Build 48

[rob]

Salutations to all Brave Testers!

We have just released build 48. Visible changes include:

* Save items (eg. protomodules) in the database for up to 24 hours
* Add per-item popup menu with delete option
* Make each level of protomodule twice as rare as the level below it
* Reduce small fort protomod drop rate to 25%
* Add enemy convoy: antimatter tanker
* Revamp prism indicator
* Try some different colors for trigger buttons
* Lengthen chat fadeout time to 12.5 seconds
* Fix bug where new enemy icons were not displayed until after a zoom
* Fix bug where clicking an affordable but unpurchased tank outside of a town seemed to buy the tank
* Fix typos in Phantom and Hornet trigger tooltips
* Fix tank rendering in the tank menu
* Spawn up to four supertanks at each cross building

Tim is rapidly producing more parts of the item system. He is currently implementing long-term storage of items.

Small forts now have a 25% chance to drop a min level 1 protomodule. Half of these will be level 1; one quarter will be level 2; an eighth will be level 3, etc. The max is 10 levels above the base. Sometime soon we plan to implement combining items to level them up.

We relaunched armadas as convoys. Currently the only type of convoy is a single antimatter tanker. These cross the map every 20 minutes. Kill them if you dare -- they drop a nice prism and level 5 and higher protomods. We hope to have many types of multi-member convoys eventually. Also note that immobilize currently doesn't work correctly on convoys -- they snap to where they would have been once the immobilize wears off.

We continue to explore the new UI style. We'd appreciate feedback on the changes so far (item menu, prisms, chat, triggers).

We are considering ditching the VP system for buying tanks in favor of having tank unlocks drop as loot. The idea is that you can either use the unlock items or trade them to other players. We can do a similar thing with augments. Does this sound fun?

Thanks so much for your help with Grid12. Recently-played accounts have been topped up to 5 invite codes. Please post in this thread with bug reports or other feedback.

Rob & Tim
Jetbolt Games

[amitp]

Woah. Looking nice!

[hypevosa]

Everything is going wonderfully, but I'm getting really heavy lag again when playing with others, or when chasing the antimatter tanker through fields of enemies.

(and really crossing fingers for the G.R.U. to be an eventual mobile enemy )

[Ood]

Lots of cool stuff...

Buffed super tanks are nice.
Antimatter tank killed me ...
Laggy when lots of people are together.

[gingerbear]

I like that the trigger charging has a different color now, easier to see when it's ready.

I also like the hiding of the prisms, however, could the icon be placed either below the tank selection button or over the crystals? It seems to be kind off ill-placed now.

Props for multi-tank abuse and the convoy!

[tarbomb]

The new prisms look nice, although a bit more saturation and contrast (in particular, brighter whites, to match the white on the button that opens the menu) would be nice. However, the prism display is tacky - in particular, the border is too thick, and orange does not suit a pane that holds items with myriad colors. The border should be removed, or made white or dark grey.

Convoys are great fun (I love the way that they encourage teamwork), but for the danger the reward isn't particularly good and could use a buff. Also, will they avoid towns? The last thing I want to have happen to me is to be killed by one of those while AFK in a town.

The supertank buff makes them much less trivial now, and the loot is awesome! Scouting just got a bit harder though.

[hypevosa]

They don't avoid towns, and I'm glad they don't - they should however not fire upon people while in towns, maybe deploying a thick shield temporarily to prevent the abuse of that though.

[amitp]

The idea of tanks being drops is interesting.

Right now I feel like I will pick the “best” tank, save up, and buy it. Then if I have extra VPs I can buy “lesser” tanks for variety. But it starts at the best and goes downhill from there. This is only if all tanks are equal. If all tanks are not equal then maybe I'll get a cheaper one until I get the one I really want.

But if instead tanks dropped then at any one point I'm choosing from the hand I was dealt. This seems nicer, especially if tanks expire in some way (for example the next tank you pick up removes the least used tank you have). It might encourage playing with more variety, and it's no longer jumping immediately to the best.

If tanks expired it'd also make the protomodule thing into a currency sink. Not sure how I feel about that.

[hypevosa]

I like the idea of being able to cobble together tanks in the crafting system, essentially making them drops, but, please, for the love of god, don't take away all my tanks that I spent a week straight earning lol

That said, why do we need to have set tanks at all? What if we instead had a system where you could just cobble whatever pieces you wanted together into a tank, some having detractions to certain stats, some having bonuses, and some parts even being mutually exclusive?

I think that would be far more interesting and engrossing for players than the VP system.

[rob]

If tank unlocks were drops, they'd work like a "potion of unlock <tankname>". Drinking the same one twice wouldn't help you. In fact probably it should be impossible to try to unlock the same tank twice. Unlockers that you can't use can be traded to others. So you are choosing from the hand you were dealt, but you are also allowed to buy and sell cards with other players.

Does this screw up the normal idea of progression from one class to the next as you get more experienced? Or maybe we should have 200 classes that you try to collect like pokemon, with each person getting the classes in completely different arbitrary orders based on loot drops and market availability?

I'm a little down on tank classes expiring. It might get frustrating to have a tank taken away from you.

What do you mean by protomodules becoming a currency sink?

[hypevosa]

Well, why make 200 tanks if you can instead make pieces drop and have players create them instead? That would be a huge lure if the player could literally cobble together thousands of different tank combinations.

[Stabbeh]

That would be neat, like an RPG character.
Maybe having certain classes of tanks with customizable parts? I mean we already kinda have classes (recon, crowd control, light/heavy, solo)

[hypevosa]

I mean literally just taking any tank parts you find and being allowed to cobble them together into a custom tank with certain restrictions. So you have abase tank body that has slots to tack weapons onto, and weapons taking up X slots. For example:

Assault body type: 6 weapons slots. Weapons that are larger or have better base performance would take up larger slots. So for my assault tank, I put 6 little lasers on it and get a phantom like shape. I put 4 little lasers and a larger 2 laser on it and I get the wolverine. If I put 2 little lasers on it, and a shock generator, it is a wildfire with the unused weapons slots pushing more power into the lasers. Triggers could be added as well in such a way.

If you build the basic crafting system for the tanks you could have thousands of possible combinations, and if anything attracts people, it's the prospects of customizing things.

[hypevosa]

BUG

When I'm clicking on the map while zoomed out I'm clicking progressively lower to where I'm actually clicking as I go further up my screen

Happens while zoomed in too, weird.

[lordgei]

I really like the idea on how we can customize your own tank... Gives the player more control over how they play. Possibly you can allow players to buy these parts with victory points instead of totally taking away the victory point system because I like it personally. It makes players want to clear the grid faster for those victory points. Also, I like the new features in this build.