Hey all!

As of this update, Switchcars features a long-awaited new means of transport - animals!

– Animals Trailer –

The update includes 4 animals, and now that the system is on its feet, around 10 more animals will be added soon.

Here are the main features of the animal system:

• All animals are rideable
• They have custom animations for moving on land, water and air, dead or alive
• Custom sound effects
• Different behavior from traffic
• Can be manned or unmanned
• Animals have regenerative health & can be revived using Medikit

There are also some smaller details, such as that animals will be scared by noise or alien presence, or that they can slightly sink in the mushy terrain (which is also new for the human character), or that if they rest on grass or water lanes, they will heal faster.

With this update, the alien world is also closer to the original vision of it teeming with life. You're now able to hitch young time whales! Also, more alien animals are coming.

Becides animals there have been some other small changes and bug fixes. For full details, check out the changelog below.

Changelog:

Gameplay:

- Added Animals
- There are 4 new animals
- Animals can be taken and used just like vehicles
- Animals include animations for moving on land, water and air, dead or alive, manned or unmanned
- Animals include sound effects
- NPC animals use a modified AI, different from NPC vehicles
- Animals can be manned or unmanned, visually
- Medikit now heals and revives all animals in inventory, besides healing player
- Animals' health regenerates over time, like player's
- Some animals feed on certain lanes, which speeds their health recovery
- Animals' lifespan can be seen in the database
- Animals can charge
- NPC animals can be scared off by aliens or noise
- Animals cannot be upgraded, have only one color variant and don't collect dirt

- Alien world now features Alien Younglings
- Alien world appears in the first stages again, now that it's more fun
- Decreased chance of additional aliens appearing

Cosmetic:

- Player character and animals now dip in mushy lanes, just like vehicles
- Player character will rest shortly after physical strain
- Gas stations will explode if going through them on fire (but will refuel first)

Interface:

- Recharging blue indicator now also shows lanes with overhead wires, if having a pantograph

Bugs:

- Fixed alien's shaddow clipping on lanes in 16:9
- Fixed non-powered vehicles going slow when equipped with an engine
- Fixed a bug with vehicles older than 1996 not spamming horn when damaged
- Fixed fast-scroll year change button for gamepads being wrongly positioned in 16:10
- Fixed alerts being drawn over tutorial's "Continue…" text
- Fixed recharge suggestion blinking when game over
- Fixed vehicle suggestion tutorial appearing immediately affter the minimap tutorial
- A few more bugfixes and tweaks

As always, if you have any questions, comments or suggestions, feel free to make a post on the forum!