Tank Team news & patch notes

THE TIME IS UPON US To celebrate the start of the Planes, Trains and Automobiles Festival that Tank Team will be participating in, I am going to be streaming on the 16th September. The streams will take place at 6pm GMT, or whatever that translates to in your time zone, and will be taking place here on Steam, and possibly also on my Twitch BUT I'M GOING TO NEED YOUR HELP This is probably the last shot at getting Tank Team into Steam's almighty algorithm, which means I'll get to keep developing this game full time. So if you love this game as much as I do, and want to see development continue, I have but a humble request. During the week of the 16th September to the 23rd September, make sure to do any of the following:

• Leave a review on the game
• Tell your friends about it and get them to play
• Tell your favourite streamer about it or their community
• Basically, spread the word :)

Let's try and generate as much hype as we can for the game, and subsequently pray that Steam notices. But if they're going to notice, it's gonna be during this festival. No worries if not, but a guy has to give it his all sometimes, and so that's what I'll be doing. Will you join me? Finn (I'll also be handing out free Steam keys to the people who manage to spread the word the most, so join the Discord during the festival for more info on that)

A little update that took a lot of time, being the artwork for the stations inside the tank have been reworked! Originally, the artwork you've all come to know was only meant to be an indicator of how the stations would look like, and were placeholder until I found an artist to make better ones. But then I got lazy, said it's good enough and published it for the world to see. Classic me. Anyways, hope you enjoy the new artworks, done by the wonderful @Toyaloi, and if you don't like them, then just give it some time, change is rough and I believe in you. I've also done a bunch of behind the scenes changes to help improve the quality of life, mostly involving the level editor and network syncing of projectiles. So yeah, that's it. NOTE: The next update probably wont be until the start of October because it's gonna be massive, so stay tuned...

Welcome to the first ever Tank Team Map Contest! The rules are simple, create a custom Steam Workshop map using the built in Map Editor based around the theme of the contest. The theme for this contest is the newly added Portals. This means I'll be rating maps based on how well they use the new portal object, as well as how the map works as a whole. This could be a futuristic sci-fi map using alien technology, a space map with interdimensional portals or anything else you can imagine. As long as the portals are the main feature. You may only enter one map to the contest, and must include some reference to the contest in the description so I know which maps to review. Submissions must be uploaded to the Steam Workshop and be publicly available. The deadline for the contest is one week from now on the 17th July 2024. Then on the 20th July 2024, I will be livestreaming the reviewing process on my Twitch channel at 6pm GMT, getting viewers to join and play through the maps. Once all maps have been played, I will choose the winners. The rewards for the contest are: 1st: £25 Steam Gift Card (~$32) 2nd: £10 Steam Gift Card (~$12) 3rd: £5 Steam Gift Card (~$6) Winners should make sure to join the Discord to organise the gifting of the cards. For those that don't win, the map may still be considered for becoming an official Tank Team map for free players to play (if you want) Good luck, and may the best Tank Teamer win! Note: You need to have the full version DLC to be able to create maps

Well it's been a little while, I took a well deserved break after the whole demo fiasco, but now I'm back with another update! So what's new?

• Added health crates that will occasionally spawn around the map, similar to Worms, that will heal your tank for 25% of it's total base health. Tank health can now exceed the base maximum with these crates. Crates can also be shot and destroyed.
• Added projectile portals that will teleport any projectile that enters it to another portal of the same colour. Doesn't work on tanks (yet).
• Added more parallax backgrounds to the map editor
• Added the knockback shell, which will push tanks away from it when it lands. Has a 5 minute cooldown by default because it can be quite OP on maps with lots of areas to fall off.
• Reworked how projectiles are handled. Previously, they were all client side, which saved on networking costs, but also meant sometimes players would see two different things. Now, they're all synchronised over the network, but this might result in choppier movement. But hey, at least it'll be accurate.
• Fixed the captain assignment bug, no idea how the previous update has been out for so long and I only just discovered it recently. My bad.

So yeah, those are the new changes. But I'm back on the grind again, so expect more regular updates from now on. The next update will be improving the current tank station artwork, which will take a couple of weeks as I'm working with an artist instead of winging it myself, so stay tuned! Finn

Welp I've finally managed to solve the demo problem with help from Steam Support. For those not in the know, I recently added a free demo to the game that would allow players to play the game with restricted access (no cosmetics, no level editor, etc.) but they could still host and join lobbies. I hoped this would help alleviate the player base problem we've been having recently, in that there weren't enough paid players playing, so there weren't enough lobbies to join, so paid players were refunding, and the cycle continues. And theoretically, this change would solve that problem, as the game had a lot more lobbies and players when it was free. It would also allow me to keep working on the game as there would still be some funding from those that would purchase the full game to unlock cosmetics and such. The only issue: Steam doesn't allow demo players to connect with paid players and vice versa. (They should really make that text a little bit bigger in the documentation) So, after a week or two talking with Steam Support, I came up with the solution to remove the demo, and instead make the base game free, where you can optionally purchase a DLC to unlock full access to the game. The only problem that I needed help with is giving the DLC to all the players that had already bought the game, which is why it's taken so long to get this fix out. So hopefully now you should be able to play with demo and paid players alike, and if not, I'm going to go cry in the corner. Anyways, let your friends know and hope you have fun playing Tank Team! Regards, A Terrible Dev

NOTE: Demo players can't play with paid versions because... ask Steam I guess A while back, I made the decision to make the game paid instead of free coming out of Early Access. As much as I knew this would impact the player count, I had to do it to justify continuing to work on the game full time. But now, I think I've found the perfect solution to my problems (just wish I'd thought of it earlier) The game can now be played for free using the new downloadable demo! The demo has restricted features, such as no ability to earn money or unlock cosmetics, no access to the level editor, and if you're hosting a game, you won't be able to play on Steam Workshop maps, only the built in default ones. I feel like this allows players to experience the game, while also giving them some incentive to get the full version to help support the development of the game. It's a win win! So if you're one of those people that were disappointed the game is now paid, make sure to let everyone know that isn't the case anymore. Next update I'll be working on AI tanks for those that still can't find a group to play with, so stay tuned! Lots of love, Finn x

NOTE: Demo players can't play with paid versions because... ask Steam I guess It's been a month but it's finally here! Patch 1.03! First of all, the game now has a free demo you can download, so if you have any friends that are unsure about buying the game, this is perfect for them! In the demo mode, you can play the game as usual, although there are some restricted features and you can't play with players who have the paid version. You can't earn money or unlock cosmetics, you can't use the brand new map editor (we'll get around to that) and if you're the host of a lobby, you won't be able to play custom maps uploaded to the Steam Workshop, only the default official maps. And there's not many official maps at the moment, but more will come over time. As mentioned earlier, there's a brand new map editor! You can make your own Tank Team maps using a variety of shapes (with more coming soon) to really let your creativity shine! There's also a new feature that's been added this update: Tank Voting Using the new "Tanks" app, teams can vote on the type of tank they want to have. Currently there's 2 types, normal and small. Small tanks are designed for 1-2 players, and have some pros and cons. On the plus side, they have a smaller interior which means getting between stations is a lot faster and more manageable for small teams. On the downside, they don't have any shields, you can't manually refuel and instead will have to wait for fuel to regenerate passively, and most importantly... THE WIND STATION IS GONE!!! I know right, devastating. And finally, the game now supports Mac and Linux (theoretically...) So yeah, have fun Tank Teaming, and can't wait to see what kind of maps you guys make! Finn x

Some minor changes, big update coming soon

• Reworked Tank physics again
• Added Chinese and German translations
• Added more font characters for different languages
• Rebound shots have been nerfed, will now only bounce up to 3 times (down from 5)
• Lowered the weight of projectiles so tanks aren't knocked around so much
• Tanks will now explode if their entire team disconnects
• Added setting to toggle fires

A much needed quality of life update

• Tank physics have been reworked so tanks can no longer push each other off the map by driving into them. In the future, you will only be able to do this with a Knockback Shell. The physics is still a work in progress
• Added a setting to turn off fires
• Shields will no longer negate damage if it exceeds the amount of charge left, and instead deal the difference as damage
• Tanks will now spawn more spread out, so you're not immediately thrown into a slugfest
• Lobbies now have an indicator showing if they are currently in a game or not
• "Ignore Bombs" setting will now only ignore other player's bombs, not your own, to avoid people creating... bomb walls.
• End of game results are now shown to all players instead of just to those that participated, meaning if you spectate, you can still see the stats from the game
• The profanity filter will now update previously sent messages

The first patch of the Full Release is now live!

• You can now fly a tank. Shooting mid-air will send your tank in the opposite direction
• Added the Trishot shell, which splits into 3 after a couple of seconds
• Tank corpses will now explode if dealt enough damage, causing splash damage to any nearby tanks
• Added regions to filter lobbies based on distance
• Added tank health and speed modifier settings
• Added more translations

Enjoy!

Greetings fellow Tank Teamers! It's been almost 2 months now since I released Tank Team into Early Access, and the response so far has been incredible! But I think the game is now stable enough to come out of Early Access and into full release, which is really exciting but also kind of terrifying. The main change being that the game will no longer be Free To Play, but instead will cost between £3 to £4. While I would love to keep the game Free To Play, I can't justify spending the vast amount of time the game needs to really become something special without some form of financial support, especially as I will be needing to hire artists to replace my... "artwork". So make sure you claim the game while it's still free! It will be coming out of Early Access on the 10th April 2024. Hope you guys understand, and I can't wait to see what this game becomes! Finn

I forgot to do V0.18, so just combining the 2 innit

• Time trial can now be manually stopped in the Host app
• Separated maps into their own app
• Clicking on a button to drag a list will no longer select the button if dragged far enough
• Tank eliminations are now broadcasted in chat
• Shields now take damage from projectiles, depleting their charge faster
• Ammo pickup now has a description area that explains what each projectile does
• Inception map has been fixed
• Tracer rounds now increase movement speed when carrying them
• Voice chat has been improved
• Most audio has been converted from stereo to mono where necessary
• The game over screen has been reworked
• General bug fixes