been a productive month and things are moving along nicely.

Wishlist Antipaint

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1418390/Antipaint/

Feb 18, 2021

New Tileset Released: Killdome USA

Due Process - GEC_OZY

This week's map update features our newest tileset: Killdome USA!
Also, earlier this week, we released a substantial update to our core gameplay experience, including Gunplay 2.0, matchmaking and changes to many other areas, so we've gone ahead and included those changes in these patch notes to give you guys a cumulative update on what's been going on recently in Due Process.

Today, we are proud to introduce your brand new tileset - Killdome USA!

Killdome USA is Alpha City’s #1 prime-time series on Violence TV! Only the best of the best are selected to enter the dome - Enforcers fresh from training on simulated killhouses in the Argus Academy Governor’s Island Complex face off against five ruthless REBELS pulled straight from the streets of Alpha City.
To the victor go the spoils - the best team (or their next of kin) get fabulous cash prizes for victory in this high stakes, adrenaline pumping program!

This environment is all about the rooms and how they relate to each other - let’s take a look at Argus' own marketing for descriptions of what you’ll be fighting in!

D-Day

Be prepared to storm the Beach in D-DAY! A slice of history brought to life with REAL BULLETS! Can defenders hold the trenches once combat gets up close and personal, or will one well placed smoke make this an easy entry for ARGUS?

Jungle

Beware the hidden dangers lying in wait deep in these jungle ruins! Look out for attacks from above in the remains of an ancient temple, or below from the tall grass in the river! Can you survive long enough to discover its secrets?

Castle

Be ready to lay down a siege against Castle - a fortified position giving anyone holding it an eagle eye over surrounding rooms. Be prepared to lower the gate from the button located somewhere in the dome, blow it open with a well placed door charge, or even make your own entry with an aggressive wall breach!

Observation

You want to see your enemies before they see you? Well then, Observation gives you all the sight you need as long as the power is on! Be careful though - you never know who is lurking around that ONE WAY ‘blind corner’ - it could spell VICTORY or DEATH.

Pit

Welcome to the PIT, an apocalyptic landscape where lawlessness rains supreme and the floor really is lava! Watch your step on these unprotected walkways or it may be your last!

Do you have what it takes to survive KILLDOME USA? Only you can find out, tonight at 7, broadcasted LIVE in front of a packed stadium audience!

Cumulative Patch Notes:

Dome Technical Details:

Dome: New tileset with five new room types, in a new setting.
A new tileset is added, this means that each match will not feature all tilesets and instead pick three of the four tilesets for each set of three maps. Casual will still only feature 3 tilesets, but ranked can feature different tilesets in the second half.
Castle drawbridge. Door that opens via remote button, works similarly to the Vault Door.
Castle Walls: Thick in appearance, but hollow and can easily be wall charged, watch out for this.
Pit Lava: Falling into the lava in pit results in death, similarly to acid.
Observation Monitors - New type of one way viewing glass, they can be shot out from the inside, and are disabled during lights out.
D-Day Beach: Featuring a special type of green door entrance and a beach approach, attackers have to fight pillboxes to gain the high ground.
Jungle Movement Sounds: The water and bushes in the jungle make sounds when moving through them, similarly to how barbed wire works.
Elevated Level: Level is raised off the ground, allowing attackers to move under the level to reduce travel time to the far ends of the building.
Stationary turret mechanic to replace the mobile UAVs. They watch the exterior of the building from the ground level.
Turrets/UAVs now properly track targets, make a shooting sound and have tracer effects when firing.
New level occlusion and reverb system which allows for sounds around the exterior of the building to be heavily occluded when inside the level, truck or defender room. Also affects weapon reverb, and exterior of the levels should have different gun sound effect feel than the inside of the level, on all tilesets.

Gunplay 2.0:

Weapon recoil has been completely redesigned for all guns
Weapon recoil can now be in multiple parts, camera and weapon recoil are not co-dependent
Weapons will auto-readjust back to the starting position after firing, making tap or burst firing easier
Note: Manually controlling recoil will negate the automatic recoil return, and will cancel it out
New animations for firing on all guns with the new recoil designed in mind
Overhaul of tracers, muzzle effects, and smoke effects on all guns.
Weapon ammo counter UI overhauled
Shotgun spread is now different for all three shotgun types, the triple triangle pattern on the primary pump shotguns, circular pattern on the secondary shorty, and a larger open triangle on the auto
Shotguns can enter, leave, or change aim states while pumping and do not automatically exit aim modes during a pump
Fixed a hit registration bug with certain animation states
Hit sounds don't play on targets that are hit by wall-bangs (except friendly fire)
Headshot multiplier doesn't apply to wallbangs
Breathing curve added to holding ADS state, after a short period of holding ADS, small camera movements will occur to simulate breathing
Brace sensitivity now uses hipfire sensitivity instead of aimed sensitivity slider
Shotguns have had a range limit added to opening doors
Primary shotgun count reduced on both teams by one
Shotgun base damage decreased slightly, headshot multiplier increased, extra bonus damage on all shotguns if point blank
Shotgun pellet spread decreased by 40-50% for all shotguns (more accurate)
Nack penetration increased to pen Very Thick surfaces, falloff removed
Slight decrease in RPM for GAT/LS45 (about 5%), otherwise damage/RPM mostly unchanged on other guns

Matchmaking:

The ability to queue for ranked games while playing a casual game
The casual and ranked selectors have been replaced by individual buttons, you can click each button to queue for both ranked and casual simultaneously
Queuing no longer requires a ready up vote, it is now unilateral
A UI indicator was added to the hud to remind you that you are still queued for ranked while searching for or playing in a casual match.
Casual matches can be consolidated whenever there is a match that is too small. It will search for another match at the end of each round and all of those players will automatically move into that other match, and be shown a loading screen that mentions that their match was too small.
Resolved issue with players auto-queueing for ranked when not intended
Resolved issue where you could only kick players who were part of your squad during a match
A banner will notify players left in a casual match if other players in that match have left for ranked
Starting a ranked match now requires a ready up vote from all parties, failing to ready up will bring that squad out of queue
Ranked match voting/starting/failing have been given a unique sounds to help alert players that their ranked match is ready
Some other changes to the matchmaking UI, such as moving the queue timers and updating buttons/password box UI

Drawing Attribution:

Display cursors representing teammates while they're drawing and erasing
Render the local client's drawn map cube pixels in yellow, on both map and in-world
Establish pools of "ink" per player (as opposed to per team) for map drawing
Drawing on raised spawnable surfaces will move map cubes to the highest surface to facilitate drawings above the ground level
Add option to mute/unmute other players' drawings and persistently store this information
Both old and new drawings for players who are "drawing muted" will be hidden from from the map view
Highlight map drawings in black when the cursor is up to 3 pixels away and show who drew that drawing
Hovering over other player's drawings allows up/down-voting those drawings which other players can use to agree on a plan
Enable reporting offensive drawings on Shift + LMB over another player's drawings, also suggested when downvoting drawings
Added hotkey for toggling replacement of Player Icons with generic placeholders UI option
Fix bug: Auto-Erase map cubes of non-local spectators

Content:

Gunplay 2.0: New tracers and shooting effects applied on guns.
Gunplay 2.0: Metal impacts/sparks for weapon hits updated
Gunplay 2.0: Updated Ammo GUI for weapons
Levels: Lighting for levels updated to properly get dark when the power is turned off.
Killhouse: Some thin surfaces were set as no-thickness and are now set correctly
Levels: Grate-like mesh added to surfaces like fences that are hard to read at a distance on the map view only
Training: Added other throwables - Smoke, flash, frag.
Factory: Fix broken occlusion caused by server panel destruction
Updated/polished character eye geometry and textures.
Freezer doors are no longer locked

Other:

Add option to mute/unmute other player's messages in text chat
Display muted player's text chat as "muted" in italics
Store text-muted players persistently across sessions
Misc. optimizations

Feb 18, 2021

WAR ROBOTS 6.8

War Robots - Palemoss

Event: Lunar New Year 2021

Lunar New Year in War Robots will start soon after update 6.8 lands on your platform.

Three types of Special Crates. Get coins by completing daily tasks and win something valuable and exclusive, like the first special edition titan in the game — Ox Minos. Or:

New special editions: Tiger Scatter and Warrior Typhon
New robot: Demeter
New weapons: Hornet and Magnetar
New legendary pilots: Rose Lin (Typhon) and Jerry Fortune (Demeter)

Also don’t miss the Arena and new Skirmishes that will go online later during the event.

New weapons: Hornet and Magnetar

Available from level 5 in special crates during the event

Hornet is a heavy kinetic cannon that applies DOT. High damage per shot and a decent rate of fire makes it a viable option for mid-range sniper builds.

Magnetar is a light medium-range energy autocannon. It immobilizes the target after a certain number of hits. Give a try to Pulsars+Magnetars build — they work well together.

New robot: Demeter

Available from level 27 in special crates during the event

Perfect support. Demeter specializes in repairing damaged allies. This robot can teleport to a friendly target, instantly covering it with an impenetrable Absorber shield. The more damage the shield absorbs, the more durability Demeter restores to nearby teammates.

ABILITY: REPAIRING COVER
Demeter enables Absorber and repairs all allies in ability range. If the ability is used with an ally in target, then Demeter teleports to the ally, increasing Absorber's radius. All damage taken by Absorber strengthens the repairing waves.

ABSORBER Impenetrable shield that can absorb an unlimited amount of damage.

Try using the concentrated fire of your opponents to your advantage.

Report system

You can now report unfair play right from the battle results window. At first, there will be the following reasons for a report:

A player uses cheats or speedhacks
A player self-destructs most of their robots during a match
A player remains inactive throughout the match
A player has too powerful hangar for their league
A player has inappropriate nickname

If a player gets a certain number of similar reports within a certain period of time, we’ll warn that player. If the reports continue, we’ll take measures. Depending on the situation, the warning may be followed by a temporary ban or transfer to Low Priority Queue.

"What if someone reports me for no real reason?"

Don’t worry — we've got you covered. Firstly, to report a player you need to be in the same match. Secondly, each player can only send that many reports each day. So, if somebody starts reporting a random opponent each match, they’ll quickly reach the report limit. And yes, before an account gets suspended, it needs to accumulate a considerable amount of reports before we take measures. Several occasional complaints won’t result in anything.

To report a player:

Select the nickname from the post-combat leaderboard.
Open the player’s profile.
Tap the red “REPORT” button.
Select the reason for the report.
Confirm your decision.

Balance changes

Nerfs

Hawk

Ability damage against robots: -50%
Reflector on takeoff/landing — removed

Hawk was initially designed to counter Titans by piercing through their extreme Defence stat. However, the Titan Slayer turned out to be slaying pretty much anything else — long before the first titans even appear in the match. We want to keep Hawk's role focused on its original promise, so we make its ability less effective against regular robots. And by removing Reflector on takeoff/landing we give other robots more opportunities to fight back.

Nightingale

Speed while in flight: 83km/h → 60km/h
Repair ability zone: 50m → 75m
Gains more altitude when using the ability (cannot capture beacons when flying in most cases)

Nightingale was extremely good both at fixing things and beacon running. This bird is supposed to be a team player, rather than a lone all-rounder going for flanking maneuvers — so we cut its wings a little while making it up with some better repairs.

Scorpion

Ability defense points: 100 → 55 (50% → 35% damage reduction)
Ability duration: 12s → 8s

For a trickster robot, Scorpion is a bit too tough. Scorpion players often don’t mind engaging two opponents at once, which isn't what saboteurs are supposed to do (at least, not that frequently). With this nerf, we make Scorpion less beefy, requiring you to time ambushes more carefully and avoid concentrated fire.

Quarker, Atomizer, Nucleon

Shot interval: 0.1s → 0.15s

Over several previous updates, these weapons became perfect all-rounders. They work well for both burst and sustainable damage tactics. Their average damage per battle is also a bit higher than we want it to be. We decided to make the Atomizer family less powerful in quick attacks, providing more space for other bursty weapons.

Shredder

Damage: -10%
Cooldown: 3s → 5s
Effect accumulation speed: -20%

Shredder is a tier 3 weapon that performed just as well as most of the tier 4 weapons. We reduced its damage to match its T3 peers. It also worked a tad too well for accumulating status effects, which became especially apparent with the advent of drones with control microchips.

Buffs

Nemesis

Ability damage: +7%
Target adjustment improved: aiming with the ability and hitting targets behind a corner should be easier

Mender

Ability defense points: 140 → 175 (58% → 64% damage reduction)

We planned on buffing Mender in 6.3. However, the buff didn't take effect. We're fixing the issue now with this small increase to Mender's survivability.
Inquisitor

Movement speed: +3km/h
Ability cooldown: 20s → 18s

Invader: Durability: +5%
Jaeger: Built-in weapon damage: +5%
Rayker: Ability damage: +15%
Rhino: Movement speed: +5km/h
Haechi: Movement speed: +2km/h
Marquess, Hussar: Damage: +10%
Weber: Damage: +10%
Blaze, Ember: Damage: +10%
Redeemer: Damage: +7%
Arbalest: Damage: +20%
Shocktrain: Damage: +10%
Exodus: Ammo: +3
Zeus: Damage: +15%
Halo, Corona, Glory: Effect accumulation speed: +5%

Bugs fixed

Fixed Shell explosion zone exceeding 100m.
Fixed zone indicator disappearing on beacons and robot abilities (Tyr, Hellburner, etc.) after turning camera.
Fixed item list not scrolling in Storage when clicking on scroll arrow (Gameroom).
Fixed Jaeger getting stuck when using the ability.
Fixed Aegis visual effects appearing on Fenrir with Bernadette Wolff pilot.
Fixed weapon visual effects hanging in the air until the end of the match.
Fixed Loki weapons facing the wrong direction.
Improved performance for several low-end devices.
Fixed several graphical bugs in Minimal quality preset.