FUEL: REFUELED V15 - Development Update news

I t's been a long month, but the next update is still being worked on. In this version are a hefty set of changes that have been requested by a lot of you, notably the revised challenges and the changed vehicle damage system.

Revised Challenges

First up is the 'revised' challenges. If you haven't seen my ramblings on the subject over at the forum, then heres a brief run-through of what's being changed.

• Dynamic Weather
• Revised Starting Grids (You won't always be last and the grid shape changes by vehicle type)
• Less Restricting Routes
• Revised AI... again.
• More fun :D

The point is to make challenges less restricting, less specific - improving on the open-world, freedom feeling. You'll be able to distinguish these from Career Races now... where as the Career races feature a ton of predefined variables, these new challenges take most of the information on conditions actively from the free-ride session. Such as the weather at the location of the race in free ride, will be matched in the actual race. The same can be said for time of day too.

The current line-up is as follows:

1. 001: Timed Run - Speed run or Checkpoint Run will fill this slot, but not both as they are too similar. This features a totally new route.
2. 002: Chopper Chase - Much longer and with a totally new route, the race now lasts for minutes and not just mere seconds like before!
3. 003: Catch Destruction (pending better name...) - The AI follows a visible route with start and finish locations, the objective is to 'tag' all 4 AI cars before they either get across the finish or time runs out. This features an entirely new route.
4. 004: Free Roam Extreme - Ported from my 'free ride activities' feature, the only objective is to reach the finish-line, but you do get to experience some of the more 'extreme' scripted weather available in the game. This is essentially free roam... you can do whatever, just abandon race or reach the nearby camp to exit/complete it. Combined with Debug Mode, you can force time of day and teleport to where-ever you wish to drive.
5. 005: Blitz - The stock routes aren't bad for this generally, very much as at stock - just with the dynamic weather etc.
6. 006: Point-to-point - This borrows the course from the 'Raid' race in this zone, but aside from that its all change. First off is the new start grid - 5 bikes/quads in a line abreast formation, which is a great race start for these vehicles. The AI has also been changed so they are more competitive, this fixes the bug where they would 'stop' if you got to far ahead or at the least drive very slowly.
7. 007: Knock-out - Totally new route (still in progress), with more competitive gameplay. No longer will 1 AI rush off ahead and the rest 'let you win'. More details once I finish it - but will include all the feature the dynamic weather etc and such that is found in other races.
8. 008: Wild-Track - Uses the same track, but comes with altered starting grid and all other features. I've increased the lap count to 3.
9. 009: Checkpoint - A straight-forward checkpoint race, utilizing all the features mentioned above. Haven't finished yet, so can't really go into any more detail.
10. 010: Endurance - Using the same route, but using a tweaked starting position (line abreast), AI alterations and all other features mentioned above, a fun competitive race.

Vehicle Damage & Handling Changes

One of the most popular requested features was an invulnerability mode, this will be included, with various other options refined at a later date. Quite a few of the vehicles still need adjusting in terms of the new handling, more changes have been made in this release - but bare in mind this is still a 'BETA', with the point of this release being to iron out these kinds of bugs - so do report any you find. Any feedback you have on a specific vehicle is welcomed over at the forum, with over 75 vehicles, it takes a while for me to debug and get through them all personally so there will no doubt be bugs present.

Other Changes

I've done a bit more work on the interface, correcting a few graphics and such - but there is nothing major in this release. It should be noted that I've changed a few terms, such as 'Free Ride' is now 'Free Roam'... which made more sense and what most other titles use. I'll go though any other changes in the change-log upon release.

I expect to get this released at the very earliest in the last week of this month, but the changes being made do take considerable time.