After more than 2 years on the steam store I have made the hard choice to stop supporting Steam as a platform. I will go into the why further down, but wanted to first address how this will affect you as a steam user. First, MAV will no longer be available to purchase on Steam starting September 1st. If you …
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State of the Game #239: All settled in!
Wow, what a hectic week! I moved 2,300 miles, driving all over my worldly possessions in a giant truck 1/10th of the way around the world! It was quite the epic road trip! I drove through 7 states, took ~5 days, had to pull over due to an overheating truck twice, and only nearly died once! Most importantly, all my …
State of the Game #238: On the Road!
Sorry to make this such a short state of the game, but I have been traveling on the road nearly all week. I will have a much better story to tell next week! In the mean time, please contribute to the Weekly Discussion threads!
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State of the Game #237: Making life better
This week I have been bouncing around a bit tackling a lot of the feedback I have been seeing on the forums and around the ‘internets’. First up on the hit list, camo patterns. There were quite a few complaints about camo patterns being too hard to see in combat since the updated models and textures. I took some steps …
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State of the Game #236: Call to arms!
Hey everyone! This will be a some what short State of the Game as I need to ask you a favor! Please go to the Alienware Arena to vote in the Indie Developer Contest! If MAV wins the contest, Alienware will provide a computer that I will then giveaway to the community! They will also help promote MAV in a variety …
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State of the Game #235: Help is on the way
This week I have been finishing up the conversion over to a more global UI system for the most frequently needed menus. This means the ‘ESC’ key will no longer auto quit what you are doing! Instead, a nice menu will pop up giving you a few options. Most exciting of those options is the actual options menu it’s …
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State of the Game #234: Community Updates
Hey everyone! It’s been a fun week this week! So a few weeks ago I mentioned the phrase “Community comes first“, and I meant it. It’s time to start delivering on that promise! I have started hosting ‘Weekly Discussion‘ threads to help get the community active and participating in helping shape the future of the game. The social links in …
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State of the Game #233: Back to Work!
So, after a week long ‘break’ I am back at the development. I have been targeting some of the biggest issues the community has brought up and first up was the in game leaderboard. Currently there is no way to check your score mid-match without dying. That seems a bit silly, so I fixed it. While I was at that, …
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State of the Game #232: Death Becomes Us
I am sorry I have not been more visible this week. We had a death in the family and it has taken most of my time up. Short state of the game this week. Go give your loved ones a hug.
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State of the Game #231: Moving along now
Another week down! Time sure does fly! If you haven’t noticed, MAV is on sale! This is the single biggest discount ever offered on MAV and likely won’t happen again for quite some time. So snap it up while you can! But, Cyber, didn’t you say MAV would never go on sale? Yes, I did say that. And I feel …
State of the Game #230: Continued Snapshot work
This week I worked on a new snapshot build that I was able to release on Monday! Version 0.6.5_1 contains these changes: -Fixed ghost players on siege mode -Implemented max player limit for servers. Default is 16. Controlled by adding the line MaxPlayers=16 to the ServerConfig.ini under the ServerSettings header. AI do not count against this limit. -Max team count for …
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State of the Game #229: Crazy times
I am late. It finally happened. After 228 weeks, or 52 months, or over 4 years, or exactly 1,596 days, I missed a Wednesdays update. We all knew this day would come. Let us take a moment of silence for the lost streak. And done. 🙂 So this week has been a bit crazy week. I push a snapshot …
0.6.4 Released
New stable build is out! Issues fixed: -Achievements now unlock -Updated locked achievement icons -Rank is shown in multiplayer -Medals tab from the profile view has been removed -Alpha-2 silver camo is usable by steam users again -New camo pattern added -Massive performance optimizations for Gaint Leap and Grassy creek levels -Fixed the ‘top half of MAV’s are left around’ …
State of the Game #228: Small fixes incoming
Short and sweet this week! I have been working on the biggest issues from the last snapshot, along with a few nice to have features. As soon as it’s done, it will go out as a new snapshot build. Currently fixed: -Top half of MAV’s can be left behind -Achievements don’t unlock [yes, someone hit level 100 already] -Rank is …
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State of the Game #227: Optimize all the things!
So, there have been quite a few performance patches that have gone out over the past few weeks and the gains have been really nice! As I played tonight I was seeing a fairly consistent frame rate of 30-45 fps, on Ultra. This would still dip down on some of the levels, or when lots of payers were in the …
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State of the Game #226: Snapshots!
This week I have been focused on making the performance optimizations from last week actually work in the context of the game! When you fundamentally change how the MAV’s are put together, you run into some strange issues. Most likely the funniest issue was me not accounting for rotation of the part you attach to the legs. Since I am …
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State of the Game #225: Cutting a MAV in Half
Performance is a hell of a thing. Chasing it is as close to being addicted to drugs as I can imagine. Your always chasing that last tiny bit of it and it has you doing more and more crazy things with ever diminishing returns. Here is how I spent 96 hours chasing my last high. Preface: MAVs are expensive. MAVs on …
0.6.2 Released
Build 0.6.2 has released! This is a stable build release to address issues with some players not having account progression being tracked properly. Forum tread detailing the issue and instructions on how to recover lost data if you were affected by this bug: http://bombdogstudios.com/forums/topic/level-got-reseted/page/3/
State of the Game #224: Short and Sweet!
Short and sweet update! 0.6.1 is released! It’s a hot fix to address some issues that popped up in the Beta release. I am currently working hard on fighting fires as they pop up and continuing with the bug hunting, with my primary focus being on issues with profiles resetting. Once things die down a bit, I will work on …
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State of the Game #223: Wow, what a Beta!
What an exciting week! In case you missed the news, MAV entered into Beta on Monday! Also known as the ‘Great 0.6.0 release’. This release has been in the works for quite some time and introduces many of the main systems that were missing from the Alpha versions of the game. This includes big systems like better lag compensation, a …
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State of the Game #222: Is that Beta I hear?
The distant machine gun fire, the Earth shaking booms of howitzers, the roar of a flame thrower. It’s coming, it’s finally coming! On May 2nd, MAV will launch full force into Beta release! What does this mean? For starters, a truly MASSIVE content update! New part stats, new sounds, new VFX, new models, new performance increases, new progression system, new …
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State of the Game #221: What is in a logo?
This was the logo I created when I first envisioned the game of MAV. A game about heavy robots, battling it out on the wastelands of [someplace to be determined] and doing [things to be determined] while also having to deal with [a cool thing. I will think of it later]. I had a very vague idea of what I …
State of the Game #220: Unlocking the Unlocking system
Forgive me for the terrible title. So this week I have been hammering away at lots of small polish tasks and issues that are coming up during testing. The largest new feature is the unlocking and full XP system. Yep, that’s right, you will now have to EARN your parts! Don’t worry, there are plenty of parts to be had …
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State of the Game #219: Another Round of Testing
What a week! As stated in last weeks State of the Game, there is another closed beta test going on this week. So far, I would say it’s going pretty great! While lots of issues have been found, many of them have been fixed. I have been on pace, delivering a new test build nearly every day. I have been …