Hey all!

Before diving into update details, I'd like to announce that I was temporarily joined by a programmer and a friend of mine, Damir Veapi, in solving some technical issues in Switchcars. He already did some notable work prior to release, but also in the previous update 12 and now, 13.

His involvement with the project likely won't be long, but it's very meaningful already. In this update, and throughout next several ones our aim is to make the game as stable as possible, so that it will be able to leave alpha and have its development continue in a more mature beta state.

This also means that, besides getting more stable, the game might get some awesome new features! I'm not going to announce them just yet - first we want to make sure they work.

Now onto the update!

Resolution options:

Yes! The game now lets you run it at your monitor's native resolution, such as 1920x1080. Alternatively, you can change it to 1280x800 or 1366x768.

You won't need to worry about the settings anymore. When the game is initially started it will automatically set up the resolution to the highest possible on your screen. From that point on you can change it if you want.

Changing resolution and fullscreen mode is now applied instantly and no longer requires you to manually restart the game (for now this only works on Windows, and is being worked on for Linux).

The underlying method works the same as the Fit Screen option did previously, so you might notice the same slight visual glitches at higher resolutions. This will be fixed in one of the following updates!

For some people who have been experiencing a crash on startup due to incompatible resolution, this update should have that fixed.

As this is a new system and is likely to stay as the final one, please let me know if you experience any issues! For now the game also supports 4k and 8k resolutions, so if anyone has such screens please let me know if the game works on them (the highest resolution I was able to test on was HD).

Free Roam themes:

Thanks to a forum suggestion Free Roam now features 12 environment themes to choose from, such as Railway, Arctic, Space, Alien World and City.

If you would like to peacefully explore all the trains, or spaceships in a specific year, now you can.

A theme called Mixed uses the same world generator settings as The Run and Hardcore do, allowing you to practice without time pressure or aliens on your back.

Of course, for some themes to become available you will first need to unlock specific lanes.

In other Free Roam news, if you would like to keep driving in the current segment without changes, Free Roam now lets you go to the left, infinitely! It also increases the powerup deck size to 4.

Improved input system:

When the game is started, if there are joystick devices available, the game will now prompt you to click a button on your preferred device before receiving input from other devices.

We hope this will fix all the crashes and rogue inputs some people experienced. For example those who have steering wheels had to unplug them in order to play Switchcars, because they were sending constant input that couldn't be stopped. That is no longer the case.

More work remains to be done in one of the following updates, so that gamepads using DirectInput will be properly remappable.

If you experience any issues, please let me know! Details on what exact gaming devices you have plugged in would be very appreciated!

Fixed savegame corruption:

There were very few reports of a savegame being corrupted in the former months, however the cause of that should now be fixed, and preventively the game also creates a backup savegame file, and reverts to it in case of savegame failure. Losing a savegame due to corruption should no longer happen.

Slight traffic improvement:

Traffic generation was modified, resulting in slightly increased traffic density, and less situations in which you cannot find a vehicle.

The build year tolerance was also tightened, so traffic is generally more bound to the era you are in. You're less likely to find oldtimers in running traffic, especially in later years.

The change also results in much improved performance, which might remove previously reported stuttering on slow machines (please let me know if the change is noticeable on your system!).

Difficulty changes:

Aliens in the alien world will now be attracted proportionally to the time you've spent there. This means that going through it quickly is likely not going to add more aliens on your tail, but spending a long time there will.

Difficulty in The Run has been increased in the higher stages and years.

Like Free Roam, Hardcore too now has the powerup deck size increased to 4.

More useful powerups:

Due to another forum suggestion, contextual powerups spawning has been greatly improved (e.g. Rail Wheels, Skis). These powerups are now given mostly when truly needed, and are also giving more boost.

Many other propulsion-related powerups were beefed up too. Installing any kind of engine on very slow vehicles will immediately make them faster. Many bugs related to installing powerups were fixed (see full changelog for details).

Some more highlights:

- Animals can now be revived by getting hit by a lightning!
- Aliens now jump when you point rocket thrust or ion thrust at them.
- There is now an option to reset controls to default.

Full changelog:

As always, all changes are listed below, but also can be read from within Switchcars and its changelog viewer!

Gameplay:

- Added Free Roam Themes
- Player can now choose an environment theme in Free Roam
- There are 12 themes, including Railway, Arctic, Space, Alien World, City
- Roads are no longer always present, except in "Mixed + Highway" and "Freeway" themes
- Theme called "Mixed" generates the world as The Run or Hardcore do, which can be useful for training
- Some themes are locked until the player first unlocks the needed lanes (e.g. Space, Alien World)
- Player can move left in Free Roam now (however the segment will never change)
- Traffic density was improved (and thus slightly increased)
- Oldtimers are much rarer in traffic now as production year tolerance was changed
- Improved contextual powerups system
- Rail Wheels, Hull, Skis and Medikit are now more likely to appear when actually needed
- Reduced contextual powerups spam
- Animals can be revived by getting electrocuted (50% chance)
- Alien spawn rate in alien world increases with time spent there
- Spending a few seconds there is unlikely to attract aliens now
- There cannot be more than 8 aliens attracted on alien world
- Increased difficulty on The Run, in later years and stages
- Free Roam and Hardcore now allow keeping 4 powerups in a deck
- Improved acceleration and speed caps on all power source powerups
- They are far more useful on slow vehicles now
- Increased minimum top speed on Hull and Skis, also making them more useful
- Increased Spoiler speed cap
- Rocket and Ion Drive thrusts make aliens jump if pointed at them
- Reduced UFO health by 1/2

Cosmetic:

- Updated car types to a class-based standard
- Mid-size Car was formerly Sedan
- Full-size Car was formerly Estate Car
- Subcompact Car was formerly Hatchback
- City Car was formerly Minicar

Interface:

- Resolution options
- By default, game will start with the highest available resolution
- Resolutions other than 1280x800 and 1366x768 may create slight visual glitches for now
- Changing resolution and fullscreen mode no longer requires a manual restart (thanks to Damir)
- Resolution and fullscreen options will be grayed out when unavailable (e.g. ingame)
- It's not possible to change resolution in windowed mode
- Added option to reset keys to default (thanks to Damir)
- Added intro screen for primary input device assignment
- Tutorial tips for powerup swap and vehicle lock now appear later to reduce clutter
- Tutorial tips for using powerups on vehicles no longer pause the game
- Subnotes in changelog are now darker for clarity

Code:

- Savegame will now ignore missing vehicles, instead of crashing, for future use (Damir)

Major Bugs:

- Prevented unused joystick devices from sending input (Damir)
- Should stop all kinds of crashes and weird behaviour that some people experienced
- Prevented rare savegame corruption (Damir)
- Optimized traffic spawning, improved performance

Minor Bugs:

- Attempted fix at electric vehicle's top speed dropping to 60 when switching vehicles sometimes
- Fixed prop planes not getting a jet engine when having Wings installed
- Fixed nonpowered aerial and naval vehicles not working when having a power source installed
- Fixed non-hover thruster powered vehicles being able to hover on Earth after being used on a dwarf planet
- Fixed Nuclear Reactor disabling helicopter flight
- Fixed Refuel powerup not always fully refueling vehicles
- Fixed Helicopter Rotor not becoming the primary propulsion on vehicles it can't lift
- Fixed Helicopter Rotor not working on nonpowered VTOL vehicles
- Fixed lightning setting an electric vehicle on fire, when it had room to charge
- Fixed a bug with some internal timers running while the game is paused
- Fixed replacement alien taking too long to spawn sometimes
- Tweaked a few non-fitting vehicle production years
- Fixed alien producing metal crash sound when hitting animals
- Fixed "vehicle in range" indicator trying to make sound in space
- Fixed Marina missing "Deep liquid" description in database
- Fixed one Half-track using rubber sound for its tracks
- Fixed some faulty pixels on two vehicles

Other:

- A few other tweaks

Feedback:

That's it for this update, and as always if you have any questions, comments or suggestions, feel free to post on the forum!