BallisticNG News

In this update we've made some tweaks to vanilla campaign time trial targets and made some improvements to the layout creator.

Vanilla Campaign

• The separation between bronze, silver and gold medals has been increased to 6 seconds from 4 seconds. This means silver medals are now awarded for being 6 seconds slower then gold and bronze medals are awarded for being 12 seconds slower.
  
  We hope this helps with some of the difficulty problems people have been reporting. We'll be keeping an eye on the threads to continue making any tweaks to these times if needed.
  

Layout Creator 2.0

• Added the reference image plane feature from the legacy creator. You can find more information about this feature on the wiki:
  https://ballisticng.gamepedia.com/Layout_Creator_2.0#Reference_Image_Plane
  
• Added tangent pitching (Ctrl + F)
  
• Added UI controls for manipulating tangents in the node tools window
  
• The speed class and physics mode options are now remembered when loading a CTL file
  

As BallisticNG 1.1 introduced a new physics mode we thought it deserved a track that is designed around it.

Introducing Europa! Available now in forwards and reverse for free as part of the new free tracks expansion. You'll find it under the new extras category in the track selection screen!


Europa is set on the moon of the same name and serves as the initial testing grounds for G-Tek's latest development in AG engine technology, built for use in extremely low or zero gravity racing environments.

https://youtu.be/eYakI89bz2I

We've just released BallisticNG 1.1.2. This update addresses some of the issues we've seen pop up over the past couple of days.


These were addressed in some quick patches released before this so they're being mentioned here just to clarify:

• Fixed in-race music not working
  
• Fixed gamepads not working after the first race
  
• Fixed vibration not working
  

• Fixed precipitation not being occluded by environment meshes when in VR
  
• Mirror mode is now disabled when playing in VR. The new method of handling the mode is not compatible with VR so we'll be looking for a work around in a future update.
  

• Made the Survival campaign awards overlay wider so it can fit triple digit targets
  

Fixed the Marina Rush Survival event in the Reflex block not starting (forced ship was enabled but a ship name wasn't given).

Hey everyone! In this I'm going to be briefly explaining what's in store for 1.2 and plans for 1.1.


1.2 is going to be a huge update to the game's code to better organise everything and update older parts to make it more versatile. If you've been around since the early days, this is going to be similar to what 0.8 set as a foundation for 0.9, 1.0 and 1.1.

Part of this update is going to be a total rewrite of the game's UI so everything can be generated on the fly instead of being hand made. This is going to open up the interface for more consistent styling, code mod support, customization like custom color settings and allows us to start implementing multiple languages!

A lot of other under the hood changes catered primarily for modding are also going to be made. To list a few of them:

• Search and filtering options in content turntables for easier management of huge mod installs
  
• An on screen keyboard for entering text with controllers
  
• Less restrictive ship configuration requirements. Allowing for multiple models, custom survival explosions and finer control over engine effects on an individual engine basis.
  
• In-game custom campaign editor tool
  
• Controller support for Layout Creator 2.0 with customizable input bindings
  
• Track tile tags for implementing custom behaviours and effects
  
• Support for spectators and bots in multiplayer
  

A huge update to the game's internals has been long coming but is only possible now due to our recent development workflow changes and how we no longer have to work on the game linearly.


As 1.2 will take a lot of time and work to finish we will continue to support and develop 1.1 in the foreseeable future. While this does mean no new major feature updates will be coming soon it does mean we can continue pushing out bug fixes and minor features in the mean time, and of course extra content!


For 1.2 the in-game ship importer is finally going to be depreciated. The tool is now considered end of life and will be removed in favour of transitioning everybody over to the newer Unity based importer tool in the future.

Note that the game will still be able to load ships exported with the legacy importer. If you have ships made with the legacy importer you can also import them into Unity to automatically convert them into the newer format, this keeps all of the workshop metadata so you can update existing workshop entries.

1.2 is going to bring a lot more exciting possibilities to the game and we can't wait to share what we're working on in the coming months!

Hey everyone, just a small hotfix to address some issues that were ran into on a community multiplayer session yesterday.

A huge thanks to those who identified the issues and helped test these changes!

Gamemodes

• Fixed being awarded no medal in Time Trial and Survival events if hard mode is disabled when earning a platinum
  

Multiplayer

• Fixed the name tag positions not adjusting for mirror mode
  
• Fixed a start grid softlock if somebody disconnects when the track is loading
  
• Fixed the track fade in overlay remaining a solid black at random when intensive custom ships are used
  
• Fixed the chat box text input not refocusing if sending a message with the return key
  
• Fixed the player list being offset in 4:3 resolutions
  
• Moved the player list in the lobby up so a fully 16 player lobby doesn't have the list overlap the bottom of the screen