Vehicle Handling Overhaul 1.0.14

This patch provides significant improvements to car handling, including drifting, 180-degree turns, and overall improvements to all aspects of vehicle maneuverability and stability. It now uses the physics overhaul ( patch 1.0.13 ) to its full effect and brings back some of the skill-ceiling that previous updates removed. Also includes a new multiplayer text chat feature

New Feature: Talk to people and tell them not to shoot you in co-op

Text Chat in-game and main menu multiplayer lobbies

Talk about jank and cars and stuff. Press Enter to engage in-game text chat and begin typing. In the main menu, simply select the input text and begin typing

Vehicle Handling

We've made significant improvements to all aspects of vehicle handling. Depending on your loadout and "handling" and "weight" score, you can now drift, execute rapid 180-degree turns, and maintain superior grip on most loadouts Significantly reduced the violent bounceback that caused vehicles to launch back into the air after landing from an airborne state

Custom Speedster: increased grip by 50%, speed, and turn torque. Reduced upshift RPM 10,000 -> 7,000. Reduced CoM by 25%

Allows the Speedster to reach higher speeds quicker and maintain superior grip at high speeds

Custom SUV: increased grip by 50%, turn torque, and turn angle, and decreased speed. Raised suspension .17m -> .25m. Massively increased downforce

The SUV is more responsive and can better navigate rough terrain. It's much heavier and stickier now, although slightly less speedy

Falcon: increased downforce by 50%

The Falcon is already in a good place in terms of handling but we've added greater aerodynamic downforce at top speed to prevent excessive lift

Interceptor: increased brake force 7,000 -> 13,000, switched from RWD to AWD, significantly reduced wheel bounce, and massively increased responsiveness in all aspects of turning

The Interceptor is the star of the show and the main vehicle of the campaign. We felt it needed to be more like a racecar to keep up with pursuit and make extremely rapid maneuvers. It's now much more fun, reliable, and responsive to drive

Reaper: increased handbrake torque 8,500 -> 14,500, increased suspension 0m -> 0.1m (no longer stiff)

Better drifts and shock absorbing

Scorpion: increased handbrake torque 16,000 -> 30,000, increased turn angle 25 -> 45, increased downforce 15,000 -> 30,000

Better drifts, 180-degree turns, weight, and overall maneuverability

Vigilante: increased handbrake torque 10,000 -> 25,000, improved steering and weight distribution

Handles like a real truck but can now pull off sport-car maneuvers like drifts, burnouts, and 180-degree turns

Sour Diesel: increased aerodynamic downforce 10,000 -> 15,000, increased handbrake torque 4,500 -> 9,500, significantly reduced oversteer

It was hardly controllable before. Now it's got some of the dexterity of a race car and some of the power of a truck

Multiplayer

Receive an MMR rank earlier. Improved multiplayer head-on collisions

Reduced MMR placement matches 5 -> 2

You'll receive an MMR rank after 2 placement matches and it will adjust faster during the following 3 ranked matches

Improved collision

Colliding against another player is more realistic and predictable

Bug Fixes:

Some loadouts for Custom Speedster and Custom SUV collide with the ground and cause intermittent stoppage Player failing to leave the matchmaking queue after entering an offline game mode (ex. starting a quickmatch queue and switching to Campaign), causing them to be pulled out of their current offline session and forced into a multiplayer game Sour Diesel vehicle ignoring collisions against other players and oversteering too much Quickmatch sometimes failing to progress beyond loading screen (confirmed fixed as of 1.0.14, will continue to monitor)

Next Patch:

Before moving onto adding new content and features, we'll improve graphics and audio as well as any feedback provided via Steam Community discussions and Discord

Graphics Overhaul: a complete pass to increase visual fidelity on all graphics presets with greater realism on highest presets Audio Overhaul: a complete pass on all engine and weapon sounds including addition of new music from the OST

If you didn't like the handling before, please give it another go and let me know what you think. Please consider writing a review to let players know about the game and help populate the matchmaking pool. Continue to direct your feedback using the in-game feedback report (in the main menu) or the new Discord "bugs" and "feedback" channels.

Thank you all for your continued input and helping us improve the game!

Cheers,

Mad Metal Team