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New Look: Sewers sneak peek

Work on the new level dressing is progressing at a solid pace.That's why Monday you had a look at the Catacombs, today's look behind the (dressing) scenes brings you the Metal Sewers.

Let us know if you've got the reference. ;) And leave your feedback in the comments below.

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New Look: Catacombs sneak peek

As you're all aware, the current version of DieselStörmers is not yet dressed - that means no real background, placeholder images and grey boxes everywhere. The reason behind that being the great change in the new structure of the level. 

It didn't always look like this, you know. And yes, sometimes size does matter.

Having in mind that you're curious to see progress being made, we convinced the art team to share a little preview of one of the city segments. So without further ado we present you: the Catacombs (or Natural sewers as they are called lovingly around here.)

Stay tuned for more previews and as usual, leave your feedback in the comments below!

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DieselStörmers Update Log

Today's update comes with a couple of neat changes. We focused on the class system in the recent weeks, reworking some of its flaws and updating it along the way. While play testing, we also noticed that the Overdrive is not being used as much, so we removed the resource cost and put it on a cool down timer instead. A new enemy, updated enemy behavior and New Guns! round up this update.

As usual, give us your feedback in the comments below.

Changes:

Classes redefined - different starting stats are now what defines a class. Classes also differ by free upgrades and properties that are always active (e.g. all weapons that one class picks up have always extra range and speed)

Moved old class system-specific weapons and overdrives into the random pickups pool (armor and weapon mods) and added two new weapons

Grenade launcher (Mortar)

Lazer gun (Surge Lance)

Overdrive is on a cool down timer now

Weapon variants now are more distinctive (e.g. bouncing shots scatter more, bigger shots are slower, etc.)

Existing enemies should run also away, not only at you. Ranged enemies didn't even run at you back then. Now we have some that run away after shooting, and others that run towards you after shooting and try to hit you in melee.

New:

Rewrote a ton of Perks and reintroduced them all to the game.

New flying enemy (currently looks like a giant orc balloon circling around you) placeholder dressing for the Shark Worm - which is not a boss. Yet.

We now have XP which is tracked from session to session and displayed as a progress amount on screen while playing (% up to 100% per level). You level up and gain perks at the end of a level.

PC weapons now have recoil that pushes the PC back when firing. How strong the recoil is depends on the weapon.

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DieselStörmers changes and updates

Two weeks have passed since we launched the rogue like mission on steam. Two weeks worth of your feedback went into the first update. It's not a big one - yet. But we managed to fix the most annoying bugs and include a bit more content. 

New Features:

Added new class: Caster Master

Added Arc Armor

In single player it drops an anchor object

In multiplayer it connects to other players,

Electro-zapping lines electrocute and stun enemies on hit.

Added Flame Exhaust upgrade

Leaves a flaming trail behind the player at all times.

Added default Evasive Dash ability

Allows players  to dodge projectiles while dashing.

Gameplay changes:

Shots do not stop players in mid-air (mid-air slow remains).

Motor gun only slows players down rather than stop them.

Goblin goopers now shoot projectile weapons.

Weapon variant properties have also been tweaked to be more distinctive.

Changed amount of gold that can be looted and amount of gol

Bug Fixes:

Fixed ‘black screen’ issue on launch of the rogue like mission.

Fixed ALT-TAB issue while in full screen.

Fixed the main menu screen being badly disconfigured on some machines.

Loot drops are now affected by gravity.

Small performance fix, our update window management was calling updates on way too much of the world at one time.

Problem with saving player data from session to session.

Removed the classic-style per-level rewards that were being assigned.

Addressed gear mech secondary attack pattern mirroring issue.

Gear mech health bar should now be bossy.

An issue with NPC fire interactions.  Looks like they take damage normally from fire but weren’t getting set ablaze properly.

Fire/Goop hazards no longer deal damage to NPCs directly, but instead only kill them with the flaming DoT. 

Maintain current class selection through death/fail.

Fixed occasional issue with the large overdrive resource wasn't collectible.

Fixed upgrade tooltips with negative per level modifiers to display correctly.

Fixed a bug in the global base proc timeouts that was suppressing good bounce behavior.

Fixed some broken projectile claims. 

Get your copy of the game here: http://j.mp/dieselstormers-steam

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It's Friday, the 13th and he is not impressed!

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An Incredible Journey

Last year we began a journey together. Itstarted on Kickstarter, where you supported us and our vision of a new gamethat we wanted to build. YOU made it possible to create a prototype that wouldenable us to publish it in the Steam Early Access program. You stood with us even when we weren’t as quick with updates as we wanted to be.

We went through a troublesome year and the early access experience has been quite a ride. You’ve seen the good (a visually polished game), the bad (features that were and are still missing) and the ugly (a bad networking performance). But you supported us anyway.

Now that journey will continue – but it will take a different direction. In the past days we’ve shown you our plans for the future of DieselStörmers, explained the changes to level design, perks, the class system and - the most noticeable change of all - the stronger shift towards the roguelike elements of the game. It’s our desire to be as open and transparent as possible.

Today we want to say Thank You! to everyone who’s been with us from the beginning, making this game possible in the first place. To everyone who submitted bug reports and helped squash those pesky beasts. To all who took their time and bumped heads with us about gameplay and level design, who gave us invaluable feedback and to ALL of you who spent your time to play our game. Thanks to all of you!

Let us know what you think of the new version of DieselStörmers. It’s going to be different, but better. It will have lots of bugs. It will miss a lot of features. It’ll be rough around the edges and certainly not (yet) dressed to impress. But it was envisioned and crafted with love and care, with improvement and all your feedback in mind. It is a bold change but a change that the team stands united and wholeheartedly behind. We believe it’s going to be great!

All we’re asking of you is just stay who you are. Continue to be this amazing community that throws bug reports at us, lets us know where we’re going right and where we steered off course, and most importantly just plays the game. If you want to help us even more, rate and review the game, take friends and strangers along for the ride. So that one day the game can be the best it can be.

The only thing left to say now is: Have fun with the newest build, thanks for being with us and welcome to a new adventure!

If you haven't done so, yet... You can get the game and be part of the adventure right here on Steam.

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The Roguelike Side of DieselStörmers

You will die. A lot. And it will be fun!

Because you know what they say: Learn from your mistakes, make new ones. Just don’t repeat them. In theory, beating the game in the first run will be possible. But we would bet against any attempt to do so. The good thing is: You’ll learn. Your Störmer will learn. And there will be loot. Upgrades you gain during one playthrough will have an immediate and noticeable impact on your game - as opposed to the gradual growth of the previous version. You’ll unlock different weapons (only one allowed at a time) and outfit them with upgrades. You’ll get armor parts, gadgets, unlock perks and all kind of new content.

But if you die, you die. When that happens, all physical upgrades you earned during one playthrough will be gone. BUT! All the perks, your experience and all the unlocks will be still there. So, in fact, that’s one way how you learn and get better. 

Gaining experience won’t have as much impact as the upgrades in the short run, but it’ll grow your abilities over time and enable you to try different tactics and approaches. In addition, the things you unlock will gradually expand the depth and complexity of the game.

In tomorrow’s update, unlocking new content hasn’t been implemented yet. We told you because it’s in the currently planned feature list and scheduled for future updates. So for now, you can explore the game in its entirety – minus most of the level graphics.

This is Part 4 in a series of dev blogs explaining the changes in the early access title DieselStörmers from Black Forest Games. You can find Part 1: The New Level Design by clicking here ; Part 2: The Classes of DieselStörmers by clicking here and Part 3: The Perks of DieselStörmers by clicking here.

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The Perks of DieselStörmers

Attention Stormers!

In the last two days we introduced you to our new level design and class system. Today it’s all about the Perks. So let’s dive right into it!

Perks are now gained when you level up. You still get to choose between 3 possible upgrades and develop your Stormer in a direction that suits you best – and is the most compatible to its class and playstyle.

We got rid of tiered perks; so when you pick one up, the effect is noticeable immediately and has a stronger impact on gameplay.  And you haven’t heard the best thing yet! Perks, just like Levels and XP, are kept by your character even if (well, more like when) you die.

The new version will start out with fewer perks than the last one because at the moment not all of them are compatible with the new system. But don’t worry, we’ll adapt those and will also add more perks in the future.

Let us know what you think in the comments. And we’ll see you tomorrow in an update about the roguelike approach.

This is Part 3 in a series of dev blogs explaining the changes in the early access title DieselStörmers from Black Forest Games. You can find Part 1: The New Level Design by clicking here and Part 2: The Classes of DieselStörmers by clicking here.

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The Classes of DieselStörmers

Attention Störmers!

Yesterday we talked to you about our plans for the game going forward, and in detail about the coming improvements to level design. Today’s topic is the introduction of the class system.

What you had up until now was a jack-of-all-trades Störmer. That will be a thing of the past. The future brings you a selection of hardened  warriors, each with their own strengths and weaknesses and new powers to boot.

The classes in DieselStörmers are defined by their combination of shot pattern  and armor power. The weapon class will be defined by its shot pattern and associated properties like range or damage, for example. The armor class will be defined by the new armor power. It will work much like the overdrive you are familiar with, but it’ll come with a variety of effects.

For the next update we will have three predetermined classes for you to toy with and get a feel for their individual play styles. They are far from finished, mind you. But you’ll get a sense of the things to come.

For the future, we have new classes (caster, rockets, grenades) as well as custom classes (pick your own preferred weapon and armor power combination!) and/or random class combinations (XP bonus for added unpredictability) in mind.

Let us know what you think. And tomorrow we’ll see you in an update about the perk system.

This part 2 in a series of dev blogs that explain the changes in the early access title DieselStörmers from Black Forest Games. You can find Part 1: The new levels by clicking here.

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The Levels of DieselStörmers

Attention Stormers!

As we made progress with the development of DieselStörmers during the last couple of months, it became clear that the game was taking a direction we didn’t envision. Your feedback helped us estimate how the game could and should progress in the future.

And isn’t that exciting?  After all, early access gives us the opportunity to play with the game, to change things, to completely break features up and recombine them to create something new. In essence, we can keep the stuff that works and rework the stuff that doesn’t. You’re right in the dev trenches with us, giving us precious, precious feedback and playtesting the newest builds with us!

After taking all your feedback into consideration, we came up with some awesome modifications and you’ll get to see and play the first steps of these changes on Friday. We restructured the game in a manner that will benefit it in the long run and make it more interesting to play over a longer lifespan!

Our Q1 goals for Dieselstörmers are:

Release of the new gameplay – a more roguelike approach to how you achieve success in the game. The first step will be released on January 30.

Iterate on the level dressing and art –we need to rework some of the existing level dressing to fit the new nonlinear format and reworked jump heights. This iteration is scheduled for the end of February.

Combine the legacy game and the roguelike game into one stable branch. This will mark the end of the “old” Dieselstörmers and the beginning of the new!

Going forward, we will add more to the schedule. But for now we want to share some more in-depth information on the new gameplay, starting with the new level design.

Fighting and splattering your way from the left to right was a simple way to start things off, but it got repetitive over time. Now you’ll be able to explore the town of Ravensdale in a completely new way. In addition to street level combat, you’ll be able to explore deep below the city, with loops and branches that offer optional challenges, rewards and meaningful choices. The current prototype layout is static with randomized content, but future missions will also randomize the level layout.

Exploration is definitely encouraged in the new game; you can potentially find upgrades that allow you to access areas and rewards that were previously difficult or impossible to reach. Navigating the levels can now be a challenge in itself, even with no enemies present.

Given the stronger shift towards the roguelike parts of the game, expect to die a lot. You’ll be able to discover new content with each playthrough though, and the power of your character will grow the more you play, discover and unlock.

Tell us what you think. We’ll see you tomorrow with an update on the new class system!

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Here is the change log for the last DieselStörmers update:

Balloon Quest mobs added (flying orks). 

Balloon turrets taught to aim correctly

Address issue with balloons getting stuck in geometry (again)

Support for multiple proc patterns on a single weapon

Fixed a really obscure geometry stick bug

SLAM at +1 force class during full overdrive

Revisited force/weight impact behaviors

Large multiplayer camera revision

Multiplayer leader now drags group.  Rework of off-screen teleport mechanics.

Clarified some perk texts

Orks can now drop alchemical components

Random hazards are now periodic

 Added 9 achievements:                                                     1. Perky Knight                                                                     Purchase a new perk in your HQ                                           2. Elemental Contamination                                                 Afflict an enemy with fire or goop by shooting over a burning or     goopy hazard                                                                         3. Revved and Ready to Go                                           Complete the training mission                                                       4. Custom Carnage                                                           Upgrade your gun by exchanging one part with another             5. Mechanical Makeover                                                       Reroll a perk in your HQ                                                         6. Veteran Vanquisher                                                           Complete a mission with a challenge rating of 50                         7. Protector of Ravensdale                                             Complete a mission with a challenge rating of 100               8. Friendly Neighborhood Conqueror                                 Tear down three or more ork banners during a mission with an     optional banner objective                                                       9. Rocket Racer                                                               Complete a mission with an optional rush objective before the       green rockets reach their goal

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Hold your guns ready, stormers! Todays update goes live 7pm CET / 11am PDT.

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Soon coming to a DieselStörmers game near you: Improved randomization of level sub chunks

Irrelevant combinations of level chunks should not occur anymore, since we improved the entire randomization system for assembling level sub chunks.

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Also new in the next update: Online multiplayer camera functions.

We entirely reworked the camera in online co-op. Now it not only gives you an improved field of view to see upcoming enemies, it also has a new “zoom out” function to provide better clarity on your and your teammates positions on the screen. Additionally we added a new function to keep your team together: Every player outside of the screen will now be teleported to the Host’s position to prevent getting stuck on level chunks and instead guarantee a liquid flow of the multiplayer experience.

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Remember when we showed you these nice guys? 

These bad ass fellows will be a part of the upcoming update as a replacement model for the elite goblin balloons in the "Kill the Elite Orcs!" mission. Way easier to identify, don't you think?