Drones Become Champions:
In the upcoming milestone update, we’ll be converting our existing Drone system to a collection of eight “Champions” - think of these like heroes or classes in other competitive shooters. We showcased the Megadon and the Cyclops in our last update, but in the coming weeks we’ll be deep-diving into each one of the Champions and what makes them unique and how they help their team in the skies. We’ve got a load of new skins for all the Champions coming into the game in the future. Take a look at one in the screenshot below!
Upload - The New Game Mode:
Our new game mode, Upload, continues to come along amazingly. So much so that we’re positive it’s going to be the main game mode when we finally unleash it to the world later this year. We teased Upload recently on our Discord channel when we dropped a trailer on YouTube, giving just a taste of what’s to come. This game mode will streamline all matchmaking into one mode for now, as we feel that it’s the most exciting and competitive of all the current modes.
In addition to Upload, thanks to a lot of iteration and dedication our team has developed an upgraded flight model and a new game mode designed to take full advantage of the aerial aspect of our combat.
Strap in, because this is a lot:
Upload Details:
- There is a Data Cache located at the center of the map.
- Attackers need to pick it up and bring it to one of two Upload Zones.
- The longer the Data Cache is in the Upload Zone, the more points the attackers score.
- Defenders can destroy the Champion carrying the Data Cache to make it fall to the ground.
- Players on both teams can use the new Grappling Hook [by pressing G] to drag a loose Data Cache towards them - causing havoc for the opposing team.
- Teams will take turns being Attackers and Defenders. The highest score wins at the end of the match. The number of rounds in each match is still being finalized.
- Each player has one respawn per round, so tactics and coordination are essential to victory. If a team is completely destroyed during a round, the standing team automatically wins the round.
Aerial Combat Improvements:
- Check Your Vector - Navigate and Aim with six degrees of freedom to strike foes from above or below. Holding right-click allows you to aim with 360 degrees of motion, but only for a limited time.
- Watch Those Corners - Collision damage from buildings and other obstacles means pilots have to choose between speed and danger. Skilled pilots will be able to thread their way between buildings at high velocity.
- Control The Skies - Altitude is a valuable asset; climb when you can and dive when the time is right.
- Precision Strikes - Enhanced gun play makes accurate pilots all the more dangerous.
- New Map - Fjords, a snow and ice based cityscape with a communications tower at its heart where the Data Cache resides.
- Refactoring matchmaking - Generating matches is much more flexible now. A Match can be generated from various ongoing skirmishes. You can even earn XP in skirmish mode. No more waiting to play!
- Hit recognition - Our resident programming wizards have worked hard to update our core systems to improve all hit recognition, making sure all hits are accounted for properly.
- Drones Go Boom More - Balance has been tweaked to reduce overall HP while damage has been generally increased. Get rekt.
- A New Armor System - All Champions now have armor that can regen, giving them a shield overtop their normal health pool. This does not affect their ability to get rekt.
