Welcome back to another Logic World Wednesday. After a three week hiatus, we are back!
If you haven’t been keeping up with us on Discord, the break has been because we were reorganizing Logic World’s 50,000 lines of code. That work is finally done, and your regularly scheduled Wednesdays have returned!
New Menus - Jimmy
I’ve added three new menus to Logic World this week! We now have a pause menu, and buttons and keys have gotten menus for editing those components.
MIDI Input Support - Jimmy
Thanks to the release of Minis by Keijiro Takahashi, Logic World’s extensive input system now supports MIDI input! You can now use your pianos to control the game. MIDI bindings can be used for regular game actions like walking and jumping, but I expect they’ll mostly be used with Keys to make in-game music machines :D
I’ve also been refactoring the networking code: previously each packet type was composed of two methods: one for writing the packet and one for reading it. These methods operated directly on the network stream and they didn’t have an explicit structure, as it was determined by the order and type of read/write calls. After the refactor, each packet is its own class, we have SECCS serialize and deserialize it, so we don’t have to write any code that manipulates the network stream directly. Another benefit is that packets are clearly defined and, again, easier to maintain and extend.
Modding System Progress - Felipe
I’ve also been rethinking the existing modding architecture, and this time I’ve decided on a file structure that looks like this (not final):
assets/
my_image.png
my_mesh.obj
my_unityassets.assetbundle
data/
components.succ
lib/
MyLibrary.dll
manifest.json
server.dll
client.dll
shared.dll
The mod as a whole is comprised of two parts: the server and the client. As their names suggest, the server.dll will only be loaded on the server startup and the client.dll will be loaded on the client startup, while the shared.dll will be loaded on both and can be used to share code between them. It’s worth mentioning that all of these DLLs are regular .NET Standard 2.0 libraries generated by Visual Studio projects. A mod can have any combination of these 3 DLL files, that’s to say, a mod can have a server.dll, a client.dll or both, in which case it can also optionally have a shared.dll.
The assets folder contains different assets that the client-side mod will be able to load at runtime. Right now the supported types are .png, .obj (.mtl will probably come too) and .assetbundle, and I’d also like to add support for audio files. The asset bundle files must be generated using the same Unity version as the game, which will be made known when the game is released. These asset bundles can contain any complex assets that you may need, like Unity scenes or prefabs.
The data folder currently only contains the SUCC file defining the components that your mod has, whose format you may already have seen in previous LWWs.
The lib folder can contain any external libraries your mod uses, and the manifest.json file defines the mod’s properties, like its name, author, and unique ID used to identify the mod in-game.
Finally, the mod as a whole can be stored in one of two ways: in a .lwmod file (which is just a renamed .zip file), or in a plain folder. The former is how mods downloaded from logicworld.net will be stored, while the latter is especially useful when developing mods as you can just copy the files over without any worries.
You will be able to upload and share mods on logicworld.net, but you must upload its source code, which will get compiled for you. This is in order to enforce open source code and transparency. It protects against mods with malicious code, and it helps people learning to make mods, since they can see the sources of existing ones.
An Early Phriday
For the past few weeks, we’ve been holding biweekly off-topic discussions on the Logic World Discord. This has been a lot of fun and we’ve had some very interesting talks. Some people have lamented that these discussions are not at a good time for them, so we’re experimenting with different times. This week’s Philosophy Phriday willl be 2 hours earlier than usual, at 18:00 UTC.
New Cart Pack is for sale! It contains all of the following exclusive items: - A permanent two-seater vehicle "Shopping Cart" - A permanent accessory "Stick Waffle" (EXP+15%) - A permanent accessory "Tornado Potato" (Beat+15%)
You can buy it from November 6 @8PM to December 4 @9PM (Pacific Time) only. Shop now!
The in-game event is a duo match that you team up with your friend and play 2 vs. 2 against NPCs. Win all of the matches and get a gift everyday until December 4 @9 PM (Pacific Time).
The gift box contains one of the following items: 85% Off Coupon, 50% Off Coupon, Hair Coupon (1day), Top Coupon (1day), Pants Coupon (1day), Shoes Coupon (1day), Double Power, Lala Magic.
Hi, if you have some opinions for the game, please join in our Discord channel and discuss with devs or other players: https://discord.gg/SbtYM3x
[New contents] -New Watcher -- "Scarecrow"Richard has come! He is a terror hunter who hunts innocent people in the shadowy world underground New York. He will use his malicious toxic trap to catch everything he wants to hunt!
●Initiative skill: Mr. Scarecrow's cocktail Set a poison gas trap, which can be triggered by walking/running Extractor, and will damage Extractor constantly for a certain time (Extractors can deactivate traps when squat down into the range of traps). State of poisoning which is caused by Scarecrow can be healed by treatment at once. ●Passive skill: Malicious protocol The normal attack from Scarecrow attaches highly toxic substance, and will damages "prey" constantly for a certain time. State of poisoning which is caused by Scarecrow can be healed by treatment at once. In the meantime, Scarecrow has the crouch ability which is from the East Tales Corporation. ●Shareable skill: Scarecrow's Requiem When an Extractor is knocked down, his aura will be revealed continuously, all other Extractors' auras will be revealed for 6 s.
-Added new in-game new player guide. New player will see the detailed game guide in a match until Lv.15, it will help new player get familiar with the game faster. Before Lv.15, if you don't like the guide, you can close it in options.
[Optimization] -Optimized the map SUBWAY IN OLD WORLD - MID TOWN SQUARE for FPS.
[Balance] -Added Dynamic Balance system, to slightly balance the cases which are teaming and big level difference between two sides.We will continue to observe how the new system works and possibly make continuous adjustments. -The skill changes: ●"Calm" - Geisha Boost the recovery rate of Energy Charges by 70%.→85%. ●"Little Present" - Fortress The damage of bomb is increased by 30%. The change does not affect the bounce damage.
[Bug fixed] -Fixed a spot that Extractor can reach but Wacter can't in the map SUBWAY IN OLD WORLD - MID TOWN SQUARE. -Tried to fix the issue that all remaining Data Cubes may disappear in the midway of a match in the maps SUBWAY IN OLD WORLD - MID TOWN SQUARE and HANGING GARDENS - TAI-CHI.
Hi guys, trailer and screenshots have been updated, i hope you enjoy. I also found a publisher (Valkyrie Initiative) that will help in the release of the game, we are discussing about the release date that should be in the first quarter of 2020, stay tuned for the official release date.
This is ongoing efforts in order to address all your feedbacks and many of ongoing things by road plan (and many more), while making the game very smooth and to enable fast-paced actions, along with improved visuals.
Hey Off-roaders,
One of the main things this patch addressing, together with many others, is known physic's glitch, which made at some occasions that car starts to turn around in glitches in some angular jumping and steering combinations. Now, that issue was fixed, so you can enjoy seamless off-road fun, sorry for those who already played and won even 1,000 tracks with that glitch.
1) We will start with smaller things. This patch enabling achievements, between 500 and 1000, to be retroactively unlocked, for all who already won at 400, 600, 700, 800 and 900 tracks. For those which are on way to the top, there few more reasons to drive hard and upgrade rigs to reach those milestones. A lot of players already got 100, 200 even 300 and more achievements. I hear also feedback's that some are on way to the 1,000, which is amazing and congrats for that.
2) Options (and the sub-options) camera is tuned so it looks better (specially to compare graphical changes):
3) Looting with ADriver has been improved, and it's been added over 50 new fun emotes
Animations expressing player state, so the game is over more fun at that side (some of them are so fun, you'll see). Also, since the game is action-packed, time of collecting animations, along with the time of emotions, has been slightly improved and all now is more fast-paced actions, here you can check at the video how now looks:
Also, voices after pickup will be balanced, so will never be repeated voices when loot, or so. Finally Loot UI is improved, but still to be more improved with the AD Cards system, introduced in Daily Rewards, which will bring Boosters to the games and Custom Cards.
4) Car to Car crashing particles are now fine-tuned and balanced
There will be not so much fire and real explosions like it were: It looks like some war game and impacted the realism of the game. Now any unrealistic fire and explosions are removed and there is fine-tuned variety of car to car crashes, debris, papers, metal parts, grounds, trees are flying all-around at some harder crashes.
5) Following some player's feedbacks overall sounds (there's a wide range of the sound FX in the game, (656 sound FX + 87 tuned car engine sounds (for each speed sampled + for idle), check how my sounds assets look like: So tuning such a wide range of sounds, was never easy, guys, but over time it got more balanced. This time, ground sounds of rolling tires are little lowered, exhausts sparks are also lowered little, water crossing and water splash sounds as well, so expect more realism.
6) Input controls from the keyboard for the acceleration (W) and braking (S) are only controls, Up and Down Arrows been removed since Down Arrow is used for the back camera as well (so you can drive, while pressing down arrow for back camera, or left/right arrows for side view).
7) Here is one overview of in-game footage, while the game is in pause:
In the future will be added Camera Drone Mode, so you can take and post pictures from game actions.
8) In-game looting visuals is improved
Sso you see what you loot, you see AD Booster Card Rewards, for XP, for AD score, etc.
9) Added 8 new characters to the game
So you can select your ADriver and loot around boxes. Also, ADriver scene has been visually improved (has a depth of field effect) and now looks like: Together with over 50 fun emotes, like: Here is some footage:
10) It is reassured that an ADriver never gets spawned undergrounds, so gets out of the level and fall infinitely (some reported bugs before)
11) Added System of Camera Action Shakes
with a variety of realistic shakes based on the impact from the other racer, it's dynamical and depends on the strength of the impact of the other cars, here are sam raw footages
12) Dynamic Visualisation
Motion radial blurring and other post-processing shaders on nitro and crash actions, increasing the overall atmosphere.
13) ADrone has never been easier
Now it's not impacted by the rotation of the car, you can get out and you will navigate drone parallelly to the ground before it was all very shaky in some moments and harder to respawn on safer position. Also, a drone is now made above the car windows, before was too down, and on some occasions, cars hit'em up and mess with your directions, so now overall getting to the safer patch with ADrone is much better.
14) Overall Looting UX is now changed
To make more sense, make more space on the screen (before was all over the center of the screen), so now is loot looks like:
If you bring back that to the car before time outside expires, it will be:
In case you didn't back on time to the car, it will be like:
All this with many custom messages, so it will never be boring.
Also,
14) Siberia tracks have some optimizations with levels where there are plenty of oil refineries and fire effects, that effects were optimized (some removed) so it's bringing like 7-10% better FPS on those levels. Also, it's been added snow effects:
15) Splashing sounds of the waters from other AI's can be heard harder, so this is now tuned and it comes from exact locations where splash started (like water crossing effects, or first initial water splashes)
16) Easy Mode is a little easier then it was, so you can outsmart AI's faster if you're a beginner.
17) AD Jet Supply action is polished
and it sounds never messing again (before was some timing in code issue, so sounds of the jets were not spawned at right moment). Now, Supply Jet ripping out the sky, so you can hear it and estimate when it's above you, so you can be ready to pick up worthy supplies. SPOILER for those who read news lol: some of the future updates will bring Jet dropping ATV, so you can drive ATV until fuel goes off or you crash from it, so you get back to the car. Driving ATV will be very fun, but also at the same time will be harder, but it will bring more XP to you. So, like with loots, you need to trade-off time in-game to get outta with ADriver and loot and do all those extremely things and get back on track and overtake others and finish in the top 3 to pick up all that you looted.
17) Night Modes
You can choose night mode, any time at Tracks settings, there is night mode for 25 tracks and it still to be refined. Currently, it's been done that when lights are on night mode, it will be lighter, so you can see better where to play. Playing on night modes is a much harder and totally different experience, and that's why it bringing much more XP for winning. This is still in polishing, night sky maps missing and little visual tunings, and night mode will be really interesting. Currently, night modes to be more fun with this patch.
18) Cinematic intro camera had in some cases pixelizations, and now it's fixed, that reflections are all smoothed out and overall reflections get much better. Before capturing was limited to the 64 now is 256. Also, a lot of things to be tweaked on overtime, when optimizations are improved more (current ULTRA level of graphics is still limited to the about 85% quality of the game visuals, so new Insane settings to be added to the graphics in some further updates. Here are some reflections footages:
19) Also, Splash sounds were fixed, there was some glitch that it hears from AI racers like they're near, so it's refined. Voice sounds for the nitro will be spawned in fewer cases, and they're tuned (some voices not connected to the overall sounds settings in voices, now it's assured). Also, the possibility of jumps voices will be higher. Overall voice FX is lowered so it will not impact too many overall sounds.
20) Crash sounds are balanced and before there was some empty space at the start of half of the sounds, this is redone and all crash sounds are synchronized. Also, their overall level is dynamically linked to the impact and speed of racers, which bringing more realism into gameplay.
21) Physics fix
As I mentioned at the start of this post, it's finally fixed, it's some weird limiter controls (among tons of algorithms to simulate ultra-realistic off-roads behavior, I mean ultra - since at many other games landscape is flatten (that is how you tricked for smoother gameplay, but you actually driving on-road still just with different textures and objects) and at AD you have to deal with real off-road issues in order to drive properly. For all those fans, playing so hard from start, sorry, as it takes so long, but if you see in this news history, or you been tracking for a while, there were so many things to fine-tune and balance and thanks to your feedback's, have it all in much smoother shape now. This all applies to the AI's racers as well, and they become smoother.
22) Some tweaking of the HUD has been done, some shadows, proportions, to fits perfect, like main scoring part: Nitro meter has been rescaled, together with current gear number:
23) ADriver animation celebrating FInish is smoothly blended, making it much better, blending over 100 different dances and making overall atmosphere unique in gaming so far, we usually have somewhere that some emote are blended but here, when you finish at top 3, your ADriver will celebrate pretty cool, so you can relax, watch it and enjoy your win endlessly:
24) Night Modes
I finally have time to polish night modes on all of the 31 tracks. Before it wasn't so visible so now it's tuned night skies maps, and all other aspects making overall night racing very nice. Night racings bringing more XP/AD$ and can be selected in Track selector at the down right corner:
Here is one fast video of night race:
25) Snowy mountains in the background of the Forest Ride and Siberia (6 tracks each), take a lot of FPS, this was cleared now and fps spiked from 90 to over 140, so expect more optimizations on those 12 levels.
26) Nitro was balanced before it was filled way too much, this was retested, debugged and now it's been filling nitro pretty nice, making it appealing to play. You will use it and further on, you'll fill it over big jumps, for 5-15 or even more % depending on the jumps. Also, nitro fill sign finally looks like:
27) In-game-scoring was moved from the right side to the upper central positions, so all that's you achieving will be displayed there:
That's all folks for today, hope you'll have some cool time with new AD, stay tuned.