It was an awesome first month of Krautscape Early Access! We received a great amount of valuable feedback, and we tried focusing our work on the points which were most often mentioned in the comments. So here’s finally the update that introduces the much requested trigger controls as default configuration for gamepads. Also, the game is now available for Linux, and the update should solve most problems with previously unsupported gamepads. We also tweaked the vehicle physics to be more stable and precise to control, and the fixed network interpolation should improve the online experience, especially with bad connections. We also made some changes to the Ping Pong and Collector modes and opened up the games for up to 8 players. Full Changelog: Gameplay changes:

• Physics: Improved stability and handling, less sensitive steering
• Physics: Better collisions due to improved networking interpolation. Still not perfect, some big glitches are gone.
• Physics: Increased loop radius to make it easier to drive.
• Up to 8 players per game
• Collector: All players can now collect a cube for each cube location, so every player has a chance to score. The first player who goes through the gate with the cube scores and destroys all the cubes of the other players.
• Ping Pong: The timer is replaced by a counter of track elements to be built, to make it clearer what happens in this phase.
• Ping Pong: Added a new winning condition: After 5 regular rounds, one or more showdown round(s) begin. At the beginning of the showdown round, the score to win is set to the score of the best player plus one. This means if the best player scores in this round, he wins. Other players can always catch up as long as the best player doesn’t score.

• Added Linux version
• Gamepad support (Mac/Linux): Less strict name testing, to allow non-official gamepads to be recognised properly
• Gamepad support (Mac/Linux): If a controller is not recognized by name, XBox 360 configuration is used as default
• Gamepad support (Windows): XInput .NET is now used for the gamepad inputs, so it should now work with all compatible XInput devices
• Controls: Changed default mapping to use triggers for driving
• Controls: Added WASD and D-Pad mapping for menu and driving controls
• Controls: Added manual configuration option through config files (there is no ingame UI for it yet)
• UI: Changed font rendering engine for sharper text display
• UI: Added sounds
• Networking: Improved network interpolation for smoother online play and better collision handling

• Fixed hang on shutdown (Mac)
• Fixed some problems with motor sounds
• Fixed severe physics bugs on certain track types
• Many other small bugfixes

It was an awesome first month of Krautscape Early Access! We received a great amount of valuable feedback, and we tried focusing our work on the points which were most often mentioned in the comments. So heres finally the update that introduces the much requested trigger controls as default configuration for gamepads. Also, the game is now available for Linux, and the update should solve most problems with previously unsupported gamepads. We also tweaked the vehicle physics to be more stable and precise to control, and the fixed network interpolation should improve the online experience, especially with bad connections. We also made some changes to the Ping Pong and Collector modes and opened up the games for up to 8 players. Full Changelog: Gameplay changes:

• Physics: Improved stability and handling, less sensitive steering
• Physics: Better collisions due to improved networking interpolation. Still not perfect, some big glitches are gone.
• Physics: Increased loop radius to make it easier to drive.
• Up to 8 players per game
• Collector: All players can now collect a cube for each cube location, so every player has a chance to score. The first player who goes through the gate with the cube scores and destroys all the cubes of the other players.
• Ping Pong: The timer is replaced by a counter of track elements to be built, to make it clearer what happens in this phase.
• Ping Pong: Added a new winning condition: After 5 regular rounds, one or more showdown round(s) begin. At the beginning of the showdown round, the score to win is set to the score of the best player plus one. This means if the best player scores in this round, he wins. Other players can always catch up as long as the best player doesnt score.

• Added Linux version
• Gamepad support (Mac/Linux): Less strict name testing, to allow non-official gamepads to be recognised properly
• Gamepad support (Mac/Linux): If a controller is not recognized by name, XBox 360 configuration is used as default
• Gamepad support (Windows): XInput .NET is now used for the gamepad inputs, so it should now work with all compatible XInput devices
• Controls: Changed default mapping to use triggers for driving
• Controls: Added WASD and D-Pad mapping for menu and driving controls
• Controls: Added manual configuration option through config files (there is no ingame UI for it yet)
• UI: Changed font rendering engine for sharper text display
• UI: Added sounds
• Networking: Improved network interpolation for smoother online play and better collision handling

• Fixed hang on shutdown (Mac)
• Fixed some problems with motor sounds
• Fixed severe physics bugs on certain track types
• Many other small bugfixes