New weapon, new rods, new modules and an overhauled single-player mode with improved AI are just some of the highlighted content in the 10th free expansion for Robocraft, auspiciously titled 'Enter the Shredzone'!
To see the full contents of the expansion, please see the patch notes below:
NEW LEGENDARY WEAPON – CHAIN SHREDDER
- Spin up the rotating barrel as you hold the trigger for insane fire-rates
- Power is depleted the second you hold down the trigger
- The barrel takes 4.5 seconds to get up to full spin speed, and 0.5 seconds to decelerate back to a halt when the trigger is released
- Shots are fired from the barrel with a 4 degree spread (IND is 6 degrees)
- Shots deal 11,000 damage each
- Max fire-rate is 20 projectiles per second with 2 weapons, 16 projectiles per second with 1 weapon. Power cost is the same (per second) regardless of the number you have on board
- DMG per Power spent is very inefficient when the barrel is rotating slowly, but becomes extremely efficient when rotating at full spin speed
- This weapon becomes more powerful in higher CPU matches as Robots can keep the spin speed at maximum for longer with the extra Power provided by the Floppy Capacitor (released in the Aeroflak Sentinel & Power update on 23rd June)
- Robot CPU Load is 325, Mass is 2950 (i.e. same mass per CPU as IND)
NEW LEGENDARY MODULE – EMP (ELECTROMAGNETIC PULSE)
- A huge column of Electromagnetic Pulse energy called in from your Mothership in geostationary orbit above your battlefield covering a cylindrical area from ground to max ceiling
- Target this like the DSM, i.e. target ground within range for the pulse location, range is limited to if cast in air it will appear at nearest location (as with DSM)
- When initiated, a three second countdown begins, and all enemies within it get a period of time to escape / avoid the blast; the radius has been balanced so that those paying attention have time to escape
- Enemies caught in the blast will effectively be stunned, with all powered equipment being disabled for three seconds
- Wheels, legs and caterpillar tracks lose power, hovers and rotors stop spinning and generating lift, aerofoils and rudder input gets corrupted so they twist in different directions causing uncontrolled spin, Power is drained to zero and regen is halted so weapons and modules cannot fire
- Since avoiding the EMP is easily achievable if you’re paying attention, the EMP is more of an ‘area denial’ weapon than a ‘stun’ weapon. Forcing your enemies to move or get stunned at a critical moment can help defend a tower or split a Platoon
- The EMP Module has a 30 second cooldown
- Power cost is 1800
- EMP blast radius is 100 cubes
- Robot CPU Load is 315, Mass is 135 (equal to Blink)
- The Fusion Shield does not block the EMP
NEW RARE DIAGONAL AERORODS
- Two awesome new Aerorods providing many new build options
- The ‘2D Diagonal Rod’ is 3×3 on the XY coordinates
- The ‘3D Diagonal Rod’ is 3x3x3 on the XYZ coordinates
NEW TUTORIAL
- New players are asked if they want to start with a Tutorial right after login
- The PLAY screen also has a new ‘Tutorial’ button added to it allowing all players to access it at any time
- NB: You don’t need to register a new account to check out the Tutorial, just hit the ‘Tutorial’ button in the PLAY menu
- This tutorial aims simply to help new players to learn the absolute basics, i.e. moving the character, placing blocks, using the inventory, testing their Robot, and destroying an enemy. We have avoided advanced concepts for now aiming to get new players into the action ASAP
- At the end of the tutorial the player is awarded a Salvage Crate with 4 items in, and this Crate is earned only on the first time the player completes the Tutorial
NEW SINGLE PLAYER GAME MODE – TDM WITH AI BOTS
- We’ve added a new single player game mode in the form of Team Deathmatch with AI bots
- This is the full 5 vs. 5 Team Deathmatch in the Battle for Birmingham Power Station map where you control one Robot on the blue team and all the other Robots are AI controlled
- You cannot enter this game mode in a Platoon at the moment, but it is something we will consider adding in future if this new game mode is popular
- Robots in this game mode are still taken from the CRF with filters that exclude certain builds as the AI is not yet good enough to handle fliers, modules and advanced weapons, but we plan to improve and iterate this mode in future if it’s successful
- AI bots will fire Laser, Rail and Plasma weapons
- The main aim of this new mode is to provide a gentle route for new players to get into the full Robocraft experience by first playing the Tutorial, then playing TDM with AI bots, then playing TDM and then venturing into the more advanced game modes
- Completing a game of AI Bots TDM will earn you a Salvage Crate with 1+1 item
- Experience is also gained in this mode so players can level up, but is much lower than in all other game modes
OTHER THINGS
- We’ve added a new intro movie to the game, which is skippable with any key press
- Both Resistivity and Barrier Protection of Plasma Goliathon and Laser Leviathan set to 1.0 to match all other high CPU weapons
- Vampire Wings and Rudders, Carbon 6 Thrusters and Carbon 6 Laser Disintegrator were all downgraded from Legendary to Epic, this was announced 7 days ago to ensure all users had plenty of time to recycle any unwanted prior to this downgrade
- We now have an official ESRB rating for Robocraft which is E10+ with an advisory for User Generated Content, this rating has been added to the login splash screen and will be updated in all other relevant locations soon after this expansion is live
- New players can still earn three days of free Premium by providing a valid email address after login, but this dialogue will only appear after the second login (since the first login now shows the Tutorial option dialogue)
- Improved the presentation of the PLAY menu which now scales with different resolutions
- Massively sped up loot animations in Salvage Crates, with Common and Uncommon items dropping insanely fast, and collect animations sped up significantly also
- Rotors and Thrusters no longer tilt forwards and backwards when using the ‘Camera Controls Steering’ option, allowing for easier Tower attacks and more predictable control of these movement types
- Smallest Tesla Power consumption set to 0.001 so it cannot be used when EMP is active (due to EMP depleting Power)
BUG FIXES
- Fixed a bug causing the crosshair for Rail showing when you cannot fire not showing correctly
- Fixed a bug causing headlights to still render when Ghosted
- Fixed a placement glitch when hitting the arrow key and placing cubes at the same time
- Fixed a graphical issue in the special effects of the IND
- Fixed a graphical issue on the clasps of Fusion Towers in Battle Arena
- Fixed a bug allowing users to clip the camera outside the Mothership
- Fixed a bug giving poor user feedback when players tried to enter a Robot name with invalid characters
- Fixed a prop that was intersecting the terrain on Earth
- Fixed some LOD’s not working correctly on some of the functional components
- Fixed a bug preventing some players from collecting their CRF earnings
- Fixed a bug where the damage radius of the Plasma was out of sync with the size of the special effects, the special effects now match the radius
- Fixed an issue with rail and Laser weapon fire rate which would occur when users played Robocraft for multiple hours in one sitting.
