Tanks in latest update

[digitaljackson]

Before I start complaining about tank changes, I want to say I like the visual changes to the levels in the recent update. I notice they look more colorful... looks like lighting was redone and maybe textures adjusted. Overall they feel a bit more polished.

Now, on to the compaints - I also notice in the recent update that tank behavior and some level design has changed. Which, for me, is making playing the levels less enjoyable.

Thunder Bowl and Winterstan - Tanks spawn less frequently in early stages of game... it now takes a while to get ramped up and find myself biking around wating for tanks to show. I also notice the A.I. is much more accurate on early spawing tanks, which doesn't bother me.

Thunder Bowl - The outer ring area of the play field no longer spawns tanks. This makes taking a trip on the outer rings really boring and I now avoid those areas. There was never a lot of tanks there, but it was nice to take a round every once in a while and still have a couple of tanks to shoot.

Overall, it seems like the pace has been intentionally slowed down on these tank levels, at least in the early stages.

[Spyder17]

Noticed the lack of tanks in the beginning also. Thought it was just me. Ok with that though as it gets me a few extra miles. Do agree though that you need to add back at least one tank on the outside loops in Thunder bowl (unless they show up later in the game and I haven't gotten far recently.

[76561198295368552]

Well, the good news is that you're right, fewer tanks is no good.

The bad news is that, as far as I know, we didn't intentionally make any of the changes you're talking about, so I have no idea where that all came from.

I'm going to have to investigate this further. If there are any other noticeable differences beside colors and AI spawning behavior, please let me know. Thanks!

[digitaljackson]

The visual changes might just be due to building with a newer version of Unity. I also notice the the mipmapping looks a bit different on new build... textures are softer looking at distance.

The tanks are now more accurate as well. They used to rarely hit you in early stages of game, but now have pretty good aim right from the start.

[76561198295368552]

Weird. I didn't even notice that stuff while testing the other day. (I still had to wait awhile for something to shoot me properly in Thunder Bowl when I was trying to die....) But then again, when I'm in there, it's usually to test something very specific, so I might have blinders on to changes in behavior.

Well, thanks for the tip. Good guess about Unity update, too. I'll see what else we can figure out here.

[76561198295368552]

The devs here aren't noticing anything unusual about tank placement, but I'm guessing they're not playing on the public Steam build. It's still looking weird to you folks, right?

[digitaljackson]

I did not play tank levels during my workout yesterday, but last time I played it was still different.
The tanks missing on Thunder Bowl outer loops is easiest one to see. I can try tonight and confirm.

[76561198295368552]

No worries – one of the devs finally saw it too (specifically after they destroyed the first four tanks).

[76561198295368552]

The devs found the issue with tank spawning, and a fix should be uploaded soon. Might take awhile to reach some platforms, but Steam should get its patch pretty soon. Thanks again for the heads up!

[digitaljackson]

OK, great to hear. I'm not sure if this is related to the same issue, but I also noticed while playing Winterstan last night that the tanks no longer pursue you when in the open areas. I recall that tanks used to converge on me when I would travel out to a remote area to get a ammo box. Now they just seem to stay in their spawn area.

[76561198295368552]

I'll check on that too – thanks for the tip.

[76561198295368552]

P.S. Were there any other players in the game when you saw that issue? There's a known bug where they might ignore you if you were not the first person to start a multiplayer session, so I wonder if that's what you saw.

[digitaljackson]

No, just me. I played the level for about 70 minutes and no other players were present.

[76561198295368552]

Good to know, thanks. And to be clear, they still SHOOT at you, they just aren't MOVING toward you? They're just moving along their set patrol paths?

[digitaljackson]

Yeah, if they're close enough they will still shoot at me. I notice this mostly when I travel out to a ammo box that is sitting out in a open area with very few tanks around. It used to feel like a race to get the ammo before tanks converged on me, but now they don't really do that. I might even be able to just sit out in a vacant area and not have tanks find me... would be a good test. In the past, I've tried to take a quick restroom break while sitting my tank out where there were no enemy tanks, only to find my tank destroyed by time I returned... not sure if that would happen now.

[76561198295368552]

Next time you get a chance to play, could I trouble you to double check for an update and then for this issue again? The devs are telling me they're not seeing this and it was fixed by the last update, but I want to be sure. Thank you!