BallisticNG News

Here's a look at the final track for Outer Reaches, and with it the wait is almost over! With the completion of this we hope to have a release date in the coming weeks.

We'll now be adding some finishing touches to tracks, finishing off the new roster of liveries, getting the Orbitronix cockpit implemented and building the campaign.


Fly around asteroid debris in the Kuiper Belt with this completely zero graviity circuit, built for pilots with strong stomachs and a lust for something a bit crazy.

On this track your ship automatically orientates to follow the navigation guides and you pitch to allign yourself with them faster, which is required to maintain your top speed as you would on any normal track. Pitching also alters your vertical height, which is required to reach some of the floating speed/weapon pads. As you're in space there's also no drag to resist the ship, so your top speed and intensity of drifts are also increased.

Gameplay
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Here's a look at the 5th and 2nd to last track for Outer Reaches!


Zero gravity and half pipes await you in the Mars transportation hub of Port Ares, the second open space circuit seen in the AGL and the first real test of G-Teks new generation of AG technology capabilities.

Gameplay
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WM5E65jsnmU


Screenshots

There's a lot going on under the hood right now and 1.1.6 and Outer Reaches are still a way off, so to keep you updated with some of the work here's another beta release for 1.1.6!

This build has a preview of what to expect from the liveries in Outer Reaches. G-Tek, Wyvern and Hyperion have been updated with their new liveries and for the time being are unlocked from the get go.


1.1.6 is not compatible with 1.1.5 for multiplayer. If you plan to play with others who are on the 1.1.5 release then please see the information directly below this.

With this release the multiplayer versioning now also uses the game's version instead of an internal multiplayer version, so from now on everybody needs to be playing on the same builds for multiplayer to work.

1.1.5 and 1.1.6-d20 code mods are not compatible with 1.1.6-d33. For best stability you will need to disable them.


We strongly recommend that you make a backup of your 1.1.5 install that you can run separately. Once your UserData folder has been upgraded to the User folder there is no option to downgrade it back. If you want/need to return to 1.1.5 for any reason you will want your old UserData folder or backup of the entire build ready to use.

Right click the game in your library, head to properties, the beta tab, select beta from the dropdown and then close the window. The game should then begin updating. If it doesn't then restart Steam.


If you run into any issues with this beta, especially with the UserData folder upgrade and new input saving, please let us know!

The easiest way to tell us is on Discord via our bug reports channel. You can find that here:
https://discord.gg/ballisticng

Also see this thread for info on the game's output log and how to send it our way:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/473770/discussions/1/3561682880005430079/


[h3]File Path Upgrader[/h3]
Make sure nothing in the UserData folder is open, including the folder itself or any sub folders in your operating systems file browser. The game needs permission to move folders and having anything open will deny it access. If something goes wrong then the game will report the issue to the debug console (ctrl + backspace) and the log file.

When you first launch 1.1.6 it will perform an upgrade of your UserData folder. This moves everything into the new User folder which has a different folder structure to better organise settings and mod content.

All data is first moved into a backup folder (UserData_BCK), so anything the game doesn't recognise will need to be manually moved from this folder into the new User folder.

If custom tracks are manually installed instead of through the workshop the game will need to generate new menu cache files.

[h3]New Settings Backend[/h3]
1.1.6 introduces a total rewrite of the game's settings and user preferences management. Previous settings will be migrated over but preferences won't.

Preferences are settings that are automatically saved. These used to use Unity's PlayerPrefs backend, but it's consistently broken on Linux so we've implemented our own. The following things will be reset in this update:

- First startup check
- Multiplayer name
- Ship/track selections
- Time looking at stats stat
- Music playback index
- Campaign hard mode toggle

[h3]Unity Tools[/h3]
There are many new features coming to the Unity Tools that will allow people to make mods that aren't compatible with 1.1.5. For this beta we've decided not to provide the current tools
so we don't start introducing beta specific mods.



[h3]Marina Rush[/h3]
Marina Rush has been remade based on community feedback. Check out the previous Outer Reaches announcement for more details.

[h3]Team Race[/h3]
Team Race is a new gamemode where you work with a team mate to build up score through good positioning and combat.

[h3]Custom Race Menu Remade[/h3]
The custom race menu has been completely remade to consolidate it down to a list that adapts itself to only show what's relevant to the mode you've selected. The tournament menu has also been merged with this, exposing all options from custom race to tournaments.

[h3]On screen keyboard[/h3]
An on screen QWERTY keyboard has been added. Select an input field with a controller then press menu submit to bring it up.

[h3]Advanced content selectors[/h3]
Folder based content selectors with a search function have been added. Press the toggle leaderboard bind on a turntable to bring it up.



[h3]Input[/h3]
Inputs are now saved to the local running instance of the game instead of to Unity's player prefs backend. The new read/writing also strips out a lot of unnecessary data that the game doesn't need to improve read/write performance.

You can find the new files in User/Config/Controllers.

[h3]Engine[/h3]

• Added the option to set which eye will be drawn in the game window for VR
  
• The game now shows a message when the race starts if cheats are enabled
  
• Model B tracks are now always available
  
• All ships are now available on model b tracks
  
• Drift ships are now available everywhere
  
• Removed the high pass filter from the music in 2280 (linux compatibility fix)
  
• Fixed controller vibration not being stopped when the game pauses
  
• Improved spawn tile ordering so using 16 racers with the standard ships now spawns each teams ships side by side
  
• Spawn positions are now calculated in section local space instead of world space, now enabling upside down start grids for maglocks and in floor hugger
  

[h3]Campaign[/h3]

• Campaign progress can now be saved when debugging is enabled
  

[h3]User Interface[/h3]

• Added an on screen keyboard. When using a controller and you have an input field highlighted, press menu submit to bring it up
  
• Added navigation between the lobby title bar and lobby chat
  
• Added advanced track and ship selector menus
  
• The gamemode description in the campaign menu now has a scroll view
  
• The file browser interface bookmarks now point to the new modding folders
  
• The dead zone and sensitivity calibration sliders for controllers now round their values to the nearest 2 decimal places
  
• The progress loading DLC files is now shown
  
• The position hud now updates every 100ms instead of every frame to stop the readout rapidly jumping between positions when two ships are close to each other
  
• The race lap readout now keeps the perfect lap highlight updated for the active lap
  
• You can now select the ship class and physics mode in the records menu
  
• Fixed the race lap readout page being offset after 10 laps
  
• Fixed the multiplayer turntable show stats out of 5 instead of out of 10
  
• FIxed csf ships being viewed in the ship turntable being unloaded when a network peer changes ship
  
• Fixed an issue where custom ships not being enabled/installed would require a double tap to move past the last category of ships
  
• Fixed the ship selection turntable using player 1s inputs for player 2
  
• Fixed the mouse having an influence on highlighted elements when it's not visible
  

Custom Race Menu

• Rewritten from scratch to consolidate everything into a single, context sensitive list
  
• Added options for disabling weapons
  
• Merged tournament menu into custom race menu, exposing all options available in custom races to tournaments
  

[h3]Tracks[/h3]

• Fully remade Marina Rush
  
• Updated Europa and Yala Outpost with changes to the terrain shader
  

[h3]Ships[/h3]

• Added Outer Reaches liveries for G-Tek, Wyvern and Hyperion
  
• Added support for flares rotating with the ship (exposing to mods in final 1.1.6 release)
  
• Updated drift ships with animated airbrakes, new engine effects, reflections, lowered top speeds and altered handling
  
• Ship shadows now project onto scenery floors
  
• Secondary thrusters now fire when start boosting
  
• Caliburn now has its own engine sound
  
• All ships have been manually upgraded to the new engine effect backend and now have their own unique, thicker player trails
  
• Increased the width of the AI trails to match the width of the players
  
• THe AI trail is now used when using the reverse camera in the legacy reverse mode
  
• Moved hyperions contrails points to the back of its hull
  
• Updated Tenrais engine colors so they better match the teams primary color
  
• Ai ships no longer make bump sounds when bumping into other AI ships
  
• Fixed scrape sounds continuing to play if a ship is scraping when eliminated
  

[h3]Gamemodes[/h3]

Added Team Race
Tournament score increments are now based on the amount of alive ships and not the total number of ships in the race
Survival now saves offline records

Eliminator

• AI now respect the no fly backwards section flag on their current section when determining if they should combat spin
  
• Ship collisions are now always disabled
  
• Increased difficulty in the higher AI levels
  
• Drastically reduced the points given for ship eliminations
  
• Doubled weapon impact scores so events are now shorter
  
• Double tapping the afterburner will now give you a boost when the combat spin finishes
  
• Added easing to the combat spin animation to add a greater sense of weight
  
• Added a 200ms cooldown before you can combat spin again
  
• The direction of combat spins is now determined by the steering input
  
• Fixed combat spin not working for player 2
  

Race

• Added the option to switch between the afterburner, turbo pickup or both for the boost mechanic
  

[h3]Weapons[/h3]
Cannon

• Fixed the fire rate being framerate dependant
  
• When a ship has a damage stat of 0, the fire rate now defaults to the base fire rate
  
• Ai now have a stop delay so they fire it more realistically
  
• Destroying mines with projectiles/tremor will now give you the points the owner would have recieved if you had collided with them
  
• Fixed mines lifetimes being framerate dependant
  

Shield

• No longer auto deploys when the ship already has another active
  

Mines

• Now spawn with the ships full rotation
  
• Fixed impact scores being based on a projectile impact and not ships
  
• Projectile impacts now give the score the mine owner would have gained from a ship colliding with it to the ship that fired the projectile at it
  

Plasma

• FIxed no score being given on ship impacts
  

Missile

• Ai can now fire them backwards if they don't have a forward lock in the higher AI difficulties
  

Rockets

• AI now use a sphere cast for ship detection to accommodate for the rockets spread
  
• Improved AI accuracy around corners
  

[h3]Music[/h3]

• Added Vonsnake - Caliburn
  
• Added Vonsnake - Out There
  
• Added Vonsnake - Orbitronix
  

Here's a look at Outer Reaches' 4th track and a rework of Marina Rush!

New songs now available
The following have been added to the soundtrack. These will be available in-game for the final 1.1.6 release and are available now as a free update to the soundtrack DLC!

• Vonsnake - Caliburn
  
• Vonsnake - Out There
  

Building on the foundation of a previously banned weapon, Helios Descent showcases the return of teleportation technology in this looping point to point circuit descending down the Helios Solar Farm.

This is a floorhugger track and the first track to make use of the new teleportation mechanic! Stay tuned as the next 2 tracks is where the fun really begins ;)

Gameplay
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=437PQLnvdyI

Screenshots





Based on community feedback since it's intial update in 0.9, Marina Rush has been remade to bring it into style with the rest of the game and improve on the layout. The new version is ever so slightly shorter then the original so we can push this out with 1.1.6 and not invalidate the top leaderboard scores.

We also have another free track in the works that'll be coming shortly after Outer Reaches releases. A part of this new track is already on an existing track, see if you can find it!

Gameplay
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3Rhsb9rvkI

Screenshots

1.1.6 is going to be a large update that introduces new modding features, new mechanics, a reworked settings backend and a reworked folder structure for user settings and mods. To help ensure that the update's final release is as stable as possible we're opening a public beta to get a better understanding of how well the game's file path upgrader works across a wider range of PCs.

The beta is available now for all operating systems!


1.1.6 is not compatible with 1.1.5 for multiplayer. If you plan to play with others who are on the 1.1.5 release then please see the information directly below this.

1.1.5 code mods are also not compatible with 1.1.6. For best stability you will need to disable them.

We strongly recommend that you make a backup of your 1.1.5 install that you can run separately. Once your UserData folder has been upgraded to the User folder there is no option to downgrade it back. If you want/need to return to 1.1.5 for any reason you will want your old UserData folder or backup of the entire build ready to use.

Right click the game in your library, head to properties, the beta tab, select beta from the dropdown and then close the window. The game should then begin updating. If it doesn't then restart Steam.


If you run into any issues with this beta, especially with the UserData folder upgrade, please let us know!

The easiest way to tell us is on Discord via our bug reports channel. You can find that here:
https://discord.gg/ballisticng

Also see this thread for info on the game's output log and how to send it our way:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/473770/discussions/1/3561682880005430079/

Make sure nothing in the UserData folder is open, including the folder itself or any sub folders in your operating systems file browser. The game needs permission to move folders and having anything open will deny it access. If something goes wrong then the game will report the issue to the debug console (ctrl + backspace) and the log file.

When you first launch 1.1.6 it will perform an upgrade of your UserData folder. This moves everything into the new User folder which has a different folder structure to better organise settings and mod content.

All data is first moved into a backup folder (UserData_BCK), so anything the game doesn't recognise will need to be manually moved from this folder into the new User folder.

If custom tracks are manually installed instead of through the workshop the game will need to generate new menu cache files.


1.1.6 introduces a total rewrite of the game's settings and user preferences management. Previous settings will be migrated over but preferences won't.

Preferences are settings that are automatically saved. These used to use Unity's PlayerPrefs backend, but it's consistently broken on Linux so we've implemented our own. The following things will be reset in this update:

- First startup check
- Multiplayer name
- Ship/track selections
- Time looking at stats stat
- Music playback index
- Campaign hard mode toggle


There are many new features coming to the Unity Tools that will allow people to make mods that aren't compatible with 1.1.5. For this beta we've decided not to provide the current tools
so we don't start introducing beta specific mods.


The 1.1.6 changelog is already pretty large so we're saving all of the details for the full releas. However here are the major, most noteworthy changes:

Orbitronix
Orbitronix, the new team being introduced as part of Outer Reaches, is available to play in this beta! Please note that the ship doesn't have a cockpit yet, which will be coming in the final 1.1.6 release.

Resolution settings now handled by the game
The game's resolution is now handled by the game itself and no longer let's Unity do what it likes. This allows you to edit the resolution in the settings ini. However note that the game will only apply a resolution if your display supports it, otherwise it will reset the resolution back to your desktops resolution.

When implementing this we also discovered that a workaround we used to allow realtime monitor switching was broken by internal changes in Unity quite a while ago. Without this workaround Unity provides no way to switch monitors on the fly, so you will need to restart the game to get the game running on a different monitor.

Photomode

• Added a tonemapping effects menu
  
• Fixed the UI not working correctly on ultra widescreen displays
  
• The tracks countdown displays are now written to the depth buffer, allowing them to be affected by effects like depth of field
  

Affine Texture Mapping
The option to enable affine texture mapping, an old technique of calculating texture coordinates that the PS1 used, has been added. You can find the option for it in the retro settings menu.

Customizable CRT Filter
A CRT filter has been added. You can enable and configure it in the retro settings menu.

Asynchronous UGC loading
Loading user content on launch is now asynchronous. You'll now find that the game doesn't freeze up as much when loading tracks and the latest CSF format custom ships.

Teleport/Portal Mechanic
1.1.6 is introducing a teleport mechanic that allows completely separate track pieces to be linked for new layout design opertunities. While implementation for custom tracks will require the updated Unity Tools, you can play about with the mechanic for your layouts in the layout creator! See the section below for info.

Layout Creator 2.0 Updates Please note that layouts you save in 1.1.6 are not backwards compatible with 1.1.5!

• Made the background darker
  
• Added support for changing the per-node track shape interpolation method. You can find the option for this in the node tools window
  
• Added teleporter node type. Press ; to toggle it. Once enabled the node will act like a jump node, except when a ship reaches the node in play mode it will be teleported to the next node instead.
  
• When node(s) are selected, you can now use the middle mouse to orbit the camera around them
  
• Fixed physics mod zones being wiped on undo/redo
  
• Fixed physics mod zones blocking inputs
  

Rush Hour
Rush Hour is a new Knockout derrivative gamemode where everybodies shield drains over time and you must stay in first place to survive the longest.

This gamemode is still in beta and isn't finished yet, so expect there to be bugs. Please feel free to leave feedback on the mode to help us refine it for its full release!

Eliminator

• Speed pads are now disabled
  
• AI can now combat spin
  
• Ships must now use another weapon pad before a previous weapon pad can be used again
  
• Removed hunter from the weapon roster
  

Upsurge

• A zone is now worth 20 shield (from 10)
  
• Increased shield time to 1.5 seconds
  

Weapons

• Projectiles now slide ai ships to the side instead of pushing them upwards
  
• Projectiles now respect physics mod zone gravity
  
• Fixed cannons not counting towards the minesweep stat and achievement
  

Controller input icons
We've began rolling out icons for controller inputs! Right now the game supports icons for both Dualshock 4 and Xinput based controllers. For the DS4 icons to work please make sure you disable Steam's controller emulation for the game.

If you find that the icons don't show for your controller then please let us know and tell us what controller you're using (we'll need the name as it shows up in the controls menu).

UIs that use these icons need to be reworked for the final release to better visually integrate them. Right now they might look a little out of place.

Revised debug console and commands
The game's console has been updated with a new command parser backend and updated commands.

• Reimplemented all commands with the new backend. The majority of commands have also been renamed to prefix them with a group that the command belongs in.
  
• The console now suggests as you type and will autocomplete when you press tab
  
• Reworked the command history so pressing up and down now cycles through a stack of previous commands as you would expect
  
• The help command now fetches the command list from internal command registry instead of just printing out a text file
  
• Using help and then a command name will now print out usage details for that command
  

(For Final Release) Custom HUDs
As the editing tools for these are part of the Unity Tools, creating custom HUDs is currently not possible. However the backend is in place and you can read up on how they will work here:
https://ballisticng.gamepedia.com/Custom_HUDS

(For Final Release) User Ship Variables
Ships can now store user variables that can be used by ship modules to control behaviours. For instance, we have removed the INTERNEL_TEMPEST module and merged the boost sound into INTERNAL_DRAG, which defaults to off but can now be turned on by setting up a user variable.

This will be a feature available in the final 1.1.6 releaase when the Unity Tools package is updated.

(For Final Release) Ubershader
The game now has an ubershader to condense all kinds of materials and rendering modes into a single configurable shader. This provides a lot of freedom to content creators as you now have options to mix and match various rendering features without having to rely on specialized shaders.

We've also updated every shader in the Unity Tools package to use our retro effects CGInclude, which now allows the retro effects to be previewed inside of Unity and also gives you everything you need to write custom shaders that properly integrate with BNGs retro options.

This will be a feature available in the final 1.1.6 release when the Unity Tools package is updated.