Hey pilots, time for February's beta branch roundup!
This month has focused on less then last month but brings about more content and the return of the game's multiplayer component!
0.9.3
0.9.3 is going to be coming soon! All that needs to be done now is finishing Arrivon Peak and fixing any major bugs present - particularly with multiplayer.
I was hoping to get the precision runs into 0.9.3 too but with all the other content and features being implemented it's been hard to squeeze them in - these will instead be coming in 0.9.3.
Multiplayer
Multiplayer is back! In 0.9.3 it is going to be in an alpha state, you'll be able to jump into some online races with friends but it is expected you will run into bugs.
The new multiplayer uses a client/server model unlike the previous version which was peer/peer. It's currently only direct connect so you'll need to forward a port and give your IP to your friends. Multiplayer is programmed on top of Unity's LLAPI - this means everything has been built almost from scratch which allows the netcode to be optimized specifically to the game's requirements.
When in multiplayer all of the ships are unlocked from the get go. You'll need to unlock the new skins in the singleplayer campaign however. Custom ships are also not implemented into multiplayer yet, however if everybody has the files you can use custom tracks!
Here's a short video that shows multiplayer in action:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJZGbuzg9dI
Ship Rebalancing
Because of the introduction of multiplayer it's important that the ships are balanced! Every ship, excluding Barracuda ships, have had their top speeds rebalanced so the entire roster is much more competitive. This will have a small impact on leaderboard times, all the new speeds are rebalanced around Nexus which means every ship except the NX2000 has had their speed increased. The NX times currently on the leaderboards will be sniped off at a later date since it's now impossible to beat them. Since every other ship has had a speed increase, the old times can be beat.
Reverse Tracks
All of the standard tracks are now playable in reverse! All reverse variants flip the time of day and have different weather to give them a more unique feel.