Hey all, this is an replace on what I’ve been engaged on for the previous couple of months.

Tutorial situations

The important problem I’ve had currently is with the design of the tutorial situations, my authentic concept for these did not work out to my liking.  They ended up being quite boring and did not give an excellent first impression of the sport.  So I made a decision to strive a brand new path to create a extra entertaining expertise for first time gamers whereas introducing some primary ideas.

Unfortunately it will possible imply scrapping a few of the work I’ve already executed, however hopefully I can reuse a few of it a minimum of.  For now I’ll say no extra in regards to the new tutorial state of affairs design, till I’m additional together with it and extra assured that it will work out.

I discovered all this quite dispiriting and irritating to be sincere, so to attempt to maintain myself motivated and transfer issues ahead, I’ve additionally been engaged on another stuff!

Building enhancements

Recently I’ve been enjoying the sport rather a lot (to construct content material for the tutorial situations and trailer video), this has highlighted some bugs and different usability annoyances, which I’ve been fixing as I discover them.

For instance:-

• When detaching chosen elements from different ones, the attachment sorts between them can be misplaced, and after re-attaching them you’d have to alter the attachments again to the specified sort.  Now, the kinds are saved whereas the choice is being moved, and restored after re-attachment.
• Part highlighting has been improved in order that instruments solely spotlight elements related to them (e.g. solely paintable elements for painter instrument).
• Fixed a number of bugs (resembling elements typically not attaching to engaged gears, random rotation after freezing a building, half duplication points, and so forth).

Braking

On the topic of annoyances, I constructed a race automobile to showcase on the race monitor map, which was enjoyable to drive round however actually emphasised the necessity for correct braking.

Electric motors present regen braking by working them backwards, however this was laborious to manage.  If a car’s wheels had inadequate grip they’d slip and the motor would spin up in reverse.  So I made some adjustments to the motor half behaviour to deal with this:-

• Above a sure velocity a “braking path” is now set, which is then used to stop the motor from spinning in reverse after coming to a cease throughout braking (the braking path is reset as soon as directional management is launched).
• Added a separate tweakable worth for braking torque.

Electric motor regen could not present sufficient braking by itself nevertheless, and so I’ve now carried out a brand new braking half behaviour for wheels (that may be activated by a certain key).  This makes driving autos far more controllable and pleasurable.

When braking is enabled, a brake disc is proven contained in the wheel.

I plan on including separate brake and clutch elements sooner or later that may also make use of this identical half behaviour implementation.

Analog joystick management

After spending a while driving autos round, I could not resist implementing one thing that will tremendously enhance the expertise – analog management.  More particularly, having the ability to bind a joystick axis to a controllable half behaviour (resembling a motor).

This, together with braking, transforms the enjoyment of driving autos within the recreation.  It is optionally available nevertheless, and the common certain keys are nonetheless an honest methodology of management.

Chase digital camera

Another factor I could not resist including was a “chase” digital camera, which is now selectable when the participant is seated.  It’s much like the prevailing third-person digital camera besides that side-to-side motion is easily locked behind the seated participant, and the mouse can solely transfer the digital camera up and down.

This digital camera mode makes driving autos in a third-person view a lot simpler, as you do not have to manually monitor the car by shifting the mouse.

More elements and enhancements

Again, after spending time driving autos, I wished to enhance how leaving seats labored:-

• Rather than having to look down at a seat to go away it, now you can merely press the “soar” motion (i.e. Space by default).
• When leaving a seat, if attainable the participant is now repositioned at a free place in entrance or to the aspect of the seat, quite than on prime.  This is extra higher for a car with a roof for instance, the place earlier than the participant would simply be repositioned on prime of the roof.

I additionally improved another half behaviours (e.g. key bind for differential locking, tweakable mild brightness) and added a number of extra elements (e.g. seat, gear, steering wheel, connectors) to facilitate a few of the instance constructions I’ve been making.

Grabber instrument

Finally, I made a decision to implement the final remaining instrument within the recreation, the “grabber” instrument.  Although this wasn’t a very excessive precedence, it was fast to implement and I wished to get it executed in order that I’ve the choice to incorporate it within the tutorial situations, with out having to return and modify them later.

The grabber instrument permits constructions to be moved round as bodily objects, i.e. with out freezing them first.

It has two modes, “seize” and “shove”:-

• 1) Target a part of a building, then click on the left mouse button and drag, to seize that half and drag the development round by it.
• 2) Target a part of a building, maintain the appropriate mouse button to cost up, then launch to use a shove drive to that a part of the development.

The seize and shove forces are configurable, as is the flexibility to have free or locked rotation whereas grabbing.

What in regards to the full recreation launch?

Before the early entry launch of the sport, there are two important duties left I have to get executed: end the in-game tutorials and make a trailer video.

The tutorial situations haven’t progressed to the place I might have preferred by now, however I wanted a break from them to clear my head, and work on one thing else.  Anyway, now I really want to focus again on ending the tutorial situations, end constructing content material for the trailer video, and get that captured and edited.

I hoped to launch the sport earlier than the top of the yr, however sadly it is now wanting just like the date should slip by just a few months.

This is basically disappointing I do know, however by the use of compensation, I’ve determined to do one other demo launch replace quickly, which is able to embrace most of the enhancements talked about on this submit, so maintain your eye out for that!