Welcome to the November Exo Rally Championship update!
This month we’ve been working on a new planet and a more feature rich, more punishing damage system. There’s lots more damage types, like bent RCS thrusters/locked or destroyed brakes/snapped off suspension arms (you're really in trouble...) and even destroying your exterior camera link:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/LnyfGx1YNF4
Industrial Planet
While the majority of planets in Exo Rally will likely be natural, uninhabited worlds, the handful of monoliths scattered on Dhool made us feel that there was some serious fun to be had riding man-made walls and structures.
Given how much verticality there is on this planet, objects to avoid, walls to ride, etc, we’re also using it as a test-case for quite low (almost .5 earth) gravity and high (3x?) atmospheric drag. So you’ll float a bit more and not reach such deadly falling velocities.
The industrial planet will be the most built up surface we will race on, featuring almost purely man made buildings, walls, streets, tunnels, bridges and so on. It should help inform us of what the polar opposite of a natural world is like, and what challenges lie here for development going forward. Basically it's serving as a prototype for all levels that feature any artificial driving surfaces, and challenging our existing terrain-only physics at the same time!
Right now we’re prototyping various surface and structure types and seeing what stages are like, and once we’ve locked down the geometry we will proceed with detailing it, adding visuals etc.
Here’s a peek:
RCS Thruster Heat
RCS thrusters now generate heat when you use them - if you push them too hard and they overheat, you can't use them until they've cooled back down. Driving at high speed or in the rain will help with cooling! We’re also highly considering an override for overheating, in the same vein as Mechwarrior. So if you override and keep overheating, you’ll suffer things like thrusters melting, fuel exploding and so on.
Tire Degradation and Selection
Expect to start losing grip as your tire tread wears down (especially during a rally where you have a limited tire allocation). Before the start of a rally, you’ll now choose 2 sets (with spares) based on the lengths of upcoming stages, their surface types and weather conditions. Depending on how many tires or wheels you shred or rip off during the rally, you’ll find yourself swapping tires in and out based on their wear, their position on the rover, whether it’s a spare, etc.
Tire Set Selection
Changing Tires Mid Rally
When you reach a certain level of tire slip (wheel spin), the HUD will also alert you by flashing the wheel icons.
On that note, both offroad and slick tires now have a choice between soft/hard compounds, and traction in general has been slightly increased.
Power Stages
The final stage in a rally is now a power stage, which is a repeat of the shortest of the previous stages and awards extra points for the top 5 finishers. Dropped the ball and are coming in way down the order? Save your tires for the power stage and get yourself some much needed points. Fighting for first place but have already pushed your tires to the limit? Take it easy on the power stage - securing first place is more important.
Meteor Showers
Meteor showers are much deadlier now, as they throw out shrapnel upon landing. The high speed shrapnel pierces your rover like bullets that can damage important components. Avoidance is key!
Meteors now have the following characteristics - direct hits are usually fatal, near misses throw the rover about and unsettle you, especially if you’re airborne, and shrapnel can rip through your systems if you’re too close to impacts.
Skid Plate Scraping & Sparks
Rover skid plate/floor collisions and scraping is much improved, allowing you to setup a much lower rover (we're including some presets if you want to test them out). The thick floor plate features some damage impact reduction, but eventually if you scrape along too much you’ll wear through it and start taking more serious damage.
Wet Rain
Watch it reflect in satisfying wayz in the rain plz!:
And More
There are lots more improvements/fixes too, like to the UI and Dhool’s terrain features. Overall we're hoping rallies give a real sense of impending doom as you manage rover repairs and tires to hopefully get you to the end.