1. Spell Karts
  2. News
  3. Update 4 release notes

Update 4 release notes

Update 4 adds 3 new "beam" spells, a new arena game mode "Ritual" and many fixes and general improvements.
Kart physics has had an update which should resolve a lot of the issues being encountered. There are still a few known bugs, particularly that the increased mass of karts can cause them to get stuck in objects. These bugs will be ironed out over the next few days in minor releases.

Update 5 will be released in two weeks to allow time for physics debugging and general bug fixing over the next week.

Added new “Beam” spells
Beam spells project a line forwards, affecting anything the beam hits and applying the spell effect over time whilst in contact. Nature and arcane beams will apply an effect only once to each target.
  • Arcane beam
  • Fire beam
  • Nature beam


Added new “Ritual” game mode
Available in arena mode. A ritual circle appears randomly on the map, players in the circle will gain points whilst alive. There are three phases to each ritual, each phase will last a random amount of time.
Each phase brings a smaller circle, forcing players to take action against one another.
Once the final phase is over, all players in the circle will be sacrificed. Listen to the changes in ritual audio to know when to leave!

Other new features
  • Implemented global cooldown for spell casting - 1 second
  • Added new achievements


Improvements
  • Kart physics improvements
  • Various map Improvements
  • You can now fine-tune the amount of vegetation present in the scene, turning vegetation down can increase performance on low-end systems
  • You can now increase/decrease the delay between consecutive NVIDIA Highlights shots (default 30 seconds)
  • Backend work towards internationalisation
  • Sound will now pause while in Ansel mode
  • Various performance improvements and timing fixes
  • Added NPCs to various maps
  • `Vicious Vikings` is now snowier
  • Increased size of standard kart
  • Start time is now better synchronised to countdown even under high latency
  • [Windows] Added DX12 launch option
  • [Linux] Switched default graphics API to Vulkan


Fixes
  • Fixed split-screen on Linux (Vulkan only)
  • Fixed rare issue causing players to fall through terrain
  • Fixed shaking and wobbling in most cases when kart wheels penetrate terrain
  • Fixed drifting on hills
  • Fixed kart flipping in most cases
  • Fixed Boogie Bogs terrain collision
  • Fixed network spam caused by certain spells
  • Fixed GeForce highlights recordings button
  • Fixed AI getting stuck in Dungy Dungeons
  • Fixed collision issues in Wild West
  • Fixed inability to jump in multiplayer
  • Fixed issue where a controller would sometimes be forgotten after playing a split-screen match


Known issues
  • Various physics issues are currently being worked on
  • Snow effects can be duplicated in split-screen