We couldn't have hoped for better reviews for our first ever retail game - over 30 publications and counting have scored the game at 90% or over, while we've achieved thirteen more awards from those same reviewers which brings ETQW's award and nomination count to over 50! On the retail front ETQW debuted in the US and the UK and immediately snatched the number 1 slot in the PC game charts of both countries. We're delighted, but don't have much time to hoot about it - the entire Splash Damage development team is still completely occupied with ongoing support of ETQW for the PC. It is less than a month since the game's retail release and we're almost ready with the next feature-packed update. Here's an overview:
FULL VOICE COMMUNICATIONS SUPPORT
The ETQW 1.2 Update features full voice communications (VoIP) support, allowing rapid and easy coordination with your team-mates. You can select the input and output devices independently of your speakers which allows you to use dedicated headsets and microphones, communicate on three separate channels, mute all VoIP, specific channels, or just specific players (which incidentally also cuts all bandwidth usage), set the volume and test your devices in-game. There's full hardware refresh support for connecting and using USB headsets while the game is running too.
BETTER GAME BALANCING
Aside from playing a lot with all of you on the public servers, we also continually analyze data from statistics, read and research your forum feedback, and continue to conduct extensive internal play-testing. This has resulted in a number of improvements in game balance: Various weapons have undergone subtle changes to make them fairer, including tweaks in damage fall-off (increases and reductions to damage over distance), weapon spread, firing rates, and accuracy. Highlights include the Pistol and Blaster being more accurate, increased firing rates for the Shotgun and Nailgun, and tracers appearing over all distances for the Sniper Rifle and the Railgun.
Experience points have been improved in many areas too, with level four rewards easier to achieve across all categories in the course of a campaign. There are also increases in experience points for certain classes such as the Medic and Technician when reviving and dropping health packs, and fixes to the Statistics and Achievements site. On the vehicles front, we've discovered and solved a number of bugs, but most noticeably the Anansi and Tormentor will take longer to repair.
REFINED FIRETEAMS AND STOPWATCH MODE
Another thing that a lot of you wanted is for Fireteams to stay together across maps instead of being disbanded at the end of a round. This is in the game now, so once you create a Fireteam on a server, it won't disappear unless you tell it to or switch teams, and this maintains your voice communications channel too. StopWatch mode now features a bit of added logic code to better deal with ties. If neither team wins the map outright, the team that progressed further through the objectives gets the win. While this is the only StopWatch improvement in this update, we have a separate push to add lots more features to tournament support overall. More on that in another Blog.