RIP Robocraft 2 (and what will happen to RC2 going forward)

Freejam have decided to scrap the current version of Robocraft and start over with something they plan to be more similar to RC2015. Since this version is dead and will not receive any more updates I can not recommend it any longer. They only had patience for a few month (that including break for holiday) 1 smaller content update. Personally it feels like it will be a lot harder for me to get invested in games by Freejam and trust them to actually stick with their projects going forward. Anyway. here is a short video about what is happening.
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[@irsever]

One of the strangest video game stories of all time. A bare bones tech demo with functional matchmaking and an addictive loop of alternating between construction and combat becomes a viral success. The developers quickly add feature after feature, but at some point they switch to exclusively removing things that work well and simplifying the game to the point of boredom in pursuit of even greater success. The game instead bleeds players, they furiously scramble things further, accept money for lifetime memberships, and announce several other games. Finally after the game is virtually dead they announce a sequel in pre-alpha, and it's dramatically different and more advanced than the first game, but still very early in development. They release a version of it, nobody likes it much, and they can the whole project and announce an updated version of the original game, which never even stopped receiving balance patches.

[@Ketmo785]

Yep. Its pretty strange. Also that they released the sequel with the welcoming message: we should not be showing you this yet.. or something along those lines. And scrapping it way before fixing any of the reasons they should not have shown it yet.

[@bitsoh2774]

damn i just started playing robocraft last week and i was having a lot of fun learning about this new build system with your videos and now they abandon it :( I lost all motivation to play but at least i hope that robocraft 2 remake is going to be way better

[@Ketmo785]

Yep. I kind of lost motivation to play RC2 as well. Not rly fun to play an experiment and build stuff in a game if you know its dead and abandoned

[@theimposter3288]

im holding out for the remake. I sunk so many hrs into this game back in 2013 beta till release in 2017 after they took out Titans it all kinda went down hill. def a good game at the start they just slowly alienated the beta player base over time and it just sorta died when P2W was hard pushed.

[@-lijosu-]

Absolutely euphoric to see such an upstanding member of the former community make a video about this, with some of the snark it deserves. I’ve been absolutely sick of sitting in the shadows, watching silently as everyone outside of the small pockets the community retreated to acts like this is perfectly normal behaviour from a game developer. **It isn’t**, and I feel certain that this would be raising alarms from all sorts of industry professionals, if they had the time to fully get into the full story.

[@Ketmo785]

I don't know how upstanding I am. Unfortunately I feel like its way to common nowadays that studios do exactly like FJ did right now and its unfortunately more the exception that studios dig down and fix it, Like CD Projekt Red with Cyberpunk or Hello Games with No Mans Sky. But this was extremely fast to do so with almost no time spend trying to fix even the most basic stuff and on top of that FJs track record starts to get really worrying.

[@-lijosu-]

@@Ketmo785 To me, there's two silver bullets: - The other projects FreeJam scrapped before this. I've never heard of a 20 person developer willingly choosing to spend ~5 years in public development constantly restarting projects. - The fact that this isn't just "adding"/"removing" a few troublesome mechanics, it's starting from *the ground up*, completely changing course, for a "part of the community" which has been harassing and bullying FJ for nearly 10 years at this point. It's not really just "a rebuild", this is by all intents and purposes a completely different game FJ is choosing to pursue.

[@Ketmo785]

Yep.. not as great track record@@-lijosu-

[@frozensalt6174]

I am mad at this...i was literally waiting for the updated version of the older version...THE AMOUNT OF CREATIVITY..the amount of BUILDS IS LIMITLESS..now we are just getting robocraft 2 aka robocraft 1 but worse..i wish they go back and stick with the older version but polish stuff more and slightly vhange some stuff

[@Ketmo785]

I understand from a commercial perspective why they changed direction. That said I was also really sad to see the old version go. I think there could have been an audience for that game. But it needed a lot of work to get to be good enough and also that audience was probably for the most part very different from the audience it was marketed to, the RC1 audience.

[@frozensalt6174]

@@Ketmo785 yea I guess so...either way I hope they stick with something this time and don't abandon the project

[@1rule468]

I am disapointed with the change, but I hope it means larger teams, and deathmatch modes, but I do think they gave up too quick. I also think FJ is just chasing trends, like how the old RC1 chased the PUBG trend, and the hero trend. My opinion is stop chasing, instead make the trend, be the original.

[@Ketmo785]

It really seems like they are very uncertain and also really swaying in between the extremes. Just like the bad habit they have had with balance patches. Just now with the whole game. It seems like they are incapable of doing something that is somewhere in between. For balance it's either nerf something to the ground or boost something to the extreme. And for the game it is either extremely different from the original or exactly like the original. Just being a bit innovative with some of the new stuff while trying to keep the stuff that worked the best with the old is on the table when it comes to Freejam

[@Dima81_Robocraft]

Dima81

[@Ketmo785]

Dima!

[@blablagamerbr]

Dima81_Robocraft

[@pvprangergod4024]

no crf is simply to encourage more original building. videos can still be used. but videos is different to crf which is instant and easily accessible ingame, just have to pay a price for the bot. and yes the meta is irrelevant to crf exactly like you said in the video.

[@astropythagorean]

For the players who had been with RC for quite a few years already, the CRF wasn't really a huge issue...though it reduced the variety and creativity of bot designs we encountered daily in matches. However, for many players jumping in to RC after the CRF was added, they were not learning how to build good robots...something that was part of what made RC so successful early on. It was too easy for them to jump from level to level without ever being challenged to understand the mechanics of what makes a good robot. That might appeal to many players....but those are the same players that are most likely to jump to other games fairly soon in the arena fighting genre when they get the least bit frustrated.

[@pvprangergod4024]

yeah but thats also because Freejam removed alot of freedom over bot design even in 2015 and onwards.@@astropythagorean

[@warx1680]

Nah white discord is a war crime 😂😂😂

[@Ketmo785]

Embrace light mode and sitting in well lit room when gaming :) All you need is a good enough monitor (and no direct sunlight on the screen)

[@warx1680]

@@Ketmo785 im already a light mode enjoyer :) It's just that discord makes it impossible to like xd

[@ProfDriftwood]

Okay, "I think I would have preferred a virus" made me laugh. Me too pal. Me too.

[@Ketmo785]

Personally I m mostly happy with the ...moving on ....just like Freejam does when their products don't fly right out of the gate.... ba dum tsss :)

[@ProfDriftwood]

Good luck. I admire the work you put into trying to build your channel, and I feel confident that if the game had taken off your channel would have to. @@Ketmo785

[@kongolandwalker]

Instead of hunting for a new playerbase they decided to go the easy way: attract olds (who do not want any technological advancements) I am sad

[@Ketmo785]

And it's not even certain they will get them. Even if they do need to go back to the roots they will still need to make a good game that feels fresh in some kind of way. If it feels like a copy of a 10 year old game just with better graphics (but probably much less content at launch) then I m not certain that will land great reviews either

[@Ace73Streaming]

04:17 I'm deader than Robocraft 2 right now😂

[@Ketmo785]

Yep... When you edit videos.. some cuts just need to happen :)

[@3planet355]

Thanks for the good video. Yeah i hope they make the game good again

[@Ketmo785]

I hope they will. I mean I much rather have them succeed at rebuilding the game than not.

[@oxxzydoom]

Freejam needs a new lead designer

[@Ketmo785]

They need to decide where they are going and then have enough courage to stay on the path for a bit even when its a bit uphill

[@astropythagorean]

@@Ketmo785 I agree that they need to decide where they are going. I've gotten the impression that FreeJam has been in overtly exploratory phase. My hope is that they regain their passion for RC, double-down and develop an amazing game based on better technologies, avoiding past mistakes, and years of player feedback.

[@plasticfrank]

​​@@Ketmo785 they are way too responsive to feedback. Game development isnt a democracy. If you're so dispassionate about your own vision for your game that you capitulate to the most obnoxious people in your community then I'm not sure your game is even worth playing. Freejam is never going to recover the momentum of early RC1. They're competing with Trailmakers, Scrap Mechanic, Main Assembly, ect now. For a lot of players those games scratch the same itch. Those games in some ways are superior to any version of RC. The companies making those games are certainly better than FreeJam.

[@Ketmo785]

I play some of those games. Problem for me with those games is the lack of arena fighting. Even the games that do have building and pvp lakc arena fighting. Fighting in survival mode is very different. That is why I really hope FJ manage to make something work. But yes. They seem to have problems sticking to their vision long term@@plasticfrank

[@plasticfrank]

@@Ketmo785 People do battle in those games. They just don't have a lobby system. You have to organize your own events with your friends. Considering the toxicity of the RC pvp system maybe its just better to organize your own events. Crossout, although I don't like the build system, seems to be much better at staying the course than FreeJam. I'd love for RC to succeed but FreeJam just doesn't seem to have it in them.

[@robocrafterart7730]

"movie credits" were unavailable, but after reading the comments I roughly understood what they were talking about and your position. Yes. Robocraft 2 had interesting mechanics and even the healthcare system was simply unfinished. There was no help system in the game itself, which gave newcomers a false sense of difficulty. The undeveloped HUD also confused newcomers. The logical system clearly required reworking. Targeting also needed improvement. A lot of things were interesting but very raw. FreeJam, instead of analyzing and improving it, simply decided to degrade the project. At the same time, failure is guaranteed in the future due to direct self-repetition without evolution - a lot of games about cubes have been released on the market in 10 years and their future version, which they started, will not be attractive in terms of game mechanics. There is much more I could point out. But I don't see the point. I think you said about the same thing and even more.🤝

[@Ketmo785]

It feels like they did not even try to fix it. Considering the short period of time from 2023-11 -07 until now. That they had a long christmas break where most of the stuff were not in office. That they must have spent some time with discussions and meetings to decide on the new direction. Make the new cube prototype and lay out some plans for the future. The can not have spent much more than a month of developing time after Early access release with the current version before making the decision. That it next to nothing.

[@moroblizniak4457]

Damn... I see why this isnt good news But Easier building system might be better for this kind of game. Im really newbie at RC2 and when i first encountered building system, i was amazed. SUPER CONFUSION came later tho.... All this strenght connection etc was way over my head, logic was not in a great place becouse im used to logic system like Trailmakers(Also vehicle building game). Instead of indiviudal small blocks, i see this game implementing Trailamkers-like building system where you have large variarity of building block shapes to choose from and you just put them together like legos, very easy to learn and not too hard to master either.

[@Ketmo785]

You will not be able to make as detailed stuff with block by block building but I agree it might have a lot wider appeal. The health system was also really not intuitive at all and would most likely have needed some type of re work regardless

[@AdrianoSnorts]

And this is why you don't ask a sequel of a game that wasn't good to begin with (because it was amazing. I can't say that) or that has met a shitty end. "Oh that's cool they have bypods" yes, the ones that WERE PROMISED TO REPLACE THE OLD SEATERS BEFORE WE SUDDENLY GOT LOOTBOXES AND LoL ASS BATTLES/DESIGNS NOBODY ASKED It's honestly way dumber than asking for new characters. How many characters we had in old/retro games? 1, 4 at best? How long was the actual game though? Focus on the game being enjoyable... This team hasn't learned ANYTHING from the 1st game and failed to revive it. Why should they suddenly make things better when it's even less developed than the previous? "We're right. You're wrong" ok then. Don't make a f2p and ship one fully developed to buy instead

[@kefpull6676]

I understand where they would have gone with this, and I'm pretty sure it is a conflict with what freejam thinks players want and what they actually want. The problem is, as you said, that a vast majority of people like me have only ever played robocraft 1, and haven't even heard about robocraft 2. I'm from the group that says robocraft was amazing until the lootbox update, and I stand by that, but I don't think reverting the game simply back to a 2014 or 2015 or 2016 version will just fix the problems: it might for a bit, but without that progression that we were expecting the momentum would fizzle out and the game would bleed players. I understand where FreeJam is trying to go with the new blocks system: it's aimed at giving players more creativity, and allowing more complex structures into the base game. But looking back at old videos, old youtubers, and my old steam library snapshots, I've realized that I agree: with an aging audience, that increased complexity would need to be the way to go. Looking at the youtubers I nostalgically remember watching, however, that initial "catch" to get basically anyone to play was the sheer simplicity of playing the game: you had those 3 starter vehicles, and all you had to do was hit PLAY and you were in the game, driving around, shooting and having fun. Building your first functional vehicle was just making a simple box around the pilot seat with some wheels, and slapping those few weapons on would signify your completion. You would learn the complexity of the game mainly from other players, who would best you in some way or another, but then you would learn about that weakness or strength adn incorporate it into your designs, learning things about where to place shields, hidden mechanics such as damage propagation, or others. You would lean into the limitations of the tech tree, and trive from that experience. I remember not having wings unlocked, so I bought a plane that only used thrusters from the community factory and used that framework to make my first plasma bomber. Old robocraft allowed you to learn these things one at a time, whereas robocraft 2 needs to teach you this before you can play. In that aspect, I understand trying to get as many "frustrating" aspects as possible out of your game, to try making everything simpler. At the same time, complexity and variety is one of the main factors in making sure a game thrives and has a long lifetime, (and a long generation of revenue!), and I think that's important. Most of the people who have played robocraft 1 are all adults now, and while this might be a good things in terms of spending power that also means the game needs to have a higher skill/creativity ceiling, to the point where hundreds of hours can be sinked in with steady progression and at least less repetition than other games. Personally, I think From the Depths, (FtD) plays this role perfectly, as it preserves the same block-based building but turns up the complexity to an insane level. If you're free to check out other channels, Lathland (a former robocraft youtuber) now plays quite a bit of From the Depths in his videos, and due to the complexity even I can only make basic ships despite playing the game for hundreds of hours. In FtD, almost every aspect of a craft can be customizable - it starts with basic stuff that you could do in robocraft (it's block based) but quickly evolves into designing every intricate part of a ship, from shield systems to custom jet engines and your own weapons. I think robocraft is (in part due to having an aging audience) trying to do this same thing, and I understand the reasoning behind the new building system, but I don't understand why it has to be binary - why does it either need to have such a complicated system for beginners? In FtD, you have a large series of prefab (pre-built) weapons of each type that you can plop into your ship before you fully learn the system, and I think robocraft would do good to have something similar, starting out the player with big simple blocks and wheels and introducing those more complex circuitry and mathematics systems at a higher level, after the player has gotten comfortable with the base game mechanics. In my mind, there's nothing bad in adding complexity into your game, as long as it doesn't encroach into the fundamental design of the game - Build " Drive " Fight

[@Ketmo785]

That was a long text :o) I also don't understand why it has to be either or. Either 100% different and new, and when that did not work out for them review wise they to a full 180 and are now making a carbon copy of old RC1 just with better graphics. Seems FJ don't think there is a middle way for some reason.

[@777CHEKIST777]

These people need successful monetization, not a good game. Anyone who can't play the game they're developing and doesn't even want to touch the gameplay is doomed to failure. These are the kind of developers the Robocraft franchise has.

[@Ketmo785]

I agree that designing a game from the perspective of monetization and not from the perspective of how to make the best game is very likely not the way to make a great game . Let's hope FJ does not make that mistake

[@34959]

It would be cool if robocraft's building mechanic was more like crossout's. Because crossout is in a bad place rn, and the building mechanics are really good.

[@Ketmo785]

Main problem for RC was that the combat was not good. The building was engaging. Maybe a bit to complicated but I don't think that was the main issue. If the combat is good then people are willing to put the time in building. If the combat is bad nothing else really matters since that is also the first thing people usually try and the reason to build in the first place for most players

[@farterboy]

I just want to write so much about robocraft and Freejam right now but I have no time. As for your channel you could rebrand it a little more towards Robocrafts news and speculation. It would probably work out.

[@Ketmo785]

It will probably be a mix of various things for a while. Some RC2 news, some random videos about games I like and guides of games I play whenever I end up with something in a game that I feel can be somewhat good content :)

[@trev1037]

The block anim prototype isn't all they have. They've clearly said it's entirely separate from the rebuild.

[@Ketmo785]

Yes its only a prototype and not meant to be the game itself. But it is also most likely everything they got at this point. Why? Well they released RC2 in november of 2023. That is not even 3 month ago and they had a christmas break on top of it. I don't know exactly when they started to discuss giving up on the current version but It is not very likely that they did that right away in november. It is more likely they started talking about that in a serious way after the hover update did not help in terms of reviews or player count and stuff kept going downhill. They probably just had like a month or so from the point of deciding on the re build until now. A lot of that time would probably have been meetings about where they want to take the re build what to keep, what not to etc. Game dev takes time. You don't get very far in 1 month if you start over from zero.

[@Blackice350]

I spot you Wiiman!! I know it's you xd

[@ClipOfTheFail]

I like the new one so far

[@Ketmo785]

The new one is just a prototype of placing blocks. So what you are saying is that you prefere RC! building over RC2 building.

[@Skarrier]

!!!Warning, meltdown incoming!!! I'm sorry, but I can't beleive what devs are doing right now. Like, the new cubes design is awful, it's too overloaded, aren't they seeing this?! They're just told people about "going to the basics" and then *immediately* doing *another* super-duper-cool-mega-reimagination of the stuff that does *not* need this?? They're doing it *again,* why?!? I can already see that they haven't learned a thing after this flop too. Throughout the decade, how can't they understand the simple fact that their designers are *objectively bad,* they *do not* have a good creative "vision" and whatever change they are doing is making the game *worse?* At this point, i'm thinking that Freejam never actually were a good game developers, they just stroke a lucky vein with their Robocraft game, started thinking of themselves as geniuses, making all decisions alone and ignoring all other, actually competent people. Even having their lucky strike, they managed to butcher it completely and then spent many *years* doing nothing but trying to replicate their sole success, *failing miserably* with it again, and again, and again, and again. They start to realise they can not do better than Robocraft, which they made good only due to extreme luck, but they are still kinda in denial, which is seen in those absolutely pointless new designs *already.* Many people are saying they can't be mad at Freejam anymore, but *right now* is where *i* actually just strarting to finally get mad. Will they actually make the designs of those blocks simpler and more laconic? *No, no way, they would not!* This really will sound like a total madness, but at this point even i started to believe that the *only* way Freejam are going to at least partially succeed by now is just copy the designs from the first game, i'm not joking. *Every. single. little. tiny. thing* they're changing makes the working concept worse. To conclude my nuclear meltdown, i just wanna say the following. I will look at their progress, but i'm *100% sure* their new game flops too, and noone could prove me otherwise, just because they simply *won't* resist from pointlessly remaking (read "butchering") another game aspect according to their "creative vision", like making a crosshair so bright that it melts the eyes, or replacing their announcer voice with a hand drill, or doing a nausea-inducing screenshake, or making guns look like toilets, or recording a new weapon sounds that will make people deaf, and so on and on and on. Furthermore, i will actively duscourage players from giving Freejam *any* money. Freejam are just bad developers, and don't deserve neither attention nor money or fame. At least for now. Again, i'm sorry.

[@Ketmo785]

That was a wall of text... But I get it. I mean I spend 100s of hours if not 1000s to play and make videos for the current version of RC2 just to see it shut down after what feels like a so short period into Early access that Freejam Did not even try to make it succeed. They just gave up right away.

[@Skarrier]

@@Ketmo785 It's not that they give up easily, they said the data was showing a clear preference amongst the audience for a certain thing, but it's the way they're trying their worst to redesign everything just for the sake of it.

[@blablagamerbr]

Aint reading allat

[@dazley8021]

Meanwhile Cardlife rotting in a corner somewhere....

[@Ketmo785]

true that

[@KIoakk]

It was quite obvious that RC2 and their previous ideas havent had the legs to go further tbf.

[@Ketmo785]

Not sure the ideas were the problem. I think the problem was rather the execution of the ideas.

[@sinisterisrandom8537]

@@Ketmo785 Organization, execution, soured first impressions, a reputation that lingers from the abandoned ware of the past. They followed the trend and got the end.

[@Pentaclown84]

the creating in robocraft 2 was shit

[@Ketmo785]

The creating was great.. the actual fighting not as much

[@glitterkitten9499]

Pyramids will never die

[@Ketmo785]

Or at least they will keep living in our memory

[@minepolz320]

Robocraft 2 was to hard to ppl lol Like starbase

[@Ketmo785]

It wasn't really that it was hard.. There are some hard games out there that do really well. It was that it was messy and unfinished. Lacked core features and especially the armour system was not intuitive at all.

[@minepolz320]

@@Ketmo785+

[@34959]

discord light mode

[@Ketmo785]

yes

[@Minekokos_Zlatovlaska]

imo they should make RC1 from scratch and replace RC1 on Steam...then still support RC2 ...might be more work but makes sense I guess

[@Ketmo785]

My biggest worry is that they seem to have made it a habit to abandon titles. They could also have re branded RC2 back and called it techblocks arena or something like that. Get the update with party system and tracks at. It was supposed to be close anyway. Then put that title in slowmode,, just smaller balance patches and see if it could take of given some time.. while doing what they do now. Re start RC2 development. That would have cost them very little extra dev time.

[@Unit_5387]

Honestly I'm pretty upset about the sudden change in direction. I get that it was needed, since RC2 was dead a month after its EA release. I just really don't like how they're aiming for a carbon copy RC15 with a fresh coat of paint instead of blending the two games. Like, I don't think I've hear that anything (aside from the server backend) of RC2 will actually make it into RC2R. Seems like they got scared by the RC15 crowd, ditched their project like the four other ones, and are now trying to make the same game again. How long until this one goes under? (Also not having a CRF is very big stupid dumb bad stupid)

[@astropythagorean]

I'm not sure leaving out the CRF is such a bad idea. Adding the CRF shifted RC 1 out of its original crafting niche somewhat. The absence of a CRF in the original game caused a fairly active and diverse community to develop around RC. We might see the resurgence of Robocraft Garage and KZbin channels dedicated how to build bots. It's a much more satisfying experience to build a bot from a guide that to copy it on the CRF (sort of like building a Lego set from instructions). Though other factors also played into balance issues, the CRF seemed to exacerbate the challenges of balancing a game with so many possible "characters". At times, the meta would become so focused and oppressive that you really would only see a couple styles of bots in competitive matches.

[@Ketmo785]

Well it's very easy content for youtube. Especially with block by block building since you pretty much just need take apart the robot and then reverse the film ad some music and you are done.

[@Ketmo785]

I would fully have understood a re work of the HP system because it was in no way intuitive and also, considering how many people felt the combat was not reactive. the move away from server side. But major re work is not the same as scrapping and starting from zero.

[@Unit_5387]

From what I can see removing the CRF serves only to make the game as a whole less accessible to a wider (more casual) audience. Sure, having the CRF will make the metas settle in faster, but that'll just be slightly delayed without it. It may be more satisfying to build a bot from a KZbin video, but a majority of the people I've talked to will opt for not playing the game instead of spending an hour or two recreating a metabot. I'd rather have the CRF to easily share ideas and funny bots instead of having to burn time following a block by block guide.

[@ClipOfTheFail]

Newer one u showed

[@tbeh1]

I am very afraid of these pve-like changes that they want to make. if they want to repeat the crossout, then I will lose faith in humanity and leave to play minecraft with the create mod

[@Ketmo785]

I m not sure about what they mean with the PvE like elements either. PErsonally I don't care much for PvE but maybe some other players do.

[@farterboy]

They should copy Crossout's level of polish, graphics, sound design and physics. Gameplays as well tbh just not the terrible grind.

[@drkreuzer670]

Techblox 2 When?

[@Ketmo785]

2-3 month after the new RC2 version launch and they don't manage to get positive steam reviews right out of the gate.

[@drkreuzer670]

@@Ketmo785 From the depths video when? :3

[@Ketmo785]

we will see :) @@drkreuzer670