BallisticNG 0.8 is now out!

Note: Check your input bindings before playing, a new binding was added for the new leaderboards and the input library the game is using seemed to have messed up some peoples bindings.

No more tutorial

The required tutorial is now removed from the campaign. The events are still there for now, but there aren't any popups. Replacing this is a pilot assist feature and hint system. The pilot assist is disabled by default and the hint system is enabled by default. Both can be toggled from the pause menu.

New Gamemodes

0.8 comes with two new gamemodes as part of the game's new gamemode system. A lot of the game's code has been rewritten and moved around which has also led to optimizations. This part of the update is one of our Patreon goals.

Knockout
Knockout is like standard racing except the ship in last place will be eliminated once every other ship has passed the start line. This gamemode is particularly challenging on higher AI difficulties as you will need to be on the top of your game to stay out of last place.

Target
Target is a time-trial derivative where you can shave off time from the clock by piloting as perfectly as possible. Boosting decreases the time at which time ticks and scraping or entering the pitlane increases it. When you finish a lap, how much time you have been shaved will be displayed.

New AI

The AI has had a large update that allows them to play more like human players. You will now see AI ships airbraking around corners and following different racing lines. The difficulties have also been rebalanced. If you are making a custom track then reimport the unity tools for the new racing line system!

Audio Updates

A lot of the game's sounds have been updated and the game now utilizes Unity's audio mixer. The usage of the audio mixer has now solved all mixing problems (some sounds not being affected by the volume sliders) and some new audio features have been added too.

Music Ducking
The ingame music will now be ducked slightly if ingame sounds become too loud or if a system voice is playing.

Sonic Boom
Reaching Mach 1 will now play a sonic boom and all audio will be heavily muffled. You can turn this off in the audio options.

Weapon Updates

Weapons have had numerous updates, including the introduction of a new one - the hunter. The hunter seeks first place to slow down and damage them. There have been fixes for existing weapons such as the autopilot shield now working again and all of the weapons have updated effects.

Track Updates

Harpstone, Zephyr Ridge, Aciknovae and Utah Project have had some visual updates. Luna is now complete(ish) and the first of 4 new survival exclusive tracks has been added.

2280 Update

2280 has had a huge update. The steering and airbrakes now run on their own physics instead of using the normal physics and there has been a plethora of various other tweaks and changes. The external chase camera has also been rewritten and feels much more fluid.

New Leaderboards

The game now has a new leaderboard system! The menu leaderboard now has a much better interface and the ingame leaderboard is now a panel that slides out from the side to show you the leaderboard for the current event that you're playing. The default binding for this is Tab on the keyboard and L3 for controllers.

XP System

A new XP system has been added to the game, while it doesn't do much at the moment it will be used in future updates for unlocking new content. You can see how much XP you have and your rank in the profile menu.

Multiplayer

Multiplayer has been removed from the game as the new gamemode system has broken it and our main focus is the singleplayer experience for the time being. However, the previous version of the game with multiplayer is still available if you switch to the multiplayer branch.

Other Changes

• Updated the missile reticle
• Explosions and other events such as firing weapons now cause the screen to shake
• Survival now works in three stages where stage one progresses every 5 seconds and stage three progresses every 10
• You can now playtest survival in the track creator
• Fixed open file reference in track creator - you can now save a new track and use the save button without having to reopen the track
• Fixed illumination map bug for cockpit in ship importer
• Added Vonsnake - Bullet Time and Vonsnake - Ballistic64 to the soundtrack
• Xpand - Hydronium and Xpand - Raging replaced with Xpand - Variance and Xpand - JetStream
• Barracuda cockpits have been updated
• The survival ship now has its own cockpit
• You can now select custom ships for survival
• Added new ship elimination physics
• Added a command console, press Ctrl + Backspace to open/close it. Type help to print out the available commands.

And loads of other fixes.

We hope you enjoy the new update!