We’re going to be pushing out a small update to ARC Squadron around 6PM PST (9PM Eastern) with a few fixes and balance tweaks. You’ll need to update with the launcher to play on the primary servers once the update goes live.
Here’s what changed:
- Made keyboard movement input smoother for aiming
- Improved scoreboard display and made it more readable
- Fixed a bug that allowed players to fly outside the boundaries of the map
- Added error messages that display when you try to join a full server or a server closes while you’re connected to it
- Matches ended by the time running out will now properly display which team won
- Reduced the accuracy of lock on missiles to make it a little easier to evade them.
There are new servers up…
70.166.15.132
70.166.15.133
70.166.15.134
70.166.15.135
70.166.15.136
Thanks for bearing with us as we work out the kinks!
The server is currently down as we reconfigure to support more servers than one. I’ll post back shortly when it’s up.
Wow, what a response! We’re working getting more dedicated servers up ASAP.
For those who are having trouble launching the game, please report those issues on our help forum.
There will be a new update today! We’re working on addressing the most common launch issues first. We’re also adding some additional messages such as when the server is full. Currently if the server is full you end up in your own server all by yourself with no indication of this.
Keep letting us know what you think on the forums and the comments here. We’ve have a long list of improvements to roll out over the next few days including controls tweaks as well as new features.
Download the Psyonix Game Launcher from here.
We don’t have a matchmaking system yet so you have connect to IPs directly.
However we are going to be maintaining a dedicated server at this IP – 70.166.15.133
We highly recommend a game pad, but you don’t need one.
Look forward to another update to the game tomorrow!
EDIT: If you have trouble running the game after getting the latest, try running this – C:\Program Files (x86)\Psyonix\ARCSquadron\Binaries\Windows\UE3Redist.exe
We are planning to deploy the Psyonix Game Launcher on Wednesday of next week (March 23). It will most likely go up towards the end of our day Pacific time. In the meantime I’m releasing two screenshots from our playtest today.
Edit: Changed name to A.R.C. Squadron
I wanted to get that shot out asap so I’m following up with an actual post. We’ve been playtesting this game with as many as 16 players at once. The first version we release might support fewer players at first though (maybe 5v5 or 6v6).
We’re also working on a cool application for getting automatic updates to the game. It works kind of like an MMO by checking for an update every time you login. We really want people to get excited to see what we’ve added recently.
I also wanted to clarify some concerns over our announcement about SARPBC 2. A lot of people have been lamenting that the game is coming out on PC. I want to be clear that the target platforms for SARPBC 2 are consoles. It is our idea of community-driven game development that is based on PC. So you will need a PC to play development versions of our games, but in the end we want to publish on PC and consoles.
Stay tuned for more info on community-driven game development later this week.
Edit: Changed name to A.R.C. Sqaudron
This is a concept image of the game. We’re not quite ready to release a real screen but this is close to our target.
Finally the game can be intimidating for new players. Especially if they start out playing experienced players. We found it to be the most addicting when new players play multiplayer with other new players. Split-screen matches are one of our best promoters. This is something we are keen to focus on for future versions. But we also need to give new players an easier path. Sadly, a lot of new players give up too quickly. The game can seem like it is going to be impossible to learn to do anything that isn’t random ball chasing. We even had a few reviews mention the game is completely random and no amount of skill will ever make an difference. ummm…lol. It just goes to show how little time many reviewers spend on a new game.
Regardless, it is problem that the game feels this way at first. The fact is that if you jump right into online multiplayer on just about any game you are going to get demolished. That is what single player campaigns are for. We tried to help this out with the mini-games but it is something we really need to address better in the future.
That’s all for now. As always I’m really interested in hearing your feedback in the comments and the forums. I’d love to know what got you hooked on the game in the first place. I’d also love to hear any stories about bringing new players into the fold. What made them stay? What made them run?
The next issue we’ve had is that the game doesn’t fit into any standard gaming categories. Is it a car combat game, racing, soccer? If you are a fan of the game I think you’d have to agree that it’s a sports game. It is a strange mix though. If you are a fan of Soccer/Football/Hockey/Basketball games you will find this game something completely new. There is no pass or shoot button. The game does virtually nothing for you. I often like to say that games like FIFA or Madden are simulations of a real-world game. SARPBC is an actual sport inside the world of a simulator. You have to actually shoot the ball physically with your car, providing the thrust, the angle, and skill to actually hit your target. It may take as much practice as it takes to learn a new sport. But the payoff can be equally fulfilling. Regardless this can be a confusing sell to game simulation fans. Other people just don’t like sports games or aren’t fans of soccer and don’t try the game in the first place because of this. This is also unfortunate as it is so different from other sports games and quite a bit different from the actual sport of soccer. This issue of communicating that this is a game that is worth trying is one of the greatest challenges.
One way we hope to deal with this issue is providing a better demo experience. In the US the trial game lets you play for around 2 minutes. That is just enough time to really get frustrated with the game. In EU we allow full games in the trial but only a certain number of them. Our attach rate was much higher for this than the US trial (percent of people who upgraded to the full game). Going forward our philosophy is to get the game out to as many people as possible for free.
