Wreckfest: Next Car Game’s New Update and Title

Bugbear Entertainment has released the latest update to their in-development racing game, and with it brings a new name! The game formerly known as Next Car Game has now become Wreckfest!

The latest update for Wreckfest adds a large amount of updates and improvements to the Early Access racing title, including upgrades to the suspension and physics model. The update has also added the ability to take the carnage online, in the form of 18-player online gameplay! A new car (European Coupe) and track (Speedway/Figure 8 Circuit) has been added to Wreckfest, to give you more variety. For the (very long) full list of updates, you can check out the changelog below.

Wreckfest is now available from Steam, as part of the Early Access program. It features their proprietary ROMU engine, which allows for extreme chaos and destruction, turning cars into balls of twisted metal. You can fulfill your appetite for destruction in Wreckfest, thanks to a wide variety of game modes. There are three types of demolition derbies (Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch have been added), as well as a race mode. Wreckfest also comes with a tech demo, that features a sandbox environment with many ways to totally destroy your car.

BUY WRECKFEST HERE

Have you given Next Car Game/Wreckfest a try yet? What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments below!

WRECKFEST BUILD 6 CHANGELOG

Physics:

• Improved tire load calculation
• Tire forces scaled by sprung/unsprung mass ratio to correct accelerations
• Corrected assumed load when calculating tire stiffness values
• New differential implementation (supports open, spool, LSD & viscous differentials)
• Added spring rate, damper rate & maximum deflection for tire dynamics
• Added toe in for steering settings
• Implemented SAE 950311 relaxation for slip angle & ratio
• Changed “magic” damping force to use ground contact normal
• Fixed torque from tires to use correctly roll center, wheel center & attach points
• Added suspension lateral attach point (affects YAW from longitudinal forces)
• Implemented loose/solid surface modes
• Improved body torques from wheel assembly when tire is in air.
• Implemented torque feedback scaling
• Fixed lateral position of suspension forces
• Disabled optimal shift point usage from player when using automatic transmission
• Changed steering limits during drifting (drift lock enables more anti-steering during drift)
• Added digital steering delay and fixed digital/analog controller selection

Controls:

• Added speed sensitivity slider to options – controls how much steering is limited in higher speeds to prevent spinning
• Accelerator and brake sensitivity sliders: 0% = cubic, 50% = linear and 100% = cubic root response
• Initial mouse steering implementation: bind mouse to left/right in the settings menu
• Basic XInput gamepad rumble

Gameplay:

• Two new derby game modes: Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch
• Time difference to winner and best lap times displayed in race results
• Last lap time display in HUD for a few seconds when starting a new lap
• Best lap time displayed in HUD during races
• Best lap times for tracks are saved and displayed in event selection
• Score displayed in derby results
• Car reset will attempt to place the car away from the busiest racing line
• Improve AI’s ability to recover when stuck
• Fixed AI’s ability to reset car when e.g. out of track
• Fixed AI considering wrecks as potential derby targets
• AI cars now only reset when not seen by the Player.
• Players only drive the current lap to its end after the first car has crossed the finish line (like in real life races)

Cameras:

• New cinematic track side camera
• Automatic look back camera after a short while when reversing
• Can be disabled and adjusted from settings
• User configurable FOV offset
• Hood/bumper look back cameras moved to the back of the car
• Allow more zoom in photo mode / replay lens effects
• General car camera tweaking

Cars:

• New European car

Tracks:

• New race track: Speedway
• Route variants: Oval and Figure 8
• Added track side cameras to all tracks
• Increased impact speeds required to break objects, e.g. concrete barriers now require 100km/h (62mph) impact to get damaged
• Decreased friction on concrete barriers to prevent them from sucking cars in
• Improved start positions in Figure 8 track
• Fixed holes in Derby Stadium
• DetailMap texture for Sandpit1
• Tarmac memory optimizations

User Interface:

• Access main menu and options in respawn screen, lobby etc.
• Really fixed car selector with large resolutions
• Fixed car selector car class display
• Show all cars’ performance index in car selector and lobby
• Display current results during race with TAB
• Display Steam avatars in MP lobby
• Several remap menu bug fixes
• Scroll scrollbars and sliders with mouse wheel
• Misc fixes and tweaks

Multiplayer:

• Internet games through Steam (You need to forward some ports to be able to host if you sit behind a NAT router)
• Upgrades work
• Client side prediction to combat lag
• Kicking
• Searching for servers with Steam friends
• Faster search
• Configurable max player count 2-18
• Configurable server update frequency
• Password protected lobbies
• Random starting positions
• Games are also displayed in Steam’s own server browser
• LAN networking goes also through Steam if it’s not in offline mode
• Improved chat with line wrapping
• Ability to join a lobby when the race is in progress
• Allow all LAN IP ranges: 10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12, 192.168.0.0/16
• Bandwidth optimizations

Effects:

• Reimplemented backfire and window smash effects
• Particles toggle in launcher changed to particle quality slider
• Updates to existing effects
• Improved skid marks

Sounds:

• More different engine sounds
• Improved tire slip sounds

Update #6 Hot Fix #1 – 03/10/2014

• Players are now disconnected properly and not showing up in the next game as ghosts.
• Stability control assist now works properly in multiplayer; other assists disabled for now.
• Repeatedly clicking on servers in the server browser no longer crashes the game.
• Countdown to multiplayer lobby no longer freezes to two seconds after a race.
• The lobby status (RACE IN PROGRESS) is now shown in the server browser.
• Amount of players in a single lobby is limited to 18 pending further optimization.