G'day Rat Racers!
THE new update has been released; this is part 2 of the Anniversary update, also previously known as the multiple laps update.
Yes, it's been over 1 year since Rattus Velocitas Launched! For those reading this who have purchased the game, I thank you all for the support for this game so far.
With this update, all achievement icons in your Steam Library should now be present; they were finished alongside this update.
This update was originally slated for release on the 9th of July AEST, but QA caught a few snags that had to be polished off. I apologise for the wait!
Highlights:
Lap-based dynamic lighting! Desert, Forest and Beach now have varying light conditions based on how many laps the track generated with. Some differing lighting conditions even have their own hazards!
Added a new Stage Hazard to Desert: Feral Hovercats. Only appearing at Night, these feline enemies will target players distracting themselves with Cheese in any way, shape or form. Don't get caught snacking!
Added a new Stage Hazard to Forest: Lightning Strikes. Only appearing during storms, these powerful bolts slow players on contact.
Thruster Classes are now in the game. Alpha thrusters are the original game speed, while new Beta and Gamma Thrusters enable you to go even faster!
Rattus Velocitas Replay 2 is now in the game. This replaces the old replay system; Legacy format Replays will remain compatible for now. This new replay format reproduces online mode races to 99% accuracy, even in cases where there's mild packet loss on any player's connection at the time of recording.
Improvements:
Beach and Volcanic now have new backgrounds.
Beach's and Volcanic's lighting has been improved for 3-lap races.
Improved the look of shorelines on Beach where the Water meets the Sand and other objects.
Improved CPU players' handling of difficult turns that lead to going out of bounds.
Improved CPU players' ability to avoid obstacles that are really narrow.
Improved hit detection for Bombs in online races.
Improved consistency of target locking (again) for Missiles in online races.
Massively improved client-side prediction to better approximate other players' real positions. This feature has now been turned on by default.
Improved synchronisation of Coconuts on Beach in online races.
It is now possible to change your POV to spectate other racers after finishing an online race yourself.
Improved network stability handling with relay-only players. NOTE: This only applies to players unable to make direct connections with opponents for any reason; common scenarios include an ISP using CGNAT not tuned for P2P networked games or a mobile network connection. Please note mobile connections are not officially supported.
Changes:
The "Client side prediction" setting has been removed. If the old "delayed world" network interpolation strategy is desired, the command line option "-enable-legacy-network" brings this back. (See known issues)
Bugfixes:
Fixed a bug where it was possible to accidentally pick up your own Cheese after willingly dropping it when in an online race with a high-latency player.
Fixed a critical bug where a player could softlock a private lobby permanently if the Lobby Master disconnected before all players returned to the Lobby Screen from an online race.
Fixed a bug where it was possible to get stuck on a blackscreen in a replay if spectator targets were switched while the original target player was being respawned.
Fixed a bug where the Earth wasn't visible in realtime reflections on Space Station.
Fixed a bug where Hats earned via achievements didn't unlock until the next game restart.
Fixed a bug where Players that DNFed when played back in a replay appear to not exist at all on the race results scoreboard.
Fixed a bug where the achievement "Has this guy even touched grass?" would appear on the achievement HUD as a finished race was being exited.
Fixed a bug where it was possible to get stuck on a black screen while viewing a replay if spectator targets were switched while the original target player was being respawned.
Known issues:
Some night time races may appear too dark on some Monitors. This game's visuals are calibrated to sRGB colour intensities; some monitors have a wider colour gamut than this (e.g. Display P3) and may unintentionally show the game darker than intended. For more details including turning on an sRGB mode as a workaround, please consult your PC Monitor's manual.
Public Matchmaking only has Alpha class thrusters available; this doesn't affect private lobbies where the Lobby Master can change the Thruster Class themselves. This will be resolved in a future game update.
Beach with maximum graphics settings may run worse on some systems than intended.
Shields occasionally desync in replays made from online races.
Falling off-course while a high ping player is present in an online race lobby may result in respawning more than once.
Certain fade-out transitions such as those that occur when a player respawns don't work in splitscreen multiplayer.
The "Parry this you filthy casual" achievement is currently broken and triggers inconsistently; this will be resolved properly in a future update.
Sometimes firing a Missile while an opponent is close behind you targets that opponent instead of who's in front of you.
Finishing a race in online multiplayer sometimes shows the incorrect finishing position in the top left before the scoreboard is shown if there were opponents also finishing their race nearby.
DNF'd players in online mode sometimes incorrectly appear as having crossed the finish line on the results scoreboard, albeit behind everyone else.
Dropped Cheese Rocket payloads from high-latency opponents may visually desync it's replay file later.
Portable Dash Rings when thrown by a player with a much higher latency than you will often appear behind said player; a workaround is to use -enable-legacy-network. This doesn't affect recorded replays.
Online mode may run with a lower framerate than offline play at high latencies on some lower-spec systems; if this occurs, a workaround is to launch with the -use-legacy-network command line option.
Very rarely, a player experiencing intermittent connection issues may have one of their last online races' finish times persist as the finishing time on every other online race until the game is restarted. If this happens to you, please play fair and restart your game while the root cause is found!