Hello Pilots, We're really excited to share our latest updates with you! The development team has been grinding to bring you a new Onboarding mode, a new Search & Destroy game play mode, a DRL Pilot flight mode, upgraded Replay system, and an irresistible new Mega City map with three (3) brand new tracks! [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/29022929/1826cb3e0bc1762801b50d6628102acd1cb3518d.jpg[/img] The new Mega City map features a futuristic metropolis where users can navigate the city from above the skyline, around and inside of massive high rise buildings and architectural landmarks, through city streets and urban parks, down through underground highways, through a monorail station and even into a multi-level underground subway station. While this map is addictive to fly in Freestyle mode, we've included expert-designed Basic, Medium, and Hard tracks to accompany this new map; Let's see who can stay atop the Leaderboards on these fresh tracks! [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/29022929/7b0dde8e8a5170570b110d3c9737d5d7f51defb8.jpg[/img] The new Search & Destroy game mode provides a fun and satisfying gameplay experience of destroying target balloons by flying into them. Target balloons of various shapes and sizes are strategically and creatively placed throughout the DRL Sim signature Campground map, along with "danger" balloons that must be avoided, empowering newer pilots with a fun way to level up their skills to begin competing on the more challenging race courses. For experienced pilots, Search & Destroy provides a fresh game experience for fine tuning their stick coordination for precision drone control, while also introducing new leaderboards to grind by attempting to "pop" all target balloons in the shortest amount of time. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/29022929/74eda0d951e3d439278143ea412f5026e3a3ebde.jpg[/img] The new Onboarding game flow guides newer pilots through a series of progressive training missions and instruction. Pilots will start Onboarding training in an assisted flight Beginner mode completing nine (9) Onboarding missions culminating in a race before progressing to Intermediate, a partially assisted Onboarding flight mode, consisting of 10 missions culminating in another race. Finally, in Onboarding Pro Mode, pilots will fly unassisted (training wheels completely off) for three (3) races that must be won in sequence to complete Onboarding flight training! [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/29022929/929b7243fe000c583dfda3872c45653ef3f09277.jpg[/img] The DRL Racer4 is now upgraded to include a throttle cap and battery resistance, with an optional damage setting, to match the setup used by professional DRL pilots during Virtual Season Levels. This allows users to truly train like the pros! [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/29022929/c761c27bcbedfd7e190d5c5512060e709ee9850c.jpg[/img] This release also unleashes an updated Replay system that uses less RAM while supporting longer Replay recordings. All users will benefit from the faster pre and post race load times, especially when racing with opponent bots. Additionally, we've expanded Map Editor capability to support creation of the new Search & Destroy tracks and added a new Geometric Layout tool that enables exponentially faster placement and sizing of large groupings of specific assets in random or pattern configurations. We love hearing all feedback and suggestions, so please let us know what you think of this release! [b]*** Note that with the addition of DRL Pilot mode updates to the stock Racer4, we must reset our Leaderboards with this release and the Replay v2 upgrade is not backwards compatible. For users that update to the v4.0 version, this just means that there will be fresh Leaderboards to top! However, make sure all your friends also update to v4.0, as users that haven't updated from v3.12 will lose the ability to set leaderboard entries, view the replays, and fly against bots ***[/b] [b]Notable Bug Fixes:[/b] - Resolved Leaderboard search issues - Fixed Tournament system Sudden Death and Golden Heat issues - Improved overall Tournament system stability - Enabled Drone crash recordings in Replays - Resolved Replay system performance issues - Rendering improvements on low quality settings to make maps look more consistent - Exposure calibration on low quality settings to fix either too dark or high exposure maps rendering - Continued improving console rendering performance for most maps