Oct 29, 2021

Ghostrunner Halloween Pack, Road map, and Anniversary Celebration

Ghostrunner - MrGameTheory505

Happy Anniversary Ghostrunners! 🥳

Thank you all for an incredible year!

Today we launch the new Halloween cosmetic content for Ghostrunner, kicking off a month of exciting events to celebrate the series’ one-year anniversary. The newest cosmetic DLC coming to the critically-acclaimed first-person cyberpunk parkour action game embraces October’s ghoulish vibes.

Wield six new spooky swords, including the pumpkin-inspired Jack-O’, a ghostly Shroud blade, and four alien-themed katanas, Anomaly, Monstrosity, Night Terror, and Carnivore. Equip the new NAME glove to complete Jack’s costume, all for $4.99 / €4.99 /£4.69.

What do you think of the new Ghostrunner road map?

Prepare for a month of exciting community announcements and a grand finale at the end of November!

We are kicking off the Ghostrunner anniversary with a month of fun events to win prizes. Join the Ghostrunner Discord community and share Ghostrunner memes or fan art. If your image is new, original, safe for work, shows reasonable effort, and appropriate then we will contact you via DM to provide you with a Steam prize code to redeem Ghostrunner or another title in the 505 Games catalogue. Limit one prize per person for this event.

We are going to have some other major announcements in the coming days so be ready for some big surprises that are coming!

Tell your friends and spread the hype!

Join the rebellion on Discord: https://discord.gg/ghostrunner

Oct 29, 2021

v0.11.7 Released: Big Bot Upgrade!

Hyperwheel Overdrive - Regulus

Hyperwheel Overdrive v0.11.7 is here and it's bringing some shiny new bots with it! v0.11.7 comprises the last 2 months of development work, which includes a bunch of fixes and improvements, along with the big bot AI upgrade. No longer does Hyperwheel Overdrive need to rely on online play for some good combat action or competitive racing. We have also added an option to switch from 2 teams to 3 teams for all team-based matches. This means CTF is still an option if you have 3 players in an online session.

The bot updates definitely round out the core gameplay and improve the feel of the overall game. On that note, we will be leaving Early Access for full release very soon!

The new hyperwheel bots are ready to face you down in the latest update. If you don't already have a copy of the game, add it to your wishlist. You won't regret it if made-for-VR car combat & racing is your thing. See you in the Xenodome!

v0.11.7 (Build 433): October 29, 2021

major bot upgrades:
- AI steering overhaul; much better dodging of walls & obstacles
- added scans for ground drops ahead of wheels
- major revisions to risk analysis system
- added player detection to sphere scan that was previously used just to detect items
- implemented waypoint system to allow bots to race effectively on many tracks
- added target searching behaviour when getting shot by a laser
- many details added to decision-making about driving instructions & power-ups
- multiple power-ups fixed including Spring & Boat
- fixed Smasher time limit (it was not being applied to bots)
- bots now use thruster controls to straighten out airborne maneuvers
- added "Repaint Bot" button to randomize the colors & decal
Yellow Team added: new teams number setting (2 or 3) for all team-based match types
adjusted regions with vehicle mods to automatically give new Boat Kits & Plane Kits
limited custom vehicle mods to a single checkpoint during races
set vehicle mod checkpoints to automatically give new vehicle mods if needed
improved stability of respawns
improved spawn point positions in "Stadium Sky" & "Trident Mountain Range" regions
fixed bug where grounded gyro forces were being applied to vehicles when on their side
added 6 new car colors:
- Faded Yellow
- Bright Green
- Faded Green
- Sky Blue
- Faded Blue
- Light Brown
added 2 new car decals: "V Lines" & "Tiles"
tweaked some existing car colors
fixed bug that prevented Smasher collisions from making sounds
fixed bug with lasers appearing to go through walls and slowed down laser animation
fixed UI bug with object markers displaying in front of menu
fixed additional bug with object markers with display ranges set
fixed bug where match countdown text would sometimes not display
fixed bug where lasers could hit rifle when moving at high speeds
added rocket to launcher end when rocket is the next loaded projectile
moved next projectile icon to top of rifle HUD and placed projectiles 2 & 3 below
added Measuring Units setting with Metric & Imperial options for speeds & distances
removed auto-gyro pitch stabilization setting (supplanted by thruster controls)
fixed power-up bug where a full power boost could break hand interactivity
made "Recover" orient vehicle with ground plane instead of just straight up

v0.11.6 (Build 411): August 25, 2021

implemented auto-thrust secondary function to thruster controls
- easy switching between auto & manual thrust; just grab controls for manual
- will point in velocity direction according to up direction until vehicle starts falling
- when vehicle is falling, it will level out rather than point towards ground
- will attempt to align with the ground plane as the ground approaches
adjusted thrusters to kick in gradually over the course of 0.75 seconds
adjusted thrusters to deplete less charge for really small adjustments
improved rotational damping for thrusters
made body gyro system smoother on ramps
improved "Recover" function behaviour (car orientation is now properly maintained)
fixed bug that caused laser grid boundary to get stuck in visible state
updated Vector Stadium stage graphic

https://neonengine.net/hyperwheel/changelog

Oct 29, 2021

The next chapter: Metro Simulator 2!

Community Announcements - Resident007

We’re happy to announce the next stage of our work – Metro Simulator 2!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1787480/Metro_Simulator_2/

New render engine, Moscow Metro Line 6 and a new train (now 3 of them in total!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoB8VCJMniA
As you may know, we’re a small team and our work heavily depends on amount of sold copies of the game and DLCs. Metro Simulator is, of course, an experimental project with its own niche to occupy. We started with small things and went on developing the game and creating all systems from scratch. It was a very valuable experience for our developers. And this is what we’ll tell about the ongoing work on Metro Simulator.

Why a new game instead of an update or DLC?
Actually, it was very hard to make this decision. For both players and us, maybe it would be easier to stick with one project and gradually make it better by releasing updates and DLCs. But, after thoroughly thinking about all the outcomes, we decided that releasing a new separate game would be the optimal solution for all.

For all the players (whether they bought Metro Simulator 1 or not), Metro Simulator 2 would be cheaper than the total price of all the new content we’re working on if we would’ve decided to implement it into Metro Simulator 1. The reason for that is simple: we get more attention from bloggers, Steam and mass media when we release a new game. This way, we get more potential buyers and, consequently, we can lower the price because it’s easier to regain the development budget. For DLCs, we have to raise the price because they are made only for current player base.
Another important thing is the new render pipeline, HDRP. It allowed us to make graphics look a lot better and fix some fundamental bugs like glitching on big distances from the initial coordinates. But, for a number of reasons, it’s harder to work with than the standard renderer.

The downside of HDRP is higher hardware requirements. Not dramatically, but system requirements for Metro Simulator 2 will be higher than for Metro Simulator 1. If we would’ve transferred Metro Simulator 1 to a new pipeline, those who play on weak PCs could no longer play the game at all. Releasing the separate title would help us work around this problem. So, players with low end PCs would still be able to play MS1 and transfer to MS2 when they’re able to. Of course, system requirements for MS2 will be posted on Steam, so you can take a look at them and understand whether the game will run on your system. Moreover, if the game doesn’t satisfy you, you can refund it following Steam refund policy. So, if we decided to switch to new graphics in MS1, it would be incorrect in relation to the part of our audience.

What to wait in Metro Simulator 2?
HDRP, the new rendering pipeline. For some time, it’s being actively used for developing games with modern graphics. As you can see by the screenshots, graphics are now significantly better. Finally, we can work with volumetric lighting, lens flare and reflections on materials of trains, stations and tunnels.
Our level designer has been working on Line 6 for more than a year now. There’s a lot of work – 26 stations (including 2 double stations)! Also, HDRP requires us to make textures and materials of even higher quality. The look on screenshots is no final, but if you compare this to MS1, it’ll be easy to spot the difference.

Another interesting thing to cover is traffic lights. They work differently on Line 6. Unlike on Line 8A, you can see traffic lights signals on lenses in tunnels. We’ll cover that in detail in another post.
The new train (it’s new only for the game, but actually it’s been serving Metro for many decades) is known for its appearance for many years even far outside the former USSR countries. We can easily say it’s a living legend among Metro trains. We are trying to keep in mind certain aspects when working on functionality of this train.

Also, we re-worked the appearance of “Oka” and “Russia” trains from MS1. We did quite a huge job to make them look better.

We’ll tell you about other features of Metro Simulator 2 later. Make sure to follow our socials in order not to miss any news – we promise to make posts as frequently as we can!

Finally, we’d like to say thanks to you, our players. It would be impossible without your support. Thank you!