With this update we're introducing the first pass of our unlocking system, we've added a swamp-tastic Chapter 5 to Career -- er, "Adventure" -- and we've got 2 new levels for you in quick events.
WARNING
This build resets everyone's save progress. We had to reformat the Adventure data, and also introducing the locking system scrambled things up a bit. Sorry for the inconvenience; this may still happen again during Early Access, but we'll try to firm it up as we get closer to shipping.
Welcome to the Collection screen
Here you can browse the cars and drivers (and more!) you own, and track the criteria that you need to earn the locked ones. There are a few things you should know about this:
Most cars are locked at the start. Since we didn't have an unlocking system before, the cars we released previously in EA were unlocked...but now that's all changed. We're sorry in advance if Twister was your favorite car. Going forward we'll be adding cars in their locked state, along with Challenges you can complete to unlock them.
Drivers are unlocked at the start (for quick events). We want to allow players in quick events to be able to pick any driver right out of the box. (Well OK there might be a couple of hidden characters who show up later). But you still need to unlock them in Career mode. Is this confusing? Weird? Awesome? Perfect? Please let us know.
You can unlock special skins -- but not yet. Once you've unlocked a car or driver, you'll eventually be able to bring up a new list of Challenges which unlock a special skin for that car or driver. But this isn't implemented yet.
There will be more. So far we've released 22 cars; the final total will be closer to 35. Also we're trying to add 1-3 more special characters, which will probably be locked or hidden at the start. And we have other ideas about other collectables -- but more on that another time.
Other new stuff in this release:
Career is now Adventure. Yeah we're still figuring out what to call stuff.
Chapter 5 added to Career (I mean Adventure, doh!) Explore swampy temple walls, battle Oog Oog, and uncover the secrets of the Tiki Temple.
Two new cars. Rally Pro and Lunar Rover are now available for unlocking.
Two new levels. Tiki Temple and Aquarius are now available in Quick Race and Championships (Random)
Wipe your save game. Actually we added this last upate, but we didn't call it out. You can now clear your save game by selecting "Reset Game" under Settings from the main menu. You'll be prompted "are you sure?" a couple of times, because yes this really does wipe out all your progress. Please tread lightly.
Version EA-2.2
Chapter 4 has been added to Career Mode. Explore foggy marshlands and pirate shipwrecks and unleash the ghostly power of McSkelly (if ye can beat him matey, Arr!)
Oh but that's not all:
Lots more difficulty tuning, both in quick events and career mode. We crave your feedback like B'zorp craves reruns of Three's Company! Please let us know what you think of the various difficulty levels.
The criss-crossy swampiness of Misty Marsh is now available in quick events.
Fixed powerups that get dropped in Junk in the Trunk
Pfx texture cleanup
Water surface color fixes
Version EA-2.1
This build introduces some save game format changes! If you played Career in the last build, you will see some parts of your progress have changed. You should keep all your stars but you'll have to open star gates and collect car upgrades again. Just FYI.
Other changes in this build:
New level! The piratical Shipwreck Reef is available for your shark infested pleasure.
New Career Options menu. Set your difficulty level and see the Powerups you've unlocked in Career mode.
Career difficulty adjustments. We're continually adjusting this based on your feedback and our own playtesting. What do you think? Is it too easy? Too hard? What difficulty setting feels right for you?
Oh and we changed the words we're using to describe difficulty: Relaxed, Normal, Hard, Very Hard. Too literal?
New navigation options for Career map. Zoom out to a higher camera! Use LB/RB to jump between chapters for quicker navigation.
Added arrows to Career map.
Separated difficulty and speed in quick event Game Options. By default the AI gets harder as you increase the speed category (100 HP - 1000 HP) in Championships and Quick Race. But you can also now separate them in settings so you can enjoy a slow challenging race or a fast easy race.
Major Update EA-2.0
Say hello to Career mode! ...Well, the first three chapters at least. This is our first unveiling of the map and gives you a sense of what the career/story/adventure mode is going to feel like. Over the course of development we'll be adding lots more content to this (and occasionally shifting earlier chapters around).
A few important notes about Career:
This is a work in Progress!! That means you may lose save game progress and unlocks while we are still working on it. Please just have fun with it, and expect that this'll happen during Early Access.
Drift game added. Instructions and rules are WIP. You remember how to drift right? Tap the brake while turning.
Firework Fury game added. Basically a time trial with exploding obstacles.
Elimination game added. Instructions and rules are WIP.
Driver Cup challenges added. This is how you'll unlock drivers for your team in Career. Right now the story parts are WIP and a little sparse.
Oh also -- you can play split screen co-op in Career, but it's limited to 4 players.
But wait, that's not all! There's even more awesome new stuff:
New car! The scrappy Bulldog is ready for your driving pleasure.
Another new car!Crusher smash good.
New track! Enjoy the festive atmosphere of Fiesta Village.
Another new track! Arrrrr, test yer mettle on the briny shores of Buccaneer Bay.
Fixed some graphics micro-stutters to smooth out the framerate
Desktop DPI awareness to fix blurriness when using a scaled display
For those who asked, added command line parameters to run in fullscreen exclusive mode. E.g. --Exclusive true --Width 1920 --Height 1080
New Version EA-1.7
Lots of fixes, tuning tweaks and more in this update.
New car: Throw your roll cage around in the stripped-down, souped-up Dune Jumper.
New track: Finally you can jump the shark (har) in Shark Harbor.
Can now turn Character ability to 0 in game settings. That means you can have a pure driving skillz race with no powers or powerups.
Tweaked Balanced powerup mode. Now with more Balance!
Reduced speed penalties from breakables. (Ian and Ralf think we're all wimps).
Tweaked chances of Double Powerups vs Fast Powerups as the race draws ever closer to its exciting conclusion.
Added a "Defaults" button to the game settings.
The AI can now boost start. And fail boost starting. And sometimes do nothing.
Upgraded to Steamworks SDK 148a.
We also changed some winner-whackers Powerups back to globals. We're still tweaking all of this so please let us know what you like and what you don't!
Big Tires - because bouncing is fun
Donut Tires - because frosting is effective
Earthquake - because earthquakes are for everyone
Nitro Car - because bombs
As always we welcome your feedback. Thanks everyone!
New Version EA-1.6
A number of big changes and experiments this week:
Snazzy new car, the Sand Blaster is now available for your sand-blasting pleasure.
Full Powerup customization added for quick events. You can toggle individual Powerups on/off, as well as whole groups. Create your own custom game mode like "No Shields" or "Ball ‘n’ Chain Only", or even no Powerups at all!
You can now fire missiles backward! Hold back on the left analog stick or hold the left shoulder button (L1/LB) to use the look-back camera when you fire, and you can take out a pesky rival behind you. But watch out, the other drivers will be doing the same!
In Championships, you now have the option to “Keep Last Round Powerups”, and start the next race with an extra edge.
Tweaked some aspects of the Toughness stat to balance things out and give more importance to tough cars like the Machete, Chomper, or Interloper.
Characters now have individual 1st place animations on Championship podiums (WIP).
We've made a number of other important changes to the way Powerups work:
Further refinements to the “Balanced Powerups” setting.
Powerup charge timers have been re-tuned to work with the “Balanced Powerups” setting.
Persistent buffs like Shield and Power Vacuum now lock up your Powerup slot so you can’t fill it with another Powerup.
Your own Hazard Powerups such as Jacks, Oil Slick, and Junk in the Trunk can now affect you on the next lap, so drive carefully!
Special Powerup bubble types like Double (two bubbles stacked) and Fast (!) become more frequent as the race progresses.
And there are some specific Powerup changes:
Hamster Ball and Ball ‘n’ Chain now have a bit of extra oomph.
Power Vacuum no longer lasts until you crash. It has the same duration as the Trampoline.
Cluck-nado Coop now creates its swarm of chickens when an explosion or missile breaks it.
As always, this Early Access game is a work in progress and we enthusiastically welcome your feedback. What do you think of the new customization options? How do you feel about the tuning changes we've made? Talk to us in the forums! We read them every day.
Version EA-1.5
The newest update is live, with a bunch of fun and entertaining changes. Please let us know what you think about the new Powerup tuning -- we're looking for feedback!
<*> Added new configuration options to Championships and Single Race: Track Direction: Say hello to mirrored tracks (or don't)!! Powerup Rules: Balanced and Random Chance. "Random Chance" is the old way of allocating Powerups in races -- it's completely random. "Balanced" takes into account your position in the race and favors stronger Powerups when you're further behind. <*> To elaborate on that a little more: "Balanced" is now the default Powerup behavior in the game. We'll continue to tune this to try and optimize for fun and exciting competition. With Balanced Powerup rules, the bubbles give you Powerups weighted on your position in the race; you'll tend to get more powerful powerups when you're further behind, more defensive and less powerful ones when you're in first. <*> Difficulty tuning! Ludicrous is now ludicrously more challenging, Relaxed is extra relaxing, and the others feel more distinct. <*> Respawn behavior changed. Now you (and AI) respawn where you get hit, not where you end up bouncing to. <*> "Mushroom Grotto" race track now available. <*> Did you just blow the first race of the Championship? You can now restart the Championship right from the results screen. <*> Skip into cameras with A/Enter, B/ESC or Start/Space. <*> Fixed Bug where Oog Oog's curse, chicken splats and stuff could disappear when somebody else uses Pickpocket. <*> Fixed some issues when running the game on Direct3D 10.0 hardware. <*> Fixed the split-screen scaling issue for power-up effects that cover your screen.
Version EA-1.4
We changed the behavior for several Powerpps. Tell us what you think!
Freeze Ray - changed from a fanned out set of rays into a rapid-fire ice cannon
Hamster Ball - changed from a seeker into an explosion of temporary hazards
Remote Control - changed from a fanned out set of rays to a seeker
Jammer - changed from a moving field of interference to a stationary one
Ball and Chain - changed from a rapid-fire missile into a seeker
Junk in the Trunk - added the Fake, Chicken Crate, Spring, and Mystery Crate in place of simple breakables
But wait, there's more!
Added config options to Single Race and Championships. Right now you can set laps, AI / no AI, and how many uses you get of your character ability. Will be fleshing this out a lot in the coming weeks.
Paradise Beach racetrack added to the Single Event and Championship rosters.
2 cars added: The souped-up Lambini GT, and the tire-smoking Rad Rod.
[UPDATE] Version EA-1.3
2 cars added: The beach-a-rific Sun Dazer, and the classic formula Grand Prix.
Changed the swap effect in the Direct3D renderer, in order to resolve potential frame-rate inconsistencies on some graphics cards.
Fixed bug where you could inadvertently skip results at the end of a race.
Fixed bug which caused Single Race track to get replaced by Championship race track.
Game settings are saved locally.
Enabled Steam Cloud for future career mode saving.
Previous release notes can be found in the Community Forums.
