Hey there fellow Slopecrashers!
Sorry for the radio silence, turns out making console versions takes (omg so much) longer than I anticipated, but the good news is, the console versions are all now verified by the console makers!! The release date is 90% locked in! So now I only need to await the go ahead from the first parties, this means it now really is only a matter of weeks for the console release and I will be able to announce the release date hopefully next week!! And for everyone who is asking which consoles are we talking about: the game is coming to Switch, PS4 and Xbox One (which means it will also run on the newer consoles)
So this update here is basically now the Day 0 version of the console release, fixing up a bunch of things that you all mentioned either in reviews or in the discord!
Patchnotes:
1. AI Rework and Rubberbanding Changes
In my quest to make an AI system that fits all players I clearly didn't fully manage to pull this off, but turns out, I didn't really need to, most games have difficulty settings so why not Slopes? So I added a new setting into the options of the game:
CPU Difficulty: Choose between Easy / Normal / Hard to get the challenge you want from the game. If you choose the harder difficulties, you'll get more rewards when winning races, so there is a little bit of incentive to choose the higher difficulties. Now this also means AI difficulty is not coupled with the speedclasses anymore, so if you like the game on Casual, you can still have a challenge now with harder bots, or if you only like the fastest speedclass, but didn't like the difficulty of the bots, you can turn it down.
CPU Rubberbanding: Now I heard you complaining about the rubber banding, and it is fair, it was very aggressive until now. I initially wanted to implement a toggle to disable it, but tbh, this doesn't really cut it in a game as open as slopecrashers. There would only be a subset of people then having fun and the AI would be too slow / too fast for the others. So instead I made it waaay less agressive then it was before. Before bots basically stopped when they were too far in the front, or just went double speed when they were a little bit behind. I changed this behavior to not be as crazy anymore.
CPU Skill: The bots in the game in general had a hard time on faster speed, they were just not reacting that well to what happens in the game, so I tried to enhance this which also makes them more of a challenge in too fast speeds. Item usage was rebalanced and all the different bots in the game have different skill levels so they dont all drive the same way, also some bots might use more advanced movements like shooting backwards if you are behind them while others might not do that.
2. Localization (Community Driven)
I finally added localization into the following languages: english, german, italian, french, japanese, korean, portuguese, portuguese (br), espanol, chinese (simplified), chinese (traditional), swedish, dutch. Disclaimer: Since I do not have a publisher anymore and do not have the ressources to pay a localization studio I kinda had to rely on different tools and doing it all by hand. If you find issues with a localization (I think it mostly is conjugation of verbs in different languages), you can add a comment to my translation google sheet and I will fix it or let me know here or in the discord (here is the sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1odYADS4tDDfQABdGTeGnrGKKNQiqiUAMRM2N2jWOT_0/edit?usp=sharing). If you want another language in the game, let me know (My decisions on which languages to focus on was based on where the majority of players that are currently playing are coming from!).
3. Cross Play
I had to revamp lots of things in the multiplayer to make the game console and cross platform ready. So as soon as the console versions arrive, you will be able to play together with your friends across different devices either by joining public lobbies or joining via the code in the friends menu!
4. Other Patchnotes:
Bots now respawns if stuck
Bots will now use their items more often
Bots will utilize their boost more depending on the difficulty
Bots are now better in staying on track
Bots can manage better on higher speeds
Bots are now aware more of the different paths
Fixed performance on certain sections in neon city and sandlands
New controller handling (title screen will listen for input to decide who is controller 1 (There is a bug here if you use the joystick on a controller that isnt player 1 the game might crash on the title screen... I will fix this in the next update)
Scalability settings now affect more areas (Low settings will perform better
Tweaked physics for better performance and less problems of getting stuck
Fixed checkpoints on platinum
Controller handling now different in splitscreen
Fixed some graphical glitches in menu
Added an option to hold buttons instead of tapping them quickly (like respawning or breaking out of items)
On dpad down you can now show a live ranking in race
Now using official artwork for some controllers in the menu
Online error handling improved
Online players now show a symbol if they are from the same game network or a different one
Lastly, now that all the secrecy around the console versions is over, I will start streaming development again, both on Slopecrashers and new games! So check in if you want: www.twitch.tv/peekstone Alright that is that for now - I will do an extra announcement when the console release date is happening! Probably next week!
See you soon,
-peek