We recently sat down for one long playtest through every level and wrote down everything that felt off. It came to 56 notes. All of them are now dealt with. These are the ones you will notice most.
Steering that helps
Steering a lawn mower from above takes some getting used to. Settings > Gameplay now has Steering assistance (Off, Medium or High, Medium by default), which finishes a turn neatly onto the next straight line, and Turn speed, from 30 to 100 percent. The camera still never rotates: we tried that and it made people seasick.
Big mowers, but not that big
Late in the game the mowers became huge. A Field Master was 20 metres wide and covered half the screen. The big machines are now drawn smaller as a whole: Commercial cuts 2 m, Industrial 2.5 m, Mega 3 m, Field Master 5 m, the Jet Mower 7.5 m and MowZilla 15 m. Your earnings per square metre went up to match, so you lose nothing.
Robots that mow like a pro
The robots used to leave rims of uncut grass everywhere. They now mow long lanes from wall to wall, in blocks of four from the top, and then trim around the obstacles. The uncut rim dropped from up to 29 percent of a lawn to a few percent.
Water is water
Water and the empty space between lawns now stop the mower and the robots. Only the flying mowers (the Jet Mower and MowZilla) cross them. Wherever that would cut off a piece of grass, there is now a bridge.
A HUD that steps aside
When your mower drives under a HUD panel, the panel fades to 20 percent so you can see what you are mowing. Money popups no longer land on top of the buttons, and the mower card is tidier.
Every level checked again
Many levels were redone: the campsite, the school track, the clay courts, the polder, the castle with its moat, the racing circuit, the islands, the Moon and more. Hitboxes now follow the shape of each picture, paths no longer end in the middle of nowhere, and Aunt Roos now notices when you drive through her roses.
