Wreckfest, Bugbear's (FlatOut) next car game catch-all

I got it and will be smashing things this evening!
Is it confirmed that it has wheel support? if so that's sweet!

groan wrote:

Is it confirmed that it has wheel support? if so that's sweet!

Well I just assumed, being a driving game and all. Though, I guess being early access it's not a guarantee.

Either way, today was payday and I was weak so I went ahead and snagged it. Not sure if I'll have a chance to break some cars until the weekend though.

Vega wrote:
groan wrote:

Is it confirmed that it has wheel support? if so that's sweet!

Well I just assumed, being a driving game and all. Though, I guess being early access it's not a guarantee.

I picked it up today, and it works just fine with my G27. The force feedback needs some tweaking, but other than that it's already good out of the box.

I did read that if you mix and match wheels and pedals that it won't currently work, so no using Logitech wheels with Clubsport pedals etc.

Played a dozen rounds or so with the XBox controller instead of the keyboard. Damage still seems a bit inconsequential, but damn if it isn't fun doing a 24 car race on the gravel track. I fought my way up to second place on the third lap before some Euro trash box T-Boned me in the middle of the hairpin turn... Still finished 8th. The AI is crazy aggressive in those races.

I found with the gt force whatever its called wheel the sensitivity was way too low even at high. I had to turn my wheel way too much to get it to turn and even then I'd slam into the wall.
I'm sure it'll get better. Really pleased with the physics so far and the destruction is great.

I know it's early Alpha, but man does it feel weird drifting through a track segment covered in tires and giant chunks of concrete and it doesn't affect my line at all. I'm also a little disappointed in how easily cars seem to flip right-side-up. For as many hits cause flipping and rolling cars so far I've only seen one vehicle on its hood, and I'm pretty sure it was wrecked.

Edit: Make that three. Did another 24 car run on the tarmac track. Both were demolished though so again I'm pretty sure the AI can't get trapped upside down while active. Unless of course getting trapped upside down is a wrecking condition. Hmm... may need to hang back at the race start and pay a little more attention to the vehicles that pop out of the scrum at the first turns.

I couldn't resist and did play for about 10 minutes last night. I only did a few rounds of the demolition derby using the keyboard, but man was it fun. Can't wait to hook up the wheel this weekend.

Rezzy wrote:

I know it's early Alpha, but man does it feel weird drifting through a track segment covered in tires and giant chunks of concrete and it doesn't affect my line at all.

I wouldn't expect that part to change much. I don't think this is going to be a hardcore racing simulation of any kind. With this game I think "Fun" will be smashing "Realism" into the concrete wall on turn 3 and not looking back. Even in just the few demolition rounds I played these cars continue to keep driving well past the point of reason. My entire front end was destroyed, one wheel gone, the other one crumpled into the center of my engine block, yet I could still turn left and right (albeit much more difficult and much wider turning radius).

Rezzy wrote:

I'm also a little disappointed in how easily cars seem to flip right-side-up. For as many hits cause flipping and rolling cars so far I've only seen one vehicle on its hood, and I'm pretty sure it was wrecked.

I'm not positive if it carries over to the actual races, but in the demolition if you get stuck flipped over you get "teleported" back into the upright position. I have a feeling the same will happen to the AI if they're not "wrecked".

I'm pretty sure the race rules and AI behavior are still a long way from being finalized. As far as I know, the same goes for damage. Please do leave feedback for the team on their forum.

Regarding the minor stuff you're driving through - yeah, it's inconsequential or near so. Over the years we tried a lot of versions of this, and any time we added mass to it, enormous complications with the physics and/or damage model arose. It just wasn't fun. But it's something they still might change down the line depending on feedback.

The handling is supposed to be harder than, say, Burnout, but not so racing hardcore that it would be hard to get into. For me it's not far off what they had in the original FlatOut, just more nuanced. For one, the physics accuracy (frequency) is doubled.

I really like playing the game now that I no longer know what's going on behind the scenes. Can't wait to see if the stuff we planned comes to pass or not. Or rather, which parts of it will.

jlaakso wrote:

Please do leave feedback for the team on their forum.

I took a peek at those... and I'm pretty sure I'm going to stay away until I have something solid to contribute. At this point my impressions are pretty surface level and there's plenty of those reactions already there.

jlaakso wrote:

Regarding the minor stuff you're driving through... It just wasn't fun. But it's something they still might change down the line depending on feedback.

That's the impression I got, especially with the crazy amount of debris that can be left over after one of those barriers comes apart. But it kind of goes both ways when a wall of tires along a wall explodes and fades into irrelevance, leaving the nougatty concrete wall behind it bare for your crumple-zoning pleasure. Right now they are physics confetti and not the life-saving crash barrier they are supposed to create by lining problematic zones of a track. I was thinking about this a little bit, but without closer investigation I'm not entirely sure how to handle that without creating a special physics zone... a tire inside this zone will squish and absorb force. A tire outside this zone is eyecandy and made of packing peanuts. *shrug* Maybe have it be a stat multiplier based on tire density. The more surfaces of a tire are in contact with other tires, the more resistant they are to outside force. That way a stacked double wall of tires would need a tremendous amount of force to dislodge more than just the outside layers... but once a single tire is on the track it can be trivialized. And maybe that's in place already but the thresholds are a bit lower than I would expect. *shrug* I'm definitely looking forward to what this will turn into!

i am regularly going back to this. I love it! Can't wait for multiplay.
Here's a little someting I whipped up last night. It's just game footage but you get an idea of what they're at now. no voice or text, just roaring engines and crushing crashes.

At the time of writing, the game is closing in on 100,000 preorders, netting the studio $3 million – nearly three times the $350,000 Bugbear asked for in its failed Next Car Game Kickstarter campaign. Suur-Näkki admits this far exceeds Bugbear’s funding expectations, but stresses the studio never lost confidence in the game’s worth.

Damn. From here.

Also, a 2GB update was released today with a lot of changes. Replay mode sounds fun.

Tracks:
New sandpit race track featuring both normal and reverse layouts, work-in-progress.
New mudpit derby stadium, work-in-progress.
New small derby stadium, work-in-progress.

Environment Art:
Smoothed out track-sides and improved gravel race track readability.
New work-in-progress spectator models - some previous ones remain.
New concrete barriers, used in various derby stadiums.

Weathers:
Two new weathers: stormy evening and misty evening.
Weather can be now specified in the event setup.

Vehicles and Handling:
New driver model, as of now simply static.
Improved suspension and tire physics.
More responsive handling with a game pad.
Improved player vs. AI collision physics.

Damage:
Improved deformation physics so that visual car damage is more accurate.
Improved gameplay damage to prevent cars from getting too torn up and still going.
Fixed a case where cars would get damaged and eventually destroyed from rubbing against a static barrier.

Replay:
New replay mode with slow motion and fast forward time controls (-16.0x ... 4.0x), a number of different cameras, target locking & switching, depth-of-field and field-of-view settings.

User Interface:
Race timer now correctly displays hundredths as well instead of random numbers.
Game is no longer unpaused when exiting Steam overlay if the game was paused.

Input:
Implemented multicontroller support (e.g. wheel and pedals in separate USB ports).
Sensitivity & deadzone adjustments now take effect without a restart.
Added saturation, sensitivity and dead zone settings for XInput controllers.
Game now defaults to DirectInput for wheels, hopefully making some wheels behave better.
The game now detects more than one XInput controllers that are connected simultaneously.
Force feedback is disabled for Microsoft Sidewinder FF wheel in an attempt to work around buggy driver causing lag.

Audio:
Increased AI engine volume.
General improvements.

Any new impressions for this game? Looks really cool.

I love it and can't wait for multiplay. I do find the physics tricky. Doing a drift is difficult.

Arise!

Next Car Game is now known as Wreckfest. Looks like they are continuing to advance the game, including 18-player multiplayer, which they hope to increase to 24.

It'll be a while before I pick this up, but I'd be might interested in the opinions of anyone who bought in early and have played recently.

It's okay.
Every update or so I run a few races and it's okay. The damage and physics are VERY arcadey. It did seem like they've finally made major damage actually affect your handling and top speed a bit, but you'll still be competitive even at death's door. In one of my races the driver's model had been contorted, stretched, and squished almost beyond recognition... but I still finished the timed race without dying and at the top of my team's scoreboard. It was a fun enough ride for me to click replay a few times, but without any campaign it all still feels a bit hollow.

Looks like Wreckfest (Next Car Game) has multiplayer now!
http://steamcommunity.com/games/2283...

During the past few weeks ago we have released a handful of hotfixes, addressing issues and squashing bugs like nobody’s business. As a result, the 18-car multiplayer races, packed with tight and dirty situations and crashing cars, run smoother than ever! You can host your own events with much better stability, and use the reworked lobby chat to lay down the rules to your opponents.

If you love the madness and mayhem our game is all about, we wouldn’t mind at all should you recommend Wreckfest to your friends, for as we all know, nothing beats ramming your buddies off the road and throwing your head back in villainous laughter.

See you on the road, and watch your six!

I just picked this up after hearing the latest podcast.

Is it worth installing the Sneak Peek tech demo, or should I just jump to the game?

I never bothered with the demo. I also could not join a multiplayer game for some reason. No matter. the game is fun solo.

groan wrote:

I never bothered with the demo. I also could not join a multiplayer game for some reason. No matter. the game is fun solo.

I was able to sneak in three multiplayer races on the Figure-8 track today and crossed the finish line in two of them. Talk about carnage.

groan wrote:

I never bothered with the demo. I also could not join a multiplayer game for some reason. No matter. the game is fun solo.

Have you had any luck with multiplayer? In about a week, I've already sunk six hours into this game...mostly on short tracks in multiplayer and it's been outstanding. Every lap feels like I'm one slip away from a five-car pile-up.

Also, racing on Figure 8 tracks from the "behind-the-steering-wheel" camera angle is terrifying.

Updated the thread title, because I'm quick like that.

It's out.
Did a Lawnmower demo derby event . Had fun.

Look to your e-mail for pre-order perks. Soundtrack seems to have at least a few crunchy tracks so far.

Had some fun tonight. Maybe next time the Racing Dorks get together for Wreckfest we post it here.

EverythingsTentative wrote:

Had some fun tonight. Maybe next time the Racing Dorks get together for Wreckfest we post it here.

Good idea!

There's a wreckfest session running this afternoon at 4pm Eastern (attempted friendly Euro time!).

If you're on the GWJ discord you can find the event details on the #Racing channel there. We will have a voice channel running and will be there for a couple hours. Feel free to drop in and/or out - you don't need to be there the whole time.

Also don't worry if you haven't unlocked all the cars in game. Loaners are available during the race lobbies and you can be competitive with unspecced cars because on figure-eight and bow-tie tracks having the fastest car just means you crash first.

And keep an eye on the #racing Discord channel for future events!

That was spectacular and amazing, as always. Just one of those games where my face hurts from laughing when we finish.

Some mayhem...

Amoebic... harvesting souls in Hellmouth.

In case anybody sees this, I think we will be playing Wreckfest this evening, around 9pm ET.

The Wreckfest season rolled over yesterday which brought some extra upgrades for the Bulldog car and now you can get its performance rating to over 700...

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/7iKjloB.png)

Of course, you can't pull away from the start in anything lower than fourth gear and at top speed the braking distances are measured in light years, but outside of that it's a great choice.