Update log
Full Airframe Ultra update
The complete published notes, normalized for clean reading and source attribution.
Repeated intro
Hey racers, Last month, we ran the 4th closed beta and had a ton of fun watching others check out the new track: Estate. We have gone through the numbers and gone through the feedback, and now I can share what we learned.
Extracted changes
- Compatibility
- Balance
- Gameplay
Estate
First off let's go with the new track in the Beta. It had players racing alongside a cliff wall before trespassing into a yard with a massive, decrepit mansion looming over the horizon. Racers head into the abandoned mansion and beat each other senseless in the tight corridors and hallways.
This track was full of experimental features, some of which players loved, and some that players didn’t love so much.
First off, our door puzzle was met with mixed feels. Our goal here was to add a new type of competitive-cooperative encounter to the game, but many players found themselves confused about how to move forward. Some folks felt the door had too much health, some found ways to bypass the door, and some found it more effective to farm other players during this encounter. We’re going to continue experimenting with this section to find something that the community loves, and we’re excited to see what you think of our changes!
The bush section was also a point of contention for a lot of players. We had a few reports that it was hard to follow and had too much visual clutter to tell what was an obstacle and what way the track was going when This is another area that we are taking a look into.
One thing that we found people did like about the Estate is the horses! I saw some people hanging out with the horses trying to interact with them.
Weapons
Weapons are arguably one of the most important things to nail down when developing a vehicular combat game. You could have the best tracks, best tricks, best vehicles, etc. but if the weapons don’t feel balanced or feel good to use then the game may lose interest and could be boring.
We had one weapon stand out as people’s favorite weapon. Out of all the weapons, 39.1% of people voted this weapon as their favorite. An overwhelming amount, can you guess which weapon it was? It is probably my favorite weapon as well. It’s the traffic sign. There just isn’t anything better than impaling someone with that thing after a big boost.
There was one weapon for the second beta in a row voted least favorite: The SMG. No surprise there, I’d probably say the same thing. It doesn’t have a high rate of damage and there isn’t a lot of feedback to show if you actually hit someone or not. Some felt like they weren’t doing any damage with the weapon and that it was very difficult to get kills. This will be one that we revisit in the future.
The SMG wasn’t the only weapon that you guys pointed out that didn’t have good feedback or good visuals when using them. I’ll name another one pointed out: The sledgehammer to many felt clunky at times to use as the timing wasn’t always clear.
We saw more weapon kills AND more weapon kills per minute in this beta. Estate is a map that has more direct player-to-player interaction, since there are fewer of the long breakways to create a gap between you and other players. Also, we think you guys are just getting more and more bloodthirsty every beta.
Airframes
And now time for the vehicles themselves. Throughout the beta,
Source