Greetings Cygnus Community!

We hope you all had a great, and safe holiday season! Unfortunately a member of our team came down with a nasty case of the flu, but overall the team took some time to rest up for a big push to release the Alpha version of CRL! Now that the holiday sweets and partying has faded from our systems, we can finally work on some exciting changes that will be coming in this release! In our last blog post, we discussed all of the major “under-the-hood” renovations we were making, as well as what was to come. Today we want to talk about one of the biggest changes we are excited to delve into, the new combat system!

After receiving the feedback from the initial release, we were made very aware of how underwhelming our combat system felt. Our original combat system was based on early 90s/arcade style shooters. We chose to focus on a basic point-and-shoot aiming system with simple visual effects, as we thought it would play well into the “retro” feel of the game. The expectations of our community were much different from the ones we had created, and many of you expressed disappointment in a core gameplay aspect. We took the time to really synthesize this feedback as combat is not only one of the key pillars of our game, but we feel it is a feature that really makes us unique among racing games. There are few games on the market that really focus on vehicle based combat, let alone in a racing environment.

While we focused on solving many of the performance problems that were plaguing the game, we spent a considerable amount of time on how we could revamp the combat system to be engaging, fun, and satisfying. As we implement these improvements over the next couple of weeks, we thought we would share some of those features coming soon! One of the first changes that we felt needed to be addressed was the feel and satisfaction of combat. In the current version of CRL, firing weapons results in a muzzle flash, laser beams, and almost no indication of shots hitting their intended targets. Visual effects are lacking throughout the entire system. With our new physics/particle system that will no longer be the case. Tracers have been added to our current particle system, so that players have visual indicators of their shots allowing players to track them. Shot impact on targets as well environments has also been added. Bullet holes, and laser scorching will now leave impacts on players and the environment. Debris and parts will fall off of ships while they take damage, and a kill will result in the wreckage remaining on track. These additions will make racing feel like a warzone, and add a sense of satisfaction knowing that users are adding to the chaos. We feel these features should help make the “feel” of combat more satisfying.

Along with changes to visual effects, the mechanics of combat have also changed. Ships will now come equipped with rotatable turrets that will interact with a player’s aim. This new feature, paired with the physics and movement changes, will allow the player to engage in combat 360 degrees around their ship. This should stop ships from tailgating from behind, and wailing away on users. Being able to traverse the environment in unique ways like boosting, jumping, and climbing/driving up objects, alongside with the new combat functions, should ultimately give players more options for how they want to engage in combat. Along with the change in how turrets function, we also have “reimagined” the flow of combat depending on the weapon of choice. Lasers will now function as more of a long range option, while miniguns will function as more of a short range weapon. Lasers will do maximum damage when at further distances, but charge time will make them a poor option against the close range minigun. With the new movement system, aiming system, and combat mechanics in place, we feel these additions will add in a much needed feeling of skill.

Visual effects and new mechanics are not the only changes that are to come. Audio also plays a large role in the “feel” of combat. As fans of FPS games, we know how powerful a weapon can feel based on the sound it makes. The arcade style, synthesizer based audio effects we currently have implemented do a great job of capturing that retro feel, but do a poor job of conveying the true firepower at your fingertips. Along with changes to the soundtrack, we will also be implementing new audio effects that should make weapons, explosions, and ships crackle with life. We want players to feel the rush as their minigun lays waste to their opponents all around, and feel the speed as their ship roars from hitting a boost gate.

This is going to be an entirely different experience from the current version of our game. An entirely new combat system, paired with all of the other changes that have been previously highlighted in our last blog post, should create a more enjoyable experience all around for our community. As always, your support, feedback, and ideas have shaped this game! We hope that these new additions will help to bring those dreams to reality, and that future work will only add to the experience. We are so excited for you all to play these additions soon, and we look forward to building the CRL into an experience that our community is proud of!