It’s been a few weeks since the SIX update, and there’s a lot of meaty gameplay work to show off.  Ammo! Maneuvers! Slo mo visuals! Better ramming!

Slo Moooooo

• One of the biggest issues of having a turn-based game with realtime visuals is that a lot of the time people don’t grok that the game is waiting for their next input.
  • As a way to get around this, I added a slowdown when the game is waiting for player input. 
  • As a delightful side effect, it looks pretty damn cool. 
• Had to move a number of UI inputs to use unscaled time so it ignores slomo. I might have missed a few, so will be on the lookout.
• Made a bunch of UI effects use unscaled time so they play at a normal rate even during slowmo.
• Fixed camera and a bunch of other elements that slowed down inappropriately during slowmo

Special Maneuvers

• Special maneuvers appear as “equipment” (currently occupying gadget slot 3), but are eventually going to be baked into specific vehicle chassis, which allow you to take special actions in a crisis.
  • This means that different vehicles will help with different playstyles.
• The first special maneuver is the Ram Piston
  • This maneuver launches the car forward 2-4 tiles within a set arc and rams an enemy out of the way.
  • You can also use it to get out of a jam by launching to an empty tile.
  • It has a cooldown and also uses gas as its ammo, which you can find out in the field or purchase at a garage.

Resources as Ammo

• Players have always been able to collect gas, ordnance and parts around the battlefield.  These items are now used as ammunition for some weapons and equipment.
  • Mines and rockets use ordnance
  • Ram piston, flamers and flaming oil takes gas.
• Many weapons do not require ammo (just a cooldown), so ammo-consuming equipment will be stronger for its limitation.
• When you highlight a weapon, it should explicitly say the ammo it uses, if any.
  • If you’re out of ammo, hopefully it will be very easy to see and understand.
  • There is a dry-fire sound when out of ammo. 
• All game hints are now moved to middle-screen and important information such as being out of ammo also appears in that space as needed.
• Now that ordnance and gas are much more needed by players, I added significantly more drops of them to the loot lists.
  • Loot dropped from cars and crates now has a new definition type, so every drop won’t have 5-6 items in them (it was just out of control)

Ramming

• Ramming something at a high enough speed will now knock it to the side rather than stop you dead.  It’s far more fun.
• The mass of an opponent or object now matters more. Your speed and your mass is factored against their mass.
  • NOTE:  More will happen with this in the future, since relative speed and resultant velocity aren’t all factored as they should.

Additional Targeting Changes

• Area-effect weapons such as rockets, shotguns and flamers can now be aimed at the ground if you want to position their blast for maximum effect.
• Some weapons and abilities now have a minimum range.
  • Rockets have a min range of 2. 
  • Multifire rockets have a min range of 3.

User Interface

• Updated the position of resources in the HUD.
• Revised frames in HUD to use a superthin frame.
• Updated skid meter and needle, and repositioned turn pips.
• Boost hint only appears when at max safe speed now.
• Cleaned up the UI camera for inventory and garage. It’s not blurry anymore. 
• Fixed broken portrait from game startup.

Audio

• Revised the collision sound (hated the old one).
• Added a new wood break and revised rock break sounds.

General

• Edited the speed lines for movement and ram tile with a new graphic.
• Fixed some rare crashes