BallisticNG News

With 1.4 being our last major feature update, we want to make sure that we're leaving the game in the best possible state that it can be in. The user interface is an area of the game that's needed some love for a very long time, and we're now giving it the attention it needs.

We haven't finished every interface yet and will be completing them in a future development build. The interfaces we still need to update are:

• Campaign, campaign editor and precision runs.
  
• Multiplayer lobby.
  
• Multiplayer connecting popups.
  
• Options.
  
• Records, stats, achievements.
  
• Result screens.
  
• Code mods management.
  
• Gallery.
  
• HUDS (text rendering update, minor aesthetic tweaks).
  
• Probably some other Uis somewhere (we have a lot).
  

[h2]Playing on development builds[/h2]

• Right click BallisticNG in your steam library and go to Properties
  
• Go to the betas tab on the window that opens
  
• From the dropdown select development. If the update doesn't automatically queue for download, restart Steam
  
• Once you have opened the game, the version at the bottom right of the menu will read 1.4-d35

[h2]Notices[/h2]

• UI preset locations have been changed and the game won't automatically move them. If you've been using presets for custom AI rosters or multiplayer lobbies, you'll want to move the following folders:
  
  • User > Config > Ini > Ai Presets, to User > Config > Presets > Ai Rosters
  • User > Confg > Ini > Lobby Presets to User > Config > Presets > Lobby Settings

[h2]Unity Tools[/h2]
The Unity Tools have been updated with this release. Click here to view the changelog and download the latest package.


The UI element style that we debuted with the content selectors in 1.4 Dev 3 is now being rolled out across the entire game.

The main menu has been reorganized with fewer options being displayed immediately. What we consider important options are at the forefront of this new menu, then everything else that was previously available on the start page can be found a layer deeper.

We've also introduced a new style to the menus 3d rendering. When you're not in the track selector, ship selector or in a multiplayer lobby, you'll now be looking at this animation inspired by the game's cover art:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVJjsFEUmAc

Navigation through all currently updated menus is now vertical only. Horizontal inputs are reserved for changing options.

Combined with menus now resetting their selection to the first option when you navigate forward into them, we hope this will help with forming more consistent muscle memory for quickly breezing through interfaces to get into the game.


Every text element in the game is being updated to Unity's TextMeshPro component, which uses SDF rendering to keep fonts sharp at any resolution. This not only has a benefit for people playing at higher resolutions like 4k, but it also improves readability at really low resolutions too.

Here's a look at what this actually means. The top is using the old text renderer, the bottom is using the new text renderer.




Tournament track setup has seen some major changes. You'll now be presented with a menu where you can freely insert, move and delete tracks.

With this build we've also finally implemented a long requested feature: tournament presets!
Also worth noting, custom weapon pools in custom races now have support for presets too, and we plan to add presets for the entire custom race menu.




Other then the updated UI, there have also been a few other updates to Photo mode.

[h3]Increased FOV range[/h3]
The FOV can now go as low as 1 degree and as high as 179 degrees. 1 degree can be useful, like the image below, and 179 is basically useless but it's also funny to have.



[h3]Thirds grid[/h3]
You can now enable a thirds grid to help with shot composition!

[h3]User Interface[/h3]

• Added keyboard input icons.
  
• Updated controller input icons with more consistent dimensions and a new design for improved readability.
  
• Updated main menu background with an animation inspired by the game's cover art.
  
• The main menu title on the menu now changes to provide context of the menu / overlay currently opened.
  
• Cheats & Secrets elements now update immediately after activating Unlock All.
  
• Redesigned most pages on the main menu. More updates coming in future builds.
  
• Redesigned first startup and VR welcome overlays.
  
• Redesigned update profile overlay.
  
• Redesigned the pause menu.
  
• Redesigned the practice mode introduction popup and pause menu guide. All guide entries have also been rewritten.
  
• Redesigned the credits interface.
  
• Redesigned the data selection elements. These do not automatically replace the old elements, and are being deployed to new interfaces only.
  
  • Clicking a values text area now opens dialogs for faster input interactions with keyboard and mouse.
    
  • Selectors now always wrap. With two options, mouse clicking the value text acts as a toggle. With three or more, a full list will show.
    
  • Sliders show a preview for how the mouse will change the value. Dragging the slider no longer allows scroll rects to follow mouse movement. Mouse clicking the value text opens a text field to manually enter a value, which is rounded to the relevant step size as you're typing.
    
  • Text inputs now require menu submit to be pressed before typing (clicking / tapping will also work). Data type validation is also now supported.
    
• When ending a session from the pause menu in Survival and Speed Lap, an explanation of what ending the session does is displayed in the confirmation dialog.
  
• Menus now have a brief fade in animation. This is being rolled out to interfaces as they're updated and is replacing the sequenced element toggle animation.
  
• Main menu meshes are now toggled based on the current context (noticeable in VR)
  
• The first item of a menu list will now always be selected when navigating forwards on redesigned menus.
  
• Tooltips redesigned, are more consistently positioned and no longer open while the left mouse button is held (sliders).
  
• Autoscrolling scroll rects now center the scroll position to all elements correctly and can now handle centred content alignment.
  
• The ship selector will now show standard ships if the only available ship category is custom ships while no custom ships are loaded.
  
• Right click back now works on the update profile interface.
  
• Fixed the resume button not being highlighted when opening the pause menu more then once.
  
• Fixed the ship selector showing nothing if custom campaigns that only allow custom ships are used.
  
• Fixed startup epilepsy notice automatically skipping too fast.
  
• Fixed startup epilepsy notice not DPI scaling.
  
• Fixed fallback input bind text being used if no input is pressed before reaching the menu.
  

[h3]Custom Race[/h3]

• Added weapon damage multiplier option.
  
• Added collision damage multiplier option.
  
• Added AI speed multiplier option.
  
• Added speed pads option.
  
• Added support for custom weapon pool presets.
  
• Added support for tournament track list presets.
  
• Redesigned the interface.
  
• Difficulty renamed to Ai Difficulty.
  

[h3]Multiplayer[/h3]

• Added weapon damage multiplier option.
  
• Added collision damage multiplier option.
  
• Added speed pads option.
  
• In-game host menu settings are now saved and recalled.
  
• In-game configuration of max players can now be set freely between 2 and 16.
  
• The IP list now saves as a json file (User > Cache > Interface > IpList.json). The previously used .bin file will be converted automatically.
  
• Fixed 2280 Model B and 2280 Model C always showing default liveries for peers.
  

[h3]Photo Mode[/h3]

• Added an exit confirmation.
  
• Added thirds grid option to the camera tab.
  
• Redesigned the interface.
  
• Exiting is now handled with the menu back and pause inputs.
  
• Effects are now automatically toggled based on their settings.
  
• The cursor is now left hidden when exiting move mode if it was hidden before entering it.
  
• The FOV can now be set between 1 and 179 degrees.
  
• Fixed cursor being visible when using move mode with a mouse.
  
• Fixed 240p output resolution using the wrong width.
  

[h3]Tracks[/h3]

• Fixed typo in Arrivon XI's location name.
  
• Fixed speed pad wall tile on Maceno Interchange Reverse.
  

[h3]Ships[/h3]

• Disabled mipmapping on 2280 Barracuda Model S stealth texture.
  
• Fixed typo on 2280 Tenrai gold livery.
  
• Fixed typo in Scorplet frontend description.
  
• Fixed black spot on 2280 MTech's Outer Reaches livery.
  
• Fixed incorrectly rotated logo on 2280 Hyperion Alt livery.
  

[h3]Gamemodes[/h3]

• To prevent an exploit, continuously scraping walls now inflicts collision damage in 2280 Survival.
  

[h3]Campaign[/h3]

• Fixed typo in an Outer Reaches campaign event name.
  

[h3]Precision Runs[/h3]

• Now accessed through the campaign menu. In a future update these will be a tab instead of a sub menu accessed through a button.
  

[h3]Pickups[/h3]

• Increased absorb shield replenish values by 2 (epack excluded).
  

[h3]2280[/h3]

• Ships now correctly rotate to face the direction of gravity when falling.
  

[h3]Tracks[/h3]

• Added no anti-skip volume to Project 9's hairpin.
  
• Fixed ships being thrown into the hole before the Nova Park hologram on Nova Split in 2280 Survival.
  
• Fixed ships sharply nose diving off of the Zephyr Climb jumps in 2280 Survival.
  
• Fixed ships hugging the start grid station roof on Luna in 2280 Survival.
  

[h3]Engine[/h3]

• Respawning ships now have their collision mesh set to a trigger instead of being disabled, allowing trigger enter/exit events to run.
  
• Moved AI roster presets from User/Config/Ini/Ai Presets to User/Config/Presets/Ai Rosters.
  
• Moved lobby presets from User/Config/Ini/Lobby Presets to User/Config/Presets/Lobby Settings.
  

[h3]Commands[/h3]

• Added debug_respawn to manually trigger a ship respawn.
  

[h3]Music[/h3]

• Fixed arcade mode introduction music continuing to play after the race has started in splitscreen.
  

[h3]Ship Viewer[/h3]

• Redesigned the interface.
  

It's been half a year since our last development branch update. We've been busy, let's get into what's we've been working on.

Our previous build focused on setting the foundations for the rewritten 2280 physics mode. In this build we've not only continued to polish it, but have broken its mechanics out into general options that can be used anywhere. On top of this, we're also introducing 2280 variants for almost every ship in the game!

[h2]Playing on development builds[/h2]

• Right click BallisticNG in your steam library and go to Properties
  
• Go to the betas tab on the window that opens
  
• From the dropdown select development. If the update doesn't automatically queue for download, restart Steam
  
• Once you have opened the game, the version at the bottom right of the menu will read 1.4-d28

[h2]Notices[/h2]

• How you barrel roll has changed in this update to tapping the thrust button. We had previously implemented the Roll On Thrust Tap option which was disabled by default, but have now expanded it into a general Barrel Roll Input option, with thrust tap as the default value. If you prefer the original way of barrel rolling or want both methods active, you can do so with this option in the controls menu.
  
• The new selector menus make use of new input bindings. If you're using a supported controller (you didn't have to bind inputs after installing the game) then these new bindings will be setup automatically, otherwise you'll need to head to the inputs menu to bind them.
  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H70c0Hk-VTQ
The biggest addition coming with this update are the 2280 ships. Several months in the making, these are variants of a majority of the game's ships with the full suite of liveries. They currently don't have cockpits and we'll be adding these in future updates.

A huge thanks to community members Brobama, Kabelsalat, MrX, Nathancubed and Vista for their hard work in helping design and develop these ships! A new section has been added to the game's credits which lists all of the contributions to this project.

The 2280 ships are statistically identical to their 2159 counterparts and can be used anywhere. Yes, this includes being able to use them in the campaign! Although designed to best fit with 2280, they can be used in any physics mode.

2280 ships use a newly added variant system, which allows you to select the ship through the menu entries for the 2159 ships. More information about both the variant system and the new selection menus are below.


The new variant system reduces a lot of clutter that has started to build over the years. Also available to modders, variants allow us to combine multiple options into one entry in the menus. For ships this means allowing the selection of multiple prefabs from a single menu entry, and for tracks this is forward/reverse and course selections.

Our internal use of this system is a bit more strict then what modders can use it for. The system allows you to pull in any installed content (except built in ships for custom ships) so you can create content that acts as it's own self contained category, providing any variant dependencies are also installed.

[h3]New Content Selector Menus[/h3]
To properly support the selection of 2280 ships we've redesigned the ship selection menu and taken the oppertunity to fix many long standing issues with the previous turntable design. We've also copied this design over to the track selector to streamline everything.

• Ship and tracks are now shown in vertical lists.
  
• Horizontal inputs now switch liveries for ships and switch between forward and reverse versions of tracks.
  
• Holding one of the category inputs and then pressing the other will list all content categories. This is useful for very quickly navigating to a content category if you have lots of mods installed.
  
• New inputs for variant selection have been added. For ships this will switch between the 2159 and 2280 ships. For tracks this will switch between courses, which is currently only used by Pines Complex.
  
• For custom content, the variant selection may be different depending on how mod authors configure their content.
  

2280 is now just a physics mode. It does have sideshifting as an integral mechanic, but everything else has been broken out into togglable game mechanics which can be configured by gamemodes, campaigns, in custom races and in multiplayer.

Out of the box 2280 is now, for the most part, mechanically identical to 2159. Pitlanes, afterburner, no barrel rolling and rescue droid respawns are the default settings, and of course as part of these changes mechanics like absorbing can now be used in 2159 if desired.

Time trial in 2280 now also uses pitlanes and afterburners. If barrel rolls are enabled then leaderboards will be disabled. This will be important for later when we have 2280 tracks where you can actually post times in the physics mode.


[h2]Updated 2280 Ship Stats[/h2]
All ships now have manually set steering stats to refine how all of the ships feel, 2159 ships have been updated with new camera and steer tilting stats to give them a different flavour, and a few ships have had larger changes to general handling to drastically improve them from the setup in Dev 2.

Sideshifts have been toned down and will no longer slam you into walls.

[h2]New Stats[/h2]
The ship stats for 2280 have some new additions!

• Sideshift Strength allows control over how strong sideshifts are. This is for both 2159 and 2280.
  
• Ratio based airbrake grip has been introduced. This automatically calculates the airbrakes grip based on the ships regular grounded grip which keeps it consistent across all 5 speedclasses. The old static grip stat setup can however still be used as it has some benefits for driftier ships.
  

[h2]General improvements and tweaks[/h2]
We've rewritten how we calcuale torque for maglocks so ships now correctly rotate to them. This also fixes an issue where the chase camera would vertically lock behind the ship.

The chase camera has been updated with some fixes so orbit angles are now correctly calculated, which results in a snappier camera at extreme angles. We've also swapped the order of rotation so it orbits vertically before horizontally, which fixes an issue where the camera would vertically lock if there was some horizontal movement.

Ai now have 2280 specific tunings that help them navigate more cleanly in the physics mode. Beforehand they would be constantly slowed down by exceeding ship handling capabiltiies, so many tweaks to prevent this from happening have been made.

[h2]Track Updates[/h2]
Several tracks have been updated with 2280 exclusive physics zone to make them play nicer in the mode. These are a mixture of helping the ship orientate with the track while in the air and applying springs to keep the ship lower to the floor over problematic jumps. See the full changelog below for the list of tracks that have been updated.


When playtesting the 2280 AI changes we ran into some general issues with the difficulty of the drag content and have made some tweaks to improve it. These tweaks are:

• Removed the acceleration reduction when Drag mode is enabled so you can catch back up faster
  
• Dropped the number of additional laps on drag tracks. The max is now 10 on Zen instead of 15.
  
• Tweaked the Model B stats so it's much more stable in Drag speeds.
  

BallisticNG has had AI flares that clip for a while now. It's been mostly okay since the ship designs don't make it completely egregious, but some of the new 2280 ships started to show the cracks in the previous setup.

We've updated the AI flare shader so flares stay on top correctly, and it now provides some additional functionality which has allowed us to setup flares on ships with flame engines too. The AI flare can now also be overriden, which gives custom ship authors some new toys to play with!




We've also been busy adding new modding features and improving the game's Unity's Tools package.

The changelog and latest version can be downloaded from here.


[h3]Input[/h3]
Note: These inputs will only be bound if you're using a supported controller. If you had to manually bind inputs for your controller, you'll need to manually bind these too

• Added Menu Previous Variant and Menu Next Variant input binds. (Defaults to shoulder buttons on gamepads, Q/E on keyboard)
  
• Added Open Advanced Selector input bind. (Defaults to Select/Share/Options button on controllers, Tab on keyboard)
  

[h3]Ships[/h3]
Livery templates are available for the 2280 ships! You can find them in the Modding > Livery Templates > 2280 folder.

• Added 2280 G-Tek
  
• Added 2280 Wyvern
  
• Added 2280 Hyperion
  
• Added 2280 Scorpio
  
• Added 2280 Omnicom
  
• Added 2280 Diavolt
  
• Added 2280 Nexus
  
• Added 2280 Tenrai
  
• Added 2280 Caliburn
  
• Added 2280 Protonic
  
• Added 2280 NX2000
  
• Added 2280 MTech
  
• Added 2280 Orbitronix
  
• Added 2280 Mako
  
• Added 2280 Lance Systems (precision delta)
  
• Added 2280 Barracuda Model A
  
• Added 2280 Barracuda Model B
  
• Added 2280 Barracuda Model C
  
• Added 2280 Barracuda Model S
  
• Added 2280 Barracuda Model 0
  
• Added support for custom ship variants. If somebody is using a variant you don't have in multiplayer, it will default to the base version of the ship.
  
• Decreased sideshifting strength and exposed it as a ship stat
  
• Custom ship tilt stats are now used in Survival
  
• Boosted the color intensity of various ship flares to make the visual connect between flare and trail more seamless
  
• The INTERNAL_DRAG module now accepts a zeroPowerColor userdata color variable. Providing this lets you set a custom engine color when the engine power is at zero.
  
• The INTERNAL_DRAG module now accepts a customBaseColor userdata color variable. Providing this will override the engine color set in the ship prefab.
  
• The INTERNAL_DRAG module now accepts a customBoostColor userdata color variable. Providing this will override the engine boost color if useBoostColors is also set to true.
  
• Updated 2159 ships with new 2280 camera and tilt stats
  
• Decreased the default 2280 chase camera far spring values from 11 to 10.
  
• Fixed custom liveries not loading for secret ships
  
• All ships, excluding Protonic and Barracuda Model C for airbrake grip, updated with manually set 2280 turn stats and ratio based airbrake grip
  
• Removed the acceleration stat decrease in drag mode
  

[h3]Tracks[/h3]

• Removed 3d pads from tracks that implemented them for 2280 overrides.
  
• Dropped the extra laps count on drag tracks to 5 (from 10)
  
• Shader replacement is now applied to all types of renderers on custom track load
  
• Fixed custom tracks containing mesh renderers with missing materials softlocking the game during track load
  
• Updated several tracks with 2280 exclusive physics zones to improve 2280 playability:
  
  • Cassandra Forward
    
  • Zephyr Ridge Reverse
    
  • Luna Forward
    
  • Luna Reverse
    
  • Ishtar Citadel Forward
    
  • Ishtar Citadel Reverse
    
  • Arrivon XI Reverse
    
  • Omega Harbour Forward
    
  • Omega Harbour Reverse
    
  • Utah Project Forward
    
  • Utah Project Reverse
    
  • Atlantica
    
  • Atlantica Reverse
    
  • Hydrome Bed
    
  • Arrivon Peak
    
  • Atacama Forward
    
  • Atacama Reverse
    
  • Alice Mountain Forward
    
  • Alice Mountain Reverse
    
  • Maria Tide Forward
    
  • Maria Tide Reverse
    
  • Vespera Heights Forward
    
  • Vespera Heights Reverse
    
  • Therma Fumos Forward
    
  • Therma Fumos Reverse
    
  • Freyr Falls Forward
    
  • Freyr Falls Reverse
    
  • Alto Overseer Reverse
    
  • Maceno Peak Forward
    
  • Maceno Peak Reverse
    
  • Vega Square Reverse
    
  • Thunderhead Reverse
    
  
  [h3]2280[/h3]
  
  • Added an acceleration look offset when using the afterburner to the chase camera. This can be toggled using the camera's accel mod option.
    
  • 2280 now overrides floorhugger on floorhugger tracks, converting the track into silent maglocks.
    
  • Weapon absorption is no longer exclusive to 2280 and is now disabled by default
    
  • Instant track recovery is no longer exclusive to 2280 and is now disabled by default
    
  • Afterburner and pitlanes are now available in 2280 and are enabled by default
    
  • Barrel rolls are no longer enabled by default and are now marked as a cheat when enabled
    
  • Smoothed the grounder force in Survival
    
  • Airbrake grip is now reduced in Toxic and Apex
    
  • Airbrake grip is now the same as regular grip in Survival
    
  • Decreased airbrake grip spring speeds
    
  • Decreased turn falloff spring
    
  • Airbrake air resistence gain is now scaled with the ships drift
    
  • Swapped the order of rotation for the chase camera to fix vertical movement locks
    
  • Track pads are no longer updated to 3d pads automatically. 3D pads will still however be used if present in a scene. If Allow Mixed Pads is enabled for the track, both types of pads will now be enabled like with 2159 / floorhugger.
    
  • Fixed an issue with maglock physics which caused the chase camera to become rigid
    
  • Fixed a missing calculation when determining the chase camera angle for applying the spring. The camera will now feel more responsive as it reaches more extreme angles, and will also feel a bit smoother.
    
  • Fixed chase camera look offset snapping through teleporters
    
  
  [h3]Custom Race[/h3]
  
  • Added option to toggle instant track recovery
    
  • Added option to select shield recovery mechanic (none, pitlane, weapon absorb or mixed)
    
  • Gamemode specific settings now have a dedicated header. The first section is now labeled general settings.
    
  
  [h3]Campaign[/h3]
  
  • Added support for forcing AI and Player ship variants
    
  
  [h3]Multiplayer[/h3]
  
  • Added option to toggle instant track recovery
    
  • Added option to select shield recovery mechanic (none, pitlane, weapon absorb or mixed)
    
  • Added ShieldRecovery and InstantTrackRecovery CFG options for dedicated servers
    
  
  [h3]Pickups[/h3]
  
  • Absorbing pickups now plays the emergency pack use sound
    
  • Every weapon now has their own absorb values. These values are documented below.
    
  • Turbos are no longer inherently enabled in 2280
    
  • E-Packs are no longer disabled in 2280
    
  
  [h3]Pickup Absorb Stats[/h3]
  These stat changes are intended to make pickup absorbing a more strategic mechanic where you need to balance being able to engage in combat and recovering shield energy. These stats are open for suggestions, please let us know what you think!
  
  
  
  

  
  

  Pickup

  
  

  Absorb Shield %

  
  

  
  

  
  

  Rockets

  
  

  6

  
  

  
  

  
  

  Mines

  
  

  6

  
  

  
  

  
  

  Plasma

  
  

  8

  
  

  
  

  
  

  Energy Wall

  
  

  10

  
  

  
  

  
  

  Cannons

  
  

  6 (reduces based on number of bullets left)

  
  

  
  

  
  

  Shield

  
  

  8

  
  

  
  

  
  

  Autopilot

  
  

  8 (0 if absorbed after being started)

  
  

  
  

  
  

  EPack

  
  

  25 (same as using it)

  
  

  
  

  
  

  Temor

  
  

  8

  
  

  
  

  
  

  Turbo

  
  

  10

  
  

  
  

  
  

  Hunter

  
  

  8

  
  

  
  

  
  

  Hellstorm

  
  

  5

  
  
  
  [h3]Engine[/h3]
  
  • Added support for ship variants. These allow internal ships to be setup with multiple prefabs that can be switched between on the menu. Custom liveries are supported. Create a new folder for the base ship and append an underscore followed by the variants name you see on the menu.
    
  • Added support for track variant and courses definitions
    
  • Custom track cache information is now loaded into track entries using their file path instead of their display name (fixes information not being populated in cases where two separate track files share a display name).
    
  • Custom track cache information is now unloaded when the track it's linked to is unloaded
    
  • Virtual environment triangle splitting is now disabled for objects with static batching enabled
    
  • Fixed empty workshop categories being created when UGC is loaded without Steam running
    
  • Improved AI flares being clipped by the ship
    
  • Renamed Barracuda leaderboards to Highend. This triggers an immediate leaderboard reset for this category in this build onwards, and also impacts local records. A full serverside reset on Steam and GOG will be coming with the final release of 1.4.
    
  • UGC categories are now created at the end of content loading instead of during it. This helps fix some issues with content reloading where moving files around could previously cause categories to mess up.
    
  • UGC categories, and their contents, are now alphabetically organized to keep the result of content reloading consistent with a fresh boot.
    
  • Updated the games executable icon to the AGL logo
    
  • Fixed numerous ship sound issues when unpausing the game
    
  
  [h3]Options[/h3]
  
  • Replaced Roll On Thrust Tap with Barrel Roll Input. This can be switched between Thrust Tap, Steer Wiggle or Both. The default value is Thrust Tap.
    
  • Removed Stunt Steer Roll option. This now respects the Barrel Roll Input option.
    
• Disabled maglock before the start grid on Basin Reverse (2280 fix)
  

[h3]User Interface[/h3]

• Added support for the new track variant and courses system to the the advanced track selector
  
• Reimplemented ship selection interface with a list design which supports ship variants.
  
  • Ship stats are now displayed as a segment meter for better visual feedback
    
  • Custom ships now have dedicated categories, instead of folders inside of a single category
    
  • The Barracuda livery scheme selection is now a separate selection stage after you pick the main livery
    
  • Holding a category navigation button down and then pressing the opposite category navigation button will open a list to select from. This can also be opened by clicking the category name.
    
• Changing track / ship in splitscreen now opens the ship selector and lets both players change their selection
  
• Pressing back in the ship selector when using the in-game change track / ship option will now back into the track selector
  
• Renamed Model B track category to Drag (parity with ship category name)
  
• Renamed Model C track category to Drift (parity with ship category name)
  
• Renamed select track / ship buttons to select content
  
• Updated all instances of "select track" and "next track" buttons with the full select content setup.
  
• Reordered the menu order of standard ships:
  
  • Standard teams -> DLC ships -> Prototypes -> High-end -> Extras
    
• The menu ship is now reloaded after refreshing content
  
• Fixed elements replaying animations if clicking spaces without selectable UI elements
  
• Fixed leaderboards breaking when downloading scores set with the Barracuda Model B or Barracuda Model C from before the ship merge (1.3.3 regression).
  

[h3]Gamemode[/h3]

• Fixed custom ship selections being lost in Survival when restarting without selecting new content
  
• Fixed tap to roll inputs not contributing to the Stunt input cooldown
  
• The Survival results screen now respects the selected speed measurement option.
  

[h3]Audio[/h3]

• Added 2280boost sound. This is now used as the 2280 speed pad boost sound, which has also been updated.
  

[h3]Music[/h3]

• Added Vonsnake - Always On Target
  
• Added Xpand - Rush
  

[h3]AI[/h3]

• Added additional slowdown to AI steering when exceeding toxic drag speeds
  
• With pickup absorption enabled, AI will now absorb pickups when below 25% shield energy and when dropping/firing weapons that they haven't used if below 75% shield energy
  
• Tweaked AI behaviors in 2280 to better balance them for the handling model
  
• AI racing line skill is now reduced when an AI exceeds the ships steering ability while not airbraking.
  
• Fixed AI piloting skill being affected by the number of spawned ships on drift tracks
  

[h3]Layout Creator[/h3]

• Added option to toggle barrel rolls
  
• The ship option now uses the ship selector instead of a dropdown list
  
• OBJs exported from the layout creator will now always use decimals for numbers instead of the character determined by the computers current language
  

[h3]Commands[/h3]

• Added mod_openliverydir. This will open the custom liveries directory for the currently loaded player ship
  
• Added debug_scenename. This logs the name of the currently open Unity scene.
  
• Added info_generatetimetrialtargets. This generates a time trial report with campaign values for gold, silver and bronze targets.
  

[h3]VR[/h3]

• Fixed programatically generated results screen not displaying (Stunt, code mods)
  

[h3]Debug Hub (f9 menu)[/h3]

• Added variant name to the peer inspector window
  
• Added track variant and course information to the content explorer window
  
• Added search to the content explorer window. For tracks, the search can be setup to match against display name, scene name and frontend name override.
  

[h3]Credits[/h3]

• Updated with 2280 ship development credits
  
• Fixed credits returning to the menu when holding down the speed up button
  

Hey everyone! It's been a while since our last update on the development branch, and it's still going to be a while longer, so we want to give everybody an update on what we've been working on.

Please note that we currently don't have an ETA on when we'll be dropping 1.4 Dev 3, there's still plenty of work to be done.


The majority of work these past few months has been on a roster of 2280 ships. With the help of community members Brobama, Kabelsalat, MrX, Nathancubed and Vista, we've been hard at work giving each team a new ship that better suites the 2280 physics mode!

These ships are only cosmetic changes and do not alter physics stats. We're also not limiting where they can be used. Not only can they be used in 2159 and floorhugger, but you'll also be able to select them in the campaign!

Each ship will have the full livery set, including expansion DLCs and Bling Pack liveries. We'll also be working on new cockpits, although these will be made for an update beyond 1.4 Dev 3. Livery templates will also be made available for modders.

The goal with these ships is to evolve their design and give them a cleaner aethestic, which will be tying into the design of 2280 track environments. We already have a 2280 track in development for release with 1.4, but we'll be showing that off at a later date.

Here's a look at the new ships. We're still in the initial development stages for the Barracuda Model A, B and C, so you'll get to see those once 1.4 Dev 3 is out.




With the new ships added, we needed a way to select them. The easiest option would have been to register them as new ships and display them in an ever growing flat list, but there's issues with the existing content selector menus we want to address and this was the perfect time to revisit them and figure out a better way to handle content selection.

Ships now support variants and tracks now support variant and route entries:

• Ship variants allow us to point the game to a completely different ship prefab. This ship prefab can be any ship, however internally we're just using this to create duplicates of the 2159 ship prefabs and slap different models into them.
  
• Track variants do the same thing as ship variants, but also have a second layer of variants called routes. Routes can also point to any loaded track in the game, but the intended use is for situations like Pines Complex where the track is 3 different courses bundled into one. A track variant in our internal use case is the forward and reverse versions of the track,
  

These additions allow us to compact how many listings there are in the menu. In our most extreme example, Pines Complex has gone from 6 different menu entries to 1, with additional inputs to select the specific version you want to play. This also means we've been able to merge the reverse track category into the standard track category, and cut the track listings in the Extras and expansion DLC categories in half by merging the forward and reverse listings into a single button.

Another improvement with the new menus is how custom ships are now handled. Custom ship categories are actually just a single category that gets broken down into sub-categories. This was reflected directly in the previous menu where you'd navigate to the custom ships category and then have to use different inputs to navigate the sub-categories.

The new menu unfolds those sub-categories so now you can just scroll through them as if they were normal categories. We had already implemented this for the advanced menu, so it made sense to also do that here. This also works nicely with the new category list feature, where you can press the category previous and category next inputs at the same time to bring up a list of categories to hop between.

We'll go into more detail about these new menus once 1.4 Dev 3 is released, but for now here are some screenshots of what they look like:



We may also look at implementing the advanced menu search functionality into these new menus. Doing this will allow us to make the advanced menu completely redundant so we can remove it and just have a single menu with all of the functionality.

• Sideshifting now has a per ship stat and has been reduced in strength significantly
  
• 3D pads are no longer automatically generated in 2280. Tracks will use the tile pads unless 3D pads have been setup.
  
• AI in 2280 have been tweaked to make them more competent
  
• The Model B and Model C categories of tracks have beeen renamed to Drag and Drift so they're in parity with the ship category names
  
• The NX2000 is no longer part of the standard ship leaderboards and is now in the Barracuda leaderboards (which have been renamed to Highend). We'll be doing a global leaderboard reset with the full release of 1.4.
  
• Vonsnake - Always On Target and Xpand - Rush added to the soundtrack. if you have the soundtrack on Steam, these have already been added to it.
  

And a bunch of other stuff that was already pushed out to the development branch a few months ago. If you're on our Discord server then the changelog for that is already available, and we'll include it as part of the 1.4 Dev 3 changelog here on Steam once that build goes out.

The major update to 2280 has begun and we're now ready to push out the first part of the changes.

2280 was originally implemented as a cheat mode for fun which has fallen very far behind in quality compared to the rest of the game, so with 1.4 being our last major feature update we're spending the time to re-implement it. In a future content update we'll start to introduce dedicated content for the mode too.

The physics mode selector is now in the custom race menu. And yes, it'll save your selection between game sessions!

[h2]Playing development builds[/h2]

• Right click BallisticNG in your steam library and go to Properties
  
• Go to the betas tab on the window that opens
  
• From the dropdown select development. If the update doesn't automatically queue for download, restart Steam
  
• Once you have opened the game, the version at the bottom right of the menu will read 1.4-d7

[h2]Notices[/h2]
[h3]Camera option changes[/h3]
We've recently updated the camera options to be per camera mode, instead of the previous physics mode based FOVs and global settings with random specific mode settings sprinkled in.

Every camera mode now has it's own FOV and offsets, and any mode specific options are now organised with the respective modes section in the menu. Because of these changes, the names of old camera settings in the ini file have been updated so everything will be reset to their defaults.

[h2]The 2280 Update[/h2]
[h3]Part 1[/h3]
Part 1, this release, is the initial set of changes to the mode. We've laid the groundwork and have begun setting up ship stats. Let us know what you think!

2280s physics are now mostly separated from 2159, which has given us the opportunity to implement everything in a much cleaner and more modern way. Some parts of the physics like the ships thrust and various track bound related behaviours are still running on the 2159 code to keep that consistent, but pretty much everything else is new.

[h3]Part 2[/h3]
Part 2 will be focused on exposing the new ship stats to the modding tools and separating out game mechanics like weapon absorption to be available everywhere.

The goal is for 2280 to become just a physics mode, with the game mechanics becoming options which let you mix and match whatever you like. This includes being able to do things like have weapon absorption and pitlanes enabled at the same time in any of the three physics modes/

We'll also be working towards 2280 having leaderboards, and for this we'll be setting up 2280 to use the afterburner and pitlanes as the default configuration, like with 2159.

[h2]Changelog (since 1.4-d4)[/h2]
[h3]2280[/h3]

• 2280 is now mostly separated from 2159, and everything that has been separated has been rewritten from scratch
  
• Hovering is now handled with 4 hover points which apply torque for track alignment
  
• Full physics zone support (Kuiper Overturn fixed)
  
• The chase camera has been rewritten and now has several options to customize it
  
• Collisions have been rewritten and now include visual / audio feedback when hitting the track floor
  
• Added 2280 specific stats for various parts of the physics (adding to modding tools in a future update)
  
• Added support for manually defined turn speed, gain and falloff stats (adding to modding tools in a future update)
  
• Added grounded grip multiplier stat (adding to modding tools in a future update)
  
• Restored the 2159 engine sound behaviour
  

[h3]Multiplayer[/h3]

• NgServerSettings.BoostMechanic has been changed from an integer to an enumeration type. None, Afterburner, Turbo, Mixed (case insensitive) are now the valid assignments for both the svrset command and in lua.
  
• Updated example dedicated server lua scripts to reflect the BoostMechanic setting change.
  
• Fixed boost mechanic option not being saved or loaded with lobby presets
  
• Fixed initial connection failing and timing out if a player is using a secret ship that the client doesn't have unlocked
  

[h3]Campaign Editor[/h3]

• Added support for gamemode configuration overrides. If you're writing campaigns by hand in XML, save a campaign from the editor after setting up config data and check the GmConfig section to see how this is setup.
  
• Added support for custom weapon pools. If writing an XML by hand, check the PuBlacklist section after using the in-game editor to see how this is setup.
  
• Options which previously cycled through values on clicking are now provided in a list popup.
  

[h3]Custom Race[/h3]

• Customize Weapons renamed to Custom Weapon Pool, and is now saved per gamemode
  
• The boost mechanic option now supports none (multiplayer parity)
  

[h3]Options[/h3]

• All camera settings are now per camera mode. Previous options for specific camera modes are now listed under the camera modes section.
  
• Field of view settings can now go down to 60
  
• Hidden FOV offsets for specific camera modes have been removed. Defaults for these camera modes reflect what they would have been at default settings previously.
  

[h3]Tracks[/h3]

• Added grounder push zone to the light bridge on Luna Reverse in 2280
  
• Added grounder push zone to the off road hill on Freyr Falls / Freyr Falls Reverse in 2280
  
• Increased gravity on Haze and Haze Reverse in 2280
  
• Increased tension of the track spring on Kuiper Overturn and Kuiper Overturn Reverse in 2280
  
• Fixed light bridge floors on Aciknovae Reverse being marked as a TRM floor
  

[h3]Ships[/h3]

• Applying both airbrakes to fully brake now requires that analogue inputs are held 1/4 way down to prevent accidentally trimming speed.
  

[h3]User Interface[/h3]

• Moved physics mode option from Cheats and Extras into Custom Race
  
• Fixed the Forklift Certified title displaying when the Scorplet hasn't been unlocked yet
  
• Fixed DLC track categories being listed below custom tracks (regression in previous development release)
  

[h3]Stats Overlay (F1 twice)[/h3]

• 2159 stat listings are now replaced by the equivalent 2280 stats when in 2280
  
• Camera stats are now editable (in debug mode)
  
• The cameras current FOV is now shown
  

[h3]Engine[/h3]

• Physics toggler track scripts are now ran before ships are spawned
  

We've kicked off development of 1.4 and to get things started, we've been working on some modding features alongside some general features and improvements!

[h2]Playing development builds[/h2]

• Right click BallisticNG in your steam library and go to Properties
  
• Go to the betas tab on the window that opens
  
• From the dropdown select development. If the update doesn't automatically queue for download, restart Steam
  
• Once you have opened the game, the version at the bottom right of the menu will read 1.4-d4

[h2]Notices[/h2]
[h3]Legacy Layout Creator Depreciated[/h3]
1.4 is depreciating the legacy layout creator. It's still in the game and can still be used to create tracks, but has been tucked away so layout creator 2.0 is the focus.

The legacy layout creator can now be accessed by using the mod_legacylayoutcreator console command. Note that it isn't being removed entirely as this is a feature that's important for backwards compatibility.
[h2]Unity Tools Update[/h2]
If you're making mods, you can now download unity packages for development builds of the game:
https://github.com/Neognosis-Workflow/BallisticNG-Unity-Tools/releases/tag/1.4


All changes to releases towards the current major version will be documented on this release page.



[h2]Ship Lua Scripting[/h2]
The game's Lua implementation has been extended to ships!

These enable you to do anything you can imagine, from setting up additional cosmetics to adding new mechanics and physics! Like with custom track lua scripts, these are sandboxed so they're confined to only doing stuff inside the game.

Download the latest Unity Tools to get started with ship lua scripts.

Documentation:

• Creating Lua Runners
• Ship Functions Reference
• API Reference

[h2]Trkd files[/h2]
Trkd (Track Data) files are a new addition to custom tracks which allows menu data to be provided with the track.

Trkd files are compiled and placed next to your tracks trk file. When present, the game will load everything it needs from the trkd, instead of going through the lengthy caching process.

Trkd's can also be embedded into Wtrk files, and will be automatically added / updated if they're next to the Trk when creating / updating the Wtrk.

It's safe to distribute both Trkd and Wtrks with embedded Trkd files to the current public stable release (1.3.3). Older versions of the game will just ingore the files.

Also note that while Trkd files are not required and the game will continue with the current cache process without them, we highly reccomended you start shipping them with tracks as they offer similar load performance to the old system but without the extremely long load time on the first game launch.

Download the latest Unity Tools to start building Trkd files.

[h2]Reload mod content in-game[/h2]
It's now possible to reload mod content without needing to restart the game!

Use the new mod -> refresh content button on the menu to start the refresh. This will remove mods that have been deleted, register mods that were added and will also handle content being moved between folders.

[h2]Steam Deck / Big Picture keyboard overlays[/h2]
If you're running the game on a Steam Deck or in Big Picture with the Steam overlay enabled, any text input required (setting your name, entering data for custom campaigns, etc) when using a controller will now prefer the relevant Steam based keyboard instead of our internal overlay!



[h2]HUD Scaling[/h2]
BallisticNG now has a HUD scaling option! This setting is particularly useful for use with the Steam Deck or other handheld computers. Scaling ranges from 80-120%, which is setup to accommodate overlap with the vanilla HUD.

Just as a note, we currently don't have plans for menu UI scaling. Several parts of menu UIs are built with the scale they're already at in mind and can't be scaled without breaking.





[h2]Options[/h2]

• Added HUD scaling (graphics -> display -> hud scaling). This ranges from 80-120%, based on the overlap of internal HUDs. Scaling is always disabled in splitscreen.
  
• Added Roll On Thrust Tap (controls -> roll on thrust tap). Enabling this allows you to barrel roll by releasing the thrust input and then quickly pressing it again.
  
• Added option to disable player light colors on DS4 / Dualsense controllers
  

[h2]User Interface[/h2]

• Sliders now support suffix strings at the end of the value readout.
  
• The controls menu now automatically switches the bindings / calibration list to the last touched input device that's assigned to the player, and opens with the players active input device selected.
  
• The survival score readout is now vertically positioned above the speed and shield bars and has digit group separators.
  
• DLC and custom ship / track loading is now a single loading content screen, which is hooked up to a new content loader.
  
• Added mod -> refresh content to the main menu. This will unregister content that no longer exists on disk and then search for newly added files and register them. This doesn't refresh track menu information.
  
  • If starting the game with -nougc, this can be used to load custom content on demand.
    
  • This supports moving content around. Just make sure you refresh content before doing anything else so the game is aware of the new file locations.
    
  • Moving tracks which don't have a trkd file will regenerate the cache as tch files are linked to tracks by absolute file path.
    
  • Newly added content is not alphabetically organized with the rest of content due to sorting being a part of the file discovery and not internal sorting. Everything will be correctly organized after the next game boot.
    
• Removed access to the old layout creator from the menu. It now needs to be accessed from the new mod_legacylayoutcreator command.
  
• Text inputs when using a controller now tries to open the Steam Deck or Steam Big Picture keyboard before falling back to the in-game keyboard.
  
• The update profile interface now has a button to update the profile image, reset the profile image, and has a realtime pilots license preview.
  

[h2]Modding[/h2]

• Implemented trkd files. When present next to a .trk file or embedded into a .wtrk file, these replace the game generated .tch files used for menu frontend data.
  
• Fixed custom tracks files in the root of externally linked paths not being moved into an uncategorized folder
  
• Mod content folders in different locations with conflicting folder names are now correctly merged into categories, instead of the last loaded folder with a name conflict taking exclusive priority.
  

[h2]Steam[/h2]

• Precision run times are now included in Steam Cloud. This applies globally to all branches, this note is just documentation of the change.
  
• Updated to the lastest version of Steamworks (we haven't updated in 7 years!)
  

[h2]Commands[/h2]

• Added mod_legacylayoutcreator. Call from the menu to access the old layout creator.
  
• The following commands have been updated to prompt for an output path using native OS file browsers (they use their previously fixed output paths as the defaults):
  
  • mod_bloomconfig
    
  • mod_flareconfig
    
  • mod_exportshipstats
    

[h2]Lua[/h2]

• Implemented support for lua scripts on ships. These use functions and global variables which are specific to ships, and have the same freedom (with sandbox restrictions) as track lua scripts. Like with track lua scripts, user variables can be defined in Unity and used in the script.
  
• Added Api:IsSplitscreen() and Api:IsVerticalSplitscreen()
  
• Exposed VirtualEnv (virtual environment control), VirtualPaletteSettings (settings for virtual environment palette) and VirtualColors (class holding virtual environment palette data)