All Player Features Implemented!

All Player Features Implemented!

The later parts of last Summer, and all of Fall and Winter were a real doozy for us over here, but we've returned with great news:

All of the player-facing features we planned for the core game are now implemented!!!

There's still plenty of balance work to be done, and lots of art to add but between our last update and this one, we've done a lot of work to clarify wordings on existing parts, and have filled out the Talents section as well as completed the Upgrades section for each company. Let's get into what each of those things means.

What's new?

General Updates

This version includes a wide swath of updates across almost the entire catalog of vehicles, so be sure to check your favorite chassis and parts for what's up. For the most part, these are clarifications of existing abilities, but there are some balance changes here and there, so check your numbers!

That will be easier than ever before with the newly updated character sheet! It now includes the entire catalog of vehicles and parts, as well as all of the new talents and upgrades. On top of that, the way it functions has been cleaned up, and a new way of getting it (via Google Sheets) has been added for those without access to Excel. It's still not visually developed, but all of the updates under the hood should make building your wildest racer a breeze.

Talents

The Talents section now contains a full 16 character talents you can take over the course of your time playing the game to help make your character more unique and give them the kind of edge they need to succeed. These are meant to be both powerful and flavorful, as they're not tied to any particular company sponsorships, but are instead a part of your Driver themself. That said, we're keeping an eye on a few of them to make sure they're the right kind of broken (the fun kind) and not disruptive or unfair.

Of the talents that were already in the game, Itchy Leadfoot and Mobile Mechanic also got some wording changes for the sake of clarity. Their abilities didn't change in any way, but they should hopefully be more straightforward now.

Upgrades

Similarly, the game now contains a whopping 30 upgrades! Each company (including CMG) gets six to their name, but apart from those from the Common Motor Group, you have to dedicate yourself to at least three Sponsorship Levels from one of the Big Four to get access to their exclusive options. And if you want more? Well, you better double down on that brand loyalty! Or don't, and mix and match upgrades across companies with careful license selections to create cars of truly unique beauty. We can't wait to see what sorts of monstrosities you make!

Coming Soon

Our main focus in the coming days is going to be to get each chassis the art it deserves and to complete the GM section. Thankfully, after the roller coaster of 2024, we've got a better plan for how to implement this, so you'll be seeing some smaller updates here and there as art gets completed and any numbers that need to be nudged get adjusted.

Our current plan is to add a new piece of art every two weeks and to add GM sections all at once for the 0.8 version, which will hopefully be coming sooner rather than later. All the while, we'll be doing balance checks and working towards making this system the best it can be.

Here's our current list of upcoming updates:

• Map Tile updates
• Continued attention to how roleplay and racing mechanics are interacting
• Experimentation with a “Critical” tag and special effects on parts that happen on criticals
• Add all GM sections
• Add Index

For anyone who was interested in it, Return of the Dawnbringers, the Boktai-inspired dungeon crawler TTRPG I mentioned during our last major update has undergone all of its base development and some internal balance testing. The last thing it needs before release is a nicer set of map tiles for its first dungeon, "Twilight Station." Like with most of our games, it won't launch with full art assets, but there'll be more than enough to play and have fun with, plus the hope that we can fund more art and expansions as time goes on. Keep an eye out for that to go live Soon™.