I'll confess to downloading the leaked copy of 0.53... hopefully this doesn't involve any banhammers.

So, a quick review of the new features. I'll ignore the fact that only five people can play at a time without the server lagging uncontrollably, since Ben's planning to fix that for the final version.

The two most notable new features are the SMG and the new block graphics. First, the block graphics: They're awesome. There's a hint of the old "radar rings" whenever you move your cursor towards the ground quickly, but it resolves itself very quickly (Those who are prone to motion sickness should avoid doing this). Overall the blocks look very crisp. One other player commented that the rendering was better than Minecraft (although to be fair, MC has to deal with textures).

Now, the SMG: I actually kind of like it. First off, it's actually pretty rotten for close-in engagements, where its inablity to one-hit kill puts it at a disadvantage against a rifle. I found that it actually worked fairly well at middling ranges (around 50% of render distance). It also has nice fortification destruction capabilities all the way to fog distance. A rifleman and a gunner working against the same target proved to be a practically unstoppable combination.

So overall, 0.53 is a fresh, new, and improved. The SMG encourages teamwork and use of cover, and the new block graphics make the game look amazing compared to 0.52 and earlier.

I'm beginning to wonder why Ben hasn't called it 0.60.

its not "officially" .53 until it comes out. for all we know, he might just call it .60

he called it .53 on the main page, so its safe to assume its .53

He may choose to change that... I hope he does, as it's a far more accurate title.

can someone post a server up here please?

I was the one who said it rendering better than MC!!! And yea its not out yet but once it is, i think this game will have a lot more teamwork involved in it. Especially on pinpoint. You can have riflemen in the back picking off the enemies while your saboteurs are the in front lines with SMG's breaking and tearing apart enemies and there forts and bunkers.

Agreed. I was/am "soops" by the way.

I haven't completely changed my opinion of the SMG, but after using it extensively, I must admit that it works surprisingly well at medium range. Once the whole hit detection thing gets sorted out, it will be a force to be reckoned with, but not overly so (as a marksman will still drop you in less than a second).

And yes, it is a monster when it comes to griefing bunkers lol. Blue built a bunker near the green tent, I just sat on the tent and pumped clip after clip (when the game isn't lagging, the tent refills your ammo almost instantaneously, leading to a never-ending stream of bullets) into the bunker until it was gone.

0.9001

VERY MUCH LIKING THE RENDERING. Everything is still blocky and made out of blocks of course, but the edges aren't ugly and odd looking. Change has yet to come to the guns as they aren't smoothed however. Looking forward to that. If you don't know what I mean, find the leak vid on youtube and compare the guns appearance unscoped to scoped. Unscoped, the edges have that ugly original .kv6 look but scopded, they look nice and straight.

What about the new vote kicking system?

I have a question for those of you who did get the leaked version, and im sure that its probably somewhere on the forums. But i just havn't seen it.
My question: how does the selection of your gun work? is there a new menu? can you change it during play?

You press the period key [.] and the menu is displayed. Press 1 for rifle, 2 for SMG. Changing your gun causes you to respawn with that gun. Selecting the gun you already have doesn't affect anything.

As to the new votekicking... I have yet to encounter a votekick-worthy player in the new version. It's possible all the kiddies that usually troll, grief, and hack are too busy checking out their new SMGs.

The rifles also seem slightly different in 0.53. I'm not sure if it's due to the new serverside hit detection or if the rifle properties themselves are changed. Ben, please see if you can get the rifles back to the way they were. The entire reason I stuck with this game was the rifle mechanics, and now that's changed.

Are there any servers working at the moment because i want to test out the smg on players, not on a private server.

@1337101

Ben said that the rifle is no longer "pin-point accurate". I think it's an attempt to prolong firefights. So far, I don't mind it all that much.

But... it really should be pin-point accurate. It's an infantry rifle. At that sort of fog distance, you should be able to headshot someone reliably, provided your aim is good.

The rifles used to reward good aim pretty heavily, just like a real-world rifle. I really would like to have that back.

Plus, this looks like a build-up to adding a sniper rifle, which only CoD kiddies should want or need. May I have the old rifle back, please, Ben?

well, to think of it from Bens point of view, theres one million million and five CoD lovers out there who would love to choose from twenty five guns, and sixty AoS players who like the rifle, even though i agree with you, what hes doing will help the prolonged growth of this game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8q_P2xgoWic
this was me playing on a "private" server for .53. i just thought it might be helpful :P

@Wingedtoaster: But if this game is developed to appeal to CoD kiddies, it'll probably become obsolete within five minutes (because five minutes is all it will take for a new CoD slash to come along). It'll provide a momentary boost, but ultimately it'll die off.

I see the game as having a lot more potential as a unique game with its own distinct community. Minecraft is unique and it's also ridiculously popular (and its fans aren't looked down upon any more than any other PC game fan), CoD clones only experience fleeting popularity and their fans are looked down upon by other gamers.

well, as soon as ben starts releasing machine guns with shotgun attachments, we should all be very, very worried

It wasn't really leaked, I just posted it as leaked because I presumed it to be leaked. IT was sorta leaked because dan was supposed to get a "Secretive" group of people together including me enwhich it was leaked via me. Ben approved of it however.