Birth of a Game

First of all, we want to thank you for playing Monday Night Combat and supporting Uber Entertainment.  We’ve been busy fixing bugs, exploits and optimizing based on your feedback on our forums, emails, Facebook, and Twitter.  Our first Title Update is being tested right now and then it will be handed off for certification and in your hands as soon as possible.  Here’s a full list of fixes and changes that will be in the Title Update.

Connectivity and Multiplayer:

• Reworked the way we handle parties in the pregame lobby to avoid splitting them up.
• Fixed several issues where host migration would fail immediately.
• Decreased wait time after a successful host migration.
• Lobbies will now host migrate and not kick you back to the main menu.
• If the host leaves during the end of match sequence, the host will migrate and players will return back to the lobby and not the main menu.
• Optimized the time it takes to migrate hosts, shortening the time to migrate.
• Improved weapon hit detection in high lag situations.
• Fixed endorsements being incorrect after a host migration.
• Fixed getting into private matches without an invite.

General Gameplay:

• Fixed players being able to damage the Moneyball’s shields.
• Fixed visual effects staying on the player after the effect has worn off.
• Reduced the amount of increased damage the Moneyball takes in Overtime, thus reducing the effectiveness of “Juice rushing”.
• Fixed Ringouts, Headshots and Grapple Kills not giving the proper amount of money. Balanced Ringout money to reflect the change. Message now displays correct total amount of money earned.
• New “You Win!”/”You Lose!” UI for the end of a match.
• Fixed juice benefits ending early if the player grapples during juice.
• Fixed juice bar getting stuck full.
• Fixed deploying on or near active jump pads.
• Fixed controller sensitivity of 10 not saving.
• Fixed messaging for kill streaks. Ultra and Uber streaks will now be named properly when popping up above your cursor.
• Fixed an instance of the player’s skill pick UI going away unexpectedly.
• Fixed an issue with bots walking by enemy turrets and bots without engaging them.
• Fixed upgrading a turret that has been hacked to the opposing team.
• Fixed turret collision not going away after being destroyed.
• Normalized time between a grapple miss and the ability to grapple again for all grapples. The biggest change is the Assassin not having as big of a penalty for a missed grapple.
• Fixed the “Team Leader” and “Team Player” highlights from being reversed.
• Fixed players being able to mute themselves.
• Fixed idle kicking when standing still but still looking around and/or shooting.
• Fixed players who cheat and hack their profiles from being able to apply multiple gold endorsements.
• Optimized main menu ticker for players with large friends lists.
• Fixed HUD showing Moneyball shields as up during over time even though they are down.
• Reduced announcer talking for kill streaks to help reduce the repetition of announcements.
• Various performance optimizations.

Support:

• Reworked Support’s bot aura so that it doesn’t make the Jackbot appear overhealed.
• Fixed Support’s Firebase skill from recharging while the Support is dead but the Firebase skill exists.
• Fixed being able to use the Heal/Hurt gun while taunting.
• Fixed some instances of the Support’s Firebase not appearing when thrown.
• Fixed Heal/Hurt gun not being affected by rate of fire endorsements and reduced it’s overall healing/hurting ability to compensate for the change.
• Fixed Supports being able to use their Hack skill through walls.
• Fixed Supports being able to throw their Firebases through the wall.
• Fixed Air Strikes sometimes damaging enemies under cover.
• Supports can now only Hack enemy turrets at Hack level 3.
• Increased the time to Hack enemy turrets.
• Decreased duration of Hack on a turret for levels 1 and 2.

Assassin:

• Fixed Assassins from being able to get permanent sprint and super speed.
• Fixed Assassins getting a double smoke bomb allowing them to jump higher than intended.
• Fixed Assassins being able to cloak during a grapple.
• Fixed Assassins from being able to use her smoke bomb during a lunge.
• Retuned damage done by dagger after a lunge.

Tank:

• Tank’s Jet Gun alternate fire damage is now reduced depending on the percentage of ammo left in the clip. Increased the full clip damage to compensate.

Assault:

• Fixed an exploit involving the Assault’s Fly.
• Fixed Assault’s bomb audio lingering after bomb is gone.

Monday Night Combat Live Update System:

• Pregame Lobby is now 45 seconds.
• Min Number of Players to start Crossfire is now 6.
• Increased player bot spawing from 5 seconds to 10 seconds.

DLC Plans

Beyond the Title Update, we will be releasing our first of three DLCs. The first DLC will contain new content, gameplay adjustments, and more bug fixes. What’s exactly in the first DLC will be announced closer to its release. We’re very invested in our community and want to see it thrive so the first DLC will be free.

Uber at PAX

For those of you going to PAX this week, you’ll be able to play the updated version of Monday Night Combat that incorporates the Title Update changes. Stop by the Uber booth for tournaments, merch like character statues, shirts, and prints and say hi to the Uber team.

MNC statues for sale at PAX, photo by Robert Schuster

MNC shirts available at PAX

As always, we want your feedback and we will continue to be active on our forums and Twitter.

Thank you,

Uber Team

Comments

I’ve been thinking about the genre question posed by Tycho around games like Monday Night Combat and I believe I’ve finally come to peace with a name. First, I present the rationale.

A “team sport” implies people are working together toward a shared objective. It does not require an opposing team, like the Blitz mode in Monday Night Combat, and the expectation that team members may have different roles is not out of line. Football and Baseball are essentially class based multiplayer. Team sport can suggest both competition against others in real-time, or competition against other teams’ posted times, scores, or other achievements.

A “shooter” is understood to be a player controlling an avatar navigating a 3D space and generally “shooting” stuff with weapons. Usually this is from a 1st person perspective but 3rd person is acceptable provided the camera rotates with with character. Setting doesn’t matter as FPS games range from prehistoric times to far future science fiction. They range from ultra violent, to completely non-violent. Story heavy to a complete absence of one. It boils down to this: you know you’re playing a shooter if you run around a 3D environment with a camera affixed to your character in its head or over the shoulder, point the camera at stuff, press a button, and cause meaningful change in the environment. Sure, it’s an abstract definition and elements can be nitpicked, but I’m sticking with it. So there.

When I consider the intersection of these two notions, team sport and shooter, it immediately conjures images of my favorite multiplayer game modes. CTF, Domination, VIP, Search and Destroy, and Headquarters, not to mention Monday Night Combat’s Crossfire and Blitz modes! So for me, this just works. Monday Night Combat is a Team Sport Shooter, and while it may not be the birth of the genre I believe it will definitely go down as a milestone in its history. It’s got bacon after all.

I’m only just starting to recover from PAX East 2010 in Boston. What a TREMENDOUS show!! PAX is without a doubt the best industry show there is, especially as digital distribution takes off. This is an important point because while other shows have us hawking our wares to press and publishers, PAX allows us to interact directly with our customers. Uber’s intent with going digital only is to maintain as close a connection to the consumer as possible. We don’t want various layers of middlemen diluting our offering, which is what happens you have to appease the publishers and retailers. PAX is a natural extension of this same core philosophy and we’re grateful that it exists.

Thank you so much to Tycho and Gabe for organizing the event, and extra thanks to Tycho for giving us such tremendous support there. He’s such an incredibly genuine human being that happens to love Monday Night Combat. Jerry, we love you too and in no small part due to Child’s Play (Sammy @ PAX East 2010 — this is a MUST watch and why Uber is an avid supporter of Child’s Play).

Thank you to our fans, old and new, that made our PAX East trip a resounding success. I’m sorry not everyone got to play the game. We had 12 stations set up for 6v6 multiplayer and the line at each station was 3-4 deep the entire show (45-60m wait). All of us at Uber had an absolute blast there interacting with the community and even playing matches against tournament winners! I am so amped right now and am having a hard time thinking about anything but what needs to be done to finish the game. Of course it just so happens that several months ago my wife planned a trip back home to Japan and now I find myself having to leave the country when all I want to do is work on the game! I’ll bring the laptop, but I doubt I’ll be able to accomplish much there.

Thanks again Jerry and Mike, we appreciate what you’ve done for the industry as a whole!

Uber releaed a new video for Monday Night Combat, a third person class based shooter for Xbox Live Arcade that will be out later this year.

The AmmoMule video showcases a battle between Gunner and Support and one of thirty fictitious sponsored upgrades that players can buy for each of the six character classes in Monday Night Combat XBLA.

The AmmoMule upgrade increases clip size for any weapon and character class.

AmmoMule,  “Keep your Ammo cold… and your bacon hot”  Official Cooler of Monday Night Combat

Ammo and Bacon, friends for life.

Video Details:

The video was produced in house with a small team at Uber and rendered in real-time through the game engine using game assets with 2d overlays done in post.  The music was produced by Chris Velasco and Robert Navarro of Monarch Audio who composed music for God of War 1, 2, 3, Darksiders and Borderlands.  Banjo and steel stringed guitar played by Bill Knopf, a former banjo player for the original Dukes of Hazzard TV Show.  Did we mention that we love bacon.

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