Birth of a Game http://www.uberent.com/blog The trials and tribulations of starting a new game company Tue, 01 May 2012 04:47:41 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Super Monday Night Combat: Update 3 is live http://www.uberent.com/blog/2012/04/super-monday-night-combat-update-3-is-live/ http://www.uberent.com/blog/2012/04/super-monday-night-combat-update-3-is-live/#comments Tue, 01 May 2012 04:46:47 +0000 Ekanaut http://www.uberent.com/blog/?p=604 Free Pro Rotation: Assault, Combat Girl, Karl, Gunner, Tank, Wascot

It’s the Rule Changes of Iroquoi county. Once you’ve seen one Rule Changes, you haven’t seen them all.

This week we really focused on the player experience of getting into a game. We’ve made the process of getting into a game by yourself or with friends much more clear. We’ve fixed some issues that caused certain players to queue much longer than they should. This should improve everyone’s speed and chance of getting into a good game!

As always, feel free to leave us feedback at http://www.uberent.com/forums! If you have issues please email support@uberent.com.

New Rules

  • Featured items are now listed on the main menu.
  • Reworked the Accept/Confirm game dialog to display over top of everything. Fixing the issues of not getting that dialog when a game is ready.
  • Quickmatch has been split into Solo, and Build Team for easier usability.
  • When a player taunts after killing someone, the dead player now sees the entirety of the taunt with a special taunt camera.
  • Custom Game menu now includes team-icon check boxes.
  • Custom Games can now be started with only 5 players.
  • Opposing player name plate level number is now orange if they are 2 levels higher than you.
  • Improved the look of the skill upgrade menu.
  • Added option to disable the control hints above the skill icons and on Juice.
  • GG Stack & Chip Valvano: Added Bot Streak call outs.
  • GG Stack now calls out some special events.
  • Invites now show the type of invite: “Game” or “Custom”.
  • Selected Region UI is now more obvious.
  • Added new icons for all taunts.
  • Chickey Cantor now takes full damage while being grappled.

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed some instances of network interruptions causing players to get disconnected from the matchmaker but leave them looking like they are still in queue.
  • Fixed UI sometimes not resetting properly when leaving a Training game.
  • Fixed custom uniforms not working properly in Custom Class and Character Select screens when they have no torso as part of the uniform.
  • Fixed character select weapons list showing old data when you switch characters.
  • Fixed the rename/clear/save buttons not being enabled when you unlock a new product set.
  • Fixed “add to cart” sometimes not turning off on the boost screen.
  • Fixed the “Find Game” button cancelling with the enter key.
  • Fixed some rare instances of the Post-Game Prize screen from sometimes showing the incorrect item.
  • Fixed Post-Game Prize from not dropping everything it should.

Bundles

  • New Bundle: “Spunky 6 Pack” Pro Bundle of 6 non-MNC Pros. On sale for the first week!
  • New Bundle: Zombie Bundle. Includes all Zombie uniforms.

Products

  • Can’t Stun This: Recharge time 60 -> 90.
  • Can’t Slow This: Recharge time 60 -> 90.
  • Health Inverter: Vamp amount 0.1 -> 0.13
  • Health Inverter: Fixed description to reflect current numbers.
  • All Magnet: Check time 0.25 -> 0.5
  • All Magnet: Radius 512 -> 768
  • Massive Air: Minimum level 1 -> 6

Downtown Spunky Arena

  • Continued art improvements.

Bullet Gorge Arena

  • Fixed not being able to stand on certain curbs.

Bots

  • Fuji Bots: Now spawn in between Jackbots after 25 minutes.
  • Fuji Bots: Now drop a churro and a juice box instead of two juice boxes.
  • New explosion effect on Bot projectiles.
  • Bot lasers are now team colored.

Assassin

  • Leap: Improved visual effect
  • Shuriken Launcher: Explosive radius reduced.

Cheston

  • New Uniform: Bananas Monihan.

Megabeth

  • Shoot the Moon: Increased vertical height for improved escape utility.
]]> http://www.uberent.com/blog/2012/04/super-monday-night-combat-update-3-is-live/feed/ 0 MNC Steam Update 8 http://www.uberent.com/blog/2011/05/588/ http://www.uberent.com/blog/2011/05/588/#comments Wed, 18 May 2011 20:57:14 +0000 Ekanaut http://www.uberent.com/blog/?p=588
New Features
  • Chickey Gear for all Pros
  • Added timer countdown to two minutes until end game / Overtime

Balance and Adjustments

  • Changed end game rules so that Overtime only triggers if both Moneyballs have the same health when time runs out. If Moneyball healths are not equal, whichever team has the Moneyball with higher health will win.
  • Improved bot waves by increasing the speed of Blackjacks and decreasing the speed of Slims so that the Blackjacks will more often be in front of the slims, allowing them to take the brunt of the damage
  • Reduced money players gain from kill streak bonuses
  • Increased damage done to players by all levels of LaserBazer Turrets
  • Greatly reduced juice given by LazerBlazer Turret fire
  • Reduced the amount of damage reduction players get while juiced
  • Reduced the fire interval bonus players get while juiced
  • Reduced the critical hit multiplier players get while juiced
  • All maps now start with two level two Rock-It turrets
  • Award players who join a game in progress start money plus round money
  • Increased chat character limit
  • Removed All-Star display from Lobby and Scoreboard.

Bug Fixes

  • Hit sounds are not played when shooting allied player or when shot by allied player
  • Assassin cloak and uncloak sounds now only play for enemy assassins, allies will not hear these sounds
  • Chat messages from WebAdmin no longer have [ADMIN] prefix so administrators can better customize the messages.
  • Fixed WebAdmin’s handling of player names and clan tags with invalid characters.
]]> http://www.uberent.com/blog/2011/05/588/feed/ 0 Monday Night Combat Art Pack http://www.uberent.com/blog/2011/05/monday-night-combat-art-pack/ http://www.uberent.com/blog/2011/05/monday-night-combat-art-pack/#comments Tue, 03 May 2011 22:05:40 +0000 Ekanaut http://www.uberent.com/blog/?p=573 Hi ho Combat fans!  Uber is pleased to announce the MNC Art Pack for your customizable enjoyment.  It contains highres images of all the Pros, NPCs, Bots, and logos.  Download it here. (235MB)

Here’s a preview of everything in it:

]]> http://www.uberent.com/blog/2011/05/monday-night-combat-art-pack/feed/ 0 Uncle Tully’s Funland Update http://www.uberent.com/blog/2011/04/uncle-tullys-funland-update/ http://www.uberent.com/blog/2011/04/uncle-tullys-funland-update/#comments Sat, 23 Apr 2011 01:21:53 +0000 Ekanaut http://www.uberent.com/blog/?p=531

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

It’s the Throwback Throwdown in Monday Night Combat! Uncle Tully’s Funland is available tonight in Crossfire with new game play features!

First up we have Chickey Cantor. He will now spawn in Uncle Tully’s Funland. Make Chickey fly away by shooting him and earn a big single-life buff for your entire team! Wait for Chickey to slam the ground and then you can grapple him. Ride him for eight seconds and earn big money! Just be careful, riders tend to be easy targets for enemy Pros. Secondly we’re introducing new bot spawners. These spawners have buttons for specifically spawning Jackbots, Black Jacks, Slims, Scramblers, Gremlins, Gapshots and Bouncers. We also focused a bit on the server side features of Monday Night Combat. We’ve included reserved slots, easier kicking and some improvements to the All Star Rating system.

New Features

  • New Crossfire Map: Uncle Tully’s Funland
  • New bot spawn buttons for Uncle Tully’s Funland
  • Chickey Cantor now spawns in Uncle Tully’s Funland
  • New reserved slots for server admins
  • New Action Menu. The Action Menu is an in-game menu for accessing buttons to easily mute players or vote to kick them.
  • New animation for all Pros when they use jump pads
  • Added in a new random lines from Mickey Cantor during the course of the match
  • Reserved slots for players, settable by the server admin. Players are specified by SteamID in the HostileAccess.ini file; in a similar manner to how players are listed for banning. Adding an entry to the “VIPIDs” array (for example “VIPIDs=0×0110000104524662″) will cause that player to be a VIP on the server. When a VIP attempts to join a full server, the server will kick the most recently joined nonVIP player to make room for the joining VIP. If a server is full of VIPs, then any incoming VIPs will be rejected as normal. VIPs must still know the server password (if any) to gain entrance. Also, if a VIP is banned, the ban will take priority over VIP status. ALSO, the cooldown period which a player who has been votekicked must wait before rejoining a server has been made configurable. The default value of VoteKickCooldown=10 (minutes) can be modified in the HostileAcess.ini. Note that a player who has been votekicked off of a server must wait VoteKickCooldown*NumberOfVotekicks minutes before being allowed to rejoin, thus further discouraging repeat offenders.

Balance and Adjustments

  • Added back the number of juice uses in the end game summary
  • Adjusted the way we calculate All Star Rating
  • Adjusted the key bindings screen to accommodate the new action menu
  • Changed the hit sound for the cardboard tube on the Cardboard Tube Samurai skin for the Assassin
  • Reduced ban time from a vote kick
  • Increased height of glass barriers in Grenade III Arena

Fixes

  • Fixed issue where level 3 Assault charge did not deal enough grapple damage to Bots
  • Fixed Sniper’s juice armor obscuring scope visibility
  • Fixed high frame rates causing reduced initial movement speed
  • Fixed normal maps textures on Assassin’s sword and dagger
  • Fixed Assassin’s being visible at distances they shouldn’t be in maps with fog
  • Players can no longer be killed after the round has ended

The Real Chickey Cantor

Chickey was inspired by a fan named Griffin and his family that let us name one of their chickens.  Read the full story here.


]]> http://www.uberent.com/blog/2011/04/uncle-tullys-funland-update/feed/ 0 Uber Entertainment’s new game Smash MNC! http://www.uberent.com/blog/2011/04/uber-entertainments-new-game-smash-mnc/ http://www.uberent.com/blog/2011/04/uber-entertainments-new-game-smash-mnc/#comments Fri, 01 Apr 2011 16:06:59 +0000 Ekanaut http://www.uberent.com/blog/?p=518

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Uber Entertainment, the creators of Monday Night Combat announce a totally radical new game Smash MNC.  Destroy mutants, robots,  bald androids and other equally nefarious baddies to earn cash, money, and Super DVDs!  Total carnage, we love it! Four player co-op across all platforms past and future. Available soon!

Do you like having fun too?  That’s awesome, we should be friends.  Uber is hiring  http://www.uberent.com/inside_uber/jobs

]]> http://www.uberent.com/blog/2011/04/uber-entertainments-new-game-smash-mnc/feed/ 0 Monday Night Combat Steam Update 6 http://www.uberent.com/blog/2011/03/monday-night-combat-steam-update-6/ http://www.uberent.com/blog/2011/03/monday-night-combat-steam-update-6/#comments Sat, 26 Mar 2011 00:12:31 +0000 Ekanaut http://www.uberent.com/blog/?p=509 PC Product Update 6  -3/25/11

Summary
Today’s update focus is two fold. The first is iterating on and pulling back the visibility of the All Star Rating. The All Star Rating system looks at many different aspects of the player’s play and uses an algorithm to come up with a number that represents their skill level. It’s a system that fluctuates over time depending on how you play in every facet of Monday Night Combat. We will continue to improve the system over time. We also wanted to once again show player level and reintroduced that back into the UI.
Secondly we took aim at some issues surrounding the charge abilities. We fixed several bugs with charge not doing damage, not doing knock-back, or doing knock-back when it shouldn’t. We also retuned it so to make the Ass ault have to choose whether to use it to get into combat or get out of combat, not both.

    AmmoMule Updated Lighting

    Grenade III updated lighting

    LaseRazor updated lighting

    Fixes

    • Fixed enemy players being partially immune to head shots while using the turret purchase menu
    • Fixed Assassins doing significantly more damage under certain latency situations
    • Fixed Assassins doing lunge damage while dead
    • Fixed enemy health bars showing while player is under effects of a smoke bomb
    • Fixed Assault’s Charge not doing proper knock-back if the target is in the air
    • Fixed a few instances of the Assault’s Charge doing no damage
    • Fixed an issue that caused Support’s Air Strike to immediately trigger if thrown out of the world
    • Fixed an issue that caused players to get knocked back and damaged from charges when they are standing behind the Assault or Tank
    • Fixed explosive projectiles sometimes exploding on a client early and in the wrong location
    • Fixed issue that could cause dedicated blitz servers to reach an infinitely high round number
    • Fixed issue where user may be unable to purchase Juice
    • Fixed issue where charges did not deal proper damage and/or knockback
    • Fixed exploit allowing users to spam Tank’s Deathblossom

    Balance and Adjustments

    • Reduced the recovery speed of the Assault’s Charge Skill.
    • Increased the recovery speed of the Assault’s Bomb Skill.
    • Normalized the speeds of the Tank and Assault charge
    • Players are now awarded less money while juiced
    • The Assault Bomb skill no longer recovers while the bomb is in play
    • Re-added player levels in the pregame lobby
    • Team split will now somewhat use All Star Rating to choose teams
    • Removed All Star Rating from the scoreboard
    • Enable trilinear filtering on certain texture detail settings
    • Undo minor change from previous patch causing charges to feel ineffective in high latency situations
    • Voice icon appears on HUD and player names change color when talking
    • All Start Rating displays more detail
    • Lighting updates on AmmoMule, Grenade III, and LaseRazor Arenas
    • Mascot colors changed back to Green and Yellow
    • Team split now accounts for All Star Rating

    New Features

    • New taunts for all classes while wearing Retro or Beta Gear.
    • An extra Gunner taunt with dual minigun for any gear.

    New Issues

    • With the recent change in Steam’s VOIP API we have been having problems with game volume and some Win 7 (and other?) sound settings. If you experience low game volume, please go Control Panel->Sound->Communications and tell Windows NOT to do any muting when it detects communications.
    ]]>     http://www.uberent.com/blog/2011/03/monday-night-combat-steam-update-6/feed/ 0     PAX East, Samurai, and All-Star Rating http://www.uberent.com/blog/2011/03/pax-east-samurai-and-all-star-rating/ http://www.uberent.com/blog/2011/03/pax-east-samurai-and-all-star-rating/#comments Thu, 10 Mar 2011 19:52:00 +0000 Ekanaut http://www.uberent.com/blog/?p=483

    Click here to view the video on YouTube.

    This update focuses on the new player experience. With the influx of players coming from PAX East we wanted to make sure that the new Monday Night Combat fans get to play with other new fans without getting rolled over by veterans. With the new All-Star Rating system players will be able to get an idea of their skill level vs the others on their server. The balance adjustments to armor endorsements and the default class changes were aimed at continuing this goal by making the newer players live longer but the veteran players, who are usually armed with custom classes, be more in balance when they use these endorsements.

    Cardboard Tube Samurai Assassin Concept

    New Features

    • All-Star Rating System – The All Star system is a system to rate players so that they have more visibility into the overall skill level on each server. The All Star Rating is a continuously adjusting five star rating. Play well, it’ll go up. Play poorly and it’ll go down. We will improve the system in future updates as we get feedback and data.
    • New Outlander Gear!
    • New Penny Arcade’s Cardboard Tube Samurai Uniform for Assassin! Limited offering until March 21st, 10AM
    • New Taunts while wearing Outlander Gear!

    Outlander Gear

    Fixes

    • Fixed issue with grapples after getting knocked into the air
    • Fixed rare case of Assassin getting a back grapple when she is actually in front of her target.
    • Fixed Ping display in scoreboard
    • Dedicated blitz servers immediately end rounds and return to lobby when all players have left the game.

    Balance

    • Reduced the benefits of armor endorsements for Assault, Support, Sniper and Assassin.

    Adjustments

    • New Game Summary display before the end game scoreboard
    • Altered the default Assassin and Sniper builds to include armor endorsements
    • Increased the chance of JuiceBot spawning during a game in honor of PAX East

    Dedicated Server

    • Dedicated Servers can set the Max Star Rating for the server by adding ?MaxStarRating=[0-4] to the commandline options. This is a zero based index so the actual value is +1 the entry (ie 0 = 1 star)
    • Updated ,commandline and UI support, updated batch files to support AllStar Rating

    Uber at PAX East 2011

    Uncle Tully's Funland

    Come by our booth #560 at PAX East to get a preview of Uncle Tully’s Funland, a new map that will be out soon for MNC on PC. We also have an exclusive Authentic Battle Damage version of Cardboard Tube Samurai available for PAX attendees as well as tournaments and new MNC merch.  Stop by and say hello to the Uber developers.

    ]]>     http://www.uberent.com/blog/2011/03/pax-east-samurai-and-all-star-rating/feed/ 0     Smedley’s Medley Fan Video and PC Update http://www.uberent.com/blog/2011/02/smedleys-medley-fan-video-and-pc-update/ http://www.uberent.com/blog/2011/02/smedleys-medley-fan-video-and-pc-update/#comments Thu, 24 Feb 2011 21:42:08 +0000 Ekanaut http://www.uberent.com/blog/?p=480

    Click here to view the video on YouTube.

    Thanks and congrats to all the MNC fans that sent us gameplay footage to use in the Smedley’s Medley video.  Watch the ending, Bullseye has a personal message for you!

    PC UPDATE

    New Features

    • Added Dedicated Blitz Servers, commandline and UI support, updated batch files
    • Show Ping in Scoreboard
    • Show Bot Kills in Scoreboard
    • Added ability to rename Custom Classes
    • Bullseye has been practicing his Irish jig gearing up for St Patty’s

    Fixes
    • Beta Gear cutoff time set to 3PM PST to fix unlocking issues
    • Network bandwidth optimization
    • Performance optimization for low end systems
    • Fixed Endorsement draw order in Character Select
    • Removed “All Player receive Juice in Overtime” Protip

    Balance
    • Zoomed Sniper Rifle body shot damage reduced.

    Adjustments
    • Extended connection time out settings and added more logging features to help connection issues

    ]]>     http://www.uberent.com/blog/2011/02/smedleys-medley-fan-video-and-pc-update/feed/ 0     Steamy Valentine http://www.uberent.com/blog/2011/02/steamy-valentine/ http://www.uberent.com/blog/2011/02/steamy-valentine/#comments Sat, 12 Feb 2011 01:51:25 +0000 Ekanaut http://www.uberent.com/blog/?p=470

    Click here to view the video on YouTube.

    PC Product Update With Love
    New Features

    • Added “You are My Pitgirl” Realtime Music Video for all you dreamers out there
    • Added Crimson Gear for all Pros
    • Added Broken Heart Headshot Effect for Snipers wearing Crimson Gear
    • Added Rose Petal Death Effects for all Pros wearing Crimson Gear
    • Players will now earn different “Bot Kill Streaks” when killing bots without dying in Crossfire matches
    • Graphics options have been moved out of HostileEngine. You will still have one more graphics reset with this patch, but all future updates should be reset-free.
    • Uber is now shipping a list of banned players. The list has been compiled and vetted by the community and Uber. Individual server admins will now have to remove these player from their HostileAccess.ini file if they wish to allow cheaters on their servers. The default will be to globally ban known cheaters.

    Adjustments

    • Players no longer receive bonus juice at the start overtime or when they respawn in overtime
    • Auto balancing of teams will no longer activate if either Moneyball has its shield down
    • Updated Bullseye with festive colors
    • Changed Character Select Screen layout and added player names
    • Emphasized Locker Room in main menu
    • Turned on over head player names during Moneyball finale

    Fixes

    • Fixed server name from disappearing on dedicated servers when matches roll over
    • Fixed class limits being offset in the server browser
    • Fixed class limit lockout issues on character selection
    • Fixed Assassin’s dash becoming unusable
    • Fixed Preseason Hero Gear not unlocking for some people
    • Fixed end-game chat window getting lost if the scoreboard was already visible
    • Fixed controller sensitivity not working at highest and lowest settings

    Crimson Gear

    Retro Gear

    Beta Gear

    Team Fortress 2 Gear

    ]]>     http://www.uberent.com/blog/2011/02/steamy-valentine/feed/ 0     Monday Night Combat Steam Update 2 is out! http://www.uberent.com/blog/2011/02/monday-night-combat-steam-update-2-is-out/ http://www.uberent.com/blog/2011/02/monday-night-combat-steam-update-2-is-out/#comments Fri, 04 Feb 2011 22:08:15 +0000 Ekanaut http://www.uberent.com/blog/?p=467 New Features

    • Added Retro Pro Gear Skin
    • Added Preseason Hero Pro Gear Armor and Protag for players that bought the game during BETA
    • added Minimum Number of Players to Start option, set to 1 by default
    • First version of Standalone Dedicated Server Files with HLDS integration.

    HldsUpdateTool.exe -command update -game mondaynightcombat -dir INSTALLDIR

    MNCDS comes with a handful of bat files, including a template for customizing your own servers. Server operators need to remember that the ServerInstance must be incremented for each server that is launched. The maximum number of servers supported on a single machine is 15.

    Adjustments
    • Chat support while waiting to respawn and during end of game
    • Server Browser Filter options are now saved to an ini file
    • Added Filter Passworded option in Server Browser
    • Dedicated Server Window shows name of sever

    Fixes
    • General improvements in patching process and fixes to startup issues
    • MNC scientists adjusted cloning error that introduced pink eye to Assault and Pit Girl
    • Changed Gamertag to Player Name
    • Gear material adjustments for burning, cloaking, rezing out
    • Clock numbers set to high resolution for legibility
    • Mouse scrolling in Server Browser

    ]]>     http://www.uberent.com/blog/2011/02/monday-night-combat-steam-update-2-is-out/feed/ 0