Hey racers! A new galactic challenger approaches to compete in the Galaxy Rush, this time from the Milky Way's very own Asteroid Belt! Additionally, the racers have all been hard at work tuning their spacecraft for maximum performance. All the vehicles have had a balance pass based on community feedback, and are performing better than ever! The race organizers have also made several improvements to the tracks to improve the racing experience for all. So start your engines, and let's get into the changes! [h1] Additions:[/h1] [h2]ARC Star Commander "Comet Cruiser"[/h2] [img]https://i.ibb.co/Gc2WqzX/Highres-Screenshot00044.png[/img] [i]Hailing from the Asteroid Belt, this heavily-modified Star Commander wagon is affectionately known as the "Comet Cruiser" by pilot Davidson. This craft is true to its brick-shaped aesthetic, weighing substantially more than its racing competitors. This bulk is easily managed by the powerful engine stuffed under the hood, but it takes some unique driving strategies to coax this beast around the tight corners the Galaxy Rush is known for. With so much weight on the rear of the Comet Cruiser when accelerating, handling is severely compromised. That weight will have to be transfered to the front of the craft to get some tighter turns, either by letting off the accelerator and coasting, or braking. Thankfully, the sheer mass of the Comet Cruiser means it holds momentum for an extremely long time compared to typical race craft. This beast can almost perfectly maintain speed while coasting, and is less likely to lose momentum from small collisions and wall taps. [/i] [h1]Track Changes:[/h1] [h3]All Tracks:[/h3] [list] [*] Added finish gates [/list] [h3]Erythraeum Dunes:[/h3] [list] [*] Added spectators [*] Adjusted lighting to brighten some unusually dark patches [/list] [h3]Cerulean Point:[/h3] [list] [*] Increased visibility when underwater [/list] [h1]Vehicle Changes:[/h1] [h3]All Vehicles:[/h3] [list] [*] Added hidden "Collision Penalty" variable [/list][i]Previously, all vehicles would lose speed at the same rate when colliding with walls or other drivers. This played poorly with vehicles like the Redshift and Aria that are designed around snowballing large amounts of speed over time, since any mistake would result in significant speed loss. This change aims to improve the experience for these slower-accelerating vehicles by lowering the speed penalty for smaller crashes and walltaps. [/i] [h3]Fulminata[/h3] [list] [*] Increased Acceleration from 0.2 to 0.26 [*] Lowered Top Speed from 288 to 274 [*] Lowered Max Boost Speed from 360 to 345 [*] Lowered Boost Regen Rate from 2.0 to 0.8 [*] Lowered Starting Boost from 166% to 33% [*] Lowered Collision Penalty from 0.95 to 0.933 [/list] [i]The Fulminata is designed to be the most basic and simple-to-drive vehicle in the game, with balanced stats and approachable controls that are easy to master. Other vehicles may outclass it when driven by very skilled players, but it should be able to hold its own in the majority of races. However, we found that even experienced players were strongly gravitating towards this vehicle due to the significant boost generation when drifting, and ease of maintaining the maximum boost speed at all times due to very forgiving handling. These changes aim to better position the Fulminata into its intended niche by lowering overall speed and boost generation, as well as lowering the penalty for small mistakes and crashes. [/i] [h3]Typhoon[/h3] [list] [*] Increased Steer Strength from 3800 to 4300 [*] Increased Boost Regen Rate from 0.6 to 0.9 [*] Lowered Collision Penalty from 0.95 to 0.94 [*] Increased Max Boost Speed from 342 to 360 [/list] [i]Positioned as both the 2nd vehicle in the selector, the Typhoon is a beginner vehicle with a slight step up in difficulty and mechanics compared to the Fulminata. Many of the same aspects of the Fumlinata are present, but with a more complex drifting mechanic and slightly different strengths and weakneeses in stats. Similarly to the Fulminata, we found that the Typhoon was failing to compete with harder vehicles when driven by experienced pilots. To help with this, boost regen has been significantly buffed to help with speed, recovery, and to reward successful drifts. The max boost speed has also been buffed to help keep up while in straights. Finally, a small buff has been made to handling to help non-drift cornering and countersteering ability in drifts.[/i] [h3]Redshift[/h3] [list] [*] Increased Acceleration from 0.09 to 0.096 [*] Increased Boost Regen Rate from 0.6 to 0.8 [*] Lowered Max Boost Speed from 540 to 500 [*] Lowered Collision Penalty from 0.95 to 0.89 [/list] [i]The Redshift is a high-risk high-reward vehicle, with the highest base top speed in the game, and among the highest boost top speeds. However, it was previously a struggle to reach anywhere near these speeds, as any mistake was exceptionally punishing when paired with the extremely low acceleration. These changes aim to make boost much more available to the player so that it may be used to aid in acceleration. The maximum boost speed has also been lowered to both encourage using boost for other purposes than overspeed, and better fit the Redshift into its own niche compared to other vehicles with high boost speeds. Acceleration has also been slightly increased and collision penalty significantly decreased to further help the player gain and maintain speed.[/i] [h3]Moon Halo[/h3] [list] [*] Increased Steer Strength from 6000 to 8500 [*] Increased Brake force from 1.3 to 1.5 [*] Increased Boost Regen Rate from 1.2 to 1.35 [*] Increased Max Boost Speed from 342 to 378 [*] Increased Max Boost from 150 to 180 [*] Lowered Minimum Boost Percent from 0.4 to 0.38 [/list] [i]The Moon Halo was designed to be a cornering-focused vehicle, with exceptional drift stats to navigate the sharpest of corners. Unfortunately, it was lacking in some control due to poor countersteering. The top speed was also quite low compared to other vehicles in attempt to balance against the advantage in cornering, but this ended up feeling sluggish on most tracks, especially while boosting. These changes aim to address these issues by buffing handling abilities both in and out of a drift, and buffing the maximum speed available when under a boost. The rate at which boost is gained has also been significantly buffed, letting boost be used more often to regain speed lost around corners, and when braking, which this vehicle requires to engage a drift.[/i] [h3]Riptide[/h3] [list] [*] Increased Acceleration from 0.24 to 0.34 [*] Increased Top Speed from 306 to 324 [*] Increased Steer Strength from 2222 to 3333 [*] Increased Drift Strength from 3333 to 5555 [*] Lowered Drift Angle from 7000 to 4000 [*] Increased Drift Slide from 60 to 75 [*] Lowered Lift-Off Drift from 10000 to 5000 [*] Lowered Collision Penalty from 0.95 to 0.91 [*] Enabled Brake Drifiting [/list] [i]The Riptide has been one of the least used vehicles in the game, with a very odd throttle-based drifting setup that was hard to use and not worth learning over faster vehicles. Because of this, significant changes have been made to rework this concept into a better vehicle. To improve drifitng consistency, base steering and drifting has been generally buffed, while the effect of throttle on drifts has been reduced to a more predictable point. Drift angle has been made less harsh, and the outward slide of drifting has been slightly increased. Drifting on brake has also been enabled, to give more options when engaging a drift, since drifting on coast only felt stiff with how low this vehicle's handling stat is. [/i] [h3]Hunter[/h3] [list] [*] Increased Boost Regen Rate from 0.5 to 0.6 [/list][i] The Hunter has remained second only to the Fulminata in popularity, and remains in a good spot in terms of balance. The only change made is slightly buffing the boost regeneration rate, since the Hunter could fall behind significantly in straights if it happened to not have enough boost built up. [/i] [h3]Impulse[/h3] [list] [*] Lowered Max Boost from 400 to 200 [*] Increased Boost Regen Rate from 1.2 to 1.9 [*] Increased Minimum Boost Percent from 0.4 to 1.0 [/list][i] The Impulse is another vehicle that remains in a pretty good spot in balancing. Despite its unusual control scheme, the Impulse has some of the best handling available when piloted effectively. For this reason, these changes simply rework how boosting works on this vehicle. The Impulse now generates boost quickly, but can only store up to 100% boost. This means that boosting is only available once the entire gauge is filled. This change aims to make boosting more available to the Impulse, and encourage more frequent boost usage by removing excess boost storage. [/i] [h3]Cyclone:[/h3] [list] [*] Increased Steer Strength from 5000 to 10000 [*] Lowered Drift Angle from 5000 to 3000 [*] Increased Drift Liftoff Angle from 2000 to 2700 [*] Increased Max Boost from 100 to 300 [*] Lowered Minimum Boost Percentage from 0.5 to 0.15 [*] Lowered Collision Penalty from 0.95 to 0.92 [/list][i] The Cyclone is the twitchiest vehicle in the roster, with a focus on sharp cornering and extreme drifting. Previously, this vehicle suffered from having too much drift and not enough steering to countersteer, and little means of generating and maintaining speed compared to other vehicles. These changes aim to both improve the drifting control of the vehicle by increasing control available from countersteering and managing throttle, as well as increasing boost generation and storage to make up for the loss of speed in collisions, and the relatively low top speed compared to other vehicles. The goal is to have the Cyclone naturally build boost in the tight corners it is optimized for, which then can be used in straights where it is at a disadvantage. [/i] [h3]Aria:[/h3] [list] [*] Increased Steer Strength from 3000 to 50000 [*] Increased Drift Slide from 10 to 15 [*] Lowered Drift Rotation from 30 to 20 [*] Lowered Collision Penalty from 0.95 to 0.90 [*] Increased Starting Boost from 92% to 222% [/list][i] The Aria is a unique vehicle in the roster, with almost all of its speed coming from boost overspeed. While powerful when high speeds can be sustained, the Aria previously had the problem of being way too hard to control at speed to actually maintain overspeed, causing it to feel very punishing to play. These changes significantly improve the Aria's handling when drifting, improving control at speed. Additionally, the collision penalty has been lowered to make small crashes far less harsh, and starting boost has been increased to stop the Aria from immediately falling behind on race start. [/i] [h1]UI:[/h1] [list] [*] Vehicle selection now loops back to the beginning/end rather than stopping [*] Changed default Gamemode Selection to "Quick Race" rather than "Tutorial" to help with misclicks [*] Improved Wrong Way indicator [/list] As always, thank you for supporting the development process of Galaxy Rush! We're looking forward to continuing to add to and improve this game in the future. Happy racing!