Greetings, drivers, and welcome to our heavyweight holiday haul!
Get ready to steel the season’s joy with, not one, but two brand-new vehicles, complimentary props and loads, Italy map expansion, continued user interface revamp, as well as a truck-load of optimizations, fixes, and general improvements.
Hirochi HT-55
First up, meet the Hirochi HT-55 - a haul truck designed for durability and long shifts running up and down the quarry roads.
Built to efficiently handle any hauling predicament you may bring upon it, this rigid-frame off-highway dump truck boasts an impressive 55-ton load capacity, and comes equipped with a hydraulically-powered orbital valve steering and brakes with front lockout options, complete with manually adjustable hill assist.
To top that off, this formidable frame features a variety of optional extras, including locking differential, rock ejectors, and JATO rockets, allowing you to customize it to your heart’s content.
Hirochi WL-40
Next up, we have the Hirochi WL-40 - a large wheel loader with varying lift capacity.
This heavyweight hero is a multi-purpose machine, engineered with lifting capacity and rougher terrain in mind. It captures a unique operational experience through its joystick-controlled, articulated hydraulic steering system, a rigid front axle with a pivoting rear axle, and a functional rimpull control pedal. Capable of lifting and transporting large marble blocks thanks to a versatile front lift arm with a universal bucket and heavy-duty forks. The lineup also includes a hydraulically-operated log grapple attachment for sorting and loading tree logs.
The WL-40 is a particularly perfect partner for the HT-55 when it comes to moving heavy loads, but we’re confident that you’ll have a blast discovering other uses for it too.
Italy Map Expansion
To complement the headliners - the Italy map has been expanded with a new area - the Marble Quarry. This area is designed with heavy machinery gameplay in mind and includes several new missions that will surely challenge your skills.
Alongside the new additions, we’ve also performed a number of optimizations and improvements across all maps. Most notably, as a result of a major behind-the-scenes cleanup, the total file size of maps and their assets has been reduced by about 33%. Additional tweaks include material de-duplication, bug fixes on decalroads, and grounding of some floating trees and rocks that were making a bid for freedom.
New Props and Loads
You didn’t expect us to give you new vehicles and no toys to use them with, did you?
The new Marble Block is a massive, breakable chunk of marble - a compelling contender for putting the new heavy machinery to the test. It comes in 19- and 38-ton variants, with optional wooden supports that make the rocks easier to pick up with the wheel loader.
Accompanying it is the new Rock Pile - an assortment of 100 rocks of varying sizes. They’re an ideal cargo for the dump truck and can be easily picked up with the wheel loader’s bucket.
Several new loads are now available for the Log and Flatbed trailers, and smaller improvements were made to others - in particular, while we kept the full-detail versions of the Container trailer, the default setup has been fitted with a simplified interior to address performance issues.
New Experiences & UI Improvements
As part of the continued user interface revamp, we’re introducing a new Freeroam Session wizard and Gameplay Selector.
The legacy Freeroam selection interface has been replaced with a refined multi-step setup wizard that gives you an opportunity to configure the session as a whole before loading. It utilizes the previously released grid selector to let you define the desired preferences from selectable locations and vehicles, with adjustable options for traffic and time of day, and includes support for saving the last used preset and favorites. The selection steps can be skipped if you wish to load directly into Freeroam.
The new Gameplay Selector makes use of the same system and replaces the old scenarios and campaigns menu. It offers a choice of challenges, scenarios, or campaigns, and also supports shortcuts and preset filters.
We’ve also overhauled and modernized the Input Hints and Messages apps, and applied many smaller optimizations and fixes for other parts of the user interface.
World Editor & Modding
With this release, we’re adding a new tool - the Audio Ribbon Editor. This tool empowers users to easily design dynamic audio zones across the map with immersive, real-time ambient sounds. Ideal for crafting customizable soundscapes for areas such as rivers, forests, canyons, coasts, etc.
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Modders can also benefit from the new tools for rally gameplay editing and asset deduplication. Numerous other tools have also undergone general improvements.
Last, but certainly not least, our work on the Launcher continues with some polish and bug fixes to a number of submenus and translations.
As with every update, there’s plenty more under the hood, so make sure to explore the release notes for a full list of additional fixes and tweaks.