Hot on the heels of last week's update we're back with a new one, focusing on gameplay and damage.
The thing is that Wreckfest was always envisioned as a game where racing is as important as wrecking, and so far, we've been doing pretty great on the racing department but not so much in wrecking – the crashes themselves are great and unlike in any other game but while racing, it's simply too risky to try to wreck others because more often than not any plan to race recklessly will backfire and just mean a premature end to your race.
As you know, last week's update already brought some changes to the damage mechanism by increasing gameplay damage in a bid to make crashes more rewarding. Obviously that alone didn't do the trick since while it did make crashes more meaningful it also made them more punishing, and as a result, something that you as a player want to avoid. So, early this week we took a long and hard look at the feedback we received and how we could make crashing more rewarding, and this update is a result of our efforts.
To get to the point: the main change in this update is that by hitting another car you will cause significantly more damage while suffering less yourself. It doesn't mean that you'd be invincible as long as you crash into others, though, since you will always receive some damage yourself too. In effect, this means that during a race, you might actually wreck someone in a few laps time and still make it to the finish, given that you avoid getting hit yourself. In our opinion this alone does make racing more exhilarating and inject some more WRECKFEST into the game but of course you, the players, are the ones to make the final judgment so please do continue to give us your feedback.
We've also used the opportunity to improve the damage otherwise, so now for example the armor sector representation in the HUD matches visual damage better, and a car about to get wrecked can no longer be wrecked by a light nudge (that was frustrating as hell). Also, to keep it within the theme of crash physics we've adjusted the collision matrix to prevent the cars from rolling over at too slow impact speeds, something that's been bothering us (and apparently you) for some time now.
The update also contains a healthy dose of other goodies and bug fixes, with the full list below:
FIXED
Fixed missing Gatecrasher LOD2 model.
Fixed player unable to reset in Deatchmatch after respawning.
Fixed a case in which cars could occasionally receive visual damage on the starting grid after restarting.
Bogus "You have already completed this series and you have another series in progress." message is no longer displayed when attempting to continue a series in progress.
Disabled mouse axis input as a controller to prevent users with specific hardware from being unable to remap keyboard controls.
In pre-race, pressing ESC while being on any of the other tabs than the first now takes back to the first tab.
BullDog upgrade parts received as rewards now use the correct car name instead of European 11.
Lawnmower is now correctly received after beating the lawnmower challenge.
MudDigger and Rocket no longer have duplicate "None" customization parts.
NEW AND ADJUSTED
Added more banger racing and demolition derby liveries for select vehicles.
Added a new giant can prop to various tracks.
Improved environment art for various tracks.
Improved various effects.
Novice AI now makes more mistakes and is slightly slower.
Amateur AI now makes slightly more mistakes and is slightly slower.
In derby game modes, the AI now favors the player slightly more.
Adjusted collision matrix to prevent the cars from rolling over at too slow impact speeds.
Gameplay damage: car vs. car crashes now cause more gameplay damage.
Hitting other cars now causes significantly more damage to the victim, less to the attacker.
Armor sector representation in the HUD matches visual damage better.
A car about to get wrecked can no longer be wrecked by a light nudge.
Environment now causes even less gameplay damage.
Mechanical damage occurs more logically when compared to the car health.
Engine and transmission mechanical damage is reduced to make sure the player can still keep going.
Improved lawnmower gameplay.
MP: Added chat back to respawn state and spectate view.
Improved player stats visuals at the top right corner of the screen.
Hot on the heels of last week's update we're back with a new one, focusing on gameplay and damage.
The thing is that Wreckfest was always envisioned as a game where racing is as important as wrecking, and so far, we've been doing pretty great on the racing department but not so much in wrecking – the crashes themselves are great and unlike in any other game but while racing, it's simply too risky to try to wreck others because more often than not any plan to race recklessly will backfire and just mean a premature end to your race.
As you know, last week's update already brought some changes to the damage mechanism by increasing gameplay damage in a bid to make crashes more rewarding. Obviously that alone didn't do the trick since while it did make crashes more meaningful it also made them more punishing, and as a result, something that you as a player want to avoid. So, early this week we took a long and hard look at the feedback we received and how we could make crashing more rewarding, and this update is a result of our efforts.
To get to the point: the main change in this update is that by hitting another car you will cause significantly more damage while suffering less yourself. It doesn't mean that you'd be invincible as long as you crash into others, though, since you will always receive some damage yourself too. In effect, this means that during a race, you might actually wreck someone in a few laps time and still make it to the finish, given that you avoid getting hit yourself. In our opinion this alone does make racing more exhilarating and inject some more WRECKFEST into the game but of course you, the players, are the ones to make the final judgment so please do continue to give us your feedback.
We've also used the opportunity to improve the damage otherwise, so now for example the armor sector representation in the HUD matches visual damage better, and a car about to get wrecked can no longer be wrecked by a light nudge (that was frustrating as hell). Also, to keep it within the theme of crash physics we've adjusted the collision matrix to prevent the cars from rolling over at too slow impact speeds, something that's been bothering us (and apparently you) for some time now.
The update also contains a healthy dose of other goodies and bug fixes, with the full list below:
FIXED
Fixed missing Gatecrasher LOD2 model.
Fixed player unable to reset in Deatchmatch after respawning.
Fixed a case in which cars could occasionally receive visual damage on the starting grid after restarting.
Bogus "You have already completed this series and you have another series in progress." message is no longer displayed when attempting to continue a series in progress.
Disabled mouse axis input as a controller to prevent users with specific hardware from being unable to remap keyboard controls.
In pre-race, pressing ESC while being on any of the other tabs than the first now takes back to the first tab.
BullDog upgrade parts received as rewards now use the correct car name instead of European 11.
Lawnmower is now correctly received after beating the lawnmower challenge.
MudDigger and Rocket no longer have duplicate "None" customization parts.
NEW AND ADJUSTED
Added more banger racing and demolition derby liveries for select vehicles.
Added a new giant can prop to various tracks.
Improved environment art for various tracks.
Improved various effects.
Novice AI now makes more mistakes and is slightly slower.
Amateur AI now makes slightly more mistakes and is slightly slower.
In derby game modes, the AI now favors the player slightly more.
Adjusted collision matrix to prevent the cars from rolling over at too slow impact speeds.
Gameplay damage: car vs. car crashes now cause more gameplay damage.
Hitting other cars now causes significantly more damage to the victim, less to the attacker.
Armor sector representation in the HUD matches visual damage better.
A car about to get wrecked can no longer be wrecked by a light nudge.
Environment now causes even less gameplay damage.
Mechanical damage occurs more logically when compared to the car health.
Engine and transmission mechanical damage is reduced to make sure the player can still keep going.
Improved lawnmower gameplay.
MP: Added chat back to respawn state and spectate view.
Improved player stats visuals at the top right corner of the screen.
As every week goes by, we continue to work on the server node crossing issues, the Newbie Island new player experience and, of course, we continue our process of eradicating bugs and crash fixes.
For more than three months since our OBT start in November 2017, we have continued to keep the fast pace and present you with a patch on a weekly/biweekly basis.
We'd like to express our most sincere gratitude for staying with us and supporting Life is Feudal. Developing a feature heavy Sandbox MMORPG with a fully terraformable world would be no small feat even for some of the larger studios in the industry, and with our more humble team perhaps you can imagine the stress we are under every day.
However, with your support we know we will pull through, and your support will keep us working hard and giving it our best every single day. Thank you again for your help, feedback support and faith from every one of us here at Bitbox.
Oh, and some upcoming shovel skins for you to check out what our Art team is doing ;)
DCS World 70% Off Bonus Event Continues (ED Store Only!) We would like to remind you of our 70% off bonus event! Use your bonus points to save up to 70% off the following modules:
DCS: A-10C Warthog DCS: Black Shark 2 DCS: P-51D Mustang DCS: Flaming Cliffs 3 DCS: Combined Arms F-15C for DCS World A-10A for DCS World Su-27 for DCS World Su-25 for DCS World
This sale event will end when DCS 2.5 enters release.
In the (ED Store) checkout page, select the option to use your bonus points.
DCS World 2.5 Update
Since the release of 2.5 DCS World, the team has been hard at work addressing issues identified during the Open Beta process. In this sense, the Open Beta has been a great success and will result in a better finished product. Many issues have already been addressed like night lighting and Spitfire damage model, but we still have a few issues that we need to resolve before we can move DCS World 2.5 out of Open Beta. Some of these issues include a memory leak after starting several missions and more efficient shader compilation for first time mission loads.
Yak-52 Development Note from Yo-Yo
First, I would like to emphasize that the Yak 52 module is currently being tuned using actual recorded parameters from an actual Yak-52. This is why we call this a new stage in PFM development. In this post, I will present another stage of the work involved in the development of this FM, airplane side movement.
Springs and Dampers
The discussion of how a plane will behave during free side movement (roll and sideslip together), this has been known to start heated debates on other forums. Some people say that it must be a solid rock in a moving stream, while others talk about oscillations due to the physical basics of this type of movement. In this instance, the second statement would be correct. The plane in yaw movements is similar to a mass suspended from a spring surrounded by oil to damp. The spring is a static aerodynamic moment that tends to reduce yaw angle, the mass is the aircraft moment of inertia and the oil is an additional aerodynamic moment of the airframe due to rotational speed.
The observation that a plane oscillating seems to be unnatural can be explained by the following reasons: 1. The phenomenon of human perception, the pilot's brain will concentrate on the main information being received and will disregard minor details such as small oscillations during, say, the abrupt ending of a roll maneuver, these generally are beyond perception. 2. Due to the improper parameters of these oscillations, the period and damping. These parameters are explained below. Generally, these parameters are obtained from flight tests, and are then documented under FREE RUDDER.
In the sim we cannot simulate free controls; because of this it is necessary to have the results for FIXED RUDDER. It is known that the period of oscillations does not change significantly, but the damping does. Generally the difference is about 2 times. Having an opportunity to check in a real Yak-52, we performed the test and recorded several rudder impulses at 200 and 270 km/h IAS (Indicated Airspeed). The pilot tried, during these tests, to keep the rudder pedals in the neutral position after the initial shore deflection (impulse).
Then, the same tests were performed in DCS at the same speed, altitude (affects damping) and atmosphere conditions. The chart below presents the intermediate stage of model verification. The period is correct and damping is to be corrected by 15% for the sake of purists and accountants.
So I have a few comments about the included graph. I kept wX from the test; though this record was made in real world tests it has some flaws. The first is the aforementioned lack of X axis alignment and the second is most likely accidental stick movements during oscillation. The theory tells us that a pure experiment like we have for DCS (no significant control forces, no accelerations, etc) gives pure 90 degrees of phase shift between wX and wY. Anyways, the initial behaviour shows good similarity between DCS and real world wX.
The next important point for the plane handling parameter is a ratio of wX/wY. The chart shows that there is good match between real world tests and the module in DCS. It is not possible to exactly compare due to the reasons explained above.
It's very interesting to compare fixed rudder test results with the available graphs from the book ("Practical Aerodynamics of Yak-52 and Yak-55", Russian documentation). The periods of oscillation are very close, damping is as expected by less than 2 times for the free rudder, and roll/yaw ratio is somewhere close as well.
DCS World 70% Off Bonus Event Continues (ED Store Only!) We would like to remind you of our 70% off bonus event! Use your bonus points to save up to 70% off the following modules:
DCS: A-10C Warthog DCS: Black Shark 2 DCS: P-51D Mustang DCS: Flaming Cliffs 3 DCS: Combined Arms F-15C for DCS World A-10A for DCS World Su-27 for DCS World Su-25 for DCS World
This sale event will end when DCS 2.5 enters release.
In the (ED Store) checkout page, select the option to use your bonus points.
DCS World 2.5 Update
Since the release of 2.5 DCS World, the team has been hard at work addressing issues identified during the Open Beta process. In this sense, the Open Beta has been a great success and will result in a better finished product. Many issues have already been addressed like night lighting and Spitfire damage model, but we still have a few issues that we need to resolve before we can move DCS World 2.5 out of Open Beta. Some of these issues include a memory leak after starting several missions and more efficient shader compilation for first time mission loads.
Yak-52 Development Note from Yo-Yo
First, I would like to emphasize that the Yak 52 module is currently being tuned using actual recorded parameters from an actual Yak-52. This is why we call this a new stage in PFM development. In this post, I will present another stage of the work involved in the development of this FM, airplane side movement.
Springs and Dampers
The discussion of how a plane will behave during free side movement (roll and sideslip together), this has been known to start heated debates on other forums. Some people say that it must be a solid rock in a moving stream, while others talk about oscillations due to the physical basics of this type of movement. In this instance, the second statement would be correct. The plane in yaw movements is similar to a mass suspended from a spring surrounded by oil to damp. The spring is a static aerodynamic moment that tends to reduce yaw angle, the mass is the aircraft moment of inertia and the oil is an additional aerodynamic moment of the airframe due to rotational speed.
The observation that a plane oscillating seems to be unnatural can be explained by the following reasons: 1. The phenomenon of human perception, the pilot's brain will concentrate on the main information being received and will disregard minor details such as small oscillations during, say, the abrupt ending of a roll maneuver, these generally are beyond perception. 2. Due to the improper parameters of these oscillations, the period and damping. These parameters are explained below. Generally, these parameters are obtained from flight tests, and are then documented under FREE RUDDER.
In the sim we cannot simulate free controls; because of this it is necessary to have the results for FIXED RUDDER. It is known that the period of oscillations does not change significantly, but the damping does. Generally the difference is about 2 times. Having an opportunity to check in a real Yak-52, we performed the test and recorded several rudder impulses at 200 and 270 km/h IAS (Indicated Airspeed). The pilot tried, during these tests, to keep the rudder pedals in the neutral position after the initial shore deflection (impulse).
Then, the same tests were performed in DCS at the same speed, altitude (affects damping) and atmosphere conditions. The chart below presents the intermediate stage of model verification. The period is correct and damping is to be corrected by 15% for the sake of purists and accountants.
So I have a few comments about the included graph. I kept wX from the test; though this record was made in real world tests it has some flaws. The first is the aforementioned lack of X axis alignment and the second is most likely accidental stick movements during oscillation. The theory tells us that a pure experiment like we have for DCS (no significant control forces, no accelerations, etc) gives pure 90 degrees of phase shift between wX and wY. Anyways, the initial behaviour shows good similarity between DCS and real world wX.
The next important point for the plane handling parameter is a ratio of wX/wY. The chart shows that there is good match between real world tests and the module in DCS. It is not possible to exactly compare due to the reasons explained above.
It's very interesting to compare fixed rudder test results with the available graphs from the book ("Practical Aerodynamics of Yak-52 and Yak-55", Russian documentation). The periods of oscillation are very close, damping is as expected by less than 2 times for the free rudder, and roll/yaw ratio is somewhere close as well.
My name is Jan and I just released my new VR game Live the Guitar. I am not a developer, I am just a virtual reality enthusiast who got so angry at all those guys saying that the virtual reality will be next 3D television disaster that I have decided to do something. So I have started to create a VR game. My philosophy is to use 360 3D 4K videos in which you can interact and play using HTC Vive controllers. The videos in VR will make you feel like actually being there and let you experience real life emotions which only actual people can share. I call it Live the VR because you will feel like living the game.
Live the Guitar is the first game I have ever created in my free time and still working full time as a Network Security Manager. In the game, you will become a guitar player in a young upcoming rock band The Snuff. You will first start by impressing everybody on the band rehearsal, then play on a small club show and finish up on a big open-air festival. The gameplay is spiced up by numerous cutscenes which let you experience ups and downs of a music industry and make you feel like a member of the rock band The Snuff.
I really starve for feedback so please get in touch with me here on steam or using the social media with any suggestions or comments:
