Lockdown UpdateSat, 26 September 2020
The Latest in Quality VOX Content...Our latest update is all about raising the quality bar of our game. Though there’s plenty new toys to play with, we wanted to focus on improving both the visuals and audio of the VOX experience. Have a look at what you can expect next time you boot up our brand of stompy bot action:
Scattershot is RebornScattershot is like a whole new beast to behold. It now features a powerful punch, with dangerous heat buildup, a narrower spread, as well as faster-moving pellets. There’s all-new special effects and sounds to go along with it too, to help accentuate its presence. Now it’s truly the boom stick it was always meant to be.
Audio RemasterOur crack audio team has been hard at work holistically improving the audio experience in Vox Machinae. It starts with a full Remaster and Rebalance, dedicated sub channel, as well as rebalancing of spatial audio. There’s a tonne of new sounds for Scattershot, Railgun, Minigun, Hammer, and Skyjacker. Various gameplay cue audio has now been added, such as weapon swaps, match win/loss, jumpjet velocity rattles, game start sound, and fun secret stuff too. Grinders have seen a vast audio improvement to help complement their mass with various creaks, scrapes, jostles and thuds. It’s truly a feast for the ears, and we hope you like it.
Hopper DownscaleWe've taken our industrial-strength shrink ray to Hopper and shaved 20% off his total dimensions. Why did we do this? Hopper was always meant to be our small and scrappy scout unit, so we wanted to go the extra mile to emphasize this. Now he’s leaner, meaner and harder to hit.
Improved Habitat LightingOur hangar lighting presentation has been dramatically improved, with both grinders and pilots receiving/casting dynamic shadows. Additionally, new direct lights in the hangar will add a more convincing sheen to surfaces. We didn’t stop there either, now both hangar and cockpit scenes feature improved reflection and specularity, which allow our more metallic surfaces to really… shine.
2X More IconsWe know every pilot wants to be unique, and while our initial selection of pilot icons was a valiant effort, there's always more that could be done. So we did just that, two times more icons to be exact. Now there's even more ways to help pilots express their style in tiny icon form.
Cable Tech 2.0Not satisfied with the way our cables tended to glitch out, we forged a new tech to end the madness and usher in a new era of well-behaved cables. Cables can now squash and stretch, bend without malice, and better simulate weight, all while being obscenely efficient to render. This has also meant many more cables in the cockpit can now be simulated, adding to the immersion factor.
Honorable MentionsIn the spirit of cramming as much goodies into our updates as humanly possible, here’s some more notable highlights in this release:
• Menu system UI has been reworked, it’s now snappier, doesn’t lag in the cockpit, doesn’t show jaggies around screens, and intersects properly with things around it.
• There’s now a snazzy new slip vector guage that shows how fast you’re going in any direction.
• Your avatar’s virtual nose now changes skin tone based on the pilot you selected.
• Replaced Grinder level-of-detail models with much better hand-crafted ones.
• Changed how terrain textures update to take the same amount of time regardless of headset or monitor frame rate.
• Terrain once again casts shadows into the cockpit
• Fixed various bugs relating to the cursor on the scope screen
• Drill’s mass has been re-distributed to better reflect volume of components. Leg weight reduced by 50%, torso increased by 33%. Overall mass unchanged.
• Bots have improved aim, will fire at targets of opportunity when their main target is out of view, and can engage at longer distances than before
• Player-controlled dedicated servers are now available under the Join/Host menu, and no longer show on the server browser (until someone controls them).
Full Patch Notes: 0.37.0 alpha - September 25, 2020:winter2019joyfultearsdog: New Features / Gameplay Changes- Hopper: Unbiggened by 20%. Now harder to hit!
- Drill: Mass re-distributed to better reflect volume of components. Leg weight reduced by 50%, torso increased by 33%. Overall mass unchanged.
- Scattershot: It's a new beast. Faster projectiles, less spread, more damage, more heat, reduced rate of fire.
- Bots have improved aim, will fire at targets of opportunity when their main target is out of view, and can engage at longer distances than before.
- Player-controlled dedicated servers are now available under the Create Game menu, and no longer show on the server browser (until someone controls them).
- Cables have been replaced with gooder ones that don't explode when stretched.
- Fuel icon does a boop when fuel finishes filling.
- Increased speed of screen fade in/out to get you in (and out) of the action quicker.
- Scope now always opens with the reticle perfectly centered on the screen.
- When upward jet strength is diminished at high altitude, fuel consumption is no longer proportionally reduced.
- Added more player symbols to express your style!
- Add support for Virpil VPC WarBRD joystick.
- Add Slip Vector instrument to the cockpit.
:winter2019angrydog: Bug Fixes / Optimizations- Fix broken Altitude gauge.
- Leaf Canada profile symbol now has a capital C. :maple_leaf:
- Fix laggy cursor when using mouse on menu.
- Fix UI elements being slightly out of sync while main screen and side screens are animating.
- Optimizations to CPU usage.
- Reduced peak memory usage.
- Reduced load time when first starting the game.
- Fix inability to launch match if the game was installed in a directory with characters from some languages.
- (Desktop) Fix camera popping forward if the scope was quickly toggled off and on again.
- Drill downward jet strength is no longer diminished at high altitude.
- (Desktop) Fix bug which caused camera to shift position while looking around in Free Look mode.
- Fix single-frame texture popping on areas of terrain while moving around the level.
:winter2019angrydog: Audio Changes- Added sub channel for true 2.1/5.1/7.1 goodness.
- New Minigun audio.
- New Scattershot audio.
- New Railgun audio.
- Adjusted Skyjacker audio.
- Hammer missiles scream now. It's just a slight scream.
- Ambient cockpit sounds added. Lean back to hear 'em gooder.
- Extra Grinder movement sounds.
- Added PA announcements in the hangar.
- Level ambience sfx to better ground the environments.
- Match start audio cue. Ding! Fight!
- station startup sequence audio
- Added sounds when swapping weapons in the Hangar.
- Rebalanced spatializing of all audio.
- New parallel spatial audio bussing system for immersion inside and outside of the blast shield.
- Improved weapon and Grinder impacts with new sub content.
- New audio mix for clarity and punch. Kiyah!!
- Add polish, the ol' spit-shine. Eeek eeek eeek!
:winter2019cooldog: Graphics Changes- Virtual nose changes skin tone based on pilot head selection.
- Improved quality of cockpit reflections.
- Little buildings now have dust/explosion effects when they get destroyed.
- Replace automatic Grinder level of detail models with handcrafted ones that look and perform better.
- Fix bright jaggy pixels around cockpit screen edges.
- Fix terrain textures looking worse than they should have on quality settings lower than "High".
- Improved legibility of text.
- Fix issues with UI elements clipping through other geometry such as pilot hands.
- Fix shadow texture seams that could become visible in the distance.
- Fix bug which prevented seeing your own shadow past a certain height.
- Roads added to Arid Oasis.
- Pulsar effects changed to have less overlap (reduces dropped frames when getting hit by Pulsar.)
- Fire smoke improved on Topaz Twilight.
- Terrain shadows catch more details now.
- Changed how terrain textures update to take the same amount of time regardless of headset or monitor frame rate.
- Grinder now casts a shadow on the ground in the Hangar. Pilot casts shadow on the Hangar room.
- Improved lighting/shading in the Hangar room.
- Terrain once again casts shadows into the cockpit (got broken long ago).