With BallisticNG 1.3.3 out of the door, we've now wrapped up 1.3 and are ready to move onto 1.4! Originally this is where we would have moved our main focus onto the game's Switch port, but as we have had unfortunately announced in September, Unity's actions and TOS terms moving forward makes this a risk for us within the time frames that we're operating within. We're still working on the PC version of course, and we'll start rolling out development builds for various 1.4 milestones as they're reached.

New Trailer

We've just released on GOG! To celebrate, here's a new general trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0vWr5aBqEU

Notices

Unity Tools

The Unity Tools package used to be shipped with the game, but due to us changing our build process to implement GOG builds, we've changed how we're distributing this. All of the links previously provided with URL files in the modding folder have been merged into a single txt file (Modding/Links.txt), including the addition of a link to the new Unity Tools Github repository. Our documentation website has also been updated to address this change.

Custom Tracks

1.3.3 completely revamps the game's section tracking system to allow for much more complex layouts to be made. Over the months we've tested the vast majority of custom tracks available to make sure the new system can accommodate for various misconfigurations, but there may be a few exceptions where tracks will want to be updated. The primary issue misconfigured custom tracks will see is an inability to backtrack after a pitlane exit due to the route exit section type not being setup. As long as you're racing as normal, this isn't an issue that'll impact you. In some rare cases, alternative routes may be inaccessible. If you've made custom tracks then we advise that you check your tracks for issues. If you find an issue that you'd like to fix, documentation for route setup can be found here, and we now also have documentation for the new tracking system here. If you have long routes that span more then 20 sections that you'd like players to be able to switch between, we've also setup a new feature, which is documented here.

Overview

Fixed NX2000 and Hyperion collisions

With 1.3.3 we've added support for custom made ship collision meshes which has allowed us to finally fix some long standing collision issues with the NX2000 and Hyperion! If you're making custom ships, documentation can be found here. We also now have the debug_drawshipconvex console command so you can see what the physics engine sees. Just note that enabling this will drop performance,

Accessibility option to disable lightning flashes

We've previously implemented an option to toggle weather completely, and with 1.3.3 we've added a accessibility specific option to toggle the lightning flashes. You can now turn these off using the Game -> Access -> Lightning Flashes option!

Aciknovae Rework

Aciknovae has been given a major facelift for this update! An important change in this version is making the reactors building feel much more like a real tangible place with a dense industry surrounding it. Aciknovaes layout has a lot of verticality to it, and the new scenery has been built to tower over you as you go through the lower levels of the circuit. With this update there's also been some tweaks to the pitlane entrances to make the pitlane less painful to manoeuvre into. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Gqg3HU5nGg&t=175s

Basis Divide

Basis Divide is a new track available in the extras category. It's set at the lowest level of the Aciknovae reactor, where the reactors themselves sit. This served as the starting point for the Aciknovae rework, and the spiral of Aciknovae is a direct bridge between the spaces the tracks occupy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbOmdI5VG4E

Caliburn Rebalanced

Caliburn's a team we've been looking to rebalance for a while. Their ship isn't flown much, not even by ourselves, and its over the top grip makes it hard to justify using for fair play. We've put the teams lore in the past and introduced them to the AGL as a legitimate contender. For 1.3.3 we've adjusted the ships handling stats. We wanted to keep its grippy behaviour but dial it back, and have tweaked various handling stats to bring it more in line with the standard roster of ships. The specific changes are listed in the full changelog below. With these changes we've also updated the ship to be usable in campaigns, and the team will now show up in regular races if you enable post-release roster in the options menu.

GOG Galaxy Support

As part of our GOG release we've implemented support for GOG Galaxy's achievement and leaderboard systems. Steam and Galaxy can be used simultaneously if you own the game on both platforms and have both programs open at the same time. Any times you set will be uploaded to both and you can select which backend to view leaderboard entries from in the Game -> General options menu.

Force disable integrations

Launch the game with the new -nosteam and/or -nogalaxy launch arguments to manually disable Steam and Galaxy integrations. These integrations are automatically disabled if the relevant clients aren't running, but you now have the option to tell the game not to use them.

Changelog

For Unity Tools changes, see the documentation website.

Engine

• The track junction resolver can now re-index routes in much more complicated setups.
• Ship section tracking can now handle nested routes and backtrack down routes that you pass the exit of. Optimizations have also been made to this process.
• Track routes with cyclic dependencies are now detected, ignored and logged as a warning (for track creators).
• When switching camera modes and a ship doesn't have a cockpit, the cockpit camera module is now skipped instead of resetting the camera back to track chase.
• Optimized section previous reference processing.
• Section tracking is now centered around the ship instead of starting behind the ship. This has implications for open wall junctions and pitlane tracking in some cases, but is covered in the new documentation.
• Junctions that target a section without a route start no longer update the previous section reference of the target section to themselves. This will break backtracking on incorrectly configured routes, but now allows junctions to correctly act as bridges between routes. Two normal/jump type sections that point to each other as junctions is now also supported as a result of this.
• All sections are now given a negative index before re-indexing on track startup, preventing erroneous section links from forming when sections in invalid routes are present. Negative indicies also help with debugging section flow issues with the F1 debug menu up.
• Implemented GOG Galaxy SDK support for achievements and leaderboards.
• Implemented -nosteam lauch argument. Use to force disable the Steamworks SDK integration.
• Implemented -nogalaxy launch argument. Use to force disable the GOG Galaxy SDK integration.
• Fixed an interpolation error in junction resolving where the first index in a route wouldn't match the junction sections index.
• Removed BallisticSource library and merged it's code with the game.
• Removed BallisticUI library. This contained some unused prototype code from 2017.

User Interface

• Added more game tips and updated some existing ones.
• Game tips no longer have an image component and now update to show the relevant bindings when the active controller is changed.
• The current route index is now displayed on the F1 debug overlay next to the current section index. This values index is inverted as the new track junction resolver works backwards.
• Fixed controller binding icons not having pressed highlights applied.
• The F1 debug overlay now shows the max and mid section indices next to the current section. These can be used for track setup validation.

Gamemodes

• The button hold timer for lap invalidation in Speed Lap no longer runs while a turbo is held.

Tracks

• Added missing Route Start flag on Arrivon XI forwards pitlane.
• Added route links to Atlanticas split.
• (Free Tracks) Added Basis Divide.
• Updated Aciknovae Scenery and pitlane entrances.
• Fixed race position tracking issues in Dover forwards pitlane.
• Fixed race position tracking issues in Omega Harbour forwards pitlane.
• (Outer Reaches) Added route links to Kuiper Overturns pitlane.

Ships

• The precision delta can now be used in campaigns if unlocked.
• Rebalanced Caliburns handling. With these changes Caliburn is now available in campaigns, is now part of the post-release roster if the option is enabled, and has been moved in the ship turntable to before the prototype ships. The ships handling performance is now similar to Wyvern, which was chosen as a reference point due to their similar hull designs.
  • Steer Speed from 2.2 to 1.63.
  • Steer Gain from 1.35 to 1.3.
  • Steer Falloff from 1.1 to 0.9.
  • Steer Slide from 1 to 0.95.
  • Grip from 35 to 6.3.
  • Rebound Pitch Mod from 2 to 1.3.
• Added support for custom convex collision meshes.
• Fixed various collision issues with NX2000 (custom collision mesh).
• Fixed various collision issues with Hyperion (custom collision mesh).

Weapons

• Hunters can now change routes to reach the race leader.
• Fixed hunters being able to fly under the track and getting lost in some cases.
• Fixed hunters breaking if the side of a section the hunter is on has a really small width.

Commands

• Added debug_sectiontracking. This can be used to visualize how the game is tracking sections, intended as a debugging tool for track flow issues. This command has three modes which can be set with the argument:
  • off: nothing will be drawn.
  • ship: ship section tracking will be visualized, using player one's ship as a position and current section reference.
  • projectile : projectile section tracking will be visualized, using player one's ship as a position and current section reference.
• Added debug_drawroutes. This will draw the routes generated by the game on track load for 5 seconds. Enter photo mode to freeze the cooldown timer on them.
• Added debug_drawshipconvex. Setting to true will draw the player ships collision convex mesh, useful for debugging custom collision meshes.

Options

• Renamed Game -> Assists to Game -> Access (abbreviated accessibility to fit on the UI) to better reflect the options
• Added Game -> General -> Leaderboards. If both Steam and GOG Galaxy are running, this controls which backend the leaderboards will be downloaded from. Leaderboards are always uploaded to both backends when present.
• Added option to disable the startup FMV (Game -> General -> Misc -> Skip Startup FMV).
• Added option to disable lightning flashes (Game -> Access -> Lightning Flashes).

Debug Hub (f9 menu)

• Added buttons to clear out various save data. Enable debugging mode at the top of the window and a new section to delete the different types of save data will appear. You'll be prompted before deleting data.
• Each section of tools are now under collapsible headers.

What's coming with 1.4

1.4 is the final major update for BallisticNG. We'll still be working on additional content beyond 1.4 and providing maintenance, but we're very happy with what BallisticNG brings to the table and are preparing to move onto a new project. This update is going to be about final polish for the game, with the biggest change being a complete rewrite of the 2280 physics mode to bring it up to speed with the rest of the game, We'll also be working on some improvements for how mods are handled, enabling things like being able to add mods to the game while it's running and removing the need to cache custom track data.

Vertex Lightmapper 2

If you're a game developer, we've just released the updated version of our vertex lightmapper tool with the improvements made from BallisticNG 1.2 and BallisticNG 1.3! This is the same tool you have in the BallisticNG Unity Tools package, minus the dependencies for TRM meshes. Feel free to use this however you like for your own games! Check it out on Github here.