State of the Game #242: These are the menus you are looking for

The long fabled 0.6.7 update is finally here! I did miss my internal deadline by 2 weeks, but in my defense, I moved across the country!

So, time to get to the juicy part, the change log.

Features

Leaderboard visibility mid match

You can now bring up the leaderboard mid match by pressing ‘Tab’ [default keybinding].
The leaderboard now auto sorts based on winning team and further by kill counts by team players.
When bringing up the leaderboard, you gain back mouse control. You can use this to mute players mid match in multiplayer.
The leaderboard style now matches the end game scoreboard style, which will allow more social interactions as they come online

Esc menu

Pressing ‘Esc’ no longer exits the match, instead it brings up the escape menu.
From this menu you can change game options, including sound, key bindings, microphone input, and mouse sensitivity.
You also have quick access to the help menu, exit to the main menu, or exit MAV completely.
Pressing ‘Esc’ again will return you back to the game.
This menu is available everywhere in the game.

Help menu

In the main menu there is now a ‘Quick Start Guide’ available that helps walk you through the very basics of MAV.
There are 6 screens covering what a MAV is, the Game modes, and basic building advice for the garage.
This screen is available at any time through the ‘help’ option in the Esc menu.

Tool tips

I have added tooltips to many UI elements.
If you see a UI element that needs a tool tip, please report it to me!

Push to Talk

The microphone option has changed to a push to talk system.
You can now also select the microphone you want to use for voice chat.
All keybindings for this are user editable.

Server Connection Screen

You now get proper screen feedback when connecting to servers.
If a connection fails, you will get a screen notifying you of the failure and the error reason.
If you are forced out of a server, you will see a notification screen with the reason [kicked, server shutdown, server restart].
Players joining and leaving servers is now announced through the in-game chat system.

Automated reporting

I have enabled automated error reporting though anonymous usage statistics.
This reports code errors, along with information already found in the output log files.
There is also reporting on login to help gather information on how the player base is progressing through Ranks.
When online, there is minor reporting on levels played, number of deaths per level, and errors per level.
This is all to help me with balance changes and tracking down bugs.

Bug Fixes

• Spine builds no longer become a headless set of legs when losing the spine part.
• Repair sheds would fail to reload weapons if one of your weapons had been destroyed. This is fixed now.
• Fixed issue with Steam account connection not binding to Bombdog accounts correctly.
• Change instances of ‘Commander’ role type to ‘Engineer’ role.
• Fixed collision issues with the spectator camera causing many extreme closeups when trying to follow MAVs.
• Made spectator camera affected by the mouse sensitivity setting.

Minor Changes

• Updated base shotgun ammo from 18 to 28. This makes shotgun build much more viable in combat.
• Adjusted role type experience earning. There was an error with Sniper XP calculation making it much easier to earn than it should be.
  • Defender XP distance to MY base increased from 250 meters to 500 meters.
  • Attacker Kill XP distance reduced from 150 meters to 50 meters.
  • Sniper kill distance XP increased from 350 meters to 500 meters.
  • Support kill distance XP increased from 100 meters to 250 meters.
  • Removed extra Attacker XP bonus for multiple enemy’s nearby in Arena mode.
  • Decrease Sniper accuracy XP bonus from max 250 weight to 50 weight.
  • Increased movement XP modifier from .01 to .02. This means Scouts earn double the XP for distance covered compared to before.
  • Increased weapon type damage weight from .01 to .05. This means the weapons used to damage enemy’s are weighted 5 times heavier than before.
• Adjusted camo shader to make colors and patterns more vibrant. This helps solve some visibility issues that were reported.
• Created new AI camo patterns to ensure contrasting patterns among teams.
• Added label to show visible map size on in-game map. This will help Support players range shots.

See you in-game!