[h3]{ Status }[/h3] We're going to be going into Early Access on [b]November 16th[/b], very soon! We've been very, very hard at work. There's a balance between adding content, expanding features, and refining what exists. While we're pretty aggressively adding to the game, we're trying to lean toward refinement enough that the experience of playing a small amount of content is very positive. So we hope that translates to you well - and we also hope that sparks an excitement for upcoming additional areas, vehicles and experiences. We wanted to update the Demo before Early Access release with many of the new improvements from the last few months. The demo is much more representative of what Early Access will be like, just with only one area. The demo is approximately 20 minutes to complete only the core objectives. And another 1.5 hours or so to do the rest of the available objectives. This reflects how areas in the game will feel. A set of core objectives and then an array of other objectives you can complete. We want areas, even smaller ones, to feel like something you're building on and accomplishing - so we wanted to make sure the demo shows that well. [h3]{ Changelog }[/h3] - "Driving School: The Basics" overhauled and now acts as an optional tutorial area as well as the Demo area - Working on area "Neighborhood Water" for Early Access launch - Additional work on upcoming areas "Trail To Doom Edge Summit" and "Downhill Rush" - reprinting/respawning no longer needs to reload level, giving a near-instant retry loop - fixes to area unlock notifications - expand vehicle part system and make it all modular, this will eventually allow expansive customization options - texture and mesh optimizing for better performance (and a significant reduction in disk size requirement) - ground deformation optimization for some small improvements - options menu fps performance benchmark stats/graph added for play segments to allow for a good loop of setting up options to your liking - make deforming ground togglable, setting up for "new game options" that influence gameplay/difficulty - improve visual vegetation toggle option - add progression/completion tracking + clickable breakdown of total progress - improvements to objectives, including adding core objectives, icons, partial progress and hidden objectives that can be discovered - save file conversion tools built in to allow us greater control of how old saves are handled as we're updating the game - electric & wire system improved to provide better feedback to players, visually showing what objects in an area are connected by power. also fixes to wire visuals when spark is moving - fix fps drop near build zones (huge improvements to performance while near bridges/build zones) - fixes to vegetation system, with some significant improvements to loading times - vehicle select HUD improvements, including intrinsic vehicle feedback and vehicle wireframes - add new fancy laser effects for powering cores + picking up trash - quitting now shows a status window on possible consequences for quitting + providing clear options to exit to system or title - fixes to various user interface bugs - supply zones overhauled to show current supply counts + support for NPCs or terminals to provide access to supplies - local supplies supported as well as a global unlockable supply pool - improvements to interface and positioning of supply to spawn - improvements and fixes to our game data system - huge overhaul of the driver rig transition and state system for better stability and control, fixing several severe bugs that would cause loss of control, being put in an unrecoverable state or instant death - improve stability of standing up, reducing chance you'll hit your head and go unconscious while trying to stand - music system added for vehicles as well as support for radio stations (and soon controllable radios in cars) + effects for vehicles playing music - map improvements to art, including area photos, sticky notes for larger objectives + a few other nice things - terrain slope controls added per type of terrain, to allow us greater control of how terrain forms ruts, allowing some terrains to cut harder edge ruts while others are forced to be more gentle ruts (think ruts through dirt vs ruts through sand) - add vehicle dashboard control panel system, giving each vehicle a dashboard control panel part that gives access to advanced vehicle controls like differential locks or drive modes (4x4, 2x4, etc) - add a live torque path diagram in the dashboard to illustrate how torque passes from your engine to your tires as well as to illustrate how differentials or drive modes affect your vehicle - tire damage, air inflation level and popping added/improved - add parking brake and brake friction physics + create base for brakes to eventually be in the modular vehicle part system - improve vehicle steering system to give more precise control + prepare for vehicle part system - make simulation of suspension more accurate + modular so that each spring/damper can be swapped in the vehicle part system + allow for individual damage to springs/dampers in the suspension system - make an editor system for baking live ground changes into areas (the best way to make dirt roads in the terrain is to actually drive them enough times, then bake them in so the area will start with them) - transfer cases added to allow for both a center differential (that you can toggle) and switchable drive modes between front, rear or 4x4, depending on the vehicle - differentials added to axles to allow for open or locked relative tire rotation + a visual diff on the axle - add dune hopper vehicle, a slightly crazy dune buggy + make sure it can go at least 50 mph on reasonably flat terrain (this will be first drivable in the "Downhill Rush" area that will be coming to Early Access during probably end of Nov/Dec) - add simple direct travel zones to allow travel between zones without the use of the map and without area lock restrictions... to be expanded later for overlanding sectors (like for the journey through the martian deserts from the starting sector to the colony city sector) - add rev limiters as vehicle parts + allow for better control of unlimited target rpms (this will be expanded when heat restrictions are added to balance it) - overhaul how bushes and trees work, now bushes bend and provide non-rigid physical resistance against your vehicle as well as can deteriorate and be completely destroyed + small trees can now bend and eventually break completely as well. both are permanently saved in an area, allowing for clearing of lasting trails through dense foliage - add support for independent suspensions and include them in the vehicle part system - add axle bending on intense impacts + reduce axles falling off in favor of bending instead + fix crazy pop up issue for axles - support for 8 cylinder engines added to HUD - time trial fixes + split times shown above checkpoints and record time vs current time displayed visually above end gate - time trial medals integrated into the objective system - allow time trial cancel in pause menu - objects blend better with terrain visually - tires now have different forward/backward and left/right friction values, allowing more variation in tires as well as more nuanced pros/cons to different tires in different situations - map icons added to objectives list and to many more objects on pause menu map - core objective icons added - background terrains drastically improved size, performance and visuals - edge of map handling :O - pause menu overlay map is bound by distances + camera speeds of zoom and panning improved for better control - tires over-expanding problem fixed so they no longer expand in an unstable way when inflation is low and they're spinning quickly without resistance - tire inflation methods modified to allow for more stability and a greater range of softness/hardness/bounciness - supplies in areas now exist next to where you can print supplies so that they reflect how many are in that stockpile - fixed regrabbing the steering wheel after letting go/being pulled off now correctly starts driving again (often hanging off in some ridiculous way, haha, very dramatic) - support for much more complex objectives, allowing for more conceptual objectives as well as the normal more concrete ones - parts of vehicles that fall off despawn with the rest of the vehicle if you reprint it - driver no longer tries to grab the steering wheel if you're crawling, swimming or standing up to avoid some awkward situations - add gravel bags that can be transported and placed to fix rough terrain .. this isn't in the demo but is coming soon, we want to include it with reasonable control + balance for it :] - remove current grabbing system in anticipation of reworked grab/holding system - make consciousness able to go negative to allow for time spent totally unconscious for severe impacts to the head - build zone fixes so that preview objects of what is going to be built show at correct times + zone borders show correctly as well - improve the logic of how auto-reverse works to help when rolling forward while in reverse - add aerodynamic physics to vehicles (and vehicle parts) allowing for drag as well as forces applied based upon a vehicle (or vehicle parts) speed and direction of movement. massively helps with fast driving as most vehicle now have at least a slight downforce at high speeds. - various sounds added for area intro animations, lasers, powercores, some characters, electric power, wind and a few others - added starvation + time of day hint popups when relevant (these will eventually go into an encyclopedia for reference) - core and 100% completion messages for the demo - fix moss packet food crate food source to behave in a sane way - add machine seekers.... - music toggle option improved and works with new music system - fix issue with mudflaps where they'd fall off and cause a huge visual-only deformation in the ground (very odd problem haha) - add warning messages if trying to stand up while totally unconscious (versus just not conscious enough to stand up) - fix time trial HUD not going away after completing a time trial - update sector map art with minor improvements (cool little buildings & details) - fixes to loading a 100% completed area that could cause some odd intro behavior - many other minor fixes and improvements as well as content updates, I did my best to summarize the list in a sane way :] ------ Thanks for checking in! Next up is launching into Early Access - then listening, improving, expanding. [url=https://discord.gg/zcSpuk4B3S][img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/41618350/edd62b1a6d7d65972bd42190771d1c39fb211796.png[/img][/url]