Oct 25

Midair 2 Playtest - steamadmin

Patch Notes Playtest October 2025

Hello! It’s Playtest patch time! These patch notes represent the changes from the last Playtest build (version 17380) to the one up on Playtest as of this posting (version 19530). If you have only used Playtest, this will be a very large update comprising 2,150 commits to our source control system.

Thank you to everyone who has provided thoughtful feedback on our way to this patch. We would not be here without our players and supporters.

If you haven’t visited Midair 2 Playtest in a while, we are thrilled to welcome you back!

Make sure to Wishlist the game to get a notification on Early Access release.

We expect that bugs and issues still exist. Please let us know about them in the Midair 2 Discord channels so that we can capture, track, and prioritize them.

Beyond this patch, in addition to continued bug fixing and polish, we are working on:

Customization/Loadout UI: Better management of customization and in-game items
Matchmaking: Matching for CTF, MatchDuel. In Casual and Competitive queues.
Custom Game Lobby: Set maps and location, select teams in a pre-match lobby so that everyone is ready to play immediately when the server launches.
Shop: Ability to buy customization items (skins, etc) in-game
Progression: Increase account level and receive earned currency (Manashards) through gameplay
Learning Tools: In-game informational resources for how to play and succeed at the game, while also moving towards a playable tutorial.
In-Game Voice Chat
Emote System
New Weapon and Character Skins
End of Match Screen: Continued updates beyond current changes
And more!

Patch Notes:

Visual Updates

You will see a number of visual changes from the in-game UI to map elements and animations.

Reworked the in-game UI with changes to Game Status (top middle indicator) and tab menu. You will now see your team’s name (Manatech or Arcturus) displayed always on the left, along with clarity on “Your Team / Enemy Team”, the addition of bars representing captures needed for victory, and an update to the flag/carrier indicators.

This is intended to provide a more intuitive understanding of the game situation, and for which team.

The colors now follow your IFF team color settings, so we are moving away from the “Blue Team / Red Team” approach here. Other in-game messages related to “Blue Team / Red Team” have also been changed.

The Tab menu will also now always have your team displayed on the left - to match the Game Status indicator.

Additional Changes:

Reload indicator is now a bar that moves according to the time needed to reload a weapon. Provides a small visual cue for when you can shoot again.
New Loadout menu to change your weapons and skins. Also includes weapon info on weapons and grenades
New Stats screen, and some improvements to Game History
IFF indicators do not use a color wheel, and are locked to a specific set of colors. We will look to continue to refine this feature.
Out-of-game UI, including main navigation pages, and settings pages have been updated and in many cases, their functionality was improved. Particularly, take a look at the Settings menu as some options have changed with more functionality added there.

Map Element IFF Colors

Many map structures are now taking on IFF colors which you select from your settings - the same colors as in your Tab menu, and the Game Status screen. These changes extend to some effects as well like flag trails. This will often change the familiar look of a map with the intention of helping players orient themselves towards theirs and the enemy objective.

Animation

The character and weapon animation system has been re-worked to be compatible with the current Unreal animation system. This required a full re-make of every animation in the game, including from scratch for those which could not be re-targeted.

This re-work included new reload animations on a number of weapons, as well as small changes to firing. Most weapon placements closely match Playtest versions, with the Chaingun being slightly less obscuring of the screen. The Blaster has a whole new position and grip pose and now looks much more intentional.

The take-out weapon animations now have a new concept: instead of panning from left-to-right as the weapon is equipped, the guns now rise from the bottom to their shooting position. This should open up some space at the bottom of the screen (while the gun was going from left-to-right previously), and present more of the view when the weapon is off-screen.

Tempest and Grenade Launcher can now fire immediately when the reload animation cycles finish (visual only - balancing timings don’t change).

Game Features

Added melee functionality and animation - default keybind is “F”. Useful in close-quarters situations for an additional tactical option.

Rabbit is back!. Players will be able to vote for Rabbit maps as they do with any other map vote (choose the RB option). Restoring Rabbit was a highly-requested feature. Some polish remains to be done for the mode and UI.

Rabbit is a great mode for warm-ups, or for playing with a smaller-size lobby (fun for 2+ players onwards).

In this mode - the player with the flag is the Rabbit and scores points while holding the flag and evading the wolves (other players). All other players chase the Rabbit so that they may themselves become the next Rabbit and score points. It’s a mode that helps build skills of evasion and chasing.

Rabbit brings with it a variety of maps adjusted for the game mode:

RB-Alftland
RB-Blitz
RB-Brynhildr
RB-Elite
RB-Minora
RB-Nightward
RB-ToxicCauseway
RB-TwilightGrove
RB-Viridian
RB-Yolandi

MatchDuel is a mode available for load-in on Custom Servers. This is a 1v1 mode intended for dueling and aim practice.

MatchDuel also brings its own set of maps:

MatchDuel-Blitz
MatchDuel-Chasm
MatchDuel-CanyonRun
MatchDuel-Nightward
MatchDuel-Pyrolysis
MatchDuel-SnowArena
MatchDuel-ToxicCauseway
MatchDuel-Viridian
MatchDuel-Wetlands

Track is an experimental game mode currently available for single player and takes place on futuristic race tracks where players will work to set their best times on the course. It is available to load through the Practice menu. The mode features boost rings as well as other elements not commonly seen in CTF maps - designed to give you a feel for the high speeds you can achieve in Midair 2.

Track features these maps:

TRK-Archipelago
TRK-AridAmbit
TRK-Skypark
TRK-Peak

The “League” (Skyball, etc) game mode is currently on hiatus and is not available. We know that it has a few fans, but feel that it needs more consistent attention than we are able to provide at this time to ensure game quality.

CTF Maps have also experienced a few iterations and adjustments, as well as some new maps.

CTF-CanyonRun: new
CTF-DeltaOfTheDammed: new
CTF-Tolar: returning
CTF-Kryosis: returning

CTF-Brynhildr: new skybox, adjusted spawns so fewer are centered on the back hill
CTF-Ingonyama: removed front rock spawn and re-added 2 of the original side spawns
CTF-Hadrian: new stand and location, pushed out OOB on all sides, new spawns to align with new stand, other terrain and art updates.
CTF-Relay: adjusted defense pillars angle and height, moved back spawn to cliff behind stand, fixed some holes in rocks
CTF-Vortex: adjusted base layout and spawn locations to improve standoff play, adjusted terrain for more route variety, added anti-cheese OOB to some of the spiky rocks to prevent hiding. Reduced blue OOB dimensions.
CTF-Exhumed: redid pyramid LODs so that the models are consistent
CTF-Octane: added boost gates to the tops of the circuit ramps, added perimeter road
CTF-Raptor: returning. Several changes including anti-cheese OOB fix for one team, changes to walls and blocking volumes around trees
CTF-Forlorn: removed
CTF-Lagoon: No longer blurs your weapon when playing on High effects settings.
CTF-Alftland: new

And more:

Achievements have been enabled
Motion Blur now defaults to “off”. We still encourage experimenting with Motion Blur to capture replays for clips, but have found that most players will turn it off for their game experience, so we are setting it to off by default
Fixed longstanding bug where players were locked out of one of the spawns
Exhumed bunker now has decals for 2023 and 2024 tournament winners
Fixed longstanding bug where low Effects setting could cause loss of map and sky textures
The longstanding deadstop bug should now be fixed
Adjusted server tick rate to ensure consistent and competitive experience for players
Custom Servers are hosted on a different provider than older Playtest versions
New logo used throughout
New Main Menu screens
Beacons (default bind C) no longer have a trampoline effect
Added performance monitoring to settings
More framerate lock functionality
Added new speedometer options
ESC now will close Console from Main Menu
Aiming reticle will more closely match the same target when switching between first-person and third-person views
Added missing competitive team sprays
EMP Grenade now has toss sound, and increased projectile volume
Many other fixes, tweaks, and updates throughout

We thank you for sticking with us throughout this journey!

-VZ Studios Team