Patch v.1.5.3336

June 15th, 2017

We felt that while we received a lot of positive feedback for our previous in-game HUD, it could be improved or even redone completely. We took it upon ourselves to form a UI that was both good looking visually but also user-friendly and at the same time incorporating all the suggestions and feedback we had received from the previous one.

New In-game HUD

Energy and Health are now relocated on the bottom left corner of the HUD and received glow effects. The mini-map has been redesigned while we improved your hovercraft’s and enemies’ hovercraft’s positioning. The abilities tab has been moved to the bottom right of the screen. The icons have received a visual update and we also have added a glow effect depending on, if the ability is on cooldown, being used at the time and when it is off cooldown. We moved the timer of each ability to the left of each icon and created a progress bar to show how much time left of that ability remains.

We have also updated the Main Menu UI, with bigger buttons, clickier than ever, clearer texts and visual feedback.

We felt that while we received a lot of positive feedback for our previous in-game HUD, it could be improved or even redone completely. We took it upon ourselves to form a UI that was both good looking visually but also user-friendly and at the same time incorporating all the suggestions and feedback we had received from the previous one. Energy and Health are now relocated on the bottom left corner of the HUD and received glow effects. The mini-map has been redesigned while we improved your hovercraft’s and enemies’ hovercraft’s positioning. The abilities tab has been moved to the bottom right of the screen. The icons have received a visual update and we also have added a glow effect depending on, if the ability is on cooldown, being used at the time and when it is off cooldown. We moved the timer of each ability to the left of each icon and created a progress bar to show how much time left of that ability remains. We have also updated the Main Menu UI, with bigger buttons, clickier than ever, clearer texts and visual feedback.

New Hovercraft - Cicuma Pulsatrix

We are so happy to present you Cicuma Pulsatrix. In fact, we have been so hyped, that we started a Rave Party!!

Cicuma Pulsatrix is the medium-sized hovercraft from the Cicuma family. Pulsatrix is an all-purpose hovercraft with well-rounded properties but excels in Velocity and Skirmishing.

Cicuma Pulastrix Abilities:

Rocket Hail: Pulsatrix casts a rain of rockets that fall upon a targeted area damaging all enemies inside.

Flash Bang: Pulsatrix overload all nearby enemies visual feedback blinding them for a period of time.

Cicuma Puppeteer: Pulsatrix creates exact replicas of its own body at random locations in an area around it.

Cicuma Blend: Pulsatrix camouflages itself and blends in with the environment utilizing the nanites of its body.

We have prepared a few screenshots of Cicuma Pulsatrix while in-game along with its two Bodykits/Skins, Illuminator (yellow) and Crusader (red) as shown below:

All the abilities, skins and VIDEOS of each ability are on our Wiki page here: http://crash-force.wikia.com/wiki/Cicuma_Pulsatrix

New Game Mode – Capture The Capacitor

We are very happy to announce that we have made available our third Game Mode called “Capture the Capacitor”. Capture the Capacitor is a Capture the Flag game mode, that was adjusted to fit the playstyle, gameplay and sci-fi theme of Crash Force.There are two Teams on this map, that need to protect their own Capacitor (marked as blue) and capture the opposing team’s Capacitor (marked as red) and bring it back to their base without dropping it to score a point. The team that scores three Capacitors points wins the game. The player that acquires a Capacitor is unable to cast abilities but can still maneuver, attack and dash to any direction to escape death. When an opposing team member kills the Capacitor carrier, the Capacitor is dropped to the ground. A member of the same Capacitor team as the carrier can then pick up that Capacitor and finish the job, or a member of the opposing team can pick up the Capacitor and immediately return the Capacitor to its base. We have prepared a small preview video showing gameplay from CTC:

A gallery showing moments and in-game notifications of objectives of CTC:

We are looking for ideas, suggestions, and feedback on our new game mode! While Capture the Flag is a well-known game mode, we are open to suggestions, to improve the feel, uniqueness, and difficulty of it.

New Game Mode – Shooting Range

We are very excited to finally release Shooting Range. Shooting Range is a place in a distant galaxy far away from where young hovercrafts practice their new-found abilities and test out their mechanics. In this mode, you will be able to test all available hovercrafts against moving targets, rooted in place targets and test your abilities to perfect the timing of your combos as well as test the range of each ability likewise. We have prepared a small video showing some of the in-game areas of Shooting Range:

Just a quick note that, in order to change your selected hovercraft, you just have to head to the room you spawned when you first entered the Shooting Range. When you enter that room a pop-up will appear that lets you choose another vehicle. We have captured a few in-game screenshots of the Shooting Range:

Mid-Game Hovercraft selection screen

Entering in a match while the match was already in progress will now let you choose a hovercraft before spawning. We think this addition will help people to join in progress games without fearing on which hovercraft they would get when they spawned mid game. Note that when you enter a game mid-way your score will be reset. Meaning that if you leave an in-progress game and then try to re-enter that match so you can choose a different hovercraft will reset your score. In addition, creating a match without any other players will close after you quit the game.

The following picture was taken in Shooting Range but nonetheless, it is quite similar in other Game Modes and maps.

Buddy System – Steam Friends Invitation System

Our testers wanted a buddy invite system, where they could invite their Steam friends to play Crash Force with them and therefore we created the Buddy System. In order to invite a friend to a party in Crash Force, you have to already be friends on Steam and also that friend needs to have Crash Force in his/her Steam library and installed on his/her PC. The next step is for you and your friend/s to login into Crash Force and hit Quick Play. When you enter the Quick Play area, you will be able to see all your Steam friends that own Crash Force in separate lists depending if they are Online or Offline. If none of your friends are online then you can skip and queue up solo. By clicking on the plus (+) button next to each buddy you will invite him/her to your party (and therefore be the Party Leader of the party). Your friends will then be prompted by a pop-up on the bottom right of the screen to accept or decline your invitation (Fair warning: refrain from Declining Invitations at the moment as they seem to bug out the system, instead accept the invitation and then leave the party. We are working on a patch to fix this issue).

After every one of your buddies are in the same party, the Party Leader can then can queue up for the desire Game Mode. In the next screen, we are showing the perspective of the Party leader, where the player can kick a party member by clicking the "X" button next to party member. The Party Leader can also disperse the party, by clicking the "Disperse Party" button on the bottom left of the screen. Party members can exit the party, by clicking on the Exit button on the bottom left corner of the screen (where "Disperse Party" button is now). When the Party leader queues up for a Game Mode, only the Party leader can stop the queue timer.

When the queue timer ends, the party members will move to the lobby screen and either be on the same team (for Team Showdown and Capture The Capacitor) or in the same Lobby but oppose each other (in One Man Wolfpack). You can opt out of the Lobby by clicking the "Leave Game" button on the bottom of the Lobby screen.

When the match ends, you will automatically be allocated to the next lobby to fight against other players or bots, in the same or opposing team depending on which game mode you have selected. If by mistake, your Party Leader chose the wrong Game Mode, you can all leave the lobby, your party will be disbanded. You can create the party in the same procedure as described above and queue for the desired Game Mode.

Finally, we fixed several bugs, made graphical changes and optimized Crash Force which are listed below:

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed an issue where equipped paints would not show up in menu.
• Fixed an issue where the match end card would show bogus loot box earnings.
• Fixed an issue where maps would not rotate.
• Fixed an issue with collisions in the tutorial.

Graphics changes:

• Cicuma Forest revisit. -
• Clava Diphylla's Berserk New fx.
• Clava Acadica's Cicuma Shift new fx.

Optimizations:

• Garbage collection optimization.
• Network optimization.

Thank you for reading through it. If you have any questions for anything related to the features we introduced or just want to say hi, do no hesitate to contact us!

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