Work is progressing well on the game. We've finished all the core feature updates that needed to be made and now we're focusing on making sure there are a solid few areas to enjoy once it's updated. Well, and fixing issues that show up along the way :) These are new areas and replace the previous ones, mostly. Some parts of previous areas were carried over but 95% of the area content is new. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/41618350/8e3039f1d4b5994bdbc04fdd37c54a8523b17f64.png[/img] [h3]{ Areas }[/h3] Because some key gameplay factors are changed that modify the flow of the game, design of areas needed to be changed to fit this. We've gone through and extracted parts of areas that make sense to keep and built new areas as well. The update will wipe out save games and the areas included in the update will be these new areas. There will be at least 4 areas in the update to play, all taking place on Mars. These will include the Driving School areas that provides relatively guided objectives that will help ramp you up to understanding the various mechanics at your disposal to complete areas, like Recovery Pads, Garages, Multiple Vehicles, Scan Towers, Building Supplies or Electric Trailers. In the future, we plan to add additional driving school areas one by one that include basic situations with specific features, giving a set of tutorial-esque playground areas to learn and test on. The two included are more "general" and designed for new players. I did my best to keep them very easy, however as those of you who know how I am, they're probably 2x harder than they should be. But we'll see :) [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/41618350/e110b49459ebe56ee4ba35d9ef9a872657dafa59.png[/img] Past the initial Driving School areas, the player will have to complete tasks and build viable paths on their way to reach the Colony City. This is encompassed in the Road To Frontier Station area. This includes several bridges to build along an undeveloped path of the player's own routing. There will also be a water delivery area where players will be responsible for building infrastructure to be able to haul a bunch of water barrels out to various spots in a very sandy/hilly basin. Lastly, a time trial area with two relatively simple loop time trials and a dune buggy to unlock - which should give players a nice taste of time trials and fast driving. [b]After the update is out, our first major goal in terms of content is being able to play through the string of Mars areas to reach the Colony City.[/b] Once the player's get there, they'll be able to secure spaceship transport to Earth, gaining access to areas with potentially much more challenging terrain, weather and less pre-existing infrastructure. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/41618350/e358d242e29b76cad67e49426bd9203246694a96.png[/img] [h3]{ Encyclopedia }[/h3] The encyclopedia is a new tool being introduced in the update which is designed to provide users with more information about specific topics - as well as a place to view the approximate progress of certain features during early access. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/41618350/03b645b5b70e2bb62df6057dbc26bf4c15b3a7b4.png[/img] When encountering certain features or content, the encyclopedia notifies the player that a new entry has been unlocked. I've always enjoyed encyclopedia-like systems in games, and find that I'll be in a certain mood to learn at a deeper level and will spend time there .. or I am having a hard time understanding some system and it's nice to be able to go somewhere to read about it more than a contextual tutorial or little in-gameplay hint would offer. [h3]{ Side Quests }[/h3] For those of you who have played the game (or demo), you know there are a lot of little optional side missions to do. We split up the objectives by designating which are CORE and which aren't. Core objectives are required to progress the game, often the result being to unlock access to another area. While these tend to make up the bulk of the "work" in a given area, the variety of side objectives provide rewards and give you interesting challenges to try. I really enjoy them because they tend to be smaller so they're quicker to finish, they can add a ton of variety of challenge within one area, act as a nice break, and they help fill out the feeling of an area conceptually. Some side missions are consistent between areas, like collecting trash or reaching the edge of the map while others are unique like helping someone find an ancient artifact or knock down stacked rock piles. :) So we've been making sure to spend some time adding in these little missions throughout the areas. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/41618350/2178c3a2a9674569101ddea06b9fcf1f756e05ef.png[/img] --- As you can see, a lot of focus has now shifted towards content for the update, which is great! With a lot of big engine-upgrade issues fixed, a bunch of important optimizations made and key features working to a playable level, it's time to work on areas until a few are ready to play for the update. Below is a raw changelog with all the changes made since the last post. We didn't get a release out in September like we had hoped. But honestly as long as progress is solid and moving forward, I feel positive about the project. Although I really cannot wait to get this update out for people to play, so I'm pushing hard for it. Thanks for reading & following along! [url=https://discord.gg/zcSpuk4B3S][img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/41618350/edd62b1a6d7d65972bd42190771d1c39fb211796.png[/img][/url] raw changes since last post: - area updates - - driving school: basics - - driving school: license test - - road to frontier station - - water delivery - - loop time trial - full area resetting to be able to retry areas - vehicle customization and options UI fixes/made more clear - fix issue where radio messages will show twice sometimes when related to trash collection - fix glitch in recovery pad UI - make updates/fixes to Ataire Pickup Truck - post processing improvements - build zone map icons fixed - vehicle part buttons in vehicle customization indicate what part is currently equipped - build zones use local data flags for optimization AND organization - make supply stockpiles remove/place in correct order - time of day panel improvement and indication during pause - fixes to the save game data format - handbrake sounds work correctly - dashboard options for vehicles update correctly (differential toggling, drive mode, lights, ignition, handbrake etc)