Since getting my computer back up and running, I've been mostly catching up with freelance work, but was able to get some work done the past week or so and put out an update before I'm off to Austin to check out RTX and Juegos Rancheros.
Mechs now cast shadows -- this not only looks nicer, but also helps communicate height and positioning of other mechs so it's easier to shoot at them. Your own shadow will also help you land more precisely.
One of the more popular requests was a feature for the race mode. The Race Trainer allows you to save your position and velocity at a specific point in your run, then return to it whenever you'd like so you can practice that portion of the race. Handy for mastering the art of grappling through the second flag stand!
Now the Rocket Launcher isn't the only thing capable of painting enemy targets and broadcasting their position to your teammates -- the Light of Apollo's deployable heal gem will paint all enemy targets within a decent sized radius around itself. Place it strategically to keep an eye out for incoming baddies. To compliment this, players that are painted now have a HUD indicator -- this way, they'll know if they're hidden or not and can know to look for the heal gem if that's what is giving their position away. You can destroy an enemy heal gem by staying within its healing radius and draining it -- this now happens faster as of the latest patch as well.
There's also a handful of balance tweaks. The Cloaking Device wasn't as good at sneaking as I'd like, so now the cloaked players are harder to see. The Rocket Launcher was a little weak so I buffed the close range effectiveness a bit and removed self damage so you aren't bopping yourself around. The Multicannon's semi-auto mode is now a bit more effective at longer ranges -- the projectile now travels faster if shot while zoomed in.
You can check out the rest of the changes here:
