http://store.steampowered.com/app/645170

http://store.steampowered.com/app/645170

Welcome to Patch 2.63! In this patch, we are graduating a number of the test features that have been revised in the Experimental Queue with your feedback. There are several balance improvements and map updates designed to go along with the changes to the jump and dodge mechanics, largely based on your feedback! We also have a new skin for Val, a new weapon skin, and flag avatars for more countries, all available in the Mallhalla!

• Commando Val - “Behind enemy lines, and she’ll never stop!”
• Dusk - “Pierce the veil and take down your foes.”
• Added flag avatars for countries Ukraine, Malaysia, Jamaica, Iceland & Hungary.

 

Free-for-all Dodgebomb mayhem! Toss bombs at your opponents while dodging theirs! Score 2 points for a knockout and lose a point for being knocked out yourself! The player with the most explosive score wins!

• Dodgebomb.
• 4 player free-for-all.
• 2 minutes.

 

There's been a fair bit of outcry lately asking for dodge to be revisited, and a number of players hoping for the inclusion of jump changes ever since a version of them first hit Test Features in January.
Rather than waiting for Season 5, we're introducing them now to get more tournament exposure and time for iteration before the next S-tier event. Please continue to make suggestions and weigh in on the existing feedback.


By reducing the jump height, we're hoping to keep players in range of each other more often and reduce the effectiveness of jump as an escape tool.

Jump Changes

• Jump Height decreased from 414 to 357.
• Jump duration decreased from 66 to 60.
• Max Fall Speed increased from 60 to 70.
• Max Fastfall Speed increased from 70 to 85.

These changes should help players to punish a badly timed dodge and lessen the windows for punishing an attack after dodging.

Slow Dodge Vulnerability

• Increased the duration of Slow Dodges by 3 frames. The player is not invulnerable during this period.
• The 2 frame recover period after a Slow Dodge ends is increased to 4 frames. Players can move but not attack or jump.
• Decreased the travel speed of Slow Dodges by 12%.

A community request with generally positive feedback so far. Players have mentioned being able to apply more pressure and having a harder time positioning attacks when used passively.

Speed Dodge Increase

• Increased the duration of Speed Dodges by 3 frames.
• Increased travel speed of Speed Dodges by 10%.

These changes focus on lowering dodge availability to further increase the risk of Slow and Aerial Dodges. As this keeps players from being able to escape a string for longer after a punished dodge, string-heavy weapons are being adjusted this patch.

Dodge Cooldown Changes

• Dodge Cooldown for a Grounded Slow Dodge is now 75 frames.
• Cooldown when landing after an Aerial Dodge is now 25 frames more than the dodge’s Grounded Cooldown.

There's been a popular community request recently to limit backward steering of Side Airs, especially after landing on the ground.
These changes reduce all steering of grounded aerial powers and all backward steering of Side Air powers, but have a combined effect that severely limits the specific case of retreating with grounded Side Airs.

Fadeaway Changes

• All Side Airs: Backward steering multiplier reduced by an additional 10% of normal acceleration.
• Friction is doubled when performing an air attack while on the ground.

 

• Adjusted Grumpy Temple and Small Grumpy Temple to better fit the new jump height.
• Lost Labyrinth and Big Lost Labyrinth have been adjusted to better suit the new max jump height.

 

Last week, we opened a Discord server dedicated to Brawlhalla balance discussion, in which many of you are already participating. The amount and quality of feedback has been astounding, and we look forward to even better results as representatives are chosen at the end of this week, who will help distill community discussion into the desired changes for each future balance patch. We sincerely thank you all for being such an amazing community, working with each other and with us to continue to grow Brawlhalla! If you are eager to join the discussions and have not already, The Forge can be accessed here: https://discord.gg/3t3gkZ2 . Be sure to read the welcome message for all the details regarding discussion and channel topics!
 

This week’s balance updates center around the new dodge and jump changes that have graduated from test features. We have opened up some of the areas of potential concern for string heavy weapons such as Gauntlets, Scythe, and Katars, primarily those leading to attacks with high knockout potential. Other weapons have had power shifted into attacks that can help them take advantage of the new dodge duration and cooldown. Be sure to explore all of the options available this patch, and give us your feedback in The Forge!
 

The Spear has had some power shifted from its Neutral Air into its Side Light. The Neutral Air was a concern for covering too much of the new dodge durations, so we have shifted some of its active frames into recover frames. The Side Light will see a benefit in reduced time between its two swings, resulting in a faster overall attack.

• Spear Neutral Air: Decreased Active frames from 11 to 9; Increased Recover from 16 Variable/6 Fixed to 16 Variable/7 Fixed
• Spear Side Light: Decreased the gap between the two swings from 13 frames to 12 frames.

 

The Rocket Lance has received a faster Side Light to better fit the faster speed of the game, at the cost of some damage taken from the Side Air. A faster Side Light should allow for more reliable punishes on the new dodge durations and cooldowns.

• Rocket Lance Side Light: Decreased Time to Hit from 10 to 9.
• Rocket Lance Side Air: Decreased Damage from 22 to 20.

 

The Katars have had dodge windows opened up when leading into the Recovery attack as it appeared slightly too strong with the new dodge cooldowns. However, that power has found its way into a reduced recover time on miss for the Down Light, strengthening grounded conversions against airborne opponents.

• Katars Down Light: Decreased Recover on miss from 18 Variable/3 Fixed to 18 Variable/2 Fixed.
• Katars Recovery: Increased Time to Hit from 8 to 9.

 

The Axe has received extra recover on miss for its Side Light, bending the risk/reward to be more dangerous for the user. Coupled with the new dodge cooldowns, players should find an easier path in against Axe-wielding targets.

• Axe Side Light: Increased Recover on miss from 10 Variable/3 Fixed to 10 Variable/5 Fixed.

 

We have shifted some power from the Bow’s string tool, the Down Light, into its Neutral Light anti-air. This widens the dodge window between the two for an easier escape, which was a concern with the new dodge durations and cooldowns, even allowing for poorly timed attacks to be evaded without the use of a dodge.

• Bow Down Light: Decreased Stun from 18 to 17.
• Bow Neutral Light: Decreased Recover on miss from 20 Variable/8 Fixed to 20 Variable/7 Fixed.

 

The Gauntlets were of particular concern to many players with the dodge updates. As a weapon with a powerful ability for continued attacks, we have tightened the timing requirement on one of the Gauntlets most common starters, the Down Light. Interactions involving the Side Air have also been widened to allow for more reliable escapes and more time to contest the attack in the neutral game by shifting some of its recover time into time to hit.

• Gauntlets Down Light: Decreased Stun from a range of 26~22 to a range of 24~20.
• Gauntlets Side Air: Increased Time to Hit from 11 to 12; Decreased Recover on miss from 21 Variable/2 Fixed to 21 Variable/1 Fixed.

 

As the dodge and jump changes go live, we have opened up a key interaction of continuous Scythe strings by increasing the dodge window after a backwards Neutral Air. To compensate, we have decreased the recover on miss for the Down Air, as it was the string tool with the longest recover time and has both dodge and jump windows in string routes that involve this power.

• Scythe Down Air: Decreased Recover on miss from 24 Variable/3 Fixed to 24 Variable/1 Fixed.
• Scythe Neutral Air: Decreased Stun on the backwards version from 22 to 21.

 

• Minor tweaks to Val's unselected pose in her character select animation.

 

• PC support for Monect PC Remote Controller.

 

• Relocated Singapore servers to a new data center in hopes of helping with routing issues in the SEA region.
• Upgraded servers in Brazil.
• Currently looking into upgrades for all other regions.

 

This week’s Legend Rotation features Barraza, Gnash, Koji, Mordex, Queen Nai & Scarlet.
 

• Fixed a rare crash that could occur in the Match Preview screen in Ranked 2v2.
• Fixed a bug in Test Features that could reduce Dodge Cooldown if hit during the vulnerable frames after a dodge. (Credit: FreeChairmanMao)
• Fixed a bug that would cause Unarmed's Down Air to not play the correct ending on miss.
• Potential fixes for PC support for 8Bitdo NES30 Pro.
• Fixed a bug in Test Features where a small number of powers get a much larger speed boost than intended when canceled out of a Speed Dodge. (Credit GraverageGaming) (HF 2.62.1)

 

Beta is coming along well. We have a small amount of keys given for a developer only beta. It's been useful for helping us clean things up and prepare for a launch. We expect to be receiving our US keys by the end of the week and hopefully the EU keys soon after. Beta should start soon, thank you for your patience. It feels really good and we know it will be worth the wait.

Welcome to Patch 2.63! In this patch, we are graduating a number of the test features that have been revised in the Experimental Queue with your feedback. There are several balance improvements and map updates designed to go along with the changes to the jump and dodge mechanics, largely based on your feedback! We also have a new skin for Val, a new weapon skin, and flag avatars for more countries, all available in the Mallhalla!

• Commando Val - “Behind enemy lines, and she’ll never stop!”
• Dusk - “Pierce the veil and take down your foes.”
• Added flag avatars for countries Ukraine, Malaysia, Jamaica, Iceland & Hungary.

 

Free-for-all Dodgebomb mayhem! Toss bombs at your opponents while dodging theirs! Score 2 points for a knockout and lose a point for being knocked out yourself! The player with the most explosive score wins!

• Dodgebomb.
• 4 player free-for-all.
• 2 minutes.

 

There's been a fair bit of outcry lately asking for dodge to be revisited, and a number of players hoping for the inclusion of jump changes ever since a version of them first hit Test Features in January.
Rather than waiting for Season 5, we're introducing them now to get more tournament exposure and time for iteration before the next S-tier event. Please continue to make suggestions and weigh in on the existing feedback.


By reducing the jump height, we're hoping to keep players in range of each other more often and reduce the effectiveness of jump as an escape tool.

Jump Changes

• Jump Height decreased from 414 to 357.
• Jump duration decreased from 66 to 60.
• Max Fall Speed increased from 60 to 70.
• Max Fastfall Speed increased from 70 to 85.

These changes should help players to punish a badly timed dodge and lessen the windows for punishing an attack after dodging.

Slow Dodge Vulnerability

• Increased the duration of Slow Dodges by 3 frames. The player is not invulnerable during this period.
• The 2 frame recover period after a Slow Dodge ends is increased to 4 frames. Players can move but not attack or jump.
• Decreased the travel speed of Slow Dodges by 12%.

A community request with generally positive feedback so far. Players have mentioned being able to apply more pressure and having a harder time positioning attacks when used passively.

Speed Dodge Increase

• Increased the duration of Speed Dodges by 3 frames.
• Increased travel speed of Speed Dodges by 10%.

These changes focus on lowering dodge availability to further increase the risk of Slow and Aerial Dodges. As this keeps players from being able to escape a string for longer after a punished dodge, string-heavy weapons are being adjusted this patch.

Dodge Cooldown Changes

• Dodge Cooldown for a Grounded Slow Dodge is now 75 frames.
• Cooldown when landing after an Aerial Dodge is now 25 frames more than the dodge’s Grounded Cooldown.

There's been a popular community request recently to limit backward steering of Side Airs, especially after landing on the ground.
These changes reduce all steering of grounded aerial powers and all backward steering of Side Air powers, but have a combined effect that severely limits the specific case of retreating with grounded Side Airs.

Fadeaway Changes

• All Side Airs: Backward steering multiplier reduced by an additional 10% of normal acceleration.
• Friction is doubled when performing an air attack while on the ground.

 

• Adjusted Grumpy Temple and Small Grumpy Temple to better fit the new jump height.
• Lost Labyrinth and Big Lost Labyrinth have been adjusted to better suit the new max jump height.

 

Last week, we opened a Discord server dedicated to Brawlhalla balance discussion, in which many of you are already participating. The amount and quality of feedback has been astounding, and we look forward to even better results as representatives are chosen at the end of this week, who will help distill community discussion into the desired changes for each future balance patch. We sincerely thank you all for being such an amazing community, working with each other and with us to continue to grow Brawlhalla! If you are eager to join the discussions and have not already, The Forge can be accessed here: https://discord.gg/3t3gkZ2 . Be sure to read the welcome message for all the details regarding discussion and channel topics!
 

This week’s balance updates center around the new dodge and jump changes that have graduated from test features. We have opened up some of the areas of potential concern for string heavy weapons such as Gauntlets, Scythe, and Katars, primarily those leading to attacks with high knockout potential. Other weapons have had power shifted into attacks that can help them take advantage of the new dodge duration and cooldown. Be sure to explore all of the options available this patch, and give us your feedback in The Forge!
 

The Spear has had some power shifted from its Neutral Air into its Side Light. The Neutral Air was a concern for covering too much of the new dodge durations, so we have shifted some of its active frames into recover frames. The Side Light will see a benefit in reduced time between its two swings, resulting in a faster overall attack.

• Spear Neutral Air: Decreased Active frames from 11 to 9; Increased Recover from 16 Variable/6 Fixed to 16 Variable/7 Fixed
• Spear Side Light: Decreased the gap between the two swings from 13 frames to 12 frames.

 

The Rocket Lance has received a faster Side Light to better fit the faster speed of the game, at the cost of some damage taken from the Side Air. A faster Side Light should allow for more reliable punishes on the new dodge durations and cooldowns.

• Rocket Lance Side Light: Decreased Time to Hit from 10 to 9.
• Rocket Lance Side Air: Decreased Damage from 22 to 20.

 

The Katars have had dodge windows opened up when leading into the Recovery attack as it appeared slightly too strong with the new dodge cooldowns. However, that power has found its way into a reduced recover time on miss for the Down Light, strengthening grounded conversions against airborne opponents.

• Katars Down Light: Decreased Recover on miss from 18 Variable/3 Fixed to 18 Variable/2 Fixed.
• Katars Recovery: Increased Time to Hit from 8 to 9.

 

The Axe has received extra recover on miss for its Side Light, bending the risk/reward to be more dangerous for the user. Coupled with the new dodge cooldowns, players should find an easier path in against Axe-wielding targets.

• Axe Side Light: Increased Recover on miss from 10 Variable/3 Fixed to 10 Variable/5 Fixed.

 

We have shifted some power from the Bow’s string tool, the Down Light, into its Neutral Light anti-air. This widens the dodge window between the two for an easier escape, which was a concern with the new dodge durations and cooldowns, even allowing for poorly timed attacks to be evaded without the use of a dodge.

• Bow Down Light: Decreased Stun from 18 to 17.
• Bow Neutral Light: Decreased Recover on miss from 20 Variable/8 Fixed to 20 Variable/7 Fixed.

 

The Gauntlets were of particular concern to many players with the dodge updates. As a weapon with a powerful ability for continued attacks, we have tightened the timing requirement on one of the Gauntlets most common starters, the Down Light. Interactions involving the Side Air have also been widened to allow for more reliable escapes and more time to contest the attack in the neutral game by shifting some of its recover time into time to hit.

• Gauntlets Down Light: Decreased Stun from a range of 26~22 to a range of 24~20.
• Gauntlets Side Air: Increased Time to Hit from 11 to 12; Decreased Recover on miss from 21 Variable/2 Fixed to 21 Variable/1 Fixed.

 

As the dodge and jump changes go live, we have opened up a key interaction of continuous Scythe strings by increasing the dodge window after a backwards Neutral Air. To compensate, we have decreased the recover on miss for the Down Air, as it was the string tool with the longest recover time and has both dodge and jump windows in string routes that involve this power.

• Scythe Down Air: Decreased Recover on miss from 24 Variable/3 Fixed to 24 Variable/1 Fixed.
• Scythe Neutral Air: Decreased Stun on the backwards version from 22 to 21.

 

• Minor tweaks to Val's unselected pose in her character select animation.

 

• PC support for Monect PC Remote Controller.

 

• Relocated Singapore servers to a new data center in hopes of helping with routing issues in the SEA region.
• Upgraded servers in Brazil.
• Currently looking into upgrades for all other regions.

 

This week’s Legend Rotation features Barraza, Gnash, Koji, Mordex, Queen Nai & Scarlet.
 

• Fixed a rare crash that could occur in the Match Preview screen in Ranked 2v2.
• Fixed a bug in Test Features that could reduce Dodge Cooldown if hit during the vulnerable frames after a dodge. (Credit: FreeChairmanMao)
• Fixed a bug that would cause Unarmed's Down Air to not play the correct ending on miss.
• Potential fixes for PC support for 8Bitdo NES30 Pro.
• Fixed a bug in Test Features where a small number of powers get a much larger speed boost than intended when canceled out of a Speed Dodge. (Credit GraverageGaming) (HF 2.62.1)

 

Beta is coming along well. We have a small amount of keys given for a developer only beta. It's been useful for helping us clean things up and prepare for a launch. We expect to be receiving our US keys by the end of the week and hopefully the EU keys soon after. Beta should start soon, thank you for your patience. It feels really good and we know it will be worth the wait.

Change Log

• Players can no longer be defeated in the tutorial level.
  
• Fixed a bug where you would get the "All Clear" message in the intro level.
  
• Fixed a bug where all story missions were exclusive (only some are meant to be).
  
• Fixed a bug where contract titles and target addresses weren't being reset when a job was done.
  
• Fixed a bug with Spam not working properly.
  
• Tweaked the Spam mechanic. It used to add the (Program Rating /10) to the IC delay between actions. Now it adds ((Program Rating / IC Rating) /2). This is permanent and cumulative. Multiple uses of Spam is meant to severly slow the IC, but one casting will be less noticable.
  
• Adjust time in the home level to tick forward much slower. It now ticks forward in real-time instead of at one-minute-per-second.
  
• Added a pop-up message that explains how the Ravencore career mechanics work.

Change Log

• Players can no longer be defeated in the tutorial level.
  
• Fixed a bug where you would get the "All Clear" message in the intro level.
  
• Fixed a bug where all story missions were exclusive (only some are meant to be).
  
• Fixed a bug where contract titles and target addresses weren't being reset when a job was done.
  
• Fixed a bug with Spam not working properly.
  
• Tweaked the Spam mechanic. It used to add the (Program Rating /10) to the IC delay between actions. Now it adds ((Program Rating / IC Rating) /2). This is permanent and cumulative. Multiple uses of Spam is meant to severly slow the IC, but one casting will be less noticable.
  
• Adjust time in the home level to tick forward much slower. It now ticks forward in real-time instead of at one-minute-per-second.
  
• Added a pop-up message that explains how the Ravencore career mechanics work.

Hello everyone! We´re back for another Automobilista Development Update - not many of these to go now!

As you may have noticed, we missed out on publishing a dev update last month - apologies for that, hopefully the v1.4 changelog will be convincing enough evidence we weren´t just slacking off :)

It´s actually getting a bit tricky to share many details about what we´re doing in these final stages of AMS development as we´re getting more into exploring new grounds and doing some experimenting without knowing for sure what will pan out and how soon - that naturally makes it harder to provide much of a foresight without feeding expectations that may not be realistic on the short term.

With that in mind this month´s update is mostly retrospective on the work done for v1.4, while still providing some glimpses as to what comes next!


Following popular demand, v1.4 has seen a lot of development time dedicated towards improving the AI - we began by compiling a list (split in 5 main areas - Performance, Awareness, Strategy, Behavior & Personality), documenting the worse problems and elaborating some ideas to not only address these issues but move AI in general up to a new level. So far focus has been on making good baseline progress in all fronts, sorting out or at least minimising the most critical issues.

Improving AI Performance, or more specifically consistency in their performance so the AI can provide a consistent challenge to the player from corner to corner, track to track and car to car vs the player irrespective of his AI strength setting is always an ongoing task, with some good ground covered again in v1.4.

One of the initial focus was doing some basic improvements of AI Strategy, as any development elsewhere becomes a bit pointless if AI messes up his pit strategy - V1.4 updates should see more realistic tire wear from the AI as well as customized tire wear thresholds for pitstops so they don´t stop so late they lose too much time in worn tires, nor so soon they risk doing a potential pointless extra stop. We also added a lock for AI refuelling in series where they aren´t allowed to. Next steps include improving their fuel strategy so they can better calculate if and when to stop (and not take extra fuel when they dont need to), and set up different tire compounds for AI to qualify and / or start the race on.

These however are just the tip of the iceberg - there´s a lot still to be done for the AI to not only avoid basic errors but actually challenge / outsmart the player in strategy alone. Lots of ideas here but it will take some time until we can completely flesh them out.

We´ve also added several new functions to AI behavior to make them less "robotic" and more believable to race against - for instance they now respect blue flags and lift for the car behind, take it easier in in / out laps as well as cool down laps. Next steps include making them behave more safely after leaving the track and / or spinning.

AI awareness has also improved considerably in v1.4 as can be seen in this quite radical multiclass race start and how the AI manage to navigate their way round fairly competently:

https://youtu.be/Xc2c4dB1-x4

Finally we´ve covered some initial ground in adding some extra Personality to AI drivers so they now not only perform differently, but may also vary as to how they perform in starts, manage their tires and how cooperative they are reacting to blue flags, according to the definitions of the driver´s RCD file.

Naturally there is still plenty of work to be done in all areas, in particular issues with AI awareness in some conditions when they don´t give other cars the proper space, and AI hesitation to overtake on straights when in position to do so are both big issues which we hope to make further progress on in time for v1.5.


Audio was another big front of development in v1.4, as our man Domagoj Lovric continues to do great work on the audio front, far exceeding our original goals for AMS. In addition to extensive work on new PostFX filters providing much meatier external sounds, some old issues have been ironed out and extra configuration options added.


Besides working on some very cool new cars, Dom has began dabbing with development of surround sound - fingers crossed it will make it in for v1.5 :)

There have been various updates & fixes to content - one of the most notable being the Boxer cockpit getting a facelift with ambient occlusion mapping, seamless textures and a couple of extra tweaks and optionals, the results of which you can compare below:

V1.3.7:

V1.4.0:


The shots above also showcases another development from v1.4 as driver arms have now been added as vehicle configuration option. - these unfortunately are not fully animated but rather static objects added to the wheel, for that reason they´re not articulated and have been limited to 90º in each direction. Not ideal, but hopefully an acceptable stop-gap for those who have been waiting for this feature.

The driver model itself has been upgraded and the suits and gloves specially customized to each era:



Another long waited feature finally made it in with v1.4 release as the Season Tool, which considerably expand the value of single player championship mode as users can now create their own season. Kudos to Dave Stephenson for another great job on this one :)


Like other features, the Season Tool in its current state is a baseline we´ll be looking to expand on with a few extra rules and further customization options.


The F-Ultimate was greenlit for v1.4 fairly late as original plan was to release it with new ERS / Turbo models. In the end we figured those would not affect the driving experience so much to warrant withholding release.. Truth be told we thought it just drove and sounded too good to be held back any further :)

There is still work to do though, specially on the ERS system which we hope to complete in time for v1.5. As it is, the car already features an ERS map which optimizes power delivery for each gear but the battery is still 100% all the time.

Here you can see Niels commenting on the physics development of the car while taking it for a few quick laps:
https://youtu.be/89-MeQC3704


There have been enquiries about the long overdue Steam Achievements as we had hinted in the previous dev update it would come with v1.4 - they didn´t quite make it in time but we are actually working on the achievements right now - as soon as we have completed implementation and put it through testing we will put it out with a small update. We hope to complete it at some point next week.

There will be a preview topic for Steam Achievements in Reiza51 shortly so those with access will be able to check them out and even contribute with a few suggestions :)


We are now on the final stretch towards v1.5 and we´re working hard to make it at least as big an update as v1.4 was. There will however be one, potentially two intermediate updates until then.

Beyond new content and a couple of new features we hope will make it in time for v1.5, we´re also looking to continue polishing the overall package, fixing some of the more inconvenient bugs and quirks along with upgrading existing content to bring them as close to the standards of the latest stuff as possible. Alex Sawczu is looking to update some of the older tracks which have fallen a bit behind when compared to newer releases like Hockenheim; we also hope to do some accuracy updating to tracks that have had minor changes since they were originally modelled.

In terms of new content, current plans feature development of 2 more (free) tracks, 1 semi-new series, and DLC packages to be released for AMS within the next couple of months.

We´ll need a bit more time to spill in the beans on all of these- for now I can confirm development of Ibarra has begun and should be the next track to be released. This track (also known as Yahuarcocha) is a picturesque old-style circuit in Ecuador, set in between a beautiful mountainous scenery and the lake Yawarkucha and should be a great ride in all sorts of cars. Check it out:

https://youtu.be/DZs6sXay5RA

Before we wrap, a reminder that the AMS Season Pass which secures all currently available DLCs along with the ones still to be released is currently on sale with 35% off - if you haven´t grabbed that yet make sure to do it now :)

This covers it for the month - look forward to catching up with you all again next month, hopefully we´ll be in position to be more specific then ;)

Hello everyone! We´re back for another Automobilista Development Update - not many of these to go now!

As you may have noticed, we missed out on publishing a dev update last month - apologies for that, hopefully the v1.4 changelog will be convincing enough evidence we weren´t just slacking off :)

It´s actually getting a bit tricky to share many details about what we´re doing in these final stages of AMS development as we´re getting more into exploring new grounds and doing some experimenting without knowing for sure what will pan out and how soon - that naturally makes it harder to provide much of a foresight without feeding expectations that may not be realistic on the short term.

With that in mind this month´s update is mostly retrospective on the work done for v1.4, while still providing some glimpses as to what comes next!


Following popular demand, v1.4 has seen a lot of development time dedicated towards improving the AI - we began by compiling a list (split in 5 main areas - Performance, Awareness, Strategy, Behavior & Personality), documenting the worse problems and elaborating some ideas to not only address these issues but move AI in general up to a new level. So far focus has been on making good baseline progress in all fronts, sorting out or at least minimising the most critical issues.

Improving AI Performance, or more specifically consistency in their performance so the AI can provide a consistent challenge to the player from corner to corner, track to track and car to car vs the player irrespective of his AI strength setting is always an ongoing task, with some good ground covered again in v1.4.

One of the initial focus was doing some basic improvements of AI Strategy, as any development elsewhere becomes a bit pointless if AI messes up his pit strategy - V1.4 updates should see more realistic tire wear from the AI as well as customized tire wear thresholds for pitstops so they don´t stop so late they lose too much time in worn tires, nor so soon they risk doing a potential pointless extra stop. We also added a lock for AI refuelling in series where they aren´t allowed to. Next steps include improving their fuel strategy so they can better calculate if and when to stop (and not take extra fuel when they dont need to), and set up different tire compounds for AI to qualify and / or start the race on.

These however are just the tip of the iceberg - there´s a lot still to be done for the AI to not only avoid basic errors but actually challenge / outsmart the player in strategy alone. Lots of ideas here but it will take some time until we can completely flesh them out.

We´ve also added several new functions to AI behavior to make them less "robotic" and more believable to race against - for instance they now respect blue flags and lift for the car behind, take it easier in in / out laps as well as cool down laps. Next steps include making them behave more safely after leaving the track and / or spinning.

AI awareness has also improved considerably in v1.4 as can be seen in this quite radical multiclass race start and how the AI manage to navigate their way round fairly competently:

https://youtu.be/Xc2c4dB1-x4

Finally we´ve covered some initial ground in adding some extra Personality to AI drivers so they now not only perform differently, but may also vary as to how they perform in starts, manage their tires and how cooperative they are reacting to blue flags, according to the definitions of the driver´s RCD file.

Naturally there is still plenty of work to be done in all areas, in particular issues with AI awareness in some conditions when they don´t give other cars the proper space, and AI hesitation to overtake on straights when in position to do so are both big issues which we hope to make further progress on in time for v1.5.


Audio was another big front of development in v1.4, as our man Domagoj Lovric continues to do great work on the audio front, far exceeding our original goals for AMS. In addition to extensive work on new PostFX filters providing much meatier external sounds, some old issues have been ironed out and extra configuration options added.


Besides working on some very cool new cars, Dom has began dabbing with development of surround sound - fingers crossed it will make it in for v1.5 :)

There have been various updates & fixes to content - one of the most notable being the Boxer cockpit getting a facelift with ambient occlusion mapping, seamless textures and a couple of extra tweaks and optionals, the results of which you can compare below:

V1.3.7:

V1.4.0:


The shots above also showcases another development from v1.4 as driver arms have now been added as vehicle configuration option. - these unfortunately are not fully animated but rather static objects added to the wheel, for that reason they´re not articulated and have been limited to 90º in each direction. Not ideal, but hopefully an acceptable stop-gap for those who have been waiting for this feature.

The driver model itself has been upgraded and the suits and gloves specially customized to each era:



Another long waited feature finally made it in with v1.4 release as the Season Tool, which considerably expand the value of single player championship mode as users can now create their own season. Kudos to Dave Stephenson for another great job on this one :)


Like other features, the Season Tool in its current state is a baseline we´ll be looking to expand on with a few extra rules and further customization options.


The F-Ultimate was greenlit for v1.4 fairly late as original plan was to release it with new ERS / Turbo models. In the end we figured those would not affect the driving experience so much to warrant withholding release.. Truth be told we thought it just drove and sounded too good to be held back any further :)

There is still work to do though, specially on the ERS system which we hope to complete in time for v1.5. As it is, the car already features an ERS map which optimizes power delivery for each gear but the battery is still 100% all the time.

Here you can see Niels commenting on the physics development of the car while taking it for a few quick laps:
https://youtu.be/89-MeQC3704


There have been enquiries about the long overdue Steam Achievements as we had hinted in the previous dev update it would come with v1.4 - they didn´t quite make it in time but we are actually working on the achievements right now - as soon as we have completed implementation and put it through testing we will put it out with a small update. We hope to complete it at some point next week.

There will be a preview topic for Steam Achievements in Reiza51 shortly so those with access will be able to check them out and even contribute with a few suggestions :)


We are now on the final stretch towards v1.5 and we´re working hard to make it at least as big an update as v1.4 was. There will however be one, potentially two intermediate updates until then.

Beyond new content and a couple of new features we hope will make it in time for v1.5, we´re also looking to continue polishing the overall package, fixing some of the more inconvenient bugs and quirks along with upgrading existing content to bring them as close to the standards of the latest stuff as possible. Alex Sawczu is looking to update some of the older tracks which have fallen a bit behind when compared to newer releases like Hockenheim; we also hope to do some accuracy updating to tracks that have had minor changes since they were originally modelled.

In terms of new content, current plans feature development of 2 more (free) tracks, 1 semi-new series, and DLC packages to be released for AMS within the next couple of months.

We´ll need a bit more time to spill in the beans on all of these- for now I can confirm development of Ibarra has begun and should be the next track to be released. This track (also known as Yahuarcocha) is a picturesque old-style circuit in Ecuador, set in between a beautiful mountainous scenery and the lake Yawarkucha and should be a great ride in all sorts of cars. Check it out:

https://youtu.be/DZs6sXay5RA

Before we wrap, a reminder that the AMS Season Pass which secures all currently available DLCs along with the ones still to be released is currently on sale with 35% off - if you haven´t grabbed that yet make sure to do it now :)

This covers it for the month - look forward to catching up with you all again next month, hopefully we´ll be in position to be more specific then ;)

So, here we are. It's been a pretty long journey, but we're finally coming to Steam, ready to face the 2 final months before releasing Juanito Arcade Mayhem to the general public.

But we know what you're wondering right now.


- We're redrawing like half the animations: a couple of the animations still remain from earlier versions, and they're not really a reflection of what we can achieve at the moment. We figured we had better put our best foot forward, which means dusting some old files and working on them again.

- Better backgrounds: since the game is pretty dynamic, we thought the artwork might as well be consistent. So we're reworking them, hoping that they'll do the rest of the game justice. That part's pretty fun, cause it involves playing older games looking for references.

- That damn difficulty curve!: we once had our minds made up that Juanito should reflect what hardcore player want in terms of difficulty. But since it was super hard, we ended up changing it so that anyone could play it through on their first try. Now we're working on a bit of a middle ground. Don't get us wrong, it's still a real challenge, but that involves messing with how the difficulty climbs as you get further into the game. Right now, we're trying to find a sweet spot por the first several levels ;)

And that's mostly it! Exciting times, to say the least. We hope to deliver the game we pictured so many years ago, but making use of our skills today =)

Let us know if we forgot anything!

So, here we are. It's been a pretty long journey, but we're finally coming to Steam, ready to face the 2 final months before releasing Juanito Arcade Mayhem to the general public.

But we know what you're wondering right now.


- We're redrawing like half the animations: a couple of the animations still remain from earlier versions, and they're not really a reflection of what we can achieve at the moment. We figured we had better put our best foot forward, which means dusting some old files and working on them again.

- Better backgrounds: since the game is pretty dynamic, we thought the artwork might as well be consistent. So we're reworking them, hoping that they'll do the rest of the game justice. That part's pretty fun, cause it involves playing older games looking for references.

- That damn difficulty curve!: we once had our minds made up that Juanito should reflect what hardcore player want in terms of difficulty. But since it was super hard, we ended up changing it so that anyone could play it through on their first try. Now we're working on a bit of a middle ground. Don't get us wrong, it's still a real challenge, but that involves messing with how the difficulty climbs as you get further into the game. Right now, we're trying to find a sweet spot por the first several levels ;)

And that's mostly it! Exciting times, to say the least. We hope to deliver the game we pictured so many years ago, but making use of our skills today =)

Let us know if we forgot anything!