The update includes 4 animals, and now that the system is on its feet, around 10 more animals will be added soon.
Here are the main features of the animal system:
All animals are rideable
They have custom animations for moving on land, water and air, dead or alive
Custom sound effects
Different behavior from traffic
Can be manned or unmanned
Animals have regenerative health & can be revived using Medikit
There are also some smaller details, such as that animals will be scared by noise or alien presence, or that they can slightly sink in the mushy terrain (which is also new for the human character), or that if they rest on grass or water lanes, they will heal faster.
With this update, the alien world is also closer to the original vision of it teeming with life. You're now able to hitch young time whales! Also, more alien animals are coming.
Becides animals there have been some other small changes and bug fixes. For full details, check out the changelog below.
Changelog:
Gameplay:
- Added Animals
- There are 4 new animals
- Animals can be taken and used just like vehicles
- Animals include animations for moving on land, water and air, dead or alive, manned or unmanned
- Animals include sound effects
- NPC animals use a modified AI, different from NPC vehicles
- Animals can be manned or unmanned, visually
- Medikit now heals and revives all animals in inventory, besides healing player
- Animals' health regenerates over time, like player's
- Some animals feed on certain lanes, which speeds their health recovery
- Animals' lifespan can be seen in the database
- Animals can charge
- NPC animals can be scared off by aliens or noise
- Animals cannot be upgraded, have only one color variant and don't collect dirt
- Alien world now features Alien Younglings
- Alien world appears in the first stages again, now that it's more fun
- Decreased chance of additional aliens appearing
Cosmetic:
- Player character and animals now dip in mushy lanes, just like vehicles
- Player character will rest shortly after physical strain
- Gas stations will explode if going through them on fire (but will refuel first)
Interface:
- Recharging blue indicator now also shows lanes with overhead wires, if having a pantograph
Bugs:
- Fixed alien's shaddow clipping on lanes in 16:9
- Fixed non-powered vehicles going slow when equipped with an engine
- Fixed a bug with vehicles older than 1996 not spamming horn when damaged
- Fixed fast-scroll year change button for gamepads being wrongly positioned in 16:10
- Fixed alerts being drawn over tutorial's "Continue..." text
- Fixed recharge suggestion blinking when game over
- Fixed vehicle suggestion tutorial appearing immediately affter the minimap tutorial
- A few more bugfixes and tweaks
As always, if you have any questions, comments or suggestions, feel free to make a post on the forum!
Update 9 - Improved tutorial, see through fog with radar, better year scrolling, diesel sound and lots more!
Hey all!
The new update is here, and it's quite exciting not only for its content, but also because it was the last scheduled update before I can start work on the animals!
Some of the new things brought here have been suggested by you on the forums, like before, and some came from simply watching gameplay videos and streams, so I just want to express huge thanks for doing that and helping me shape up the game to be more awesome with every new version!
Here are the main changes:
Improved Tutorial:
Tutorial tips now pause the game, requiring player action in order to continue. They're still not perfect, but at least a lot easier to process. Tutorial tips can now be re-enabled in the options, if you want to redo them.
Radar can see through fog:
We all hate fog in Switchcars, and now we're gonna hate the rain too as it was made foggy as well. However, we're also gonna love the Radar powerup more, because it helps us see clearly through all that bad weather, at a cost of a greenish "monitor effect". Accordingly, most airplanes are now fitted with radar.
"Minimal" vehicle suggestion option:
Vehicle suggestion flashing tended to be annoying, but turning it off completely was not adequate either. Now you can choose a third option, "Minimal", which still shows suggested vehicles and lanes, but without the annoying effects.
Better visibility of used vehicles:
Thanks to your screenshots of used vehicles (listed after game over), I realized that environment and HUD were making the screen too cluttered. Now, when a run ends, a grey "fog of death" appears in front of the game world, making used vehicles clearly visible on any background environment.
A few new vehicles:
Dumpster on wheels is now a vehicle, and entering it gives a random powerup just like the Shopping Cart does.
A new tractor has been added
Three very old vehicles that were in the game but never spawned, can now spawn (rarely)
Diesel engine sound:
Accompanying most vans and similarly sized vehicles.
Ion propulsion:
New type of propulsion used by electric future spacecraft (instead of rockets). It includes new visual and sound effects.
Better year scrolling on gamepads:
Those of you using gamepads know how difficult it was to scroll through the years, as holding left or right just didn't do anything. Well, to be fair, it still doesn't (despite working just fine on keyboard), however you can now press A and the counter will jump 10 years forward.
Starting difficulty indicator:
The way the starting year affects difficulty has been made a bit clearer, by telling the actual starting difficulty level when scrolling through the years.
Some more highlights:
New font with better readability
Lightning strike now recharges batteries
Aliens now have varying friction based on terrain
More difficulty balancing
Better looking loading splash screens
Of course, as usual, there are even more changes! For more details make sure to check out the full changelog below.
--- Full changelog: ---
Gameplay:
- Tutorial tips now pause the game (easier to follow)
- Lightning strike now recharges batteries
- Won't total vehicle if battery had room to be charged - Alien agility now varies depending on friction with terrain
- Radar replaces all bad weather with the "monitor effect"
- Increased chance to spawn alien if timer ran out and there is none
- Super old vehicles can now spawn
- All vehicles should be encounterable now - Three vehicles that were previously never spawning can now spawn (rarely) - Player character is less tolerable to small crash damage (note: still can't die from low speed collisions)
- Added reset tutorial tips option
- Added powerup selection tutorial tip
- Added vehicle locking tutorial tip
- Rain is now always accompanied by mist
- Reduced chance of mist-only weather
- Most advanced planes are now equipped with Radar
- Reduced maximum speed on solar-powered planes
- Increased hovercraft fuel consumption
- Hovercraft maximum speed (when installed as powerup) is now more mass dependent
- Slightly increased alien stomp damage when jumping on spikes
- Increased spawn of Cooldown powerup in later stages
- Various small Tutorial improvements
Content:
- Turned Dumpster prop into a vehicle
- Gives random powerup when entered, like the Shopping Cart - Added a new tractor
Juiciness:
- Added ion drive propulsion
- Used by electric future spacecraft instead of rockets - Includes new visual and sound effects - Added diesel engine sound
- Used by vans and similar vehicles
Interface:
- New GUI font
- Added "Minimal" vehicle suggestion option
- Shows suggested vehicles/lanes, but without annoying effects - When the run ends, background fades to a gray "death effect" for better visibility of used vehicles list
- Confirm key now cycles years by 10 on year selection button (for gamepads)
- Year change description now tells starting difficulty
- Brightened up loading splashscreens
- Added "Tutorial Complete!" notification when completing tutorial
- Added to Free Roam description that fuel consumption is reduced in it
Bugs:
- Fixed radar not working with vehicle suggestion switched off
- Fixed maglev trains being able to steer on maglev tracks
- Fixed some helicopters no longer being able to fly after being used in space
- Fixed aliens making sounds when hurt in space
- Fixed helicopter rotor not replacing solar power with fuel powersource
- Fixed radar not pointing non-collidable objects as dangerous or useful
- Fixed a recent bug with stage 2 lanes being unlocked by completing tutorial
- Fixed starting year not going up to 2040
- Fixed Helium Balloon not working on fuelless VTOLs
- Fixed vehicle lock working in main menu
- Fixed alert icon overlapping with powerup deck
- Fixed "alpha" note overlapping with vehicle info
- Fixed yellow in-range marker not working (from previous update)
- Fixed aerial radar marker not correctly positioned in 16:9
- Fixed Nitrous flame remaining stuck on player character at ending sequence
- Slight performance improvement
- A few more bugfixes and tweaks
As always, if you have any questions, comments or suggestions, feel free to make a post on the forum!
After coming back from Reboot developer conference in Croatia (which was awesome by the way!), I made various improvements to the game influenced by the community feedback. Thank you all for your gameplay videos, forum reports, feedback and suggestions! Keep them coming!
Note: This update will replace your config.ini. If you have custom graphics settings or a control scheme, they will have to be redone.
Powerup Selection:
Ever wanted to install a cannon, but you had rail wheels in your way? Now you can press a key to change the order of your powerups before using them.
Powerup Tips:
When a powerup is picked up or selected, a short summary of what it does will be displayed below the powerup deck. Many of you asked for this as database description just wasn't immediate enough.
Vehicle lock option:
Remember that time you had a rocket-powered tracked train with a big laser gun and spikes, but then accidentally replaced it for a mower? You can now lock a vehicle and prevent it from being replaced - based on another great forum suggestion. Locking and unlocking is done by holding the intended slot key.
Fixed database crash:
Some of you noticed that since update 1.007 there was sometimes a crash when browsing the database. This has been fixed.
Recharging lane indicator:
If you have an electric vehicle that can be charged, all recharging lanes will be shown with a blue indicator.
Vehicle top speed and mass info ingame:
Whenever you enter a vehicle, its top speed and mass will show next to its type name in the top info bar. As suggested on the forum, this immediate information can be useful to compare vehicles, or to measure better how powerups affect vehicles.
Difficulty balancing:
Removed fatal crashes at low speeds
Must reach stage 3 once to silently unlock fire and flat tires
Slightly increased difficulty in later years/stages
Underground segments are now ~30% shorter
Non-steering vehicles can now steer very slowly, unless they use rails
3 new electrified sceneries (because 7 was not enough)
More community suggestions:
Setting a steam-powered vehicle on fire makes it super-powerful!
Shopping cart gives any random powerup when entered
Vehicle suggestion can now be disabled in options
GUI selection has been redesigned
As usual, there are even more changes. For more details make sure to check out the full changelog below.
--- Full changelog: ---
Gameplay:
- Added Powerup Select key
- Allows toggling between powerups - Shows powerup tips (more below) - Includes new sound effect - Added vehicle lock option
- Hold a slot key to lock/unlock a vehicle - Locked vehicle cannot be replaced (accidentally) - Includes new sound effects - Hitting things at low speeds is no longer fatal
- Similarly to using helmet, health is dropped to a minimum instead - High speed impacts still cause instant death - Setting a steam-powered vehicle on fire makes it super-powerful
- Shopping cart gives any random powerup when entered
- Slightly increased difficulty in later years/stages
- Can't get on fire or blow tires if not having reached stage 3 once
- Destroying Alien Cyst does the same effect as Alien Pollen powerup
- Reduced length of underground biomes by a third
- Non-steering vehicles can now steer very slowly (except on rails)
- Boats now steer faster on land (easier to get back to water)
- Shield now protects from lightning strike and explosives
- Increased friction when overspeeding with a feeted vehicle (for future use with animals)
- No crash particles appear anymore if no damage is taken
- Powerup tips
- Shown when getting a powerup, or selecting - Recharging lanes are now appointed with a blue indicator
- Vehicle top speed and mass info ingame
- Shown in the top bar when entering a vehicle - Vehicle suggestion can now be disabled in options
- Powerup install key now wiggles when a powerup was picked up
- Redesigned selection representation in GUI
- Timer and stamina bar now flash white when updated (e.g. when using Icecream)
- Grapple powered vehicles are now marked with a yellow in-range marker
Code:
- Control options now allow more controls to be added in the future
Bugs:
- Fixed a crash with database occurring since 1.007
- Fixed unknown track icons all showing on the bottom track
- Fixed vehicle suggestion sound playing when in range of another vehicle
- Fixed Skis not giving a fuel engine to human-powered vehicles
- Fixed a bug with Back gamepad button automatically being mapped to escape control
- Fixed Hangbike making sparks when used
- Fixed badly positioned sort type text in database, when having a wide key sprite
- Fixed a bug with grapple powered notification coming when no longer having grapple
- Fixed icon above player being drawn in front of alert bar
- Fixed outline on three ATVs and a tram
- A few more bugfixes and tweaks
That's it for now. As always, if you have any questions, comments or suggestions, feel free to make a post on the forum!
It's update time! A lot of work was put into bug fixing, as well as some gameplay improvements.
- Fixed ending bug
As you may have seen, the update was postponed for a week after unsuccessful attempts to fix the ending bug. Eventually I dug in and during the last two weeks rewrote parts of the problematic code, which caused not only that one, but numerous other issues that have now been fixed, or at least reduced, including:
Wrong ending location
Repeating stages
Non-synced safe zone and world transition
Wobbly safe zone gate
- Vehicle rebalancing
There have been various changes with the vehicles, mostly with somewhat beefing up the formerly useless ones, while nerfing the very useful ones. Don't worry though, the changes aren't too drastic, nor they make the vehicles too similar.
As an example, Speed Locomotive has been made a bit slower and rarer, so you will find yourself using Freight Locomotives or Electric Multiple Units more often when looking for a quick way out.
There have also been slight changes with how some physical properties behave, so for example going too fast in a tracked vehicle will produce extra friction, while steering with helicopters will be less agile.
Solar and Nuclear power sources now give more speed than before, and a lot more if stacked.
- Database sorting [WIP]
Vehicles in database can now be sorted by category. This will be worked on more in the future, hopefully also including more sorting types, such as by production years, production range, speed, or other parameters.
- Street lane
By mistake this lane was never present in The Run game mode nor the database, despite being in the game otherwise. It's only a road with overhead wires, but a nice "addition" nevertheless.
- Many more changes, some more interesting being:
Added images for all lanes in database
Alien magnet now behaves like a solid surface, suitable to wheels
Bushes can be grappled onto without popping
Contextual powerup given only if not in deck already
Fixed a bug with no vehicles spawning in Salt Flats
Improved drill behavior
Improved bottom lane visibility on 16:9
Full changelog:
Gameplay:
- Contextual powerups are no longer given if in the deck already
- Slightly reduced chance of getting a contextual powerup
- Helmet is more likely to be given in the first two stages
- Rebalanced many vehicles
- Changed availability and speeds of trains to make slower ones more useful
- Increased speed and/or acceleration of some slow vehicles
- Slightly reduced usefulness of too good vehicles
- Formerly 2034-2055 Spaceplane now spawns later
- Increased stall speed on Spaceplanes
- Sailboat and Iceboat are now equipped with Grappling Hooks
- Electric Bicycle now uses battery power source
- Supersonic Airliners consume more fuel - Alien Magnet is now as easy to drive on as the Cobble Street
- Increased strength of Small Bush and Dry Bush to be able to grapple onto
- Increased friction when overspeeding with a tracked vehicle
- It's now harder to steer in vehicles steering with propellers (e.g. helicopters)
- Solar Panel no longer decreases speed of already slow vehicles
- Laser and hovercraft skirt no longer work with solar power source
- Swimming Belt no longer has mass limitation
- Helium Balloon no longer has mass limitation
- Traffic vehicle now reacts to alien attack as if it was crashed into
- Road AI now avoids much lighter objects too (changed from 12x to 20x lighter)
- Removed teleports from relatively flat alien terrains
- Improved underwater friction
Juiciness:
- Vehicles with skis will no longer dip into water if going fast enough
Interface:
- Added vehicle categories to vehicle database
- Added sorting by category to vehicle database
- Added pictures to lane database
- Slightly lifted world on 16:9 to make bottom lane more visible
- Player character in inventory is now shown wearing a helmet, when having one
Bugs:
- Fixed ending not working properly sometimes
- Reduced stage being repeated (still happens, but rarely)
- Fixed too short or non-existent safe zone
- Fixed safe zone gate wobbliness
- Safe zone gate and end of the stage are now synced
- Better minimap precision
- Fixed prevention of objects spawning out of reach
- Smoother vehicle entering
- Fixed Street lane never showing up in The Run and Database
- Fixed vehicles not spawning on Salt Flat in certain years
- Fixed Solar Panel or Nuclear Reactor stacking not speeding up the vehicle
- Fixed drill not going in the direction of orientation, but to the right only
- Fixed drill not working with a Nuclear Reactor
- Fixed flying vehicles getting stuck in moon sky lanes
- Fixed ending music playing when music is turned off in options
- Fixed crash caused by reaching end of the world in Free Roam
- Fixed Tracks powerup reducing braking on vehicles which aren't using tracks to brake
- Fixed installing Armor powerup also repairing a vehicle
- Fixed recharge battery vehicle slot alert sometimes not blinking
- Fixed minimap icons showing in tutorial, after having unlocked them
- Added missing description on Airless Tires
- Redesigned 1.004 Sports Car oldtimer to be smaller
- Fixed pixels of some 1.004 vehicles
- Fixed grapple stress sound being hearable in space
- A few more bugfixes and tweaks
Don't forget to post on the forum if you have any questions, comments or suggestions!
Update 6 - Nuclear reactor, contextual powerups and lots more!
Hey everyone!
This is one of the bigger updates, mostly focused on gameplay balancing and bugs, while also introducing some new features.
Nuclear Reactor has been added as a new powerup. Being an infinite power source, but inflicting constant damage, it's great when your vehicle is out of fuel but having a full hitpoints bar. Installing it will slightly decrease the vehicle's speed, but the more massive it is, the longer it will last. Nuclear Reactor is now natively found powering Submarines and Aircraft Carriers.
Powerup leveling has been added. Installing the second Nitrous or Teleport will upgrade it to a Durable or Powerful variant. Durable variants will consume less action ability bar, while the Powerful will have stronger effect.
Contextual powerups are a new addition, making certain powerups more useful. Rail Wheels, Hull, Skis, Fire Extinguisher and Medikit will be given when the game estimates you might actually need them. Also, speed of Hull and Skis has been increased.
Radar has been improved with new features, marking objects with different colored brackets, based on their category. It will help you be able to tell locked from unlocked vehicles, and useful from dangerous objects.
Spikes have been improved too. To further encourage players to bounce aliens without interruptions, their fall damage gets reduced the more they bounce (the faster they fall). Also, dead aliens will no longer cause any damage to a Spikes-equipped vehicle.
Helmet no longer breaks if it didn't save player's life. However, it is no longer viable to try and hoard many helmets, as vehicles won't give you any once you have one equipped or in your deck. Regarding other vehicle-given powerups, chance of getting one that you already posses has been dropped to 25%.
Aliens and alien world had some changes too, based on your feedback. Two aliens can no longer spawn sooner than 5 seconds apart, while alien worlds won't appear at all before stage 4, giving players enough time to prepare before encountering one. To make traversing the alien world a bit easier until rideable alien animals are implemented, teleport frequency in it was increased too.
Alien Pollen got an alternative use. Sometimes you have it, but the time has already ran out, however it can now be used to force all present aliens to jump, giving you tactical advantage at the right moment.
New player character damage screen effect has been added, now more visible on the edges and less obstructing the view.
Upgraded vehicles look much cooler now, as new upgrade graphics were made for those that are long. For example a bus will get two sets of tracks instead of one, or a locomotive will get 8 offroad wheels instead of 4.
2 new rare oldtimers are now available in the game. They were added in update 1.004, but accidentally set to never spawn (and thus weren't counted in the database either). This has been fixed and they can be found in the game now.
There have also been various bug fixes, most notably making spaceships work in space, and being able to get into main menu after dying, even if your body is still rolling.
- Added powerup upgrading
- Installing the second Nitrous will create Durable Nitrous or Powerful Nitrous - Same with Teleport
- Added contextual powerups
- Given in moments when the game thinks they could be useful - Applies to Rail Wheels, Hull, Skis, Fire Extinguisher and Medikit
- Improved Radar powerup with new features
- Shows locked and unlocked vehicles in different color - Shows non-vehicles in different color - Shows useful and dangerous objects in different color
- Improved Spikes powerup
- The harder the alien falls on spikes, the less damage to vehicle (encouraging combos) - Dead alien does no fall damage to a Spikes equipped vehicle
- Helmet now breaks only when saving life
- Increased player health to 25%, after having life saved by helmet
- Aliens can no longer spawn sooner than every 5 seconds
- Alien world no longer appears before stage 4
- Increased teleport availability in alien world
- Vehicles no longer give helmets if player already has one (in deck or equipped)
- Reduced chance of getting a vehicle-given powerup to 25%, if already having that powerup in the deck
- Using Alien Pollen causes all aliens to jump, making it useful after time has run out
- Stacking more Solar Panels now makes vehicle faster
- Limited effectiveness of Spoiler to 240 kmh
- Improved speed of Hull and Skis upgrades
- Brake regen on battery vehicles now only works with non-empty batteries
- Can no longer hold throttle and brake at the same time, to prevent a rare regen exploit
- Increased powerup capsule availability
- Using Shield now puts out fire
- Drilling now forces the player vehicle to move
- Improved steering at low speeds on hovering vehicles (e.g. helicopters)
- Set tutorial powerup to always give Nitrous
- Added more powerups to specific vehicles
- Rebalanced powerup availability
- Increased speed of tracked motorcycle
Juiciness:
- Upgrades on long vehicles now use new graphics and look much better (new wheels, tracks, etc.)
- New human damage indicator graphics (more visible on the edges)
- Smoother representation of damage when dying
- Added camera shake when using ship horn
Interface:
- All stackable powerups now have so written in the database
- Vehicles that don't spawn in traffic are now labeled as "Rare" in the database
Bugs:
- Fixed two new oldtimers never spawning (and not being listed in the database)
- Fixed being unable to get into main menu after game over, if being pushed by another vehicle
- Fixed spaceships and plasma vehicles unable to fly on the moon
- Fixed Cooldown powerup not refilling entire extended ability bar
- Fixed helmets not being broken by falling aliens
- Fixed Road AI not going for refuel and repair stations
- Removed vibration from "Grapple powered!" message
- Fixed used vehicles showcase not being centered on 16:9
- Fixed tutorial vehicles having newer dates than the year it's taking place in
- Fixed rubble sound not stopping when briefly touching a crater
- Fixed plasma vehicles making braking sound when out of fuel
- Fixed "Laser requires fuel" alert coming up on fuelless vehicle, even if not trying to use laser
- Improved some pixel art on a few recently added vehicles
- A few more bugfixes and tweaks
That's it for this week's update! As usual, if you have any questions or comments please post on the forum.
Update 5 - New powerups: spikes, airless tires and more!
This week's update brings a lot of powerups changes, introducing some new ones as well as improving some of the previously less-commonly used ones!
Note: This update may reset your config.ini file. Please back it up if you want to keep your old settings!
Powerup changes:
Spikes This new powerup will hurt aliens jumping on your vehicle Mad Max style, but it will also make them bounce higher with every consecutive hit. The faster they fall on the spikes, the more damage they receive!
Spoiler New powerup that increases speed of any vehicle, regardless of propulsion type.
Alien Pollen New powerup that delays alien arrival, by adding more time to the timer.
Airless Tire Spare Tire was one of the not so useful powerups. This new iteration of it not only fixes flat tires, but also prevents wheels in general from ever going flat.
Cooldown This powerup also wasn't very useful before, which is why it got improved to not only refill the active ability bar, but also increase its capacity by 10% with every use, allowing you to use all active abilities with a greater duration. This increase is essentially a player character upgrade, and is valid for the duration of the whole run, but is limited at 150% of the default value. Cooldown is now represented by an icecream icon, and can be found in vehicles with food, such as icecream trucks or motorhomes.
Neon Light No longer only a cosmetic effect - now also makes aliens jump more frequently.
Fire Extinguisher This is just a rename and new icon for what was previously called Car Wash.
Powerups aside, I noticed that it wasn't clear to players that some of the non-powered vehicles are equipped with a grappling hook which can be used to propel them. Such vehicles now show a "Grapple powered!" message.
Those are some of the bigger changes. You can check the full changelog below:
Gameplay:
- Added Spikes powerup
- Added Spoiler powerup
- Added Alien Pollen powerup
- Cooldown now also increases active ability bar per use (and got a new icon)
- Spare Tire has become Airless Tire (cannot be popped)
- Neon light causes aliens to jump more frequently
- Car Wash was renamed to Fire Extinguisher (and got a new icon)
- Aliens jumping on player will no longer easily destroy the helmet
- Alien can no longer kill/damage airborne player character
- Increased chance of finding a rover on the moon
- Spaceplanes now come equipped with radar
- Ferries now give Swimming Belts
Interface:
- Non-powered vehicles equipped with grappling hook will now display "Grapple powered!" message
- Notification pops out when a helmet has saved your life
- Human powerups are now displayed with red background in the deck
- Gameover message now displays stage and year (useful for screenshots)
- Changed "Reconfigure controls" to "Remap controls"
Bugs:
- Fixed a bug with drill making sound on the moon
- Fixed some missing pixels on new assets
- Slightly improved Skip Loader graphics
As usual, if you have any questions or comments, please post on the forum!
Update 4 - New vehicles (47), Helmet powerup, vehicle-given powerups
Another Friday update is here!
Helmet powerup:
Many of you asked for a less harsh death by impact (usually from grappling hook). After discussing it in this thread, the new Helmet powerup was added. Wearing a helmet while hitting something hard will prevent death, but your health will drop to a bare minimum. However, the helmet will only withstand one hit - even if it was not a fatal one, after which it will disappear and you will have to look for another if you want to stay safe from impact. Note that the helmet only protects you from collisions, but not from other hazards, such as fire or being eaten by aliens. In general, the helmet is experimental and may be changed in the future.
Vehicle-given powerups:
How does one get a helmet? Aside from finding powerups in usual green supply barrels, a new way of obtaining them was added. Now certain vehicles have a 50% chance to provide a powerup when entered. For example, if you enter an ambulance, you may find a Medikit in it, or if you enter a tanker truck you may find a Refuel powerup in it. Helmets are most easily obtained in motorcycles or construction vehicles.
47 new vehicles:
Lastly, new vehicles have been added. There wasn't a lot of variety in the early years before, so a set of 47 road oldtimers have been added, ranging from 1890 to 1970. These are mostly cars, but there are also some new trucks, buses, and even a tram. A few of the new vehicles are rare and don't spawn in regular traffic.
- Added Helmet powerup
- Some vehicles now have 50% chance to give a powerup when entered
- Drill no longer works if vehicle is broken down
Content:
- Added 47 new road vehicles (oldtimers)
Interface:
- Pressing non-used keys (e.g. F12, Printscreen) no longer brings up menu after gameover
- Added a 1 sec delay before one can bring up menu after gameover
Bugs:
- Fixed a bug with traffic spawning (now has better availability when standing still)
- Fixed "not powered" notification not going away even after player is moving fast in said vehicle
- Fixed suggested lane indicator being positioned too high in 16:9
- Fixed missing upgraded vehicle indicator in 16:9
- Fixed red radar lane warning indicator showing too low in 16:9
- A few more tweaks
That's it for this update! If you have any questions on feedback, please let me know on the forum.
The next update will be focused on powerups, adding some new ones as well as updating some of the existing ones.
Update 3 - Better object spawn positioning, many bug fixes
Update 3 is here!
This time it is focused on bug fixes and some gameplay improvements. The most notable change is improved prop/vehicle spawning, which should lead to less situations with nothing to grapple to, or nothing to drive. It'll also make it slightly easier to avoid obstacles, as they will no longer appear in repetitive wall formations.
Note that due to some changes with controls (adding d-pad on gamepad as default movement keys), settings will be reset. Please backup your old config.ini before updating if you want to keep them.
Read on for more details:
Gameplay:
- Lessened lack of objects to grapple to or to drive on most terrain types
- Improved prop/vehicle spawn positioning, now more scattered, less wall formation
- Increased horizontal range for grappling up to flying vehicles
- Slightly decreased chance of the second alien (after the first one was lost/killed) to appear
- Reduced collision range on landmines and other explosives
- Slightly increased chance of powerups spawning in free roam
- Flipped airport staircase horizontally to look less like a jump ramp
Code:
- Added option to disable dynamic savegame (for slow HDDs)
- Added gamepad d-pad controls to default movement controls
- Implemented better identification of the unknown joy_axis input crash (issue #25[bitbucket.org]) by Nenad
Interface:
- Better explanation of how years affect difficulty in main menu
- Years description now let's player know if they unlocked all years
- Aspect ratio option can now be chosen using arrows too
- After completing the tutorial, game mode automatically changes to The Run
Bugs:
- Fixed a bug with alien unable to reach edge of the world in 16:9
- Fixed plasma hovercrafts still gliding when out of fuel
- Fixed loading screen being stretched in 16:9
- Raised position of database in 16:9
- Fixed upgrade notification text centering on 16:9
- Reduced camera shake imprecision build up
- Fixed airborne cable vehicles from playing braking sound while falling
- Fixed a super rare crash caused by train being derailed out of screen
- Fixed tutorial tip appearing on damaged, or fuelless aircraft
- Fixed powerup button being clickable while menu is active
- Fixed areal radar beeping in space sky lanes
- Added camera shake to grapple rope
- A few more tweaks
If you have any questions/reports about this update, please make a post on the forum!
I'm starting work on the next update, which will include the new helmet powerup, among other things.
Update 2 - Fixed fullscreen and lost focus issues
Hey everyone,
I've been working non-stop since the release at solving some of the most pressing issues, obviously related to the screen size, fullscreen, and losing the window focus:
Fixed fullscreen issues (please read more below)
- In options, change "Aspect ratio" to 16:9 and restart the game
- If this still doesn't help, try enabling the "Fit screen (beta)" option too
- Note that "Fit screen (beta)" is incomplete and may cause glitches and performance drop, so use it only if aspect ratio doesn't solve the fullscreen problem.
Fixed the game freezing when moving the mouse cursor out of window
Attempted fix with OverflowError crash (by Damir)
Please backup your config.ini and savegame.ini. They should not be harmed by the update, but since this is the first one, that's just for precaution.
This update was first released on a beta branch yesterday. Future updates will also be tested there before going live. You can read more about the update and how to opt in to the beta branch here. If you have any issues with this update, please post there too.
Update 3 is already in the works, and is focused on various bug fixes, before moving on to new gameplay features. I will post about it soon.
A word before the launch
Hey everyone!
As most of you know, Switchcars launches on Steam Early Access today! I just wanted to say a word or two about it prior to release.
Launch time
The specific time of release is 13:00 EST / 19:00 CET, which is in about 3.5 hours from now.
Price
The game will cost 8,99 USD/EUR (or other Steam-suggested localized price, depending on your location).
Make use of the -10% launch discount, which will be active for the duration of one week! The price will not change when the game leaves Early Access, apart from occasional special offers like this release week or Steam sales, so now might be the best time to get it, provided you'd like immediate access.
Other than on Steam, the game will be available for purchase on the Humble Store and Playfield (via Steam keys).
Bug reports
I've been working day and night for this launch, and with amazing help of my friends, spent months ensuring the game will run as smooth as possible when it comes out. However, I want to emphasize that Switchcars is in alpha after all, and some issues should be expected.
If you experience any issues with the game, please report them either to Bug Reports on Steam, or to the official issue tracker. I will look into these regularly.
Known issues
As bugs get reported, I will do my best to add and sort them to the issue tracker, with appropriate priority. Here you will be able to see all the issues (or suggestions!) and track their progress.
- Note the potential screen size issue:
Currently the game requires a screen that supports 1280x800 resolution on a 16:10 screen. On most screens we tried it there were no problems, but on those that don't support this resolution, the game appeared stretched or cut off. It is still playable, but doesn't look as intended. We are looking into fixing this, but if you encounter this issue, for now it may help to run the game in windowed mode (disable Fullscreen in options and restart the game).
Suggestions
As noted in Early Access information, please post your suggestions and just any feedback you have! You can do so on the General Discussions forum. It will greatly help shape up the upcoming updates.
Just note that due to Switchcars being made by a single person for the most part, only so many suggestions can make their way into the updates. That said, all the suggestions will be taken into consideration, and if the revenue allows hiring more developers to share the load, so will the development speed increase.
It's also important to note that many systems in the game have been made in such a way so that the project would be finished in time by a single person (and I was not even a programmer when it all started). For the last year more or less, due to lack of resources, I had a specific deadline by which the game needed to be released, and while I've done everything that I intended for Early Access, some compromises had to be made. Some solutions had to be rushed, and there's generally plenty of room for improvement. This mostly reflects in having certain limitations that will prevent immediate implementation of many "obvious" suggestions. I am hoping that during Early Access there will be more time and resources to fully dedicate into improving the specific bits of code that cause these limitations.
Gameplay
Despite being full of content, Switchcars has many layered emergent systems that stir up the gameplay. It's fun and highly replayable, and as someone who has been playing it nearly every day for over three years, I put a lot of balancing effort into it.
You may find it difficult. If beating it is your only goal, it may even be frustrating at times. But, to some, losing is fun too.
Updates
So far I've been making a new build approximately every month, for my own development needs. In Early Access I will be looking into making them more frequent, currently aiming at biweekly.
Currently considered future updates include more powerups, more music, more types of lanes, more backgrounds, more animals, Steam features such as leaderboard and achievements, perhaps new game modes (some have been in the plans for a long time), and of course, hundreds of new vehicles (it's already got a thousand)!
Depending on the revenue and feedback, the scope of the game might change as well. Also please note that some of those things will take time! I'll keep you updated regarding their progress through the forum or the website.
Final word
It's just amazing that the game I've been working on for over three years will come out in only a few hours! For any questions or information please get in touch via the Switchcars website, or on Twitter and Facebook. I'm sorry that I cannot reply to all of the mail I get due to time restrictions, but I do read it all. I hope you will enjoy the launch, have fun, and have a great weekend!
