This update is one of the largest we've done so far, and includes completely new character models, a brand new character editor, new vehicle type (balloons), performance improvements, additional areas (for cybercity), improvements to existing areas, better roads, various graphical improvements, ability to skydive and lots, lots more!
Firstly we wanted to rework the characters to not only be higher quality, but more importantly support a wider array of clothing, hairs, and new headwear such as hats. There are now around 20 more hair options than there were for female for example, and a good number for the male character too.
You can layer clothing so hoodies and jackets can go over the top of t-shirts, and various tops can go over the top of swimwear (you can visibly see the straps from the swimwear depending on whats covered). There are also variants for most clothing such as denim can come in full length, capris or shorts, some jackets can be armless and bikinis can have different styles of straps/ties.
The editor itself now has its own background which you can change to view different lighting on the character as well as change pose making it easier for you to see what you are doing. The camera system has also been completely reworked for the character editor so can move around your character as you need.
Under options menu you can now preview emotes when you asign them to your favourite slots. As you hover over it will play the current animation.
There are now 20-30 more hair options which is a large increase in options over previous. In addition to this more than 2 thirds of these hairs will support hats including an altered wear style depending on how the hat sits. By default a baseball cap and beanie are included free options, but more novelty hat options are included in a DLC we'll talk about later in these notes. Several hairs also come with gradient options for addtional color customization.
Above you can see there is various makeup options for all the common things like blush, lipstick, eyeliner etc. Makeup is stored independent to your outfit, so you can switch outfits and makeups seperately rather than have to set it up for every combination. Outfits now have 32 save slots, and makup has 8 given you way more freedom to store multiple looks.
Our new vehicle type in this update is Hot Air Balloons which can be spawned at two locations (Mataara and Taipū). These balloons behave as balloons would and are not steerable per-se, but more controlled based on changing wind directions at various altitudes (In bottom right of your screen you'll see the wind direction indicator added to the compass, as you increase in altitude this will change and determine which direction you'll be taken).
Once you've eventually reached your target with a balloon, we've added the ability to skydive and parachute. You'll need to have at least 50 meters relative altitude for skydiving to work, and ideally something like 80 meters to really slow your decent enough (else you'll enter rag-doll state when you land). The relative altitude means you can also attempt to base-jump from some hills or cliffs, and be able to parachute.
Our Cybercity side-region has been expanded sligthly with the addtion of a new area, as well as an addtional club area so be sure to explore these new locations. Various graphical and lighting improvements have been done for existing areas too.
Roads have been improved with better road mesh, and signficiantly more detail along each route especialy in gaps between areas where previously wasn't much in the way of detail. Outer islands haven't been completed yet, expect this in a future update.
Various existing areas have been given additional detail and filled out more. One example from images above is Wai Tai area, where additional islands, ship wrecks and a much more detailed dock area have been added. A rework of the roads in the vicinity has also been added to improve flow of driving through the area.
Next up we've spent a lot of time improving performance, especialy at key areas, and you'll notice that you should be getting higher fps in some areas where it would usualy dip. For Ultra settings we've improved the shadow quality further, but if your fps does dip a little - reverting to 'High' for shadows, will be effectively what previous 'Ultra' shadows were.
In order to help fund development we've also released a new DLC called the "Year 4 Pass" which will introduce 2 additional boats, including a cabin cruiser with customizable interior, and also 1 additional variant of the balloon.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1475340/Capsa__Year_4_Pass/
The DLC will also include 9 additional hat types (Propeller Cap, Sun Hat, Newsboy, Miner, Fedora, Derby, Cowboy, Panama, Santa Hat).
Please let us know if you encouter any issues as we intend to do various hot-fix updates over the coming weeks. Our next major update will be in the New Year.
You can join the Official Capsa Discord here:
https://discord.gg/6F8z83g
Plus can follow on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/vetron
Patch Notes:
Customization
- Added many new hair styles specific for each genders of character as well as replace or rework previous popular styles with higher quality versions. Each hairs come with pattern options so you can do gradient highlights or split coloring per applicable hairs.
- Added dozens of new clothing pieces specific for each clothing of character. Older clothing has been mostly replaced with newer versions.
- Added ability to mouse drag rotate in character editor window when left or right button is held down.
- Added ability to focus zoom in or out using mouse wheel up or down.
- Added option to switch to different backgounds for characters so you can see how your outfit will look under different lighting conditions in the game.
- Added a prompt to save changes when switching outfit slot in any editor after making a change. This will allow you to adjust and save multiple outfits without exiting the editor.
- Added an improved prompt for pressing apply in any editor that will ask if want to apply and save changes.
- Added Hot Air Balloon customization including at least 8 classic patterns for each balloon, with at least half being unique to each balloon type. Balloons will also accept neons as a customization option if you previously owned those or own the Standard Edition / Starter Pack.
- Added improved footwear selection including new back-end systems to auto adjust the height of character to the ground depending on shoe depth and various overrides to tweak how animations are played with some shoe types.
Environment
- Added improvements to some foliage rendering so it is always visible after first spawning with zero wait times. There are also significant improvements to game thread performance.
- Added pivot interaction to most foliage, this means as a player or vehicle passes through grass or ground plants, they will be moved by the interaction.
- Added new textures for palm trees.
- Added performance optimizations to Mataara area on Metarahi.
- Added improved shadow behavior for several buildings and the player character.
- Added new roads visuals to replace previous which is now higher detailed, smoother and uses a more consistent width. Considerable map changes were made to accommodate this.
- Added various small additions near Mataara area.
- Added improvements to the shoreline effects under some lighting conditions.
- Added improvements to caves so that you can see light outside the cave when near the exit. A few specific locations may still use the old method due to limitations of the geometry in those spots.
- Added LOD and culling improvements to various distant meshes like windmills and docks so they can visible in a better state from a distance.
- Added water fluid motion effect when you swim.
- Added improvements to the Race Track area at Hianga.
- Added improvements to south Pekanga Gas Station.
- Added improvements to the road between Hianga and Pitonga.
- Added significant rework to Wai Tai area.
- Added improvements to performance in Rohai area.
General
- Added ‘drivable’ Hot Air Balloons, these behave as a real world balloon would and you have no control over steering them, just ability to control their rise and decent. A wind system has been introduced based on how it would expect to function in the southern hemisphere where this game is set. Specifically as you gain altitude in a balloon the wind direction will be clockwise, and that’s how you travel in different directions. Everyone will get one Hot Air Balloon for free, with all options available to customize and a second balloon type will be part of the new DLC.
- Added ability to skydive including full parachute customization. To skydive simply jump from a location with a height over 50 meters relative to your velocity. E.g. if you jump from a hill your forward velocity will give you a jump arc of over 50 meters in lots of cases despite the slope of the hill putting you near ground level at the start of your jump, thus you can enter a sky dive state.
- Added improvements to all sitting animations for aim offset, now specifically only the neck/head will move and so the remainder of the animation should behave correctly.
- Added improvements to horse moving animations, with head turn based on the movement direction.
- Added various improvements to dance animations, firstly a frame reduction has been performed to give performance gains particularly when you had a really crowded dance club. Secondly Food IK has been added which means feet will remain on the floor, the behavior Capsa already used for all general locomotion.
- Added improvements to character editor behavior so you can continue ground sitting or dancing when entering the editor.
- Added improvements to vehicle spawning behavior. Vehicles will now sense ground or water height and be placed within half a meter of its surface so will spawn smoothly. For boats especially this means they will no longer appear to drop from a height simply due to placement at some docks.
- Added spawn effects for both vehicle and characters so they will appear to blend in using a reverse dissolving effect. This only happens for the first spawn, so for a character getting out of a vehicle does not re-run the effect.
- Added improvements to foot ik’s to account for problematic surfaces like plank walkways and docks.
- Added new sitting, dancing and gesture animations as well as improving the quality of all previous animations.
- Added a rework of Ladders to improve the animations and reliability.
- Added various improvements to climbing holds.
- Added a rework of swimming animations and behavior.
Downloadable Content
- Added new Year 4 Pass DLC that inlcudes 3 additional vehicle, pulse neons and 9 hats.